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-3 Day Hibernation Period Complete :: Recovery: Successful-

-0659 Hours. Initiating wake-up sequence-

-…-

-Initializing Empyrion OS … initialization complete-

-…-

-0817 Hours. Wake up sequence complete-

-Good morning, Yalda (＾▽＾)-

It was three days later when I woke up. That was better than the last hibernation period, but dang...three whole days lost to the wind.

When I looked at my efficiency level, I was at a mere 54% strength. That wasn’t just combat wise, my whole system was in turmoil. I pushed myself way too far. Battle was out of the question for a while. This was my consequence, I guess.

As my eyes opened up, I was in a hospital bed. Indena was sleeping in a chair next to me. Her head was nearly falling off the side of the chair. She couldn’t have been comfortable like that.

Uncle was across from me in a different chair, and he had a smile when I finally sat up.

“Young Mistress, how are you feeling?” His calm voice was nice to hear.

I wanted to tell him that my whole body felt like it’d been crinkled up like a tin can. But to be honest, it wasn’t too bad.

“I’m okay. But I’m 54% okay.”

“You're young, so the recovery time shouldn't be too long. But you’ll need to pace yourself going forward. If you overdo things, you’ll destroy your body.”

He sounded serious, and I believed it. But looking back, it was worth overworking myself it to help people.

Indena finally woke up to our voices.

“Hey!” She shot me a surprised glare. “You’re up.”

Her neck cracked really loudly. She made a painful shriek as she massaged it.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah. More worried about you right now, ya’ freaking Eighth Star.” she had a tinge of mockery in her tone at that last part.

That's right. I was the Eighth Star...or at least, that's what it was looking like. I mean, it kinda seemed like it was all piecing together that way. Call it fate or a coincidence, it wasn't going to change my actions. I was programmed to protect mankind, and that's what I would do.

"Uncle, what do you know about the Seven Star's of Heaven?" I asked him.

He couldn't keep a straight face. He burst out laughing like I made a joke.

“Oi, old man, take it easy or you’ll strain yourself. It’s not that funny.”

“Forgive me.” As his laughter subsided, he stepped over to my bedside. "Humans all over venerate them as powerful beings who protected them in ages long past. Now all that remains of their legend is a variety of scriptures and myths."

“Those angels must have been pretty amazing if everyone knows about them,” I said.

"They must have been." Uncle nodded.

I asked him if he'd ever met one of the angels before, since he was technically really old.

“I can't say I have met a real angel.” He shrugged. "I did however oversee the Exceed program. Your ancestors. Does that count?"

That doesn't count. We weren't real angels.

Indena let out a disgruntled sigh. “You mean, there’s more kids out there like her?”

“Exceed aren't perpetual children,” Uncle said. “Only the Mk III models start out small, growing into their prime moderately faster than humans.”

I think I'm the only Mk III out there, which is kinda cool, but also makes me feel a little lonely.

“Uncle, I’m the only Mk III, right?”

He stared at me for a few seconds, then smiled. “Of course. You are the only proper Mk III ever created.”

“Good." Indena snickered. "One of her is crazy enough." She flipped a coin in her hand. "Anyways, why don’t we catch her up on what’s been going on?” She tossed the coin to me. I caught it. It was a Pier token!

Now I have four of these coins. Maybe they’ll be useful someday?

Anyways, since Indena brought it up, the next thing I wanted to know was what happened to the city while I was sleeping.

One of the good things to happen after I used the Stardust Nova was that tiny particles of light rained down on the city, cleansing out all the demons and possessed people, turning them back to normal. Unfortunately, the death toll wasn’t low. The Reaper did get a bunch of people, one of them being that woman on the roof. I didn’t want to think about how many people suffered because we didn’t know what we were doing. Even worse, we’d lead the Reaper here. I just felt so responsible for it all.

"It's all my fault," I whimpered. "That demon wanted to come here because of me."

“Shrimp, if it wasn’t for you, there’d still be a big demon cloud above us.” She gestured outside. “Stop beating yourself up.”

"I guess..." I wasn't fully convinced that I helped more than hurt, but it did make me feel better to know I did some good by these people. "These demons are scary. The one from last year wasn't this strong."

"Hey, yeah..." Indena rubbed her chin. "You faced a demon last year? What was up with that?"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Before Uncle could explain, I gave Indena the details.

"This guy named Janus summoned a demon using mana he'd stolen. He was a bad guy, but actually wasn't too bad because he helped protect me."

Indena leaned forward and gave me a befuddled look.

"Did you say, Janus?"

"Yeah..." I nodded. "Why, do you know him?"

She started cracking up, then she nodded.

"Weird guy with two faces, right? Has a thing for retro video games," she said. "Yeah, I know him. Well, not very well."

This was super weird. How the heck did she know who that guy was? This must have been a small world after all!

"Might as well explain your affiliation." Uncle seemed to already know something.

"We both come from the same group. The Family of Sai."

No way! Indena was working with the bad guys?

"You're kidding," I uttered.

She shook her head. “I'm serious. What do you know about us?”

“Uncle, they’re the group that wanted to make the world eternally dark, right?”

“The Family of Sai is perhaps at its core, an independent organization…” Uncle began, “but this member has shown she does not intend on spreading darkness across the globe.”

Indena looked really offended, but not from what Uncle said, she got upset about the darkness part.

“So it’s true, then. The folks back home are up to some freaky stuff. Damn, I didn’t want to believe your dad, but guess he was right.”

The fact that she was working with dad dispelled any worry I had. She definitely wasn't trying to cover the world in darkness. Her heart was in the right place, even if she was angry all the time.

“Shrimp, let me tell you about what we are. We’re not exactly a real family, but we're a bunch of people, mostly orphans, united under one patriarch.”

The goal of this family, according to her, was to see that all human beings were self-sufficient. Not relying on a god or government to rule over them, but rather allowing them to decide what they wanted to do, pretty much taking fate into their own hands.

“I don’t know where all this darkness crap comes from, but I don’t like it anymore then you guys,” she assured.

It was good to know she was on our side, but it made me a little worried to think that she was part of a group that had some bad secrets they were keeping. But to be fair, I’d only ever met two of them so far.

~☆☆☆~

The phone next to my bed rang. Uncle answered it, said “yes” a few times, then hung up.

“Who was that?”

He didn't say a word, rather let the TV above my bed do the talking.

Marek was on the screen, and he was standing on some podium, speaking to the people.

“Fellow subjects of the Queen of Erdareich. Today I speak with a heavy heart for all those lost in the recent tragedy of Urnan. We have discovered that the foes we face were not terrorists, nor were they monsters…they were demonic beings bent on destroying our very way of life. This is not the first attack done on our people. I have seen with my own eyes two incidents of demonic terror on our people. And who can say how many more have yet to be reported?”

He spoke just like he did when he was warning the city about the Reaper attack.

He continued his speech. “Know that your queen has not abandoned you, nor has the church. We are working very closely with them to ensure that these demon attacks are put to an end, even before they begin. For the time being, we merely ask you all to take up your spiritual burdens and support local church efforts to prevent any further attempts at possession by dark forces.”

“Is he asking the people to go to church to help fight demons?” I asked.

“The witch said it herself. The less divine protection someone has, the easier they are to be picked out by a demon.”

She also mentioned Indena had some divine protection, which was pretty surprising considering she didn’t worship anything.

Marek kept talking for a few more minutes, but then he opened up the floor for questions.

“Council Member Le Varren, is it true that the Eighth Star has been sent down?” A reporter asked.

“I cannot confirm nor deny that at this time.”

“Eye witness reports stated seeing an angel flying through the town, saving people from giant bugs and skeletons, what do you make of that?”

“We are still attempting to find any evidence of that claim. We will report our findings as soon as confirmation is complete.”

There was some chatter among the people seated in front of the podium.

I would have been dumb if I didn’t realize they were talking about me. This was that Eighth Star thing, and they also mentioned seeing an angel.

“Uncle, why isn’t he telling them about me?” I asked.

“Because they asked about the Eighth Star first, not you specifically.”

I didn't like the reasoning behind that...it felt really...I don't know, dodgy?

“Shrimp, you want my answer? If he tells them you're the real deal, they'll all freak out.”

"Why?" I asked.

"It's a big thing that a freaking angel appears out of nowhere. They have to make sure you're legit." Indena reasoned.

Oh? I guess that makes sense.

A person in the front row raised his hand.

“What precautions will be put in place to prevent any sort of attacks again?”

“We are still studying the nature of these attacks. But we do know that those with spirituality have less likelihood of being affected by such things. When another attack spawns, we will send in teams of highly trained exorcists to expel our hellish invaders.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. What are you going to do to ‘prevent’ another attack?”

“We are working tirelessly to discover the exact cause of these attacks. We will give more information in the near future.”

Suddenly, loads of people began taking pictures and talking all at once. I could tell the stress level increased drastically after he said that.

All the people started talking loudly. Marek was finding it hard to answer questions now. After a man whispered something in his ear, he bid the audience farewell and began to step off the podium and go behind the stage.

It really was impressive how well spoken he was, but he lied a lot. I guess those are white lies, but they were still lies.

“Uncle, why did he not tell them the whole truth?”

“Indena already told you. If the people know things that turn out to be wrong, they’ll begin to doubt their own leaders. He has to make sure that everything they learn is either safe for them to understand, or is factually correct.”

“But, what wouldn’t be okay for them to know?”

Uncle said that some information could be dangerous if it got into the wrong hands.

"How would you feel if some bully got ahold of your diary and posted it online?" Uncle asked.

People would make fun of me for some of the things I write in there, and they'd be really mean. I suddenly got the picture.

*RING RING!*

The phone rang again, but this time Uncle put it on speaker. Marek was on the other line.

“Hello? Our lovely angel is doing well, yes?”

One minute he couldn't confirm I’m an angel, the next he called me one. No wonder dad didn’t trust politicians.

“Hi, Marek. I’m doing good.”

I heard him take a sigh on the other side. “That’s good. Did you see me on TV?”

“Yes, I did. You’re a big liar.”

I heard him laugh uncomfortably. But he moved the phone away from his face, so it was quiet.

“You have no idea... Well, I’m on the way over to visit you and Yamin. Has she been okay?”

I forgot about Yamin. I hoped she was doing okay, but nobody said anything about her yet.

Uncle spoke up in my stead. “She is recovering from the incident. I checked on her this morning and they said she was eating again.”

Was Yamin hurt? Now I was worried.

“What’s wrong with Yamin, Uncle?”

He hung up the phone, then patted my shoulder.

“She was shaken up by all the chaos. A little therapy over the last few days did her well.”

Probably for the best that she got some therapy. I’m sure a lot of people are going to need it for a while. I seemed to be okay, but not everyone was like me.

Yamin was a normal girl. She didn’t deal with large hoarding crowds of people like Marek, waves of intense combat like Indena, or keeping a watchful eye over a future guardian of mankind like Uncle did.

I wanted to visit her, just to see for myself that she was doing okay. Based on my map, she was in the room under mine.

“Yalda, where are you going?"

By the time he asked, I was already out the door.

“Visiting Yamin!”

“Wait!” Uncle tried to make a snatch at me, but I flared out my wings and it startled him.

Then he grabbed my wings, and I de-materialized them, jumping away. He fell forward, giving me a chance to escape.

“Nah nah na na nah!” I taunted as I bolted down the hallway.

“Yalda, wait!” Uncle started running after me, Indena followed. "She's not ready to see...bah!" he grunted.

I saw someone was coming out of the elevator, so I ran in and pressed the 2 button on it until it started taking me down. I really had to fight the urge to press every button all at the same time on this thing.

Once I got down to that floor, I ran to the room that Yamin was in and went inside.

She was quietly sitting by the window, her head facing outside, so I couldn't tell her expression. she must have been watching the birds. You could hear them chirping like crazy.

It was cold here, probably from the air flowing in from the window. She had a blanket around her shoulders to counter the low temperature.

“Yamin,” I uttered with a smile.

She slowly looked at me when I said her name. She had bags under her eyes, and they were all read and puffy too, like she’d been crying. Her hair was a mess, and she was shivering a little bit, even with the blanket

“Sweetheart…” She tried to smile, but it just got forced down by her upper lip.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She didn’t say anything, just gestured for me to come closer to her.

When I was right in front of her seat, she ran her hand through my hair.

“Tell me, are you really an angel?”

I shook my head. “Not a real one.”

“I see.” Now she was smiling, but then tears started to well up in her puffy eyes. “For a little while, I thought you might be my guardian angel. Guess that’s not the case, huh?”

She grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in. My head buried into her chest.

I was so close to her chest that I could hear her heartbeat was heavy. It was beating like a drum, drowning out her loud sobbing.

The other two had long since gotten to the room, but they were quiet, so I ignored their existence.