The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 387: Interlude - Heaven’s Son

Chapter 387: Interlude - Heaven’s Son

Vinam stared at the figure on the screen, frozen in the moment before it became static.

Alaes...

He was too shocked to notice that his staff were yelling at him for a hundred other reasons. Not until the cameras began to show new images. Familiar places, but infested with...

"Demons, High Seraph!"

"What? Where? Which Kingdom?" Vinam half-gasped, not realizing he’d held his breath. His heart had constricted at the sight of that single, crimson wing...

"They’re here!" his operations commander shouted.

Image after image, key locations in Araqlun showed fleeing civilians and bloodthirsty demons. The halls and towers of Heaven, ravaged from within.

"Where is the Host? Who’s responding?" Vinam demanded.

"Choir guards are reporting light attacks, but the main attacks are in the city center!"

"From where?!"

It was Auriciel who responded, Vinam’s nephew connecting the dots as attack after attack showed up on a map of the city.

"It’s here... the center of the attacks are here..."

As more and more images poured in, a pattern began to show in the demons’ behavior. Wherever they emerged, they began to close off and barricade the structures, seizing them from within even as they murdered every angel and Elevated they could get their hands on. They seemed possessed of a fanatical zeal, but were acting deliberately to fortify every position they were taking...

"High-Seraph, there are Council members calling for you," his communications officer reported.

"Route them to my office," Vinam snapped out the order before hurrying into it.

A screen split six ways showed the various heads of the Heavenly Choirs. All of them demanded to know what was happening. How there could be demons in Araqlun at this stage of the Heavenswar?

How? How? How?

This was supposed to be a day of triumph. Another Hell Duke slain...

The sin of his sister buried... Because in Tarantel’s report was word of a demon with red angel wings...

As the cacophony of voices demanded their answers, Vinam heard them through the blood pounding in his ears and his own thoughts. He has to be dead... nothing could have survived that...

Was that why she had appeared? Why she’d cut off direct communications between Heaven and the Host? And this attack... the only way demons could have come into the heart of Araqlun was with portals... had she... No... Alaes would never destroy her home. It had to be him.

"Maledict..." Vinam snarled, raising his head to the screens as he addressed the council of Choir leaders all at once. "This is Maledict’s work, I know it!"

"It was you who said even the Devil of Heresy would know better than to try assaulting Heaven with only the forces of a single city!" the Singer of Choir Artesia said in her smooth, smug, melodic tones.

"This must be a raid. They must be after something specific!" the provisional head of House Valorum said, the panic in his voice belying what Vinam knew to be a sound theoretical application of military theory. "We should have continued repelling the perditional streams-"

"And lose our tributes?!" someone else shouted. "It was the Executioners roles to sniff out any plots!"

The shouting, the arguments, the spittle gathering on camera screens might have seemed purposeless, but second after second, Vinam felt the focus start to shift. To fall upon his shoulders. They needed someone to blame.

Everything he’d achieved was falling apart. Everything was chaos...

What am I going to do? The Choir heads would want solutions. They would want action, vengeance... and safety...

A laugh burst out of Vinam, silencing the Choirs.

Of course! This wasn’t mere chaos. This was an opportunity!

"Leaders of the Choirs," Maledict said, "As our friend Tacitel pointed out, this is likely a simple raid!" he slammed his fist on the table, "But one for which I will ensure Maledict pays for in so much blood, he will never again darken our sky! The Executioners are not the mere police force you handed me years ago. They are masters of magic and combat, and they will repel this invasion with a might that will leave even the Host in awe!" He raised his arms wide, he had nothing to hide. His pride, his victory, was at hand.

His trap was laid. And Serenel of the Choir Artesia was the one to fall for it.

"But what about us?" she raised her voice, interrupting several others.

"I will send my most loyal and elite Executioners to you. No demon will bring you harm," Vinam placed a hand on his heart and bowed slightly. "Now please, I must be about my work."

He left the office, leaving them to argue at each other over the feed until he had his comm officer end it.

Within minutes he had seven squads of Executioners arranged in the command center, those that had proven they would obey him no matter what. To them he gave sealed cylinders with written orders, before verbally commanding them, "You will open these exactly on the toll of the next hour, and follow their instructions to the letter. Today is the day we steer the course of Heaven back to what it should be!"

They saluted him, and he saluted back, before turning and spying Auriciel talking with a sweaty-looking... bah, what was the girl’s name again? Oh yes...

"Auriciel, what are you still doing with Executioner Cassiel?" Vinam asked.

Auriciel almost stood to attention the way he stiffened. "We were discussing grabbing the rest of the team from the Expedition. Someone needs to strike back, and they’re coming up from nearby. Cassiel thinks they might have flown up from the depths, meaning the fortifying actions they’re taking are so they can gather mana."

"Good assessment," Vinam clapped his nephew on the shoulder. "Focus on clearing the Capitol Tower." The building was full of busybodies and middle-angels, but such people did keep Araqlun running so that those with real power could make the decisions. "Use as much force as you need."

Cassiel’s brow furrowed. "Shouldn’t we focus on preventing collateral damage? Rescuing people?"

Vinam frowned. For someone as capable as she was, she seemed... brittle, somehow. Soft. And the worst part about her was that she was starting to remind him of his sister...

"Cassiel, we have our orders," Auriciel said, pulling her away as he watched Vinam’s face.

Feeling slightly put off, Vinam returned to his command seat, contemplating what was to come.

He’d given his cousin a perfect role for earning prestige with what was likely to be minimal risk for battle-hardened Executioners, given the quality of demons on display. The likely problem would be any demonic Generals who emerged, but as yet none had. Those would be for him and his personal guard to deal with.

And in a little over an hour - assuming he let his wings drag long enough to keep this raid going that long - he would be the sole remaining power in all of Heaven. Now that he was in the mood to give orders, his staff snapped into their roles.

Executioners were recalled from all over Araqlun. Heavenly Host soldiers on leave were pressed into improvised commands. The demons were fought amidst the skyways and walks.

But still no major demons appeared... Nothing called for his personal attention.

His only priorities were to seize control after his teams executed their orders, and to finally destroy Maledict. And yet as the former ticked ever closer, the latter had yet to make an appearance.

"Where are you..." he growled out loud, searching the screens for something, anything, that would indicate where his hated foe was...

The hour tolled.

One by one the teams he’d sent to "guard" the Choir leaders reported their success. And at the very moment the final death was announced, Vinam felt his triumph marred by the uncertain silence of the Duke of Heresy. The invisibility of his mortal enemy made the presence of Maledict stalk his mind in every corner of his eyes as he flung his vision from screen to screen, searching.

Everywhere, he saw demons with Maledict’s raven-sigil flag, but no Maledict. And no Alaes, even though she had to be working with him... to have destroyed the satellite relays now was too much of a coincidence. Something had brought them back together, he was sure of it. Just as he was sure that the moment Maledict appeared, he would hold nothing back to destroy him.

He finally made up his mind to leave the control room, taking his elite guard of four with him as he marched to his bedroom and personal armory. On the way there, the lights suddenly cut out before everything went green with the emergency lighting.

As soon as he reached a window, he saw that it wasn’t just the Black Tower.

The spires of white and silver and gold had all gone dark. The glittering lights that shone in perpetuity - at levels of mana that Aytherians would consider utterly extravagant - were all dark.

For the first time in uncounted centuries, Araqlun went dark.

Except for one place.

The one place that rose above the Black Tower, crowned in gold.