Darkness in Heaven (Part 2: Those That Remained)

It was quiet in the ruins of the mansion. It was dark and cold, the sun was still an hour away from poking it's head up for it's morning stretch, though the clouds that hung over them now hid that fact well.

Aqua hadn't left Kazuma's side. Staring at him with worry, keeping him healed up as best she could for when Darkness saved him... but the fact she had no way of knowing what was happening was driving her mad. She rocked back and forth, she bit her thumb nail, and although there were others around (Wiz, Tifa, Aerith and a few of the monster-girls were sat next to her in a semi circle) who were checking on her too, her eyes were locked on Kazuma's corpse. Keeping his body near the campfire made of their dining table to keep him warm.

As for Xara and Sylvia, there was a heavily awkward tension between the two. Obviously they had just been physically fighting before the sight of Kazuma's dead body had halted that immediately, but the feelings hadn't gone anywhere. They just both knew that they didn't want the other to be here, didn't want to be anywhere near the other, while refusing to leave their beloved's side. The two had come to a silent agreement to stay on opposite sides of the room while keeping watch in case any other attacks on Kazuma occurred.

Once more the goddess of the group sighed. Her eyes going unfocused while still staring deep into Kazuma's face. The fact he was mortal was so... torturous. Her feelings that were growing for both him and Darkness were starting to plague her mind more and more, especially with the two seemingly wanting to spend the rest of their mortal lives together. Aqua often had to ignore the feelings of being immortal in a world of those she cared about who would eventually die. She did good at ignoring those feelings, but having to sit here and stare at the reality of it all... those thoughts were creeping in.

Thankfully, a conversation distracted her.

"We shouldn't have let her go in alone," Xara grumbled. Currently she was perched on the ruins of the fireplace, like a laid back gargoyle drinking wine. "There are other humans we could have sent in with her. Was there no others in your harem that we could have contacted?"

"She wouldn't have waited. Mistress Darkness doesn't seem like the type to wait for assistance when she could tackle the problem head on." Sylvia replied from her spot of leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, before quietly adding. "Besides, you're not very good at getting in contact with others..."

The Succubus Queen shook her head dismissively, "How petulant. Are you trying to copy my snide remarks to you?"

"You don't have a monopoly on snide remarks!" The chimera hissed back.

"Trust a chimera to be a copycat."

"How about you-"

"Oh, give it a REST!"

The two who had been at risk of lunging at each other, stopped locking eyes to look at the one who had yelled at them. Aqua finally moved from her spot to slam her foot into the ground. An anger on her face very rarely seen by anyone, her fists were balls and her shoulders were shaking as she stamped over to the pair.

"This isn't about the two of you! Darkness and Kazuma might be in trouble and all you care about is some dumb argument from a gagillion years ago!" She barked pointing at the surprised pair who hadn't been talked down to in a long time. "This is MY harem too! That means I'M in charge, and I say you two have to get along from now on! GOT IT?!"

Xara and Sylvia looked sheepishly from her to each other, both reflecting on their actions tonight a little. "Sorry, Mistress Aqua." The two said in unison, as if responding to a teacher's scolding.

Satisfied enough, Aqua nodded her head and marched back to her spot. Though this time sitting on Wiz's lap and getting comfortable. The surprised Lich was confused at first before realising that her wife needed some comfort, and quickly began snuggling with Aqua's back.

The chimera and the queen were stuck in an awkward silence. Though Aqua had been quite firm with them, both still had a desire to say something about their past.

"I guess, that's that."

"Yes. We must, get along. I suppose."

It was awkward, and it was a fact that Aerith picked up on quickly. "Um, Mistress Aqua, sorry to go back on your ruling but I'd actually like to hear about why those two are fighting. Maybe it'll help them get along better and kill some time while we wait for Darkness?"

After a moment of quiet snuggles from Wiz, Aqua had calmed enough to nod, "Fine. It'll pass the time at least. But no more fighting!"

The two women were seemingly on board. "Thank you, Aqua. Us two are to be Harem companions, so I think I personally would appreciate a chance to talk it over." Sylvia agreed, trying to sound like the reasonable one and making Xara roll her eyes. The chimera hummed, putting a finger to her chin in thought. "Where to begin..."

"Once upon a time, my husband died." Xara bluntly cut in, "You all know this but I spent long few years trying to find a partner that wouldn't die on me during sex. Almost no one had the sexual energy to manage, and the hunger inside me was growing that it looked like I was destroying whole towns, when in reality a lot of humans threw their lives at me for their chance of sex with me for eternity." She recounted, seemingly quite remorseful about her literal body count. "It wasn't an easy time for me. I nearly starved on multiple occasions. We Succubae weren't as accepted at the time, and it was slim picking when someone would agree to letting me watch my subjects feed on sexual energy instead and living off the slices in the room. We started succubus venues around to cultivate more for me, but it always felt like I was living off borrowed time..."

"Until Kazuma and Darkness, right?"

Xara frowned a little, looking over at Sylvia, "That wasn't 100% truthful. There was one other who didn't die on me straight away."

"...once upon a time, I was a human." The chimera started, copying Xara once again, "And I fell in love with the Succubus Queen. It may have started as a stupid crush, but my heart was obsessed with her. So much so that I managed to live where others couldn't and lick her adorably tangy pussy all the way to so many orgasms..." She reminisced before snapping her self out of it. Xara giving her a mighty frown as she sweated nervously.

Tapping her fingers against her arm, Xara continued, "Yes. We made love many times, and I finally was able to have some sort of release with another. But it still wasn't enough to fully satiate me. As a succubus, I need male energy specifically, preferably from a good source of cum. But as a fling? Sylvia was... acceptable." said Xara, earning her own annoyed frown from Sylvia. Xara looked at her for a pregnant pause before hanging her head and sighing, "...that isn't true either. I honestly treasured her and the feelings she gave me. Why wouldn't it? Even if she wasn't the only option. Sex with her was fun, and I enjoyed our time together quite a lot."

The woman reeled, "Y-you did?!"

"Yes. Which is what made the next part so hurtful to me." Xara hissed, wings flapping lightly in anger as she turned away from Sylvia. "Your betrayal."

"I-I didn't-!" Sylvia started, looking rather distraught and flustered, "It wasn't... I did it for you!"

"Oh, really? Because it damned-" Xara caught herself, looking back over at an unimpressed Aqua who had suddenly summoned her priest staff. It was currently leaning on Wiz and burning her lightly, but Aqua kept her glare towards the two. "Apologies, dear. But you see, this was when Sylvia became a general of the Demon King's Army."

Surprise followed over to everyone looking at Sylvia, who was shrinking a little in worry. "Xara needed a man! She just said so! I wanted to provide for her! To be the rock that had survived her sexual pressure AND be the one who could feed her what she wanted!" Sylvia flustered, "The Demon King... he offered to make me a Chimera in exchange for joining his army. Not only would I have the ability to grow a fully functional penis, I'd be able to live far longer than I would have as a human. I just wanted to love Xara for longer and brighter, but she couldn't see that..."

"Don't you put this on me." Xara snapped back, jamming a finger into Sylvia's dress accusatorily, "I begged you not to join that man. It didn't matter to me you couldn't provide everything for me, I would have been happy without it. But how could I be with someone who was supporting the eradication of humans?! Which is, oh I don't know, my people's FOOD SOURCE!" She yelled, not even caring about looking at Aqua anymore. "I told you if you went through with it, we were done. But you just had to be 'the hero' to try and save me."

"He was just a means to an end! I would have left his army as soon as someone killed me! I thought you'd-"

"That I'd just kill a woman I cared for because she betrayed my trust for the greater good? I didn't even want to see you anymore after you went to him!"

"B-but we could have talked! I went to all your succubus cafés, but you always shunned me, pushed me back or left before I arrived. I just wanted to see you again because I changed everything to be with you forever..." Sylvia sadly sighed, looking down at the ground. "But I eventually caved. Stopped trying to find you and went in search of someone who appreciated for me, though I still always held a little hope you'd eventually find me. That you'd run out of options and realise that I was still here waiting..." Xara kept quiet, frowning but not angry. Though she raised an eyebrow when Sylvia began chuckling to herself. "How funny, I finally got to talk to you and it's too late. We've both found another, and we're both betrothed to the same man. Fate certainly is strange, isn't it?"

Xara couldn't help but smile at the irony. Relaxing a little, "You're right there."

"For what it's worth... I am sorry." Sylvia admitted, "I've obviously had a long time to reflect on my actions. I don't regret becoming a Chimera, but I do regret betraying you. I should have looked harder to find a way that wouldn't have required becoming locked into a life with the Demon King. And if there was no other way, then I should have just been happy as I was."

"Well, thank you for apologising." The succubus queen nodded, "I suppose I could have at least heard you out, if only out of respect of what we had." She admitted, standing firm against Sylvia's glimmer of hope that poured out her wide eyes, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you... but if we're stuck together in this harem I suppose I can let you try."

There was a brief moment as Sylvia smiled at Xara. She was fighting back the urge to do anything that may ruin the precious sliver of time they had found, though fate knew how to ruin that too.

"I don't want to break this up so quickly, my Queen," The pink haired succubus suddenly spoke up, eyes glaring upwards with a hushed tone of worry in her usually sexy voice, "But we have company."

All eyes quickly guided upwards... to a hole in the sky itself.

A pure white runic circle was open on the dark clouded night sky, and from it was pouring out a countless number of white winged figures. Angel after angel flew down single file, dozens of them all gliding down to begin encircling the mansion. Apart from the flapping of their wings they staying stationary in the sky around twice the height of the mansion and staying just out of the grounds in terms of distance. Creepily lining up one after the other.

It was definitely a sight that made the demonic members of the harem's skin grow cold.

But Aqua wasn't demonic.

"Oh my gosh!" She jumped up from Wiz's lap, pointing to the march of angels with excitement, "I know them! HEY! HEY DOWN HERE~!"

The other's were far less welcoming as one of angels broke formation and started slowly flying down to 'greet' Aqua. The majority of the room began instinctively getting into battle formations behind the bluenette, who was completely ignoring the tension of the room. The male angel landing his feet atop one of the tallest remaining ruined walls with arms behind his back and an unimpressed look on his face. His blonde hair was slicked back, his white robes immaculate, and for one so holy he certainly glared like a demon.

"Hello, Lady Aqua."

"Glenn! You guys finally got here!" Aqua beamed, waving up and the stationary figure, "Did you get lost in heaven or something?! I invited you all to a poker party months and months ago!" She shook her head teasingly. "Ahh, silly angels. Come on, I can introduce you to everyone!"

The angel's face remained hauntingly still, "We are not late, nor are we here for poker. On orders of Divane, we are here to incinerate the body of Satou Kazuma and his Harem. Do not stand in our way."

Aqua stopped in place and blinked.

"...eh?"

"WATCH IT!"

Xara had just a second to push Sylvia out of the way of the pure white arrow that shot past everyone. The holy magic slicing her wing in half and digging into her upper chest, a piercing shriek as she fell to the ground in pain.

"Xara!" The chimera yelled, scrambling from where she was pushed to the fallen succubus. Anguish on her face as the queen writhed in holy pain. "Nononononono... w-why'd you do that...?"

"That was simply a warning shot." Glenn announced passively. "Do not resist and this shall be over soon."

The row of angels that had surrounded the mansion suddenly raised their hands together and begun chanting together. A huge runic circle suddenly encircled the mansion, about the size of where the barrier used to be. The holy magic made the whole dark landscape illuminate, and it was growing rapidly in brightness.

"P-purification magic!" Wiz hissed in pain, her form slightly fading while she fell to her knees. The other monsters and succubae all following similar motions as the holy magic grew around them.

Xara's number two, Dhysana, was the first to act. Jumping on her Queen's body to inspect the damage before clapping her own hands together and thrusting them towards the floor. "Everyone on me! We're teleporting back to safety!" She loudly yelled over the chanting of the angels above while her own circle of runes appeared around Xara. The group leapt into action. Tifa grabbing Kazuma's body over her shoulder, Aerith scooping up Chomusuke, and Bova moving Wiz to the circle. Svobena was the only one not in the teleport ring as she was trying to grab a stunned goddess' hand.

"Aqua! Come on! Let's go!"

The bluenette was still in shock, unable to be moved from her spot as she looked on in horror. So many of the ones she'd grown close to this week were gasping for breath, fading away, or worse for Xara. But these angels knew her, why were they hurting them?

Glenn landed on the floor, his arm finally swinging around from his back to aim his now glowing fingers at Dhysana. "I'm afraid I can't let you go so easily."

But before he could let out his holy arrow, Aqua grabbed his wrist.

"S-stop it! What are you all doing!? These are my friends!"

The angel grimaced slightly, "...you've become friends with these hell beasts? Perhaps you're a bigger fool than I thought, Lady Aqua"

...

Aqua was having a bad night.

With thrusting hands, the angels all called out, "SACRED HIGH EXORCISM!"

The next few seconds were a blur. Svobena jumped back, the teleport ring activated, and only seconds after that the huge climactic pillar of light surrounded the mansion. Like the heavens themselves had opened to smite the unholy house, it lasted a whole half a minute and illuminated the landscape for miles as if it was the sunniest summer day.

But it did fade. The mansion was no more destroyed than it was before, only targeting the unholy and those that were to be sent to the heavenly realm on Divane's orders.

"Did we get them all?"

"Of course. That strength exorcism would have sent anyone to heaven."

"Except those smelly demons! They went straight to hell!"

"Inde- ...hang on, who's that?"

The holy particles were slowly fading, and in the harsh light stood a single figure. In theory, the angels were right. Their magic would have purified anything...

Except the one angry goddess that was left behind.

"You all done?" The figure hissed, raising Glenn's struggling body above her by the neck. Such a usually poised angel now bug eyed and flailing as he tried to breathe, it was making the blood of the rest of the angels turn rather chilled. "Good. Now it's time to show you assholes the difference between angels and goddesses."

With an unremorseful cracking sound, Glenn's body jerked suddenly before disappearing into nothing. It didn't take even a second after for the woman to spring into action as Aqua was unleashed. Jumping onto the ruins of the couch and activating her own magic underneath it. "SACRED CREATE WATER!" She yelled, a massive blast quickly appearing under her platform and skyrocketing her and the wood upwards towards the stunned angels.

"SCATTER!" One shouted, but it was too late for some.

The couch slammed hard into one girl, while Aqua sprang off of it to land herself on another. Quickly spidering herself on the angels limbs and biting down on their scalp in pure rage. The ones who had been on the other side of the mansion rapidly began to try and flutter away, but Aqua was already beginning her second attack.

"SACRED CONTROL WATER!" The gnarled goddess shouted. Suddenly the huge reverse waterfall that was shooting up ineffectively from the mansion began to wobble. Then wobble some more. Then, almost like a snake, it leaned back to slam down on the fleeing angels. Aqua pointed her staff down to where she was now pinning multiple angels with her aquatic powers, all from the scrambling angel's back she'd latched onto. Swinging her around as they tried to fly steady, to only help her in whipping the water around into other terrified angels.

Water quickly began flowing into town. It was certainly destroying more of the mansion that Xara and Sylvia had managed to leave behind. But Aqua didn't care. Centuries of frustrations towards those that had always called her mean names behind her back, or uninvited her to their angelic karaoke nights, or just generally never tried to get to know her was all coming out right now. Catharsis felt great.

Luna was worried.

The whole street was awake now. A lot of citizens and adventurers coming out to explore what was happening at the Kazuma Mansion. The light had been so bright that it was hard to stay asleep even in this dark cloudy morning. And now? It was hard to see properly but it looked like a huge blue snake was attacking them, while also a pretty substantial flow of water began to cascade around their feet.

She wanted to rush over there and help. Luna hadn't really ever been the one to go and brave the world of monsters, she'd always been a little bit jealous of those that could get over those cowardly feelings but she'd overcome them to help make the best guild she could. But now she was part of Darkness' little family... those urges to overcome her fears were growing again.

Though tonight wouldn't be the night to go all the way to the mansion and fight by their side. Because as soon as Luna stepped out of the front door of the guild, she was greeted by a stranger.

"Ah, you are one to be raptured." A woman behind her announced. Luna snapping around to see the glowing holy form of a woman in pure white robes looking at a scroll of paper. The blonde had so many questions, but could only let out a squeak as the angel's glowing finger raised up to aim at Luna's forehead. "This will only take a moment."

Then a tongue wrapped around the angel's waist.

"Huh? A ton-AAIIIIIIIEEEE!"

With intense whiplash, the angel was dragged into the air by the long tongue. It released the glowing person while they were spinning wildly, though they never got the chance to straighten themselves out as a red laser cut through the holy being instantly. There was a poof of white dust and the body was gone.

Which left Luna with the owner of the tongue, who was currently crouched near her crotch.

"U-um, h-hello!" She awkwardly stammered at the strange green creature below her, a little shaken by the attempt on her life. "A-are you-?"

The frog like woman raised her hand proudly, showing off the piece of card in her palm. "Lily. Adventurer." She announced, beaming happily at being able to say that.

Luna quickly picked up what the deal was, and relaxed a little, "Well, thank you Lily. Are you with Darkness?"

Lily shook her head. "Darkness went to heaven."

"W-wuh?!"

"It's true." A new voice said while walking around the corner. Sena, in all her high heeled glory, quickly walked over to the pair with a concerned look. "Seems our newest enemy is from the sky this time, and they're aiming to kill of our entire harem. I'm so glad we reached you in time." She gave a relieved smile before hugging the surprised Luna.

The revelations were coming too fast though, "W-wait! So Darkness is... dead?"

"More or less." Came another new voice. This time from above, as the masked face of Vanir loomed over them. Elegantly pushing open the door to the guild and ushering them inside. "No need to thank anyone for Moi's assistance by the way. Moi simply loves killing angels, though there is a greater purpose you all need to serve now."

All around Axel people were coming out of their homes and filling the streets. Too much noise was happening in the upstate mansion to ignore it. But something else distracted the masses, all of whom were now looking directly above as the heavens seemed to part with light...

But for now, let's look at the one boy who wasn't looking up.

Crawling out of bed wasn't something Dust ever enjoyed doing. It was far too early for him, and he was certain that he'd never even seen this time of day before as he rubbed his tired eyes and exited the tavern where he'd slept. There was clearly some commotion and he was way behind on gambling funds this month, so though Dust didn't like it if this was an attack from a Demon King horde he had to get SOME money. He bumped into one guy who was stood right by the door.

"Sry." Dust half assedly apologised. Though the fat guy who was stood there said nothing, instead just looking up at the light in awe. Dust yawned, wiping the eye gunk away as he tried to also look into the light to no avail. Too bright for this morning.

And then the light landed in front of him.

"Hmm," The light spoke, freaking Dust out quite a bit as he tried to see what was even happening. "No, you are not one of the chosen." Deemed the light before turning slowly away.

"...wow, fuck you too."

Without the light in his eyes, Dust could see that he'd just been judged by an angel. The holy ring above her head scanning the next individual in the crowd and similarly deeming them unimportant. There was a ton of angels now that Dust could open his eyes. All walking slowly through the crowded street, judging a passerby and then moving on. It was confusing, and far too early for this shit.

It was during this confusion that a spokesperson appeared. Floating down from the sky was a male angel with auburn curly hair and a far too friendly look on his face, "Citizens of this town! I am Michael, and I am here as your representative! You have absolutely nothing to fear, now that I'm here!" Announced the smiling angel, his tone already getting on Dust's nerves, "Now, we ask of you to please remain calm and stationary! We just need to weed out a few apples then we'll be on our way, K?"

The strangeness was certainly present, but no one really had an argument to me made against the angels. They were freaking angels so they had to be the good guys in many of the citizens eyes. Which made the sudden announcement over the city wide speaker system all the stranger.

"Emergency quest! Emergency quest! Angels are attacking the city! Defend Axel from their attacks!"

Michael threw his arm down like he was banishing the speech, loudly shouting "She is lying! The scared cries of one who does not know the gift she is to be given!" Michael's face broke a little from the happy smile, but after a quick run of fingers through his hair, returned to smiles. "She knows not what she says dear people! Just be calm and this will all be over soon!"

The murmurs of the populace were conflicted. All looking around without knowing what the next step was or who to believe.

"Who do we trust here?"

"I dunno, is Luna in trouble?"

"But this is an angel right? These guys are like the good ones?"

The tannoy spoke once more, though this time it wasn't the calming voice of Luna, but instead the stern Sena speaking.

"The Angels are here to kill all the succubae."

…

The citizens were deathly quiet as they turned to look at the angels with dark expressions.

With a shrug and a smile that said 'guilty!', Michael nodded.

"Okay, you got me! It was going to be a surprise, but that is the truth! We are also here to rid you of that horrible demon infection you hhGHH!!"

He didn't even finish his thought as a sword pierced his chest from behind.

Before the angel poofed back to heaven, Michael had just enough time to turn and see Dust. The angriest frown on his face as he plunged the sword with determination into the holy spirit.

Michael disappeared and there was a single beat of silence as all eyes were on Dust. He raised his blade to the sky and yelled:

"**** TO ALL ANGELS!!!"

All the men in the crowd uproariously agreed. The angels that had been calmly walking through the crowd were now being pounced upon by the huge mass of burly men that they'd been judging. More white dust spread into the air as angel after angel disappeared into nothingness.

The rebellion against heaven had begun and Dust was leading the charge as they rushed through the streets, hunting those that had just been hunting the succubae.