I spent the next six hours practicing my blacksmithing skills. It took hours of trying, but I forged my first dagger. I chose steel with fairly high carbon content and got to work.

I heated the metal with the blue forge after interacting with one of the many open pits and setting the temperature I wanted. When satisfied, I transferred it to the anvil and beat the metal to the desired shape. I repeated the process over and over again, taking great care to ensure proper symmetry, point, and geometry.

Once I was satisfied, the dagger got a heat treatment to harden the metal rapidly, and then I ground it down and polished it to improve its overall edges and aerodynamics.

Finally, I chose a carved walnut handle.

The blade came up slightly warped, uneven, and poorly balanced, but it was a fucking start.

I gained hammer mastery after my first knife, making the second, third, and tenth attempts increasingly easier. By knife twelve, I had a weapon I was somewhat proud of, and I'd made a considerable leap towards the Adept Tier. Only the last five blades were strong enough for me to even attempt an Arcane inscription.

Not wanting to be overeager, I chose the Precision and Accumulation Runes. The latter used Angelic energy and created an edge on the blade that lasted for 15 seconds—plenty of time to chuck the blade dozens of meters and pierce a far-off target. The accumulation rune, as it stood, could only take one category of energy and stored 50 per pop, which was just enough for two enhancements, which was nearly a quarter of the shelf life of the blades.

Crude Steel Throwing Dagger

Fashioned by an apprentice, Arcane Blacksmith Dante Sparda. Infused with two rudimentary runes—Accumulation (50) Precision.

Durability: 17/20

The pair-up was perfect, as impact runes required contact with the target before activation. It was kind of like Burst but technically free. I could become a mobile fortress when I got my Arcane smithing high enough.

Eager to test my weapons, I made my way to a sparring ring on a peak near Jean's house, but I did not forget the training manuals I'd been gifted. Since I was training with Angel energy weapons, I figured I might as well learn a few techniques I've been sitting down on for a while now.

Smite was the most attractive to me. It synergized beautifully with Feed—the innate ability of Osiris. With the speed bump the weapon gave, I was certain It'd be easy racking up the energy needed to perform smite. The same could be said for Aquila as well.

Still, I didn't know what energy resonance was, so I didn't expect the new skill to come easily or quickly.

---

I stood across from a training dummy with three blades in my hands. One was a finger of Orochi, the second was Enchanted Dagger, and the third was a regular old dagger I swiped from SHIELD

The finger punched halfway through the dummy when I chucked it at speeds barely above double that of the average human. I fed a string of Angelic energy to my daggers, making it come alive with a thin, shifting cerulean wave dancing around it. It carved through the air faster than the Orochi dagger, practically appearing full-tang in the dummy's torso.

The layer of energy faded, and I whistled.

That was fucking lethal. I felt an odd, giddying feeling. I couldn't wait to incorporate this into my combat. I tested the dagger a few more times to gauge its durability. It lasted three more throws before my Angel Energy chewed through the blade entirely, breaking the metal.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Each Precision enchantment cost 20 AE, and I had to fill the dagger up two more times during the fight, but I had a feeling I'd eventually be able to get the cost down.

I moved on to learning Gust. It seemed like the easiest of the techniques on the Angel Iist. I channeled Angel Energy, envisioning my wind affinity specifically as I expelled large amounts of energy from my back and legs. Initially, dimensional energy flooded out of me, and I felt myself popping in and out of existence until I eventually latched onto the memory of the fight with Colossus and my rapid expulsion of Angel energy to prevent myself from literally catching fire.

The memory brought the pain that my mind had been deliberately suppressing to the fore, and I found myself shying away from connecting to my affinity.

Eventually, I muscled through, reminding myself what was at stake, the potential that flowed through me, and I felt the energy switch immediately, sending me rocketing forward. But it was nearly not as abrupt as Burst.

Congratulations: You've learned the Angelic Technique Gust (Basic)

Release a controlled and sustained burst of Wind energy from your body, propelling you forward.

It costs 5 AE to activate and 0.5– 3 AE per second, depending on intensity and speed.

At least Shin was not stifling me just yet.

I spent the next 10 minutes experimenting with the technique, and while it was certainly less powerful than Burst, it was just as versatile.

From using it to slow my fall to maneuvering more freely in the air, reducing my fall speed, traveling great distances, and combo enemies for longer, its uses were endless.

Like Burst, Gust was a monster on the ground. At maximum Blast, it produced a gust powerful enough to knock most people on their asses, but it was not lethal enough to maim or kill.

I supposed I had Burst for that. The technique truly shined when I burned it as a passive boost for my speed. On a low burn, it boosted my speed by 10%, paired with Osiris's flat 35% speed boost; the results were frankly ridiculous. On full Blast, my speed shot up about 20%.

That was outrageous, considering the energy input.

With this technique, speed was easily becoming my foremost combat strength while using Angel Energy.

Next, I tried figuring out Drive using Rebellion. The blade made channeling energy stupidly easy, but it still took an unbelievable amount of effort and willpower to make the energy do anything other than cling close to the blade's edge.

After my hundredth try, I finally got the energy off the blade. An arc of wind Angel Energy flew true, striking at the dummy post laid out in front of me. I pumped my fist and threw it up in the air with a whoop.

Congratulations: You've learned the technique Drive (Basic)

Fill your weapon of choice with Angelic Energy and unleash a compressed blade of energy based on your affinity.

Cost 15 DE

Cost-wise, it was cheaper than a Focused shot but not nearly as effective. But what it lost in power was more than it made up for in speed.

I spent the next few hours launching Drives at the attack dummy, which was barely holding on by this point. I didn't stop practicing until deep into the night, and I went to bed with two things in mind—retrieving my cash from the dessert and practicing some more smithing. We also had a meeting with SHIELD to begin separating the dangerous mutants from the regular, everyday ones. Jean had been stressed out about it, but I'd soothed her, explaining that it had to be done, like it or not.

We couldn't mix the dangerous elements with the peaceful lot. Fury planned on calling the SHIELD protected-town Haven and intended to release other mutants to the population. We had to guarantee their future safety somewhat.

"I don't think I want that type of burden on my shoulders,' she'd told me sometime yesterday night, through our bond.

'With great power comes responsibility. You may not like it, but it has to be done. Short of taking on, policing, and supervising all of those mutants ourselves, it has to be done this way.'

When I saw Jean waiting alongside Rin in front of my hut, I thought this was the in-person continuation of that conversation.

Their expressions, however, told me the situation was far more dire.

"Don't tell me someone saw us," I said with a heavy sigh. "If I have to kill one more person—"

"It's not that, Boss," Rin said, rubbing his head. "I think it's best if you take a look for yourself.

I looked at Jean, who was strangely quiet, and took the tablet the kid offered me. There was a video recording of a man going viral on the nascent internet. The man sat in a dark room and wore a senator's pin. He had a darkness about him that worried me greatly.

After clearing his voice, the man began to speak.

"Charles Xavier is dead, and that is a good thing. The man was likely the most dangerous predator to roam this planet in a long, long time…."

"Shit."