The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 185: House Eros

Chapter 185: House Eros

A drop of sweat crawled down Rainier’s body as he held his claymore in the ready position, both hands on the hilt. He felt the drop as it cooled a line down his abs, but his focus was on the angel in front of him.

The slightly unsure way he held his shield. The way he let his fingers open one by one as he adjusted his grip on his sword... or would have, if Rain hadn’t chosen that exact moment to strike.

Rain struck with half his might. The angel raised his shield, but it wasn’t the shield Rain was aiming for, it was the sword.

A moment later, the sword clattered to the ground.

Having disarmed his opponent, now Rainier aimed for the body. The angel blocked with his shield, but Rain knew he had him.

One strike caught the middle of the shield, sending vibrations up his arms. The second he swept inward, prying the shield away before reversing the swing and-

"Yield! I yield!" the angel shouted, right as Rain stopped his blade within a nail’s width of the angel’s neck.

"Game to Rainier!" the judge declared.

There was a smattering of applause from the gathered Elevated. Rain ignored their calling out as he approached his opponent.

"Great job, Rainstorm," Calebiel Eros, first heir to House Eros and the Choir Sophia said. He was the only angel in the room, except the judge and Caleb’s keeper, a stern-faced angel woman named Zariel with contrastingly soft, pastel pink colored hair and wings.

"You keep adjusting your grip when you’re nervous," Rain said. "It’s easy to watch for. And I think the shield is too much weight for you to manage."

"Of course I’m nervous. You’re, like, three times my size," the blue-haired youth said.

"Only twice your size, maybe." Rain chuckled. "You could have used your wings, too. Slapped me with them or taken off."

"I didn’t want to damage them, I broke one in the past, and it... really hurt. Plus, it seemed more fair to fight on the ground... so..."

Rain smiled only slightly. He didn’t like being given advantages, but Caleb had meant it in sincere goodwill. It wasn’t like the boy was going to do any actual fighting. He was just here to meet the Elevated and get to know the Executioners that his Choir was raising to the order.

"Size has its advantages, but so does being small. Consider switching to a lighter sword and focusing on dodging, or switch to two short swords. If you think your wings are too much of a disadvantage on the ground, use a wing pack. There’s no shame in eliminating a disadvantage."

A throat cleared, Caleb’s minder. "It is time to visit the dancers," she said, then gave Rain a meeting of the eyes. "Solid advice, Rainier Eros."

"Can I come again next week?" Caleb asked.

"We shall ask your father," Zariel said.

Caleb smiled sadly and shook Rain’s hand, a gesture he’d taught the lad when they first met...

"Wow, Rainstorm. Three months and you’re already impressing the young wings, making friends in high places," an Elevated elvish woman with slight amounts of fur on the tips of her ears - emblematic of the most northern elf clans of Ayther - slapped him on the back with a hand made of godflesh.

The white, gold-inlaid godflesh felt just like the real thing, except for the places where the gold was sunk into them. Rainier’s arm was made of the same material. It was stronger, more durable, and acted like the real thing except for when enduring pain. After a moment or two, the pain would abruptly stop, as Rain had learned the first time his godflesh hand had been cut off. The insides of the material were twisted like muscle fibers and rejoined just by his placing the hand against the stump.

"He just likes to spar with me, Na’letan. I doubt we’re friends," Rain replied.

"Yeah, well, be careful dealing with the higher-ups. Some of the other squads are talking, you know? Tenebel’s been bragging about taking you down a peg in your last air duel. He wants to do the same for the extermination test next week."

"I’ll keep that in mind," Rain nodded. That had been the duel where he’d lost the hand. He didn’t like the way that the squads were pitted against each other, but if he wanted to return to Ayther, he would have to do a good enough job to earn it. The consequence of failure was a permanent stay as one of the many servants or workers doing the jobs no angel would.

"Just keep working on your flying. You’re already solid on magic, and you’re the best ground fighter in the wing," she clicked her tongue twice and smacked him on the back for good measure, before making her way back to her squad.

Rain stowed his sword dimensionally and started walking back to his room.

Amongst the Elevated, he was an oddity. A half-angel without wings. He’d been born that way, but all the other Elevated hosted by House Eros had been transubstantiated into half-angels. And every one of them had wings.

Rain had other advantages though. More mana, generally more stamina, and more mastery of his preferred battle magic, since that had been his area of focus back at the Academy. All that was due to training though, and the training available here was... insufficient.

So much so that he spent his evenings running himself to exhaustion around the outer garden of the manor. He’d even started bringing out his sword for the runs, and trying to run while holding a shield of mana around himself. He thought about doing so tonight, but he had something else he needed to take care of.

Alone amongst the Elevated, Rainier had been allowed to keep his weapon. A claymore forged by Enumasam, the best smith in Norneau. He’d won it in a drunken bet... well, the other guy had been drunk. Rain had been lightly buzzed, but Kir had been completely wasted after only one drink...

The thought of his old boyfriend made Rainier shake his head. Kir was gone, and he was here. No one could tell him the details, but after some digging, he learned that it was Chancellor Lumin who had claimed the kill. She was being hailed as the heroine of the Battle of Norneau, and the Academy where he’d met Kir and Kordia was gone.

Or rather, due to be rebuilt.

Rain didn’t know what he wanted to do about potentially returning to the Academy, but on his worse days, he sometimes imagined confronting Lumin about what she’d done. And finally learning why it was Kir had to die.

All the angels would say was "he was an abomination" or other things to get across their complete disgust for his being a hybrid of angel and demon. A Metatron, according to Vinam Victoriam, the one who had sponsored Rain’s elevation to Heaven.

Aside from Metatron being the name the angels gave hybrids like Kir, Rain hadn’t been able to find any information about why they were so hated, except for oblique references to some past betrayal that had pitted Heaven against them.

"You’ll find out more once you get your clearance. So don’t drop out!" Cassie, his squad leader, had said when he finally tried asking her.

All the Elevated had an angel at the head of their three-person squads.

On the worst days, Rain dreamed of Kir dying in the Academy, alone, because of him. Because he had been honest, hoping for the best outcome when his family had been drawn into the confrontation between himself and Norneau’s guard, over the deaths of two spies. One a spy for heaven, and the other a spy for hell. With the well-being of his family on the line, Rain had cracked. He’d confessed everything he knew about Kir, right down to his being a hybrid...

He had doomed him.

Almost as soon as he arrived at his room, Rain hopped into the shower, keeping it cold as he tried to wash away the dark feeling crawling into his mind. He couldn’t afford to be dark, not here. He had to keep smiling. Couldn’t let the Elevated see him bleed. Couldn’t let them beat him...

He tried repeating one of the lessons Kir had taught him, using it as a mantra as he leaned into the flowing water.

"Gravity is the pull of every object to every other object. All objects have pull because they have mass. All mass presses on the space around it, causing pull. And what determines the force with which an object moves? Force equals mass times acceleration..."

As soon as he was done saying the mantra twice, he felt a little better.

If he was responsible for Kir’s death, then he would honor his lover by remembering everything he’d taught.

"Acceleration is the change in velocity over time... Acceleration is the change in velocity over time..."

He’d just finished his second mantra when he heard the door to his room slide open. Stopping the shower, he reached for a towel and just barely managed to pull it on before Cassiel, his squad leader, arrived.

"There you are! I went looking for you at the gym but everyone said you were gone," she said.

"Um, do you mind? I’m kind of naked," Rain said.

"Oh, no I don’t mind," she said. "I just wanted to deliver a little invitation. All the squad leaders are having dinner tomorrow night, and we’re bringing our squads!" Her voice rose in genuine excitement. "Tonight they’re gonna show us the monsters they got off Ayther for us to fight next week!"

Rain forced a smile. "That’s great, Cassiel." He could tell she genuinely did not care that he was naked, and didn’t know how to feel about that.

"Come on, Cousin, call me Cassie," she pouted a little, which caused her... ample... chest to rise up a bit.

"Alright, Cassie," Rain said. "Now, um, I need to get dressed."

"For a run again? Why shower before a run if you just got back from the gym?"

"I like to feel clean when I start... but, no, it’s not for my run. Tonight I’m going to visit the forge."

"I don’t know why you don’t just get a better one enchanted," she said.

"Just... call me sentimental."

"Alright Sentimental," she leaned forward, giving him a full view of her plunging neckline and the rivulet of blonde hair spiraling down it. "Just so you know, I’m a bit of a lightweight..."

She winked, and Rain blushed.

He definitely didn’t know how he felt about that.