OC SPOTLIGHT: Ronové // sfw-ish

ronove was one of the first demons born to lucifer and lilith, back when the devil was still waging a war of conquest against the small, pre-existing kingdoms of hell that hadn't already accepted his rule. ronove never knew heaven, but he watched his father subdue one enemy after another. as soon as he was old enough he joined the fight, eventually reaching the rank of general in samael's army.

since first making a name for himself in the war, ronove has had a very intimidating reputation. his skills, honed and cultivated by his parents from a very early age, are primarily in the fields of fighting, killing, and making war. unlike certain siblings of his (cough, vanu, cough) he was never much for politics, intrigue, and manipulation. instead, his solutions to problems are generally extremely efficient, direct, and often violent. while capable of wielding a wide range of weapons, you'd often see him using a staff that looks deceptively plain and wooden but that can tear through flesh, bone, metal, and stone as if it was wet tissue paper. he's always prided himself on deadly precision and an unstoppable force kind of efficiency, rarely wasting time on excess words, unnecessary complexity, or even threats. if he intends to hurt or kill someone he doesn't chat about it first--he just does it. on top of that his demeanour is very stern, grim, and serious. as a general rule he wears a severe expression, emotes very sparingly, and you have a snowball's chance in hell of ever seeing him smile. 

much like the devil himself, ronove's greatest sin was always pride. hell is a meritocracy, and ronove had quickly earned himself a place in the top echelon. he seemed destined for greatness, and his chance came soon enough. the devil is the king of hell, and under him each cardinal sin is ruled by a so-called prime. the very first prime of pride died during the conquest of hell, and so ronove--and everyone else--fully expected him to become the new ruler of this sin. with his skill and the favour he held with his parents, how could he not? 

lo and behold, the position is given to another pride demon--purson.

it was a great blow to ronove's pride. naturally, he didn't say a word and his face betrayed nothing, but underneath his composed surface he felt bitter, humiliated, and angry, having been denied 'his rightful place.' he acted like he didn't care, but let's just say people walked cautious circles around him for years to come.

the thing is that back then ronove was too prideful, in the wrong ways. in the great scheme of demons, he was still relatively young and, quite frankly, rather full of himself. in his own eyes he was categorically superior, above having to bend to anyone else (...except his parents). furthermore he was too arrogant and stubborn to ever show weakness, recognise his own limits, accepting someone else's help, or anything else he considered beneath him. he wouldn't tolerate, forget, or forgive even the smallest slight, and was prone to holding petty grudges, often culminating in painful or deadly punishment of people who crossed the wrong lines. 

for centuries after being denied what he had come to think of as his birthright, ronove harboured a hidden bitterness. the only people who could get away with teasing him for it were his siblings, out of which ronove loathes ariel's perverted nonsense and despises vanu's overcomplicated machinations. the only one he gets along well with is nara, and that's mostly because they're both cold-hearted and cold-mannered. 

in terms of punishing prideful humans, ronove was always very hands-on. some demons are inciters--they make humans suffer through manipulating them, setting into motion intricate intrigues, and engineering the mortal's painful ruin. they trick them and toy with them and bring them great mental and emotional suffering, using weapons such as cunning, deceit, and lies. other demons are reapers. they don't bother with the fancy mind games--they just kill the sinners. clean, efficient, straightforward. ronove definitely belongs to the latter category. there's plenty of other pride demons that engage in intrigue and manipulation, but ronove doesn't waste time on such things. he acts, decisively. ronove is the demon that shows up once a mortal's pride has reached its peak, putting a swift and bloody end to their sin. (also, ironically, letting others be prideful sort of goes against his own sense of pride. he can't let others think they're as good as he is, especially not mere mortals.)

the first time he meets muriel is because they both have their sights set on the same family.

muriel is an angel--a dominion, in fact. but you wouldn't think it from looking at him. you'd expect an angel of such high rank to be formal and stiff, but muriel is just all soft and pleasant from head to toe, with his mottled feathering and gentle ways. as an angel he's a servant of shaddai (also known as god) but muriel sometimes... takes initiative of his own. he used to watch the mortal realm from afar, but when finally he descended to it to observe humanity from amongst their midst he started to see things he couldn't see from the lofty heavens. muriel began having this nagging feeling that something isn't right in the world, that something feels off about the state of heaven and the mortal realm alike but he couldn't place what. it's the beginning of a gradual personal conflict that leads him to feel and think and do and want things that angels aren't supposed to. more than anything he just wants to help people ... even if it means defying god just a little.

he secretly starts taking independent decisions and taking action, essentially interfering with god's plans by having thoughts of his own and acting on them. part of it is that he wants to save people that he thinks doesn't deserve punishment, whether by saving their lives or ensuring that their souls end up in a better realm than either heaven or hell. he learns of a prideful ruler whose entire family has been marked for death by a very strong pride demon, and muriel sets out to save the despot's son, innocent of his relatives' sin.

ronove basically catches muriel attempting to sneak away with the ruler's child in his arms, and tries to kill him for daring to meddle in his affairs--it wouldn't be either the first or the last time he's murdered an angel. muriel puts up a protective barrier and escapes with the son, leaving ronove to execute the rest of the tyrannic family. the fact that muriel managed to intrude on his mission irks him to no end, however, and trust me when i say that ronove can hold a grudge.

thus begins a very unlikely love story that unfolds across the span of centuries: with ronove repeatedly attempting to kill muriel. where many other angels would have found themselves overpowered, muriel is a dominion and as such well capable of protecting himself, but he's not a fighter. throughout the next few decades they occasionally happen upon one another, and every time muriel manages to get away, ronove gets more and more determined to execute him, highly unwilling to let a target escape once he's set his eye on them.

with time, however, ronove starts realising that muriel's actions are occasionally in defiance of god's commands. angels aren't supposed to think for themselves--they're meant to follow shaddai's orders, to blindly trust in his judgement. yet muriel is secretly saving souls that shaddai wants punished, hiding them away from god and the devil alike. at first he mocks him for it ("what became of obedience and deference to the lord?") but it's not often you meet an angel that stealthily disobeys the god he's supposed to serve without question. somewhere along the way, despite everything, ronove's disdain for muriel starts morphing into a strange kind of ... respect. every time he tries to kill him, his One Feeling gets a little bit more complicated. 

somehow, little by little, their encounters start to involve more ... talking. ronove's attempts to put him to death turns into discussions of sin, sinners, right, and wrong. a few times they find themselves with their eyes set on the same human, arguing about whether they deserve punishment or a second chance. sometimes muriel is right in his claims that the person deserves better or can change for the better, and to his great astonishment ronove leaves it be with a "i don't care, do what you like." other times the mortal is just as rotten as ronove thought, and once muriel has seen their true colours he doesn't stop the demon from claiming their lives. their rivalry sort of turns into an unspoken agreement that regardless of who's right in their judgement of a particular individual, the important thing is that shaddai does not get their soul.

one particularly memorable scene has muriel trying to protect a certain human from ronove, physically putting himself inbetween the mortal and the demonic executioner. suddenly ronove pulls the angel away from the man, who stumbles forward, stabbing a knife into the air where muriel's back has been just a moment earlier. after making short work of the deranged person, ronove turns to the angel. 

"are you hurt?" 

"...n-no. why did you protect me?"

"i will be the one to kill you. no-one else."

with time, ronove starts realising how brave muriel is. thousands of the heavenly host's finest warriors are too afraid of shaddai to ever have a single independent thought--yet here's this humble little angel risking everything for the sake of a few human lives. "you've been defying god, in your own little ways. i'm impressed." and if other demons ask why the hell ronove is letting that damn angel live, he simply claims that "i'm using him for my own ends." it's not like he could confess that he's started to sort of ... care. 

there's no one moment when that respect for muriel's abilities and qualities starts turning into something more. it's an immortally slow burn, taking hundreds of years to play out its course. even as ronove starts admitting these feelings to himself, it's longer still before anything ... happens. it turns into an unspoken thing where both of them sort of knows what they're both starting to feel, but they never act on it. ronove tells himself that he wouldn't 'stoop low enough to love an angel,' and muriel knows that if he loved a demon he'd condemn himself and lose his place in heaven.

after the events of ashwick, a human known as isaac has become the devil's consort. purson, the reigning prime of pride, hates seeing a mere mortal at samael's side, closer to him than anyone else. ronove can see his rival start to crumble with bitter envy, not entirely unlike what ronove felt when purson got the throne that should have been his. the prime devices a plot to kill isaac, but long story short--samuel finds out, and personally executes purson.

once again there's a vacancy that needs to be filled, and this time ronove--much more mature than in his youth--is finally chosen as the new prime of pride. by now he has grown into a worthy ruler, more tempered and purposeful in his practise of pride. but the promotion puts ronove in a complicated position. by now he can't possibly fool himself that he doesn't have feelings for muriel--but a prime of hell can't love an angel. he decides that he has two options: either he has to kill him, once and for all, or else avoid him completely.

and so ronove tries to murder muriel, one last time. it's sudden, unexpected, and muriel is shocked and confused, thinking they were past that. but even as ronove can take advantage of his shock he just ... can't bring himself to deal the killing blow. at the face of it his grim expression is the same as always, but when muriel looks him in the eyes he can glimpse the internal struggle. rather than attacking again he just turns and leaves, ignoring how muriel is calling after him.

for the next few decades, ronove tries to erase his own feelings by avoiding muriel and trying to shut down his heart. one time there's an unexpected reunion that ends with muriel shielding ronove from the attack of a powerful exorcist, but even after that ronove coldly tells muriel that "...if you do that again i'll kill you."

after muriel leaves there's a few feathers of his on the floor, and ronove can't resist picking them up, attaching them to his belt. other demons think they're just trophies from an angel he killed. what else could it be?

the only person who has an inkling as to what's going on is ariel. the prime of lust has one of his underlings shapeshift into a mimicry of muriel and sends them off with others to seduce ronove, curious to see whether he'd take the bait or if it'd just torment him. a little bit later ronove walks into ariel's throne room and drops a mangled mass of what was once a body on the floor before him. he's got blood splattered all over, and a look in his eye that shows how much he means it when he warns ariel that "next time it'll be your turn."

at this point, another of his rivals threatens to send someone to kill muriel. ronove says he doesn't care. in fact that's what he wanted, isn't it? muriel dead, so his heart can be free? his antagonist sends a demonic assassin, an old and powerful warrior armed with weapons specifically made to hurt angels. ronove tries to focus on his duties, letting it happen, but instead finds himself staring holes into a wall, skin crawling with uneasiness.

then all of a sudden, from one second to the next, he goes from brooding it over to taking off faster than he's ever moved before.

he catches up to the would-be assassin a few minutes after they caught muriel by surprise. the angel has encased himself with a barrier but there's blood dripping down his arm. the demon must have looked into muriel's heart because they're taunting him for thinking of ronove in his last moments: "did you really think he'd come for you?"

muriel has seen ronove fight and kill before, but nothing that compares to the way he bears down on the demonic assassin. it's a drawn-out fight between two equally matched warriors, but in the end the other demon's head rolls and ronove turns to muriel. without saying anything he reaches out a hand and yanks the angel into a tight embrace. he's getting blood all over him, but neither of them cares. muriel winds his arms around him, too, and they remain like that for what feels like hours, quietly together again. it's the first time they share something like that. in fact they haven't touched one another much at all before this. it's an embrace that seals the love they have for one another, without need for a single word.

ronove breaks the silence to ask about muriel's injury, being much more concerned about the shallow cut on the angel's arm than about the multiple severe wounds he got during the fight. once ronove starts spitting up blood muriel insists on looking over his injuries and as a result of blood loss, ronove ends up making a few confessions he would never have put into words otherwise. in a moment of uncharacteristic honesty he tells the angel how "i thought i had to get you out of my heart and that killing you or avoiding you was the only way. when i couldn't do the first i tried to do the second, but it was no use. i couldn't stop thinking about you. and i couldn't let someone murder you. now i realise i don't want you out of my heart." he raises his hand to cup muriel's cheek, his mind a bit foggy but his words no less sincere when he murmurs "you belong there."

next time they meet, muriel is trying to get an innocent human to safety, but they have an enemy who's making things difficult. after ronove just so happens to show up and deal with it, the angel teases him about what a strange coincidence it is that he always seems to arrive when muriel needs help. when ronove merely gives a scoff in response, muriel reaches up to kiss him.

muriel always smelled like flowers but ronove hadn't expected his lips to taste like nectar.

thing is that muriel chose to kiss him fully aware that it dooms him in the eyes of all other angels and god himself. they would be able to see the demonic aura lingering on his lips, and inevitably turn on him. by choosing to love ronove muriel has sentenced himself to never being able to return to heaven and to judgement at the hands of his angelic brothers if they ever catch him. he evades them for a good long while before it finally happens, and before they haul him back to heaven to face 'justice' he manages to leave a message for ronove. sure enough, his demon soon gets suspicious about not having seen muriel in a while, and starts tracking him down, eventually finding the signs he left in his wake.

long story short, ronove fucking breaks into heaven, fights his way through a horde of angels, and rescues muriel.

as ronove and muriel finally reach relative safety, the demon makes sure that the angel is alright. and then he collapses. muriel had seen the blood and slashes on his clothes, inflicted by the holy weapons of the angels he had fought, but until now ronove had moved and behaved like he couldn't feel a thing. turns out that towards the end the only things keeping him upright was pride, stubbornness, and the determination to ensure muriel's safety at any cost.

muriel ends up taking the badly injured demon to ... charlie's cottage. their woods is a neutral zone which is difficult to find by people who aren't welcome, and muriel figures that in there they'll be safe from pursuers, whether vengeful angels or rival demons who might want to try attacking ronove while he's vulnerable. after some initial tension (it's not every day such a pair of old and powerful beings enter your woods) charlie grants then sanctuary (to march's great disapproval) and gives muriel access to their collection of herbs and charms.

ronove begrudgingly lets muriel treat his injuries, still too prideful to admit what a bad state he's in. any kind of angelic magic won't work, of course, but muriel once tried helping a witch--and even though he was too late to save her from the pyres, he preserved her memory by remembering her healing magic (on that note, practicing witchcraft is another example of him doing stuff that's forbidden to angels).

in the middle of the night, ronove stealthily tries to leave the forest, too proud to admit that he still needs rest--and still fluctuating in and out of denial of his own feelings. muriel catches up with him, asks why he saved him, and even now ronove claims that he only did it to interfere with shaddai's plans. 

"you're still badly hurt."

"i'm well enough to leave."

at that, muriel wraps his arms around him and cocoons them with his wings, asking him to stay. "for me."

"..."

the woods are lovely, dark, and deep around them, peaceful and quiet for a few moments of silence before ronove agrees. "fine, but only for a--" 

he's interrupted by muriel kissing him again. it doesn't last long and the angel is immediately overcome by embarrasment, starting to apologise. this time it's ronove's turn to interrupt him in the same way, and a shiver goes through the surrounding trees as the angel and demon share the long, deep kiss they've yearned after for centuries.

ronove later asks muriel why he chose to love him, even if it meant condemning himself. the angel responds that he'd rather give up heaven than give up ronove. "loving you felt real."

"do you miss heaven?"

"of course i do. it was my home for so long."

"..."

"no need to be sorry. i chose to leave. there are things worth more than heaven." 

the witch's magic isn't enough to fully heal ronove, and muriel suggest that they both travel to hell. vengeful angels are on their trail, and even though ronove doesn't want to bring muriel to his infernal home, it seems the best place to keep them both safe. he's already fought all of heaven to save his love--might as well fight all of hell, if that's the way things turn out.

to ronove's great astonishment, his devilish father welcomes muriel as an old friend. they had known each other before lucifer's fall, and even though muriel had refused to join the devil-to-be's rebellion he also hadn't warned anyone else about it. when all other angels had celebrated lucifer's defeat, muriel had wept for him.

bringing an angel to hell is no ordinary tuesday. muriel is neither ally nor enemy, and samael's reception of him certainly complicates things. in any case the fact that the prime of pride is seeing a goddamn dominion soon becomes the opposite of the secret it had been up until then. his siblings are soon to start teasing their big brother. to think that you, of all people, should fall for an angel...! ronove puts up with it, but proves to be very protective of muriel--and quite a bit possessive, which makes muriel ... feel things. moreover, ronove takes pride in his beautiful angel, encouraging him to think higher of himself than comes naturally to the ever humble muriel. "be proud of who you are and what you do. you are mine and i do not choose lightly."

on that note, muriel finally asks why ronove became fond of him in the first place, and how long ago it was. ronove says that he can't pinpoint "when respect turned into admiration, and admiration into affection."

"... you admire me?"

"of course."

"why?"

"because not only did you disobey shaddai--you got away with it."

"...so you liked me because i was a bad angel."

"most terrible."

"oh dear."

"abhorrent."

it all has muriel giggling--and ronove give a low chuckle.

"...you laughed."

"i did not."

"do it again."

"no."

"why not?"

"much like you, i don't do things on command."

"ronove--"

"you'll have to earn it."

ronove and muriel are involved in many more tales, but the story about their unprecedented love reaches a suitable climax over a millennia after their first encounter, when their love for one another finally bleeds into lust and desire. just as hundreds of years passed before even their first kiss, there's no hurry as they explore intimacy together. demon and angel take their sweet time to consummate their union, but let's just say that ronove is about as precise and efficient in bed as on the battlefield and that muriel is very pleased.

-----

nothing quite like some forbidden love between an angel and a demon, am i right? i love ronove and muriel for the huge contrasts between them in personality, appearance, and #aesthetics--which reminds me i have yet to draw a proper picture of both of them. note to self: draw murove smut. ANYWAY i hope you liked the read, and as always, if you have any questions about ronove and his story, just comment below <3

// art + ronove © me; muriel © kubi.