“Hey,” Cleo said as Selena took the torch out of the lizardman’s hands and shoved the burning tip into the pile of loose earth. The cave darkened and the only thing that could be seen were a few pale white mushroom caps that barely glowed. Cleo couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. “What was that for?”

“You shouldn’t light a fire in an enclosed space,” Selena said. “We’re lucky the harpy mentioned something otherwise I would have forgotten. Raea, can you give us some light? I’ll use my powers to open a way back to the surface.”

“Okay,” Raea said. Sally stopped and waited with the rest of them. Seconds passed. Raea’s voice broke the silence, “I can’t use my power? It’s not working.”

Selena frowned and attempted to manipulate the earth beneath her feet. Nothing happened. “It seems like we’ve been blocked by a zone of charity,” Selena said. “I can’t do anything either.”

“Back to digging?” Sally asked.

“Back to digging.”

***

Solra stood at a tunnel’s entrance. It was narrow and barely accommodated his body. He hunched over and walked inside. There was a glowing orb embedded in the staff he was using as a walking stick. The tunnel walls were bathed in a gray light as he made his way down the sloped path. At the end of the path, he arrived in a spacious room that could easily fit hundreds of elephants. But the room wasn’t filled with elephants, it was filled with angels who were bound by chains and tied to blocks in the ground. Ishim was sitting in the center, his hands on an orb that Solra recognized as his own.

In one corner of the room, Pyre was prodding an angel with a stick. It was the only space that the zone of charity didn’t occupy. A dull orb was buried in the angel’s chest with blood seeping out of the edges of the raw wound. “Aren’t you mad at me?” Pyre asked and poked the angel again. “Let me see it. Your wrath. If not, I can always pull away one of your friends. Word of mouth told me you’re in a relationship. Want me to bring your significant other here instead? I’m sure there would be many uses for her.” The bound angel’s eyes widened and the orb in his chest started to fill with a red light. When it was nearly too bright to look at, Pyre dug his hand into the angel’s chest and ripped the orb out, causing a fountain of blood and flames to spurt out. The bound angel spasmed a few times before collapsing limply. His half-closed eyes stared at Pyre before they dulled.

“He died. You killed him?” Solra asked as he stepped beside Pyre.

“Well, yes. People tend to die if they are killed. Didn’t you say we couldn’t afford to feed all the prisoners?” Pyre asked. “Two birds with one stone.”

Solra frowned as he rolled the dead angel’s head to the side. “I knew this man. Wasn’t he a patience angel?”

Pyre smiled. “He was,” he said. “Did you know that angels who were always firm in their belief produce monstrous amounts of energy when you bring out their sins? If they can reel it back in and stay true to their beliefs after experiencing their sin, their virtues become stronger. It’s a very interesting phenomenon.” He handed Solra the glowing red orb. It nearly burned the old archangel when he touched it. “But I don’t give them that chance to grow.”

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Solra nodded. “What about the cannon I wanted you to build?”

“We ran out of metal,” Pyre said and sighed. “You took too much for the halflings’ armors and hand cannons. But if you could break down one of the checkpoint walls … even just a small section….”

Solra sighed. “I’ll think about it,” he said. Pyre’s demands were truly getting bigger and bigger. At first, he only wanted a few angels to extract powers from and perform experiments on. Now he was having liberties with all the captured prisoners of war. So this is what happened when a self-sacrificing angel became selfish. Should he remove him? Solra was tempted, but he couldn’t deny that the eccentric angel had been extremely useful.

***

Madison hopped along a tunnel while whistling a tune. The floor was littered with glowing crystals that used to be on the ceilings of the tunnels. Around her, all kinds of halflings were suffering, letting out groans and moans. The tunnels had caved in, and none of them were ready for it. Even the areas that the dwarves had proclaimed as completely earthquake proof had collapsed. A glowing orb hung on Madison’s waist. It swayed back and forth on its string as Madison twirled around and trilled. A series of high-pitched notes temporarily blocked out the noise of suffering.

“Don’t have to guard the entrance anymore,” Madison sang to herself. “Doing such a boring task was a chore. Everyone is cheering for me.” She stepped on a dwarf causing him to let out a groan. “It feels really good to be free. At last, I can finally be….” She stopped and frowned. Her wings twitched causing some black powder to fall off of her feathers. “Pipapo’s here?”

Madison continued down the tunnel. Her wings grew hotter. After passing one of the caved-in farms, her wings started to become colder with each step. She stopped and backtracked to where her wings were the hottest and stared at the collapsed entrance. She placed her ear against the earth and closed her eyes as if she believed losing her vision would help her hear better. A muffled voice reached her ears, “Hard … breathe … dizzy.”

Madison took a few steps away from the wall and tilted her head. Palan was an interesting toy, but she wasn’t going to get her hands literally dirty by digging away at the earth. Instead, she scratched out a message on the other side of tunnel and framed it with glowing crystals. Uncle Solra wanted her to take over watching Akurel. Ordinary people couldn’t use charity to control an archangel even if they had an orb made from Solra’s powers. It had to be done by someone of equal or greater power. Thinking about this made Madison’s mood sour. Why couldn’t Ishim do it instead like he did at the battlefield? Free from guarding the entrance? She was just going from one chore to another.

Madison sighed and hung her head as she walked past the farms, her wings growing colder. After taking a few more steps she stopped and looked behind herself. Uncle Solra could wait. Her own happiness was the most important thing in the two worlds after all. She raised her head and hummed a tune as she hopped back to the caved-in farm and waited outside. After scratching out the message she left behind and removing the crystals, she placed her ear against the caved-in entrance. She heard Palan’s voice say, “I think we’re almost out. I can sense someone there.”

“Please hurry. Sally and Cleo fainted.” It was a female voice that Madison didn’t recognize. Her eyes widened. Were these the friends that Pipapo said were a million billion trillion times prettier than her? When he had said that to her, she had gotten so mad that she nearly overdrafted her mana reserves when she threw that hammer towards the angels’ puny fortress. Her eyes narrowed, and she stepped away from the wall. She looked down at the orb hanging by her waist, and placed her hand over it. Moments later, it stopped glowing, and a thin layer of translucent film covered Madison’s body.

A purple hand broke through the top of the wall and slashed downwards, creating a vertical fissure. Madison watched as a snake’s head emerged from the fissure. It stopped moving when it saw her, and she heard Palan curse from the other side of the wall.