The Demon Lord Is An Angel-Chapter 396: Last Rites

After a long, sleepless night, Kir found himself in need of some privacy as he sorted out his thoughts. Near the camp was a river and so, uncaring for his nudity, Kir left his tent and flew over to it. He alighted on a large, flat boulder and sat, letting his clawed toes dangle in the water and shivering as the cold went up his spine.

After a few breathes to empty his mind, Kir felt ready.

He tried sending a ping Kiryu’s way, but when he got no response, he decided to summon his other half the way Kiryu liked.

Taking out his kiseru, Kir tapped the chamber clear before checking the draft hole and cleaning it with magic. He withdrew the finest - if not the most expensive - glass phial of smokeleaf from his storage and spent a few mindful moments refining the grind to the consistency Kiryu liked. Then, carefully, he packed the chamber once more, holding the bowl by its heel before forming a bit of fire on his thumb as he lit the packed tobacco.

A taste like cherries and sandalwood filled Kir’s mouth as the smoke made its way to his lungs, along with a slight cooling sensation that was only a quarter as powerful as menthol - at least by Kiryu’s judgment.

"Good choice, kid," Kiryu seemed to half-sigh as he came to the forefront of Kir’s mind. "Thought you might want to never hear from me again, considering after today I’ll be deleted."

"I’d never end things like that," Kir replied. "You’re my grumpy best friend."

"Best friend, huh? Thought you’d keep that status for someone who deserves it." Kiryu mocked, but Kir could feel his other half’s satisfaction from the smoke in his lungs, along with a sense of being flattered.

"I’m not about to rate my lovers against each other, and Moshui’s more like... Ugh, I hate to think it, but she’s kindof like my kid now."

"Our kid, considering half the crap you taught her came from me," Kiryu joked. "Only she doesn’t know I exist."

"I promise you, after all this is over, I’ll make sure people know you for what you did to help Ayther."

"Don’t hide the truth on my behalf, kid. I destroyed Earth. I must’ve died doing it because I know nothing about what came after except what I’ve seen through your eyes. I want to be remembered for all of it. For being a bastard..."

The words went unsaid, but Kir sensed them. So you don’t end up like me.

"If that is your wish, then I’ll do my best," Kir sighed, then inhaled another draft of smoke.

For a long time, they sat together in silence, with only the babbling of the river to speak for the world and the quiet inhaling and exhaling of Kir’s smoke-laden breaths. Yet Kir couldn’t help but wonder why, near the end of his existence, Kiryu continued to keep him at arm’s length - his mind and feelings shuttered except for what he allowed to leak out.

Upon having this thought, he felt something stir in Kiryu. But instead of an explanation, what his other side said was, "Kid I..." A complex swirl of emotions followed. Thoughts of Kir, his loves, his father and his mother. Thoughts of Earth and Ayther. The dream of a world that would not die, choking on the frailty of its mortals. But underneath was a sense of something true he wanted to say. "... I want you to know, if we never speak again after you evolve, that you were always better than me."

Kir felt that it wasn’t the truth Kiryu had wanted to say, but if this was his end, Kir would let him keep his secrets. He wouldn’t spoil things with a fight, after years of working together.

"Let’s not waste time," Kiryu said, drawing Kir’s attention to the bond, where one-by-one, his bond mates were waking up. "Thanks for the last smoke."

A sharp sense of distress came to him from Kordia. Something tinged with thoughts of Silver, but at this distance, he couldn’t tell much; except that it was affecting the others.

As soon as Kir was in range, he heard Kordia’s mind pleading. "Kir, please. I need to go to her now. Silver is..." A flash of memory, deep wounds and blood. A land aflame. Dragon fire.

"We haven’t built a glideway yet," Kir panicked, unsure of what he could do short of trying to ad-hoc a constant use of Soundspeed, which would certainly break his body. And with Mount Morens clearly off-limits now, they hadn’t even come up with a new site.

"Please..." Kordia pleaded. Kir was the only person she knew who could make the impossible possible.

A long sigh passed into the bond just before Kir landed, embracing Kordia.

"I can do it," Kiryu said, to Kir alone.

"What are you saying, Kiryu?" Kir asked, hiding his communication from the others.

"I can give you the revised Einstein-Rosenbridge equation. And with your magic hoo-ha, you should be able to open a wormhole to someplace you’ve been to before. Or someplace you can see."

"The Gra’ Rhuel landing field..." Kir replied. It had been his one trip to Gra’ Rhuel - on board an airship at Kiryu’s insistence - to inspect the landing area and make sure it was up to specifications. Doing so would put them just to the southeast of Gra’ Rhuel’s capital.

"Give me five minutes," Kir said through the bond, "Kiryu has a solution." Closing his eyes, Kir continued to hug Kordia as he heard and felt the knowledge Kiryu had sliding into place, closing some of the gaps in Kir’s past-life knowledge. The magic cost would be enormous until he fully internalized an understanding, but from what he learned... frёewebηovel.cѳm

A bit more than five minutes after he went silent, Kir returned to echoed feelings of concern - and wariness from Amarena. "Trust me," he said, before closing his eyes again. He focused on the memory of a place. On the northern mountains he’d seen by airship, the sense of unending forests, broken up only by rivers and the odd settlement. On the airfield, its long strip of land resting just to the west of a river, and the small village that had grown up around its construction to handle the cargo that would be delivered.

Magically, the sense of place settled in, and he connected it to the here and now.

With a snap of his fingers, Kir opened a portal. "It’s the Gra’ Rhuel landing field. Go quickly, I can only keep it open for a few seconds."

Kordia and Kasin jumped through without hesitation. "Lapins, come on," Kordia called back.

"What about my nation?" She said through the bond, but her thoughts were on Mercy.

"We still have the draft constitution. Rena can deliver it," Kir said, before pushing Lapins through the portal just as it started to close. "Trust your people" he added, before the bond between them became nothing more than a distant line.

As soon as the portal closed, Kir dropped to one knee.

"Can’t be doing more of those," he said out loud to Amarena. Looking up, he saw the tiny speckles of light that were the shards of Heaven, chasing behind the moon of Hell like teardrops.

"Come on, let’s get this done. Then I’ll see about playing delivery girl while Char keeps everything together," she grunted, pulling him up and walking him over to the command tent.

It took Kir almost two hours to fully regenerate his mana, just from one portal. By then, he’d had a final talk with Char and Amarena - answering some of Char’s new questions and telling Amarena to deliver Moshui, Encke, and Halie to Norneau. Hopefully, without a Heaven to report to, the angels there would leave them be. Against the physical cataclysm that was coming, it was the safest place to physically be that he knew, given how much he’d worked with Lumin to upgrade its defenses.

Even if those defenses would be like tissue paper in the face of even one impact on the far side of the planet...

Too soon, the time came for him to set aside his worries and evolve.

With Char and Amarena to guard him, Kir sat in the chair of his command tent as he placed the fulcrum on his lap. As before, a triangular design lit up - one different from the one he’d used at Lumin’s residence.

The feeling this time was far, far different.

Every nerve in his body lit up with pain.

A searing sense of torturous agony - more like his mind and body were being torn from each other as something slid into place between them.

Such was his agony that he didn’t feel himself screaming in the real world.

Didn’t feel the small yet complex discs of gold that had welded themselves to his forehead, forming a down-pointing triangle.

He tasted none of the blood that passed down his face and into his mouth.

All he knew was pain.

And the final thought before everything went black was a sense of deep regret.

I should have checked the fulcrum...

He knew as the world went black, that it had to have been a trap all along.

"Sorry, kid."