The Demon Lord Is An Angel-Chapter 484: At The End
For a moment, there was shock.
Everyone felt keenly those things that had wanted to do. The choices they’d wanted to make. But this last day had been too fast for any of them to do more than tread water.
Bridgit was looking at the city the moment the mana of both Maledict and Aelias disappeared in a single, flickering instant. At first, she wondered if they’d started fighting, but as they failed to reappear, she saw that the only ones fighting were the defenders of Chainsfree against the Syndicate. And with the entirety of their warriors returned from the wall, the former finally made headway in a near-visible wave through the city.
When no one spoke up, Brigit turned and addressed everyone.
"Alright... I’m sure you’re all curious as to why I’ve gathered you all here..."
The cacophony was instantaneous.
"You did this?" "What the Hell are you talking about?" "What’s going on?" "Bridgit what the fuck?! Wrong time!"
The last came from Darlae, who came to stand next to her wife as Bridgit raised her hands in surrender. "Gods, it’s just something Kir said a lot as a kid. I thought it would help since he seems to be the major connection for most of us. To start with, does anyone have any idea what Kir’s mother meant when she said we ’Have what we need’?"
*
As others launched into either admitting their ignorance or theorizing, Ferro looked at the bay. A lone ship was making its way past the harbor, and he recognized the Queen of Iron. As he watched, a trio of ships unmoored themselves as well, trying to make way as their crew darted about like ants from this distance. He said a silent prayer of thanks that Val had listened to him before someone, the tall man with blue hair and black skin veined with gold, raised his voice.
"Before I came to this city, I promised to perform a mission for Aelias. For it, I must be in Aaru." He took a deep breath, "I’m going to kill Vinam Victoriam. A... leader in Heaven. Kir’s uncle."
As everyone else reacted, Ferro noticed the way Malz clung to the man’s arm. It made Ferro feel a little jealous. She’d put away her wings and was being embraced from behind by the blonde angel girl, all of them had serious looks on their faces.
Those must be Cassiel and Rainier, he thought. He was happy for Malz being reunited with her loves, but a part of him felt saddened, thinking the connection they’d made would be ending soon.
"Hey," a quiet voice said. Anko. "Sorry, I, uh, fought your sister. She was trying to kill us, and I sort of... got caught up in the moment."
But Val had survived. He could forgive Anko for scarring him because he knew that if she’d been fighting Val seriously, she wouldn’t have resorted to using her claws. Ferro took a deep breath. "I forgive you," he said.
"I won’t do it again, I promise," Anko added.
*
Malz was having trouble staying in the moment. She might have put her wings away, but the intoxicating sense of her own magic had expanded her senses such that she still heard the sounds of battle amidst the winds coming off the cocoon of mana surrounding Kir.
She saw every rock and tree and battle between foes below as if she were standing a few measures from them.
Sensed the weak mana of a small group making their way towards Chainsfree, their hands covered in blood, but a certain muted joy coming out in the way they spoke to each other.
And she felt when mana flickered above the crystal tower, and the visage of Aelias appeared, speaking into the minds of all, even as her voice pierced through all other sounds.
"Children of the Triune Worlds... Of what was Heaven. Of what shall be born of Hell. Of what has always been Ayther... I am Aelias. Angel. Mother of the Apocalypse... Endmother."
"You may wonder at the cause of this tribulation. Know that it was I who set the wheels in motion. I who began the destruction of Heaven. I who set the sky itself to falter and the demons of Hell to walk amongst you."
"And it is I who offers you mercy." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
A sudden bloom of mana began at the top of the crystal tower, just as streaks of light crisscrossed in the sky, disappearing over the horizon. Except for one, which landed beyond the sea and caused a second sun to appear as the air fled from it.
"Each tower of crystal is a shelter. What they encompass will not be destroyed."
A bubble began to form, encompassing Chainsfree and its harbor, spreading until it paused just at the edge of the cliff where the group stood.
Having stood the furthest out from everyone, Bridgit and Darlae found themselves on the inside, but the moment they tried to return to everyone...
"When the earth has settled. When the skies have calmed. All may enter, but none shall leave."
*
Amarena knew what those streaks in the sky meant. Her body tensed in anticipation of the first shockwave, the pulse on the ocean preceding it as it consumed any ship unfortunate enough to still be beyond the city... "We need shelter. Now!" She flashed to the wall and checked it, but it refused to let her pass. Of course it would... it needs to be solid to stop what’s coming...
The shell of mana encompassing Kir had been pushed out as well, and it hovered below them.
*
"In exchange for your lives, those who shelter shall bow."
"NO!" Ferro shouted as he saw the Queen of Iron consumed by the first wave of destruction. He fell to his knees, holding himself as he sobbed uncontrollably.
"I’ve killed her..." he spoke as he stared at where the ship had been. In trying to save her... in warning her away... He had...
A scream tore itself from his throat. A soul-rending cry against the fate he’d been given. The fate he’d been fooled into thinking he could change the outcome. And Valera had paid for it.
*
The moment the big demoness jumped for the weird egg-cloud that Kir was in, followed by the one Anko was sure was a succubus. As Rainier tested the barrier before nodding to the others to follow, Anko wrapped her arms around Ferro. The half angel gave one sorrowful look at them before falling.
He struggled against her, pushing at her upper arms, his claws failing to get through the sleeves of her suit. "Leave me! I killed her! I don’t want-"
"I’m not leaving you, Ferro! We’re family!" She started crying too, pushing aside the pain when his fist found her face.
"Put me down! Let me go!"
He continued to struggle even as she ran with him off the cliff, watching the others disappear into the void at the heart of the storm until she too disappeared.
*
And when the last dome fell into place...
When the mountains crumbled and the seas burst into steam...
When monsters and beasts and men died in their uncounted multitudes...
Or fled towards the nearest towers, hoping to survive...
Then a silence fell upon all those who had been saved. Those who, from rooftops and mountains and fields of grass, found themselves still as the world fell apart outside.
Encased, as if in bell jars of unbreakable glass.
Eight stars fell to the ground that day.
They cracked the world and tore forests from their beds.
They cast upward a cloud of death and destruction that consumed the world as it came back down.
Waves of water crashed outward from their impacts, scouring many lands down to the bedrock.
From the north came a flood of ice and saltwater across Areth. From the east, a tsumani that carved a channel past Chainsfree and deep into Armedon just as it flooded the plains of Retha from the west.
For Thera and much of Diurnus, the death to come would be slower.
But on this day, the last day of the Heavenfall, the figure of Aelias stood above it all.
She removed her mask for all the world to see.
To gaze upon her terrible beauty and know the face of their destroyer.
Golden eyes pierced through all who gazed upon them. A grim countenance regarded all as if they were mere insects. A cruel, slight smile seemed to take joy in their shared suffering, just as in almost every major city, those who knew the Endmother wept tears of joy for her ascension. Their silent worship held aloft as one hand enclosing a fist.
And then the illusion flickered, and they beheld Aelias upon her throne.
At her feet was Maledict, bound in chains, his chest gaping from a round wound black with blood that dripped onto a floor made of stars. An impossible place, shown to the world.
His heartstone rested in Aelias’ hand, a deep black, which pulsed from within.
"I am Aelias. Angel... and the final Demon Lord."
