The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 410: Silver

Chapter 410: Silver

Suddenly there was a flash of red.

Mana flared as Crimson appeared, savaging the dragon’s mouth and causing the burst of lightning to fly into the woods, where it exploded and burned a patch of trees.

The moment Kordia neared the center, she saw it. The slight shimmer of spherical space that she knew would lead somewhere else.

It was slightly off the ground, and so she grabbed Lapins and Sin by the waist and leaped, rolling to a stop in a clearing where the grass was red and the sky was clear and blue.

All around them, trees with white trunks speckled with black bore red leaves, and somewhere in the distance a green, striped rabbit munched on its fare.

We’re in a dungeon, Kordia realized as she let Lapins and Sin stand.

And then she turned... and gasped.

Against a small hill, Silver lay, her breathing shallow as Kordia approached.

The fox spirit was wounded. Worse than wounded, she was dying.

"You should not have come, little kit..." Silver spoke in the minds of Kordia and her lovers.

"Why not?" Kordia spoke aloud. "You’re hurting. Let me heal you."

She approached and began to lay her hands on the spirit fox.

Healing magic poured forth, and at the same time Kordia expanded her mana, drawing in more from the dungeon room as she began to form fox fires. There was barely enough in the floor for five flames.

"You were supposed to live. To carry a part of me... to restore this land after the end."

Against a small hill, Silver lay, her breathing shallow as Kordia approached.

The fox spirit was wounded. Worse than wounded, she was dying.

"You should not have come, little kit..." Silver spoke in the minds of Kordia and her lovers.

"Why not?" Kordia spoke aloud. "You’re hurting. Let me heal you."

She approached and began to lay her hands on the spirit fox.

Healing magic poured forth, and at the same time, Kordia expanded her mana, drawing in more from the dungeon room as she began to form fox fires. There was barely enough on the floor for five flames.

"You were supposed to live. To carry a part of me... to restore this land after the end."

The fatality of her tone sparked something inside Kordia that she didn’t expect. Anger.

"Why?" Kordia demanded.

"Insolence... the abomination will not save us. When its mother came to tempt me... I refused... and made my own plan. You were never supposed to encounter it... You were supposed to stay away!"

"That ’abomination’ is named Kir, and he’s trying to save us all!" Kordia forced her healing to work faster, eliciting more pain from the great spirit as she poured herself into the task. "I don’t care what your plans are. I don’t care if this is all pre-ordained or whatever. I’m better for having met him. Less of a coward. Less afraid that what I want will hurt others." She forced a surge of healing that made Silver whimper. "I’m not letting you die."

Even as she emptied flame after flame’s worth of mana into Silver, she knew it wouldn’t be enough. Memories flowed into her. The battle between dragon and fox had taken weeks. It had split the land and burned much of the western expanse, even as the Perdition-induced weather choked life from the land.

Silver wasn’t just dying from her struggles against the dragon...

She was dying because the ecology of the forest was on the verge of collapse. Even if Kordia could restore her body to full health, she could not end Silver’s connection to the land.

Kordia’s healing slowed as despair began to well inside of her. And then at that very moment, the same fox that had saved them from the dragon dove through the entrance of the dungeon, landing in a heap.

"Crimson?" Silver asked as the new spirit made to stand and smoothed out his fur.

"Hello Silver," the male said. "You look awful."

"Are you here to claim my territory?" Silver snarled. "Or have you come to mock me?"

"Neither. I am here to watch my mistress’ cub, nothing more."

"Your ’mistress’. The one who covets my land."

"Covets... yes. But I doubt she’ll claim it. Now that I have seen and felt this place, there is little left to claim. Do you not feel what is coming? It hovers in the mind of your avatar."

Avatar? Kordia wondered.

"Death... from the sky." Silver acknowledged. "Like the angels who tried to slay me, before the dragon came."

"I could help you avoid it," Crimson said as he began to circle her. "Cut yourself from this dying land. Allow me to bear you south. Join me and you will have worshippers to give you strength. An entire palace to serve you. The food is quite the treat..."

"And a mistress to exploit me," Silver snarled. "My answer is ’No,’ Crimson. I will die as I have lived, the protector of my domain. Free. Not as a housepet."

Crimson chuckled. "That is your problem, Silver. You never knew how to enjoy the finer things in life. Belief is sweet succor..."

"And when your land withers next, who will believe in you when you fail to bring growth? When the world freezes and the sky falls, who will believe in you then, housepet? You tied yourself to the whims of civilization, and your succor can just as quickly become poison."

"That is what druids are for-"

"Enough!" Kordia shouted. "I’m not going to just let you die, Silver. The future is not set in stone, so tell me what I can do to convince you to at least try."

"The cub whines for its mother," Crimson mocked, but Kordia ignored him, staring into Silver’s golden eyes.

"Nothing can stop my death... But if you would pay my price, and slay that rabid interloper, I can promise you I shall live again... which will spare you from replacing me."

"What price is that?" Kordia asked.

"No more than a life. Take me into your body... and when life springs anew, I will be called to return."

"Kordia..." Sin took her by the hand. "I don’t like the sound of that. Spirit tales are always about taking a firstborn or..."

Silver chuckled, and amusement glinted in Crimson’s eyes as they began to regard Sin. "Clever girl. You see through my words."

"Speak clearly then, Silver. What is your real price?" Kordia said.

"Should you bear a child, I shall become the child. Without memory or knowledge, though something of me shall awaken with time. Until then, I would be vulnerable... should you choose to strangle me in your den. Hence why I spoke unclearly. You would hold my fate in your hands." The spirit fox lowered her head.

Kordia quivered, her anger only growing as the weight of Silver’s price sank through her thoughts. She could feel Silver’s touch on her mind, how the spirit knew the impossible choice it had placed before her. As a person, a woman, and a future mother. And she felt the moment Silver grew certain Kordia would say no...

"I’ll pay your price," Kordia said, her voice low but firm.

""Kordia..."" Lapins and Sin said at the same time.

"This is bigger than us. Bigger than me," Kordia assured them. "I choose to use my body for this," she declared. She did not know if it was right, but she knew that the world would need spirits like Silver in order to recover. The further she parsed Silver’s words, the more she hoped the result would be similar to Kir’s relationship with Kiryu, if not a complete and singular being. She vowed to love the child no matter what.

Silver chuckled, and then the chuckle became a laugh. Surprise and mirth played out in wordless thoughts, while Crimson watched on in amusement.

When the fits of laughter finally passed, Silver pushed herself to stand, staring down at Kordia as she spoke.

"Very well, child. I shall give you my heart. You must hold it to yourself until the merger is complete. Had you not grown so, it would be impossible, but be wary, for to contain a being of pure spirit is to begin becoming one yourself..."

"I’m not afraid," Kordia declared.

Silver stood and continued to rise as she began to gather upon herself, compressing and shrinking until all that remained was a single, teardrop-shaped gem of silver threaded with green jade. It hovered for a long moment before drifting towards Kordia, and she raised her hands to receive it.

Cupping the stone gently, Kordia held it to her chest, gasping as a silvery light shone forth.

The moment it touched her skin she felt the weight of mountains and trees. The flow of streams and sky. The cycles and seasons of years, centuries, and millennia were like breathing. The land she called home was so much more than just a single part of the whole of Ayther. It was its own world, connected from the tiniest water droplet to the darkest reach of the vast mycelium.

It was Connection.

The force, sense, and act of reaching out amalgamated into a living being.

And now, Silver was a part of her.

But as the full weight of the fox’s power settled into her, Kordia knew that she alone would not be enough to hold it.

Not without dying.

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