As he left the city, he took a few deep breaths of the clear air of the Ash Heaps. To his sensitive nose, the city already was filled with the stench of civilization, an odor made out of the mingled scents of food and waste. He could simply ignore the smell, another benefit of his high stats, but it barely bothered him as it was. He was not the sort of man to complain about tiny things, as he had lived in a harsh set of circumstances on Earth.

Here, where he had power and wealth, he was content and grateful for whatever had brought him here. It was a far cry from his previous existence in any case. Still, he was not just going to let his death slide. He would probably have had a far poorer existence in Telvaria, but it was not up to the gods to make that choice for him. In a similar vein to his hatred of politicians, he disliked corrupt leaders. That was not to say that he was some sort of anarchist, as that was the furthest from the truth, but he did believe that a ruler should be just. He would have to find a way to transition past the rule of the gods if he ever ended up beating them, but that was a problem for another time. For now, he had some monsters to hunt.

Jonathan did not anticipate anything special in terms of level growth today, as he was not going out of his way to seek out the strongest of foes, but that was not the point. The point was for him to be able to relax.

As he headed out from the city, he felt a strange presence suddenly flicker into being and then disappear. It felt almost seraphic in nature, or at least that was the first word that came to his mind. It was like the aura of an angel, if such things existed, but one made for vengeance. It passed so quickly that it could have simply been a figment of his imagination, but he decided to keep on alert.

“Killer angels. What have I come to?” Jonathan thought, chuckling. It was most likely just his imagination. He would still remain on alert though. His senses had improved to the point of superhuman levels, and he knew that sometimes his intuition would guide him correctly. However, he would not be losing any sleep over his ‘killer angels’.

Jonathan headed off into the ash, searching for anything that would allow him to distract himself with the sweet allure of combat. As he left the city behind, he took a deep breath, taking in the unspoiled vista. Not that it was particularly beautiful, with a monochrome landscape of rock, but it was still unspoiled regardless. There were no roads, no houses to break up the landscape. Just an endless expanse of rock and monsters, which for a man addicted to power, was the best thing possible.

Jonathan picked up the pace as he started to edge away from the environs of the city, and headed towards the west, hearing faint noises coming from that direction. There was something that way.

He headed towards the noise, and bounded across the rocky scree like a mountain goat, his feet finding the surest footholds effortlessly, even at hundreds of miles per hour. The ground whipped by and he could feel the wind caressing his armor as he ran. This was what he was meant for, not supervising a cabal of politicians. His goal was to defeat Granath, and in the end this was the only thing that could get him there.

A few hundred feet behind him, invisible to mortal eyes, a strange figure hovered. It looked like a conglomeration of light and feathers to anything that could actually detect it, with two long arms that wielded a sword and a shield. This was one of the angels of Zyra, in its true form.

When around the humanoid races, it would change its body to fit the shape that was most appealing to their eyes, but that was in the Heavens. There was no need for courtesy to the damned.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

As Jonathan ran, the angel followed, its alien mind filling with pleasure as it followed the orders of its god. Angels were not like normal sapients in that they were fully slaved to the will of their masters, and ultimately the god that they served. All of their brain was dominated by a transmitting lobe that sent information back and forth to it from the center of the Heavens, allowing it to act out a semblance of consciousness. However, most angels were anything but, and until an angel reached a certain rank, it was nothing more than a robot, sent to complete menial tasks in the Heavens, or the realm of Telvaria. This was the first time in eons that an angel had been sent to the Hells, and it was anticipating its mission intently. Jonathan Harlowe was a bit stronger than it had expected, but this was a mid Tier 2 entity, and it was unsuppressed by the effects of the mana density of thai world on account of its mental link which funneled all of the mana that it needed into its body. When Jonathan stopped, it would strike.

A few miles later, Jonathan felt the strange presence again, and he paused, looking around. He could almost feel something’s eyes on his back, but he could not find anything to support that feeling. Upon searching the ash for a full minute, he eventually saw that there was nothing there. With a sigh, he kept on running, keeping one eye on his surroundings.

His senses went on overdrive, and a sphere of perception rose up from around him, allowing him to see behind him with his other senses and detect any attacks from his blind spot. It wasn't sight, per se, but his mind filled it in so that it was basically indistinguishable. If anything came for him, he would be ready to intercept it.

As he ran, he could hear the noises that had drawn him in this direction far more clearly, and eventually he entered a small caldera that was sunken into the ground and surrounded by what looked to be volcanic rock.

It was hard to believe that this dead, inert land once possessed volcanic activity, but this seemed to be irrefutable evidence. In the bottom of the caldera, a pair of giant Ash Prowlers dozed, likely a breeding pair. Both of them looked to be low Tier 2s, and Jonathan quickly confirmed that with his skills, finding that one of them as a new species, an Ash Prowler Matriarch. It looked much the same as the other one, but it was a bit bulkier around the midsection, its body adapted to fit the shape of a childbearing life.

Sizing up the pair of monsters, Jonathan began to summon power to his hands, and prepared to strike. A moment later, he felt a tiny movement in the air behind him, and he threw himself to the side instinctively as a bolt of pure white light shot past his head. It lanced through one of the monsters in the caldera below, killing it instantly.

Jonathan whirled around to see an utterly strange creature hovering in the air behind him, holding a sword and shield. It looked like a pulsating ball of light, with feathers sticking out of it at strange intervals. Two arms, with far too many joints, extended out of its torso, holding glowing weapons. It had no face that he could see, and it exuded a powerful aura.

“You have committed transgressions against the Gods of this world. Prepare to be eliminated,” the creature said, in an odd cadence. It was like a mixture of whispers and normal speech, as if it was reading in an unfamiliar language that was being shown to it for the first time.

In any case, he could tell what it was now. It was a servant of the people who had sent him here, likely dispatched here to finish the job. Rage began to erupt within his mind, and he charged forwards, bringing his gauntlet around in a thunderous punch that broke through the sound barrier, creating a shockwave around it.

The angel raised its shield and braced for impact, taking the strike on the center of its armament. The creature moved back a bit, but took the blow, stopping his attack in its track. The energy released and hissed across the shield, trying to get to the fighter. However, it fizzled out. Jonathan quickly scanned the creature, taking advantage of the brief lull in the fight.

Ninth Circle Cherubim

Level 152