Frei opened his eyes and had to brush off something that was in his face. Was he drunk again? He was rarely drunk as it turned out to be more of a chore to battle the aftermath of drinking as his years slowly added up.

Wait.

  He thought it to be feathers of his old pillow sticking out at first, but then the memories of the previous day returned to him. Groaning, he sat up, the fur of Nitarja's tail falling off his face. The previous day, they had run late into the night to shake off the potential pursuers and only now he started to realize how careless they had been with no one to keep watch.

Well, Nitarja had not been in a state to keep watch anyway and he could not stay awake indefinitely.

  Digging into his hazy memories, he remembered that he just tried to put the greatest possible distance between them and the manor. He was still unsure why had the two reacted in such an extreme way, but they had probably mistook them with someone else. Hilariously, they might have been even mistaken for the agents of The Sigil, the organization that they had actually dumped right before the unfortunate encounter.

""So, The Church of Thurm now has to think that we are the agents of The Sigil of Meridor, but we actually aren't! What a marvelous situation." Frei sighed, thinking where they had made a mistake, but even if they had paid for the beehives, the two would have hardly just let them go.

"It will be fine, we have not stolen the drugs or anything else. They will just replace their goons and that's it." Nitarja got up as well while yawning and stared at him for a brief moment.

"Shit, my peach is so sore, you brute." She reached with her right hand down in between her legs and Frei almost gasped. Did she possess any amount of decency? When they had even gotten this friendly?

"Ehm, my lower back is as well, but that is the doing of your own, young . . lady." He had to squeeze the lady part out with effort as it did not match at all. "I hope the drugs are out of your system now, do you perhaps know our location?"

"Nope, never been out of the city. But we moved in the general direction of the Black Forest." She looked around as if to confirm her guess. "It looks like it."

"Black Forest?" Frei was clueless as always.

"A nasty place. I heard some rumours about it." Nitarja looked around anxiously.

"Yor-Jagdon had been founded in a place where the river had been close to some kind of a mineral vein. The mining operation contaminated the water and the contaminated water flowed into the forest that is now labeled the Black Forest. Farming is not possible here and the lands had been left to the woods even though there are farmlands and cities outside of it. As the result, all kinds of people come here to try stuff, as no country is really interested in the region. Black Forest, the land of no one, that is what the noble said. I listened to him quite well, because he was really bad, his stamina was nothing . . . "

"Thank you very much for your explanation Nitarja." Frei interrupted her.

"A pleasure." She made a curtsy like a princess and smiled at him, Frei just shook his head and his eyes looked up to the sky.

"This girl . . . Fine. That makes food quite a problem, we should head to the edge of the forest." Frei stretched his back that was all stiff after the nigh, shaking his hand when he involuntarily touched a wet patch on his back.

"Owow, I will need one hell of a bath after this whole adventure is over." They set off in a direction roughly perpendicular to their former path and marched thought the silent forest.

But the silence was not to last.

[Peculiar, we should not have anyone inside The Sigil of Meridor and using such a perfect disguise at that. Seems like someone at the guild is working overtime.]

Frei suddenly stopped and nearly stumbled over a root of a nearby tree.

Was there a voice in his head? Was he crazy?

"Hey, move moron!" Nitarja had not been able to react in time to his sudden change of pace and he could feel her body bounce off his back.

He looked around, but there really was only Nitarja with a bored expression plastered on her face, no one else.

[Listen, your entry mission looks like a success. Meaning you will have an opportunity to enter into the Antares project. Join them and take a position of influence there. After your success, await further instructions. ]

What was going on? Who was that? And how was he able to communicate with him?

  His questions were many, but he was unable to find any answers and just stood there with Nitarja complaining about him spacing out. He had an ominous feeling about the voice, but he could just ignore it.

Yes, that would be the best approach, he would just ignore it to avoid more trouble.

[By the way, you are gravely mistaken if you believe that you can just leave as you please.]

The next second a wave of severe pain attacked his head and he clutched his temples with his whole body turning tense because of the agony he was in. Fortunately, it did not last long and soon, the feeling vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

[No tricks, Heaven knows. We always know.]

We? Who was we? Frei felt his stomach ache when he realized that the thing could probably read his thoughts, or could it not?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He quickly thought of all the vulgar words and cursed the owner of the strange voice in his mind as much as he could, but there was no reaction.

"Uh, at least some positives." Frei sighed with relief.

[I am not a crazy bitch, my name is Gabri'El and I will await your success. Until then, little fiend.]

"FUCK!" Frei shouted and fell to his knees, he kept slamming his clenched fists against the ground to release his frustration.

"They know, they know everything, they know everything. I cannot get away from them. They can even read what I think!" He lost it for a moment and mumbled for himself while kneeling on the ground.

"You do not need to feel down man, you have passed the test." A voice said and the man in rugged clothes from before appeared, stepping out from behind a large tree. It was the same one who had opened the door when they had paid a visit to the informant of The Sigil.

"You have eliminated some of the targets instead of getting killed, more than most of the knights had been able to accomplish. It is true that we have not expected you to kill their drug dealers instead of the tail, but, whatever. You are clearly tough enough to be used for some real work." The man gave them a fake smile and tried to clean a few drops of blood he had on his left sleeve. Probably belonging to those that had been following them.

"He was right, he knew." Frei whispered in a way no one could hear and dreaded the voice in his head even more. What could he do if they still had tabs on him? If they could even read his mind? Or was it just a very limited function?

He had gravely underestimated the means of the Divine Universe, his guess was that whatever they had attached to him at the first meeting had to still be functional and its functions were more numerous than he had anticipated.

"You should give me some real support if you want to get it done, cocky angel." Frei ranted inside of his head, because that was all he could do against the scheming Heaven.

"Well, I am waiting. If so powerful you are, why don't you ensure the success of your all important mission by providing me with some tangible powers instead of haughty words?" Frei continued to speak inside of his mind scornfully.

"And nothing. . .I thought as much." He thought but to his surprise, his silent request had not been left without response.

[. . . trusted installer initiating update, awaiting authorization . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - archangel, authorized by Gabri'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - martyr, authorized by Mikha'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - angel, authorized by Gabri'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - saint, authorized by Mikha'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - lesser demon, authorized by Samma'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - demon, authorized by Samma'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - greater demon, authorized by Samma'El . .

. . . override . . .

. . . analytical functions have been unlocked, level - Samma'El, authorized by Samma'El . .

. . . override locked, authorized by Samma'El . . .]

"What the. . ?!" Frei stared at the log in the [infernopedia] that appeared to be alive again with bulging eyes, not knowing what was going on.

* * H * EL * * L * *

. . . meanwhile, somewhere in the depths of Hell, where no longer any screams could be heard, the depths that only one entity could enter and sit on his couch while crunching chips, with a semi-transparent interactive screen hung in front of him in the air.

"What are you doing Gabri'El? You cannot give the fiend such a high authority!" He heard Mikha'El's voice in his head, as they currently had something like a quick conference, but he did not pay much attention to it as always.

"Antares poses a great threat to the plans of the Divine Universe, we cannot have a toothless chicken doing the mission." Gabri'El retorted fiercely and another line appeared on the screen.

"I refuse, repeat, refuse to have a fiend bear a similar rank as me with the word angel in it!" Mikha'El shouted and yet another line appeared on the system screen.

"At least give a fiend the right allegiance, I will not have an angel serving in hell." Samma'El cut them off both and joined the battle with his own commands.

"I am done with this pointless argument, solve it yourselves!" Mikha'El quit the debate.

"As I have said, the mission is vital for the project, you should increase the fiend's authority. Do you remember the scale of the project? You have not read the documents I have provided for you again Samma'El! It does not matter, I will just explain it to you in person. I . . ."

"No, no, no, I will give him a high enough authority. Is this enough, Gabri'El? Is it? No, this will be better, is it now high enough?" Samma'El's long, clawed fingers whirled about the screen.

"But that is. . !"Gabri'El protested weakly.

"You have what you have wanted, now you will have to excuse me, I have important work to do." Samma'El shut down the connection and opened a new release of his favorite novel that he had secretly procured on one of the human worlds.

"Hehe, I have a hunch that she will confess to him soon." He looked around like a little boy doing something his mother had spanked him for and began reading.

* * * * * * * * *

  Frei immediately commanded his old interface to appear in front of him again, but it was a little bit different compared to before.

"Well, that is more like it." The corners of his mouth lifted up after he had seen new functions, he would deal with the bothersome Heaven when time comes, now it was time to get overpowered!

Frei Galgani - [SoulStone Mage]

[Infernopedia]

[Teleportation] - no locations available

[Souls] - 137 affinity-arcane 329 affinity-lithoid 724 affinity-plant 378 affinity-none

[Re-roll Evolution] - Re-roll recommended to an evolution containing a demonic strain to fully utilize the interface.

[SoulForge] - Reforge abilities by burning souls into them.

[DemonForge] - Forge a new demon body using souls.

[HellForge] - Infuse souls into inanimate materials creating artifacts of unique properties.