The Demon Lord Is An Angel-Chapter 466: From Hell’s Heart

Kordia looked upon the face of the monster that had appeared from nowhere before the city. There was something strangely familiar about it. Below, alarm bells began to ring and the people outside the city began to flee towards the walls. The guards who had been keeping them back from the demons turned their efforts to evacuating as many people as they could into the city.

"Terry, take the girls to the Academy and rally every capable mage," Lumin said before she opened the door and leaped out of the air carriage. A large flash of light and a surge of mana preceded the Chancellor’s flight towards the giant.

As colorful bursts began to fire off from the city’s defenders, Kordia watched as the gargantuan creature moved, turning and shielding itself from the barrage of spells that fizzled against its skin like sparks against a wall. It brought its shoulder to bear, almost as if...

"Lapins, Sin, I think we should help. Something seems off about this."

At the front of the carriage, Terry’s plumage ruffled with irritation as he resumed their course towards the Academy.

"Reiko?" Sin asked. Lapins and Kordia both nodded, and one quick joining of the hands later, Reiko stood up in the carriage, her bodies at the still-open door.

"Wh-what about me?!" Akane stammered as Reiko leaped from the carriage, landing on barriers made of her shielding spell before she shifted Kordia into her fox form, bearing Sin and Lapins on Kordia’s back as she made for the outer wall.

As her minds synchronized, she saw Lumin finish her flight with a massive blade of light formed at the end of her staff. She swung it up and brought it down, only for the creature to suddenly disappear and reappear inside the outer wall, amidst one of the larger construction sites.

Lumin was already upon it, swinging a blade of light the size of a three-story house. The monster seemed just as surprised as the Chancellor when the blade parried against the armor of its forearm. Though the sword carved a burnt line in its armor, the plates of what looked like chitinous bone held.

For a moment, Reiko thought she saw people in its hand before it brought its other fist to bear in a punch that sent Lumin flying back a hundred measures as her shield shattered. The maneuver caused her tail to whip out, destroying more of the construction site and sending a few stories worth of stone and steel scattering.

From the beast’s hand, someone started shouting indistinctly.

Those people are in trouble, Reiko thought as she descended, weaving through the battle as Lumin and the beast resumed their fight. Forming her barriers into a spiral, she ran, letting gravity drop Lapins and Sin at just the right moment into the flat palm of the monster’s hand.

What she saw then was utterly confusing.

Demons and angels together. A strange wolf-thing cowering on the monster’s palm. A floating orb of shimmering silver that hurt to look at. And amidst them all-

"Ann? Keiya? What are you two doing here?" Reiko asked. One of the people, a human-looking man, suddenly looked insulted, but Reiko ignored him.

"Princess Lapins?!" Keiya exclaimed. "I thought you disappeared. How are you two talking like-"

"It’s a long story," Reiko said. "We’re here to help." In the air, Kordia used shields to spoil the monster’s attempts to swat Lumin away. The Chancellor managed to land a hit on its shoulder, sending a small cascade of blood flowing down its free arm.

"Then tell whoever’s attacking us to stop! Amarena’s just trying to protect us!"

Reiko paused. "That’s Amarena?! She’s huge! How did you even meet?"

"It’s a long story," Ann snapped. "Can you help us down so she can transform back?"

Forming a bubble of shielding, Reiko gathered the strange crowd together. Lapins formed the ball while Sin formed a stable floor for everyone to stand on. Getting to the ground safely was going to be tricky. For a few moments, Reiko tried to have Kordia close with Lumin, to tell her to stop fighting, but the Chancellor was flitting around too fast.

So instead she brought Kordia close, running down at an angle before rolling the entire ball of people onto the same barriers Kordia had used. For a moment, she almost lost the whole thing until Keiya pulled water out of the air to keep the ball guided and on the barriers as they rolled away from the fight.

They were just in time, too, as Amarena raised both of her arms to block a downward cleave by Lumin. Reiko recognized the moment the demoness realized her hands were both free as her eyes widened. And then a moment later, a massive crack split the air as Amarena disappeared.

Only she wasn’t gone; she’d returned to her normal size as she fell into the dust cloud surrounding the construction site. Or, well, normal for Amarena.

Reiko arrived first to find Amarena standing four measures tall with a deep purple glow coming from the mana crystal embedded in her chest and the horn on her forehead.

Kordia shifted out of her fox form as Amarena assumed a combat stance.

"Kordia?" Amarena called out as the others landed. Lapins released the shield bubble and everyone stumbled as Sin let the floor disappear a moment later. Amarena huffed a relieved breath. "New tails?

"Yes. You’re looking different yourself," Reiko noted as Lapins and Sin came up next to her.

Amarena shrugged. "I’m Leviathan now. How are you three talking like that?"

As Reiko opened her mouths, Lumin interrupted.

"Some advanced notice would have been preferred!" the Chancellor landed, dissipating her much-shrunken sword of magic as she floated to a stop. The way she glowed told Reiko she was definitely in the power range of millennium mages. It wasn’t a complete surprise, but it hit home how well Lumin could hide her strength. She landed with a huff. "Now, someone please tell me what the Hell is going on here."

"I have recently returned from Hell," Amarena said as the strange silver orb came to float next to her. "I have hopefully helped avert as much of this apocalypse as I can."

Lumin blinked rapidly, before regarding the crowd of demons and angels.

"All of you, with me. This is going to take a lot of time, and I’m not inclined to let any of you out of my sight until I get an explanation." Her voice brooked no protest as she turned and began to walk.

Reiko let herself separate, and the first thing Kordia did was give Amarena a hug. "It’s good to see you again. Is everyone else safe?"

Amarena blushed, probably because Kordia was entirely naked. Then she hung her head in regret. "I hope so," she said. "But Kordia... something happened to Kir that you should know..."

*

After following Lumin for several minutes, during which the dust cloud strangely seemed to follow them as Lumin seemed to wave it forward, they arrived at a building that seemed unusually well-fortified for an establishment calling itself the Horns and Tails.

The place looked like a miniature castle, and all Lumin had to do was snap a quick word at the demonkin waiting at the front before they were all let inside to a luxuriously appointed foyer. This was clearly a house of the night, yet there were various races of the myriad lounging about in various states of half-dress.

"What sort of city is this?" one of the angels asked disdainfully.

"The kind you’re going to have to adapt to quite quickly before it eats you, soldier," Lumin spat.

"You-"

"Lumes what the fuck?!" A matronly-looking woman appeared, one with familiar-looking pink hair and curvy proportions. "We agreed no angels!"

"No time, Stella. We’re using your basement."

"Stella?!" Amarena called up.

"Unholy Heaven, are you Amarena? Look at you, Big A!"

"I’m here too," Kordia pouted a bit.

"Heya Foxy. Hold up, I’ll join you in the basement. This had better be good."

Minutes later, they were all crammed into a largish second foyer, this one with leather and wood furniture and a stockade for some reason.

"Don’t touch anything," Lumin warned as Lugh started to sit.

"I keep a clean house, Lumes," Stella huffed. "At least in the mornings." She transformed into a succubus, her true form rather similar to the human one she used to hide, if a bit shorter. The density of her mana suggested she’d evolved since the last time she and Amarena met. "Now, I believe I was at ’What the actual fuck?!’"

"Calm yourself. I need an explanation as much as you," Lumin beckoned for people to clear a space in the center before gesturing Kordia forward.

It took half an hour to explain without answering interruptions. Hearing Kordia’s recounting of her adventure gave Amarena a newfound respect for the foxkin as a mage and a warrior, though Amarena noticed she left out the strangeness with which the three princesses had spoken with earlier.

Amarena figured she had her reasons, and so did not bring it up.

"At least Fruhe will get off my back now," Lumin grumbled at the end. "What about you, Leviathan?" The Chancellor addressed Amarena by her title.

As she was speaking, one of the doors at the back burst open and Kir’s mothers appeared.

"I told you she’d come here," Darlae said as she loomed behind her wife. From behind them, a blond girl slipped into the room.

Brigit scowled for a moment before raising her voice. "Lumin, we have an emergency."

The Chancellor let her hands fall against her hips. "What now?"

"Maledict is here."