Chapter 574: Thus Time Marches On - Part 2

The Demon Lord Is An Angel - Pantheon

As the five newly minted emissaries flew away, Aban was brought to the Imperial Capital of Amduat in the Armedon Archipelago. There, in the city of fallen angels, he learned the fate of the angelic race was one of penitent servitude beneath the Goddess Aeleas and her Pantheon. He revealed his nature as a reborn human of Earth, offering technology and knowledge, but much of his offer was laughed off by the Pantheon members in attendance. He was not the first reborn, and his technology was hardly needed. Having seen Kir, and recognized his murderer, Kiryu Nasumi, in him, Aban’s desperation for godhood drove him to bargain in every way he could for the power to become a god, but he failed to convince the Pantheon as a whole to accept him. Ylfri, however, revealed that she too had been a reincarnator, the only one of the Pantheon, and a former guard for the facility where they were both killed. She too saw "Kiryu" as a threat and offered to give Aban what he needed, and so the latter’s training began.

Arriving at the Demon Continent of Reath, Arc and the others discovered that a city on the edge of the civilization had recently been depopulated. During their investigation, the demonkin Cem Tidal appeared before them, offering his music and services as a guide. He would come to explain that the demonkin had come to resent the ways in which life on Ayther had "softened" them. The majority faction, led by their present Emperor, had discovered a means of recreating the ancient, natural rifts that once connected Ayther to its moon, Sanctuary - formerly Hell - and were engaged in the effort of recolonizing it in the hopes of reclaiming their ancient heritage. However, they were being met with fierce resistance from those who now claimed the moon as their home, descendants of those left behind during the final Heavenswar, millennia ago, including many metatron whose superior magic strength factored heavily against the Demon Empire’s invasion, though a use of magic that had diverged greatly from Ayther’s, relying heavily on instinct as a result of the deadly fauna that had spread life throughout the once-volcanic moon.

One result of this invasion was the introduction of an invasive species of mycelium from the moon, which was choking the life from the farmland of the inner continent, threatening the entire civilization from within. Cem offered to help get them an audience with the Emperor, if they would help find a solution to the situation with Sanctuary. Together they flew to the capital, Arc growing increasingly suspicious of Cem as the bard began to train Owyn. Owyn, meanwhile, took to bardic magic under Cem far better than under the training of Arc’s grandmothers, rapidly advancing his skills.

When they arrived, Cem, true to his word, arranged a meeting and Arc placed the Emperor in contact with her family, who were outside the treaty placed on the continent by the Demon Lord Aeleas, which forbade any Imperial intervention in their affairs - especially that of gods, and thus could offer aid. Kir’s condition for ending the threat of the mycelium, however, was the immediate withdrawal of the Demon Empire’s invasion of the moon and a permanent treaty - sealed in magic - with the indigenous peoples. While the Emperor and magistrates deliberated, offhand comments by Cem led Arc to finally confront the bard, who hinted only that he knew her father before severing the thread of bond between them and disappearing, but not before Arc could steal a single memory of the fight that sent her family into Norneau, during the Apocalypse. When confronted about this, Kir told the emissaries the full, true story of himself and those whose lives he’d joined to. But he did not reveal Cem Tidal’s identity, though he hinted at knowing. Shortly thereafter, the Emissaries were summoned to the court where the Emperor expressed that he would accept their offer, only to be assassinated moments later in front of everyone as the military and merchant factions made their bid for control.

Together they fought off the attempt in the court, saving the Emperor’s daughter, who Snow had grown close to, and forestalling the coup with the help of Cem, who reappeared, taking the Emperor’s form and seizing control of the situation through a little bardic magic as he manipulated the crowd gathered outside the palace. In private, he would reveal himself to be Maledict, now older and far wiser - and calmer, in his opinion - than he had been in the past. He expressed that he hadn’t ruled his Empire for generations, and had only gone seeking Kir’s help when it was clear that the demons were well on the path to virtually recreating the Heavenswar. His plan was to rule for a few months until he could turn over the empire to his many-times great-granddaughter, and he confessed to knowing when Norneau would be freed. Though Maledict did not think it wise, Arc convinced him to speak to Kir, and while the conversation was terse, they agreed to meet "where Aeleas is" and settle things.

Learning that her father meant to kill her grandmother left Arc in a depressed state, one that did not lift even when Maledict asked the Emissaries to meet with the delegates of Sanctuary, on the moon. She was sent through the portal along with the Princess to a city in the process of dismantling, one where certain factions were causing trouble by refusing to depart, arguing that the Demon Empire deserved a victory worthy of the blood spilled. Arc refused to engage with this conflict, even after an attack on the Emissaries, electing instead to simply fly to their final destination and the negotiations to take place. There, Raven made the argument to allow some of the colonists to stay, provided they assimilate into the local culture. The Demon Empire’s representatives refused to agree to this, despite the native approval, because part of their coming-of-age rites involved testing themselves against the local wildlife, and few modern demons had enough speed of magic to survive such an ordeal. The situation threatened to devolve until the Princess revealed herself, vowing to undergo the rite to earn those who wished to stay the chance to choose for themselves. Arc also decided to undergo the trial with her, curious about the local metatron, who held themselves sequestered from the majority of the population.

As Arc and the Princess underwent the rite, Attika was given the chance to repent for her actions. To confess her involvement with Jeviel’s plots and the degree to which she had been influenced by the shard of Vinam. Unable to let go of her hatred for her family imprisoning her, she challenged them to destroy her, lest she find a way to reap her revenge against them. Amarena was the most affected by this passionate declaration, and so took it upon herself to punish her daughter with exactly the power she had sought. With godsblood and powerful magic, they gave Attika the apex form of a metatron, turning her into a being of pure magic, as they offered her the chance to kill her mother. In the battle that followed, Amarena fought only half-heartedly until Attika provoked her into using her full power. Thus, she easily defeated Attika, only to let go of her strength at the very end. Sensing an opportunity, Attika stabbed her in the back, the final proof her family needed that she was unwilling to change. That she did not recognize the ways in which her family had protected her. That she had been pulled too far astray by first Vinam and then Jeviel, before the temptation of her own power filled the void left by the two dead angels. Once more, she was sentenced to imprisonment. But this time, the House of Stars ensured that she would be confined to the core of her being. Alive and thinking, but unable to act. Thus sealed, they placed her back in her library room and resolved to mourn as a family.

On Sanctuary, Arc felt the sealing of her sister in the sudden loss of the thread that bound them, though she could not identify this at the time. For the trial, she and the Princess were tasked with making their way through the wilderness to the metatron village, located where the ancient capital of Pandemonium once stood. They were confronted by many monsters on the way, and Arc learned to control her mavenry more keenly, borrowing power from her connections to Owyn, Raven, Snow, and Rikael despite the distance, and using their magics to see her and the Princess through. The Princess, meanwhile, gained in speed what she’d always lacked in power, taking to heart the few lessons they were given by the locals, who doubted her survival and Arc’s. Hers because of her royal upbringing, Arc’s because there were no mavens amongst the Sanctans, such having not survived the millenia of the moon’s recovery from the Apocalypse.

Arriving at the metatron’s village, they found it to be a vast, sprawling maze of a former city, only the center of which was inhabited. The metatron sequestered themselves this way so that their vast power would not be abused by living amongst those they could easily overpower, and while wise and powerful, Arc found they were rather weak compared to her father. Still, they held secrets Kir never knew, like how to repair Arc’s broken gate. Arc desired this greatly, begging to undergo the necessary procedure, and so she was sent within herself, tethered by her connections and the magic of a circle of 126 metatron - virtually the entire tribe. After confronting her personal demons and deciding who she was, Arc was able to restore her gate, gaining access to magecraft and the use of her wings. Thus, the metatron sent her and the Princess back through a portal, and they celebrated their newly proven adulthoods as the treaty was signed.

Aban, however, was not idle as the year passed. Incensed by the escape of Norneau, he trained viciously, applying every scrap of knowledge he could from his former life to discovering a way to isolate the very concept of death into knowledge - for only there did he think that he would find a way to kill Kir. Eventually, Ylfri revealed that the only god to accomplish this in the past - the only god Aeleas had executed herself - did so by cutting all of his ties and embodying the concept so firmly that only the Goddess Over All could end him, and then only when he confronted her in a bid for her throne. In a night of blood, Aban returned to his tribe and slaughtered most of them, Ylfri rewarding him with the godhood he sought by using her own blood to elevate him, stating that he was close to becoming what he sought, the embodiment of death.