The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 382: The Three Day War - Day One

Chapter 382: The Three Day War - Day One

With the dawn, five figures appeared atop Mt. Morens, gazing down over the expanse of destructive mining that had been wrought along its base.

Kir looked to his right where Rena was stretching, and then to the left where Zazel waited with his hands in gentle repose. Kordia and Kassin had just alighted from Rena’s arms, and were looking about.

"Is this your objective, Duke Kir? It hardly seems... challenging," the demon General observed.

"My aim is to win first before going to war," Kir said, shifting into war form and letting his tail thump against the ground. "What Heaven wants is here, and thus what is here is even more important to the Kingdom than their war with me."

Zazel pondered this, a frown of concentration on his face before he suddenly smiled. "I see..." he blinked his many eyes. "By attacking here, you force them to deploy close to the capital and tie them down guarding a vast area, with a mountain preventing movement on one side. Then our army can flank them and-"

"I am fighting this war alone," Kir declared. "You should be more witnesses than participants," he spoke to everyone. Mostly because of Char bringing more people along to see the first battle. Char had insisted his "greatness be recorded" and Rena was the only way he could ensure the others could arrive, with her running below with Zazel as he carried Kordia and Kassin.

"With respect, Duke Kir, there are at least a thousand angels below us, and more in the city-"

"The method of our arrival will ensure a quick end," Kir said. He’d held onto Rena and Zazel throughout the flight with one purpose in mind: To time his use of Soundspeed into a breaking of the sound barrier near the encampments. The sudden explosion of sound had turned over more than a few tents, and Kir had been right to set Zazel focusing on concealing their mana and their passage as they alighted atop the mountain, about two kilometers from the epicenter of where he’d broken through the speed of sound. "They will gather to investigate the sound blast."

A thought occurred to him that perhaps Zazel meant Kir should target the city instead, but he decided against exploring his General’s opinion further.

Forming a lense between his hands, Kir looked about until he was magnifying the main camp of the Heavenly Host. He answered Kordia and Kassin’s questions as he scoped out the area.

Already, hundreds of Elevated were converging on the large stone structure - made to resemble a palace of white marble - that had been erected for the leisure of the residing angels.

As he waited and counted, Kir believed there to be about two thousand angels residing in the compound, which was walled off from the slaves who toiled in the dirt. The few regular-looking folk who seemed allowed in were uniformly dressed in near-white greys. And even then they were left in the courtyard and outside of the building proper.

Collaborators, Kir assumed. He could not afford the time to sort them out otherwise. All in the compound would die, but he could perhaps spare the myriadfolk in the mines regardless of their garb. The angels, Elevated, soldiers, and any slavers he found would not be so lucky.

Sighing out, Kir expanded his arms while mentally impressing a magic script on the lensed air in front of him as it grew. Quickly, a half-dome formed. Not for protection, but to identify every source of mana above the level of an untrained mage.

For a few minutes, he adjusted the script with subtle changes until at last he felt he’d filtered out all of the slaves. It also meant he’d filtered out non-magical guards and soldiers, but even so, his targets numbered in the thousands.

"I’d ask God to forgive us, but this sure as hell beats the alternative, even if it does mean you get all the blame," Kiryu said, his voice sarcastic, clearly sensing Kir’s lingering trepidation as their shared body began to accumulate mana for the spells that would come after the opening attack. "Probably up in the air on which god will answer here."

Kir found himself reaching into his storage and pulling out a pre-packed kiseru, lighting it and taking a long pull. "I’m surprised you helped me come up with all this," he thought at Kiryu. As weird as it felt, he was happy to have a co-conspirator.

"You wouldn’t be if you knew me. Sometimes the only way to stop a bully is with a bully that means well," his other half seemed to inhale with Kir as the smoke entered their shared lungs.

"This is beyond bullying. I might understand what you mean, but I won’t let myself enjoy this," Kir responded sternly. Not really knowing Kiryu after years of talking with him was Kiryu’s fault, not his. But he had worries in reality that needed his attention more than the ghost in his head.

"Good," Kiryu reduced his presence in Kir’s mind, returning to his role as the watcher in Kir’s head.

Kir took a deep breath.

He waited and watched.

And then the work began.

A single Nova Blast destroyed the marble compound. It was overkill, but Kir would not risk their having developed some sort of countermeasures in the short time since the fight at Montmorency Castle. The concussion from the blasts was deflected away from the camp by the oblique angle he’d intentionally used for that effect. The primary wave of fleeing air was still enough to knock those nearby off their feet.

A gust of air rushed up the mountain and over Kir and his two witnesses.

The unexpected explosion and the rising, bent-tree cloud of smoke drew everyone’s eyes as they stood.

But Kir was not yet done.

His eyes fell downward, to the nearest bright mana signatures.

The mana he’d gathered, and the lenses he’d made had one purpose. To work together in a symphony of invisible death.

Kir knew how to visualize the lasers he remembered from Earth media. But he also knew that true lasers were invisible without particles in the air to refract them. There was no fog this day, and only light amounts of smoke near fires.

With barely a twitch of a finger, his first target’s head was sheared at the neck. His second target barely saw this before dying in the same way.

It should have been harder.

But as Kir’s attack crawled its way forward and further in an expanding arc, the sight of the impossible cloud captured too much attention.

The signatures closest to the mountain were the fewest. Around fifty by Kir’s estimate. Mostly Elevated.

It was when he started the second wave, his magic scrip having adjusted the light foci automatically, that the screams began.

Chaos began to erupt as the heads of Elevated and mages began to roll free of their bodies. The foci began to dance as some Elevated took to the air, only to have their wings sheared from their backs before Kir’s terrible spell ended their lives on the ground.

On one side of the earthworks, a different sort of cry went out. A rallying cry amongst one group of slaves as they began to fight their oppressors. Kir felt relieved to see that there was some fight in them, and made a mental note to seek them out later. He left the targets nearest to them alone, since the masses of fighting bodies were spoiling his shots.

Whenever an Elevated tried to rise out of the fray, however, he severed their wings and left them to the people’s justice. He knew that meant more would die amongst the fighters, but he would not deny them their struggle when there was still so much more killing to do...

*

Half an hour after he started, Kir put his hands down and let the remaining gathered mana fade. His hands trembled, but he watched as a group of perhaps a hundred Elevated flew away as fast as they could go, towards the city of Montmorency.

No land-bound enemy that Kir was able to identify had survived. He decided to spare them for one reason.

"Zazel, stop hiding our mana. I have a message to send, with those as my messengers," Kir gestured at the fleeing Elevated.

As soon as Zazel’s field came down, Kir closed his eyes and concentrated. He had been unconsciously suppressing his mana for such a long time, keeping it in his body, that at first he panicked as he felt it flare out of himself like a sudden bonfire in every direction, so thick and heavy that it sent a wave through the ambient mana as he began to reign it in. He realized at that moment how wasteful he was being, but he didn’t dare stop. Not until he was sure he had the attention of the fleeing Elevated.

"It’s like we’re standing inside a rainbow..." Kordia commented, looking around.

Indeed, as Kir’s loosened mana fled him, it declined in color from the deep blue of the flame-like core, traversing the spectrum visible only in manasight...

The Elevated panicked and scattered widely when they saw it, telling Kir his message, his challenge, had been seen. He flared his wings at them, wreathed in their own sort of flames, and then turned his attention to reigning in his mana, only to stumble to one knee as he felt his body start to resist the influx. Looking down, he realized that below him was a source of mana that had reacted to his flaring out, and his body was instinctively drawing on it. Something massive, buried in the lonely mountain.

"Kir!" Amarena exclaimed.

Zazel’s eyes all widened at the same time. "Duke Satanos, you are clearly close to an evolution... We must get you to safety and -"

"No! I’m fine," Kir said, a laugh bursting out of his lips. "Not until I’m done." He stood and stopped reigning in his mana. Now that he knew it was there, he felt confident he could draw on the mysterious source if needed.

With four great strides, he let himself fall from the mountain before turning his course to the dig sites below.