CHAPTER 478: WAR OF IRON - PART 8 - SORROWFUL REUNION

As Kir hovered to a landing on the wall, Malz and Anko stared up at him. Bardoulf was shouting for the defenders to hold their fire as he landed, putting his wings away as he embraced Malz in a silent hug.

"What, no hug for me, big guy?" Anko frowned.

"It would probably burn you. I swallowed that mana gem he created." She pushed against Kir, who pulled her back into the hug, "You’re squishing me!"

Anko complained, "Hey! That was my blood!"

"He offered it to me. Maybe it would have been more effective for you, but..." She thought for a moment. "Actually, I think it would have been much more effective for you. Ferro ate one made of his own blood, after all."

"So if I ate a mana crystal made of my own blood, it would give me a boost like Ferro?"

"Worst case scenario, it would explode you unless you’re an archmaven."

"Come on! Ferro’s a weaker mage than I am a maven!"

"He’s evolved twice. Have you?"

"Ladies," Bardoulf cleared his throat, "do you think you could convince your friend to perhaps head back out there and destroy what’s left of the enemy?"

"I can’t convince him to do anything he doesn’t want to," Malz said as she finally extracted herself from the hug. "Besides, look at that," she gestured at the tree-shaped cloud. There’s no way that didn’t destroy a lot of them.

"It might be prudent to keep him out of the battle, then. So we can deal with him after we repel the invaders. The Council will want to make a decision, since he could destroy this city on his own."

"Hey-!" Anko started, but Malz interrupted.

"I agree," she gave Anko a pointed look. "Keeping the city safe might mean keeping him out of the battle now." She started to push Anko towards the stairs, Kir following like a puppy as he chewed a claw curiously. "Keep quiet until we’re away," she ordered, drawing a huff from Anko.

"What the Hell did you do that for?" Anko raised her voice as soon as they were away.

"He gave us an out, and I want to find Ferro," Malz said.

"Ferro!" Kir repeated.

Anko opened her mouth angrily and then closed it thoughtfully. "Fine," she grumbled. "I wanted to watch him kick more ass though."

"Anko, he just slaughtered Heaven knows how many thousands of people without a fucking scratch. Without his mind. Can you imagine what he’ll be capable of when he’s got his wits back? Or if Kiryu shows up again?"

Contrary to her expectations, Anko beamed. "So you’re saying we should find Ferro and try to get his mind back?"

"I’m saying that- I don’t know. But if he does that to the city, we’re all fucked."

"Ferro." Kir pointed deeper into the city, through the nearby buildings.

Anko looked at him quizzically.

Malz sighed. "At least he knows what direction to go in."

*

Rain lashed out with another lightning spell as the demoness beneath him hurled a barrel into the air. His spell burst the drum, releasing water and fish that were immediately fried by his lightning as the demoness used the distraction to go for another leap.

This time he was ready for her.

As soon as she raised her twin blades, he put all the mana at his disposal into rapidly forming his Manifest Arms, a pair of claymores springing into existence and catching her blades for a precious moment as the third went to his hand as he dropped his steel claymore into storage, not a simple manifestation but a Divine Arm, imbued with flaming black anti-magic. He slashed for her, but at the last moment she pulled back her blades and dropped, tumbling as his strike struck her swords instead of her body.

Rain created two more claymores as he dove after her, using the four hovering blades to stab into the ground around her neck and hips, while he landed with his Divine blade a mere fingerspan from her eye.

"Give me the sword, or I will end you here, demon," he snarled.

*

Amarena choked out a laugh. "What’s stopping you, angel pet?"

"I am not a pet. I am Rainier, and I am free."

"Wait, you’re-" just before Amarena could finish, a blast of mana shattered through Rainier’s shields and hurled him into a building. He flared his wings trying to brake himself, but even so he impacted the wall with a sickening crunch that put him on his hands and knees.

The next thing Amarena knew, familiar hands were pulling the mana blades out from the ground and pushing them away as they hovered.

"Lapins?!" Amarena called out.

"Reiko," she replied. "Good thing I went out to look for you. That angel looked tough."

"He was an Elevated, but nevermind that, that angel said he was Rainier. Isn’t that-"

"Rain..." Lapins’ cheeks paled as she looked up. Amarena looked up to find her opponent had disappeared, and a moment later, the weapons floating near them dissolved into motes. "I need to find him. I’m bringing my bodies here."

"I’ll go with you. He had Kir’s sword, he might know-"

"No. Kordia will introduce you to him later. I think I’ll be able to calm him down, but it has to be me, not someone he doesn’t know."

Amarena grunted as she stood. "What should I do then?"

"Check in with Brigit, Darlae, and Stella. They’re in a building near the big castle in the middle."

With that, Reiko sprinted towards the damaged wall and into the alley.

*

Outnumbered and sensing a powerful mage had attacked him, Rain fled into the alleyways. He was angry at losing Kir’s sword. Angry at himself for not striking the final blow. Angry that the moment he’d gotten some measure of freedom, he’d failed at what he wanted to do.

So when he turned into an alleyway and saw Cassiel fighting with a woman who wielded a lyre and a floating rapier, the first thing he did after realizing Cassiel was here was to ambush the woman from behind, slamming her into the wall and stabbing her in the gut with his Divine Arms blade.

As the woman gasped and coughed blood, Cassiel stumbled against the wall, shaking off what looked like confusion and disorientation as Rain kept the woman pinned, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her neck against the wall as she started to speak.

"Cassie?" Rain asked as she shook her head free of the mana surrounding her.

"R-Rain?" Cassie answered back. "Why are you here?"

"I don’t even know where here is," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I’m helping people... they’re looking for a demon."

"Purple skin, white hair?" he asked.

"N-no. That’s not... I mean that’s..." she pitched forward and threw up. "Fuck, her magic’s a piece of work."

The woman, choking had been slapping Rain’s arm, and so he loosened his grip. "Where are we?" he demanded. "What the Hell is going on?"

"Chains...free...," the woman gasped. "You... angels invaded us..." She spat blood onto him.

Rain pulled his sword from her, eliciting a cry as he let go of her throat. She collapsed to a seat. Her rapier suddenly flew towards Rain’s head, but he caught it by the blade, bleeding golden blood as he turned it away before striking it with his Divine Arms sword, disrupting the magic that facilitated its manipulation.

"Fuck," the woman coughed as Rain turned to Cassiel.

"Is this true? Are you invading these people for Heaven’s sake?" He half-raised his sword.

"No!" Cassiel raised her voice. "They tried to kill me. I fled- I was taken to some place called Norneau. And then Maledict showed up and we-"

"Maledict?!" Rain assumed a combat-ready stance. "Did you make an agreement with him?"

"I didn’t! We were going to stop a demon, but it turned out she was a friend, and then Maledict showed up because these two women, Brigit and Darlae, had a deal with him or something. I swear I had nothing to do with it except going with them. They’ve been sheltering me in the magic school there."

"Those are Kir’s mothers," Rainier said. "Is he here?"

The dying woman coughed up more blood. "You said Kir, right? I know where he is."

Rain turned to her, "Tell me." He pointed his blade at her throat.

"It’ll be hard to tell you if I’m dead..."

Rain looked at Cassiel, his eyes demanding.

For a moment, his former girlfriend looked stunned. Then resigned as she stepped forward and used her Hecatonkheries to lift and straighten out the woman, her hands moving in the familiar pattern of her healing spells as she worked silently.

The stranger grimaced with pain and cried out several times. For a moment, Rain felt her reaching for her magic, but she’d been pierced with a Divine sword. Her mana refused to flow properly. And at the end of Cassiel’s healing her, she passed out hard.

Rain was about to shout and slap her awake when Cassiel said, "You really have changed. Is Kir the only one you care about? What about me? What about Malz?"

"Malz is dead," Rain said. "And you ended things between us."

"Because you didn’t talk to me! Something bad happened, and you just... You shut me out!"

"Something bad? Just... bad!? Auriciel compelled me to kill a village of innocent demons! Civilians who couldn’t even put up a fight! And when I was caged, he compelled me to keep silent. To not even look at you! Did you even try to see what he was doing? Or were you too busy fucking him to find out?"

Cassie rose quickly and slapped him hard across the face. Then she hugged him.

"I’m so, so sorry..." she cried into his chest.

Stunned, Rain slowly embraced her back, tears falling from his eyes as he realized...

"I’m sorry too."