While a lot of people had decided to huddle up and barricade themselves in their homes, many others had seemingly decided to rush towards the church. Luckily, when Aethel and Teddy arrived, Agatha had already managed to squeeze herself past the mass of people and get outside.

  “Yao’s tits, what’s going on!?” She exclaimed as soon as she saw her companions running towards her. Aethel had never heard anyone call Yao’lith, the queen of the abyss for just “Yao.”

  “Bad, BAD time to be saying name!” Teddy immediately warned her and looked around frantically. Agatha shot him a confused look and turned to Aethel.

  “He’s probably right, actually. But you wouldn’t believe us even if we tried to explain.” Aethel was about to continue, but Agatha’s shocked, realizing expression took him out of his thoughts.

  “So there really was an angel here?!” She blurted out. This sent both of their minds spiralling with questions. They looked back and forth between each other and the small woman in front of them for a moment, before Teddy practically exploded.

  “By the great, big, fat balls of Thavi—” He cut himself off before completing the gods name, and took a deep breath before he continued.

  “What the !?” Agatha didn’t answer, and her eyes had suddenly grown to the size of lemons. She was staring at something behind the two of them. ‘No more.’ Aethel thought. His brain was straining to make sense of what was happening at this point. He hadn’t slept in many, many hours. He had almost seriously hurt an innocent woman, and possibly killed multiple people by the road. They were bandits, of course, but they were still people, and the crunching noises they made as they shattered against the trees in the forest, still rang in his mind. The greatest event of the day was obvious. The skies had just glued itself back together again, and so he really didn’t want to turn around to another ‘situation’.

  Yet, he turned, and not only were his eyes immediately filled to the brim with tears, but relief washed over him like cold spring on a burning summer's day. Everything else around him faded into nothingness. It was just her. The most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Her white marble-like skin was practically glowing as she hovered over the people. Long locks of gorgeous blue flowed into a pair of shining wings. The greatest artists in the world could chisel away for a thousand years and never achieve the perfection that was her form. He could study her forever. He wanted to be with her forever. Aethel walked closer, and as he did, she turned her heavenly gaze towards him for only a moment, and everything suddenly made sense.

  ‘Of course she’s here. Why wouldn’t she be?’ Aethel thought and chuckled at the idiotic emotions that had been burning away within him only minutes ago. Everything was going to be alright now, all he had to do was…

  Unimaginable pain spread from Aethel’s hand and up his neck.

  “OW!” He heard Teddy yell beside him, and they both pulled their hands back instinctively from the source of the pain. In front of them stood Agatha, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

  “It’s magic! She’s trying to control you! Don’t give in to it!” Aethel barely comprehended what she’d just said.

  “What…?” He managed to utter as he rubbed his aching hand. A dark mark had formed on his palm.

  “We need to go!” She clapped her hands in front of their faces, and Aethel was snapped back to reality. The newly arrived angel was hovering above a mass of people in the middle of the village square. It paid no mind to the hands reaching up towards it. Instead, it stared directly at them, smiling as if it had just witnessed something humorous.

  “Come noooow. Don’t be that waaaaay.” The angel didn’t move its lips, but the playful, almost perverse voice rang out clear as day, in the same sort of dialect as the previous angel had spoken in. This was enough to set them all into action. A clap of thunder sounded from within Teddy’s body, and they all bolted down the street. Teddy was obviously in the lead, as he had enhanced his physical capabilities. Agatha actually managed to follow suit after him, showing almost unnatural speed for her small stature. Aethel ran like he'd never done before, and yet, he had already begun lagging behind.

  “Into the forest!” Agatha yelled, and pointed towards the dark bushes at the edge of the village. Aethel was sure that hiding in the forest would be idiotic, as the angel could fly, and most likely light up entire areas to search for them. ‘If we manage to get away at all.’ He thought, and in a moment of clarity, Aethel realized that it would make absolutely no sense for the angel to be following just them. There had to be enough people in the village to satiate whatever hunger it had. So Aethel turned his head to look, and to his dismay, was met with the sight of the otherworldly being just a few strides behind them, with the whole village in tow.

  “Aethel!” He heard Teddy yell from up the road, and as he turned back towards his companions, his foot snagged on a large rock. His vision turned, and the ground raced towards him before he slammed his body into the soil and pebbles, bouncing and rolling onto his back.

  “Fucking Kingsroad!” He yelled in hysterical frustration and in a world of pain.

  “Aetheeeeeel.” He heard the angel's voice say, almost flirtatiously. He looked up to see the womanly figure hover in front of him. Townsfolk were gathering behind the angel, never taking their eyes off it. He could hear his companions yell behind him, but he couldn't make out their words. His eyes had already locked with the divine being. As before, the whole world around him started to fade. This time he managed to resist it for a while, but he soon realized that there was no point in doing so. He was, after all, meant to stay like this, in complete bliss with the most beautiful creature Regelis had ever seen.

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  His entire world shattered a second later when a beam of fire seared through the angel, leaving a molten hole where its bosom had been. An ear piercing shriek escaped the being, and Aethel instinctively closed his eyes shut and grasped at his ears to escape the pain. When he opened his eyes again, the scene had turned to absolute chaos once more. Villagers were running in all directions, howling and screaming. But what really caught his attention was a man in between himself and the angel. He donned dark robes, and a pointy parody of a wizards hat, straight out of a play. The angel was no longer hovering above the ground, instead kneeling before the masked man they had met in the forest yesterday.

  “WHO—” The angel began, before she set into another unearthly wail. Her limbs were suddenly covered in a white vapour, and when it dissipated, they were frozen solid.

  “NO! DON’T!” The angel yelped in panicked desperation, and four spears formed around the man with the pointy hat. Aethel recognized the technique immediately. It was the surge lance technique, but these were nothing like what Aethel could muster. With some effort, Aethel could create one lance at a time, which looked like air warped into a transparent spear of force. In contrast, these were solid grey spikes, violently shaking with power.

  Before Aethel could completely process the raw intensity of it, the mysterious man released the technique, and the angel's voice pierced out once more. Everything within a few feet of the scene was showered in tiny pieces of angel flesh, including Aethel. The sudden silence that followed from the being was almost as loud as its gut wrenching cries had been. Aethel could do nothing else but stare at the horror in front of him. His head was flooded with questions, concerns and a cocktail of emotions. Just a day ago they had been ready to fight this man off in the forest.

  The stranger turned, and looked down towards Aethel then, locking his glowing yellow eyes on him.

  “Sorry about the drama.” He stammered out in the same forced deep voice it had done earlier.

  “Thanks for the help. You can get going now.” He continued through his mask, and moved back towards the angel. Aethel looked down on himself and saw that he was covered in white marble-like rocks. The angel’s remains.

  He heard someone yelling at him from behind. Teddy and Agatha, no doubt, but he couldn’t really force himself to stand. He lifted his eyes back to the stranger, who was currently holding the angel’s lifeless head in his hands. He formed some sort of technique, and the head split into two pieces, revealing a shining pearl in the center.

  “These things are rare.” The stranger said all too casually, as he plucked the sphere from out of the dead angel’s dome.

  “Its flesh is too, of course, but I don’t need that.” He continued. Aethel couldn’t bring himself to say anything at all, and so they just stared at each other for a while, before the masked stranger coughed and spoke up again.

  “Feel free to take as much as you want.” He gestured to the scene around them.

  “Aethel, for the love of Th— Fuck!” He heard Teddy yell from behind. ‘I have to face reality at some point.’ Aethel told himself, and tried to keep himself contained. He stood up, and began limping back towards his companions.

  “Hurry!” Teddy exclaimed nervously, and waved his arms for him to quicken his pace. Aethel couldn’t take it anymore.

  “If this guy wanted to kill us he could’ve done so yesterday you daft fucking boar!” Aethel snapped back at Teddy, the result of the last couple of days suddenly pouring out of him. Teddy stopped his waving in return and his facial expression froze.

  “No need to wait for the wrinkly manipulator skeleton. You just go ahead and run you shitless cowards.” Aethel continued barking, as tears started to well up in his eyes. Agatha’s face contorted at his words.

  “Guy’s, we can’t—” She started, but Aethel interrupted her.

  “Are you that fucking tired of me? That you’ll leave me to be fucked by Thavion’s whore?!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. Teddy’s face shifted then, turning into dead seriousness. The great big bear of a man took five long steps towards him, and just as Aethel drew back his hand to punch his best friend, his brother and only family, Teddy wrapped his massive arms around him, and began to cry.

  “I’m so sorry, Aethel.” He let out between sobs.

  “I don’t know what got over me. I don’t know what I would do if—” He tried, but was interrupted by his own sulks. Aethel let some tears drop in turn. His mind was littered with angels, dead men, masked men, complete and utter chaos. He thought of when they were young, hearing tales of wizards and dragons. They always wanted to be adventurers and explorers, even as they grew older. They were the only ones at the academy fantasizing about these things. ‘A childish daydream.’ some would say, but a child couldn’t dream up these things. Aethel couldn’t dream up these things.

  “It’s fine.” Aethel managed to get out, before releasing his friend, and drying away his tears. He turned to look at Agatha who had streaks running down her cheeks, and such a melancholic grimace that Aethel couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

  “Don’t worry, Agatha. I didn’t mean any of that. It’s all just a little much.” He said, underplaying the intensity of the situation immensely.

  “I didn’t mean to leave you…I knew it—” She began, words lost in her blubbering. Aethel walked up to her and embraced her. He was always the voice of reason in situations like these. Thavion knows Teddy couldn’t be, and so he had to act the part for her as well.

  “I said don’t worry. I tripped.” He looked down at her, and she met his gaze with puffy red eyes.

  Four men sprang out of the dark bushes at the edge of the forest nearby, nearly giving Aethel a heart attack before he realized who it was.

  “You’ve gotten close, I see.” A well groomed grey haired man commented as he analyzed the surrounding havoc. Aethel released her in an instant, and was about to speak up, but Bael got the word first.

  “It’s not safe here. You can tell us what happened on the way back.” He directed two of the men towards Agatha, who hastily ran up and inspected her.

  “I’m fine.” She shunned them away, and began walking towards the forest.

  “Come.” Bael waved his hands for Aethel and Teddy to follow, and turned towards the trees. There wasn’t really any question of doing so or not. His voice and demeanour carried absolute command, and so they followed the rest of the party into the bushes.

  They walked in total silence for a couple of minutes before arriving at an inconspicuous trapdoor in the forest floor. Aethel’s assumption of what it would show turned true when it revealed a purple tinged void. Bael held it up for them to enter, and one by one they disappeared into it, until only Aethel and Bael remained. Before he could enter, however, Bael stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, and stared at him for a long moment before speaking up.

  “Keep sharp, Aethel.” He stated matter-of-factly. Aethel simply nodded, and smiled an uncomfortable smile in response. Bael returned the smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He motioned for Aethel to move inside, which he did. All the while, his fingers traced along the glossy, warm surface of a large, white, marble-like rock in his pocket.