Decisions

 “To your station! Defend the gates!” Arx’s command boomed, ordering the numerous guards in the room to rush out to defend the fortress. The destroyed wall began to rebuild itself, fallen bricks rising up into place while that same haze that came from dead soldiers filled in cracks until, within seconds, the wall was repaired.

Arx moved towards the exit to the room, only gazing down at Siti and I with a passing glance, “You fools clearly have no intention of fighting, and I have no interest in fools with no resolve to fight. Leave, and take the Demon of Freedom with you.”

“Wait!” Siti called out, “Why is there a goddess down in the Demon Realm?? They never descend from the Divine Realm, so why would one be here?!”

“I have no reason to answer the questions of an invader!” Arx retorted, “But I will warn you: no demon that offers an alliance is to be trusted. The mindless demons are violent and the intelligent ones are scheming and treacherous. You would be wise to remember this and give up on any hopes of uniting against the king. Only power rules.”

     I clenched my fists upon hearing that. A Demon Lord ought to know best the nature of other demons. Is there really no hope to fight Caedes with a united front? Is Libero’s way the only one? To fight and conquer and consume enough lords to be a match? And how many of them would be like Arx? Defensive, but reasonable?

     Without another word, Arx walked right through the exit, as if the door and wall didn’t even exist to him. I could hear his voice booming just as loud as any of their weapons as he gave out commands.

I moved over to Siti, who seemed lost in thought and simply asked, “What should we do?”

Siti looked to me, keeping a straight face as she was considered all the information she had, “It’s only our first attempt, but who knows how many others will be just like this one. It really seems like having Libero consume their territories is the only option, but there’s no telling what he’ll do once he has power again. We want Caedes’s ability to possibly get to Earth, but Libero definitely wants him dead, and we’ve already seen how impatient he is. The best option would be to have you absorb each one, then brand each one with Sero’s brand and take their territory for you to use, but I’m sure we could only do that once before Libero catches on and stops cooperating.”

“Should we...take down Libero? Absorb him?”

“That sounds like the safest option, but being the Demon of Freedom, there’s no telling on whether the suit can even contain him. Worst case, he might even take control of the suit and make you a prisoner in your own body, if not just outright kill you. I can’t take that risk. I could try to kill or subdue him, but there’s no telling if those would work or for how long. I don’t know what kind of magic the demons that sealed him was, but it had to be complex.”

     The castle rumbled, the sounds of rock splitting and explosions outside were growing more frequent, as well as the distant clamor of numerous shouting voices. None of our options had any certainty and we didn’t have much longer to think.

“What if that goddess was brought here by the same magic that brought me here?”

Siti shrugged her shoulders, “Divinities are even harder to predict than demons. Would she care? I can’t say. But demons and divinities are mortal enemies, so she might at least be willing to help us.”

“How about that then? Let’s see if the goddess can help!”

“Well, there’s no knowing what she knows, so sure, let’s go find out!”

     With some kind of plan in mind, we exited the castle, heading out beyond the first interior gate and the sight before us was utter chaos.

     Not far from us, Arx and Libero were locked in combat while Arx continued shouting orders to the soldiers.

      In the air, countless angels beat their wings and swooped down to engage in combat with the soldiers, who were launching an endless torrent of bullets and arrows up towards them.

     The angels weren’t what I expected them to be like. Rather than the glistening armor-clad beings of light, they hardly seemed different from demons. Much like the soldiers, they all seemed to look similar to each other: a pair of white-feathered wings and a head that only had eyes peering in each direction, no ears, mouth, nose, or hair. Their bodies were human in shape, but their armor seemed fleshy and bonded to their skin, and their choices of weapons, rather than noble swords or spears, were various torture devices like whips, tongs, brands, and the like. Even the faint ‘holy’ glow they gave off didn’t make them seem much different from the demons I’d seen. Their halos hovered over their heads with prongs outside the ring and a symbol I didn’t recognize within.

     Occasionally, one of those distant white pillars would fire a scorching ray of white light at the fortress, incinerating only the soldiers in its path, who were promptly replaced as they seemed used to this sort of attack.

Siti waved to Libero and called out, “Liberoooo~! We’re gonna go have a chat with the goddess, don’t have too much fun without us!”

“Fine then! I don’t even need your help for this anyway! But I won’t hear any complaints about having this guy’s territory all to myself!”

“Yes, yes, do your best!”

“Is it really okay to just let him have it?”

“I don’t think he’ll beat Arx by the time we’re back.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You know that big guy that Libero is fighting right now? That’s not Arx.”

“What? How is that not him? He’s clearly the one in charge here.”

“He is in charge, but every fortress needs someone in charge. Just like every fortress needs walls, gates, weapons, and soldiers. Those aren’t things that a demon needs, those are things a fortress needs.”

“Well, I was wondering about all of that. So, what, that’s all just made up?”

“Yup. Like Durus’s metal and Sero’s lightning, this entire fortress, everyone and everything in it, except for a few helping hands, are all a part of Arx’s power. I wasn’t sure of it until my roots could spread enough to search this whole place. I’d say either Arx isn’t really here, or this whole place IS Arx.”

“Then what Libero is fighting-”

“Is going to be a nice distraction to keep him occupied~ Now come on, we’ve got a date with a goddess!”