The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 362: Lifeboat

Chapter 362: Lifeboat

The girls ran as fast as they could to the yellow panel, Malz blowing and then brushing off dust with her uninjured hand as she quickly translated the screen.

"Maintenance Due... not like anyone’s been around for that..." She read until she found a button labeled "Override" and pressed that. A hiss sounded as the pod opened, and above it, the door in the outer shell opened in a cascade of dust.

"Shit!" Anko called out, and soon Malz understood why.

A piece of petrified mycelium lay across the gap meant for the escape vessel.

"I’ll move it out of the way!" Anko said, jumping up with a surge of magic.

As soon as she disappeared, Malz surged up the short walkway and into the dead-aired interior of the pod.

There were seats, none of which looked like they’d be comfortable for her wing, all facing inward. A central console was lit up, suspended on an arm within easy reach of one side of the room.

Malz took the seat that was right in front of it, translating as fast as she could.

A single button, blue with red letters, flashed for her attention. It read "Launch."

She was still breathing fast as the realization hit her. She could just wait for Anko to move the obstacle. Take her chances alone...

Her hand hovered close to the button.

Even if Anko had never hurt her, she was still the reason Malz had been imprisoned and tortured in the first place.

If Malz couldn’t help her, and it was very likely she couldn’t given the state of her body, then Anko could easily be a danger to her. A potential enemy, even...

"I got it!" Anko shouted.

"No... No I need help," Malz whispered to herself, before looking at her left hand. "I can’t... I won’t be left alone again..."

Anko landed on top of the pod, before hopping onto the door that acted as its stairwell.

"What is all this?" she asked.

"Take a seat," Malz said. "I think we’re supposed to pull these down on ourselves," she tugged at a metal harness, its padding long since rotted into dust. She had to flare out her featherless wing for it to close.

Anko had a much easier time, since she only had extra arms to worry about.

The moment she was strapped in, Malz pressed the button.

The door hissed shut. A loud, metallic set of clunking sounds came from below them as they started to rise.

And then they stopped.

"Ah shit," Anko complained. "It’s brok-"

The force of the rockets beneath the escape pod almost crashed them into the mycelium before the pod took an abrupt evasive turn. It flew parallel to the ceiling as the screen in front of Malz announced that it was on "Auto Navigation, Auto Evasion, Auto -" The last word became a blur as the pod abruptly righted itself, having navigated to the hole in the mycelium.

A sudden splattering sound was the only indication they hit a caretaker on the way up as the pod flew and flew, avoiding the branches of the world trees and the leaves of the canopy as it took itself away from the heart of Heaven faster and faster.

The screen changed, showing a view from the top of the pod as it began to orient itself.

Close to their location Malz saw Araqlun as few angels had. A shining city of silver and gold, surrounded by a dome of blue air.

It was, for that moment, the most beautiful sight in the world.

I’m going home...

The screen flashed with the words Auto Navigation. And suddenly the escape pod began to fly past Araqlun.

Heading away from Heaven. Past the grey-clouded smoke of Hell.

Plummeting towards the world around which both orbited.

Ayther.

"Where are we going?!" Anko shouted.

"I don’t know!"

The pod had to be running off of mana to be going so fast.

Just as abruptly as they started their journey, the pod slowed, before orienting itself towards the planet.

Whatever it wanted, the moment it found it, the screen silently announced "Auto Landing Initiating."

"What does that mean?" Anko shouted as soon as Malz read it out loud.

"It’s trying to land us... On Ayther!"

A rumble began around them as the pod began its descent. Malz’s view of the outside became a haze of fire, until ten seconds later when the fire suddenly cleared and the pod slowed considerably.

"That actually wasn’t so bad," Anko said as things grew quieter.

"It’s not the fall that kills you," Malz said.

"What’s that supposed to-"

Something metallic screeched.

The screen lit up with red, announcing the failure of so many things, Malz couldn’t translate it all before the escape pod began to shudder and tumble.

The world became a gyroscoping mess as she held on for dear life, the metal of her restraints digging into her shoulder and wing.

And then suddenly there was a massive poofing sound as the pod slammed into something soft, skidding along the ground in a way that had rocks plinking off of its surface until at last it hit something that made it stop.

Malz found herself diagonal to where her ears were telling her gravity was pulling, and she flapped around with her hands until she found the release for the safety harness.

"Is it over?" Anko groaned, dangling above Anko like a doll held in a net.

"Yeah. It’s over," Malz swallowed heavily. "I think."

The moment Anko found the release for her harness, she swung down gracefully, holding it by one hand until she was on the floor.

As if silently mocking them, the screen announced in green over all the red "Safe landing achieved! Please depart in an orderly fashion" before shutting down and going black.

Suddenly the door, which was groundward, hissed as it tried to open, tipping the escape pod until its bottom slammed into the ground.

Malz fell on top of Anko as the pod settled. She pushed herself off of her, blushing. "Sorry about that."

"It’s fine. You’re not my type," Anko replied.

"You prefer tall, fiery, and handsome, right?"

"Yep. And I guess we’re in the perfect place to find him, assuming we make it to Norneau."

Malz was the first one out.

The escape pod had come to rest against an escarpment of black, volcanic stone. And beyond it in every direction she could see, yellow-white sand stretched to the horizon.

"I think we’re a bit far from Norneau," Malz said. "Black rock and white sand... I think that means we’re on the continent of Armedon."

Anko took one look at the desert and shouted. "FU~CK!"

It looked like either morning or evening. The air was cool, but not uncomfortable. Yet.

"What do we do now?" Anko asked.

"I guess we take what we can and go," Malz suggested.

A search of the escape pod turned up some sort of silvery, reflective material that was light but tough, a weirdly lightweight knife that was still sharp and had a sawing edge to its back, which Anko let Malz keep. The bags labeled as rations were filled with dust, and while Malz had misgivings about millennia-old water, the canteens they found would likely be their only source for a while.

"I don’t think I have enough arms to carry this shit," Anko grumbled, drinking without reservation from a canteen they were going to leave behind.

"If I still had my storage I could get most of it," Malz said as she tried to assess the best direction to head off in. "Might be better to wait for night." She started drinking from her canteen, a little repulsed by the tinny flavor of the water, but knowing she might need it kept her going until it was empty.

"Who knows how long that’ll be. I can’t even tell which way is north." Anko grumbled, slipping off the edge of the craft and climbing up the nearest dune.

Malz followed a moment later, and found she quite liked the feel of sand between her bare toes.

"Know anything about the desert?" Malz asked.

"I know it’s hot during the day and cold during the night. Just like Hell except there we had lava." She continued to hold one hand bladed over her eyes as she scanned the horizon. "How about you?"

"It never really came up in my studies. The most I know is from an old story about two constructs who escaped a ship just like we got out of Heaven."

"What happened to them?" Anko asked.

"The story kind of switched to a boy and an old man with some basic magic powers. Then a bunch of other characters for the next two acts. I stopped reading it after finding out he kissed his sister."

"What’s so bad about that?" Anko asked.

"It was on the lips."

"Eww."

"Exactly. And the weird thing is there were supposed to be three volumes before and six after. Guess old angels used to like that stuff." Malz sighed and shook her head, returning to the more pertinent topic. "We should just pick a direction... at least when the sun sets we’ll know which way we’re going."

They were just out of sight of the escape pod when a surge of mana made them both turn.

A portal just like the one that had opened to deliver Maledict’s rival to him appeared.

And a moment later, a catkin in a green cloak fell out of it, crashing into the sand on his back.

They heard him start to laugh as he lifted his arms triumphantly into the air.

"I’m free!"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.