Glaustro had claimed Breskwor.
The world quaked as divine ichor hardened on the ground beneath the goddess, and change swept through. I could barely think as the attention of every living thing on Breskwor centered in on that singular cavern. Every mind's subconscious screamed out in anguish.
Their goddess was dead. Nothing would ever be the same for the yeti.
Breskwor itself, however, did not care. The merest hint of awareness burst forth as the goddess's throne collapsed. This force, this fundamental piece of the land whose heart we were standing in, rejoiced.
It wrapped around Glaustro with no hesitation at all.
The free-flowing Divinity that had begun to die down into stillness surged once more. Its heat grew, transforming from something cold and dead to something decidedly infernal and bursting with power.
And the vast majority of that power streamed straight into Glaustro's body.
I'd known Glaustro for a while at that point. I'd served under him. Fought alongside him. I'd even gotten to know the person buried within that angry demon I'd met so long ago. And throughout all of that, there was always an underlying tension to the man, a current hidden just beneath the skin that never let him fully relax.
So, the look of sheer peace on his face as the Divinity cocooned around him was shocking, to say the least.
It was also cause for some concern. The rapid spike in his mana sent it raging wildly within the confines of all that Divinity, and I really didn't want to be too close once the cocoon burst.
"Out! Now!" I screamed at the others as I swept Mia up and obeyed my own order.
My eyes caught on Bronwynn's briefly as I zipped by him. Something in his expression spoke of a stubborn mulishness that might make him do something stupid. But to my relief, when we swept out of the cavern, I could feel his soul among the crowd at my heels.
All the while, Glaustro's presence continued to build and build, until it eclipsed even what I'd felt from the dead goddess.
I had no idea if this degree of intensity was something unique to Glaustro, because of his strength and the fact that he was on the verge of ascension, or if this was the typical boon all claimants of a world were due… but now was not the time to figure that out. I could get to the bottom of it later.
We were almost to the remnants of the spheres we'd abandoned on our way down when an eruption of mana swept over us. My entire world dissolved into chaos. I might have screamed, but both my body and all my mystical senses were so badly jumbled by the ridiculous density of mana washing over me that I couldn't even hear myself think.
That was when I passed out.
Throughout Breskwor, all living creatures winced and stumbled as something fundamental within them shifted. The spark of Divinity the goddess had planted in them did not wink out, but it twisted, changed, and became something different. Something new. Divinity still, yet shot through with both red and black.
Those unfortunate enough to be located close to any major mana sources got to witness another unique event. Those sources sputtered, shifted, and then increased in intensity, now laced with a distinct Abyssal tint. Then every creature in the immediate vicinity was consumed by the intensified burst of mana, reduced to nothing within the blink of an eye.
Some, though… some survived. Some were shoved back together by that same mana when their souls refused to let go, when their minds screamed out against the injustice with all the Wrath they could muster, and something answered in kind.
They were altered.
Yet they lived.
A ripple spread across the sky too. It targeted an aurora which already existed there, so inconspicuous that it could have been mistaken for a perfectly natural occurrence. But the aurora quailed under the assault of the mana, and for just a moment, its true nature was revealed: a string of wondrous lights that stretched off into infinity on one end, and burrowed deep into the ground on the other, almost like some immense, mystical root.
This aurora sputtered, withered, and died, while a different presence tainted the skies of Breskwor in its reddish and black colors.
And within the planet's core, a pair of fiery eyes snapped open. Their owner's soul swelled, thickened, and then abruptly shifted in its base nature, becoming more. A whole world of potential swelled within it, filling it with the most primordial chaos.
The fiery eyes closed. Glaustro sighed.
Then he called out his first order as demonic nobility.
All across Breskwor, the unrest caused by the event ceased, and it all but vanished from the memories of the world's mortal races. It did not disappear. To erase something so fundamental was impossible. But it sank deep beneath the conscious mind and hid, lurking in case it was needed.
It was an intensely uncomfortable experience, waking up with a raging headache as a demon. Demons could take incredible amounts of punishment, stress, and contaminants before such a thing became possible, so the fact that I was barely cognizant of my surroundings would have been alarming if I could muster the strength to think.
"Easy," Glaustro's voice rumbled somewhere above me.
I forced my eyes open in a squint. He was sitting on the comfiest chair he owned, in other words an Abyss-imported one rather than one of my own make, and he was looking at me with considerable amusement over the rim of a steaming mug.
"What happened? I feel like I got run over by a…" I trailed off as I sat up, because of course my brain couldn't let a daze hang over me for even a couple extra seconds. As soon as I moved, it jolted me back to full awareness, accompanied by another dose of mind-splitting agony.
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I also got to relive, in stark detail, the moments before Glaustro just about obliterated us with his explosion of mana.
I took another peek at the demon, this time pushing my soul sense harder. Then I hissed and squeezed my eyes shut. The brilliance of his soul threatened to blind me. It wasn't quite as bad as looking at powerful nobles like Crewe or the general himself too closely, but Glaustro was definitely glowing now.
"Congratulations on your advancement," I managed to slur. His laughter made my head ring, so I ignored it and focused on gripping the mug he shoved into my hands.
"Thank you, but don't act like you didn't benefit, too! Really, I should have known you'd be the first one to wake up. I'd bet Mia would be next, but I don't think you'd take me up on those odds," Glaustro teased, still looking more relaxed and at peace than I'd ever seen him before.
I didn't bother to ask what he meant about my 'benefit.' I didn't need to. As my headache waned and full awareness came back to me, I also noticed the new weight inside my soul. It was denser, more substantial somehow. And while it obviously hadn't changed as much as Glaustro's, there was a definite difference in quality, even from those moments before we were hit by that blast of mana.
"I'm guessing we have to thank you for… this?" I asked slowly.
Then I looked around, suddenly distracted. We were in Glaustro's bedroom. Having made the space myself, I could easily recognize it. Mia, Bronwynn, Methialia, and I were all packed onto his bed like sardines, with the other three still down for the count.
"Um… I don't suppose this is your way of telling us you've let your newfound power go to your head and we're all part of your harem now?" I quipped.
Glaustro actually choked on his drink, his eyes bugging out to an almost comical degree.
"Don't even joke about that!" he sputtered. "Bronwynn would…"
"Would?" I tilted my head, brows furrowing.
Glaustro looked away, though I noticed him glancing at the aforementioned sergeant from the corner of his eye, as if gauging whether Bronwynn was just pretending to sleep.
I saw it then, finally, when my ever-so-stoic major let his attention slip. A wonderfully thick cord of love, affection, and a whole slew of other feelings all bundled up together, stretching between Glaustro and Bronwynn like an unbreakable chain.
Except 'chain' wasn't the right word. A chain was something that bound you against your will. What I spotted passing between them was far from that.
Even unconscious, Bronwynn's Affection seemed hell-bent on wrapping around Glaustro. Glaustro's Wrath was a far more volatile Emotion, but it enveloped Bronwynn gently. And fiercely. I knew for certain that existence itself would feel Glaustro's volatility if something happened to the often grouchy pink-skinned demon.
Demons were so often associated with darker and more sinister emotions. It seemed as if everyone forgot we were creatures of all feelings under the sun. The bad, the good, the ugly, and the beautiful.
What existed between these two demons was so full of beauty that my heart ached. I just stared at them, wondering how I could have missed this for so long.
At the same time, I couldn't help wondering what people saw when they looked at Mia and me. Was the sight as beautiful? Or was it marred by far less appealing elements? How much of our bond was pure love and desire, and how much of it was need?
I shuddered, doing my best to conceal my churning Emotions.
"Never mind," Glaustro said, apparently just as eager to change the subject. "And yes, it was me, more or less. It was an instinctual thing, but I did want the rest of you to be rewarded for what we'd managed to achieve."
I looked again at my companions. Mia and Methialia appeared to have experienced the same amount of advancement as I did. We were all still archdemons, but much closer to the peak than we'd been before. And Bronwynn… Bronwynn had advanced a whole level.
No need to worry about Methialia or anyone else edging him out now. Not that Glaustro would ever allow that, of course. We could all be archdemon sergeants together, assuming the fiery demoness received the promotion she deserved.
My gaze shifted back to Glaustro. Really, all the pride and approval in his eyes were enough to give me the warm fuzzies. And then he went around saying he wasn't the parental figure in my life and Mia's?
I risked another quip. "Careful there. You're not doing a good job of dodging those harem seduction allegations."
I started to duck when he mimed throwing his cup straight at my head. He did laugh, though, and I joined right in. All the stress, worry, and pressure washed off my shoulders as I thumped back into the bed, only just managing to keep the chocolate drink from spilling.
"No letting anyone else seduce you," Mia grumbled, cutting off our laughter. I studied the cat demoness as she cuddled up to me, her eyes still closed.
My heart warmed, and most of that churning confusion faded away, replaced by bubbly contentment.
"And when did you wake up?"
"I didn't. My eyes are not open. Head hurts. Feed me the nice-smelling stuff."
I tilted my head for a moment, wondering how my cat expected me to get the hot chocolate into her mouth when she was currently rubbing her face into my shoulder.
I eventually sighed, shrugged, and conjured a crystalline shell with a straw for the mug. It still took some persuading for her to cooperate enough to actually stick said straw into her mouth, but we managed.
Glaustro just watched and smiled while I complained about the demands of unreasonable felines. It seemed like he was in no rush to leave, which was good. I did have some questions I wanted answers to.
"What happened to Imthala?"
Glaustro sighed at that, some of the mirth fleeing from his face. "Imthala herself is fine. She managed to figure out a way to partially harness the cold using her magic. Unfortunately, that meant putting herself into suspended animation inside of an ice cocoon. The rest of the soldiers on her transport did not make it, even before she grew desperate enough to try that. The good news is, I don't think the cold damaged their souls too much. They'll resurrect with minimal consequences to their strength, and they'll be fairly compensated for a death accrued in the line of duty."
I hummed, relaxing a smidge. Divinity was so heavily soul-based that I'd been worried about what it could do to a demon's soul. Even if resurrection was always a certainty, how much of yourself you got to take back to the Abyss was a matter of luck when up against soul-killers or particularly damaging soul magic.
"That's good, at least. Everything go well back here in the city while we were absent?"
Glaustro's lips twitched in a certain way that meant he was extremely amused. "Oh, yes. Well, Wilhelmina seemed to know more than she let on about what was happening. She staged an escape attempt the second the divine assault on our city began, but I don't think she had any idea how thoroughly we'd prepared for such an attempt."
"Oh?" I didn't bother going for stoicism. I just grinned with vicious glee.
"Yes, I do believe she was quite… indisposed, afterwards. Nearly catatonic, in fact. She kept some of her wits, and she's slowly getting better if her guards are to be believed, but it will be quite some time before she can even move properly again, let alone plan. Right now, she's limited to twitching."
"What a tragedy."
"Indeed."
We spent a few moments in quiet stillness, at least until Glaustro deigned to procure me another mug of hot chocolate from somewhere out of sight. Of course, he needn't have bothered, because I got only a couple sips before Mia began pawing at me to pass it to her again. I rolled my eyes and obliged, but not before stealing a quick kiss. I didn't care if Glaustro was watching.
She tasted delightfully chocolatey.
That wasn't enough to distract me from the reality of our situation forever, though.
"You know this might as well have been the easy part, right?" I sighed, feeling tired just thinking about the future. "We're actually going to have to report in and establish a connection to the Abyss now."
"I know. I'm… trying not to think about it at the moment. I'm not sure what might happen if someone finds out Breskwor is a well of Divinity."
"Hiding that is going to be a pain."
"Correct. Good thing, then, that I have plenty of capable sergeants to rely on."
I pretended to grouse about that, but I couldn't hide a small, pleased smile.
Sure, it was true that hiding things from the legion would be difficult. But the sheer potential of having an official demonic city of our own, located on top of our world, was an opportunity like few others.
Trade, influence, growing connections within the legion itself… all of that was finally ours for the taking.
And I meant to hold on to everything I could keep from slipping through my fingers.