Chapter 197 - Four-Way Inner Battles (1/2)
Olaf was sipping his Poxie tea in bliss after sending his friend Bob away. The Academy's problem wasn't really any of his business. Whatever the trouble is, he had faith that their dean Lord Lucifer would resolve it.
As a librarian, Olaf was perfectly content with guarding the building and caring for the books. Occasionally, there would be a nasty visitor or two that he would send away with a spanking but Olaf was a lazy dragon demon in general. If he is not poked, he would not retaliate. People usually tend to keep their distance from him just the way he liked it.
Hence, the librarian was perplexed and enraged when someone decided to teleport something that smelled like an abused toilet right into his sacred sanctuary. Everyone knew that dragons were filthy rich and hoarded the things they loved. No sane person or creature would challenge a dragon to give up on their possessions. For other dragon demons, that would be gold or gems. For Olaf, that would be books.
Unable to retain his human form, Olaf transformed into a mighty blue-eyed frost dragon. His roar shook the library building and encased everything in a sheen of ice. With his heightened dragon senses, Olaf wrinkled his nose. It wasn't very prominent but the librarian spent enough time with this bastard to know whose scent that was. It might smell several hundred times worse now due to his sharper sense of smell but at least Olaf now knew the one responsible for this violation.
”That blasted spider! Why couldn't he stop causing nuisance even after he is dead! The dead should just learn to stay dead!”
Now that he was in his dragon form, Olaf no longer cared about manners. He smashed through the roof and soared to the only other building in the Academy that was grander than his library.
”I demand a damned pay raise!” Olaf roared. ”How can you call yourself the headmaster of the Academy when you can't take care of a single punk! My sanctuary now smells like a toilet, I demand some form of expla- An angel?”
”A former archangel,” Lucifer stated calmly, completely ignoring how his beautiful architecture had been smashed to rubble with Olaf's outburst. At this moment, there was simply too many things to deal with. Olaf's whims could wait.
Uriel trembled and collapsed to the ground, his knees failed to support his weight. No, it wasn't Olaf's dramatic entrance that caused such a reaction. The prophecy of the destroyer he had seen only moments ago was now standing in the middle of the room with a tiny flower fairy in his shirt pocket.
”What did I miss?” Zero asked. Without much time to coordinate the location of his teleport, Zero missed the mark to his room in the dormitory and ended up in Lucifer's office. A lot has transpired while he was gone. The most obvious difference was Lucifer's new fashion statement and guest before Olaf's grand entrance.
Nobody answered Zero so the spy on mission decided to report everything that he discovered.
Olaf stood there dumbly as Zero gave his verbal report. Lucifer didn't say anything about that and pretended as if everything was normal. The one thing that made the dean react was Zero pulling Baal out from his void dimension.
Seeing his treasured student in such a vulnerable state made Lucifer bristle. Rhinestone had gone too far this time, there would be no mercy for that delusional spider. The ex-archangel walked over to Baal and cast a blessing of recovery and protection. Then he turned to Olaf with the most serious look.
”The gate has opened in the library. Olaf, how long can you stall it for?”
The dragon wasn't expecting for Lucifer to be so serious about requesting his help. As the keeper of the library, Olaf had complete control of that space. Keeping the gate trapped in his territory would be child's play to him.
”How long do you need me to keep the spider occupied? As long as you promise to clean out that foul smell after everything and restore my sanctuary to its former glory, I can break a few bookshelves too.”
Lucifer looked down at the curse on his arm that Gabriel was working on earlier. The messenger left to retrieve Raphael and Michael with the appearance of the young doctor from the prophecy. The curse was tricky and not even the highest tier of Holy magic was able to dispel it. Lucifer had to wait for Merlin to come over. The other Demon Lords were already getting into position to activate the final magic in case the plane's balance was destroyed by Zero. Currently, Lucifer worried about Baal and Beel's territory. With two Demon Lords out of commission and himself being unable to support the burden with his curse, will the other Demon Lords be able to shoulder the weight of the abyss' fate?
”I'm counting on you to keep him there until the reinforcements from Heaven arrives. Zero, I need you to guard Baal and Beelzebub. If possible, find a way to wake them up. We need them to support the fall of the abyss plane and maintain the balance if something goes out of control. You've done well, please leave the rest to us.”
The young doctor blinked at that. Was it part of imagination or was Lucifer telling him to wash his hands from this matter? He's already sunken so deep into the mess and two of his friends were nearly killed by the traitor. How could he back off so easily?
”I refuse.”
Uriel was unhealthily pale when he heard that. The resolution in Zero's eyes didn't make the bad feeling he had ease up. If anything, the stress of watching the abyss' unavoidable fate spiral out of control before him made the Archangel sick. The image of Zero losing control of his powers and absorbing friend and foe alike into the void made Uriel tremble in fear.
Lucifer's eyes hardened. He felt Uriel's fear through their bond and tried his best to keep that under control. He could feel Michael and Gabriel's urgency through their soul connection. Help was on the way but it wasn't fast enough.
”Zero, listen to me...”
”No,” the young doctor growled. ”They hurt Baal and Beel, they tried to kill them!”