The Demon Lord Is An Angel-Chapter 495: Deadbeat Devil
"Hello, son." Maledict didn’t look up from his lute as he hovered in the air in near-human form, his tail dangling below him and his posture relaxed. He was dressed in an open shirt of black silk and grey pants, both trimmed and embroidered with gold. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
"You are not my father," Kir said coldly, causing Maledict to miss a string with his claw.
"If I’m not your father, what does that make me?" he asked with a slow chuckle.
"Just some deadbeat who tried to exploit me. But I’m through with your games, and your wife’s."
"And here I thought you’d be happy we got back together. We’ll have plenty of time to get past all this exploitation nonsense... But I think you’re wrong, at least at this moment."
"I don’t have time for this." Kir tried to teleport his way out of the bubble, aiming for the highest cloud he could see, but was blocked at the edge. He punched into the barrier, trying to undo it with an arm so enhanced it could leave an imprint in steel. But the moment it impacted, Kir’s arm disintegrated, forcing Kir to create a new one as Maledict laughed.
"I don’t hate you trying to show off... I guess we have that in common, my son. But be careful of your pride, Kir Satanos..."
Kir paused, then turned, letting his form settle into the one he’d had when he killed Kainur and inherited the name of the demonic Duke. "I take back what I said," Kir said.
"I’m touched!" Maledict made his instrument disappear as he held a hand over his heart. "Finally ready to acknowledge your dear old dad?"
"The only thing I’m going to acknowledge is what you are. A distraction," Kir bared his teeth as he added wings of fire to his war form.
"Well, you’re not wrong, son-
Maledict was cut off by Kir teleporting before him with a punch to the face.
The enhanced blow landed, but stopped just centimeters from Maledict’s smug grin, mired in mana so thick and black in aura that it felt like trying to punch through mud. His fist slowed enough that Maledict was able to teleport to the other side of the sphere.
"A nice trick. The center of the universe is everywhere to mana... I really must thank your mother for teaching me that."
"She’s not my mother!" Kir said, his voice booming as he enhanced it.
Maledict was unfazed. "She would cry to hear you say that. What happened to the curious boy who bound himself to find her? The one I approached the night my oath to her ended?"
"He saw what was more important than blood," Kir snarled.
"You mean this world? With all its evils and oppressions and delusions?" Maledict scoffed.
"I mean my family!" Kir launched a fully powered nova blast at Maledict, sustaining it as he drew it along the enclosure to chase Maledict away from where it first proved it could pierce the bubble. But the moment Kir tried to teleport out, he found himself held back by the same wall of force.
"When I found out you killed Kainur, I thought you might have finally seen the reality of what the world is! That you had finally come around to realizing what you were born to do!"
"And what is that?" Kir challenged as he filled the air with bolts of pure, invisible force, only for Maledict’s aura to absorb their impacts with barely a ripple.
"Rule. Lead our people to greatness. Don’t you see? With every fragment of Heaven that falls, the old order is wiped away. All it will take is one nation, one dynasty, to raise demonkind to the greatness it deserves! The angels had their chance, but they were too comfortable. Too indolent to realize it until your uncle came along... and what he meant for the worlds pushed your mother to my side."
While Maledict spoke, Kir tried attack after attack, varying his strikes with a degree of power that would have destroyed a city. But no matter what he tried, it all seemed to either break against Maledict’s barrier or slow to uselessness as he flitted around, matching Kir’s attacks with his own ability to teleport.
He didn’t attack, but he didn’t have to.
"And what is it you intend?" Kir spat as he tried to fill the bubble with true fire, only for Maledict to counter with a burst of water that turned instantly to steam.
Before Kir could try to dispel the steam, Maledict’s voice spoke from behind him. "A world..." Kir reacted quickly, lashing backward with an elbow strike that caught only air. "...where everyone is either a demon who prospers..." Kir fired off a spell in the direction of Maledict’s voice. "... or an angel who serves beneath us."
Kir pushed out from himself with a mana burst that cleared the air, revealing Maledict right in front of him.
"You’re just replacing their tyranny with your own, then?" Kir locked eyes with Maledict.
"Until the day comes when I find out if the good ones can become demons," Maledict shrugged. "I’ve seen a few half-angels do it... when I turned two cities’ worth of people into our kind."
"You’re a monster," Kir said, readying his next attack, a series of invisible mana blades that were dissolved by Maledict’s corrosive aura.
"Runs in the family," Maledict replied. "We’re all monsters here, son. That’s what it means to have power. I’m the monster my people need, and your mother’s the monster the world needs... it just so happens we’re a perfect fit for each other."
Kir was taken aback. "Are you mad? Why does the world need this?!" he gestured at the destruction raging around them so thickly that Chainsfree was no longer visible.
Maledict’s face became serious. "You mean the Creator didn’t tell you?"
"He told me a lot, but we were in a hurry to stop this."
Maledict shook his head. "Stop this? Why would they want to stop this?" Maledict’s arms expanded in a wide gesture. "They need this to escape the universe they created! That’s what your mother foresaw!"
"You’re lying!" Kir shouted.
Maledict sighed. "I’m not lying, son... but I can see the truth is something I’ll have to beat into you." At that moment, a pulse of mana pushed Kir back as Maledict made his first strike. A cluster of black-purple energy tore towards Kir, chasing him around the bubble as he dodged and fired his own spells to counter them, only to come face to face with Maledict as the Devil of Heresy sent a beam of destructive light forth from the palms of his hands.
Kir met the beam with his shields, which bought him a precious moment to fire his own power against Maledict’s magic, turning the fight into a contest of attrition that neither could afford to lose...
"The apocalypse was going to happen anyway!" Maledict shouted over the sounds of their colliding energies. "Your mother started it when she put that other mind inside you. All so she could preserve and rebuild the worlds once that being is gone... And by giving my heart to her, I am a part of that future. You can be a part of that future, too, son. All you have to do is show her you’re willing to help. We can be a family!"
A wave of mana carried with it images from Maledict’s thoughts. Kir as a child, learning to fly from Maledict over a city in Hell that showed green amidst and above its blackened stone.
Aeleas, teaching magic to Kir as a child as his first spell became a tiny, illusory flock of white birds flying above his hands.
Kir standing centered amidst a court of demons as Leviathan shook hands with Maledict, his gaze falling on the taciturn visage of Amarena as an alliance of Wrath and Heresy was sealed.
But nowhere in those thoughts were the people Kir actually knew. They were a different life, and yet Kir could feel that to Maledict those illusions felt real. They weren’t manifestations of imagination but something different...
Yet still, they were not, and could never be true.
"No, Maledict, I can’t be a part of this. I know who my real family is, and it’s not you or Aeleas." Kir straightened and tried to think through what he would do next. He closed his eyes. "I disown you."
As Maledict’s face contorted with spite and he lashed at Kir verbally, Kir shut him out, keeping up the flow of mana as their two spells continued to collide, and just... felt.
Something had felt off when he tried to re-enter the real world, but he’d only just realized that Maledict admitted that his heart, his soulstone, was with Aeleas...
Maledict’s rant came to a head. "I came all this way to knock some sense into you, and this is how-"
"Shut up." Kir pushed so much magic into his spell that it overwhelmed Maledict’s beam in an instant and tore through the illusion behind it. "You’re not even here."
