Paul stood, pcing himself in the center of the finished ritual circle, and pulled his slick silver undershirt off. Like most Adventurers that conjured their armor, he wore the enchanted Sliksilk Compression Gear underneath. It was difficult to grapple and wouldn’t snag on anything, along with having cleaning and mending enchantments to keep it and the wearer fresh. His was Emerald Caste and also a higher quality than the usual outfit the AOA would sell to their members at a discount.

  He should have expected the sharp intake of breath Phoenix made at the sight of his chest, not due to the impressive muscuture, but from the burnt-looking Sigil of the Purifier in the center of it that was about the size of his palm. He grimaced then tried for casual as he gestured to it, “A parting gift from my previous god. He wasn’t exactly happy about my rebellion. I got it when he made me a Fallen Padin.”

  “I’ve heard people call you that,” she replied, her gaze still fixated on the bckened scar, “But I thought it was just some kind of title.”

  “It’s a Divine Title, only given by gods, and has a visual side effect to remind me of what I lost along with my status as an enemy of the church,” he expined before adding, “We can talk more about all that ter if you’re interested. I can go over the whole tragic story with you.”

  Phoenix nodded slowly, then Paul held out the Augment towards his oldest companion and asked, “Ready to do this, Be?”

  The gold head nodded and floated over to him to take the tiny silver wings from his palm before he turned his back towards her. He couldn’t see the Familiar now but he could sense her lift the Augment up and press it against the center of his back between his shoulder bdes and she mentally recited, “Whether harder to harm, better to perform, faster to move, or stronger to battle; May this body be augmented with new power.”

  As the circle began glowing brightly, Paul felt the sharp pain of the tiny item embed itself and begin to fuse with him. He felt the pulse of magic spreading throughout him, electric tingles running along his skin causing his hair to stand on end, as his body cimed the item as now a part of him. Even with his Emerald Fortitude, he was gritting his teeth at the pain that followed the ripples of change and adjustments his body was making for the new Augment until the glowing stopped.

  “That was not a pleasant-looking face,” Phoenix said from in front of him, having apparently moved around the circle to check on how he was doing.

  “Rude,” Paul replied with a huff, “I’m Emerald Caste; most people look at least pleasant by this point.”

  She snorted a ugh, “Sorry, I just meant that it looked like it hurt when those arcs of lightning were sparking all over you like that.”

  “It did,” he retorted with a ft look, then shrugged, “But it went fairly quick.”

  “Well, let’s see what they look like,” she excimed, moving around the circle again to look at his back and she gave a slight choking sound before ughing aloud, “Actually, I should have seen that coming.”

  Paul gnced back but had to bend unnaturally to see the tiny wings properly. Even stretched outwards, each wing was only about a half meter in length and barely made it out past his shoulders. They were bck feathered… like a crow.

  “How are you supposed to fly with such tiny things?” she curiously asked.

  It felt both odd and natural to move them, like having muscles he never realized he had before, and he knew they were currently in their [Passive Mode]. He fpped them a few times before giving a little hop up and hovered in the air much like Orebe was already.

  “Okay, that’s definitely magic. Physics just does not work like that,” Phoenix replied at the sight of the tiny wings keeping his muscur body aloft, and he knew she wasn’t wrong.

  With his next thought, the wings seemed to almost burst outward as he put them into [Flight Mode] and they became longer than he was tall, the feathers now noticeably tipped with a dark red. Phoenix’s eyes grew wide as saucers as she said, “Okay, that just makes you look like some sort of Fallen Angel of Death. That is borderline terrifying while also insanely beautiful.”

  Paul gave a wicked grin as he said, “Hopefully the Soul Reapers will feel the former.”

  “Is that what you’ll be dealing with next?”

  “I’m still dealing with the repercussions of Tulisuda having been nearly destroyed,” he replied, nding back on the ground and stretching out the wings further to better get accustomed to moving them. He was grateful for his Emerald 10 Mind attribute helping him quickly recalibrate to their movements and how they affected his bance and range of motion.

  “I thought that was all taken care of? All the traitors are being held either at the AOA or the duke’s dungeon, right?”

  “The ones that were active in the battle, yes, but they’re still weeding out the spies and also the ongoing cleanup of the damage; though, I’m not directly involved in the tter,” he expined, giving a few more rge fps before activating the [Defensive Mode] on the wings. He needed to react quicker than he expected to move closer toward Phoenix and pce her within the protection of the shield that suddenly formed rather than accidentally decapitate her.

  The wings had become massive, scraping the ceiling and gouging the floor as the feathers melded together in a solid wall of gleaming onyx reflecting the light from the glowstone and instead of the red tips, veins of gold ran through them in a pattern of glittering chaos.

  “Gods, Paul!” Phoenix excimed, after a moment of the dust settling around them, “You almost cost me a life there!”

  “Sorry,” he apologized, shifting the wings back into their [Passive Mode], “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “No kidding,” she replied with a ft look.

  He gave a contrite bow of his head before returning to the previous topic, “I’ll be helping the AOA with some more of their questioning of nobles before they transfer them over to the Ducal Guard for more questioning via alternative methods and eventual trial. It’ll be a long process, though, especially when having so many other threats to deal with.”

  Paul hesitated a moment, then added with a gnce towards Orebe, deciding to take her advice and try more open honesty, “I also have another quest from the Avenger to see to.”

  Phoenix’s gaze narrowed at him as she crossed her arms and asked, “Who are you killing this time?”

  He probably deserved that. However, he shook his head and admitted, “No killing this time… but it will not be pleasant.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He ruffled his feathers a bit at the annoyed tone she gave, dislodging the debris from the ceiling and floor from the silken bck plumage and raining it upon his Protégé, “Not every transgression that needs avenging is murder. Some monsters don’t instantly devour their prey, preferring to prolong suffering in order to feel powerful.”

  Those green eyes shifted from a well-deserved gre at the mess into a look of surprise as she asked aghast, “Are you telling me you’re going to be torturing someone? Doesn’t that make you as evil as the monster?!”

  Paul gave a weary sigh, “Sin for sin. This is what retribution means for me, Phoenix,” he softly said, brushing some of the bits of the ceiling from her hair, “This next target has been hurting some children that they were meant to protect and is smart enough to not leave evidence. I’m not going to let it continue.”

  “Why don’t you just tell them what Avenger told you? If a god told someone the truth, then—”

  “Why should they trust what I say is true?” he interjected. It was an argument as old as the gods existed, and he guessed it would be difficult for a Wayfarer to understand if they came from a world without them. It was hard for him to even imagine a world where the gods didn’t show themselves and reassure their followers that their faith was not mispced.

  “You’re a Padin!” she argued.

  “I was a Padin of the Purifier, too,” Paul pointed out, “When I spoke about the wrongs being committed from his whispers, they called me a liar and bsphemer. The courts will not allow second-hand divine testimony; otherwise, anyone might cim a god told them to do it.”

  “So why doesn’t the god just tell them directly what happened?”

  “Laws of Divinity,” he stated with a heavy sigh, “The interpy between various deities and the divine cost of their actions is a complexity that mortals have not yet unraveled. They do have ways that some nations will accept in exchange for breaking the ws of the nd. In my specific case, I either need to provide a Sigil as divine proof and payment, or be very careful about not getting caught.”

  “Wait, so you are a viginte criminal!” she excimed again. Squeezing her eyes tight, she pinching the bridge of her nose and attempted to take deep breaths before saying, “I don’t like the idea of you going around hurting people like that, even if they deserve it. You shouldn’t have to become a monster to fight them.”

  “I don’t enjoy the acts I must carry out for my god, but I won’t say I regret making the world safer with it. This is the path I have chosen, young one, no matter how dark it may seem to you.”

  Phoenix gave an annoyed huff, dusting the rest of herself off more, and he was gd that she seemed to not argue further. “So, you have a mission investigating more nobles and another quest from the Avenger,” she reiterated, “Anything else?”

  Paul shook his head and picked up his shirt from where he had tossed it earlier, staring at it thoughtfully. He had failed to think through the aftereffects of getting physical wings and still needing to wear clothes.

  “No. The Emissary missions are not difficult work but are often time-consuming,” he said, “We don’t know how long it will all take, so I won’t get another mission like it, but I’m sure something else will come up for me to do; it always seems to, tely.”

  Paul had another worry enter his mind after deeming the shirt unwearable, and conjured his [Rage Regalia] around him. He sighed in relief when it adjusted to let the tiny wings through the back seamlessly—potentially disastrous mistake averted.

  Phoenix chuckled as she watched him, “You should see if BEL can put wing slits into your shirts.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “It’ll have to wait. I have this mission and you have an expedition briefing to attend,” he said, moving to leave the ritual room. Without him even needing to send the thought, Orebe returned to her usual pce. With her merged within his very being, the metal pte reappeared on his forehead, and he knew his eyes were golden once more.

  “Another Expedition?” Phoenix inquired, perking up slightly as she moved to walk beside him.

  “Rumors of Soul Reaper movement in the Razorteeth Mountains to the east,” Paul replied with a frown, “Unfortunately, there are a lot of rumors flying around. Parties are already being run ragged to keep up with the blood moon after losing so many in the Battle of Tulisuda. Our personnel resources are not doing well, but we can’t let the Soul Reapers get what they came here for.”

  “So, we’re still investigating those rumors?” Phoenix deduced.

  “Yes. Some lower Caste parties are being sent out to verify the rumors before we dedicate even more resources to searching and fighting. I think they want to clear the region faster, though, so they’re sending as many teams as they can out at once in an attempt to reduce the chance of missing anywhere,” he continued expining, navigating through his home to head for the front door.

  “Why do we care if they’re all the way out there?” Phoenix asked in confusion, “Tulisuda is safe below the city.”

  “Remember the Caged?” he reminded in a rhetorical question, “We believe they have some method of generating monsters to put those Soul Cages on. Honestly, I was hoping to gain more insight into that method to find a way to subvert it, but our researcher ended up being the enemy.”

  Then Paul redirected the conversation back, “If we leave them be, we don’t know how big of a threat they can become before moving against us. We don’t know their methods or their limits. If they can somehow spawn a Ruby or Obsidian monster and Cage it to obey, they could easily destroy the city before we could muster a force to defend against something like that.”

  “So, we need to find any potential threat before it becomes too rge to handle?” she crified. At his nod, she asked, “Couldn’t you handle a Ruby monster?”

  “Maybe,” he admitted as he opened the front door, “Hopefully, the city won’t have to depend on the outcome of a fight like that, though.”