Chapter 612: To defeat an enemy and Friend

Asmodeus swallowed the cold morning air like a frozen drink.

Behind him, several of his lovers wore light armour and simple clothes. Since they would fly, he instructed them to wear light and flexible clothes.

“It was good evening.” He mused while unfurling his wings.

The beautiful mixture of white, black and grey flicked away the cold, forming a warm atmosphere around their group.

“Sariel, Riel are you both ready?”

One blue, the other pink, nodded at his words, their long, membrane wings snapping like whips before taking the pair into the air with a low crack. Leviathan followed, with jet black wings identical to Asmodeus, her shield a small buckler on her left hand. Velvet and Vinea joined the flight last.

Velvet’s unique wings were more suited to short flights, and Vinea’s for short bursts of speed; the pair would need to control themselves.

Asmodeus glanced at them both, his sharp eyes catching their faint hesitation.

“Just keep pace. Don’t waste energy before we reach Grigor. Remember things might not be as desperate as you think.”

Velvet grinned, her voice sharp. “Don’t worry, husband. I’ll drag Vinea if she lags behind.”

“Try it,” Vinea shot back, brushing hair from her face. Her tone was calm, but her eyes flashed with competitive fire. “You’ll be the one panting first.”

Asmodeus nodded.

Because Vinea looked up to Velvet while growing up, the two always sounded similar, like a small bird trying to match its parent, which he found cute.

“Focus.”

Although they could enjoy a little humour, he didn’t want them to become too loose and cause an accident. Asmodeus would have to bear any failures on his back, whether losing his father-in-law Avandar or his best friend…

All noise vanished as their bodies cut through the air, wind biting at their bodies, each demon focused after hearing his warning.

Good… they stopped bickering.

I just hope that Duke Qwass can hold on.

He looked once more at the women gathered before him, then extended his aura. His blood swirled in the air, a faint shimmer spreading like a net. With it, he linked their pulses, balancing their rhythm, making them an extension of his flight.

“Stay close,” he commanded.

And then they tore through the sky.

The city of Baltimore shrank beneath them, towers and walls glimmering faintly under magical wards. Beyond stretched the endless sea of frost-bitten land and ruined plains that marked the northern roads.

“It seems winter will be bad this year…”

Asmodeus cut through the air with long strokes of his wings. Every beat carried him higher, faster, until the clouds scraped past his shoulders. The others followed in a diamond formation, Leviathan keeping rear guard, Sariel and Riel flanking tight, and Velvet and Vinea balancing each side.

The cold bit at their cheeks. Below, the ruined farmlands and shattered villages reminded them of the mainland and Mephisto’s greed.

“Hey, isn’t this worse than before…” Vinea mumbled about the state of the villages.

“True…”

Even Asmodeus remembered saving several villages, but now, nothing remained.

Riel spoke first, her voice riding the wind. “The land looks worse than before. Even the forests are hollow.”

Sariel’s body rolled across the air, circling Asmodeus as she displayed her expert skill in flying, not losing balance, speed or breath at this high altitude. “It’s because of all the bad guys trying to trap master, their dirty stench stains the land.”

Velvet remained quiet, but her eyes couldn’t hide the ferocious emotions within her chest; instead, she seemed even scarier than normal.

“They didn’t know,” Leviathan answered bluntly. Her words cut through their venom. “Most of them are already enthralled. Even the strongest wills cannot resist Mephisto, we learned that the hard way right?”

Without the constant barrier that Riel and Sariel maintained around them with Asmodeus’s blood barrier, their minds might be at risk.

Asmodeus didn’t complain or blame the girls for their thoughts; all of them carried some truth. Especially, Leviathan he’d faced it in Baltimore, where he fought against his own demon knights, and even Vinea suffered from a partial possession.

Not to mention that humans are weak to their desires… like I was.

They clung to false hopes, surrendered to their fear, and a voice that promises them salvation or power, of course, they would accept that hand.

As if it were their god.

He didn’t blame or judge humans; instead, he loved their sincere and genuine desire, which showed how honest they could be.

Still, he spoke.

“Grigor, although strong it carries many who lack the ability to control their greed and desires. Loyalty can only go so far when someone is starving, their loved ones are in danger or… they are offered a deal which no one can deny.”

The women fell silent at that.

He hated saying it, but he couldn’t stop himself.

And now I have to be the monster who tears them free.

He wondered if they might hate him for taking their blissful dreams away.

***

Quite some time passed, and as the wind roared, their wings cutting like blades through the cloud sea. Occasionally, a monster dared to rise: griffons, wyverns, even a flock of lesser demons smelling Asmodeus’s blood. They didn’t last long.

Velvet incinerated a wyvern with a blast of purple flame, laughing as its body spiralled down into the trees. “Too easy! Is this the kind of trash ruling the skies now?”

Memories of her struggle to fight a drake when she first awakened as a true demon, her excitement almost causing her to overexert herself.

“Don’t waste power,” Vinea snapped, driving her spear through a griffon’s skull with one clean thrust. She twisted and kicked the corpse off her weapon, glaring at Velvet. “You’ll be the first to die if you gas yourself out on lizards!”

Velvet stuck her tongue out. “Jealous?”

Sariel and Riel darted through the air in a pair, both of them bouncing off each other, like twins who could share thoughts and senses. Their claws took the lives of dozens of possessed monsters.

That’s right…

“These bastards are Mephisto’s eyes!”

Sariel drifted closer to Asmodeus’s side, her pink hair whipping in the wind. “Master, do you think King Avandar is still alive?”

Her words silenced the group.

Asmodeus didn’t answer right away.

He stared at the horizon, at the faint black smoke rising even from this distance. His senses stretched, tasting faint traces of corruption carried by the air.

“…If Qwass still breathes, then Avandar may as well,” he finally said. His voice was flat, but underneath it, the fury simmered. “But the moment we arrive, be ready to fight. Mephisto won’t hide when I show my face… he needs my divine core to become a true god.”

Leviathan gripped her shield and followed, looking at the other women she mouthed.

“We have to protect our beloved!”

They descended only once to rest, landing in a ruined village by the edge of a broken river. Ash still clung to the stone, and children’s toys lay half-buried in mud. None of the villagers remained; all were slaughtered or used as fodder.

Riel crouched beside the charred bones of a barn. Her sharp nails traced a strange symbol burned into the wall. “It’s his mark. The cult was here.”

“It seems that bastard used the humans here as monster bait.” Velvet grumbled while scooping up a strange bag of burned incense. “Look, it’s a monster attracting bait.”

“…”

Sariel’s wings fluttered as she watched Asmodeus. “Master…”

“I know,” Asmodeus said.

Velvet kicked a monster’s skull, sending it bouncing into the dirt. Her jaw tightened, eyes glowing faintly. “The filthy bastards! Please, darling… we have to stop them!”

For once, Vinea didn’t argue. She simply nodded, her hands tightening on her weapon.

Asmodeus studied them, his gaze drifting from one woman to the next. “This is why I am proud to call you all my beloved women.” He smiled faintly; each woman carried the same resolve but showed it in their own way. Some burned with rage, others simmered with icy cold vengeance, but all had bound themselves to him.

I cannot fail them.

Not this time.

He closed his eyes briefly, hearing the faint echo of Serena’s laugh, Erika’s soft plea, the cries of his newborn children.

They waited for his return.

“Rest. Ten minutes,” he ordered. “Then we take the skies again.”

By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, they reached the outskirts of Grigor.

The city loomed like a dark crown, spires jutting up against the twilight. But instead of banners and torchlight, they saw only smoke. The walls bore scars from recent clashes. Armoured figures patrolled the ramparts, but their movements were strange—jerky, mechanical, as though driven by strings.

“It seems that most of Grigor has fallen…” Vinea’s hoarse voice echoed in the skies.

“True, but… all hope is not gone.” Velvet placed a hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “Look, the keep and castle haven’t fallen.”

Asmodeus hovered above them, his wings spread wide, gaze fixed on the city.

“Girls, we will help the forces fighting desperately to survive, try not to kill the possessed, only knock them out.”

He turned back to the burned castle walls, the knights fighting even now, small in number but clearly filled with a sense of desperation.

“It’s the banner of Duke Qwass…”