Chapter 172

[Aspect of the Demon], [Banshee Cry]. Albedo used her skill, opened her mouth, and an echoing wail came from past her lips and shattered the glass out onto the grounds below, a wail of unearthly loss and despair went out, carried over the city, and from where it was heard, no laughter carried on. And for some, it would never come again. Illyana, standing close enough to be within the safe zone, still covered her ears, folding them in against her head and briefly held her eyes tight shut until the demon's quick action startled her eyes open again.

Albedo carried the new maid up, holding onto the dangling elf's hand, her wings carrying her higher, higher, and higher, up far above the city. She raised the girl up by her arm so that they were eye to eye, the dangling elf was breathing hard, her stare going from the ground far below, to the golden eyes of the demon she was now bound to serve. "Do you know why I am going to destroy most of this city, Illyana?"

Illyana's head shook rapidly back and forth. "N-N-No!" She eeped out.

Albedo's smile was inhumanly broad, wide, wild with hunger as the scents far below carried up toward the heavens. "Because even though this city of despair is sweet to my senses… it has no place in the world the Allfather wants to make. By his order, I will not kill more than I have to, but a crisis is necessary to further the ends. This city's elites, their free humans, and the elven rebels that will likely rise, combined they will throw the Southern Holy Kingdom into chaos. They will plead with the North, and the North, beset with corruption of my making, will have no help to send. Thanks to you, I know where every goat of a man and sow of a woman of importance in this city lives. I know where their soldiers are, where their weapons are, and the details of their city down to the last hair on the last ball of their highest nobleman. If you wanted revenge, you're getting it now. How is that in exchange for your soul?"

"It's yours!" Illyana spat the words with the utmost sincerity, "Just let me watch… then do whatever you want with me until I'm dead, then after that, too!" She urged and ignored the painfully tight hold as she hung there in the demoness' grip.

"Of course… as far as they're concerned, the city will just have had a very 'natural' disaster, but it's all the same to the dead." Albedo remarked, then held out her hand and pointed toward the ground. Specializing in area-of-effect attacks, plus having a vast array of them at her disposal, she knew exactly what to do and plucked a rare item from her pocket dimension. At first glance it was a simple rock, a simple stone, but when she held it in her upturned palm, it began to grow. "Mistress… what is… what is that?" Illyana asked of the little growing hunk of granite.

"A weapon of my God, my Love, and his friends. The Stone of Gjoll. And refer to me as 'Lady Albedo' from now on." The Guardian Overseer commanded, and Illyana watched with confusion as Albedo cast it toward the sky, rather than at the city itself.

Her confusion vanished as quickly as it began, and dismay replaced it when her sharp elven eyes saw the stone multiply many times over, Albedo's hand remained outstretched, and then her hand came down in a violent chopping motion.

The rocks came down, no longer mere stones, they were a meteor shower of stones that went down so fast that they ignited in the air, burning white as they smashed into the wealthy districts, ironically because the slaves slept in basements, cellars, cages, or other 'accommodations', they were largely spared. While those living in large rooms on upper floors were pierced, burned, or crushed. The barracks of soldiers were made of great stone, but against stones that when combined could bind even Fenrir, they may as well have been mere sand structures. They collapsed, and from many such buildings there were not even any screams.

Fires caught as wood was struck and spread, the dry evening air caught sparks and carried them about, the screams, few at first, redoubled. Albedo held her hand out, and the stones vanished, replaced by the single one again, which she again cast into the air. The process of showering stones resumed, striking the middle class district, where the stones pierced the ground to reach the sewers below, fracturing the carefully structured walls that kept the city from collapsing on the soft ground. Albedo's innate bonuses to area of effect attacks only made the damage worse, and the ground began to shake like stones jostled in a box.

Illyana watched with fascinated eyes as the center of the city began to subside, and then, "By the gods of elves and men…" She whispered as the howls tripled down below, and a majority of the city began to cave in, falling into the dark waters of the river to be swept into the darkness, drown, and find their rest along the bottom or out to sea.

Albedo repeated the strikes twice more in such rapid succession that to those down below, it seemed like one prolonged event, the screams, the pleas for divine intervention, all in vain.

Far below, Illyana watched as desperate casters running through the darkness tried to use their shielding magic to stop the stones, only to be crushed or find themselves pierced when they were unable to stop such forceful impacts. The light of the fires and their loud crackle were quickly followed by the rise of smoke that closed in on the hovering pair.

'It's burning, it's burning, the dark city burns bright at last… wherever this one takes me, for the rest of my life, I go. My fondest wish, my deepest longing, I will give her anything she wants, anything she asks. I will work tirelessly for her until I'm ground into the dust!' Illyana vowed and began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh in the midnight hour until the smoke reached them both and she began to cough. Tears ran down her eyes that were more from the sheer joy of her wish being fulfilled than from the smoke.

"My work is done here, we return to the Northern Holy Kingdom to check on progress, and prepare everything for the Allfather's grand entrance." Albedo said, and the gate opened far above the city. Before the worst of the chaos could begin, Albedo returned the stone to her hand and tossed Illyana through the whorling vortex.

She took one last look down below, then snapped her fingers. "Ah, how could I forget!" She laughed at herself and dove for her hotel room. She landed on the carpet where Illyana's cast off garment lay, picked up her bag of souvenirs, and for good measure added one final touch to her carnage. [Aspect of the Demon], [Weight of Sin]. The hotel began to shake and rumble, by the time she was out the window and heading toward the waiting gate, it snapped like toothpicks, leaving those within, not even time to scream as they understood the fate of their city was coming to them as well.

'There, now I've never checked out.' Albedo chuckled as she passed through the gate, eager to see what state of things waited for her on the other side.