After an uneventful dinner, Raea returned to her room with Cleo and Palan, feeling slightly disturbed by the stares she had received. Palan immediately went to his bed and began to meditate, causing Raea to feel a sense of weakness as her chest glowed blue. “Palan,” Raea said and bit her lip.“What?”“Are you also a … a lust demon?” Raea asked, her voice barely audible.Palan didn’t respond.“Palan?”“I’m not answering stupid questions,” Palan said and snorted.Raea’s eyes widened. “So you are!?”“How did you even come to that conclusion?” Palan asked and furrowed his brow. “I’m not.”“But … you and Tara,” Raea said and scratched her head. “Weren’t you two going to … you know?”Palan’s eyes narrowed as he ground his teeth together. “The only thing I want to do to Tara is kill her,” he said. His bed collapsed underneath his body as he accidentally channeled his power. Cleo let out a squeal as she was flattened against the mattress. She had been tracing the translucent wings on Palan’s
The second sun was beginning to set, and the army was starting to slow to a crawl. Tents were being pitched along the road, and giant bonfires were lit. Raea groaned as she stretched out her feet before falling over backwards onto a soft mattress. The elephants had been dragging the army’s supplies behind them in wooden containers with wheels. Uzziel, who sat on the other side of the tent, grinned at Raea. “You aren’t too used to marching, huh?”Raea shook her head. “Palan’s pace was a lot … harsher than this when we were traveling towards the checkpoint,” she said. “But I’m still not used to it. The only traveling I did back in the capital was taking a stroll through our garden.” She glanced at Palan who was staring outside the tent with his brows creased. “Why do you look so apprehensive?”“They’re building fires,” Palan said. He returned Raea’s gaze and relaxed the muscles in his face.Raea couldn’t help but remember being ambushed by the greater demon and his lizardman army. She b
“Hurry up and heal me,” Uzziel said to Raea. His body was trembling and twitching in odd places. Uzziel wasn’t certain that Palan was correct. His body could’ve been twitching because of a placebo, but he didn’t want to take that chance.“I, I can’t move,” Raea said, her eyes widening.“You didn’t drink the stew,” Uzziel said. “Why can’t you … Tara?” He turned his head towards the floating demon. Her eyes were half-open, and she was running her fingers back and forth over Cleo’s scalp.“Do you want me to release her?” Tara asked with a smile. “You can easily command me to.”“Didn’t you say you’d be more agreeable to my orders?” Uzziel asked, his face scowling. He stood up and tried to grab Tara, but the blanket repeatedly avoided him.“That’s your fault for taking a demon at face value,” Tara said and laughed, her eyes twinkling. Cleo’s face was turning green as the blanket continued to make sharp turns combined with sudden accelerations and stops.“Why are you doing this?” Uzziel ask
Uzziel frowned as he ran through the camp, heading towards General Michael’s tent. The angels sitting around the bonfires were pale-faced and twitching. Their weapons lay close by. They had been told to wait where they were until the medics arrived. Uzziel arrived at Michael’s tent and tossed open the flap. “General Michael,” he shouted and saluted, panting slightly. “We have an issue!”Michael raised his head. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a map on the floor in front of him. His brow creased as he asked, “Another one?”“The food was poisoned, sir,” Uzziel said. “On my way here, I saw that nearly everyone had been affected by it.”“I knew this ten minutes ago,” Michael said. “The medics are already working on it, and I have Colonel Simon searching for the culprit with squad ten. We know that it was the cook who did it, but he fled before the symptoms appeared. Is that all you have to say?”“Uhhh … yes, sir,” Uzziel said. He ground his teeth together. If only Tara hadn’
“You may leave,” Michael said. Uzziel nodded and walked out of the tent, leaving Palan and Raea behind with Cleo still hanging onto the demon’s back. “Have a seat.” Michael gestured at the cushions on the floor. He was sitting on a cushion with his legs crossed. A low wooden table rested in front of him, the top reaching his chest. The map that was on the floor was now on top of the table with humanoid figurines on top of it.Raea sat down, her thighs on top of her calves and butt on top of her ankles. Palan crossed his arms and remained standing, glaring at Michael, causing Raea to purse her lips. Michael paid him no heed and gazed at Raea. He asked, “Do you know why I called you here?”“No, sir,” Raea said.Michael chuckled as he swept the figurines off the map. “No need to be so tense,” he said. “You’re practically my goddaughter.”“Yes, sir,” Raea said.Michael sighed. “Alright,” he said. “I just wanted to ask you a few questions. Where and how did you contract a pride demon?”The
An angel panted as he removed his hands from the back of a cuirass of a sitting soldier. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his brow. The sitting soldier stood up and nodded at the medic before walking towards the circle of soldiers surrounding them in the distance. Another soldier stumbled into the seat that was just occupied. The medic sighed as his hands glowed, and he pressed them into the soldier’s back.Around him, there were roughly sixty other medics, some were busy healing while others were taking breaks. After he finished healing the soldier in front of him, the medic leaned back and sighed. Someone tapped his shoulder. “Swap with me,” a voice said. The voice was raspy and low, as if its owner hadn’t spoken in a long time.“Alright,” the medic said and nodded as he staggered to his feet. He turned around and a cloaked figure walked past him, brushing a hand against the medic’s chest. “Is it that cold? Why are you wearing your cloak?” The medic tilted his he
“Colonel Simon still has not returned, but he is close to catching the cook,” an angel said, approaching Michael and saluting. “Squads eight and four have suffered some casualties, while a quarter of the troops are still poisoned. The angels who ambushed us have already fled the area.” The angel had no armor and had a white blindfold covering his eyes. He wore brown robes and wielded a simple wooden staff. The angel’s voice deepened. “But there was two people I could not see through—excluding you of course.”Palan tilted his head at the angel and waved his hand in front of the angel’s face. There was no reaction. Palan turned to Raea with an eyebrow raised. “Who’s the blind guy?” he asked. Raea scratched her head and shrugged, turning towards Michael.“This is Pyre,” Michael said, gesturing towards the blindfolded angel. Pyre nodded his head. The general’s gaze was distant as he ruminated on the blindfolded angel’s words.Pyre turned towards Palan. “You must be General Elrith’s little
“Palan?” Cleo asked as she poked the demon’s unconscious body. She tilted her head and blinked at him. It was the first time she saw him sleep while lying down. He was always sitting up, but now he was lying on his stomach with his face planted into the floor of the tent. His arms were spread out to the sides, and his legs were slightly parted. In front of his head, there was a perfectly spherical rock. Cleo’s tail swished as she glanced at Uzziel. He was dozing off with his chin resting against his chest.The blanket stirred behind Cleo, and she picked up the rock and stored it inside her pouch. Moments later, she heard Raea groan. “Raea,” Cleo said and tore the blanket off of the sleepy-eyed angel. “Something’s wrong with Palan.” Raea became instantly alert as her heart missed a beat.“What happened?” she asked as she scrambled towards Palan.“I don’t know,” Cleo said and flipped Palan’s body over. His eyes were dull and unfocused, constantly moving around but focusing on nothing. C