Hello to eveybody who reads this fanfiction. I am very thankful for your consuming my work. Unfortunately I have to inform you that this will be the last chapter of this story. As I am highly occupied with my studies I have few time to write. And, what's much more of a reason, for the last ten or so pillars I have grown more and more unhappy with the series of Makai Ouji. The unsteady character development, the hastened story telling, the overgrown fan service ... no, I haven't enjoyed reading what used to be my favourite manga series for some time now. Lest the end. So I will not continue this fanfiction, because I feel I cannot muster any true motivation to work on this. But do not worry! I know myself how frustrating it is to reach the last available chapter of a story without having the main questions answered. This chapter is a summary of the complete plot that still had to be written, for you to have the story's conclusion at least.

Again, thank you very much for reading and have fun with the last last chapter of "Contract with a demon"!

24

There was a great power struggle in Heaven when I was a boy. Back then, many angels resented Michael's rule over the floating land of God. One of them was Metatron, the Chief of the Virtues those days, funny as it sounds today.

Making use of the fact that the no longer Archangel Uriel had befriended my best friend William, who was said to descend from the holy lineage of kings David and Solomon, Metatron forced his will on him. When Uriel refused to kill Michael, he abducted first me and then William, too.

An exchange was organised – Michael for us.

Surprising as it was, Uriel appeared to the meeting on top of mount Zion – Metatron fount it to be the most fitting place to determine the next head of Heaven – accompanied by Michael. Neither William nor I ever expected the Archangel to come.

Before the actual exchange could begin, an army of angels launched an attack on Metatron, lead by another archangel, Raguel. They had hoped to catch Metatron off guard, but of course he had a garrison of his own soldiers hiding nearby. The battle between the angels was the most gruesome thing I ever witnessed. Until now I revisit it in my dreams from time to time. One would expect demons to be the cruellest fighters for obvious reasons, but the absolute lack of emotion and the cold precision of the faceless soldiers was worse than anything else. No screams, no indication of pain. When hit they showed no reaction, did not stop in their tracks. They fought on until they died, oddly accepting of their fate.

Another strange fact about the angel battle was that there actually wasn't any bigger disarray. No chaos. Mostly organised formations launching attack after attack. Considering the force of their attacks and the damage radius we would have died hadn't they relocated the combat high into the air. You see, mount Zion was holy to them. They did not want to destroy the place.

During the fight Uriel opened a magic portal for us to get back to Britain before he joined the fight himself, but William insisted to stay for he was worried for his friend. As he shouted for him to come with us while dead bodies rained down all around us almost soundlessly, two angels broke out of their formation, scooped down and seized him. They hauled him up in the air and vanished with him. Shortly after them Michael left, directly followed by Uriel.

The fight died shortly after, leaving me standing on the hill, a shimmering white portal hole two feet away from me, surrounded by dead bodies. I was the only living being left, immobilised by shock. Around me the deceased angelic bodies erupted in flames. Since angels are made of fire and light, their remains burn when the soul left the body.

Instead of returning home I called for help. A demon's help to be precise. Dantalion, Duke in Hell's South, obliged to protect the bearer of Solomon's ring, answered my summoning. Together we investigated what had happened to William.

It is hard to explain the relation of all that happened next. I will try to list the events in chronological order.

Dantalion sensed that his master – Lucifer himself – was being summoned to the human world. Assuming that the only human powerful enough to force him to appear must be the one in possession of the ring, we followed the call to find William, held hostage by Michael. The Archangel had forced him to call Lucifer there to finally end the battle with his brother properly. Michael was obsessed with killing his sibling, you must know. Albeit, Lucifer was pretty disinterested, only slightly humoured by his brother's determination. He evaded every attack, mocking Michael for being clumsy and tired, no match for him. To entertain himself, he ordered Dantalion to kill the Archangel and marvelled in the chaos unfolding. For, not only did Michael attack his brother like a maniac, he now had to evade being attacked by Dantalion simultaneously.

Metatron and his brother Sandalphon joined the chaos, attracted by the enormous magic energy concentrated on the spot. They also went directly for Michael.

Uriel tried to get William and me to safety, but William brushed his help off, fixated on getting to Lucifer to tell him off. William just was this guy who could ignore any dangerous situation and directly confront anybody. He demanded Lucifer take him out of the elections – I will elaborate on that later – and stop making Dantalion kill for his enjoyment.

Trying to persuade him he followed the Devil around, getting in the way of Michael's attacks, Uriel having to fend him off in order to protect my stubborn friend.

In contrast to the well-ordered angels-only-battle from before the mix of angels and demons was one hell of a mess. As I watched from afar, more combatants arrived on the scene, joining in: faceless soldier angels called by Michael to keep Dantalion and Metatron off of him, Camio, Lucifer's son, alarmed by his father being unleashed in the human world again, Samael called by Lucifer to get the angel soldiers off the plane to have his brother's struggle hardened again, Raguel attempting to get Uriel out of the danger zone.

In the crowd I could no longer clearly make out what happened, but at some point, most angel soldiers lost their lives. Some had left to ring alarm and before long an armada of high ranking angels appeared on the plan to save their leader. This of course called more demons to the scene.

The whole thing grew into a war between both sides. I have to admit, I made a run for it. No human stands a chance in the war between Heaven and Hell. Nobody paid any attention for me.

I ran for a long time as we were somewhere far away from any town or village. I do not know how long it took me to reach a place inhabited by people. Finally I reached a place called Montfort-sur-Risle, located, as I learned then, in the Normandy. The people were nice to me though I could not explain where I came from and had me stay with an older couple whose daughter had moved just a week before into her own new house with her husband.

Since I had no money with me to travel back home and did not dare to try to summon a demon for help I wrote a letter to my parents, explaining that I had been hijacked and currently in France, with a beg to send some money for me to get home. Unfortunately they never replied. Later I found out they believed me to have run away. We never were on good speaking terms ever again.

I stayed in Montfort-sur-Risle for the next months, working in a cheese shop to earn my keep, enjoying my time there, despite being worried sick about the ongoing war somewhere east.

After three months, when I had not heard anything from William or any angel or demon, I collected my courage and tried to find my way back to the fighting place. All I found were acres od burnt land.

Desperate for answers I dared to prepare a summoning. For, what else could I have done? I settled for Sitri, who – for all I knew – wasn't part of the battle, but always around William if possible. The summoning did not work, but minutes later Sitri appeared before me nonetheless, a sad expression on his face and a pair of wings on his back. He explained to me that, never having truly fallen in the first place, being close to an angel for a longer period of time somehow had him transform back into a true angel. Baalberith had wanted to take the wings off him, but Sitri managed to flee. He had been welcomed into the lower ranks of Heaven, because there weren't many angels left. He told me about the last months' happenings:

Heaven and Hell went all out on each other to finally settle the score. The number of victims was high. From the people I knew, few survived the battle. Dantalion and Michael, Raguel, Gilles de Rais and Sandalphon died. Uriel managed to kill Metatron. Lucifer apparently hurt Camio badly, did not kill him, though. Overall, their higher number gave an enormous advantage to the demons, who eradicated almost two thirds of the enemy, forcing Heaven to retreat.

But the most important thing he told me last.

William had not survived. I gulped. I had never lost a dear person to death before and didn't really know how to cope.

Sitri explained that he was killed when he pushed Uriel out of the way of an attack. He died a fast death.

I asked about Uriel.

Apparently Uriel withdrew from the fight at once after William's death. He had taken his soul with him, returned it to the circle of rebirth, and vowed to protect him properly the next time he will wander the earth. Until then Uriel went to a long denied, deep sleep.

I thanked Sitri, who returned to Heaven.

Standing there, overwhelmed by feelings, I thought. When the dawn came I had decided: I would return to Britain, find out why my parents ignored my letter, tell about William's death and then train to become a master of magic. Surely Mathers could guide me to understand all the magic that surrounds us, to understand Heaven and Hell. I would write down all that I'll learn and share my knowledge with the world. And I would write about William.

- Excerpt from the Biography of Isaak Morton