His eyes opened to the view of a ruined city. His waking mind was still dull, aching from a brand that he could no longer remember. He looked around, searching for an anchor to keep him grounded. And that was when he saw them.
The corpses of humans and demons alike littered the ground. People were gathered for rescue and cleanup operations, but there has not been much progress.
The rubble on the road shook the car a little more violently, and he heard an uncomfortable groan come from his left. He turned his head to find a beautiful woman leaning against him in her sleep. Her wings had vanished, but he could easily recognize her.
"I'm sorry, my lord. She insisted."
"It's fine. She deserves at least this much."
He replied to the man seated across him while observing the sleeping face of the angel he had only just met. He could feel himself drawn to her despite only meeting for the first time today. The shaking of the car felt uncomfortable so he held her body with his arm to keep her steady.
Feeling his touch, Erta snuggled closer to him even in her sleep. The man watching them could only remain silent in both shock and embarrassment. As he was just about to conceal his presence, Caelum spoke.
"Reynor, how long has it been?"
"…From when the battle in Sylven Square ended to when we found you, it was about three hours, my lord. Right now, it's nearly 6pm. We would've taken the bridge to get back home sooner, but the debris is blocking the way and may have even damaged it."
Thinking that the ride back home was going to be long, he decided to let Erta lie down with her head on his lap. The angel let herself be guided and slept comfortably. Reynor, who was seeing a new side of his lord, just smiled at them. Then he remembered something and picked up his phone.
"My lord, I think you should see this."
Caelum took the phone from him and looked at the screen while stroking Erta's soft hair. On the screen was a news broadcast showing the Chosen fighting against the demons. As the rest of the world did not know the difference, they were still referring to them as monsters.
The broadcast was showing how the imps spread out like waves. The Chosen were fighting them in a stalemate that looked ready to tip toward the demons' side at any time. Then something changed.
A streak of black and white flew past a road leaving countless corpses of imps in its wake. On another road, a flash of gold flew past leaving behind a trail of burning demons.
The scene changed again to the entrance of the subway station where countless numbers of imps were flooding out of. Two people entered and left quickly, but the endless waves of demons had been halted.
The next scene showed the Chosen slowly pushing the fight further back into the already ruined area. There was a noticeable decrease in the number of demons.
And finally, the screen showed the fight between the two people who have been cleaning up the demons and one large and powerful demon.
They even zoomed in on the two who had just finished their battle and were resting on the spot. Caelum saw that Erta did for him the same thing he was doing for her right now. He smiled while stroking her hair a little more gently.
"It's amazing that they didn't get hit by the bomb. You know, I think it might actually be them that was being targeted, but the demon missed its mark and hit the Clocktower."
"That is a rather wild thought, my lord. Have you read what they're saying about you though?"
At Reynor's words, Caelum turned his attention back to the screen. The reporter had been talking for a while now, but Caelum had not really been listening. At least, until he saw the headline. The reporter's voice followed up on it.
[The miracle of Sylven, thought to be a lost cause, could not have happened without these two heroes. People are even dubbing them the 'Angel of Light' and the 'Angel of Slaughter'! But what is the identity of-]
"Who the hell came up with such a shit name? I can understand Light, but why the hell are they calling me Slaughter?"
"My lord, that's not the point."
"Yeah, no. I know. I've attracted too much attention this time. To be honest, I didn't even know there was a helicopter broadcasting the whole thing live."
Caelum returned the phone to Reynor. He was wondering what he was supposed to do with his newfound fame, but there was not really anything he could think of. As always, his priority was to get stronger. Only when his power had reached a level that no one in the world could refute would he be able to utilise his fame without obstacles and consequences.
He was lost in thought for a long while after that, mainly about a strange feeling he had been getting since he woke up. He felt like he had seen something new, but he could not remember what it was.
After trying and failing to recall, he finally looked out the window and saw that they had already gone past the site of battle. They would be able to reach home shortly so he decided to wake the sleeping angel.
"Erta, wake up."
She did not react. This time, he shook her arm lightly.
"Erta, it's time to get up."
"Mmmm…"
She just groaned with a frown. Needless to say, she was still asleep. Sighing, Caelum brought his face close to her ear and whispered.
"It's time to wake up, Erta."
"Mmm… no! I want to rest. Just let me sleep!"
Acting like a child, Erta pouted as she turned her body to face him. Then she hugged him tightly as though to tell him that she would not be getting up. Caelum wanted to pinch her nose to wake her up, but he relented.
"Alright, fine. But at least sleep while sitting on my lap so I can carry you easily later."
Erta did as she was told and sat on his lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she leaned her body toward him. She placed her head on her arm with her face pressing against his cheek. She was so defenceless that Caelum started seriously worrying about her.
He embraced her body as he felt a strange connection between them. It was this same connection that he felt when she first emerged from the gate. It was a rather comforting and warm connection, very faint, but enough to make him let his guard down around her and vice-versa.
Soon, they reached Halo's building. The first to leave the car was Reynor as he could no longer stand being a third wheel. He tried to help Caelum out of the car, but Caelum managed to balance himself perfectly even while carrying the angel. Ceres was there to meet them, but upon seeing the woman her brother was carrying, she frowned.
"Ceres, it's good that you're alright. Thank you for protecting her, everyone."
The members of Ceres's escort bowed in response to his words. They had already come to respect Caelum greatly in the past week alone. And with his actions in today's incident, their respect and loyalty toward him was growing even higher.
The servants who have not had the chance to actually meet him before were surprised. Only one person was not amused, albeit for a different reason.
"Brother, who is that woman?"
"This is Erta. My… partner, I suppose."
Caelum wondered for a moment what kind of relationship they had. They were not friends yet since they only met today. Of course, they were not a couple either like what the media seemed to have been portraying in the news. And he was quite certain at this point that she was not an enemy.
He thought back to what they had done together, and decided that partners was the most apt. It seemed Erta liked it too as she smiled while tightening her arms around his neck. Or maybe she was just having a nice dream.
Ceres's frown only grew more sour, but Caelum did not mind it. He thought she was still angry about their argument from this morning. That could be resolved tomorrow.
"Alright, good work everyone. We're tired so we'll head on up first. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Ceres."
He entered the building and walked across the wide lobby. For the first time, he realised just how big the building was as he wondered how long it would take for him to reach his room.
That was when he felt a lot of gazes at him coming from all directions. He soon realised that they were looking at Erta. He felt a little annoyed that they were blatantly looking at her defenceless figure, so he spoke out.
"Stare a second longer and you won't be seeing anything for the rest of your lives."
With those words, the people averted their gazes. Caelum smiled as he thought he did a great job protecting the poor angel from countless predators.