The Demon Lord Is An Angel

She expected him to laugh.

The moment Arc made her announcement, she waited for Owyn to do what her siblings had always done.

But he didn’t laugh.

The small smile he’d held when trying to talk to her faded, and she felt, and not for the first time, that he was actually looking at her. That he was taking her seriously.

Which made her wonder why.

The only thing Arc had really shown him about herself was that she was a good marksman and had a decent grasp of her own society - a society she still felt alienated from, because of her family - but to her, that alone wasn’t a lot to go on. If he’d just laughed at her or asserted some reason she’d lose, she’d have plenty of reason to go all-out, but instead, he just stared, before nodding.

Amarena took that as a signal to explain the rules. As usual, she wanted to keep things as even as possible. Legally, trial by combat was a privilege allowed only when mediated by Knights and only for non-criminal disputes. Given her role as Knight Marshal, she knew how to set up fair fights from experience and because she’d made the rules, and Arc had seen plenty of "mediations" by combat whenever it was Amarena’s turn to babysit her.

Obviously they wouldn’t be engaging in a duel of magic. Arc couldn’t use hers outside of enhancing, and Owyn was clearly tired. Though she’d never been able to try the next step of Ferro’s water training, she knew how exhausting the first stage could be when one was starting out.

Her second-favorite dad insisted on finishing his lesson before Amarena pitted them against each other, and Amarena reluctantly agreed. Thus, their fight would take place after Ferro’s lesson and a brief rest. Once that was decided, Owyn was allowed to wade back to the center of the pond where Ferro resumed their lesson.

*

"Now, if you aren’t a fan of the water, this next lesson should appeal to you," Ferro said.

Owyn scratched his own wrist, thinking more about Arc’s fighting spirit than the lesson.

"You’ve got the basics of mana circulation, now let’s work on your ability to project your internal mana." Ferro had let himself down into the water, and now he closed his eyes. "Once you have it down, you can do this practice dry. Observe.

At first, Owyn thought nothing was happening, but after a moment he started to notice the ripples moving away from the catkin as the sensation of Ferro’s presence increased.

As Owyn gawked, Ferro kept his eyes closed, the ripples creating an audible hum as they failed to resist the steady output of mana. After a certain point, however, Ferro’s presence seemed to stabilize but the ripples still fled from him, turning into waves until all the water surrounding Ferro was no longer touching him. Only then did he open his eyes.

"See what I mean? By controlling your output and matching it to your intake, you can project mana like this without much loss. It’s also part of what allows me to walk on water without much effort."

"Showoff," Amarena said, as if the comment was directed at her. A sudden surge of water rose toward her, but in a blink, Amarena disappeared, before the surging wave engulfed Arc and pushed her into the invisible wall of the field.

"Shit," Ferro exclaimed.

"WHAT THE FUCK, DAD!"

Owyn caught himself laughing while looking at the shock on Arc’s face. She was drenched and furious, her little tail up in the air like a cat’s as she shouted at Ferro for what he did, and then at Amarena for not saving her. The latter was doing her best to stifle her laughter until after Ferro dried off Arc with a spell.

"As you can see, you can do more than just stay dry with it. It’s sort of like moving a limb than casting a spell," Ferro smiled at Owyn. "Now, let’s get you focused again..."

His next task was to push against the water. It was much, much harder than circulating the mana in his own body, especially since Ferro insisted he try focusing mana out of different parts while also maintaining an even circulation. Minutes felt like hours, and the pain in Owyn’s body mounted the harder he pushed, but he grit his teeth and continued, never voicing his pain.

*

Arc turned away the moment she sensed Owyn beginning to succeed. It wasn’t that she was jealous; she just knew continuing to watch him do what she couldn’t would only put her in a worse mood for their fight. If there was one thing she remembered her Father for teaching her, it was that lashing out in anger made one predictable.

Amarena had made it clear that this was just to figure out what Owyn needed to learn, but a part of Arc felt deeply that her Mother didn’t believe she could take care of herself at the Academy either. It was frustrating that, alone amongst all her siblings, she would be the one perpetually babied just because she couldn’t use magic like everyone else.

A rasping cry broke Arc’s reverie, and she looked at the source. Owyn had pushed his mana out too fast, letting it out in a burst that shoved at the water and sent a single large ripple through the pond before he ran out of energy. The sudden deprivation staggered him, causing him to fall backward into the water, where he floated, panting hard.

"Oh come on, is that all?" Amarena groused from the shore.

"I can’t... It’s too much..." Owyn said, his chest starting to show through his soaked shirt.

"Rena, he’s just a beginner," Ferro chastised. "And he only just got out of the hospital."

Come to think of it, he was wearing a hospital gown when we first... Arc blushed a bit as she realized that probably meant he wasn’t wearing any underwear that day, which of course made her remember the other morning when she almost saw his...

"Arc," Amarena called, "Go get one of Kordia’s energy potions. I’ve only got a couple of hours left, so let’s get this fight on the road."

"Yes, Mother," Arc sighed. Amarena was as wedded to her work as as Arc’s Father was to his research and... whatever it was he did. The only parents Arc thought of as reliable in the virtual village that raised her were her dads, Rainier and Ferrovia, and Cassiel. The ones who were at home most often.

She’d barely entered the hall when -

"Arc!" a familiar voice sounded from behind her, and Arc had to duck to avoid getting tackled by the pink blur that was her half-sister. The blur carreened almost face-first into the other wall, and Arc approached.

"Opal!? What are you doing here?" Arc helped the succubus off the ground.

Opal giggled, her pixie-cut pink hair bobbing a bit as she stood and dusted herself off. She had one pink and one purple iris, and her golden skin was speckled with freckles. She had a little crown of stubby horns that were white and well-polished, with little gold rings at the bottom.

Though they were half-sisters, Arc was born of Kir while Opal was carried by Stella. Somehow, that meant Opal wasn’t a metatron like Arc, but was born an imp before her evolution into a succubus. One who would start coming into her powers once she turned sixteen in a year or so.

"My mom sent me! Congrats on getting into the Academy. She wanted to give you a gift!" Opal and her family lived in the city, and while they weren’t close, they weren’t distant either. But Arc found her half-sister too... energetic when it came to prying into Arc’s business, and especially her non-existent love life.

Arc blanched. Oh no. A gift from Stella could only be something pervy. To her horror, before she could even speak, Opal started reaching into a dimensional storage, her hand slowly pulling out something square and... two dimensional?

"Tada! Dad suggested it a while ago, but we’re finally rolling them out! We’re going to make so much money from shy guys." She handed Arc a palm-sized rectangular plate of flexible material, completely featureless.

"What is it?" Arc asked.

"Oh, woops," Opal took the thing and turned it over. "It’s a gift card!"

The other side of the card featured rather tame, for Stella, silhouettes of succubi and incubi on the edges, and the words Stella’s Atelier of Sexual Secrets, Est VE 0, This Card entitles the Bearer to 100,000 Crysta’s Worth In Items.

Arc’s jaw dropped. The moment she finished reading, Arc looked up to find Opal sniffing at her, before a wide grin split the succubus’ face. "You met someone. Are you dating now?"

"I didn’t meet anyone, Opal. Father just put me in charge of looking after a guest." Arc’s face grew red, but of course Opal had immediately followed Owyn’s scent to the door and cracked it open to peek in.

"Ohoho... He’s cute! They are a ’he,’ right?"

"As far as I know, yes," Arc facepalmed with the card, dragging her hand down before she reached forward and pulled Opal away from the door by the tail. Her half-sister had clearly been about to yell something, probably something salacious, and Arc wasn’t about to have Opal interrupt Owyn’s training. Yes, that was the reason she dragged her away from the door and further into the hall.

"Trying to keep him all to yourself, sister?" Opal teased.

Arc let go of Opal’s tail, turned, and pointed. "Look, Opal. He’s a guest. He’s also an Outsider so don’t-"

"He’s from outside?! How come Mom didn’t tell me?"

Maybe because you’re the biggest gossip in the universe. Arc almost facepalmed again. "He’s just here for the week, then he’ll be going to the Academy. But you can’t tell anyone! Please!"

"Hmm..." Opal had a mischievous, hungry look in her eyes. "How about... I won’t tell anyone as long as you let stay the night. Oh, and introduce me to him!"

"What?!" Arc squeaked.

"Come on, Sis. Just introduce us." Opal licked her lips. "You know Mom doesn’t let me out of the house often..."

For good reason, Arc thought. But she knew she’d entrapped herself, and now the only way out was through.

Dammit.