The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 337: Rain Watch - Part 2

Chapter 337: Rain Watch - Part 2

"I called in a favor. We’re going to be rotated back to the Black Tower for higher-level command training. The angels that want to stay can, and of course, the Elevated will be left behind as well, since they’re specialized now. My uncle’s coming to tell us personally, before the weekend. Which is why I want to finish off the titan dragon before he gets here."

"What about the horn we got?"

"It’s not what he asked for," Auric’s lips thinned as he frowned. "So find Rainier and get him to the armory, or we’re going to have to delay the mission while I figure out what to do. And you know he hates delays. You want to give him a good impression, right?"

Vinam Victoriam was coming? But the Expedition wasn’t complete yet. The whole point was to establish a stable supply of soulstone-grade heartstones that could power the Lance of Heaven. Did they already have enough for their needs, or was this visit going to turn into a reprimand?

"Cas, what are you going to do?" Auric asked, his tone leading her towards the answer she knew he wanted.

"I’ll find Rain, and take him to the armory."

"Good girl. Remember: We are Executioners. We always put Heaven over all, even ourselves."

"Yes, sir." She stepped back and saluted, fist to her heart.

"Oh come on, none of that..." he dove in for another kiss, taking her lips and spending a long, long moment squeezing her through her uniform before he finally stood back. "Now you may go."

Shuddering a bit from the sensations in her body, Cassie left the room, fixing her uniform as she went.

Her first destination was the Akash server room. It was empty of anything but the Akash transceiver, a long cylinder capped with dual rotating conical pyramids hovering in its protective tube.

Her second destination was the blind spot in local tracking only she and Rain knew about. The cave beneath the base contained its heat sinks, massive blocks of ridged aluminum that dissipated the heat from the many functions of the base while also providing hot water.

"Rain?" she called out into the mist-filled cave. When there was no answer, she stepped inside and looked about, filtering through the perpetual mist with manasight.

When that failed, she checked his rooms.

Went down to the kitchens, disturbing the Elevated in their work as she asked for him.

"We haven’t seen him," the head chef, an orcish civilian elevated with not a single bit of godflesh on him. "Is Rain alright?"

"I’m trying to find out," Cassie replied before leaving. Of course the support staff would be worried for Rain. He’d visited the kitchen often, when he needed someone to talk to that wasn’t an angel or warrior.

Try as she might, however, when her ten minutes were up, Cassie entered the armory alone.

"Where is he?" Auric asked as soon as he saw this. Everyone in the room was armed and armored.

"I don’t know." Cassie bit back her frustration to put on a professional face.

"How can you not know?" He huffed, turning to the room. "Has anyone seen Rainier l’Eros?" Most shook their heads, but then one angel raised his hand. "Yes, Ysmael?"

"I thought I saw him running in the halls yesterday, but it could have just been another Elevated."

"Where was he running to?" Auric snapped.

"How should I know? East? It would probably be faster to just check the Akash logs."

Auric rounded on Cassiel, who had already lifted her tablet, tapping through the long sequence needed to log the records access. He held his tongue when he saw she was working.

Moments later, her eyes widened as she realized what the record was showing her.

"Well?" Auric asked after a minute.

She rewound the log and turned the tablet.

What it showed was two blue dots, standing next to each other. Then the lower dot fled, in as straight a path as possible from the other. Out of the briefing room. Out through the halls. Out of the base and off the platform, always directly away.

"He went into the titan’s forest alone? That’s suicide," Auric’s nostrils flared as the implications hit him. The look on his face was one of severe annoyance, bordering on anger.

"I-I... I must have compelled him... I didn’t know..." Cassie felt fear rising in her heart. "I was just so angry and... and..."

Auric tensed, his hand balling into a fist as he glared at Cassie. But a moment later he let out a sigh. "This is why we are warned against acquiring a form of power too early," he turned to the others. "New plan, arm for light to medium monsters and titans. We’re going on a rescue mission. We’ll spread out and start the search from south to north. Before Cas’ Elevated gets himself killed."

"I’ll get ready-" It felt unfair that he’d blame her for acquiring her magiform two years ago, when he’d only acquired his after the expedition started.

"No. You stay here," Auric countered as everyone started to re-arm. He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "If that timestamp is correct, the only reason he isn’t here now is because he doesn’t want to be. Assuming he’s alive."

"Rain would never abandon-" she cut herself off as she realized she was about to say ’me’. "He’d never abandon the mission..."

"Assuming we retrieve him, we’ll find out, won’t we?" Auric said. "I’ll be glad when you and I are back in Heaven away from all this."

Away from him, you mean, Cassie thought.

She stood still until, minutes later, the preparations were finished and the teams were ready to deploy.

"Uzikael, take point with the second squad on the south, I’ll fly the first squad behind you to the north." A brown-haired angel nodded his assent. "Executioners!"

"Heaven over all!" the teams shouted before pushing out the doors. Auric didn’t even look back. He didn’t spot the look of misery on Cassie’s face.

Then the doors closed, and she was alone.

"Heaven over all..." Cassiel whispered, wishing she could believe those words over her breaking heart.