The Lost Lord Ch. 21

Yet retreating wasn't so simple in the sky as it was on the ground. In the sky, you always want the wind to be in your favor, if you went against the wind, it is obvious what would happen next, a slower and easier target. Also, if you slowed down your flight in order to turn around and present your back to the enemy, you're just asking to be struck from behind. Also, flying backwards was extremely tough, while it was possible for any experienced flyer, you have to be aware where you're going and of the wind, which in this case was flowing from the city towards the attacking encampments. If you make a mistake when flying backwards, your wings will buckle under the wind pressure and you will begin to fall, though it isn't that dangerous because it is somewhat easy to regain your flight when falling. Still, because of the wind, retreating was much tougher than it should be.

Aureal, being experienced in flying tactics of angels and demons from her battles on the angelic side in the previous war between demons and angels, was given full command over the forces in the sky. It was quite common for a new commander to appear every now and then in demonic armies and thus the soldiers were fine with it, especially since it was a beautiful fallen angel girl, eye candy for the soldiers is always good for morale.

"Darn it! I wanted to do more for my fiancée, I can't do anything like that if I'm retreating!" Cried the white demoness, Nerissa.

In the sky, the attackers were extremely wary of Aureal and Nerissa. Aureal because she is a fallen angel and has access to light magic which is like a painful poison to demons. Nerissa because she is a rare white demoness which has access to reserves of potentially extreme power. Though it wasn't like they were attacked every now and then, yet any soldier who stood in the femme fatale duo's way was slaughtered mercilessly. Both girls had killed, Aureal more so than Nerissa, and both were accustomed to experiencing war and death.

Also, because of their semi-close nature, the two had acquired a slight understanding of each other, so that both could accommodate each other in combat. They both realized this, the fact that they were quite compatible with each other in combat. It would probably the same with Lauren if she was here now and she could fly.

"I know Mistress, I also want to do more for Master right now. But we can't do that if we die, let us retreat and fight some more when we are safe." Agreed Aureal.

At that moment, a flash of dark magic pierced the sky and raced towards their position. As both girls saw it before it arrived, they easily dodged the dark bolt and flew away. This dark bolt was very fast and much more dense than the other dark magic Aureal and Nerissa had witnessed throughout this battle.

"That... Is no normal dark magic, even for such a simple spell." Observed Nerissa.

Aureal nodded and then added, "I can only assume this belongs to the commanding officer of this flying force, Mistress."

The two girls slowly flew backwards, retreating while also watching their backs. Several seconds passed as more dark bolts sped towards the two. As if a gatling gun was going off, hundreds of dark bolts, which were drastically smaller than the first but almost as dense, entered the sky. It was a grimly beautiful sight, dark rain coupled with the gray and blue skies, a painter would sorely miss such a sight.

"I'll handle this, get behind me Mistress." Assured Aureal.

Nerissa nodded. As far as she knew, she had no definite ways to block such an onslaught, yet the Aureal and her light magic would surely have a way.

Her hopes were instantly confirmed as Aureal dropped her hammer (which floated next to Aureal), and clasped her hands together. As she moved the hands apart, Aureal created a brilliant shield of light, which forced everyone in the vicinity except for Aureal to pervert their eyes away from the brightness.

Aureal made sure that the intense light didn't touch Nerissa, in order to not cause her pain. The shield expanded to a diameter where Aureal's arms were no symmetrically off to the sides, it turned into a perfect circle that was more than enough to protect their bodies from the dark bolts.

All of the dark bolts that pervaded the skies finally made their ways to the two girls' position. While they were generally accurate, a decent amount of dark bolts missed their intended target and sped off to their sides. And the dark bolts that did reach their intended target charged at the shield of light. Yet the shield worked perfectly, as all the dark bolts splattered against the shield and rained down towards the ground, though not until they disintegrated into the sky.

"Hmmm, fairly impressive. You have some talent, fallen angel girl. You too, white demon girl, I'm impressed that you managed to tame the Old Age that my love gave away to that lowly wrath demon. It fits you much more than him." Professed a halcyon voice.

As Aureal released her magic, the two girls switched their gaze towards the voice's location. The voice belonged to a black demon, a succubus at that. Of the names of the commanders in Arazra's army that Nerissa and Aureal knew, only one matched the identity of a black demon succubus, Sasilith.

Sasilith was the first well known name to fall in with Arazra's plot. As the leader of the seventh district, she had supply to an entire army and resources of a tenth of the Land of Lust's vast wealth (which of course doesn't even come close to matching the wealth of the Gardens of Greed). Every district was important to the well being of the Land of Lust's general state of affairs, economy, politics, military, and etcetera. So when it was found out that not only did Arazra begin his plot to take over the Land of Lust, but his sister, Sasilith joined in, the Land of Lust had suffered a great loss. Yet now because of this war, four districts were now under Arazra's influence, which would be a tremendous loss if the other districts didn't do something. Which they couldn't, since they have no idea that this war is happening unless those messengers make their way to their destination.

Sasilith, while it wasn't well known, it was rumored among the higher ups of the social ladder that she joined out of love for her brother. And in the Land of Lust where practically nothing is taboo, incestuous relationships were not prohibited and neither where they frowned against. Still, such a relationship between to very prominent figures is extremely surprising. Though it was not known how well their relationship actually was, and how well Arazra was reciprocating Sasilith's love.

Sasilith continued her words, "I honestly admire such talent. What say you? Will you switch your allegiance from the false pretender towards under my command or my brother's rule?"

No she was not joking, that was what Nerissa thought first. Still, to offer such an impudent suggestion...

Before Nerissa could express her outrage, Aureal calmly replied first with a graceful voice, "We respectfully decline." Aureal turned to Nerissa and said apologetically, "While I apologize for speaking for you, Mistress, I am sure you will not be unhappy with my words."

Nerissa registered Aureal's words in her mind. Even though she considered Aureal a rival for Rainer's true love, she could honestly say that Aureal was a friend. Smiling, Nerissa looked straight at Aureal's eyes and nodded silently. It was as if the mistress was allowing her servant to speak for her, but it was obviously much more than that.

Aureal returned her gaze back at Sasilith, "Neither one of us would ever think about abandoning Master. Nerissa is Master's betrothed, and she does not marry out of respect of her mother's wish to cement a possible alliance between Lust and Pride, but out of an honest love that every girl has at a young age that will never dissipate with the time our immortal bodies will experience." Aureal, from the bottom of her heart, closed her eyes, placed her hands on her left bosom, and earnestly confessed, "I am but a servant to Master... He rescued me from my despair. A despair I held secured in my heart throughout my life in Heaven. Never once did I think about betraying Heaven, even with their constant distrust of my suspicious ability, and rightfully so considering my current position. Still, the day I first met Master, I began to experience the emotions I bottled up. He, without my realizing it, turned me to Sin and made me a fallen angel. While I experienced that process, I realized I had been experiencing an emotion since I first met him, love."

Aureal's words flowed out of her mouth as amorously as the most experienced of poets. There was no fallacy or hindrance in the fallen angel's words, that was what Nerissa and even Sasilith realized.

Sasilith warmly smiled, "I understand. There is no love as honest as the ones you two hold in your hearts and souls. I doubt even mine can compare to yours. While I am obviously disappointed at your intentions, I will respect and recognize your devotion and stance. Still, because of our love towards our respective persons, we are enemies."

'Who would have expected that she was such a person...' Marveled Nerissa and Aureal together in their minds.

"I would be ashamed that if I had to kill such a pure love, not that I am disrespecting your skill. The both of you alone could not match me, though the both of you together would make a formidable force that would be able to fight me equally." Admitted Sasilith with an air of humbleness, she was not trying to sound arrogant or haughty.

Nerissa winced at the imperiousness of Sasilith. Though she had qualms against it, she realized that Sasilith was probably right. Their opponent was, after all, a black demon succubus who had an immortal lifetime to master her skills, even Nerissa's Old Age and Aureal's light magic would have trouble alone, but together was a different matter altogether.

Both she and Aureal put up their defense, only to find, to their surprise, Sasilith pulling back.

The black demoness called out to the two girls, "Let us fight at a later time in this war. I do not wish to fight you on unfavorable territory for you two. As our forces have just about taken the walls. When we make it to the final section of terraces, wait at a secluded area, any will do, and release a marker with light magic or something and I will arrive. Then, we will see whose love is stronger in the end. Talent such as yours that belongs to such young girls should be defeated or become victorious in a secluded battle suited to such an occasion. I look forward to our battle and I say this, I will not lose!" And on that note, Sasilith turned away and flew towards the ground.

Nerissa and Aureal were somewhat mystified. Nerissa called out to the succubus, "Neither will we lose!"

As she flew down, Sasilith smiled. Among the numerous people she liked, very few of them were male. In fact, other than Arazra, the only two other males that she liked were faithful butler eunuchs. And of the people that she liked that were female was far greater in number, and it was not out of attraction. This Nerissa and Aureal were both members of that group

And with that, a duel where there would be death, was set up.

-

Several hours passed as nightfall took the region. Arazra didn't manage to reach his goal of terrace's taken over in the day, but he had an impressive plan to reach the second last terrace for the next day. If he hesitated yet another day to reach the palace, any possible reinforcements may make their way to assist the pretender.

A certain individual pondered the tactical situation of both sides. The individual was a demon with dark green skin; he was also an incubus and had all of his appendages out and poking through his cloak. The cloak he wore was only for keeping his anonymity. The incubus also enchanted the cloak with a powerful spell that hid his presence completely from purveying eyes, he would be impossible to discover unless someone was intently focusing on the incubus' position that could only happen by chance. This spell could even deviate the senses of the blind swordsman form the Pillar of Lust, Caetorum.

The incubus walked through the besieged city, in one of the upper terraces as he came back from his self given objective, which was to observe and find the location of the supposed Lord of Lust. While the incubus had quite a bit of loyalty to the one who paid for his services, he was honestly surprised to see the supposed Lord of Lust, as he recognized the face.

The incubus belonged to a mercenary force that was mainly shrouded in mystery, otherwise known as Huracan. In fact, the demon was also the leader of the force. The way he organized his group was that all of his subordinates was allowed to take contracts in their own name or in the name of another mercenary group. And when the incubus had a contract for the whole of Huracan to complete, every single member would drop their task, usually no matter how important unless they had a drastic personal situation, and would assist their leader. Also, as for the reason the incubus chose the name Huracan, it was mainly in order to deviate speculations and unwanted attentions towards a certain Mayan pagan god. On the outside, the group held the guise of cultists worshipping a pagan god (which was quite frequent in small groups of demons and humans), and on the inside the group was an elite group of mercenaries only selling their skills to the highest bidder or for the interests of the group.

With that aside, the incubus had recognized the face of the supposed Lord of Lust and was wondering what to do now. Even before thinking about it, he knew what he wanted to do: Betray Arazra. The incubus' experience with the supposed Lord of Lust didn't even span half of an hour, yet it deeply impacted the dark green demon's being.

Eventually, the incubus came into contact with a subordinate and relayed his new orders: "I want you all to hold back in the fighting. Make it look like you're fighting while not actually killing or being killed until I give the order to turn on Arazra's forces."

No one in the group would question the incubus' orders, not even if they died, that was how devoted they were to their group. They knew their leader would not turn them the wrong way and would not let them die meaninglessly, the incubus truly would never let that happen.

As the incubus made his way towards his next destination, he noticed a body flying through the air, landing in a nearby bathing area. Curious as to what had happened, the incubus made his way towards the body. When he entered the bathhouse, the incubus found the body with its limbs splayed out on the side of one of the baths with its feet touching the water.

The incubus investigated the body, and to his surprise recognized it to be a Djinn with light blue skin and tribal tattoos. "Huh, it seems that from that height you obviously would have died, yet you applied a [Texture] spell to make the ground you land on into a soft cushion... Impressive that you can concentrate on such an incantation in mid-air." Investigated the incubus.

The Djinn was unconscious and could not hear the incubus' words, but that was intentional, as the incubus sometimes spoke to no one in particular towards himself.

As the incubus investigated the body a little more and applied some cauterizing water to the body to heal the wounds. Ten minute passed, and as the incubus put the finishing touches on his quick healing process, an explosion was heard on the opposite side of the bath.

Where there was once a wall, was a black demon that the incubus recognized.

Upon noticing the incubus, the black demon yelled out, "Oh yeah! I am so damn lucky today! I get to utterly destroy this traitorous fuck of a Djinn that talked about my scar... And I get to kill the motherfucker that gave me it in the first place!"

Yes, the incubus did indeed give the black demon, Xizaen a scar in the shape of the Star of David. And he was quite proud of his handiwork as well considering how much the two demons hated each other.

"The last time we fought... Was a long time ago, Xizaen. It will be good to fight you today, and hopefully to a final conclusion. Though I don't plan on losing." Smirked the incubus as he furrowed his brow.

"Shut the fuck up, Emiel. There's no way you'll be living once I'm through with you. In fact, the only reason why I signed up to help Arazra was because I heard a rumor that Huracan was also helping out that damn lord."

"Eh, that's good. Because I no longer plan to be helping out Arazra, I unofficially announce my decision to side with the Lord of Lust, the newer one I mean." Declared the incubus whose name was Emiel.

Somewhat curious to his archenemy's intentions, Xizaen raised and eyebrow and asked, "To what end?"

"Huh... Well even I don't know myself. If I had to say something, it is because I have already met the young Lord of Lust, though for a short time. And I must say, his entire being made a larger impact on my mind than my entire conflict with yours." Taunted Emiel.

Xizaen frowned, clearly annoyed and getting angry, "I don't give a fuck who made more of an impact on whom, I JUST WANT YOURS AND THAT DJINN'S HEAD!"

Revealing his scimitar, Xizaen got himself ready for his opponent.

Unveiling his body from the cloak, Emiel revealed his own battle gear, ready to fight his most persistent of enemies.

-

"Oh man... I feel like hell." Said our hero, Rainer.

Just this moment, Rainer was feeling drawback symptoms from that strange and libidinous ritual called [Ritual Lust Sin].

His head was filled with a hot sensation that throbbed through his body painfully. Though the pain wasn't necessarily a bad thing, quite the opposite. The pain resulted from the influx of energy that flooded his body and made it recover faster than it normally should.

'[Rush] spells are not to be trifled with it seems...' Thought Rainer.

Rainer looked to his side, apparently several hours had passed since Asmodea performed the ritual and she was sleeping peacefully, recovering the energy she sacrificed in order to help Rainer recover.

Rainer could help but smile wryly. He truly appreciated Asmodea's efforts, though he wished she didn't put her own life in danger because of it. It almost seemed as if Asmodea sacrifice almost all of her life force because of her desire to help Rainer.

'Just why do these people go so far for me? Asmodea practically gives up her life in order to keep me going. Nerissa fights so devotedly for a fiancée that she barely knew all her life. Lauren gives up her entire life on Earth in order to accompany me. Aureal is forced to start completely anew from the life she knew for many years. Hell, even that Tozomat died fighting for me all because of his duty as a member of the Pillar of Lust.'

Rainer continued to ponder the situation for some time, until he was interrupted by words in his head.

'...It has been awhile, my lord.' Said a mysterious voice in Rainer's head.

Rainer swiveled his head around, searching for the voice, only to find a strange glow originating from inside his clothes, it came from the [Emperor]. Rainer guess, correctly, that the voice had something to do with that succubus who gave him the card from before.

'Are you... Zazie?' Inquired Rainer.

'...Your intuition is amazing, my lord.'

'Well, how are you talking to me now?'

'...The [Emperor] that I gave you and the [Empress] that I hold now are connected. They are one and the same, though they belong to opposite genders. Still, that does not stop them from interacting when they are miles apart.'

'Huh... Well the, why ARE you speaking to me now? Aren't you on that Arazra fellow's side?'

'...For the time being. Circumstances have forced me to side with him. My desire is to lay to stay by your side.'