The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 358: Paradise Lost

Chapter 358: Paradise Lost

Smoke warned Rainier of what awaited when they neared the village.

Above, members of the Expedition flew their watch while below, in an arc that encompassed the only way out, the rest of the angels and Elevated stood guard. A few of the huts had been burned, but the mud buildings were mostly intact.

Though some of the demons had gathered in the center, the rest hid in their homes. At the center of the gathered, Garnet stood, her head held high even with a bloodied brow.

Auric led Rainier into the half-circle and ordered him to wait.

The moment Rainier entered her sight, Garnet’s composure faltered. "Gale, what is the meaning of this?" she asked.

"Gale?" Auric asked, waving off an angel who came to offer healing.

Rain didn’t answer. The question wasn’t directly aimed at him, so he was able to ignore it.

"Why does this demon call you ’Gale’?" Auric asked.

Because he was maintaining the previous compulsion, he didn’t have to compel Rain any further to answer.

"I told them my name was Gale," Rain answered, lowering his eyes.

"You told them?" Auric’s voice lifted with glee. "So you knew there were more demons. You treated them like people, and they tried to poison and kill you..." He started to laugh, and half of the gathered angels and Elevated laughed with him.

The moment he stopped, they stopped.

The entire time, Garnet watched, her eyes shifting as she processed what had been said.

"Is this true?" She called out to Rain, her voice barely carrying.

Auric continued to smile. "Come now, Rainier. Answer the demon. Tell us all what happened."

"Scior poisoned me... he and Lemina tried to kill me..."

Garnet’s hands tightened at her sides.

"Those sound like demon names, Rainier. How long did you know about this cancer in our forest?" Auric continued.

"A day, little more," Rain went back to staring at the ground. Concentrating. Trying to figure out something, anything to break himself out of the compulsion.

"Draw arms!" Auric shouted. As one, everyone drew weapons from their storages, and Rainier was forced to follow.

From behind their lines, Auric began to speak. "Angels! Elevated! Do you see this? This is weakness! This is what happens when we soften our hearts; when we forget our oaths." Rainier could hear him smiling to himself. "Rainier let his heart grow soft. And these demons took that weakness and tempted him to the crime of mercy. The sin of it. And when they had his mercy, they took the first chance they got to try to murder him!"

No... please don’t... His mind began to fill with images of Auric and the others, forcing him to watch as they slaughtered the villagers.

Auric lifted his spear past Rainier’s cheek, pointing to the huddling demons. "There is only one way to fix weakness." He pulled back his spear, leaving a line of blood on Rainier’s cheek that started to heal right away, the bloodspill remaining. "And that is to carve it out."

He stepped next to Rainier. "Executioners, stand guard!" he shouted, and the Expedition angels snapped to their ready positions. He leaned into Rainier’s ear. "Kill the demons. All of them."

Rain took one step forward, the realization that what Auric planned was worse than anything he imagined shocked him to the core. He threw his willpower against Auric’s, but his body still moved, even if he slowed it with his resistance.

Behind him, Auric started breaking out in a sweat.

"Kill the demons Rainier!" Auric shouted.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" the twins started to chant, Variel leading, and soon almost every Executioner was calling for it.

Rainier was still slow as he raised his sword; as he took slow step after slow step. The villagers who didn’t try to flee to their homes looked at him with fear.

One demon who tried to climb the roots of the tree that had sheltered them was kicked down by an Elevated.

"Kill all the demons!" Auric shouted, his compulsion striking Rain and destroying every whisp of resistance.

A scream rose in Rainier’s throat, and he charged.

The demons had been disarmed, but one man charged back, lifting his fist.

Rain cut him in two through the rib cage.

"Rain stop!" Garnet called out.

"I’m sorry," Rain cried, weeping as he struck out again. "It’s not me... I swear it..."

"I know," Garnet answered. He struck down a demoness, as Garnet reached into her apron and cast down a handful of seeds.

Hell-vines sprouted as she sent them at him. The thorny vines stabbed him, one going through his arm. She turned and ran, back to the largest house and its garden, and the remaining demons tried to follow her.

The strength of Rainier’s godflesh let him walk through the vines, tearing them from the ground in his wake as he stalked through the village, slaying, and slaying. House by house. Until there was only Garnet and the demons in the final house remaining.

"Finish them!" Auric crowed, the laughter of the Executioners behind him.

From near the center of the village, he raised one hand. He felt numb and dead and broken, but within the bounds of his order, he had one mercy he could give.

He gathered his mana, readying a singular, massive spell.

A searing beam of blue light consumed the house, the garden, the demons... and Garnet.

It left a blacked scar in the great tree, and with his mana spent, Rain collapsed to his knees, panting and weeping and covered in blood. Knowing what he’d done could never be undone.

He had no will left in him to do anything but watch as the rest of the Executioners began to flutter or walk into the village. Some stabbed corpses or took trophies from the dead. One of the twins took a piece of the mostly charred ratatoskr and bit into it before making a face and spitting the meat on the ground.

Ozzy - Ozimaleus - was more reserved as the orcish Elevated stepped into the middle of the village to begin setting up a return beacon.

The sight of him filled Rain with anger.

"Why?" Rain whispered.

For a long moment, as Ozzy finished his task, Rain thought he hadn’t been heard. But then his teammate turned to regard him. "You wish to know why I report on you and Cassiel... It is because Heaven does not deserve our imperfections," he replied. He looked away from Rainier and nodded, saluting Auric as the angel approached.

"You are an exhausting man to control, Rainier l’Eros..." The angel now sported a deepening black eye. "But I’m sure after this, Cassiel will see how wrong she was about you."

"I will kill you," Rain promised, rage filling the cracks in his psyche. "All of you!" he shouted. "I’ll kill you!"

Auric gathered himself. "Silence!" he compelled. "You will obey my commands. You will not speak. You will not fight." He leaned closer. "You will not even look at Cassiel when we return." He wiped sweat from his forehead as the final compulsion sank in. "Stand."

Rain stood, leaving Torrent on the ground.

Auric picked up the weapon, awkward with its weight, which was far in excess of the angel’s preferred, disposable blades.

"The beacon is ready," Ozzy reported.

"Good," Auric pushed Torrent into his own storage. "Gather everyone up. We’re going home."

*

The moment the Expedition teams appeared on the teleportation platform, Cassiel was there to meet them.

"Rain! Are you alright?" Cassiel called out.

Obeying the compulsion, Rain neither spoke nor looked at her.

"He was poisoned," Auric said. "Hasn’t been quite right..."

"How can he be poisoned? Godflesh is supposed to filter for it!"

"Even godflesh has limits," Ozzy advised, receiving a smile from Auric.

Cassie looked from them to Rain then back. "I want to heal him."

"He’s already healed," Auric said. "It was quite a fight bringing him back though," he gestured at his black eye. "We had to dispense with a band of demons. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if we didn’t arrive when we did..."

Inside, Rain seethed with shame and rage. He still wept, but the compulsion kept him silent.

"Take him to a holding cage," Auric ordered.

"A holding cage?!" Cassie’s voice rose as Rain was lifted from under his arms. She started to follow and Auric fell in after her.

"He’s not in his right mind. I’m afraid to say he fought against us for a time. So this is as much for his safety as ours," Auric sighed. "He may be tried as Fallen, for what he did. Aiding demons. Attacking me..."

"Rain would never... You said he wasn’t in his right mind."

"He’ll be alright. I’ll guard him myself until my uncle arrives." Auric reached up, brushing Cassiel’s golden hair. "This is what I like about you... You care so much, so sincerely, even if you don’t always think things through."

Cassiel’s face fell. But Rain saw none of this, though he heard it all.

There was no prison at their base. It had never been thought that the Expedition needed one.

When they arrived at the holding bay, his storage tattoo was cut, spewing his meager personal possessions onto the floor before he was thrown into a cage.

One designed for holding monsters.