The man in the scarlet suit stands in front of a huge door, his body covered in sweat and his eyes bloodshot. His body shakes as he goes to open it, and tears slowly begin to leak out of his eyes.

“I failed…. It’s over for me”

He pushes the door open revealing a group of three people looking up towards a man sitting on a heavily adorned throne decorated with gold and jewels. Their faces are filled with admiration and awe as they look up towards the domineering man. He smiles at them, enjoying their admiration. Eventually he frowns and looks at the man in the scarlet suit, and then he begins to speak.

“You are... Felix? What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be on the hunt for someone with pure essence? You still have two days to look for someone suitable, explain yourself.”

His voice is light as a wisp and carries a friendly tone, yet every word he says strengthens the pressure piercing Felix down to his soul.

“I did find one of suitable quality but… she is polluted.”

The man looks down at Felix with contempt in his eyes.

“It’s not uncommon for people to have some pollution to them, just use your blessing and search for the source of it. Must you make me really repeat what i’ve already told you?”

Felix takes a deep breath, his entire body clenching up in fear.

“Yes I know but… But the blessing was destroyed somehow. I had found it and began to head for it, but the thread disappeared.”

“Hmm... destroyed?”

“Y...Yes.”

Felix looks up at the man, waiting for his judgement to be passed in silence. The other three continue look at him with the same admiration from before.

“Well, if it was destroyed then someone like you really couldn’t do anything against that pollution in the first place. You could still be of use to me however.”

He lifts his hand and opens his palm, a swirl of light begins to form above it, which then becomes a wooden cross engraved with small glowing white symbols. One of the three looks at the cross and his face quickly moves to a frown and he begins to speak.

“Lord Oswin.. Are you truly going to give something like that to him? He’s failed to get you the essence you were searching for, and he’s killed several already on the search, if this continues…”

Oswin looks down and smiles towards the one who spoke.

“I’m glad my Seraphims are looking out for me, but have no worry. Felix is unpure that much is true, but he believes in me to the absolute core of his being! It’d be rude of me not to put him to use.”

Felix feels tears begin to well up in his eyes and he quickly prostrates himself in front of Oswin.

“Thank you, thank you! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, I want to serve you and better myself under you, god! I will find the heretic who dare harms your blessing and I will smite them for you.”

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Oswin smiles after hearing Felix call him god and begins to tell him about the blessing he’s given to him.

“Now unlike the previous one, this one isn’t able to track sources of pollution. Only use it when you come into contact with the source! You must not use it before then.

Felix leaves and Oswin smiles to himself, admiring his own generosity.

“What a kind man I am! I do hope he can use it properly, if not then oh well, that’s simply his fate.”

Oswin chuckles to himself and continues to sit on his throne, wondering just what will happen. Meanwhile, Sokar sits in his classroom bored.

Today’s been so simple.. It’s like before I got the Jade, everything is the exact same. Well... almost everything.

Sokar glances at the empty seat next to him and sighs. He turns his attention to the head of the classroom, listening to the class and forgetting about everything else.

“And so, what we can conclude from this is that blinding yourself and turning away from your problems will cause them to grow instead of disappearing. If we as people do not face what we need to and instead run away, we will never progress. ”

Time passes and eventually the school day ends. Sokar leaves the school, heading to Cafe Lustrous. As he leaves the school, he overhears two people talking.

“Hey, There’s been this weird guy wandering around here today. Have you seen him? He wears this scarlet suit and he’s been staring at people really intensely! He’s a real creep.”

“Yeah! I saw him too, he was muttering something about pollution. Maybe he’s some kind of activist?”

A weird guy in a scarlet suit.. It’d probably be for the best if I avoid someone like that.

Sokar arrives at Cafe Lustrous, ordering his drink and taking a seat.

My daily routine hasn’t changed that much, yet everything feels completely different.

Sokar waits for his drink in silence, thinking back on the past couple of days.

It really has been hectic, and I feel like just now it really hit me. My life might have taken a turn that it can’t turn back from.

““Heya there Sokar! Here’s the usual, dark roast coffee with two sugars!”

“Thanks, Alice.”

“You look a bit down today Sokar, what’s the problem?”

“It’s nothing really, just still a bit upset about spraining my hand.”

I still feel bad about lying, but it’s for the best.

“Oh! Yeah, that makes sense I guess. Sokar have you heard about that weird guy around here today? He’s been staring at people and freaking people out, it’s really bad for business.”

“Huh. Yeah I heard about him on the way here, people were saying he’s some kind of activist, he was muttering about pollution or something.”

“Want to know what’s weird? The guy was here, like two days ago almost right after you left! He got here and left really quickly, he gave me off a really bad vibe.”

“Yeah, a guy like that just seems like he’s asking for trouble.”

Alice and Sokar end their conversation and she goes back to work, and Sokar slowly finishes his drink, finally leaving.

It’s getting dark out early these days, I need to start heading back sooner than this.

Sokar heads back to his apartment, the street empty and barren, only being illuminated by the street lights.

I haven’t used The First Day and Greed at all today, I can’t get complacent, I need to continue testing them ou-

“I’VE FOUND YOU!”

Huh?

Sokar quickly turns around, seeing a man dressed in a crimson suit.

Hey… Isn’t this the guy Alice and those people were talking about?

“You! You’re the source of that pollution! You’re a stain on the earth itself, and it’s my job to exterminate you!”

What? This guy really is an activist!

“Hold on for a second! I think you got the wrong guy, I recycle and I don’t litter. How could I be the source of the pollution?

“Recycle..? Wait… now I get it! You can’t even see it can you, that aura leaking out of you staining everything in sight.”

A stain leaking out of me? What the hell is this guy talking about?

“Ignorant to your own crime, how laughable! With the blessing given to me from god, I'll wipe away your crime along with your life!”

Wipe away my life? This guy... is he seriously planning to kill me!?