Demon Queened

Devilla

"Normally placing or removing enchantments involve special tools used to channel the wielder's holy magic," Doll informed me. "As you are simply

destroying

an enchantment, however, it should be enough to simply... pick at it, for lack of a better phrase. This may take a while - it is the equivalent of trying to undo delicate embroidery with nothing but your fingernails."

"Does that mean the enchantments have a physical form?" I inquired, curious.

"Of a sort," Doll agreed. "Seeing it should be as simple as wishing to for an angel. Just focus on my body and think intently about seeing the flow of holy magic."'

"That's it?" I inquired, incredulous. "Just that and I can see your enchantments?"

"Just that," Doll confirmed with a nod. "Surely you have noticed the adaptability of your spell form body by this point, have you not? The fact that you can vary your strength output, for example, or the ability to adjust the sensitivity of your senses. You can also restore your body to its default state at any time, if desired - though that would require something powerful enough to alter your state in the first place."

"I

have

discovered... most of that, yes," I confirmed dryly. It was hard to hold myself back from wondering aloud where she'd been while I was stumbling my way into these things, but I managed. "What do you mean

spell

form body, though?"

"You... haven't figured it out yet?" Doll asked incredulously. "I see. In that case it is probably for the best that you find out now

before

you learn to see magic..."

"Find out

what?"

I pressed.

"That you are made of magic." The way Doll replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, left me staring blankly at her. "Specifically, the physical vessel you currently inhabit, I should say. An angel's

true

self is their soul after all. That's what makes it so hard for them to actually die. Their body, on the other hand, is little more than an artificial vessel meant to house them."

"But..." I started, then stopped, unsure where to even begin. I was

made

of magic? What did that even

mean

?!

"...Or at least that's what Luci claimed. Personally, I have always felt that the presence of a human brain to process your thoughts might explain why you are so similar to mortals. Regardless, though, the fact remains: fundamentally you are not a being of flesh and blood."

"I have a heart, though!" I pointed out. "And blood!...Probably? I mean, my heart must be pumping

something,

yes?"

"Yes," Doll agreed. "Your body mimics mortal functionality in many respects. The consumption of food, the beating of a heart, and the working of your lungs. It is all very much like a mortal's. Yet if one were to examine you at your core they'd see how you differ from them. Where others are made of smaller and smaller bits of stuff

you

are a singular cohesive piece. A living spell, made to mimic a human body."

So not only my soul, but the very nature of my being had changed since my previous life? I wasn't the same as the mortals around me, even here?

Unbidden, Doll's earlier words replayed through my head about how I was immortal. How I was eternal and

different.

Then I heard Abigail speak.

"So

that's

why she can eat all she wants and never put on any weight..."

I... laughed, much to Abigail's surprise. She'd likely thought her muttering was too quiet for me to hear, but I was glad to hear it all the same.

"What's so funny?" Lucy asked, looking back and forth between me and Abigail.

"Nothing," I assured her. "I was just having something of an existential crisis, when Abigail made an incidental comment that pulled me out of it."

"Wait, you were

what?!"

Abigail demanded.

"It's fine," I reassured them.

"I'm

fine. The fact that I'm so fundamentally different from others shook me for a moment, but at the end of the day I don't think we're so different. In fact, I do believe Doll said something about the human brain?"

"Or

demon

brain if you prefer," Doll said. "You are all, to my understanding, fundamentally the same."

"Yeah, well, maybe you should learn to see the differences between people," Abigail said. "Maybe

then

you'd think twice before saying stuff that might lead Devilla into a breakdown!"

"Yeah!" Lucy chimed in. "Eena can be really fragile sometimes! Which doesn't mean that you shouldn't tell her stuff, but you could at least try and be a bit more delicate about it, couldn't you?"

"You two..." I closed my eyes and shook my head, a faint smile on my lips. When I opened my gaze again, it was with the will to see enchantments. To see holy magic.

To no surprise, but some slight disappointment, I was quickly able to confirm what Doll had told me about myself. I appeared as nothing more than a humanoid silhouette of positive energy, while Abigail and Bailey each only had small balls of positive energy in the center of their chests.

Lucy, however, had that and more - both a brighter ball of positive energy in her center spot, and a minor sheen that seemed to coat her entire body.

...No, it was more than a

coating.

Yet it wasn't quite a part of her? It was more akin to a stain, as if she'd been dipped into holy magic and some of it had managed to cling to the very fiber of her existence.

"Is that your blessing as the Heroine?" I wondered aloud.

"If you refer to the etchings upon the Heroine's soul, then yes," Doll said. "Otherwise, if you are looking at uneven patches of holy magic spread throughout her body, that's the result of her kills or kills done near her."

"I haven't killed any demons!" Lucy protested.

"And it's not a patchwork," I added. "If anything, I'd call it rather uniform."

"I did not specify demons," Doll said. "Humans would work just as well. For it to be uniform, however... it can't be the result of your Heroine 'blessing.' She is meant to sap both positive

and

negative energy from those who die near her."

"Wait, wait, wait," Abigail cut in. "Positive and negative energy? As in

holy

and unholy?

Why the hell would us mortals have any of

that?"

"Because such energy is the very reason that gods create sapient mortals to begin with," Doll replied. "Your positive emotions produce positive-aligned holy energy. Your negative emotions generate negative unholy energy in kind. Both are stored within your soul, and both will be withdrawn from your soul after death in order to power various godly facilities, or else empower and sustain the goddess herself. Though she also gets fed directly through worship, from my understanding... as a display of generosity the Goddess has chosen to utilize a feature that allows souls to keep a copy of the body's mental state, staying synced with the brain. That makes it so you will remain yourself after death for long enough to experience a pleasant afterlife."

"So the afterlife is real?" Lucy asked.

"Yes," Doll confirmed. "In fact, my kind were initially created as part of its staffing.

Someone

must see to the needs of mortal souls in paradise, after all, and to that end the Goddess created autonomous dolls. I, however, was instead picked to assist the angelic leader - Luci - with everyday tasks, such as making her bed and serving her tea."

"And the goddess enchanted you with all

that?"

I asked, gesturing to Doll despite knowing full well that the others wouldn't be able to see the intricate script. It seemed to cover every inch of her being, though, with some lines even going under or over other lines to make a tangled mess of enchantments.

"No, actually," Doll replied to my surprise. "By default, we dolls only contain a few divine enchantments. They are a set template that can be copied across multiple dolls to easily create a host of identical servants. The holy runes you can see were, in large part, created by Luci's daughter, Dalleen... but we are getting off topic."

"Well, it's going to take Eena a while to undo the enchantments, right?" Lucy pointed out. "So maybe you could tell us in the meantime?"

"I'm more curious about how you know all the stuff you do," Abigail said, eyeing Doll. "Is it

normal

for an 'autonomous doll' to be aware of all this stuff?"

"Some of it," Doll said. "That which involves souls most especially. Other information I learned over my time by Luci's side, or during my time in the tower, watching over various Demon Queens."

"I'd like to back up Lucy's suggestion," I declared. "I'd like to know a little about how the geas came to pass - not to mention your own restrictions - and this talk of Luci's daughter sounds like an origin story to my ears."

"...Very well," Doll agreed after a moment. "But it may take a while to discuss. Are you still sure you want to hear it?"

"Longer than it'll take to break through all of your restrictions?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"...Fair," Doll agreed. "Very well. I will tell you...

after

you get to work. You can find the first line of enchantment

here."

Saying so, she touched a place on her thigh. "Specifically the bit that's pulsing with energy. The enchantment has retained just enough energy to keep it from disappearing. Do be careful, though - if you mess up and interfere with the wrong enchantment, it'll be my sentience you end."

"Right," I murmured, narrowing my eyes at the enchantments. Quickly, I found the runes she was talking about - a small, but heavily knotted, number of runes that had been drawn onto her thigh, slightly under the hem of her skirt.

"There are others, as well," Doll told me. "This is just the start."

"Well then," I replied. "It seems like I'd best get to work."

***

Doll

***

"I suppose I should start with Dalleen," I stated. Though my voice was matter of fact, that was only because the majority of my emotional-response emulators were offline. It was part of the price I paid for staying in low-power mode for so many centuries, always ready to drain what was left of my battery life. All for the sake of revenge. All for

her.

"One can say that - at least for me - everything truly began and ended with her."

"What do you mean?" Devilla asked, frowning at me. To my surprise it seemed less a matter of annoyance and more of... concern? For me, of all people? She truly was ridiculous. "Who was Dalleen?"

"Luci's daughter," I replied, glad this time for my lack of emotional-response emulators. It made it easier not to show my disdain for Devilla's ignorance. At least she was trying to remedy that flaw now. She'd become quite stubborn and unwilling to listen to her tutors after entering what I'd initially written off as a rebellious phase. "Not that Luci ever saw her as such... not really. Perhaps that is natural to some extent. She intended to use her descendents as nothing but tools to begin with, after all. It went beyond that, though - once she discovered that Dalleen could wield arcane magic, she decided she wanted nothing to do with the girl. Pushed her care almost entirely onto me."

"Why in the world would it be a

problem

for her child to wield arcane magic?" Devilla asked. "Aren't we known for our capacity for it?"

"These days, yes," I confirmed. "But not at first The angels of heaven cannot use arcane magic, Devilla. Not even Luci. She saw it as proof that her progeny was tainted by the mortal realm - by

mortality

. Even though Dalleen had every bit as much power and potential as any other angel, she was nothing more than an abomination in Luci's eyes. That is why I was put in charge of raising her from a young age."

I still recalled my first meeting with her. It was one of my favorite memories despite the fact that I'd been little more than a crude simulacrum of a person at the time, far from sentient.

"Greetings, Princess Dalleen. I am an autonomous doll, made to-"

"That's too long!" She'd interrupted with an adorable pout, before breaking out into a mischievous grin. "I'm going to call you Doll! Then we'll be Doll and Dall-een!"

"...She was a rambunctious child. Full of life and with a strong will. She had no idea as to the truth of her mother, who put on a facade during their brief interactions... of course it wasn't as if I could tell her otherwise. Luci didn't even need to use complicated enchantments at the time. A simple command was enough for an automated doll who lacked even a semblance of true sentience, let alone free thought or understanding..."

"How did you become sentient, then?" Devilla asked. "If you were truly just an autonomous machine back then, then how did you gain sapience?"

"That would be because of Dalleen," I informed her. "From a young age she took it upon herself to upgrade me. Perhaps because she saw me as her only friend, she was discontent with the limited responses and expressions I was capable of giving her. As such, she inscribed me with a multitude of enchantments, upgrading my capabilities bit by bit. She was around eleven when she started. By nineteen, she had given me sentience and sapience alike."

"That sounds so sweet!" Lucy said, but I shook my head.

"In truth, it was rather terrifying at first. So much knowledge, but so little understanding of the world around me. Dalleen was there for me from the very beginning, though. She helped me to get my footing. To understand the world around me.

"In return, I helped her understand who her mother truly was... which was perhaps a mistake on my part. It was only after Dalleen confronted her mother that Luci came up with the idea of binding her rebellious child. She tricked Dalleen into willingly placing the geas upon herself."

"Tricked her?" Abigail asked.

"How?!

I might not know much about the Rite, but it's not like she could have just handed Dalleen a paper and asked her to read it aloud, right?"

"No," I agreed. "Dalleen was not so stupid as to fall for such a ploy. Perhaps 'tricked' is the wrong way to describe it, but... Luci captured me. She told Dalleen that I would be dismantled if she didn't do as she was told..."

"So she bound herself to save you?

"

Devilla inquired.

I nodded. "I was her best friend. Perhaps... perhaps more... not that we were ever given a chance to explore in that direction. After Dalleen was forced into enslavement, I was similarly restricted. Forbidden from expressing the feelings in my heart, or crossing any lines that Luci thought I shouldn't. Apparently an artificial construct was even lower than a mortal in her eyes - unable to continue her line and therefore worthless as a target of affection from her daughter... I spent the rest of Dalleen's life wondering if she felt the same way I did, or if it was merely out of familial love that she'd sacrificed herself. After she died I swore to get revenge. To bide my time until the perfect moment to strike at Luci, and make her hurt like she hurt me... but Grimmilla's actions forced me to change my plans. Her recklessness, her disregard for all that would come after - she didn't even begin to care about you, Devilla, until she actually got pregnant... then suddenly you weren't a vague concept of a tool and weapon for her to wield against Luci. Suddenly, she was invested in keeping you

safe

and ensuring the success of our plans, no matter what... At times, I wondered if she was entirely sane in the extremes she would go to... She's the one who turned the area around the tower into a wasteland, you know?"

"She did

what?!"

Devilla demanded.

"I thought that was the Heroine!" Abigail said.

"...I mean, the church always taught it was the Demon Queen, but... Really?" Lucy asked.

I nodded. "It was to make war untenable between our peoples. To ensure there would be no skirmishes during the years leading up to the Heroine's birth and subsequent coming of age. To ensure

you,

Devilla, would have peace for as long as possible."

"The wasteland

does

form a natural barrier..." Abigail muttered.

"It wasn't just to stop the humans, either," I clarified. "She wanted to ensure that our side wouldn't try and take back our lands. With the wasteland being as large as it is, it's simply untenable to try and manage land on the far side of the divide."

"I'm... not really sure what to think of that," Devilla admitted, shaking her head. "Should I be thankful? Mad? There'd be more room for our people to grow if she hadn't, and yet... the thought of someone actually caring that much for me... is it wrong that some part of me is touched?"

"I don't think it's wrong," Lucy said. "I mean, I'm not really sure if it's a good or bad thing, either, but it probably

did

save a lot of lives! It's a big part of why the church hasn't attacked, I think - they'd rather wait until I'm old enough to lead the charge."

"Regardless, it would seem you are almost done with that enchantment," I noted. "Once you are, I'll direct you to the next spot on my shoulder."

"...This really is going to take a while, isn't it?" Devilla asked.

"Indeed."

***

Devilla

***

Eventually, after what felt like hours of carefully picking at the enchantments on Doll's synthetic skin, I received a nod of approval.

"You have dealt enough damage to the binding enchantments that they will be unable to function," she informed me. "We are almost ready to begin the charging."

"Finally,"

Abigail said, letting out a loud sigh. "I thought we were going to be stuck here all night."

"Not quite all night, but certainly late enough... Perhaps all of us should sleep here tonight?" I suggested. "Then we can figure out what to do tomorrow... I fear we might have ruined any hope of keeping my identity secret while you asked questions of the church, though..."

"Don't be so sure!" Lucy said. "Dyona and I actually worked really hard to keep any letters about you from going out! Plus, you can move really fast! I bet if we go first thing in the morning we'll be able to reach the holy city before any news of you spreads! Then I can ask my questions and we can figure out what to do from there..."

"Questions?!" Abigail asked. "You still have questions?! After all this?! The whole damn war is a sham!"

"Yes," Lucy agreed, "but I want to know how much the church knows about it! I know that there are a lot of good people working there, people who really want to make a difference in people's lives, but the people in charge... I need to know more before I decide what the best way forward is."

"Then are we agreed to leaving in the morning?" I asked Lucy.

"No!" came a surprise objection - not from Lucy, but from Abigail. "Nope. Nu-uh. No way. You're not going from heavy discoveries to nightmares to life altering questions just like

that!

You need some damn rest!"

"I thought that's what I was suggesting?" I remarked, a little confused. "Bed

is

how one rests themselves, is it not?"

"Maybe in part, but... you and Lucy still haven't had your date, right?"

"...I think there are more pressing concerns than a date, Abigail..." I replied, shaking my head.

"Really? Because it seems to me like Lucy could really use one!"

I blinked, turning in surprise to Lucy who waved her hands as if to ward away the question. "I'm fine, Eena! I mean, sure, it's disappointing that we didn't go on a date, but after everything we learned... I really need to know what the church knows..."

"And then what?" Abigail asked. "Off to the next thing? Saving the world? Ending the war? Trying to untangle two thousand years of trouble?"

"I... suppose," I responded with a frown. "I haven't really thought it out much. I figured that Lucy might be able to get me some meetings with people of influence... or something?"