The Riddle Of Magic

Chapter 66: Sweet Partnership

As the Radio Demon's shadow had cautioned, it would be months before they were ready to use the Dreaming Runes, and it had been right on the money.

Of course, that delay had left them in a rather peculiar spot, at least regarding the King of Hell and his challenge to his infernal daughter. The end of the year was what he had given her to confront him with her will, but it turned out his capricious nature seemingly applied to that contest as well, as he had gone radio silent ever since Charlie's return from the other Hell.

Not a call.

Not a text.

Not a letter.

He'd not even spoken to them in dreams, and the week before the end of the year his partner's patience had run out, and they'd gone to the palace to meet Lucifer Morningstar in person and reveal that she no longer needed to compel the answers for redemption from him, steeling themselves for whatever response he deigned to offer.

But the seraph wasn't there to meet them. No one was.

Not a single soul lingered in the palace grounds, and there was no indication as to where anyone had gone. The entire court had vanished, as if into thin air.

The Princess of Hell and the Radio Demon wandered the empty marble corridors, looking for clues.

Had he gone to another ring? Or was he in some other realm entirely? Alastor couldn't help but wonder if the angel had been voided somehow, and couldn't help but not mourn for that fact, if it were true.

But there didn't appear to be any signs of battle. Rather, it was as if whoever dwelt in this place had simply ventured into the next room ahead, waiting to surprise them. The idea of an impending ambush made the deer demon keep his partner close as they wandered, however there was an emptiness around the castle, a lightness that seemed keenly wrong, and it took the Radio Demon longer than it should have to realize what was wrong about this place.

The palace was the dwelling of a fallen angel, and host to some of the most powerful beings of Hell. There were typically magics woven throughout these halls, but now... there was no arcane energy anywhere.

And not a scrap of essence here either, other than their own. He'd seen plenty of spectres trailing about the shadows of Pentagram City's streets as they'd made their way here; but once they'd entered the palace grounds, the spirits had all vanished.

The pair made their way back to the throne room after checking the royal family's quarters, his partner almost desperate to find some kind of note or some detail for what was meant to come next, from either her father or her mother.

But there was nothing for the princess to regard - almost as if she had been forgotten in the grand scheme of things.

Abandoned.

Perhaps she had been, the deer demon thought, but dared not say, remembering the King of Hell's declaration from before.

There's time yet for a spare...

He might not be here, but the oppression Lucifer represented lingered all the same, and he could see it on his partner's porcelain face as she looked around the empty palace, robbed of the final confrontation with her sire, so it seemed.

"I'm here," Charlie Morningstar announced, facing the vacant throne. "I came. You asked me to answer your challenge, and here I am. You wanted me to face you, but it's just like always, huh? You're still not here."

The deer demon put a hand on his beloved's shoulder, seemingly safe from her sire's threat - at least for the time being.

"Well, it turns out I don't need you at all! I learned how to redeem souls all on my own - self-taught!" the half-seraph laughed bitterly. She had discovered the truth of redemption - technically having answered the King's challenge in, perhaps, the most brutally ironic way possible. "I guess there's nothing else for us to talk about now," Charlie sighed, shrugging melancholically. "I can't bring my people to Heaven. It would have been nice for you to tell me that, before I bothered with the whole redemption thing! It would have saved us a lot of trouble, and I wouldn't have had to have had my mind ripped open and also put untold worlds in jeopardy by helping a total psycho recover his lost magic."