The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 455: Going Home

Chapter 455: Going Home

"Going... home?" Kir asked, realizing that what he’d thought was a mere anomaly could only be one thing...

"What do you mean home?" Kiryu raised his voice.

"I mean that Earth is not gone. It’s still there. Where we are, time is practically frozen on their side compared to us. A necessary thing I imposed on this reality to help move things along to a point where life could thrive."

"Are you saying you control time?" Kiryu asked.

"I was able to, yes. Until life appeared, the presence of other observers anchored things somewhat, so I could only do the same within the dungeon, which used to be part of a space station until the Recreationists made their power play. Nearly broke everything, they did..."

Luda shook his head, "I think things slowed down around... Four hundred million years after Genesis." He shrugged. "By my estimate, it’s been... 1,531,215,311 Earth years. Give or take a few minutes. A little over one billion five hundred million in Ayther years. And I kind of cheated on the iron content, heheh."

Kir’s mouth dropped. This universe was practically a baby.

"Took me a few hundred million years to make my own biologicals. Ayther was something of a passion project, before, well, people."

"Couldn’t you have stopped them?" Kir asked. "The ones who broke things?"

Luda shrugged. "Everything got really unpredictable when I made the first prophets. I went a bit overboard on quantity before they pruned themselves down. All those contesting futures... I barely managed to set the limit at two before the station got separated from me. Courtesy of, well, the first Aiko clone. I hope the original isn’t too mad at us if we make it back..."

"If?" Kiryu asked.

"Nothing’s certain. I think we’ll come out alright. Maybe even keep our magic. Worst case scenario, we get discorporated and have to watch the world through some poor kid’s eyes." Luda cast a bemused gaze at Kir.

"How did Kiryu get in my head?" Kir asked.

"Hmm... let me tell you a little story. About an angel. She was distressed. She couldn’t see into the future very far - because that particular ability is inevitably tied to me. So instead she looked into the past, through her brother. They saw back to the prior prophets. Even talked to them a little. Back and back and back... until they found a prophet who knew why they couldn’t see past this final Heavenswar."

Luda sipped from his teacup, which never emptied.

"The prophet, of course, was me. My plans for departure. And finally, after more than a hundred generations, Heaven didn’t matter to one angel anymore. Reaching me did. So she did. Through hard training and holding back her own evolutions, as well as learning from the greatest mage of this era, your father, she formed a party with mortals, including one giantess you’re familiar with, acquired one of my hall passes, and fought her way here. All while pregnant, mind you. Congratulations, by the way."

"Wh-what?!" Kir blinked, surprised by the implication.

"That Amarena is powerful in more ways than one," Luda chuckled. "Give her my regards. And this." They waved a hand and a clear box of crystal appeared, filled with a suit similar to the one Kir wore, only edged in purple, and a pair of complementary boots.

I’m pregnant... what the f-

"I knew too, Kid," Kiryu said. "But I wasn’t about to move in or anything like that."

"The fact that you are evolving while pregnant will make her rather powerful," Luda said. "That was how I discovered how to make the metatron. A faction of mortals, calling themselves Evolvers, sought to overcome their human limits. They got what they wanted, in a sense, and after Fenris grew up, they got that and more." He sipped, then continued.

"Angels, demons, beastkin... all of them descend from Fenris’ actions. The first demons evolved to explore and terraform the environs of Hell. The first angels wished to extend their lives to safeguard Ayther, once they fell in with the Recreationists. Elves, orcs and the like came from the Fantasists."

It was a lot to take in, but just from those names Kir could infer a lot about the factions-

"You’re almost right," Luda chuckled. "The Evolvers wished to overcome the legacy of Earth, in form and culture. By expanding humanity at the biological level, they figured they would also expand what it meant to be human.

The Recreationists wanted the opposite, to do what humanity had but better. So they copied Earth’s cultures and even religions, the latter of which didn’t really last long. You were the one who set the rules, Kiryu, and it made centralized religion more of an afterthought. But even so, they came to hate their fellows, especially the Evolvers.

As for the Fantasists, well... they started out wanting to explore magic, but their drive to stay close to human form led to some interesting contradictions. All the factions had the backing of some metatrons, but when the Fantasists gained a fourth, it tipped the balance. And then Apophis well..." they looked at Amida sadly. "But we’ve gotten off track." They sipped their tea.

"Your mother stole Kiryu from me, after pushing herself to discover the one thing that would delay my departure from this universe. A chance that Kiryu would come to love life again."

"But how did she do it?" Kiryu asked, hiding a bit of a blush as he coughed into his hand.

"Hmm... let me show you a little something." Luda waved a hand, and suddenly the kugelblitz filled the air above them, appearing fast enough that the light had no time to blind them. Luda snapped their fingers and something changed. Perhaps the angle or the distance, but within the clear space between black and white were little clouds of blue.

"What am I looking at?" Kiryu asked.

"People. Minds and souls. Bodies, after a fashion, the ones that managed to stick together best over the last half-billion years. If you count red mist as a body." They looked at Kir. "Your mother and I got close. Friendship, after a fashion. I showed her this, and she used that to extract Kiryu when I was focused on the future." Luda sighed and looked at Kiryu. "I’ll admit she did what I couldn’t. Every time I tried to give you a body, you killed yourself."

"I don’t remember any of that," Kiryu interrupted.

"Of course not. Every time it happened, I reset you to that moment when victory was in your hands. Resetting you any further felt too wrong, and you deserved to know that you’d avenged me."

"I couldn’t delete any of that and remake it, and without those triumphs and failures, you wouldn’t be the Kiryu I still loved... Whenever I looked into the future of you death was always the result... and worse if I prevented it. You’d always assume I was lying about Earth because I can’t show it to you. And you’d never believe my prescience." They chuckled ruefully. "Always the scientist..."

"What happens to these... souls, when you’re gone? What will happen to this universe?" Kir asked.

"Nothing. These souls will either evaporate or work their way out over time. It took only a few of them to get the Recreationists up and going. After what the Recreationists did, I’ve been stalling them. Most of them are from the AIDAEB station and Luna anyway, so I’ve spent a few hundred million years torturing the, ah, people you wanted dead, Kiryu. Most of them have evaporated and the rest are insane. So there’s that."

Luda tapped their fingers on their wrist before returning their attention to Kir. "With what you should be concerned about after your mother and uncle pass, there will be no more prophets. At least... not any that can see more than a few seconds ahead or behind. There are plenty of mavens and a handful of mages like that like that already. Your mother will be able to look ahead maybe one last time, but your Uncle will keep most of his ability. After all, even I can’t change the past." They looked up, giggling. "Oh, but she might... Like a mighty river..."

Kir was about to ask who when Luda waved him off.

"She won’t be born for over a thousand years. And as for the universe... magic might get a little rarified in... oh, thirteen billion years? After that it’ll sort of come and go in waves for most places, but it’ll always exist fully around Ayther, so plenty of time to get some exploring in, Sport."

Kir’s eyebrow twitched. He’d just gotten Kiryu to stop with that nonsense.

Luda winked at him, and Kir felt for a moment like he knew why Kiryu liked them. A little annoying, but also charming.

"But now is the time for us to discuss travel arrangements. I assume you want to stay here?" They lifted a hand to Kir.

"Yes," Kir replied. "This is my home, and even if I’ll miss Kiryu a little, now that he has a world to return to..."

"Don’t count on missing him yet," Luda chuckled. "Somewhere, deep in your subconscious, is a full mental imprint of the man. Warts and all."

"Hey!" Kiryu scowled. "Just don’t start calling yourself ’Kid’, Kid."

Luda shook their head. "And you, my daughter, who I owe so much better to?"

"I want to stay here too," Amida said. "With Kir."

"You can say the rest. We’ve all had hard times before," Luda encouraged her.

An angry look surged onto Amida’s face. "I don’t want anything from you, ever again. I just want to be left in peace, and Kir’s promised me that."

"I also promise never to use you like Heaven did," Kir said.

"I-It’s fine if you occasionally need mana. That much I can do." Amida blushed, then spoke in a tiny voice, "It’s not like I’m using it..."

"Thank you," Kir said, and Amida hid her face in her knees.

"And you, Kiryu?" Luda held out a hand.

Kiryu stood, taking the offered hand. "You already know my answer."

"I know, but I had to ask." Luda chuckled. "For once, I’m glad my foresight turned out to be true."

"Thank you for everything, Kiryu," Kir said.

"Just live that good life I always wanted, Kir." Kiryu smiled.

Kiryu and Luda kissed before Kiryu moved to stand beside them. "Now, there’s little time left for things to work out the way your mother wants," Luda said. "So I’ll help you a few ways before we depart."

They turned to Amida, "What form do you want?"

"The one I came here in."

"I will always love you," Luda said. With a snap of their fingers, it was so. At Luda’s gesture, Kir picked up Amida and placed her in his storage.

"Now what else... hmm..." Reaching into the air, Luda plucked out Kangetsu, and a string of weapons extracted themselves to merge with the blade which grew much heavier as a result. "Every hero needs a sword, no? I’ll just make a few adjustments and..."

All over Kangetsu, familiar-looking lines of what looked like code gates sprang into existence before shrinking down and disappearing into the kiralloy. From a distance, they looked like tiny scratches all along the dark blue metal, and something new appeared on the hilt. A dial, with a little red arrow set to the farthest leftward rotation, joined its point with another little red arrow. Opposite to that was a matching purple one.

"That should help with the weight... and more besides," they swung the sword once, adjusted the dial, and swung it again, producing a heavier whoosh the second time. They turned the dial back and flipped the sword to Kir, who caught it by the handle. Kangetsu felt so light...

"Thank you," Kir said, experimenting a little with the dial and finding it could make Kangetsu much heavier.

"Don’t thank me just yet. And hold onto Kangetsu. This last part is where it gets tricky. If you want to stand any chance against your mother, you’ve got to finish evolving. Don’t worry, Kid, I’ll make sure you land safe."

"What do you-"

Suddenly Luda wasn’t standing amidst their loved ones but right in front of Kir, palm out, striking him on the forehead.

Kir had a momentary sensation of floating. He saw Luda holding his body as they lowered him into a swirling, starry void.

Panicking, he tried to swim forward, only for Luda to grab him by the wrist and toss him into a different void that formed behind Kir.

The last thought Kir had at the moment before the world shrank away was...

"I didn’t even get to say goodbye."

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