Chapter Twenty-Seven; Author's note

In all fairness, this is a secondhand account. Dante informed me of what happened later.
Alid broke through the door and saw Califrax drawing a pattern around Petra with a single claw. He lept into action. It was his duty as a guard to protect her, and he may well have been too late.

"Ah, the guard arrives. Here to watch your princess fall?"

Alid didn't reply. He rolled under the demon and snatched Petra from the circle. Califrax hurled a bolt to stop him, but he teleported back into the crypts and set her there.
"What did you do to her?"
"The power of a demon in battle was to much for her to bear."
He hurled another bolt towards his voice, but he'd cast his voice and a tomb shattered far from him.
"I must avenge her then. One of us must not leave this chamber."
Another bolt flew astray.
"Oh she's hardly dead. I've made..Precautions against such a possibility. She's quite immortal now; Time will not take her now."

Alid gasped; immortality was not only nigh impossible, but highly undesirable. If she was truly immortal than she was no longer his ward. So many things would be changed by this.
Califrax homed in on that slight sound. A flurry of bolts tore through his surroundings.
"Of course, it hardly matters now. She will be my hand in the coming years. Like your people, you will die."
Alid teleported Petra again. Immortal or not, he was obligated to protect all his people from the shaditha. He initiated an alchemical formula on the ground; He knew his limits. Perhaps his uncle could face down so powerful an opponent, but not he.

She could though. If she really tried; she'd have spoken to often, and toyed with him at first. But when she really tried Petra was formidable beyond anyone he knew.
He set a hand to the circle and activated its power. He had but to hold it off while its magic restored her strength.

"Demon! I am here, a Guard of the Nielda stands against you."
At first it seemed like merely the foundations of the academy shaking from his rising growl. There were hundreds of small dark objects moving towards him, but as he deflected them the growl rose and the bits of debris became a hail of demonic bolts.
He brandished his staff, guarding himself and his ward against the onslaught. Few bolts made their way past, destroying memorials to mages past. As they flew the demon came behind him and tore the flesh from his back. He felt his body alight with pain, and his legs lost their feeling.

He recovered from the blinding pain minutes later and saw the cursed angel channeling dark power into her motionless body. He drew upon what strength remained to him and hurled his staff deep into the demon's chest. As it flew, Light flowed to it, sharpening the bloodstone stave into a righteous spear.

Califrax recoiled, howling in agony as Alid succumbed to his own pain.