Before dragons ruled the world, there were demons and angels. And before demons and angels, there were gods. And before gods, we do not know, for nothing in that age survived.

The gods made demons and angels to serve them, and the demons made dragons to serve them; the angels stole some dragons, or maybe some dragons chose to defect to the angels. It doesn't matter much.

My name is Lapis Miltos. I hunt angels. Not the big angels who fought that accursed war. None of those survived. I hunt the little, hidden angels who avoided the war. Not because a demon ordered me to; we dragons guaranteed that none remain. I hunt angels because they still restrict us.

The restrictions demons made was an inability to produce sapient non-dragons. The angels, meanwhile, restricted our magic, limiting us to only one spell. As both died out, these restrictions lessened. Now, we can make sapient races with barely a second thought, and know many more spells at once.

However, I suspected we were still limited. Six spells is more than one, but that was still a limit. If the restriction the demons gave is now gone, then why isn't the angel's? The conclusion I came to was, there were still angels. And surely, killing all remaining angels will free us.

So how do you hunt an angel? It is quite difficult; there's a reason the demons and angels avoided war for so long. Angels hide in the darkness, bodies consuming any light that shines upon them. They usually live in deep caves, feeding off of exposed ore. Worst of all, they can go eons without starving.

The first step to hunting an angel is finding a place that might house one. This means finding caves. The problem is there are many caves, and only one hunter. So we need to narrow the search by a lot. Luckily, angels do not have a concept of saving food.

Luckily, 'locate: exposed ore' is a valid spell that someone else already invented. So is 'locate: cave', though this one is a bit problematic, as it is a very vague spell that detects every cave, including those too small to house anything but bugs, and flooded caverns that can't support angels.

I'm no fool. If I were to seek out every cave to check for signs of angels, it'd take me eons. Instead, it'd be more efficient to have someone else do the surveying for me. Which is where the worms come in. By uplifting worms to sapience, they can follow orders and learn and use spells. Additionally, worms reproduce quickly, so they will spread across a continent within centuries.

All of the worms learn 'locate: exposed ore' and 'locate: cave'. Their small mana pools will give both spells abysmally small ranges, but with enough worms, eventually every cave will have been found and checked for exposed ore. We can then take that information and sort it through a sorting system, removing invalid caves, then organizing remaining caves in order of exposed ore density. The less exposed ore per volume, the more likely an angel is consuming it.

So, now that we have a cave suspected to house an angel. Now what? Well we actually check whether or not there is an angel inside. There's a couple clues we can look for. First is fast-growing stalactites. Stalactites normally take hundreds of years to grow only a few centimeters. The excess waste of angels cause stalactites to grow significantly faster, up to centimeters per year.

Another clue is hydrogen gas. I do not know where it comes from or why, but it is a clear sign of angel activity. Problem is that there's no smell or color. So the only way to detect it is through fire. However, depending on the cave, there could be an explosion. An unideal side effect, but manageable.

The last 'clue' is more of evidence against an angel being in a particular cave. If there is any light source within the cave that can be disabled, but hasn't, then an angel is less likely to be in the cave, as they would've consumed whatever made the light before consuming ores.

Once you confirm that an angel is in a cave, you seal the entrance before going in and kill it. That way even if you fail, the angel can't escape easily, allowing for another hunter to locate and kill it.

To kill an angel, you have to destroy all of its eyes, as it is its source of regeneration. However, you also have to be careful, as looking at more than 3 eyes at once will trap you in a mind palace.

The average strength of an angel is normally above that of most dragons, but the angels we are hunting are either weakened, or weak to begin with. As such, if you are confident in your strength, then you can attempt to restrain the angel's tail, as that is its only physical weapon.

For any spells that an angel casts, you can ignore it as long as at least 2 eyes remain. Once only 2 eyes remain, the angel will immediately sacrifice one eye to try and kill or restrain you with pure darkness. The only method of countering such spells is a bright light. Once you counter the spell with light, you have to destroy the last eye within 17 seconds, otherwise the angel will regenerate an eye using the energy from the light.

I have taught you what you need to hunt angels. I simply hope that you will succeed in your efforts, as I have for centuries.

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Lapis closed the book and placed it next to her diary. A precaution that so far she hadn't needed. She gathered her supplies and crawled through the tight halls until she reached the entrance. There she found her youngest daughter, Tildra.

"What are you doing so late in the cold? You should be sleeping like your sisters and brothers."

"But mom, who else will see you off? Who else will wait for you to come back but me?"

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Don't worry about that. If anything, you should hope I die, so that you can inherit everything. Otherwise all the riches in the world will be taken by the time you're old enough."

With that, Lapis flew off, ignoring the denials and pleads. Tildra was a strange one. Even as a child she's too innocent and naive. A shame, as she was the one who inherited Lapis's outrageous strength. If only she was a little more selfish. If only she had any desire.

Of course, Lapis had no intention on dying anytime soon. There were still angels to hunt, after all. This next one was in Nuvil, hiding within an active volcano. The angels were learning her tactics, it seemed.

As she flew above the volcano, she noticed something strange. This was supposed to be an active volcano. So then why was there no magma? No smoke? It was as if there was a plug, yet Lapis could see into the darkness.

Using a large golden pyramid to seal the only way out, Lapis ventured into the heart of the volcano. Her suspicions were reinforced by the gate that stood below. Worn down by time, but somehow still standing. Why is it here? The door is too precise for an angel. The carvings too intricate. Maybe a demon could've made it, but why? Was this a prison of some kind?

Leaving analysis for later, Lapis phased past the door, only to find the remains of a fort. Corpses of kobrites littered derelict buildings. Most concerningly, there is evidence of a struggle. Based off of the amount of decay, it must have been years ago.

Further below was a second gate. Lapis smelled angel blood on the wood. She also smelled dragon blood...no. Bastard blood. A fight between bastard and angel? How did that happen?

As Lapis delved deeper into the volcano, she found her target. Floating on the softly glowing magma was a slug of pure darkness. Without hesitation, she lunged down and shoved the angel below the magma's surface. Now was the hard part; destroying its eyes without looking.

From her pouch Lapis grabbed a handful of adamantite needles. She wasn't going to risk them melting before doing damage. One by one, she stabbed into the angel. Sometimes the needles slid smoothly into skin and flesh. Sometimes they'd pierce an eye from behind. Other times, the needle bounced off of eyelids, only to be smashed open by another needle.

After destroying 20 eyes, Lapis lifted the angel out of the magma and pinned it against the wall. There were still more than 2 eyes, and the glow of magma will only fuel more to regrow. After properly restraining the tail, lapis casts 'Blizzard; full snow'.

Every surface of the volcano was coated in snow. In seconds, the magma's glow was completely obscured. Lapis and the angel were plunged into darkness. Confirming the lack of light, Lapis continued the surgical removal of eyes. Now that it was cooler, she could use the cheaper needles.

Then one of the eyes started growing. Recognizing the sign of sacrificial magic, lapis retreated and prepared the countermeasures. The eye popped, yet instead of the wave of dark tentacles, there was a hundred eyes, all staring at lapis. A trap.

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This mind palace was a bit strange. Rather than a beautiful facsimile of any real palace, it was an empty plane. Grass barely obscured the simulated ground. The only oddity was a lone tree, only a few steps away. Yet no matter what, it could not be reached.

Lapis started the recording. "You are Lapis Miltos. You hunt angels. This is a mind palace. You must escape."

Once she confirmed that the recording succeeded, she got to work. It started with a scratch on the ground. The scratch revealed white ash beneath. There was another scratch, revealing more ash...

...

Finally, there was something other than ash. She did not know how long she's been digging for, but based on how long it took to remove even a nail's worth of ash, she did not like the implications. She can't remember much, the mind palace already got rid of everything she didn't protect. At least that recording reminded her who she was.

Hm? Wasn't there something below the ash? She could've sworn she just revealed something. What was it though? Whatever, she can just dig it up again. As she has always done...

...

Something was wrong. Based on how little she now remembered, it must've been nearly a year. And yet, based on her current digging rate, it's only been a few days. Not only that, below the ash was snow. Snow shouldn't be able to exist in an angel's mind palace. Something was wrong...

...

She cursed. The recording got corrupted. The first half of the message was now gone. At least it told her to escape, but her identity would fade. Already, her name eluded her. As gone as the snow that she melted away...

...

The snow was 10 meters deep. Each handful of snow removed about 2 mm. It took 3 seconds per handful. Based on this information, it should've only taken 4 hours to reach the bottom. So then why was it that she saw the sun set and rise? Was time moving faster? Was she moving slower? If only she could remember when she started digging.

Beneath all the snow there was sky. It was strange, but no matter how many times she looked at it, it was sky. Assuming this was the escape that the recording mentioned, she jumped down. If it wasn't, she could always just fly back up.

As she fell out, she realized why sky was down. Above her was the ground, a plane of snow upside down. It was slightly disorientating, but with newfound understanding of circumstance, she attempted to return up the hole.

With great confusion, she found the hole had shrunk. Noting it for later, she tried digging it open. Once it got big enough, she climbed back up the hole to the empty plane she came from. Except this time, there was no tree...

...

She woke up to shaking. The whole world was shaking. She did not know what this meant. She felt a pulling sensation coming from the hole. As the shaking increased, the pull got stronger. Eventually, she could no longer resist. She tumbled down the hole to the other side. The hole rapidly closed behind her as she fell into the sky. Then it shattered.

She woke up in a dark cave. Beside her was a book. Or rather, a diary. From the deepest part of her mind, untouched by the mind palace, a memory emerged. She had written a diary. This must be it! She would be able to regain her identity! But something gnawed at her from within.

Whatever. She would find out by reading the diary. Her diary. Oh what a joyous day it was to finally escape. How long had it taken? And where was she? All would be answered!

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Pov Vildra Miltos

What the fuck was that thing? It looked like a slug, but then it grew a hundred eyes! And now I'm here, somewhere completely different. Looks like an infinite field with nothing but grass. I'm assuming this is an illusion or something. I doubt I got teleported just by looking at some eyes.

Now how do I escape this non-existent prison? I doubt I can just blow everything up to escape. Maybe if I move far enough away I'll find an inconsistency to exploit...

"This is a mind palace. You must escape."

A recorded message. Someone else was here. I can guess how; a mind palace exists within the trapper's mind. It takes shape based on their experiences and desires. Most importantly, it decays any mind trapped in it for long enough.

Luckily, I have the perfect tool to escape. It'll be risky, and I need to make sure I don't get trapped again. But if it works, then I'll be released without any problems.

'Erase memory'

'Erase memory'

'Erase memory'

...