The bone-dust wind of Hell howled faintly behind him, but Kikidori barely noticed. He was tired. Not physically—he couldn't really feel exhaustion the way mortals or even some lesser demons did. No, he was mentally drained, heavy with the weight of nothingness. Every scream, every infernal whisper, every damned soul pulling at his ears had dulled into static.
So he walked. For no reason in particular. Just to move. Just to avoid thinking.
"God, I'm bored," he muttered. Then he snorted. "Well… not God. Wrong side of the war for that kind of prayer."
And just like that, he made a choice.
With a flick of his wrist, he tore open the veil between dimensions. It hissed and shuddered, black lightning crackling as the barrier split like flesh, and through it, Earth called. The human world. Soft. Fragile. Pathetic.
His boots stepped through the portal and landed silently on a rooftop somewhere in a sprawling city of steel and glass. The sun was hidden behind polluted clouds, and the streets buzzed with the meaningless motion of daily life. So many people. So unaware.
"Let's wake the sheep," Kikidori whispered.
He descended like a shadow. The first to die was a man texting while walking—his throat cut in a blink, the phone still glowing in his twitching hand. Then a woman—innocent, walking with her dog. A snap of his fingers, and she burst into flame, screaming until she crumbled to ash. Cars flipped in the streets, buildings smoked from spontaneous infernos, and cries of terror rose like a symphony.
People ran, screamed, called for help. Some just froze, trying to rationalize what they were seeing—a man with black wings, fire in his eyes, smiling while the world cracked around him.
A child sobbed in the arms of her mother, staring up at him.
"Don't look at me like that," Kikidori growled, and snapped his fingers. The wall behind them collapsed—not hitting them, but sending the message. Run.
And they did.
He wandered further, laughing without joy, setting fire to a church with the tip of his finger, sending dozens of pigeons fleeing into the sky.
But then… something changed.
The light. It shifted. Grew warmer. Purer.
A golden shimmer cracked open in the sky above, and out descended an angel. Cloaked in white and blue, glowing with righteousness, sword sheathed at his back, wings wide and shining. The humans below stopped screaming, stopped running.
They looked up in awe.
The angel's name was Charlie.
"Kikidori!" the angel called, his voice firm and strong, like wind through cathedral bells.
Kikidori looked up, unimpressed. "Charlie. Cute name for a messenger boy."
"You're done here," Charlie said, slowly descending to hover just above the ground. "Return to Hell before I'm forced to remove you."
Kikidori blinked, yawned dramatically, then stretched. "Fine," he said casually, brushing invisible dust from his coat. "Your breath smells like cheap holiness anyway."
Charlie didn't respond to the insult. He was tense, his eyes sharp. Focused. He'd been trained for this. He'd been briefed on Kikidori.
But he hadn't been warned about the grin that followed.
Kikidori took a few steps toward the nearest alley, his hands in his pockets. "But, hey… one thing."
Charlie tilted his head cautiously. "What?"
Kikidori stopped and looked over his shoulder. "How will *you* leave?"
And then he vanished, slipping into the shadows like smoke.
Charlie stood still. He felt a chill. A moment of hesitation.
Then he realized.
People were still watching. Not from afar. Not through lenses or hazy, forgettable glimpses.
They were watching *him*—clear as day. Staring. Phones out. Recording.
A woman gasped. "Oh my God… it's real."
"Is that… is that an angel?"
"Holy shit, I see wings! I see *wings*! It's *real*! Heaven's *real*!"
Charlie's eyes widened. "No… no, this can't be…"
He looked at his hands, still glowing with divine light. His wings, wide and brilliant, had not been cloaked. His presence hadn't been masked. In his haste to confront Kikidori… he had come in fully visible form.
And the humans could *see* him.
"Oh no," Charlie whispered.
He had made two fatal mistakes.
One: He let the demon walk away.
Two: He had revealed Heaven to the world.
"Shit," he said quietly. "Shit shit shit—"
A teenager yelled, "YO I'M LIVESTREAMING THIS, BRO! THIS IS AN ANGEL! ACTUAL ANGEL! LOOK!"
Charlie disappeared in a flash of golden light, leaving only silence and burning rubble behind.
But the damage was done.
And Kikidori, far away in shadow, was laughing.
The end of chapter 5.