The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 385: The Three Day War - Final Day

Chapter 385: The Three Day War - Final Day

Lapins van Montmorency tried hard to keep her eyes forward and her bearing regal as she marched into the city at the head of an army of former slaves.

It had been a rushed thing, organizing them all, and so Lapins had maintained no illusions of discipline or order as they began to filter into the city. The group that stayed behind her were resistance leaders, Kordia, and Kassin - with Amarena far behind in her full knight regalia, which covered her face and hid her tail behind a cape.

There was no fanfare to her arrival. She had no standing with the lordsmoot, nor her father’s councilors. Instead, the sounds of joy echoed behind her as the formerly enslaved from the city fell out of line to embrace their families.

Those slaves with nowhere else to go continued to walk, and in solidarity with them, Lapins walked barefoot and without finery or armor - except for her princess crown, which Amarena had rushed to her after Kir’s conquest of the city.

The signs of that conquest rose into the air as smoke, but with none of the charnel stench of burning dead. That, somehow, was far scarier for her than knowing he had survived a direct strike from Heaven. Remembering that tale made her look towards Mt. Morens. The exposed, skeletal serpent wound its way around the trunk-shaped mount, its eyes staring emptily toward the lake.

But she could not stare for long, as she arrived at the castle’s main yard. Kir sat upon the steps leading up to the castle, casually, as if he were simply enjoying the cool day. As if there was not an angel-shaped stain in black upon the wall behind him. The pressure from his mana was like walking into a cloud, and as soon as she thought to bring up her manasight, she saw the heatless blaze that surrounded him.

Her parents and brothers knelt before him. There was no sign of the King’s Privy Council or any member of the Lordsmoot. The army had been ordered into the city to maintain peace during the transition of power.

Having trained in the art of controlling her mana, Lapins made her way forward alone as the former slaves and curious citizens shrank from the oppression of Kir’s mana, at least as much as they could with the crowd pushing them from behind. A crude semicircle began to form behind Lapins, and Kir - in his war form but with his face hidden behind a mask of bone - stood, cracking the marble beneath his clawed feet.

"At last, the final scion of Montmorency comes before me," Kir’s voice boomed, amplified by magic. The crunching sounds as he descended the steps were dramatic. Kordia, Kassin, and Amarena were making their way around Kir’s aura, the former two putting up some shielding to allow the crowd closer. "The angels have fled this land. Their weapon failed to kill me, as did their ambassador and all their Elevated." Kir plucked the crown from the head of her father and cast it at her feet.

It was all part of the performance.

"Without Heaven, what power has that crown?" Kir asked her. "Silence was your father’s answer. Your mother’s. Your siblings’."

"The crown is not power," Lapins replied firmly. "It is from my people that Montmorency is strong."

Lapins felt the gust of his wings as he flew the rest of the distance between them, landing heavily behind the crown.

"Well then, Queen Lapins, be thou for the people," Kir said, picking it up off the ground and placing it in her hands. It was unusually flowery speech for him, which had made Lapins suspect it was a quote.

With a wave of his hand, Amarena bid the rest of Lapins family to rise as she escorted them into the castle. They would be held in their rooms until Lapins could figure out what to do with them.

Kir turned away and started to stalk back to the castle as well. This wasn’t part of what was planned.

"Where are you going?" Lapins asked.

Kir turned, looking at her. "I will claim my spoils from the angels. You have a nation to rebuild."

As soon as the pressure from Kir’s mana eased, Lapins almost gasped with relief. The crown was shattered, but she made no move to retrieve it. Instead, Lapins turned around, and then she began to speak...

*

As the Princess of Montmorency became a Queen, Myrel stole her way through the emptied halls of Montmorency castle, guided by faith and the instructions of the Endmother.

The metatron was coming. She could feel it in her bones, but her mavenry gave her some resistance to the pressure of his mana as she cradled the precious gift under her arm. The gift that she’d carried since well before seeing him destroy Kainur on the fields of snow and blood.

The gift of the Endmother to the savior.

Her destination was clear, the office of Heaven’s now-dead Ambassador. She took the stairs from the kitchens to the third story, careful of the inconsistent stairsteps. Even though the hall looked deserted, she had been forewarned that Heaven’s eyes needed no people to work.

Thus, she activated her mavenry, becoming invisible and even managing to erase the gift from sight as she held it close to her chest, within the quarter-measure of space around her body that her mavenry could control.

The door was unlocked as she entered. She just needed to find a place that would make it seem like it belonged there. If she placed it somewhere too obvious, the savior would grow suspicious. If she placed it somewhere too hidden, he might not know it in time to do what must be done.

To make the choice to unleash the Destroyer, before all was lost...

She was still trying to decide when she felt his mana start to press along her back. The pressure increased with every step - the sounds of which oddly grew lighter as they neared.

Until she realized he must be shedding his war form and wings. Hiding them away so that he could maneuver through halls that had been designed for smaller beings.

She was curious to see him up close, but she had seconds now.

Hurriedly she examined the room. There were bookshelves without room. A desk. A chair behind the desk.

Lavishly decorated, all of it, but sparing with space and comfort and arranged to force whoever was in the Ambassador’s presence to remain standing. She tried opening a drawer in the desk, but it was too small for what she needed and all that was in it was a rectangular plate of black glass.

"Is that you Rena?" he asked, his voice gentle.

Myrel felt her panic rise. If she left out the window, it could jeopardize her mission. He could not be allowed to suspect. But if he could sense her while she was invisible, there was nowhere for her to hide. She needed to do something.

*

Kir opened the door to the Ambassador’s office to find an elf in plain clothes with a familiar-looking disc under her arm. She looked like she was about to rifle through the bookshelves, and as soon as their eyes met, she visibly paled.

"I’m sorry!" she blurted.

"Looks like one of the staff," Kiryu chimed in unexpectedly, his mental tones suspicious.

Kir felt curiosity along his bonds at his surprise, but everyone was either distant enough or had enough matter between them and him to keep the feelings nonverbal. He sent back a sense of control and moved to confront the elf.

"Leave whatever it is you found and find another place to loot," Kir instructed.

With a large gulp, she placed the disc-shaped object on the desk, "S-sorry my lord," she fled as Kir stepped aside.

He could feel her within his mana envelope and was just starting to feel curious about how she’d managed to keep her composure within his mana field when Kiryu spoke again, "This guy liked his books. But if that’s what I think it is..." He drew Kir’s attention away from the elf and towards the desk.

Kir noticed the disc looked remarkably like the fulcrum he’d used to help he reification process, but Kiryu’s attention drew him towards the open drawer and the tablet inside of it.

As soon as Kir touched it, his burgeoning mana forced it on, and he watched as it booted into its home screen.

Kir tapped through a few of the utility functions, surprised that the Ambassador hadn’t seen fit to lock the device somehow.

"Looks like they’re using the Access Control Network to piggyback subdatabases. It’s like the pre-quantum internet, but built by idiots and running on magic."

"Is there anything we could try from here?" Kir asked. After following a few instructions from Kiryu, they came to a security screen. One prominently displaying a hand that Kir was a hundred percent sure would not respond to his. But if he could get inside Heaven’s network, it didn’t matter if they were watching him. He could find Rainier.

"Hit that button on the top left. See how they like taking it in the backdoor."

Kir did as he was told and wound up at a very basic-looking user identification and password lock.

Try NK-01, password "I was born twice comma first as a girl near Tokyo Bay comma and then as a boy on Bodhi Day comma 2285. Capitals on ’I,’ ’Tokyo Bay’ and ’Bodhi Day’."

Kir obediently typed, only getting it wrong once before suddenly they were in and he was staring through a database that presented a lot of information but no way to look into Heaven in real-time.

Somewhere in all the screen switching, Kiryu called on him to stop.

"I know that file. You want to see what Heaven really is, kid?"

Kir wanted to find Rainier, but following Kiryu’s directions led him to a massive set of schematics. The implications filled him with an increasing sense of dread as he realized exactly what he was looking at.

He was tapping through the schematic of the asteroid defense tower when the tablet shut off.

And then suddenly, the dread was everywhere in his bond. Not just dread, but panic. A wordless call for his attention.

Kir dropped the tablet onto the desk and was about to leave when he felt Kiryu tug his attention at the fulcrum. "Don’t want to leave that around, kid."

Not realizing the mistake he was about to make, Kir grabbed the disc and ran outside, quickly realizing that everyone was staring up at the sky.

"Kir, it’s Heaven... the moon is falling apart," Kordia spoke through their bond.

It was who Kiryu replied, "That’s no moon."

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