> “It only takes one experience to taint innocence forever.”

Blinding light reflects off the towering spires of Celestine, the capital of the Nation of Justice. Rows of marble houses circle outwards from the central point, each one helping bring life and a sense of fullness. Low shadows hang along the ground, helping create a scene of high contrast. But like a tear in a nice painting, a small pilar of black smoke rises in the distance ruining any sense of peace that there could be.

Air whips through my short hair; stone buildings fly past me in my peripheral vision. There is hardly anything more refreshing than a nice sprint along the streets of this beautiful city. I only wish I could have more time to enjoy it right now.

I jump into a crouch before summoning my pure white wings to launch my body above the houses between me and the central church. Flight is amazing. I can’t help but compare the feeling of the wings to a gentle hand propelling me skyward in any direction I have the urge to go. Mid-flight, I run the back of my hand on the hard-light surface of the wings, feeling the intricate lines and shapes. The pure white surface hovers just behind my back, reminding me that they aren’t mine fully. But the energy trickling out of my heart like a small creek also reminds me that they are supported by my energy.

Without losing momentum, I land on the street and dispel the wings. Better not waste my energy if I don’t have to. Without sparing a second to stop, I bolt forward. My body sways in the rhythm of my sprint as the church rapidly approaches.

I metaphorically fly up the steps and through the doors on my way to the shrine. The guards make a move to stop me before realizing who I am. The padding of my shoes on stone transitions to clicking on polished marble that reverberates off the distant walls.

The statue of the Goddess of Justice that connects to her god realm lies in glittering silver surrounded by plenty of room to teleport. As I near it, I swipe my hand to the side, opening a circular portal.

As always when I enter her god realm and am surrounded by tall bleach white pillars, I get a feeling of safety and purity. The crisp cool air, scent of something flowery and change in air pressure all remind me that this place exists separately from where I just was. Hopefully, the goddess is there or at least someone that can help.

It’s only a short distance from where the portal leads to the courtroom, the where the goddess usually is.

“Goddess there is a—” I start before realizing what I walked in on.

“What is it Gemstone Sword Dancer, my angel.” She says in a tired voice, with a bit something nicer.

Shockingly, she sits on her throne, Healing devotion by her side. If I remember correctly, she made an explicit point before in saying that she ‘wants to be on the same level as those she judges’ so she never sits there. In addition, she also looks terrible, kinda like I do if I don’t get any sleep. She has heavy bags under her eyes, her clothes are crumpled and her hair unkempt.

Devotion and her perfectly trimmed sky-blue hair is next to her. They stare at me like they were in the middle of a conversation that I am now interrupting.

“Why are you running? It would have been faster to just teleport here without using the shrine.” Healing Devotion asks in a lightly stressed voice. More like she’s uncomfortable than is mad at me.

Oh yeah, I could have done that. It’s a bit embarrassing that even though I’ve been an angel for almost eight months now, I still forget what I can do.

“There is a dark angel rampaging in Celestine. He is calling for the downfall of the Goddess of Justice, and for the blood of angels.” I hide my uneasiness at seeing the goddess in such an unusual state by focusing on the imminent danger.

“Hmm, go on.” She rubs a small sphere on the side of the throne and brings up a three-dimensional projection that hovers in the middle of the room.

It currently is viewing the room we are in. I can see myself as if I were looking at myself from above. The angel with white wings (me) stands below two people with far more experience in an empty white room supported by pillars. I stand a bit shorter than most girls at my age of seventeen, but that’s fine. A smaller target, right? I have unadorned dark jade hair falling a short length below my head. I always liked the look of it. Just like my mother’s hair. My most unique feature is my heterochromatic eyes. My left is deep sea blue, and the right is a warm orange. On my body is a set of practical, thin plate armor that has flexible fittings for maximum maneuverability. My lower back is equipped with a well-made glossy black sword holster firmly holding six swords of varying colors. They are my crystal swords. The top two are a foggy white quartz, the middle two are a clear prismatic yellow topaz, and the two at the bottom are a lustrous crimson Ruby. Each of the six swords is almost entirely hollow in order for them to be light enough for me to carry. Since them breaking is a big issue, they are enchanted to be near indestructible.

The projection shifts to an overview of the capital in all its glory. It then magnifies on the smoke before again focusing on the person emerging from a recently destroyed building. Visible in the projection is a pale figure with pitch black wings. The figure makes what looks like rings or halos in his hand that he launches at two guards trying to stop him. The goddess winces as the guards are killed.

Devotion narrows her eyes at the figure. “I recognize him. It’s been awhile, but I think he was named Burning Halo. He is one of the dark angels that fought in the war.”

“Who do you think we should take away from the search for my sister, Healing Devotion?” The goddess asks her attendant in a flat voice.

Healing stops to think for a second. “Uh well, he certainly wasn’t weak when I fought him last, but Gem should be able to beat him now. Even accounting for any potential techniques he learned since the war was over. Maybe summon Protector as well, just in case.”

“Hmm, you have been watching her training much closer than I have.” The goddess closes her eyes, as if deciding who to send into danger. “I’ll do that.”

I speak up, ready to finally do something important for once. “Really? You think I can handle it?”

Healing exasperatedly sighs. “Gem, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were the strongest fighter in the country. When it comes down to it you are seriously good. Even Right might not be able to beat you.” She winces at her own comment as she looks to the side. “Not that she’s around anymore for us to know.”

Pride flutters in my chest. “If you think I can do it, then I can. You’ve never been wrong before, Healing.”

She smiles, “Ah well, you just don’t see me when I am.

The goddess stands from her throne, fixing her robes and hardening her expression into one of more dignity. “Gemstone Sword Dancer, I hereby give you permission to use lethal force to stop the man named Burning Halo from causing further harm to innocents. Remember to cause as little collateral damage as possible. Go now.”

I turn around and swipe a hand to make a portal back to the shrine I came from. The sound of swooshing and of person jumping and having wings catch her fall sounds behind me. Healing approaches me.

“So you know, the ability of that man is to use halos in various ways including. Including creating them, manipulating them, enlarging them, and firing a secondary projectile from the center of them. He can also make them on fire for some reason. Obviously, he can also fly using his wings.”

“Got it.” I nod enthusiastically.

The goddess proceeds to callout both verbally and telepathically. “Silent Voice. Allow me to be heard by the people of Celestine.”

Another telepathic voice sounds in my head. It’s from an angel of justice I also know, Silent Voice. Her high-pitched voice is distinct.

“Give me one second… OK got it. You are now connected, goddess.”

Every second here is one more that people could be getting hurt, so I run out through the portal back into the city. The change in air pressure makes me stumble, but I quickly regain my stride.

The telepathic sound of the goddess’s voice follows me. “People of Celestine, take shelter now. There is a dangerous being in the south-west section of the city. Know that I will bring justice to it.”

She privately adds to me after. “And remember that violence is something that we must use. Not something that should be enjoyed.”

I smile, embarrassed.

Once more I let my wings out, this time flying towards the rising column of smoke. My hands drift to my two quartz swords. I allow bits of my energy to trickle into them. As I do, the foggy white quartz swords start glowing a light silver. I grip them, and their glow becomes a light blanket around my body. In one smooth movement I remove them from the holder on my back. Near instantly I feel my perception of the surrounding area become clear, as is what happens every time I release my energy. I suppress a small smile at wielding my swords, it is always a nice feeling.

Every step I take is on the roof of yet another house. I try to get lower to the ground so I’m not immediately spotted and can have a chance for a surprise attack. Hopefully, I can end the fight before anyone else has to get hurt.

“I’m almost there.” The goddess should be watching me through her projection.

I land on a street. Surrounding me are signs of an indiscriminate rampage. Sizzling burn mark and gouges on buildings and roads make that clear.

“Go left at the next street, and he will be just ahead.”

“Got it!”

I dispel my wings. They are beautiful but they are bright white which isn’t good if I want to sneak up and land a finishing strike.

As I turn the corner, a battle between ability-wielding civilians and the dark angel reveals itself. It isn’t going great for the citizens. They clutch limbs in pain, and a few are crumpled on the ground. One is pinned behind a shield of a woven material I can’t name. Another darts in and out, trying to distract the dark angel. Probably trying to give the first an opening to escape. The dark angel looks the same as in the projection. In person though, he seems to give off a depressing aura.

I intuitively calculate the distance between me and him as well as the amount of time it should take for me to get there. His back is turned to me and he’s focused on trying to hit the other person. I can do it!

With a quartz sword in each hand, heightened breath, adrenaline in my veins, excitement crawling through my skin, and my mind purely focused on combat before me, I strain my legs to run forward with all the speed I can muster. He has his back to me, so I activate my flight construct to its maximum potential for highest possible speed while still running. My entire focus is on my target. Everything else blurs past.

I jump. Bringing my swords up for a diagonal downward swing.

In a flash, the dark angel summons a glowing black halo into his hand as he spins around to parry me. His eyes widen with hatred at recognition of my wings.

Precisely applying weight to my side, I let the momentum carry me past my target while I turn to always be facing him.

Landing, I put my left hand on the ground and position myself in a crouch as I size up my opponent. He is a man with long unkempt black hair and a pale unhealthy complexion, as if he hasn’t seen the sun for many years. He has two wings of pure black floating behind his back and has a dark halo above his head that seems on fire.

The people that were occupying his attention cheer at my arrival. They move to help get the injured out of harm’s way.

For a brief second, we make eye contact.

In his eyes I see the look of a desperate man who had already lost everything and is lashing out in his agony. I can’t help but feel a pang of pity at seeing his sorry state. He seems to recognize something in my eyes as he loses his look of hatred momentarily before tensing up again.

Burning Halo contorts his face into one that had long since given up on staying sane as he speaks in a maddened tone. “The Goddess of Power has risen once more! She will rise and eradicate you evil justice scum that have been tyrannizing us for so, so long!”

It hurts seeing a person so far removed from hope, “If you could just this stop this now, I promise our Goddess of Justice will have be fair and—"

“QUIET ABOUT YOUR GODDESS! HER FALL WILL BE GLORIOUS!”

He abruptly launches several volleys of small flaming halos in my general direction.

I flinch at his intensity but force myself steady. I need to focus on the battle. Anything else is a distraction.

Quickly, I check behind me to see if it’s fine to dodge. It is. Sprinting while leaning forward, I predict the trajectories of the halos. I don’t need to think. Just let my battle instinct guide me.

I dispel my wings to lower my targetable area. Running forward, I weave through the maze of projectiles, hitting aside ones that don’t leave room for dodging. Unpleasant vibrations run through my arms at every hit.

Keeping in flow of movement, I go for a low sweep.

He makes a halo in either hand, gripped like melee weapons as he jumps backwards, aided by his wings. Next, he creates two large spinning halos on either side of him which are increasingly glowing with a light separate from the dark fire encasing them.

Not skipping a beat and hoping to be faster than what he is doing, I pursue him.

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I throw a thrust at his center of mass.

He parries my thrust and leaps backwards again, this time not bothering to land.

The two large halos are behind me now; I keep running forward.

He spreads his arms to either side of him.

My instinct tells me that I should turn around. I glance barely in time to see two smaller halos whistling towards me. Straining my body turn fast enough, I swing both of my swords up to meet them. The projectiles have significant weight, grounding me as I deflect them up out of the way of houses.

Predicting my partner in battle’s next move, I summon my wings for a quarter second to cancel out my momentum.

I glance behind me and get all of the information I need. Accurately, I kick a foot back that knocks the ring of fire out of his hand. The heat singes my foot where it contacts, but the pain isn’t felt. I do this as I front flip, still spinning from my previous rotation. Upside-down I swing both my swords around, using the rotational force to enhance the strike.

He doesn’t have enough time to dodge. Instead, he creates a barrier of ten halos, each one fitting inside of the one larger than it, creating an almost solid surface. The floating shield does almost nothing to negate the raw force of the strike, but it does spread out the point of impact.

I complete the flip, landing on my unburned leg. My breath is let out, unrestrained.

He tumbles on the ground before jumping into the air, making his wings glow with the energy he pours in them.

“That didn’t turn out exactly how I planned it would, but it ended up working.” I remark, wincing at my burned foot.

The Goddess ignores me. Good work forcing him into the air, use your topaz swords now. But still be cautious not to take the fight deeper into the city.

“Yes!”

I leap into the air and once more activate my wings. Debris scatters in a circle around me as air rushes to push me into the sky.

While flying, I sheath my two quartz swords in order to replace them with my topaz swords. Just as every time before when I equip my topaz swords, I feel my energy pour out at a significantly increased rate. Visibly, the effect is the faint white blanket surrounding me giving way to a vibrant glowing yellow aura. Physically, I’m not any more enhanced by the swords. But mentally, it serves to further fuel my battle sprit. As I exhale, I lose hold of my facial muscles and let loose a smile that I have been holding in since the start of the fight. A smile of pure enjoyment.

You are smiling.

I quickly regain control of my expression, “Sorry, my bad.”

“CURSE YOU ANGEL!” Blazing Halo shouts, cutting through our exchange. “I can’t be wasting my energy on you when I have so many more angels to kill!

I accelerate towards my opponent without replying. I grip my topaz swords harder till they pulse with the energy of my heartbeats, causing visible disturbances in the air around them.

“JUST DIE!”

He creates several spinning large halos around himself, charging them faster than previously.

Flying in a straight trajectory towards Halo, I make a yellow line above the city as a trail. As the large halos fire smaller burning halos at me, I swing my topaz sword in an arc reacting to the trajectory of each one. As I swing, yellow energy in the shape of the motion of the sword arcs are emitted. They extend a distance away from the sword, impacting halos. Every time the arcs hit one, both of them are destroyed resulting in an explosion of black sparks.

I keep making yellow arcs to deflect halos as I rapidly draw closer to my opponent.

He grunts in displeasure and thrusts a hand forward to command the large halos to throw themselves at me. He also creates two smaller ones in his fists like before, but also forming another one on top of it, making a double-layered halo.

Out speeding the trajectories of the larger ones, I rush into melee range with my yellow energy gathering ahead of my swords, waiting to be released in one go.

He blocks my strike with both of the halos he’s holding. My swords and the gathered energy overpower them, making them shatter and the dark angel be blown back. I make sure to hit him in a direction away from the city.

In and out, I continue hitting him back further and further without giving him an opening. Each time closer to the city walls.

Learning from my pattern, he flies back to create a gap in timing. With it, he makes eight smaller halos the size of my palm. They shoot outwards, curving towards me in a different trajectory then the ones previously.

Rather than trying to go forward and out speed them, I angle my body to move in a large semi-circle. If I can get behind him, I can bait him outside the wall were I don’t have to hold back. I can’t wait.

The recently summoned halos approach at breakneck speed, I create arcs to destroy them before they get close. However, they aren’t destroyed. Instead, they are blown back and curve towards me in a bigger trajectory. They are tracking me.

My battle opponent halts moving in the air and gets a chance to take the priority in the match as I get between him and the city wall. He grins madly and makes a chain of interlocking blazing dark halos in each hand with roughly a dozen in each.

I fly away from him as well as the city, and he takes the bait. He catapults himself to me with his chains dragging behind him.

“Just a bit more.” I mutter to myself.

I allow him to close the distance. The homing halos still pester me, and I beat them back every time they approach me. Eventually they have to break.

When my battle partner is just about to hit me with his halo-chains, my body moves in perfect fluid motions to execute the complex movements as I improvise them.

Gathering energy into my topaz swords, I throw them into the air with a slight rotation. While they are spinning, they release their arcs, making them look like glowing yellow circles in the sky. I swiftly grab my quartz swords to replace them and clash with the chains in multiple blows.

As our weapons hit, I cancel my wings to curl into a back flip, letting him barrel over me. I toss the quartz swords at him to force him to block and to free hand room for the topaz ones. He is close enough that I can smell his charred hair.

With perfect accuracy, I catch my topaz swords, finishing the backflip and striking the dark angel right in the middle of his wings with a back-handed strike. Unfortunately, with not enough force to end the battle. But it should still be enough to injure his spine and force him to continue his momentum forward.

I roll my shoulders as I catch the quartz swords and sheath them along with the topaz ones. I do this as I remake wings. Now that I think about it, I’ve never had a serious battle against this strong of an opponent. It was always in training or against people without real combat abilities. Being honest, it’s thrilling. I’ve enjoyed every sensation of the interaction. I imagine that it shows.

I only have to fly a short distance to be completely outside the border of Celestine.

“Can I now, goddess?” I gasp out of breath.

Wind howls by me, and my beating heart drowns out the sound of my own voice.

The homing halos still track on to me. In a few seconds they will slice me.

She understands what I mean. Gemstone Sword Dancer, since most people are now reasonably out of the way, I hereby grant you permission to use whatever means necessary to bring the criminal before you to justice.

I don’t reply and instead silently release my ruby swords from my sword holder; my most powerful swords that allow me to release my maximum energy. This time I can’t cause damage to anyone in my surrounding. I can let a battle trance fully take me over. As I grip their familiar handles, I feel my energy being consumed like a fire burning oil. Across my skin I feel a cool wave of raw energy. The yellow aura around me transforms into a pulsating red vortex. As this happens, I felt like a pent-up weight had been lifted from me. The hairs on my neck and forearms raise, feeling like static electricity.

In this freedom, I slice through the air creating a red arc from the sword that is far more solid and extends further than the yellow one. Just one from each sword is enough to shatter the tracking halos. Not wasting any time, I burst off to greet my dueling partner.

You still have a limit on your energy capacity. Don’t overdo it. The goddess warns me of something I already know.

“If nothing else, I will at least take you down with me!” The dark angel cries out, nursing the injury on his back.

As I make my way towards him, he raises both of his hands to create a giant halo the size of a tower in diameter. From it, hundreds of dark halos are created, all aimed at me. In addition, he launches several large halos. The same ones that have a secondary attack.

As is whenever I get into full battle mode, I don’t need to actively track everything. My body knows what to do. I can trust myself.

My body moves to let loose an arc of luminescent red energy by swinging my two swords to make an X shape at my battle partner. The energy moves forcefully, displacing the air around it.

To dodge the bullet hell worth of projectiles, I make full usage of the three-dimensional space surrounding me, dodging in all directions.

For any civilians watching the fight unfold, I’m sure what happens next would only look to be a blur of bright red and flaming black, too fast for the eye to see. I furiously unleash arc after arc hitting each and every one of the black halos targeting me. I move so fluidly in between each one, I surprise even myself.

Each time my arc impacts a halo they explode in to sparks of used energy. The sky around us glitters in the light they refract. They feel like fresh warm snowflakes if they touch my skin.

Burning Halo recklessly charges in a straight line to me while extending his chain of a dozen halos to around fifty in total, individually controlling them to make the chain seem alive. He acts far more reckless than anyone who wants to live should be.

“I don’t care if this is the last angel I will ever fight! I will at least take you with me!” He screams, all pretense of sanity lost.

As he approaches, I let out a flurry of crystal red arcs, predicting his movements as he tries to dodge. My heart energetically continues beating in resonance with every slash. I’ve never felt so immersed in combat.

As he gets in range, he swings his chain at me with violent force. I spiral upwards into the air to help me dodge. He spirals opposite of me.

He constantly manipulates his chain of halos in a new way every time we clash, both in blocking and attacking. Every time a halo breaks from my excessive force, he makes a new one in its place.

Now high in the atmosphere, I spread swords to either side of me, letting the energy continue from the tips of them to form two much larger swords several times the length of my body. As they form, I swing both of them together with Burning Halo in the middle.

He dissipates his tattered halo-chains in order to free his hands to make two sections of what look to be chainmail made out of overlapping halos on both his left and right side. As my energy swords crash into the dark fire chainmail, it shatters into thousands of pure black pieces. The chainmail is barely strong enough to negate my force. His wild grin falls to desperate shock.

Not stopping my flow, I rush to meet him, once more in close combat.

Chaotically, he thrusts a hand forward to launch halos desperately at what will be the last angel he can hurt.

As I get closer, my body repeatedly slings arcs of vibrant hue at both Burning Halo and his projectiles. Anything that isn’t going to hit me can be ignored. A halo wizzes by my head and I hardly bat an eye.

He gives up on attempting to block my arcs, instead focusing on dodging them by flying back and dropping altitude while maneuvering side to side.

When I inevitably reach melee range, I slash with a diagonal cut with one ruby sword, followed by a thrust with the other. Every movement of mine still creating an additional energy arc that makes the swords even more forceful.

Managing to propel himself backwards while turning to avoid the first slash, he summons a small halo around my right sword and twists to force it out of my grip, disarming me. He smiles frantically.

He only managed a quick smile, though, as I reach for a topaz sword to replace it without missing a beat. As we both quickly accelerate towards the ground, I unleash blow after blow onto his defensive halos that are slowly failing to keep up with my onslaught.

I throw my topaz sword at his head to force him right where I want him when he blocks. As he makes another halo to block, I spin, gathering momentum. The energy leaking out of my ruby sword forms a solid trail as I pull it all to one spot.

With all the might I can bear, I swing through his hasty defense. Smashing through it faster than he can replace it and land the first and last clean blow of the entire fight onto his solar plexus. I hear the crunch of breaking ribs as the blunt edge of my ruby swords helps accelerate him to the ground.

“Gah!” Air rushes out of his lungs.

I’m sure that hurt. I know it would if that was me.

As another capable fighter, I’m sure he knows that after that he no longer has any capacity to fight. Any strike to the heart severely inhibits the use of their ability. He makes black contrails as he pours his energy into breaking his fall. I hope I didn’t overdue it again. Letting a person live to face justice is always preferred. Even if the goddess did grant me permission to use lethal force.

Despite his efforts, he lands on his back with a hard thud.

I put my single ruby sword in its holster as the red aura quickly fades. I’ll have to find the ones I dropped in the fight later. Thanks to my father’s enchantments on them, they should have a slight glow when they’re away from me for easy recovery.

As I near the ground, I reduce the energy I apply to my wings so that I can gently glide down.

Just before my feet touch the earth, I lose the energy to support wings.

“Huh?”

My legs fail instead of catching me and I unceremoniously fall flat on the ground. I try to prop myself up only to find that I have completely zero energy left. Without energy I can’t move my body and am helpless. It will take hours before I can move again. For the first time since I became an angel, fear runs cold through my veins.

Burning Halo painfully sits up in a pool of his blood and starts laughing a bitter, desperate laugh, as he raises his right hand.

“Even after everything I’ve gone through.” He groans in pain. “I can’t even beat a teenager in a fair fight. Instead, I win because she mismanages her energy. How ironic. It seems I can still cleanse at least one angel from this world before I go!”

He forms a shaky halo in his palm and struggles to sustain it.

“Goddess of Power.” He looks to the sky with his eyes closed, his tone of voice lucid. “May I have provided even the slightest of benefit to you with my broken soul. I can go in peace knowing that I had some worth to you.”

He points the halo at me. His eyes seem to look far beyond.

My body shakes like I’m submersed in ice water. Crawling terror is felt through my entire body through my fingertips, stronger then I can resist. I close my eyes so I can fight the fear. There is always hope.

“Lace, my darling. I can finally bring you peace.” He shakily inhales. “I can finally have my inaction cleansed.”

Silence hangs in the air thicker than cement. I am at his mercy.

“Not on my watch!” I look up to see a light brown translucent circle slam into head, once more knocking him to the ground. His halo fading out.

“Don’t you dare threaten one of my students!” A strong female voice reprimands the now-helpless dark angel.

Relief crashes heavy on me. It feels like blood suddenly rushes back into my body.

“Tec? Is that you?” I call out after spiting dirt from my mouth.

Footsteps approach my location, and a firm, warm hand wraps around my waist to help me get on my feet. I can envision her serious dark brown eyes gazing at me like she wants to be mad, but cares to much to actually be. The image of her stern face and medium build with long brown hair in a ponytail, crossing her arms as she waits for me to memorize law, is burned into my memory.

“Gem, didn’t you hear our goddess when she told you to be careful and not expend all of your energy? You know that you have a tendency to eat through your energy very quickly when fighting. I should have taught you better than this.” Protector, my mentor and senior angel chides me, and I probably deserve it. “I’m glad that I got here in time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I got a bit carried away.” I reply with a small laugh.

She sighs, “I’m glad you are safe at least. Did you get hurt anywhere?” She softens her voice as she summons her light orange wings to help me stand.

“My heel got a bit burned and I think I bumped my head when I fell, but otherwise I’m fine.”

She turns me away from the man laying crumpled on the ground. He isn’t moving. “I’m going to take you to Healing Devotion now. You stay put once you get there. I’ll send someone to get your missing swords later. You got it?”

“Yes.” I sullenly reply.

Even after the terrifying ending, I can’t help but get a sense of satisfaction from such a good fight. I know that I helped people by taking my opponent down, which is what matters most.

Protector reaches a hand to her heart for a few seconds to open a portal back the Goddess of Justice’s realm.

Sparks of red and black trickle down from the sky as silence graces the former battlefield.

*

Blowout rests on a rock next to a crystal-clear river. I stand with my arms crossed in the shade of a nearby tree.

“Yes, if we don’t filter the water, then we could unknowingly be ingesting parasites or bacteria. Getting stuck with stomachaches after becoming fugitives would be pretty pathetic. I should be able to make a carbon filter. I’m not intimately familiar with them, but the concept of filtration is pretty simple. Give me a few tries and I’ll make it perfect.”

“Are you sure we need to? I’ve had mountain water several times and never had any adverse effects.” She cups water in her hands. “It smells fine.”

Perenia suddenly shifts from neutral and uninterested, to holding back grief.

I stand and tense my body, now alert. “What is it?”

Blowout turns her head at the sudden change.

“I felt one of my angels die.”

How do I approach this without seeming like I’m intruding on something? “Who?”

“He was Burning Halo. One of my soldiers. When I first made him an angel, he was so energetic and innocent, wanting to prove himself by fighting for his country. If I remember correctly, he lost his family while he was stationed on a different front. Afterwards he fell into depression and I withdrew him for a while. If anything, it was my fault for not properly allocating troops. But he was beating himself up about not being able to make a difference. I had one of my retired angels help train him so that maybe he could overcome his past. The war ended before I got to know if he ever did.”

Neither me nor Blowout have any response.

Perenia gives a low laugh. “Credit to him for holding out this long. I assumed him to be among the first ones caught.”

Blowout looks down. “Even for an immortal, fifty years is a huge amount of time, isn’t it?”

Perenia laughs again, this time without any negative emotion. “Tell me about it.”

I can’t but feel a bit sorry for Perenia. Even if what happened was avoidable, she continues forward.

Awkward silence is in the air.

“You were getting water. Do you plan of dying from thirst?”

“She’s right. Let’s focus on what’s in front of us.” Blowout raises a small smile. “I’ll wait for you to figure out water filtration.”