The Red Hand

"Hrrrmgh... Yeah, this is nice." Halifax said as she stretched on a blanket, relaxing in the Sun. "I could take a nice nap out here." She yawned as she closed her eyes. After everything with Labrys the Divine Blade had, at the insistence of Akagi, taken a bit of a break. The Demon primarily wanted to keep her away from the Dwarf situation, but also understood that with the previous trauma, Halifax needed a bit of rest. Currently, she was sunning in the field just outside of the Dumetor base, the warm weather making it easy to unwind.

{No thinking about anything for a while, nope. Just rest. Maybe I should dissipate my body while I'm at it. It's been a long time since I've done that and had some proper sleep.} (Halifax)

"Though if I did that, I might fall asleep for a couple of decades, knowing my luck." Halifax chuckled before turning over on the blanket and putting her hand over her blade. The prior events had been hard on her, and she'd been left to handle most of her thoughts on her own; something that was none to pleasant."Though that might be nice..."

{Slipping away into a deep slumber... How long has it been since I've last rested like that? A few hundred years?} (Halifax)

"But if you go into a deep sleep, the kitty will be sad." Yumi commented as she stood above the nearly asleep Divine Blade. "She'd complain that your sword form can't give her pets or snuggles."

"True, true." Halifax replied. "I can't feel the kitty's fluff if all I have is cold metal to touch her with. Hmmm... Decisions, decisions. Sloop or floof? Which to pick? Hmmm... A very hard choice indeed. Very hard."

"I swear..." Yumi rolled her eyes. "Does the personality run in the family, or did she rub off on you?"

"In all fairness, I've always been like this. I just had to keep it under wraps due to those bullshit things called status and duty..." Halifax replied as she turned over again, facing her. "Though past me was also kinda bratty too, so who knows. That might just be baked into who I am, but the kitty might've made it worse." She snickered.

"She does have a bad habit of bringing out the worst in people." Yumi shook her head. "Though I suppose I can't complain, since I do like that about her."

{That and her penchant for teasing people.} (Yumi)

"I agree." Halifax said as she slowly sat up and stretched. "If nothing else, it's nice to have someone who you can just be you around. That idiotic Cat doesn't judge, and I appreciate that."

"Considering she turns into a fluffy goofball to get spoiled, she'd be in for it if she ever did." Yumi giggled.

"So what's got you out here?" Halifax turned to Yumi, figuring that it wasn't by chance that she'd come out here. "I would've imagined that you were busy with your work. Aren't you handling some deployment of the Ninja?" She'd heard the news of the pending Demon Civil War just recently. It was something Halifax knew Akagi was pushing for to clean that whole situation up, though she was more frustrated with the Nobles than the Demon, who apparently believed the Gods were coming to bail them out, than anyone else.

"I'm quite swamped with all that, but I had a minute,and I wanted to talk to you. May I?" Yumi gestured toward the blanket, and Halifax responded by shifting over to allow the Priestess to sit next to her.

The Divine Blade had interacted with Yumi quite a bit since she'd originally met Akagi, though their interactions alone had been far and few between. Normally, Akagi was always around, and having the Priestess intentionally approach her while the Demon was away made Halifax a bit wary.

{Is this where I get threatened with stabbing if I don't back off the Kitty?!?} (Halifax)

"I don't know why people think so poorly of me." Yumi sighed, seemingly reading the Divine Blade's thoughts. “I'm not that bad.”

"Um..." Halifax froze..

"You might be a good bit older than me, but you're pretty bad at hiding your thoughts." Yumi chuckled. "Your face betrays your emotions."

"Ah... Let's blame that on Akagi too..." Halifax laughed as she scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. "I've been able to loosen up since I met her, so I've probably gotten a bit too relaxed. I used to have a really good poker face."

"Nothing wrong with a bit of change." Yumi shrugged, not seeing it as an issue. "And you'd be far from the first person to have attitude changes because of her. Hishya used to be a far less... pleasant person in the past. But enough of Akagi's shenanigans, and a heaping helping of persistence, made the Dragon change her tune. I'd say she turned out better as a result, and that's not even getting into how Akagi's affected us."

"She's definitely a force of change, that's for sure." Halifax replied. "Whether it's worlds, people, or common sense, nothing comes into contact with Akagi and stays the same." She continued. "Maybe we should even start calling her the Demon Lord of change." She joked.

"I don't know whether she'd find that title cringe worthy or amusing." Yumi rolled her eyes. "Though one cannot deny that it's appropriate. She does indeed have a way of shaking things up, often without even trying or meaning to. Out of curiosity, did Vikes have a title like that?"

"No." Halifax shook her head. "He was just the Demon Lord, and all anyone cared about was how much destruction he'd caused. Calling him the Demon Lord of Destruction would also be superfluous for obvious reasons."

"Not to mention that I think our Demon Lord would take offense at anyone else holding that title." Yumi chuckled.

"If I were to give him a title, it would be the Demon Lord of love, funnily enough." Halifax said with a quiet laugh. "When... When Akagi connected me to the shard within the Cults' base... I saw so much of his history... Our history... Vikes truly loved his family... This world... He was overflowing with it... But..."

"But his love became twisted." Yumi continued for her. "I saw what happened to him on that day, the day he became Vikes. It... It was quite something."

"You know, he never actually wanted to hurt anyone... He just wanted to be a normal kid and play adventure and enjoy life..." Halifax said, Yumi sensing the sadness filling her heart. "He never wanted to be a Demon Lord. He never wanted to fight the Gods. He never... He never wanted anything other than to be friends with everyone... And I... Enūma... She made a mistake. She didn't understand that, as a Demon Lord, Vikes was not fated to be this world's ruler... He was to be its end. She put ideas of domination and control into such a young child's impressionable mind, and when he lost his parents... Her words... They helped to twist his love into... Well..."

{…} (Halifax)

"If only the bad people who reject my love are destroyed, then everyone can be my friend." Yumi guessed what'd went through the Demon Lord's mind. "A naive viewpoint, though an understandable one since he was a mere child."

"It was partially my fault that he became like that." Halifax said. "Had Enūma not misunderstood what a Demon Lord was, she would've more carefully chosen her words. If she knew that he was an unstable being meant to destroy everything, I think she would've tried to seclude him from the world. Demon Lord companion or not, the loss of what made him him was never something she was okay with."

"So Enūma did not know exactly what Vikes was?" Yumi thought such a lack of information strange. "That's odd, considering she was born from him and seemed to understand that he was a Demon Lord. Why would she not know his true nature?"

"I have not seen the full picture, and naturally, I have no memories of that time, but it would seem that Enūma knew that Vikes was a Demon Lord, but was under the impression that he was to rule Enoris rather than destroy it." Halifax explained. "Once it became clear that Vikes was out to destroy the world, Enūma tried her best to calm him down, but it was too late. The war with the Gods was in full swing, and eventually she was separated from him..."

"And with you gone, the last thing keeping him somewhat grounded was gone." Yumi said. "You were in a similar situation to what I am now."

"I just don't understand why she wasn't given complete knowledge of Vikes' nature. It makes no sense why she wouldn't understand he was there to destroy rather than rule." Halifax shook her head. “Its a crucial piece of information, and she didn't have it.”

"Akagi once explained that Demon Lords are created by reality to purge worlds that consume more energy than they produce." Yumi said. "Perhaps when Demon Lords are created, something new is tried each time? Each new Demon Lord is a test bed to see what does and does not work? After all, Akagi had no partner and she was left completely unaware of what she was and her 'destiny' right up until everything boiled over."

"Perhaps, but I don't see what purpose Enūma would serve." Halifax shook her head. Yumi's theory of each Demon Lord being a test made sense, but the Divine Blade couldn't understand what her purpose would've been. "What reason could I have to exist in such a scenario? Enūma pushed him to rule the world, not destroy it. It was a huge misunderstanding, and one that ended up..." She paused, her eyes going wide as a realization washed over her. "It was intentional... The misunderstanding... By giving her the knowledge that Vikes was a Demon Lord but obfuscating exactly what that meant, she'd naturally push him to use his power and fight..."

"And in doing so, Vikes would slowly succumb to his power." Yumi nodded, having come to the same conclusion. "That's exactly what happened on the day Kana and the girls were attacked at the mall. Had it not been for Akagi's strong will, she would've been overwhelmed by the power and then..." She made a poof noise and used magic to make a small explosion in her hands.

{As Akagi likes to quote: And everyone died, the end.} (Yumi)

"Then... Does that mean there were issues with other Demon Lords resisting their nature? And that the whole system was trying to find ways to force it?" Halifax hummed in thought.

{That would imply that there are MORE Demon Lords out there like Akagi, or at least there were at one point.} (Halifax)

"Who can say for sure." Yumi shrugged. "All I know is that I don't care what Akagi was created for; I want her to stay the way she is. I refuse to lose the person I love just because some stupid mechanism demands it." She said before turning to Halifax. "That's why I need help..."

"Help?" Halifax replied.

"Help from you, from Kana... Help from everyone." Yumi continued. "We need to make sure that Akagi never loses herself, never forgets who she is... Or that she has people who care about her very much."

{I don't want to lose her; especially as there is a great deal of time ahead of us.} (Yumi)

"What do you want me to do?" Halifax asked.

"Nothing more than what you've been doing already." Yumi said as she stood up and stretched. "Keep being her friend, that's all I ask. Keep being the friend she needs when she needs it." She smiled. “You've been a good influence on her.”

"So you're okay with me spoiling the kitty?" Halifax laughed as Yumi helped her up.

"As long as she's smiling, that's all I care about." Yumi sighed. “Not like you can spoil her more than Miji at this point anyway.”

"Then I think it will be easy." Halifax said. "Listen, I won't make the same mistake as my past self. This time... This time, I will make sure I don't lose my friend to their Demon Lord side, or die trying." She said as she stuck her hand out for a fist bump, which Yumi returned.

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