The koi fishing festival was alight. Mana energy filled the air, and with fishing rods in every adventurers’ hand, the world came to clear out the reactor’s chamber. Aria didn’t explicitly come for the festival itself, but rather, the quest. She needed Isabelle to be promoted to an arch demon and had another goal in mind.

The reactor was open to all, and through a gate, thousands of adventurers came in. They went down a tour guide explaining the mechanics of the reactor, which took in the eternally falling snow with a sort of ‘suction’ magic that vacuumed in falling snow before storing it all in the reactor’s chamber. With a mix of alchemy and magic, the snow was turned into raw alchemic fuel that was transmuted into liquid mana.

That liquid mana was slowly pumped into the reactor, and so long as snow fell, the tank maintained a ‘water level’ of sorts. In that water was where the koi lived.

The koi were originally pests that were able to fly as if they were swimming through the air, and through aerial transportation, they managed to spread their eggs all over the world. The eggs were resilient and waited to be submerged in mana filled waters before hatching. They could survive up to fifty years being left out to dry.

Now, those koi became a driving factor that brought in tourists to Haven. The tourists gathered inside the reactor, and on a long set of spiderweb-esque catwalks, they stood and fished down into the pool of liquid mana below. It was like they were dangling above a volcano — an active volcano, to boot.

Aria, fishing rod in hand, followed Troy who found himself the perfect fishing spot. With the casting of his rod, he began the peaceful activity of fishing — though, he noticed something off with Isabelle.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, and she looked a little sheepish.

“I don’t know how to fish.”

Hearing that, he left his rod in Aria’s care. With his hands free, he began the lesson of a lifetime.

“Fishing’s easy,” he said. “All you’ve got to do is bait, cast, wait and catch.”

“Bait?”

Troy had bought himself some bait. That involved bloody nightcrawlers — mana infused worms that glowed a dull red like blood. They were stored in a little tin. Isabelle stared at the wriggling mess with disgust on her face, disgust that grew when Aria reached in and fished out a worm without a second thought.

“Come on, you aren’t scared of a few critters, are you now?”

“I am not afraid of filthy worms.” and she picked one out — disgust on her face — and impaled it on the end of her hook. A red liquid poured out of the worm’s wound, liquid mana.

“Next up, you cast.”

She took that rod and cast it out. Pathetically. Evidently, her magical power far overshadowed her physical strength. Despite that, having the hook in the water was enough for Troy who brought on the next piece of the puzzle.

“Now, you wait.”

“Wait? How long, exactly?’

“However long it takes.”

A sudden silence filled the winter reactor. Everyone had cast out their rods. It was like fishing off a bridge, staring down into the murky green waters below just waiting for a single bite.

It seemed like the fish here were smart — smart enough to avoid the wiggling worms in favor of filter feeding off the liquid mana they lived in. The karmic koi fish were survivor species, meaning that they are born with skills designed to keep them alive such as oxygen production, a skill that kept them alive in the shallowest puddles that lacked the plantlife needed to produce oxygen. Often, you could see karmic koi fish appear days after a mana infused rainstorm hopping from one puddle to another until the baby fish reached their destination — waterways into the ocean.

In the ocean was where the koi would grow and reach their true potential. The karmic koi fish were considered apex predators of the sea, and leave the ones in the winter reactor alone for enough time and you’d witness the terror of a ship bound storm.

Suddenly, Isabelle felt a tug. Troy saw that and grabbed her rod for support.

“Pull the line!” he cried, and Isabelle let out a shout.

“What in the world!? These fish are so strong!”

The koi fought and fought. The fish were literal masses of muscle and could produce insane amounts of strength for their size. The struggle was real, with Isabelle gritting her teeth and digging her feet into the ground — anything to gain an advantage.

Troy helped out, and while he added the needed strength to their fishing tag team duo, it just wasn’t enough.

“This fish — it must be a big one! I don’t think the line’s gonna last with this much pressure! We might have to let it loose before our line snaps!”

“Let it loose!?”

Let it go? Impossible. Isabelle was far too prideful to allow the fish to escape with the wriggling worm she touched, dirtying her own hands to set as bait.

She looked down at the curving rod, then down to the line, then finally to her own hands. Seeing the gauntlet, her eyes widened with an idea. Isabelle let go of one hand, then snapped.

An explosive wisp was summoned forth, then zoomed its way down the line, into the water, and after seconds of traveling, shot off an explosion.

The struggling of their line came to a halt, and with that, Troy dragged the fish up out of the water. The koi was quite the catch, with a good amount of heft, and it seemed like the wisp had only knocked it unconscious for a brief moment as it began to flop about — kicking its tail left and right.

Troy couldn’t help but let loose a tear at the beautiful sight.

“Isabelle’s first catch, and she’s a real beauty, this one.”

“My first catch,” she exclaimed.

Aria turned and peeked at the fish. It was a brilliant jade green with splotches of black on a white body. It had a pair of impressive whiskers reminiscent of Sulphur. Isabelle looked awfully proud, holding up her catch like that.

Aria took a moment to use her appraise skill.

“Well, it’s a solid level twelve. That should be a good amount of EXP,” Aria said, and Isabelle brought the fish up to her face.

“Why — that should raise you from level six to nine at least. Maybe even ten.”

Aria froze, then smiled nervously. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to take the EXP. You need it more than me.”

“Aria,” Isabelle said, scolding her like a child — which she was. “You need the EXP. I can’t have you running around at a measly level six.”

“But Isabelle —”

Troy stopped the two, then presented the fish to Isabelle.

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“We need an archdemon to secure the dungeon, so please, take the EXP for yourself,” Troy said, offering it up to her like a gift. Seeing that, Isabelle paused, turned to see Aria’s troubled expression, then gave in.

“I suppose it’s for the dungeon.” and with a flame spell, she finished the koi off.

With the koi dead, she absorbed the EXP, bumping her up to level nineteen. She needed to reach level twenty five for a proper promotion, however. Isabelle, with a new strategy and the adrenaline of catching her first karmic koi, returned to catching, all while Troy took care of the cleanup.

He separated the scales from the body and cut off the tail. The scales were used for crafting while the tail was needed as proof for when they get paid for their number of kills. The rest of the fish was fileted with the guts being used as bait. Troy snuck a few filets into his helmet where his slime self ate them — free of the risk of parasites and other nasties that came with raw fish.

“Would you care for some sashimi, Lady Aria?” he asked, offering her raw fish. Seeing that, Aria covered her mouth, nearly heaving at the sight of flesh and blood.

The three continued their fishing session, all while cheers and spells flew about as the other adventurers cut the koi population down, one by one. Troy enjoyed his fishing and sashimi, and to his shock, Isabelle allowed him to feed her a few pieces of the raw fish. Seeing the two together, Aria couldn’t help but feel warm, seeing the two act all chummy.

That’s when Troy cut off a few too many tails, and with a bucket full of them, he excused himself.

“Sorry, Lady Aria. I need to go empty the bucket,” he said. “I’ll be back with a sack full of mira. If any fish bite, I’m relying on you to catch them.”

Before he left, Isabelle followed, saying, “I need to cool off for a moment. I need to take care of some… matters.”

“What? You taking a crap?” Troy asked, and Isabelle just about slapped him across the side of his head — a slap made explosive with her wisp summon.

With that, she was left all alone, sitting on the catwalk with a rod in hand. The fish below weren’t snapping at the moment. It seemed like the dumber ones were all pulled up, leaving the smarter, survivalists behind. It’d make for a future generation of smarter koi — koi that would be tougher to fish up.

But, she sat, her legs dangling off, staring into the bright green sea of mana below. That’s when she heard footsteps.

Pat pat, pat pat, pat pat. And stop. Then, a thud — a soft one — and a sigh.

She turned to see a stranger come sit — almost right next to her. They wore the robes of a martial artist and topping their head was a conical straw hat, one that belonged to farmers from the far east.

“Fishing sure is fun, eh?” he said, presumably to himself. Clearly, with no rod in hand, he was not fishing.

Aria didn’t respond. She kept her eyes on the fish below who were seemingly taunting her, poking their heads out of the water, pop-popping their fish lips. It was meant to be a taunt from their end, but Aria found it indescribably cute.

“Have you been working hard, little lady?” she heard. This time it was definitely aimed at her.

She didn’t respond, but the man didn’t mind, saying, “You’ve caught a few fish, haven’t you? Very impressive for a girl your age, but your EXP bar seems to be… a little lacking.”

She had turned her statistics private, meaning no one could see her stats, even with the appraise skill. There was no way for anyone to see her stats, unless…

“Lady Aria — that’s your name, correct?” they asked, and she turned to meet them head on.

“Who are you?”

They turned to her and lifted their head just enough for her to see their lower chin. They had long, blond hair and were clearly a man. Wrapped around their neck were a bundle of prayer beads.

“If it’s a name you want, you may call me… Wrath.”

“Wrath?”

“I heard about your little escapade in Vera City from my sister, Sloth. For a level six human to defeat a demon with nothing but holy hand grenades — that’s quite impressive. If I had to say, I’d guess you were some sort of prodigy.”

The man named Wrath — he sent shivers down her spine.

“I didn’t defeat any demon and I didn’t use holy hand grenades,” she answered, wearing a frown and unwilling to look away. Wrath let out a soft chuckle.

“My apologies. I meant that you brought a demoness to her knees and used vials of holy water. Why — that’s even more impressive.”

“What do you want from me?”

Wrath reached into his robes, then pulled out a sheet. It was a familiar piece of documentation — a contract.

“I know who you are. You’re going around, fighting foes and forcing them into signing contracts with you. I, however, propose a new set of terms.” and he unfurled it before her, saying, “Sign and join me. You have unmatched talent and infinite potential — potential that’d go to waste if you don’t.”

Aria, hearing that, scoffed.

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I’ve already signed a contract of loyalty to someone else. I’m afraid if I break that contract the God of fairness, Seti, will smite me.”

“No need to worry.” and Wrath pointed to a seal on the bottom right of his contract. Marked on it was the symbol of Seti — his seal, proof that the God of fairness was consulted beforehand. The symbol glowed a gentle green, proof of its divine ink.

“Sign the contract. Seti has already approved of your contract-breaking. Join me and become a woman feared by the whole world.”

Aria froze, and before she could speak, Wrath grabbed her fishing pole and reeled in a giant koi, one that flopped in his lap. He held it in place with a single hand over its body. He was effortless — a display of undeniable, terrifying strength.

She took a glance at the contract. She wanted to refuse, but from Wrath came a fiery, oppressive aura. He talked about how talented she was and how she had so much potential — but that was potential that would be tapped in the future. Right now, it was like Isabelle said. She was nothing but a level six shrimp.

Without Isabelle and Troy, she… was a threat to nobody.

“Tell me, Aria. Would you rather be a warrior in a garden or a gardener fighting a war?”

She was neither. She wasn’t even a gardener. Aria lacked the heart to kill simple weeds.

Aria, however, had other traits. She remembered that she was just a child, and with her hands clasped together, she tried to break Wrath’s spirit through the power of innocence and the heartache that came from bullying a poor child.

Wrath, to her dismay, expressed zero emotion at the sight of her fidgeting. She couldn’t even see his face from under his cone hat.

“I’ll say it once more,” he said, and on cue, she saw Troy and Isabelle return. They were too far away for them to notice her in trouble. They walked together, laughing and smiling — too distracted to see her plight.

“Join us, and we will make you a formidable warrior. In return, I will leave your friends be. Otherwise, a curse shall befall them — a curse I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemies.”

“Do you promise not to harm them?”

Wrath lifted his head just enough for her to make out a smile.

“Promise.”

Aria glanced at Troy and Isabelle. Unfortunately for her, their journey was cut short. Gray popped into her head. At that moment, he was probably working with his skeleton crew to grow the dungeon in size and fortitude. Then, she thought of Sulphur who was probably sleeping on Gray’s bed, lazily sprawled on his back, waiting for her to come home.

Despite all that, however, Aria found herself cornered. The only way out was to snatch Pen Pen and sign the dotted line.

The instant her pen lifted off the contract, she let out a cry. She felt the sensation of burning on her body — on her backside, between her shoulder blades. It was like an ink tipped knife dug into her, carving her spine out.

“Welcome to the crew,” Wrath said, and he stood up to leave, dropping the koi behind.

She sat in silence, staring down into the waters below. She couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened — how she signed her soul away. It was the same way she had had others become her servants, through blackmail and coercion.

It was simply karma striking back at her.

“Lady Aria! Magnificent catch!”

Isabelle ran over. Troy came over, but when he saw the dejected look on Aria’s face, he knew something was wrong.

Wrath stepped out and let out a foggy breath that cold night. With his face obscured under his cone hat, he watched as the world fell asleep under a blanket of snow. The winter reactor continued to burn — fueling the street lights that filled Haven.

“Wrath…” he heard. The caped martial artist turned to meet a familiar face — one that belonged to a lazy looking lass.

“Sloth,” he said, “or should I say, Mary?”

Mary, spear in hand, approached her brother. She was standoffish, her expression lifeless and cold.

“I was waiting outside the reactor for you. It’s been… what? Four hours? So — how’d it go? What do you think?”

The two began to walk down the street and into the arms of a festival full of paper lanterns and stalls where koi fish was being sold. Koi sashimi, fried koi — koi everything and everything.

“That girl — she is gifted with incredible talents and abilities. They say baby snakes have more potent venom than their adult counterparts, and I believe it applies here.”

“You saw her stats with your assassin abilities, didn’t you? Naughty, naughty. It’s not nice to pry.”

Wrath simply scoffed.

“I’ve gotten her to sign the contract — under threat, of course.”

“She wasn’t willing to sign on immediately?”

“No. It seems she’s a bit of a pacifist… but I know how to deal with undesirable traits like those.”

Wrath stood still in the center of the festival. His eyes fell upon the stars above, then forwards and towards a distant tower.

Far away, it stood; The tower of the Gods.