The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 429: Running In Circles

Chapter 429: Running In Circles

Rain put Myrti through her paces as he made her run, then run, then run some more. It was a cruel form of training, but one that had worked to get him over his initial block when it came to enhancement magic, when he was around her age.

His brother had done the same for him, but with a lot more sessions until he was finally allowed to run himself completely dry of mana. The way Rain was doing it would be more dangerous for Myrti, but Rain didn’t have the time for caution.

"That thing you call your ’light’ is mana. Put it to use," he struck out with a whittled branch at her legs.

"I’m" Myrti gasped "trying."

"Don’t just try. Feel your mana. Where it’s going, what you need it to do. You need to hold on to the concept of strength. Or endurance. Or speed. Figure out which one suits you best."" Rain instructed coldly, whipping out the stick again and managing to strike her on the tail.

"Ow!" Myrti let out a string of creative invectives at him.

"If you have breath to swear, you have breath to keep running." He swung for her again, not to strike but enough to let her feel the wind of the branch. It was important he not break her confidence. Her body had quickly found its second wind, and now that she was actively burning her mana, she was creating her third.

Dawn was just about to break, and Myrti had worn a circular trail onto the top of the hill. Rain had helped flatten the space after the first time she tripped as well, and her footprints - still rather humanoid despite the addition of clawed toes - had long since packed the soil where his magic hadn’t.

As the first rays of light seeped through the hazy horizon, Myrti collapsed in a heap, and Rain’s manasight told him exactly what he needed - the girl had managed to run through mana exhaustion and completely drain herself.

Rushing to her side, he propped her against the hill, hoping to whatever gods might be out there that he hadn’t just killed her. He was counting on her half-demon nature for the training to work, but he wasn’t entirely sure if it would be the same as it worked for him.

"Breathe. Focus on breathing," he gathered some mana, careful to keep his lightning aspect out of it, before freecasting it into her lungs along with air.

With a sputtering gasp, she regained her breath. She tried to lift her arm, and Rain pushed it down.

"Don’t focus on moving. Focus on feeling. Your body will start regenerating mana, and it’s important you feel it as it travels. The better you know your body, the stronger you can enhance it."

She glared up at him as he lowered her body and moved her limbs into a comfortable position, tilting her to the side so her tail wouldn’t be pinched. Unlike most demons, her tail was a whippy thing that had more in common with a lion’s tail, including a patch of hair - fur? - at the end.

A sudden rustle was all the warning Rain had as a mass of orange, white, and black leaped from the forest, jaws aimed right for Myrti as if to snatch her and run.

Rain burst into motion, pushing mana into his body as he caught the tiger mid-leap, his hand crushing its throat as he stepped up and forward to slam the beast into the dirt. Even unable to breathe and partially stunned, the tiger slashed and bit at him, tearing great gouges in his godflesh before Rain manifested a sword and put the beast down for good.

A whimper from Myrti drew his attention next, and he found her staring at his blood-spattered form with terror in her eyes.

His wounds began to close, and Rain pushed a bit more mana into his godflesh to accelerate the process. He knew what the substance really was - a polymorphic exosuit, augmented with mana and the purified flesh of those who had achieved immortality. Technology and magic fused so long ago even the angels only knew how to "grow" more of it through grafting, not how to make it.

That knowledge was one of many echoes of Helios in Rainier’s mind, though it was clear the would-be god had been more interested in how to use godflesh than how to create it. The angels used the substance to "elevate" mortals as their servants, implanting it so that its fatal flaw could be exploited.

The flaw rendered its bearers susceptible to compulsion. Mana-infused commands that could override a person’s free will.

Breaking free of that flaw had weakened many of Rain’s capabilities, but he’d rather stay free than return to what he’d been made into... Well, free in some sense. He’d bound himself to Maledict, but at least Maledict didn’t violate his autonomy.

After making sure Myrti was comfortable again, Rain returned to the dead tiger and began to skin it. Since it was a carnivore that had attacked them, he didn’t trust that it had not consumed other people in the past. Once he had the skin off, he burned the rest of the corpse to ash.

He checked on Myrti again after the hour it took to get all the bits of flesh off the skin, and in manasight she was finally coming to an even distribution of mana in her body, even if the amount around her brain, spine, and heart were still higher than normal. Those were likely the physical points where her mavenry manifested, so he wasn’t worried.

With little else to do, Rain manifested a sword and stabbed it into the ground, sitting in front of Myrti as he drew the scrypen from his bag. He fed mana into it until an enchantment made the pen chime and the ruby glow, before starting to write out his first report.

Was ambushed by a tiger. Still another day or two out from Beastport.

Short, simple, and to the point.

"Whatcha writing?" Myrti asked.

"Focus on yourself," Rain snapped.

He was about to put the scrypen away when it jerked out of his fingers and oriented itself to the page.

Maledict knows you took the girl. What are you playing at?

It had to be Janice. Rainier sighed, plucking the scrypen from the air before writing.

You said to requisition whatever I need. She promised to make herself useful, and if she dies, Maledict loses nothing.

Janice’s reply was near instant.

Nothing except a maven with the potential for truth-seeking abilities. You are far too new to be playing these sorts of games, Fallen.

How the fuck did she know? No... Myrti had people who knew her amongst the transformed. Any one of them could have sold her out or been coerced into admitting what they knew about her. And since she was a commoner, it was all too likely that the former nobles would do whatever they could to curry favor with their new masters - no matter how little it bought them.

Rainier couldn’t afford to pause too long.

She can be useful in sorting out whatever fictions people might believe about the towers. I assume you want me to infiltrate the city, instead of simply confirming the tower by sight. Why else would you send me instead of a demon?

This time it was Janice’s turn to pause. Rain was just beginning to think she might not respond when the scrypen moved.

Do not think yourself indispensable. You betrayed Maledict’s son once, and your other masters. The only way you stay in Maledict’s good graces is to obey. Through me, you will obey him. Once you have determined if these towers can be entered and gathered as much information as you can about what caused them, you WILL return the girl.

Rainier ground his teeth as he thought. As much as he hated it, Janice was right. He’d taken too big of a risk too early into his "career" with Maledict, and now he was being called out on it. His only choices now were to obey or "lose" Myrti in such a way that the truth of what he intended for her could not be found out... or to kill her. The last option might even be the most merciful...

Yes, mistress. He wrote.

Good little bird. Don’t disappoint me.

With the conversation concluded Rain did what he could to lift the ink from the page before it dried completely. Janice hadn’t been sparing with the space she used for writing, no doubt intentionally given how otherwise meticulous her lists and notes were. He managed to reduce the text to brownish smears before letting the ink fall back into its jar.

"Is it weird that I’m starting to feel good?" Myrti asked, breaking Rain out of his dark thoughts.

"That means it’s working," Rain said, taking up his stick again to keep her from rising. "But don’t try to get up yet. You feel stronger than you really are, but you still need more rest and a meal." He needed to get her food if her body was going to recover quickly, and more than the simple bread he had in his storage bag. Maybe he shouldn’t have burned the tiger meat...

"But it smells like dead tiger," Myrti complained. "What if another one comes?"

"Then I’ll deal with it," Rain said. "I won’t let anything happen to you."

"You promise?" she asked.

Rain froze. It was such a simple question, yet she asked for what he could not give—at least not for long. He’d pulled her out of her situation to use her as a messenger, and yet he couldn’t even do that right...

"I promise," he lied.

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