A Sinner’s Chance

I flew through the city conversing with Arya and Steria to deal with the Radiant Dawn that was assaulting the city. While the members were individually weak in comparison to me and the others they were far more numerous making it a pain to track them down. Though they claimed that they were here to slay the Demon Lord and her companions, the more I saw, the more I felt that their movements were strange. It was clear they were looking for someone, or something, but unless there was another person in the city that happened to be a Demon Lord I didn't understand why they were basically ignoring me and the others. It shouldn't have been hard to learn that I was the most likely candidate for a being that would be considered a Demon Lord considering the known and rumored information that circulated about me.

However, it seemed these cultists were not interested in me in the slightest, it was almost as if they were hellbent on simply burning the city to the ground. That was clearly not the case as the cultists suddenly began retreating. It wasn't normal either, as there had been no announcement, or even a runner that I could see that was rounding up the members and telling the members to retreat, they simply ceased their current activity and began to make their way towards the city walls.

I had already captured plenty of the normal cultists, but none of them gave me any new information, simply repeating that they had achieved their goal and were leaving. It was almost as if they were machines that had no free will of their own, simply existing to follow the orders of whoever was in charge.

Wanting to find the leader, I followed one of the cultists as he moved through the city and towards the western gate, however, he never made it, at least, I had not been able to see him do so. He turned a corner that would head through an alleyway and as I followed the cultist was nowhere to be seen, as if he had vanished into the air. Not only him, but all the cultists had disappeared, even the ones that had been tied up in mine or Ashara's silk were gone, like dust in the wind, not a single trace left.

Left frustrated and with a number of questions that I wouldn't be able to answer soon I flew back to Marian and the magic circle, telling Steria and Arya to group up with us and to tell Ashara the same should they see her. W was naturally the first to arrive back due to my superior mobility of flight, however, not only was Marian and Gabriel there, but also two others. The first being Alcrem pacing in frustration outside the magic circle, and Kalista, Gabriel's twin and the supposedly unawakened Avatar of the false Queen of Hell I'd met.

When Alcrem saw me his face distorted with annoyance. "To think you would betray the goodwill I showed you by taking you in! You are destroying the future of the Eldur house, you ungrateful cur!" Alcrem's words were venomous as he shouted at me but I simply scoffed at his indignant attitude.

"Your goodwill? You mean the goodwill that caused you to kidnap me? To send not only one, but three units of knights deep into the Forest of Darkness to find me, probably on the orders of this glorified chicken?" I asked, pointing towards the heavily wounded Gabriel. The rage I had been suppressing towards him since I found out suddenly came bursting out as I landed in front of him, my chitinous claw gripping him by the throat.

"If you are the future of the house it would be better if it were to fall. But I'm not so kind that I would grant you an easy escape. I am one who repays their debts." I could see the fright in Alcrem's eyes as I released his neck, only for silk to float around him and bind him. It took an enormous amount of self-control to stop myself from simply digging my clawed fingers through his neck, but I managed to do so, though there were definitely small punctures on his neck where my claw tips had been digging in at.

Leaving the bound form of Alcrem I approached Kalista, unsure of what I should do with her. On one hand, she had been part of the conspiracy to reincarnate me here, and were it not for some kind of fluke, she likely would have been an opponent that I would have fought with Gabriel, perhaps even managing to prevent my victory. On the other hand, I didn't actually have any strong feelings towards her. We'd never been extremely close as sisters, and it wasn't like having her reincarnate me here was the worst fate I could have asked for, if anything, I was actually thankful.

I had expected however that Kalista had her own plans and not only got on her knees but bowed her head until it practically touched the ground towards me. "I know our sister has done something terrible to you, but I cannot bear to be separated from her. I know that I don't really have anything you want, but if you spare her, I'll do anything you wish."

I almost couldn't believe what she was asking for, but I supposed that she had always had a strange obsession with Gabriel, something I wondered if was caused by the unawakened Avatar inside her. I wasn't sure how to respond to her request since while I had originally planned on simply destroying Gabriel, I knew it wouldn't actually have much of an affect on the actual Archangel. I rubbed my temples unsure of how to answer just as Steria, Arya and Ashara arrived. Deciding to put the issue aside for now I said I'd think about it as I convened with the others.

While I had technically settled my issues in the city, I had suddenly gained a lot to deal with in the form of the city. I'd originally thought I would just be telling Alcrem off and taking Marian and Reine with me, yet not only had Reine been killed, but I wasn't about to abandon the people of the city just because Alcrem had turned out to be more insidious than I had originally thought. In actuality though, I was more excited at the prospect of setting up trade between the central city in the Forest of Darkness and Phoenicia. If I could make the city an exporter of normally rare materials that the Forest of Darkness had in abundance, and potentially integrate the intelligent monsters as labor and citizens I could get the kind of backing that I needed to protect those I loved without being seen as a threat to the world.

The best part was that, even though it was normally a pain, I would be able to deal with the succession of the Eldur house rather easily due to the invasion of the Radiant Dawn. It might boost Alcrem's reputation, but if I claimed he died a valiant death defending the citizens then there likely wouldn't even  be an investigation into his disappearance. But those were all problems and issues I planned on dealing with later. For now I mostly just wanted to relax surrounded by those I loved in peace.