Chapter 32

In the room, which had returned to normal after the energy zone had been lifted, Azur, Meica and Seiran surrounded Niris, who was still unconscious on the floor. The black pegasus ran his muzzle over his chest, breathing heavily.

-It's all right, he's just asleep. He'll wake up when he's recovered his energy," he tried to reassure the demon, who was looking at his lover with anguished eyes.

Gently, Seiran took Niris's head and placed it on his lap as if it were a treasure so fragile that the slightest jolt could shatter it. He stroked his cheek with a trembling hand. He was overcome with emotion as he gradually became aware of the fact that the angel was alive in his arms. In all his life, he had never been so afraid of losing someone as he was today.

The Pegasus watched Eviris from the corner of his eye. The demon seemed to be unconscious too and in a much worse state than the little prince. He analysed the situation with a well-informed eye. Seiran had quickly explained the situation to him and he had a bad feeling about it. He was worried about the second zone that he had felt had been set up shortly after the fight between Eviris and Niris started.

-Seiran, I'm sorry to rush you in this situation, but I think we should leave as quickly as possible," he said, without hiding the tension that was getting to him.

The demon quickly wiped away the tears that had started to roll down his cheeks without him realising and nodded.

-I'll contact Inja, she's the one who has the interdimensional portal back to Egea. I think you should come with us, you're not safe here," suggested the Pegasus.

Meica was standing guard next to the door. The demon sniffed, then nodded weakly as he rested the angel's head on the ground.

-I'm going to look for my mother, I left her to come here. If you don't mind, I'd like her to come with us, at least until the situation calms down here," he said, rising to his feet.

The Pegasus thought for a moment before making his decision. He didn't like the idea but he couldn't afford to waste time.

-Be quick. We'll wait for you here and leave as soon as everyone's together," the Pegasus agreed.

The demon thanked him and ran off in the direction of his mother's flats. His mind was completely muddled and he could no longer think straight. All these incoherent events had left him deeply disorientated and he no longer knew what to think about anything.

Mechanically, he opened the door to his mother's living room.

-Mother, we have to leave right away, I think there's..." he stopped mid-sentence, dumbstruck by the messy, empty living room.

He approached slowly, continuing to call for his mother. He'd left her here only a few minutes ago, so why wasn't she here any more? He heard the sound of water under his feet and looked down. He took several steps backwards, almost falling and catching himself at the last moment on the arm of an armchair. A blue arm lay in the middle of a puddle of blood the same colour. He felt his heart pounding at his temples.

"Holmyr?" he thought, still reeling from his discovery.

He was seized by a feeling of panic. This arm could only belong to one person, the only sangrin in the palace, Holmyr. Holmyr was his mother's confidante and henchwoman. She was ready to give her life for her and her alone. Seeing the severed arm lying in the middle of the room did not bode well for her. Something had happened to his mother.

Increasingly panicked, he searched the flat from top to bottom but found nothing. He was about to return to the Pegasus and Niris when a shadow from the window made him turn round.

-Chamberlain?" he asked as he saw the man who had followed his mother everywhere without saying a word land on the living room floor before closing his sinister wings. "Did something happen to my mother? Do you know where she is?"

The man didn't answer and watched the demon for a moment. He took a few steps and sighed.

-Ah, I was too late. I wish you hadn't seen that," he began with a worried expression.

-What are you trying to say? Do you know something? Tell me what happened, where's my mother?" urged Seiran, who was tired of waiting for answers that never came.

The chamberlain shook his head again, clearly dismayed by the panicked demon.

-Your mother... has been betrayed," he finally replied. "A sangrin turned against her. They attacked her for no reason. I tried to stop her but she was stronger than me and ended up disappearing with your mother. No one knows where they are now..."

Seiran looked into the chamberlain's eyes. They were direct and seemed sincere. Yet he knew that his words were anything but sincere. He knew better than anyone the conditions under which Holmyr had become loyal to her mother, and he knew that she would never have betrayed her, even for all the gold in the world. She would never betray the woman who had saved her and her child from certain death. This man was lying.

And there was another thing he knew: only he and his mother knew about Holmyr's existence. The way the chamberlain talked about her without precising who it was clearly showed he didn't really knew about her exact situation and identity.

-Sangrins are complicated creatures and can never really be trusted. They often turn against the people they serve. That's why they've never made good slaves," continued the newcomer, trying to convince the demon of his words.

-Was my mother kidnapped?" The demon pretended to believe him.

If the chamberlain was the one who had cut off Holmyr's arm, he was someone he couldn't confront. Holmyr was not an easy opponent. He was going to have to rethink his plans and try to understand what was behind this story and these lies. Something serious was afoot.

-I'm afraid so, but don't worry, we're going to do everything we can to find her. If you cooperate with me, she'll be returned to you safe and sound, I'm sure of it," continued the chamberlain in a honeyed voice.

Seiran pretended to think before straightening his head. Niris was still in danger as long as he was in this palace and this man could very well be after him. After all, he had helped his mother in her plan to kill the Emperor of the Angels... No. Suddenly, he thought back to his mother's words. She had spoken as if someone had pushed her to do everything she had done. Was the chamberlain the person who had used his mother to commit these atrocities?

Could this man, who seemed so self-effacing and discreet, be the real manipulator behind all this? A ton of questions began to fly through the demon's mind. He quickly shook them off, regaining firm control of himself. The last thing he needed was to let himself go. The situation was dangerous. Niris was in no state to fight, it was up to him now.

"Azur, leave without me. I'm going to stay in Yerpena with my mother. Take Niris to Egea, I think all the slaves in the castle have been repatriated by the organisation's teams, so their statement shouldn't be long in coming," Seiran said into the Thelepatic channel with Azure before cutting him off, not giving him a chance to reply. 

They had to leave at all costs to get the angel out of danger. He, for his part, was going to try to put an end to this man's plans and find his mother.

-Very well, I'll do as you say, but first I want to carry out my mother's plan! She put her life on the line for this, and Emperor Aroslan must die to fulfil her wish. I refuse to leave until it's done!" he finally replied.

The chamberlain watched him for a moment, apparently surprised to hear such a statement.

-I thought you were close to that angel, Jangta, with whom you spent a lot of time during the ceremony..." Seiran laughed, resuming his speech.

The chamberlain smiled a horrible smile that sent a chill down the demon's spine. He seemed to be gloating inwardly at having been able to win the son over to his cause without putting too much effort into it. Seiran knew he was in danger, but he didn't hesitate for a second. He was going to do everything he could to deactivate the portal before anything happened. It didn't matter if he exposed himself to the Chamberlain's wrath, he absolutely had to do it. This was his fight and he had to see it through.

-Very well, follow me, Your Highness. I'll take you there.

The chamberlain invited him to follow him out of the imperial flat with a wave of his arm. Without being asked twice, Seiran stepped forward and passed through the door, closely followed by the chamberlain, who then took the lead of their little procession. They passed through several corridors and climbed a flight of stairs that led up the central tower of the palace.

Seiran was surprised to see an extremely sophisticated, if in his opinion tasteless, cabinet opening behind the tower door. This was supposed to be a storeroom where all his father's furniture and things his mother hadn't been able to get rid of were stored. He was amazed to find that the Chamberlain actually lived there!

He followed him up a small spiral staircase that took them under the roof of the tower. In the middle of the large round room, a huge mandala-like circle had been drawn on the floor. "A stationary interdimensional portal?" thought Seiran. This type of portal was attached to a person by a spell that was applied directly to them using a natural energy vector. It required a very large amount of natural energy from its user, which is why it absolutely had to be stationary.

He turned his head towards the Chamberlain, frightened at having understood the stratagem put in place by the hooded man.

-Don't tell me that... this portal is directly linked to the Emperor?" Seiran restrained himself from looking too panicked.

-Didn't your mother explain?" replied the chamberlain, surprised by the demon's remark.

-That is to say... She told me she had set up a way of getting to Sophianopolis, but she didn't give me any more details than that," he explained, trying to sound convincing.

The chamberlain stared at him for a moment, undecided. Seiran decided to move the conversation forward. It was more complicated than he thought, and he was going to need time to deactivate the portal.

-Did you manage to place a vector on the emperor? How did you do it?"

-The emperor is not immune to ill-intentioned people. It was easy to slip a spy into the palace administration," continued the chamberlain, who seemed to have set aside his suspicions about the prince.

"The emperor must surely know about this spy," Seiran said to himself. "He must have left it to him to unmask the person behind the plan and play the role of bait." The demon frowned. The situation was more delicate than expected.

-Are you ready, Your Highness? I'll activate the portal and we'll be in front of Emperor Aroslan in no time," said the chamberlain with a sidelong glance at the demon.

Seiran shuddered. He felt himself being tested by the manipulator. He knew he hadn't convinced him. He had to buy time.

-What do you intend to do once you're on the other side of the portal? Emperor Aroslan may be caught off guard but he's still a strong opponent. Do you have a plan for beating him?" asked Seiran, who remembered the formula for defusing fixed portals.

It was a good thing he'd taken sorcery classes on his father's recommendation! He didn't have a good connection to his natural energy and it was of mediocre quality, but at least he could use it in an emergency, like this one. Hopefully it would work.

-Oh, don't worry about that, Eviris will bring us the bargaining chip shortly, so the Emperor won't be able to do anything," he said again with his toothy grin.

Seiran frowned. What did Eviris have to do with this? He remembered the strange words of his former guard. He seemed to be talking about someone else, rather like his mother. He hadn't been paying attention at the time, but it could well be that Eviris and the chamberlain were in collusion. In that case, it could only mean one thing.

He looked at the chamberlain with a look that he controlled as much as possible to appear emotionless, but he was horrified inside. This being who had been hovering around his mother since his father's death was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and not for a moment had he suspected this of him.

Faced with the Prince's silence, the Chamberlain sought to reassure him.

-It's a plan I've worked out for a long time, and it will work. I've arranged for your mother to organise your engagement in this way so that we can have the person I need on the spot at the palace to carry out this plan. I'm delighted that your mother has put so much effort into it because thanks to her I'll be able to fulfil one of my life's goals."

-Which is?" asked Seiran, who was observing the circle on the ground attentively.

He had found the formula, now he had to find a loophole. To break the circle of a portal, he had to find an entrance, a door that would allow his natural energy to penetrate the circle and break it from the inside, weakened by the sudden arrival of a different natural energy.

He began to walk slowly around the circle, continuing his conversation with the chamberlain. The latter lent himself to his game and did the same. Seiran didn't know if he really trusted him or if he had already seen through him and was just playing with him. But whatever the answer to his question, he had to keep playing until he achieved his goal.

-To upset the balance of the world by bringing down one of the giants who control it," the chamberlain finally replied.

-Are you talking about angels?" continued Seiran.

-The angels and the institutions they have built up over the years of intergalactic power," agreed his interlocutor.

-By killing the Emperor, do you think you'll put an end to this domination, which is damaging the demons?

The chamberlain smiled beneath the hood that hid half his face.

-Demons are not the only victims of angels," he explained. "You are beings who have suffered their predominance in a direct way, but the viciousness of these beings has struck more than one species. Skilled users of their power, they know how to get rid of those who bother them."

-You talk as if you weren't a demon," Seiran remarked.

The smile on the chamberlain's face tightened.

-There are some things it's better not to know, Your Highness. For your own well-being," he said in a half-threatening tone.

-Like what?" added Seiran.

He reached into his pocket and deliberately dropped a handkerchief. He bent down, ready to intervene on the very spot where he had identified what he thought was the best possible entrance, and pretended to pick up his handkerchief.

But he didn't have time to put his finger on the floor. The door shattered as if blown by a mad tornado. Standing in the doorway was Niris, his Dancing Blade in his hand, his eyes glowing with a strange violet light.

The chamberlain had raised his arm to shield himself from the debris. Seeing the man appear behind his raised arm, which he gradually lowered to identify the new arrivals, the angel smiled with all his teeth, stretching his lips in a mimicry that the demon was unfamiliar with.

"He's not in his right mind", he realised.

He was about to intervene when the angel cut him off.

-I knew I sensed your presence in this shabby palace," he said to the chamberlain.

The latter had not lost his smile.

-I can see that Eviris is more incapable than I thought," he said with a twist of his face that was as close to a smile as he could hope for. "Or maybe I underestimated you too much. In either case I made an error of judgement."

Niris stepped closer and raised his katana horizontally in the chamberlain's direction.

-How could you ever think you could trick me? I see you haven't changed, Zorkiel, you're still dreaming of a greatness that's beyond you!

The chamberlain seemed to gloat. It was as if he had before him the toy he had dreamed of since he was a child.

-You haven't changed either, demon of chaos," he replied to the angel. "Or should I say Niyari?

The angel replied with a sadistic smile. Shaking with spasms, he threw his head back, laughing bitterly at the intervention of the man who was confronting him.

-Niris? What's going on?" Seiran intervened, perplexed by the situation before him.

At the same moment, the sound of hooves was heard on the staircase, and the two Pegasus sprang up behind the angel, followed by Inja, who immediately took up a defensive position. The little slave girl was sleeping peacefully on Meica's back.

-Azure, Inja..." said Seiran, visibly confused by the way the situation was unfolding.

Seeing the demon's perplexity, Azure decided to quickly explain what was happening to bring him up to speed on the latest events.

"Niris came to his senses shortly after you left, but Niyari took control of his body and threw herself in here without giving us any explanation."

"N-Niyari?" the demon stammered.

The Pegasus sighed.

"It's complicated, I'll explain later, but right now we absolutely must stop Niyari from fighting this man. In the state he's in, Niris might not recover. We need to find a way to prevent a catastrophe from happening."

Seiran turned his gaze towards the angel, distraught. The more things progressed, the more they went wrong. For the moment, all he knew was that he had to abandon his plan to deactivate the circle because too many people were walking on it. But that was one of the conditions for deactivation. So he had to resign himself to observing while trying to find an answer to the problem posed by Azur.

-Nothing is impossible for a potential power like yours, Niyari, you know that! You can do anything, you're so powerful."

The two of them resumed their conversation, oblivious to those around them, as if they were ants in the face of mongrels.

-Power is nothing without a will, Zorkiel. Demonic spirits have no will, so what's the point of dreaming about power," Niyari said through the angel's mouth.

-You don't have a will, but you do have emotions," explained the chamberlain. "Don't you feel a deep hatred for the angel who reduced you to nothing by subjugating you in her flesh? Don't you want revenge?"

Niyari laughed at these words.

-Revenge is an evil that only gnaws at mortals. It's not something demonic spirits can understand. We feel things, of course, but I'm not sure we can talk about emotions. In any case, it's none of those sordid things that make you so manipulable. At least, I'm speaking for mortals. You ceased to be alive a long time ago, Zorkiel."

Niris's voice had echoed against the walls of the round room with a smugness that was alien to him. Seeing the one he loved so manipulated by the demon spirit brought a pang of pain to the demon's heart that was unbearable. He cast a desperate glance at the black-robed Pegasus, but the latter, tense under the pressure of the dangerous situation, returned the same anguished gaze. They were being overtaken by a being who dominated them all in terms of power.

-Why did you take possession of this angel when you sensed my presence, then?" bounced Zorkiel.

Niris smiled again.

-Because you're a danger to me," Niyari replied bluntly. "You want to reunite my fragments, implant them in this angel and make me a tool of mass destruction at your disposal.

She paused for a moment and suddenly lost her smile, becoming extremely serious all of a sudden.

-I can't allow this, Zorkiel. Lou gave me the ultimate humiliation when she forced me to take physical form, but at least I wasn't subject to any will. It wasn't a bad thing after all, as I'd been forced into submission my whole life. But now you want to put me through the same thing again! You said it yourself, demonic spirits have no will. But we know one thing for sure: we are free beings, born not subject to any form of power or will. Because we lack will, we are the most perfect incarnation of freedom. But this is also what has condemned us to a life of servitude. How can a being born perfectly free submit during its existence? Isn't there a fundamental contradiction here?"

The chamberlain kept his macabre smile and walked slowly towards the angel as he spoke.

-But I'll give you the freedom you cherish so much! All the freedom you want! All you have to do is take this child's body and make it yours, and you'll have the life you want without any restrictions!

His face was only a breath away from the sword still held horizontally.

-Your manipulation may work with others, but not with me, Zorkiel. You are a being corrupted by a thirst for eternity and vengeance, rooted in your materiality from which you cannot free yourself. There's no way you can understand an essentially spiritual being like me," replied Niyari, taking a step forward and placing the tip of his blade against the chamberlain's skin, making a red dot glow faintly at the intersection of the two materials.

-In that case, I'll have no choice but to take you by force," he concluded, almost whispering.

In one lightning-quick movement, Zorkiel placed his hand on the blade and brutally squeezed it in his embrace, causing a red stream of its vital liquid to flow onto the ground. Niyari didn't flinch, however, and stared into the shadow of the hood he was wearing.

Within seconds, the long-distance confrontation intensified. Such was the power of the natural energy exuding from their bodies that gusts of wind began to blow around them, whirling their clothes and what little was on the ground around them.

Seiran had to raise his arm to shield his eyes. Just from the energy they were giving off, he could feel the power of the two beings confronting each other without moving. The Pegasus stepped back and pressed themselves against the wall to avoid the onslaught, while Inja remained in the doorway, waiting for the slightest signal to pounce. The four friends felt equally powerless in the face of these colossuses, who were giving off an energy capable of levelling a planet if they let it spread out into space.

Facing each other, the two opponents did not move. Aware of the lack of space in which to fight, they were forced to confine themselves to an altercation of natural energy. The first to release the pressure would be the loser. An extremely dangerous game, given that Niris was already running low on natural energy. He would therefore have to draw on his vital reserves to be able to continue, all the more so Niyari's possession risked permanently disconnecting his mind from his body, trapping him forever in a dark corner of his mind occupied by the spirit. The longer the possession lasted, the harder it would be to reverse, and the more Niris was drained of his natural energy, the harder it would be to recover once possession by the demonic spirit had been broken.

Seiran tried to approach. He absolutely wanted to stop this duel. He refused to lose the one he loved this way. He refused to give up. But the strength of the natural energy they were releasing was such that he had to fight against his own body to force it to move forward in the turmoil of this uncontrollable avalanche.

He fought like this for several minutes until he realised the scale of the battle he wanted to wage and how little time he had. With only his eyes to cry and his voice to scream, he opened his mouth and poured what was left of his will onto the angel.

-Niris! Don't give up! Never give up! You can't let her take control! You can't let her! We had plans.... We had a future! Lots of things we wanted to do together, lots of battles to win, dreams to fulfil! You can't let her win! You can't lose hope! I know you're there and I know you can hear me! Please wake up! Please come back! Please, come back! Please do this for me! I can't live without you! My dreams are nothing if you're not there to make them come true with you!"

In his desperation, he managed to take another step towards the two opponents, but the wind pushed him back at least half of what he had advanced. Unable to contain himself any longer, the demon howled with rage as he threw all his energy into this fight, which he knew was lost in advance but which he refused to give up.

-YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S GOING TO CHANGE OUR WORLD, YOU CAN'T JUST DISAPPEAR! HONOUR THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH IN YOU! FIGHT NIRIS! FIGHT TO THE END!"

Imperceptibly, Niyari reacted to his words. Still concentrating on the stream of energy that was relentlessly attacking her, she caught herself feeling her exhausted host's mind racing, causing him to lose control of his brain.

At the same time, Zorkiel was trying to raise his strange horn-shaped arm towards the demon to wound him sufficiently so that it could no longer intervene. Unfortunately, he couldn't kill him, he needed him for his plan, especially as he had lost his mother to the leech. He couldn't afford to lose any more leverage to carry out his plan.

Just then, a faint violet glow began to glow from the angel's wrist. Surprised, Niyari raised her wrist and couldn't suppress a smile.

-I see, that's why my fragments were implanted in you. You're not just anyone, Niris of Egea," she smiled.

Then she raised her head and smiled at the chamberlain, who was distracted by his attempt to kill the demon.

-It would seem that our conversation has come to an end here, Zorkiel de Manèvre. We shall meet again.

The man looked confusedly at the angel, who gave him a confident smile. He didn't understand what she was saying or what was going on with the bracelet, which was now sparkling with a dazzling violet glow.

-Be happy, you'll be able to find your old enemy. This child is resourceful. The day you subdue him to become your guard dog is not today."

The chamberlain frowned as he heard the mysterious words of the demonic spirit.

-Who are you talking about?

The angel gave him one last mischievous smile before his eyes faded and his head hung lifelessly on his chest. Zorkiel remained on his guard, watching as the energy continued to flow. A second later, the angel lifted his head, his eyes returning to normal as he gazed back at him with a look that was over a thousand years old.

-I thought I'd destroyed you forever, Zorkiel de Manèvre. Why are you still alive?"