The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 77: Interlude: Brigit and Darlae

Chapter 77: Interlude: Brigit and Darlae

"It’s a ruin." Darlae climbed up on top of a dirty pile of stone, peering around.

"I’m aware of that, honey, the question is why is it a ruin?"

"I’m more curious about why the walls are intact. It’s like they didn’t want anyone messing around with... this," Darlae gestured at the piles of broken, half-grown-over buildings. The crushed wastes of what had once been a castle town. More of a small city.

Brigit joined her atop the hill, planting a hand on her wife’s back. "If the warning we got at the last town is any indication..."

"One woman can’t just destroy a whole city, can she? Surely she had to have help at least," Darlae argued, kicking an errant brick. It clattered into another half-exposed wall before dropping into a muddy divot.

On their journey, they’d switched to faster means now that Kir was safely tucked away at the Academy. A pair of fast raptors waited outside the walls for them, tied to the twisted metal of a steel portcullis that had burst outward from its gate.

"If she had an angel helping her, sure, but none of the witnesses said otherwise. I think we should believe them. Halie destroyed this entire city... alone. The question is why. And what happened to Kir’s mother..." Brigit said. She looked around, her eyes tracing the low hills that were once houses.

"The timeline matches up though. Halie was here just over a year after I adopted Kir," Brigit bit her thumb.

According to the witnesses, the giant woman had simply appeared one day. And then, as if she were everywhere, she’d begun the destruction of the city. Most confirmed that she’d first appeared before the healer’s hospice, near one of the city gates. It was impossible to identify any structure now aside from the mound that was the castle.

Her attacks drove the citizens south, in the middle of winter, and every challenger who tried to stop her was killed where they stood. Yet as vicious as the sudden attack had been, surprisingly few civilians died. Halie made no effort to stop the evacuees, preferring to methodically destroy every structure as she worked her way around the city.

The one thing she said was to the marquis and his entourage when he tried to talk her down after losing most of his soldiers.

She’s said ’There shall be no city here while I live,’ and then ignored the man as she destroyed his castle.

Naturally, following the attack, a massive bounty had been set on Halie’s head. Every assassin, bounty hunter, and opportunist that tried to claim it died, at least according to the Adventurer’s Guild representative Darlae had spoken to before they decided to come here.

One of the former guards who’d become an adventurer told Brigit and Darlae Halie had used powerful weapons: crystal lances imbued with red feathers. It was the red feathers that caught their attention.

Darlae sighed, she’d been somewhat against coming here but hadn’t protested very hard. "I knew this would be a waste of time," she said. "We should have gone straight to Aaru."

Another thing they’d learned from the Adventurer’s Guild was that Halie was apparently in good standing, having taken to delving the Duat in Aaru. Given this city had been one that kicked out adventurers, mercenaries, and nomads during winter, Darlae suspected there was more than a little petty vengeance keeping her in good standing. And if she was in Aaru, that was neutral territory as far as the world was concerned.

"Not so," Brigit argued back. "I can see there’s plenty of mana sources hiding in places. Maybe enough to get us to Botany Harbor in one go... or Nyandor. I heard the Adventurer’s Guild sponsored a teleportation circle there after a dungeon opened up~" She started to brush her hand along Darlae’s well-muscled arm. "You wanna go to Nyandor? See the cat people?" she teased.

Darlae quivered at the touch and blushed, looking down at her wife, "You just want me to dig. Why don’t you just blow it all away?"

"Because who knows what could be around here. Some of it might be sensitive to explosions," Brigit replied. "Come on... I’ll hire some catkin cuddlers. They might even let you pet them."

"Catkin cuddlers isn’t a real job! You can’t trick me," Darlae said. But she’d already unpacked the folding shovel from their pack and held it ready in her hands.

"I’ll make it real," Brigit shrugged. "Witch’s honor."

Darlae grumbled for a moment but then started digging at random with the promise "You’re so going to regret it if you’re lying!"

"Don’t threaten me with a good time," Brigit shot back. It was something she’d heard Kir say once when he was being particularly sassy and she threatened to send him to his room. "There’s nothing there by the way. You’ll want to start at that mound," she pointed.

"I’ll start with your mound..." Darlae grumbled as she swapped dig sites.

Hours and hours later, for Darlae’s efforts, they turned up a handful of low-grade mana crystals, the bottom half of a broken sword that had been enchanted for durability, a handful of aged and likely now-poisonous potions, and one set of fragments for what may have once been a soulstone-grade mana crystal, but were now barely magical purplish shards.

As Brigit bent to inspect the crystals, Darlae asked, "So... have we got enough to get us to Nyandor?"

"If I charge the intact crystals and find a blacksmith to turn that sword into a dagger... we can afford to ride and take a ferry," she sighed. "We might have to find work in Nyandor to afford ailing into Golda Lun."

"That won’t be a problem! It’s about time I dusted off my old Adventurers Guild badge, hehe." Darlae preened.

"Uh huh. And when was the last time you paid your license fee?" Brigit looked at her flatly.

Darlae quirked an eyebrow, "I don’t know. One... hundred years ago? They still let us in the door, remember?"

"It was two hundred years ago! After the last Heavenswar! Right before I went to found a town and you went off to do whatever it is you did! They only let us in the door because they thought we were prospects! Do you even remember the clerk asking if we wanted to join?" Brigit fumed. "I asked her in front of you if you were still on the roster and she said they only keep records for a century at a time!"

"Huh. I thought you were just flirting with her. It was kind of cute," Darlae smiled nervously, scratching at the back of her head.

"Being nice isn’t flirting! I have half a mind to-"

"Quiet-" Suddenly Darlae crouched into a ready position, one hand going to the massive, metal-capped quarterstaff that was her weapon of choice.

After a moment of silence, they both confirmed that a sound was coming from nearby.

Darlae stepped towards it, cautious to maintain her stance, before calling out "Is someone there?"

There was no answer.

The sounds were getting closer. A shadow appeared, humanoid, stepping closer as whoever it was neared the hillock of rubble. A foot appeared. Darlae raised her staff. And then-

From out of the rubble, a man walked.

The first thing both couples noticed was that on his arm was a basket, filled with metal scraps and other barely valuable detritus. It was on his arm because he was missing his right hand, and as he started with surprise at Darlae’s hostile stance, it became clear he was also missing his tongue.

Darlae lowered her guard and the man relaxed.

Brigit approached and asked, "Excuse us, but are you from here?"

He turned his head, holding up his left hand as best he could to his other ear. Apparently, he was hard of hearing too. When Brigit asked again he nodded. The way he didn’t make a sound told her he hadn’t used his voice in a long, long while.

Reaching for a stick in the basket, he knelt down and started scratching in the dirt. "Home."

"Do you know what happened?" Darlae asked.

The man looked up, pinching his fingers together with a pleading look in his eyes. From his emaciated frame and haggard appearance, he needed the silver that Brigit gave him.

He wrote three words. "Demon Breaker Halie."

"Do you know why?" Brigit asked.

The look in the man’s eyes changed. His eyes filled with watery shame, and before Brigit or Darlae could stop him, he dropped everything - even his basket with the two silver inside - and fled into the ruins.

"Shit, we can’t just let him go," Brigit said. The man was faster than his withered state implied.

The two started chasing, only to find that the man had stopped around two blocks away, past a small maze of rubble. He was staring at an almost flat place, one kept clear of weeds, dirt, and debris, yet with so much debris piled outside it, it was hard to see from any angle but the one he’d approached from. His clothes were drenched in sweat despite how short the run had been.

When the couple looked, they saw the man’s answer.

Roughly carved into the foundation stones were words left by Demon Breaker Halie.

A curse upon this land.

A curse upon the angels.

You tore her wings.

I will not forget.

Brigit turned to the man. From her pocket she pulled a feather, crimson in hue. One of Kir’s that had fallen out in their wagon, before they traded the wagon for their raptors.

"Do you recognize this?" she asked. "Did a woman ever come through here, with wings this color? Do you know where she is?"

The man’s face blanched and he shook his head rapidly from side to side. When he had answered, his gaze returned to the feather.

A sound croaked in the back of his throat, turning into the same pattern of the non-words his mouth could make. Brigit put the feather away. She tried to comfort the man, but he knelt on the ground and wouldn’t budge. Repeating the same thing over and over again with his ruined voice.

Realizing they likely wouldn’t get any further answers, Brigit and Darlae left him with a few extra coins for his trouble and left the ruined city.

It was as they passed through the gate that Darlae asked, "What do you think he was trying to say?"

Brigit sighed. "If I had to guess... he was trying to say ’I’m sorry.’"

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