Chapter 573: Thus Time Marches On

A Summary To The Conclusion of The Demon Lord is an Angel - Renegade

After confronting Michelle, the case against the old foe’s daughter was all but decided. Arc chose to speak to Margaret directly, the latter unveiling the depths to which the girl had descended in her quest to have her mother freed, even sacrificing her own dragon to avoid the consequences of her quest. But during the final confrontation, Margaret attacked Arc, only to be stopped by Michelle, who had been paroled once it was made clear she no longer wished to fight the House of Stars and Kir. Though she still hated them, she was permitted to live free on the edge of the Veil, along with Michelle, who was expelled from the Academy.

Jeviel, however, was not happy with this arrangement, for Michelle had been his agent once. He sent assassins for the two, and while they succeeded in killing Michelle, who sacrificed herself to save Margaret, the latter escaped, only to be captured by an advance party of scouting giants sent in by Aban. She agreed to help them in exchange for protection from the army they anticipated would invade, assuming the assassins had been sent by the House of Stars.

At the Academy, a series of drug-related incidents involving students seeking to artificially grow their mana were under investigation. Over the course of the next year, Owyn eventually grew suspicious of his roommate, Rikael, after spotting the angelkin with several suspicious individuals, including Dromi, the demonkin recruited by Jeviel for his schemes. His awakening draconic emotions brought him anger at Rikael for bringing trouble close to Arc, and he descended on them during another meeting; an attack that resulted in the death of Dromi and three other students - all members of the Academy Chapter of the Voice of Mana.

Because the House of Stars had adopted Owyn, Arc’s family took custody of him while the case was resolved. It was then that Rikael would reveal his true identity - as a construct created by Kir to investigate Jeviel’s schemes within the Academy. He had been close to acquiring irrefutable evidence of the connection between the Voice of Mana and the drugs being trafficked to students, but Owyn’s interference had sent both into a form of lockdown that likely severed whatever ties there were. No longer having a purpose, he revealed that he would take the fall for Owyn’s interference, not being a real person, but Arc sensed something of her dead brother Moon in him, and insisted to her father that he be freed to live his own life. The entire House of Stars was called to decide, and unanimously they agreed - after some argument - to allow it.

Jeviel’s schemes, however, came to fruition. Able to leverage the "targeting" of the Voice of Mana, he incited a series of religious riots whose purpose was ultimately to topple Chancellor Imogen and replace her in her dual roles as leader of the Academy and Norneau - an act that would give him power over Kir, whose self-imposed bindings would force him to obey. In a narrow vote, Imogen was deposed, and a new election was declared. When Stella, in a surprise move, entered the race as the most viable candidate to oppose Jeviel, she was unsuccessful. Jeviel had long laid the groundwork for reviving anti-demon prejudice, and all it took was a few murders in Little Hell to inflame them. He came to power and began to introduce religious curriculum into the Academy while at the same time promising to turn Norneau into a "New Heaven for all," though the reality of it was reflected in his management of the Academy, which placed angels and angelkin - especially a newly pardoned Atikka - above others.

Though glad to have her sister back, Arc and Atikka rarely saw eye-to-eye. Atikka was convinced Jeviel had only her best interests at heart, and, what’s more, was connected to him the same way that Dromi had been connected to the network of Jeviel’s agents - albeit only him, because of his desire to control her as the "Child of Mana" he had his followers foretold. It was then that Atikka revealed the truth to Arc about her lack of powers - long ago, it was Arc who stopped Moon’s rampage when the core of the Archangel Vinam had been placed into the metallic child. Arc had her powers even then, but the nature of a metatron is to be both maven and mage, and while Arc had been a poor mage compared to Atikka, her mavenry allowed her to temporarily sever the connection between Vinam and his stolen body, while Atikka used a forbidden technique to steal the mana from Arc’s gate, allowing her to shatter the core of the Archangel she’d once called friend. It was this act that caused an explosion, which saw a fragment lodged into her. And at the end of it, Arc’s mana gate was too damaged to allow her to use it directly. The trauma of the incident likewise saw Arc attempt to end her own life several times, until, in a final, desperate turn, Kir sealed the memory of it from her mind and lied about the events of that night. As the one responsible for the event that saw hundreds dead, Attika was sentenced to be imprisoned by her own family. But unbeknownst to them, the shard lodged in Attika gave her a line to the outside world through Jeviel, who had been present during the confrontation and arranged for Vinam’s core to be stored by the city, which allowed him to easily steal it.

Outside the Veil, Aban met with the leaders of the Imperial Church’s Army, which was led by a minor goddess named Ylfri. Ylfri was a fanatical believer in Aelias, and she humbled the giantkin, forcing him to use his giants to herd waves of kaiju into the city. Ironically, this had the effect of tempering Jeviel’s abuses of Kir’s power, as the former sought to exhaust the latter’s nigh-limitless supply of mana in banal, often symbolic tasks - further depriving the citizens of Norneau of work. Because of the Veil, the kaiju attacks were staggered far more than Aban expected, easing the task of dispatching them. But everything would come to a head on the night the 25th year of Norneau’s encasement came about - the same night Owyn chose to reveal to Arc that he had communicated with the outside, straining their relationship.

Without warning, the Veil fell, and the Dungeon at the core of the city poured forth monsters once more. Though this time the city was prepared for the incursion within, from without, the largest herding of kaiju arranged by Aban was allowed to invade all at once. Arc fled the Academy for the House of Stars, releasing Owyn and joining the fight against the kaiju. Meanwhile, Attika was given the task of rallying the various cults into taking over the city, which caused numerous confrontations and went beyond her ability to control. She began to spiral out, and viciously destroyed a force of city Knights who confronted her in the name of Amarena, her mother As the devastation continued, Jeviel forced Kir from the fight and into the underground of the city, in order to activate the array he’d spent two decades building - one that would lift the entire hemisphere of stone once contained by the Veil into the sky, and Norneau along with it.

This was enough to finally drain Kir to a level where Jeviel sought to alter the nature of his bindings, removing the restrictions that kept him from simply ordering the metatron to kill his loved ones. But what he had not anticipated was that Kir had a way to break his own contract. In a final acceptance of what was, to him, an ultimate fate long delayed, Kir completed the merging of his consciousness with that of his constellation, uniting the House of Stars in the same way that Kordia, Sin, and Lapins were united. Forevermore, they would be one and many. A single being, separated across many aspects. Easily, they dispatched Jeviel and took control of the array, fixing it and allowing Norneau a respite from the Kaiju and the army outside its borders.

Outside of this conflict, Margaret was taken to Aban, the two joining forces as Aban used her in an assassination campaign that would put him closer to Ylfri - including one Simone Petra - the better to learn the secret to attaining godhood. The sudden flight of Norneau made invading the city harder, but not impossible, and Ylfri came to welcome Aban’s advice. Before the new invasion could begin, however, Kir appeared before the army to negotiate. It was during this time that Attika, at the bottom of her spiral, seized control of all who had been infected by shards and dust from Vinam’s core, attempting to destroy the city and take everything with her. Forced to act against her, Arc wielded her power at a near-suicidal level to sever every thread of connection between Vinam’s core and its victims, including Attika - though this would only be a temporary solution. But before Attika could re-establish the connections and drain the victims of their mana for a final strike, all of the House of Stars came together to remove the shard and its influence, an act that left Attika in a coma. While the rest left to purge the city of the Vinam shards once and for all, Kir revealed to Arc the true nature of her own power. Its uses and ability to let her borrow from those she connected to - though in what ways, he could not be sure. Only time and exploring her abilities would give Arc something like the power she once had.

With the negotiation with Ylfri failing on account of Aban’s advice and the former’s desire to forestall the death of Aeleas by slaying the one prophesied to kill her, the House of Stars moved to veil the city from the world with a massive spell. One that they could collectively maintain only so long as they remained within Norneau’s borders. It was decided then to seek allies in the so-called Demon Continent, and Arc, Raven, Owyn, Rikael, and Snow were selected for this task as the House of Stars took on the role of leading Norneau in full as a benevolent tyranny - which they had never wanted to do.