The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 389: Rain Break

Chapter 389: Rain Break

Cassiel and the Expedition team went for a pincer attack on the Capitol building, the first half of the former Expeditionary team attacked the main entrance, while they came in from above, shattering their way through one of the observation balconies as they fought to keep the demons below the highest government offices.

When the power went out, the elevator shafts and stairwells became chokepoints, but even slightly exhausted from her earlier training, Cassiel was a force to be reckoned with as she flooded each floor with her Hekatoncheries, allowing Auric and the others to sweep in and deal with the demons strong enough to fight through her pervasive magic.

Together they forced the demons into a tighter and tighter pocket, but it was only when Cassie was forced to step back to regain some of her mana that she stopped to think.

Why are they still fighting?

It didn’t make any sense for the demons to kill all the angels they came across - not even taking hostages - and then continue to fight for every floor. There were plenty of windows they could have fled out of, and yet they stayed on, shouting war cries and fighting hard even though they were cornered.

Three of the Expedition’s Elevated died, and one angel, in exchange for the lives of dozens of demons.

They didn’t even get minutes to rest before Auric was on a short-ranged comm with the Black Tower, trying to figure out what was happening and where they were needed next.

It was in the middle of this confusion that she felt it.

A familiar and yet alien mana rising from below.

It flew past faster than she could see, rising far above the offices where the seniormost administrative angels were posted.

But the only thing up there was...

Oh no...

Auric was calling out orders when Cassiel grabbed him by the arm.

"What is it?" he asked, anger flashing on his face.

"Someone’s going to the top of the capitol. We need to get there," Cassie said, hoping she wouldn’t have to explain.

"I felt it, but so what? There’s nothing up there. Right now, the demons are attacking the Lance. We need to fly down and deal with them!" Auric said.

"It’s Rain!" Cassie shouted. "Auric, there is something up there. I don’t know why Rain would go there, but I felt it was him. He might need our help!"

Auric’s face turned into a withering, bestial snarl. His body lurched as he ripped his arm away from her, and for a moment she thought he was about to strike her when he turned away with a frustrated gasp.

"You take the group down, I’ll deal with the traitor!" he snapped.

"But-"

"That’s an order!" Auric shouted, before telling everyone to follow Cassiel down to the lower levels of the Black Tower. Blasting out a window, he flew upwards, fully expecting to be obeyed.

And for a few moments, Cassiel did obey. She flew out of the building and led the formation to the underside of the walkways, spotting a large hole through which demons were dragging out the largest soulstones she’d ever seen, flying them towards the even larger holes that had been made in the foundational floor of the city.

But as soon as she set the squad against the demons, she turned away from their shared dive and flew upwards, hoping to make it to the top of the Capitol in time, to the room that Rain had discovered how to open.

The place where all the power in Araqlun could be controlled...

As she flew, it occurred to her that something else had to be amiss. The power had gone out long before she felt Rain’s ascent.

What she arrived to was like a scene from an epic tale.

In the sky above the tower, High Seraph Vinam Victoriam did battle with what could only be described as the most powerful demon Cassiel had ever seen. Not a battle of magic at a distance, but a brutal melee. The corpses of Vinam’s elite guard were strewn about the platform, as were the corpses of demons, but amidst the blood-soaked marble Auric hovered on four wings in his magiform as he battered Rainier with spell after spell.

And Rainier stood there, wingless and naked except for a loincloth, weathering the magic as he batted many spells away with a demonic-looking sword. Instead of the pristine white and gold of godflesh skin, his figure was now black, cracked with gold instead of patterned with it. Like someone had ripped him apart and then filled in the gaps.

Almost as soon as he spotted her, Auric backed away to gather a large spell, striking down with enough mana to completely shroud his opponent from view.

"Rain!" Cassie shouted, but as Auric’s spell waned, Rainier stood, his body smoking as it regenerated from the ruinous spell that had charred the floor.

"Cassiel, stop him! He’s out of control!" Auric shouted, gathering the same spell as he blasted Rain again, only for Rain to go leaping through the spell, his body half seared and yet strong enough to grab Auric by the throat and bear him to the ground, slamming him face-first into the armored corpse of an Executioner.

"Rain STOP!" Cassiel poured mana into her compulsion, but instead of taking hold, there was nothing. Nothing to stop Rain as he began to hack at Auric’s back, severing his wings with meaty, cracking chops as Auric screamed.

When he was done, Rainier threw Auric at Cassiel, and she caught him with a dozen hands of magic, disbelieving that the Rain she knew would do something so brutal without saying a word.

When she didn’t attack, Rainier turned towards the ruined entrance of the Capitol’s secret room, walking with slow, measured steps as Cassiel tried to quickly staunch Auric’s wounds. Covered in his blood, she stood, but Auric grabbed her by the wrist, his body convulsing as he told her, "You have to kill him... don’t give him a chance to-"

Cassiel tugged herself away and ran, tears in her eyes as she gathered her magic, ready to crush Rainier with Aigaion.

She found him staring at the table and called out his name, but all he did was lift his sword and bring it down hard on the dusty marble, shattering the altar where Helios had died long ago.

Cassiel willed Aigaion forward, grabbing Rainier in a fist thrice his size.

Only then did she finally see his face.

The single crying eye.

The black mask that covered two-thirds of his head on the right, a gallows smile writ large as her spell burned against him.

Rain’s black godflesh was somehow eating away at her magic. Not consuming it, but unmaking it. But she still had time. Time enough to try what she wanted...

"Rain, please stop this. You don’t have to help them! Whatever the demons did to you, we can fix it!" She gathered herself, weaving compulsion into her voice once more. "Surrender!"

The compulsion didn’t take. Not even with all the might Cassiel could put behind it.

And then the right side of his flesh spoke.

"You think the demons did this?" a voice like an open grave laughed. "Oh, how much he wants to tell you..."

Aigaion cracked and broke as Rainier’s body flexed against it. The moment he landed, the demon-wrought sword Rain had wielded came flying out of the shattered spell and caught Cassiel in the leg.

She fell to the ground, screaming.

"... But I don’t care about that." Rainier’s body turned, his hands coming up to an ancient panel that glowed with power. His hands began to dance across it, and through the haze of pain Cassie recognized the panel that had shown them how power was distributed throughout Araqlun and Heaven. His hands danced and tapped until a final key made of light presented itself. "It’s time to end... EVERYTHING!"

As Cassie wrenched the sword out of her leg, prepared to cut Rain down, from behind him a demonkin appeared, stabbing through Rain’s heart with a rapier.

"That is not how this story ends," the demonkin said. Rainier turned, batting the demonkin away as the latter withdrew his sword. "Lord Maledict will have the final say." The demonkin stabbed out, puncturing Rain again and again. "He has earned it. Who the Hell are you to deny the Demon Lord his due?"

His sword whipped out, again and again as Cassie limped her way forward, grinding her teeth as she pulled her staff out of its storage and prepared to smash the panel Rainier had been using. A cry rose in her throat as she raised her staff, but at the last moment, Rain grabbed the demonkin’s rapier and forced its path into Cassiel, striking her in the chest.

He then backhanded the demonkin man across the face, sending him sprawling.

"Fool!" the grave-voice spat. "I am Heaven’s foundation! And I am its end! I am Helios, and it is my right that all shall burn!" Rain’s hand reached for the panel...

...and stopped.

"Nn-no," Rain’s voice broke through, the crying side of his face twisting with pain.

"What do you mean, ’no’?" the grave-voice asked. "You agreed to avenge me."

The hand that had reached out to destroy Heaven instead, slowly, reached up to the right sight of Rainier’s face.

"You aren’t him..." Rain’s voice cracked through. "You aren’t... the man I loved..."

"He’s dead!" Helios shouted. "They killed him... They forced you to kill innocents! They’re killing you!"

Rain’s hand gripped the face, tearing it away. The black flesh followed down to his neck, blood erupting where it tried to cling to him.

Rain looked at Cassie. At the sword in her chest.

She saw the desperation in his eyes. The pain.

She heard his words.

"Better I die than everyone..."

With a sickening, wet sound, Rain tore the face of Helios from his flesh and cast it on the ground, where it screamed and cursed and refused to die.

He fell to his hands and knees, his whole body shuddering. The regeneration that he’d shown earlier did not arise. Not until a radiating mana began to flow into the tower room, its presence calming in the wake of the brutality that had just occured.

And when Cassiel looked, she saw him in all his glory...

Maledict.

The Duke of Heresy landed upon the tower and crushed the screaming face of Helios underfoot. His wings were torn. His horns shattered. But even so he held his head high, and the crown of fire between his horns shone all the brighter for it. He cast his gaze about the room. From Cassiel as she lay dying to the readied panel, and then to Rainier and the fallen demonkin. And then once more to the panel.

"So you have unlocked it for me," he said to Rainier, as he crouched downward. "I sense my son in you..." He brushed aside a bloodstained lock of Rainier’s blue hair, then offered him a hand. "Let’s make a deal."

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