The Demon Lord Is An Angel-Chapter 506: No Escape

The dark angel barely began to raise her hand when Owyn put on a burst of speed that took him away from the strangers and their turf.

Holy crap, was that really an angel?

As he charged through an alleyway, a weird, black, purple-glowing eye-thing appeared in front of him, and he instinctively punched it, shattering it into motes.

The fuck was that?!

Owyn continued his sprint, occasionally looking behind him to find that the one-winged angel was hovering along as she searched for him. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry, and so he tried to change things up by dodging into alleyways and down random streets, startling smallfolk everywhere as he ran barefoot with only his calluses to protect him.

When he realized the angel was following him using the disturbances in the crowds, he decided to take a risk. Grabbing a trio of flowerpots off a windowsill, the next time he ran across a street, he tossed them downhill, drawing startled cries, before he ran the opposite direction. A block later, he looked behind him, and a smile crossed his face as he realized the angel had taken the bait.

He was in the clear- SHIT!

Walking out of a building in front of him was a blue-haired man and a lavender-haired girl, and he wasn’t going to be able to stop in time-

"Oopf!" Owyn felt himself curl around his gut as if he’d just been struck by a boulder. As he fell backward, he saw the blue-haired man in a fighting stance, his palm flat in the air from where he’d instantly reacted to Owyn’s approach.

How strong is he?! Owyn wondered before hitting the ground butt-first before bowling over himself and rolling downhill for a turn before he unfurled enough to hit the back of his head on the pavement. White pain flashed and stars burst in Owyn’s eyes as he heard them run up to him.

"Shit, Dad, did you kill him?"

"He’s alive," the man responded. "You alright?"

"I’m fine," the girl responded, "but... wait..."

Owyn’s vision came into focus as he found the girl leaning over him. She was quite fetching in an exotic sort of way, for a smallfolk, and then he noticed that she had horns and cat-slitted eyes.

"You’re the giant from the kaiju attack!" she said.

"A-a demon?!" Owyn refrained from backing away. Demons meant trouble, not least because they were a favored race of the Empire. But the Empire didn’t venture this far north... Unless he wasn’t in the north anymore?

"You know this kid?" the blue-haired man asked.

"I’m not a kid," Owyn protested, but the girl overspoke him.

"He was caught up in the kaiju attack. Father took him to the hospital-"

"What on Ayther is a kaiju?" Owyn tried to stand as his legs wobbled.

"You don’t know what a kaiju is? It’s the thing that ate you-"

"Arc, step away," the man suddenly ordered. "I just called your mother."

When did he? Was he a mage?

The girl looked incredulous as she was pushed behind the man. "What-?" A fluttering sound silenced the girl, and Owyn turned to find the one-winged angel landing right behind him. Before he could even think to run, an invisible force cinched around Owyn’s body, locking his arms and legs in place.

"Thank you for finding him, Rain," the dark angel said. "Sorry to disturb your walk, but I didn’t expect this one to run."

"Anytime, Malz," the blue-haired man leaned down and gave the woman a small peck on the cheek.

"I swear, I didn’t do anything!" Owyn yelped, only to feel some invisible force clamp down on his jaw, holding his mouth shut. He was still able to breath, but for a moment he went wide eyed as panic flashed across his face.

Locked in place, Owyn watched the purple-haired girl looking back and forth from the blue-haired man to her mother. They engaged in a brief but clearly familiar conversation, the subject quickly turning from Owyn to more mundane things. Something about an Academy, which rankled Owyn a little, as the only Academy he’d ever heard of was the Imperial Academy in Thera. Surely he hadn’t wound up that far away...

"Showing up early for the exam might leave a good impression," the black haired woman, Malz, said with a small shrug.

The purple demoness wasn’t paying attention because something just clicked for her. "You’re from outside the veil!" she said to Owyn.

"Unssd wwt?" Owyn tried to ask ’Outside what?’ before he remembered the barrier. The mysterious opaque dome that only allowed entry. His heart sank as he realized that there was no escape from this place. The girl seemed to read his facial expression from this realization as an affirmative, and a dangerous spark rose into her blue eyes.

"Arc, hush!" Malz warned the girl, looking around. "We aren’t completely sure and if he is, people aren’t supposed to know until the Council interviews him."

Okay... council. Sounds a bit like home, Owyn thought.

"But if he’s from outside, everyone has a right to know-" the girl argued.

"And they will, once the Council and your father determine he’s safe," Malz said. With her attention drawn to the girl, Owyn expected her grasp of his bonds to loosen a bit, but they remained beyond his ability to break even though he was trying to surge mana into his arms to do so. "So far, he’s like a panicking animal," she looked at him, and Owyn realized she knew what he was doing. There was a glow to her eyes that he’d only ever seen with Aban.

Manasight...

"Do you need help?" Rain asked.

"No, I’ll get him to the Council on my own," with a slicing motion of her hand, a hole opened up in the world, and on the other side of it was a well-lit hallway that curved gently to the left, the inner wall made up of the same strange, blue stone as the tower that rose high above the city. "In you go," she lifted Owyn with a magical gesture and shoved him with more strength than her petite body indicated she should have. He met the purple girl’s eyes one last time before he found himself in the cool, slightly dry hall where he was unceremoniously deposited on his feet.

"I’m going to let you loose now," the angel said. "I would advise against trying to escape from here, since it’s a long, long way down."

Without a word or gesture, the forces holding Owyn’s body disappeared. Looking to the right, he approached the window and felt a surge of vertigo as he realized that they were high, high in the air- higher than bird flight and the cloudline that obscured parts of the city below.

He gulped, and hoped by all the spirits, gods, and even the Demon Lord herself that this Council was nice.

*

Elsewhere in the building, Kir sat before the desk of the most politically powerful woman in the city.

"You’re playing nice, Imogen," Kir said as he eyed the Chancellor of the Academy. He was loosely holding the cup of wine she’d offered him. "You only offer me a drink when you want something from me."

"I suppose I’ve grown predictable," she chuckled good-naturedly. "Much as I hate to admit it, the powers that be in this city prefer I woo them with wine from before the Veil. That cup alone is worth a gold." She sipped her own glass and sat back. An elven woman and mage well past her core-forming stage, she only appeared to be in her thirties despite being over two centuries old. Kir had done a lot to help her get to that point with her magic. "You would know if you attended the Council meetings more."

"I still want to keep my distance from politics," Kir said with a note of finality.

"Your very existence is political. The Society is doing its best not to rely on you, per your wishes, but it’s more difficult with every year we spend trapped. You’re the most powerful mage in history and this city’s greatest defender, to say nothing of all the advances you’ve made for the sake of our burgeoning population..."

"Imogen, please get to the point. My daughter’s Academy test is today, and I aim to be there. Otherwise, I would have let the Dragon Knights and Amarena deal with the kaiju."

"Arcine, yes? I wish her the best start." She sighed, "I need to call in that favor, much as I know it’s irksome to do so on the same day I received it..."

Kir leaned back in his seat. "Does this have to do with the outsider the kaiju brought in?"

Imogen shook her head. "I keep forgetting how connected you are to the Secretary of Health."

"No icrys, no match to anyone’s blood data. That means he’s either managed to live outside the system, or he’s from outside. And considering he was inside the kaiju..." Kir shrugged; he’d had a bit of back and forth with Malz over their mental link since dropping off the giant at the hospital. Even while she was sending her reports to the Council.

"What I want doesn’t involve the outsider. We have our largest crop of students this year... but there have been whispers that one or more of them might be infiltrating on behalf of the group that killed my predecessor." A sad look crossed her face at the memory of Lumin.

"New Heaven..." Kir suppressed a scowl. "Are you asking me to teach again? Is this some ploy to raise up more Archons?"

"Our options are limited. But no, I wasn’t planning on having you teach. That would alert New Heaven to our suspicions, and if they know where you are most of the time, they might start taking more dangerous chances elsewhere." She reached into her desk and pulled out a small folder, passing it to Kir.

After a few moments of reading, Kir said, "You can’t be serious."

"Deadly serious. This could be the key to dismantling New Heaven. You promised me a favor, and this is the least violent way I’ve come up with to track down Vinam, which I know you want."

"Fine," Kir said. "But you know I won’t hide this from my family."

"I am fine with the adult members of your constellation knowing, but only them," Imogen extended her hand. "You’re the only one with enough mana control to pull this off... But if you need to unseal in order to save lives, I trust you to make that decision, alright?"

Kir suppressed the urge to grumble as he reached for it. With how he affected reality, a promise from him was an Oath, and while he could break his promise to Imogen, it was better in the long run to meet her demands, since she was essentially the one running the city so he didn’t have to.

"Let’s begin," Kir said as his arm glowed, acknowledging the commencement of his Oath.