The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 63: Sealed

Chapter 63: Sealed

Kir awoke to the sound of gentle strumming.

He was lying on a table, and his head throbbed fiercely under his horns.

He had been... what had he been doing?

Opening his eyes as he sat up, he felt a burning, constant pain in his ears, a migraine-like ache in his brain, and soreness and pain everywhere on his body. A body, he noted, that was more than half-naked and black and blue all over.

Groaning, he tried to stand, and immediately regretted it.

Fortunately, Rain was there to catch him when he fell.

"What happened?" Kir asked, looking up into the eyes of the blue-haired half-angel who swept him off his feet before putting him back on the table.

As he lay there, Kir looked to the source of the strumming and saw the familiar face of Lucifer the bard with a quirk to his lips that spoke of a not-unhappy interest in the proceedings at hand.

Before Rainier or Kordia could speak, Lucifer cleared his throat loudly, continuing to strum. "What happened was an epic battle in the heart of the city... between a mysterious demonkin and the infamous Demon Breaker..." His hand fell, striking discordant notes. "And I missed it." He let out an exasperated sigh.

"Demon Breaker?" Kir asked... then he remembered.

"Halie Thunmont... the Demon Breaker," Kordia said, sounding nervous. Her three tails, with their platinum-colored fur and red tips, nervously twitched behind her.

Halie, her fists punching him through portals. The javelins with angel feathers in them... feathers that made him feel... resonant, somehow.

He remembered she said she’d taken the wing from his mother... torn from her back...

"Where is she?" he demanded in a low voice, tinged with murderous intent.

"She’s gone, Kir," Rainier said.

"Where?" he asked.

"We don’t know," Kordia answered. "And that adventurer won’t let us leave."

"Adventurer?" Kir looked around.

"That would be me, aha," Lucifer said with a little wave. In the palm of his hand was a silver Guild badge with blue in the physical slots and yellow in the magical ones. It disappeared with a flick of his wrist. "A duty I was not expecting, but one I will fulfill. It would not do to get on the bad side of the local hero and the Demon Breaker after all, my dear compatriot."

"Do you know this guy?" Rain asked.

"We shared a cell while waiting to enter the city," Kir replied, in no mood for amusing the bard.

"Lucifer the Bard, at your service," Lucifer introduced himself to them.

"Which one?" Kordia asked - which reflected how common the name was amongst demonkin.

"The one before you," he said wittily. "Now, while we wait for my esteemed colleagues and adventuring betters, would you mind regaling me with an account of your combat with the Demon Breaker? Your handsomely angelic friend wasn’t exactly..." he twirled a wrist as he tried to come up with a word, before settling on "...verbose with his eyewitness testimony."

"What does that mean?" Rain asked Kordia.

"It means we didn’t say shit," Kordia answered, glaring at the bard. "Because we were told not to."

Kir’s migraine made him disinclined to go into a detailed account, but the pain in his ears was what was drawing his attention as he tried to figure out why his head hurt so much.

Silently he reached up to his right ear, touching along the lobe until he felt something hard clink against his claw-like nail. His eyes widened as he felt another piercing just above it, the realization that what he was touching was metal.

A touch along his other ear confirmed that there were two piercings there as well, and panic arose in Kir as he realized where the true source of his migraine lay...

Metal stabbed into the body was a potent disruptor of mana... And Kir had long ago trained himself to circulate his mana as naturally as he breathed.

Realizing where his attention was, Kordia spoke.

"Kir... after the fight, Halie... she sealed you. Those piercings are the same kind used on criminal mages."

Kir felt a surge of anger. He extended his claws and tried to dig out one of the piercings, not caring if he was about to-

A sudden shock sent him rigid, unable to do anything but scream for the five seconds it took the spell to end. The worst part was that he felt as if his own mana was boiling his head.

How he stayed conscious through it, he had no idea, but he wound up sweating and panting, curling up on his side as he clutched the edge of the octagonal table with one hand while his tail did the same to the other side. The hand clutching at his ear was held in place by the rictus of pain flowing through him.

Everyone in the room winced and grimaced. Rain reached for Kir, holding him steady and pulling his hand away from his ear.

Kir felt something warm along his cheek. As Rain took his hand away, Kir finally felt the burning, stinging sensation in his eyes. He struggled to breathe, trying to blink away what he thought were tears until he noticed how thick the substance felt.

He looked down at the table and saw red. The tears had been blood.

"Kir! Kir!" Kordia and Rain’s voices finally reached him. They both moved to hold his arms and keep him from trying to remove the piercings again. Had he been able to speak, he would have told them he wasn’t going to try again, but his throat felt raw and dry. He settled into a fit of coughing the doors opened and three people entered.

The first two he recognized from his evaluation-turned-duel with the Demon Breaker.

Luthien and Dahlia were elves, the former with silvery hair and a clever face while the latter had brown hair, round glasses, and a stern disposition. They shared some features because Luthien was Dalia’s grandfather.

The diminutive woman standing between them was a bigger concern to Kir.

Chancellor Lumis was a white-haired, chocolate-skinned woman who rose only to the height of Kir’s abs when he was standing. Her presence here, outside the Norneau Academy of Magic, was unexpected and sent a spike of worry into Kir as he focused on her eyes.

He’d always seen her with a look of bemused patience, but the look in her eyes now was diamond-hard and unreadable.

"Step away," she ordered Kordia and Rain, and they parted from Kir with some reluctance.

As soon as they did, Lumis slapped a hand onto Kir’s forehead.

His pain disappeared as he felt Lumis’ mana flow into him, seizing on his mana and forcing it to slow. It was uncomfortable, and his body very much wanted to reject the intrusion, but he was so exhausted underneath the pain that he couldn’t bring himself to resist. After a handful of uncomfortable moments, she released him.

"I’ve done what I could," she said, holding Kir’s gaze. "Now, I’ve already spoken with the guild, but you and I need to have a conversation."

Kir nodded weakly. He could feel his mana circulating but it was a weaker flow, entirely internal. Whatever Lumis had done had also drained his reserves, but the migraine was gone. The pains in his body had likewise been reduced to his bruises and the throbbing from his recently pierced ears.

Ever the optimist, now that Kir seemed alright, Rainier asked the Guild representatives, "So, uh... Did we pass?"

Kir and Kordia facepalmed.

Dahlia’s jaw dropped, and Luthien looked to his granddaughter.

"I’ll get their paperwork..." she said. "I’ll need to speak to the Guild Maester about their badges."

Before she could turn to leave, Chancellor Lumis called out, "Bring the paperwork to me. I’ll have it returned to you if it becomes necessary. And tell Maester Graz I will speak to him soon."

Dahlia seemed all too eager to leave the room, which she did with quick steps clipped only by her knee-length skirt.

"I’m guessing I’m in trouble," Kir said, finally finding his voice again.

"You have no idea," Chancellor Lumis said. "I had thought, being Brigit and Darlae’s child, that you would have managed at least a month before getting into serious trouble... but it seems your genius is matched only by your ability to attract trouble." She crossed her arms.

"Before we return to the campus, why don’t you tell me if there’s any reason, in particular, that the Demon Breaker would leave her exile and travel across the world just to pick a fight with you? And worse, to seal your magic so thoroughly even I cannot break you free of those accursed things?"

By the way she was glaring at Kir, it seemed obvious she suspected him of something. The problem was...

"I have no idea. I don’t even know how she found out about me," Kir admitted.

Lumis cast an angry look at Luthien. "The Guild has an answer for the latter. Halie has had a long-term commission with the Guild to report anyone by the name of Kir to the Guild in Aaru for the last two years. You, by all appearances, tripped an old trap when you tried to sign up. One that the Demon Breaker was very willing to expend vast resources on, since teleportation magic requires at least a soulstone-grade mana crystal for a mavin of her size."

"I don’t understand... how did she find out at all?" Kir asked.

Luthien cleared his throat. "That would, ah, be Dahlia’s fault... any new registrants are checked against several lists when they apply. Your name was in the registry of "Inform on Contact" commissions, and when she sent your name to Aaru by scrive pen, the response she got within moments was to wait before testing. She had no idea following the commission would bring the Demon Breaker herself down on you."

He sounded apologetic, and as weak as he felt now, Kir didn’t have it within him to be angry at Dahlia.

"So what happens now?" Kir asked, forcing himself to sit up.

"Now we scrape you off this table and put you in your dorm for the week. The Guild has agreed to deal with the city officials, but you are a student of the Academy and thus your disposition concerning the Academy is mine to dictate," Lumis answered. "Count yourself lucky you aren’t going to prison for destruction of property."

Kir certainly didn’t feel lucky.

At least not until Kordia and Rain helped him up to a shaky, well-supported stand.

As they left the building, which was surrounded by people staring at the destruction of the testing ground, he counted himself lucky to be alive and in the arms of his lovers as they loaded into the waiting air cab with the Chancellor and departed.