As she stepped closer to the bruised and battered Demon Prince lying on the broken stone of the once great fortress, she could only ask a question.

"Why? Why do all this? Why fight this war, fighting so hard, so brutally, just for a single, barren planet? Why?"

The Demon Prince chuckled, blood spilling from his lip as he did.

"I"

A pause.

"We, are connoisseurs of war. We were raised on it. It is our life. Every waking moment was spent to be better, to be stronger. All for war."

"Throughout my life, I have seen so many wars, on so many worlds."

"I have seen total wars, I have seen Guerilla wars, I have seen land wars, I have seen sea wars, I have seen space wars, I have seen air wars. I have seen class wars, I have seen culture wars, I have seen religious wars, I have seen race wars, I have seen drug wars, I have seen genocidal wars. On one world, I even saw storage wars."

"But, throughout it all, my favorite war has always been, a simple war. A total war. A war, where you give everything, and leave nothing. A true baring of the soul, to see just who is truly stronger, truly better.

The Archangel scowled.

"You will not be able to simply peddle off this entire thing as a philosophical thing. But, I will humor you. We won, we proved ourselves stronger. Will you go now? Will you leave and never return?"

The Demon Prince laughed harder, so much so that it hurt him even more.

He smiled "We will never truly leave. we will only bide our time, waiting for the next total war. Training, becoming stronger."

He paused. "I, I would like to thank you."

It was clear it was not something he was used to, and the Archangel was confused.

"What? Why would you want to thank me?" Had he gone mad?

He smiled "Because, you, you have opened our eyes to new types of war. Information, and Propaganda."

He continued "We always knew about them, but never truly realized their effectiveness until today."

She narrowed her eyes, expecting a trick like the nearly 3 dozen times a similar scene had played out across this blood soaked planet.

"We are raised, being told that angels are cowardly, and can never win a true fight with a demon. That they only exist because we demons allow it. Propoganda. A form of war my people so perfectly executed, that I had not even realized it was in action until now. This war, Our war, has shown me its effectiveness. We fought for 43 years, and we lost. Something that, according to all I've ever known, simply can't be true. We didn't lose because you were simply stronger, in fact, I would say we were stronger. But, you always knew, and we always fought on YOUR battlefields, not ours. So, thank you, thank you for showing me, for opening my eyes, to this type of war."

The Archangel's eyes softened ever so slightly, even as she bristled from the insults upon her species.

"Well, I hope this knowledge serves you well, But this war is at its end."

"It will, and this war is at its end." He agreed.

"We will meet again. I can promise you that." He smiled, even as she put the blade through his neck, ending his life cleanly.

One of the other angels stepped forward. "Do you think we will ever see him again?"

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The Archangel smiled slightly "It is only a matter of time."

457 years later

The Archangel smiled, even as she sighed as she stepped closer to the defeated Demon Prince, not long for life.

"Here we are again, another fortress, another world, yet still so similar."

He chuckled "Indeed."

She paused, turning to survey the ruins and destruction surrounding them, watching the last holdouts of demonic resistance of the planet be pushed out.

"You weren't lying"

He grinned "No, I was not."

He coughed, blood spewing from his mouth.

"Did we do better this time? We really tried our best. It would be a shame for it to not really matter." He looked to her, curious to see how she would answer.

She chuckled, even as 2 more Archangels joined her. Her sisters.

"We fought for 387 years. We outnumbered you 4 to 1, and even then you still nearly defeated us 13 times. This planet will have life, from the plains of corpses and the oceans of blood spilled in our war."

"Now, Ulna, lets not grow his ego too much."

"Oh what would you know, Diana? This is the first true war we've ever fought in. I say we let him feel proud. He fought well."

"Oh? so what, incase you have forgotten, he is a DEMON, Fiona."

The twins continued to argue, only to be interrupted by the Demon Prince.

"So, this was your first war? I can only hope I made it a good one."

He coughed some more, smiling sadly. "While I would love to stay and talk, My time here has expired. Thank you, for everything."

He closed his eyes, passing away. Leaving the 3 sisters to look upon the battlefield that this war had wrought.

2,346 years later

Ulna stepped forward, into the great chamber where the Demon Prince sat on a throne of bone. Inside, the bodies of angels covered the floor. He had not gone down without a fight. He grinned at her, even as he remained on his throne, impaled there by 2 Ballista bolts and 4 spears. Around him were 10 bodies. His 10 guards, powerful demons who had each killed hundreds of angels before succumbing to the siren call of the blackness. Beyond the fortress walls, 10 other fortresses lay on the battlelines, each containing one of the regiment commanders. All of them still lived, their regiments bearing down on the broken fortress of their prince, hoping to avenge his death.

"We have all grown, haven't we?" Ulna asked, as Diana and Fiona entered the room as well.

"We have. Before you would never have thought to use swarm tactics like this, and I would never have separated my commanders." He agreed.

"Why?" Ulna smiled at the nostalgia of the question.

He grinned "Why what?"

Diana smiled "Why did you fight Ulna all those years ago?"

Fiona grinned "Why did you come back to fight her again?"

Ulna smiled, giggling as she asked "Why don't I know your name?"

Fiona and Diana paused, before breaking out into stunned laughter at the realization.

He smiled "My name is Alucard"

"In hell, you specialize in a certain attribute, or 'sin" as you call it, but that doesn't mean you can't learn from other attribute. Once you hit a certain strength, pride and reputation takes over for the majority of the war demons. We left, because there was simply no one willing to truly fight."

"After a millenium of depression, no fighting, and comrades simply ceasing to exist, We could see our future. A boring, bland Peaceful life" Disgust coated Alucard's words

"And so, when one like us sees that, what is there to do, but carve our own path? We tunneled, and found our way onto another path. We were determined to break our fate."

Alucard drew in a breath. "At the end of that tunnel, was a light. You. A challenge, someone we could fight, someone as brutal and unyielding as we were. You were our light at the end of the tunnel, our goal. And you were everything we could have hoped for, and so much more."

Outside of the fortress the war drums of the Demonic army could be heard, but none of the various officers, leaders and soldiers of the Angelic army could bear to leave, as they heard the answer to a question as old as these wars, a question that had remained unanswered to the angels for all this time.

"As we marched forward, the siren call of our passion, our life, and our everything grew, and as the war drums struck up a beat and we spilled through the portal onto that barren world, we finally came home, for the first time in more than 2,000 years."

"After 43 years, it ended, and we could scarcely contain ourselves as we learned, grew and trained. We became better, so that we could rise to the challenge, just as we had in our youth."

"We returned again, coming home once again. We fought for 387 years, and we loved it. Again, we could scarcely contain ourselves in the time between the fight."

Alucard grinned, sucking in a breath, even as he bled out.

"You are our best friends, and our worst enemies. You are like family to us, which is why we slaughtered those pricks attempting to force you into marriages."

The angels gasped. The event had been a major thing in angelic society and had put an end to forceful marriages among angels forever. If even the barbaric demons considered it barbaric and detestable, obviously angels could not partake in such a thing.

"But more than that, you are our weapon. Our weapon in the ultimate war."

Alucard took his last breath "You, our beloved family, are our weapon in the war against time."

Even as his soul reformed back in hell, he left behind a stunned and emotional family of angels.

Ulna smiled with tears in her eyes "And to you, there is no higher honor and compliment."