The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 348: Blood and Snow - The Siege of Isegart

Chapter 348: Blood and Snow - The Siege of Isegart

In the streets within the walls of Isegart, two armies did battle.

The demons, having broken down the walls on the second day, fought house-to-house with Knights and soldiers. Though the wall was taken, fierce resistance from the fortress kept the demons at bay, helped by civilians who made arrows, sharpened weapons, and did everything they could to hold on.

But it was behind the armies where the most devastation had occurred.

For two days, Kainur Satanos did battle with his hated foe, Halie, the Demon Breaker.

Two terrible days that split the land with the forces of magic wielded by both. Halie with her weapons of pure destruction, and Kainur with magics that could rend apart mountains.

"Ye are weakening, enemy mine..." Kainur sneered at his opponent. He’d taken off an arm and a leg with his latest strike, but the demonizing effect of the shart in her forehead regenerated them. Two days of fighting, and instead of sealing immediately, her wounds took seconds to heal.

"Graghhh... haeff..." Halie’s unintelligible sounds filled the air. Her twisted, demonized body had one arm larger than the other, fierce spikes, and murderous black eyes. But her irises were still the steel-gray of the woman she’d been. She reached into her storage, extracting a quiver, from which she pulled the last of her spears and the last of her crystal javelins, letting the empty container fall to the world below.

Kainur swore at the sight of the javelin, a clear, two-pointed teardrop stretched to a full measure, the core of its head contained an angel’s feather, the catalyst for the destruction that had reaped a quarter of his army.

As soon as she finished arming herself, Halie charged, portals to the ground below allowing her to walk as she instinctively wielded her mavenry.

Kainur fought with magic and mace. Dark threads lashed out, beaded with pockets of mana that would explode the moment they made contact. Halie dodged and leaped, but these were just a distraction as he sensed the moment she created a portal behind him, thrusting her spear.

With a clang, he blunted the head of her weapon as he struck with his mace, but the next moment he felt a pain as from behind, Halie stabbed him through with the javelin, roaring her fury as the weapon shattered, unleashing its destruction in the sky.

Out of the explosive cloud, Halie flew backward, thrown by the force as her limbs regenerated. She was whole by the time she cratered the ground before the broken wall of Isegart. The demons nearby scattered, not wishing to get between Kainur and his enemy.

Kainur, who appeared as the cloud of destructive magic cleared, his left side devastated, but his magiform was taking mana from the life below - even his own demons - as it restored him.

For a while, the two bitter foes stared up at each other, as they had many a time since their duel began.

"Now you die!"

A massive boom and the sound of shattering ice broke the Duke of Pride’s attention as he looked to find the frozen lake’s waters cascading downward.

Before the water completely fell, he felt the approach of a mass of mana unlike any he’d ever felt, and yet slightly familiar. And it was coming straight for him.

Bracing, Kainur put up a half-dozen shields between himself and the source.

A spark of light shone, and a beam of cohered light struck his first shield, each breaking in sequence with every second that passed as the source of the attack became clear.

A demon in war form, with fiery red hair and angel’s wings. Something Kainur had never thought to see or even hear of again after a millennium of life...

*

Kir closed with his target as, below, Amarena closed with hers. After breaking through five shields, he felt he had the demon’s attention, and so he slowed to a hover.

"Metatron," Kainur spat. "What cursed demon begot thee?"

"Nobody important," Kir replied, sizing up the opponent he’d chosen for himself. Kainur was shrouded in deep, black mana that gave Kir a sense of strange liquidity. Inside of that oily void, shapes and sparks of mana-light roiled, like someone had painted over a star and encased it in dark flesh. "You’re the Duke of Pride, yes?"

In response, Kainur sent a beam of black mana shredding into Kir’s shields.

That output is something else... Is that magiform? No, Kir had seen magiforms before, long ago during the siege of Norneau. This was something different. Like a cross between war and magiform.

Kir rolled aside, allowing the beam to pass harmlessly into the sky.

"I have not the time for games, cur," Kainur turned, hovering as he followed Kir with his body.

"Good because I’ll give you this one chance to surrender before I start fighting for real." Kir shifted Kangetsu into sword form.

"Pride bows to none," Kainur replied. "Least of all a blight as thee." He swung his mace, and the air between them split, opening to a well of dense mana that surged out in beams that chased Kir.

Pouring on the speed, he slashed at the first to reach him, Kangetsu breaking the spells, before pushing out a shield that broke the rest. He turned, breaking a second group before unleashing a beam of compressed light that seared its way across Kainur’s torso.

Though he’d cut him in half, Kir watched as he reformed, both halves grabbing each other with thick tendrils of black mana before they melded.

"Killing me is beyond thy measure." Kainur disappeared in a flash, reappearing as he struck at Kir with his mace.

"Cute. You think you have my measure." Kir blocked, Kangetsu’s edge against the mace’s haft, and the weapons screamed in soundless waves of mana laced with pain as they grated against each other.

"Such a weak weapon... newly souled..." Kainur judged. "I see the demon in you is stronger if thou wouldst wield such. But why dost thou oppose me?"

"I’m just helping someone I love," he tried an augmented kick, but even though he struck Kainur in the hip, he might as well have been kicking a boulder. "Aren’t you going to ask for my name?"

"I care not."

Kir began to strike back, each clang of the weapons accompanied by shuddering screams of pain. The desire to get away from the source of its agony stabbed into Kir’s consciousness from his soulbound weapon.

Pulling back, he felt his shields get scraped by spikes of magic as Kainur wielded both spell and weapon. Cutting his way out, Kir gained altitude and switched Kangetsu to rifle mode.

He fired shot after shot, breaking spells as they were forming and even managing to score direct hits on Kainur, but no matter how many times a shot struck, Kainur would always regenerate.

I can’t get a read on this guy. Kir bit back his frustration as Kainur led the fight closer to the city. How’s he keeping his mana levels so high?

"You could try asking him," Kiryu suggested. "Looking for tips?"

For that moment, Kir regretted not investigating the situation on the ground before coming to the fight. But the situation had looked dire from above, and he wanted to stop the greatest threat that wasn’t Halie so that Amarena would have time to save her teacher.

As he dodged Kainur’s attacks, Kir gave himself enough distance to take a broader view.

Local mana’s pretty low.

That meant that this was an endurance contest for the invading demons. But there were pockets of mana that he could feel were being drawn from by Kainur. Ones that felt almost like people, only instead of outputting mana with all its mentally influenced variations, there were just steady, monocolored streams...

Switching to ice, Kir fired off Kangetsu at full power, fighting for time to think about what he was seeing, but Kainur dodged every shot, firing a beam that Kir barely managed to dodge.

The beam carved its way through the city behind, slicing a meter-wide gap through buildings, streets, and the wall before it weakened with distance.

Another lashed forth, and another. Kainur trying to lead his shots only for Kir to switch vectors at the last moment.

In frustration, the Duke of Pride gathered mana for a much larger strike, aiming both hands at Kir as he pulled up.

"This is my vengeance! I won’t have anyone take it from me!" He declared before unleashing a torrent of deadly magic."

"Soundspeed..." Kir whispered around the construction of the spell he’d gathered, tucking his wings. "...half!"

The sudden burst of acceleration took him well outside the path of the deadly lance, and he’d angled the spell just right so that he didn’t accidentally snap his own wings as he flared them wide, braking so that he wouldn’t collide with the building he’d been aiming for as he landed on its roof, pointing his hand up at Kainur as he gathered his original spell.

"Nova Blast."