The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 291: A Shard Of Wrath - Part 2

Chapter 291: A Shard Of Wrath - Part 2

The sound of a crackling fire was the first thing Amarena noticed when she awakened.

Her mouth tasted of copper and blood, and for a while she wondered why she felt heavy and numb everywhere below her chest.

They were back in the cave, she realized, and Brigit and Darlae were quietly discussing between each other in serious tones.

"... say we have her tell us everything she knows about Kir."

"That’s not a question, Dar, it would have to be more like..., ’What is everything you know about our son?’.

"It means the same thing!"

"You haven’t read any books about jinn, otherwise you’d about how weird people can get about questions."

"I have too!"

"What’s a jinn then?"

"That’s easy. They’re demons that feed on desires."

"That’s the cubi. Try again"

"They’re... um..."

Amarena was in too much pain to endure small talk. In a hoarse voice, croaked, "They’re demons enslaved by force, who hold to the letter of their contracts but never the spirit..."

"Amarena’s right," Brigit said, rising up and moving closer to the injured demon. "But the term is more used in Armedon and Retha... especially around Aaru."

"Speaking of which, we no longer have any reason to visit Aaru, do we?" Darlae asked. "I hope wherever Kir’s birth-mom is, she’s someplace tropical."

Brigit shrugged and checked Amarena’s bandages. "You took some nasty bites. I used a healing potion on you but it seems your... acceleration took care of things."

Amarena groaned. She’d felt time starting to compress around the time she collided with the ground and fell unconscious. "Tell me, human, do I look like an old bag?"

The witch shared a look with her wife, and the latter sighed and reached for her breastplate, polishing it a bit with her exposed forearm. She tossed it nearby. "Here. It’s not as bad as you think."

Brigit picked up the breastplate and held it still. Even as she adjusted its position to get a better look, Amarena could see that the hair around her temples, sideburns, and neck had gone entirely white.

There was nothing Amarena could do about it, so she sighed and asked, "Where is my sword?"

Again, the wives shared a look.

"About that..." Darlae started.

"... There’s a lot less sword left over after the fight. And something else we need to talk about." Brigit turned and nodded to her wife, who twisted aside before bringing over a long towel that had been wrapped into a rough cylinder. The warrior mage lay the towel on the ground and unfurled it, revealing Amarena’s sword, the thick metal now sundered in two pieces, one with most of the edge and another with a bit of edge and tang. And in between them lay a crimson mana crystal, its absolute depths showing blue and purple.

Amarena couldn’t help but stare... the shard felt so familiar. It brought one word to mind-

"I take it you know what this is?" Brigit asked.

"I do... it is a piece of a demon’s heartstone... soulstone, I suppose, since most demons would die to lose any fraction of it." Amarena reached out, but Brigit shifted to get in her way.

"Amarena, I cannot let you touch the stone until I know what you plan on doing with it. Do you know what kinds of demons form soul stones?"

Amarena scowled. "Strong ones. Those who have tempered their bodies and souls into the very alloy of power." Those were the words of Amarena’s father. "And if it will aid me in my quest for strength, I will have what is mine by right."

Darlae’s hand fell to her belt knife, but Brigit raised her arms for calm. "Amarena... I have fought in a Heavenswar. I’ve seen desperate demons try to take in the soulstones of fallen ones, only to die horrible deaths. I even saw a human man who was stabbed through the forehead with a stone like that, and the way it twisted his body into something demonic before he simply died was not a fate I would wish on anyone..."

"What do you want from me?" Amarena asked.

"I just want to make sure you’re not going to try anything with it out here, while you’re injured, and while we have only half a day to make it back to Isegart."

"Half a day? Why are you still here then?"

"We stayed for you," Darlae said. "You would have died without us."

"Is your magic so weak you couldn’t carry me back to the city?" Rena challenged.

Darlae snorted and rolled her eyes. "One, we used up a lot of mana keeping those joermagr off of you while you went to ’ride the dragon.’ You’re welcome, by the way."

Rena was too grumpy to reply with thanks, even though she felt she should.

"Two, you’re fucking heavy. And Three, if we’d carried you back to the city, I have no doubt you’d be dead or trying to stuff your guts into all the right places, potions and mavenry or no. Hell, your guts almost tore open on the way here, and we were being as careful as possible!"

"Dar..." Brigit said in a calming tone, before returning her gaze to Amarena. "Leaving people behind isn’t how we do things... If Halie doesn’t answer us after we bring you back alive and with your sword, then we’ll find another way to get the information we need out of her."

Amarena grunted. She tried to sit up but her midsection refused to cooperate. "Just let me see the stone. On my honor, I will not do anything but look at it."

After staring into her eyes for a long moment, Brigit turned and lifted the stone gingerly from amongst the sword shards, holding it with both hands before placing it in Amarena’s palm. Up close, it resembled a double-bladed stilleto, long and tapered, thin enough in profile to have hidden in the meat of her blade for years without notice... How had it been inserted in the first place? There was no damage to the gem at all, no hint of scratching or marring.

Perhaps it had been forged into the weapon from the beginning, but then the question arose of how her father came to possess it...

The flashback she’d had while trying to retrieve the sword returned to her mind, and the memory of her mother, Leviathan, Duke of Wrath, prodding her past her fear, provoking her into admitting she needed her...

The sense of familiarity only increased as she stared into the stone...

"Mother..." she said.

Brigit gazed at her quizzically. "Mother? As in..."

"As in I know from whose heart came this stone. My mother, Leviathan, Duke of Wrath... who died assaulting Heaven."

"How did... That’s her soulstone?" Brigit wondered.

Amarena shook her head. "I know my mother’s strength... this is but a fragment."

"Now I have even more questions-"

"I have no answers for you, Witch Brigit," Amarena said, letting herself relax as she clenched her hand around the stone, holding it to her chest. "But I will heed your advice... and wait for Halie’s council on how I might proceed. Perhaps someone in the Order will have records of how a demon might draw power from a shard like this..."

"I know there are rituals that some mages can use to increase their mana capacity and control. Rituals that require soulstone-grade mana crystals," Darlae said. "Always seemed a bit like cheating to me, but it’s common practice out amongst beastkin tribes, especially for beastfolk who don’t start out with a lot. I think the foxkin and catkin do it most."

Amarena found herself chuckling. "Perhaps I should have talked more with Kordia... but she was more concerned with being rivals in bed than-"

""What?!"" Darlae and Brigit squawked at the same time, before Darlae took over. "Rivals in bed? Explain yourself!"

Ah shit... "I meant nothing by it..." Amarena would have blushed if not for the lack of blood in her.

"Oh Hell no," Darlae cracked our knuckles. "Tell us our boy isn’t playing you two off of each other like some... some player!"

A grimace pained Amarena’s face, and Brigit gently put one hand on Amarena’s stomach, right on top of the bite wound.

"Rena, can I call you Rena? Please be a dear and tell us exactly what our son has gotten up to... Or I can’t promise we won’t carry you back to Isegart in a sack, seeing as I’ll be breaking every one of your bones..."

The way the witch smiled held deadly promise in her flame-glittering teeth, and her green eyes were like voids that carried only the promise of pain and death without a hint of mercy... seeing this finally pushed Amarena over the edge.

"A-alright! Alright! I confess! Kordia and I were two of your son’s lovers..."

"Two... of?" Brigit’s hand tense just a bit, but the pain it sent through Amarena’s wound was enough to make the demon whimper.

"Yes! There was Kordia, Stella, the lambkin, Noir, and me! Also some half-angel named Rain but I never saw him! I swear it’s the truth!"

The haunting look on Brigit’s face only deepened, even as Darlae’s jaw dropped in comic shock.

"I have a lot more questions now..." Brigit said.