Calamity took the moment to give Soleil her undivided attention.“My sister of Rot is overstepping her boundaries. The blow she intends to deal to your food supply will likely cripple humanity to an extent from which you may never recover. You must go beyond what your mother agreed upon and ensure that no Rot taints the food stores in the valley.”

That certainly sounded like a problem that could not be ignored. But why was it a problem for Calamity?

“I still do not understand why you’re asking me to do this.”

Calamity turned her attention back towards flying.

No answer there. But Soleil had seen evidence of rot on the mountainous end of the forest. If her destination was on the eastern end of the forest, just how widespread had this rot corruption grown?

“So in response to this apparently being bad, you decided to help by destroying the Outrider Knights’ strongest Magitech Engines?”

“I promised my sister that I would deal with the threat that the Outrider Knights posed to her plans. This was before I knew the impact of what she intended.”

The look that Calamity gave suggested that she had no intention of giving a more thorough answer. Over the course of the hour that she had fought the knights, she probably succeeded in draining any potion supply the knights had on them.

Great, so she just needed to achieve what an entire unit of Outrider Knights was capable of halting. No big deal.

Time to try something else. “So, what do you need a Champion for? Why not just stop your sister yourself?”

Calamity’s only reply was to grunt and adjust her course.

Soleil still wondered why they were able to have this conversation now and not earlier.

Did the rampant use of [Mana Detonation] between the two of them mean they could speak openly now without fear of attention being paid to them? She never thought she’d think otherwise, but Soleil all of a sudden wanted to experiment with [Mana Detonation.] She briefly tried to reach for the skill, surprised to find it within reach. The skill had not been ripped out of her soul as she feared.

For now she would have to resist the temptation and try to think things through on her own. Calamity seemed easily agitated.

For the moment, Soleil assumed the two sisters that Calamity mentioned were the same entity. She was beginning to get the impression that Calamity had apparently promised to help the same sister that she was now asking Soleil to sabotage. So she supposed it could make some amount of sense that she would not go out of her way to go back on a promise already fulfilled. No matter how many of these entities there were, Soleil had just promised to get involved in squabbles between architects of ruin and corruption.

This was all so much. And it was proving to be too much to handle all the time. Soleil needed things to slow down so she could get a proper handle on everything. She troied and failed to take deep breaths. Without anyone else here to help her make the right choice, Soleil had only herself to count on. She needed to avoid panicking.

Being forcefully flown into the clouds was not helping her panic any less. Come to think of it, she had not strictly speaking been picked her up against her will. Calamity carried her away only upon Soleil's instruction. Would clarifying her life expectancy be annoying? Why was Calamity even bothering to answer questions in the first place?

What words came out of her mouth ended up being entirely irrelevant instead.

"I'm not too heavy, am I?"

Calamity growled. “Your weight is insignificant.”

"I just don't want to be inconvenient."

"We do not get to choose our family. You are allowed a certain degree of being an inconvenience."

Oh.

OH.

That changed everything.

Soleil was mana-born too. She had three mothers. They gave her a mana's childhood starting from birth!

Soleil cackled with delight as she spread her arms wide. A whole world of opportunities was opening up to her. Things were starting to make sense.

"I would appreciate you not doing… whatever that is."

"I'm celebrating! I just discovered that I have a whole bunch of older sisters!"

Calamity came to an abrupt stop, exerting an Intensity that bent the wind mana to her will.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Aunt!" No. That would imply she was her mothers' sister. "Godmother!"

Calamity scowled at her. "A deific mother. Very well. I will train you in the ways your mothers failed to."

Soleil blinked in surprise. Was Calamity really accepting a position as her Godmother?

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"I don't understand. Why are you so willing to listen to me and not my mothers?" She looked at Calamity expectantly, before deciding to clarify by calling her mothers by name. "What makes me different from Veilura, Brigid, and Nadir?"

Calamity glared at her. The very real fire in her eyes began to gently flicker. "Your mothers earned themselves a certain degree of begrudging respect. But they have still murdered more of us than most humans. You were nonetheless raised like a child of mana. The least we could do was test you."

Test her? What had she done? She doubted using [Mana Detonation] earned her any more or less favor with Calamity. She had used it against both the Knights and her. If both instances counted, the most reasonable outcome was that they balanced out. And Calamity had been upset with her over how she earned her champion status.

What else did she know? Calamity had suggested that there were roles left to play. She never specified who or how this applied. But assuming she was talking about demons, what could her mothers do that most humans could not?

Mana channeling was a start. But Soleil had only just begun. The most she had done had been so small.

Or did each life really matter in the eyes of mana?

Soleil met Calamity's gaze. "You need me to cleanse corruption. The corruption of the Rot sister of yours specifically."

"I do not like repeating myself. But I suppose the role of Godmother comes with a certain level of accommodation. Yes."

All that for a one word confirmation. "Okay. I will be happy to cleanse the entire forest's corruption."

"That won't be necessary. Prioritize the safety of the food your people need to survive in the long term."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"That is your problem. You have already agreed to be my champion in fulfilling this task."

"How will I know when it is done to your satisfaction without more information?"

The fire in Calamity’s eyes grew more intense as she furrowed her brow. "I will contact you when the threat has passed."

That was ominous, but at least Soleil would know when the Grove's food supply would be considered safe. She now had a goal and promise to see Calamity again. The two had established obligations to each other. This was probably more than her mothers could possibly have hoped for her.

Or had they wanted to prevent this outcome? Soleil still had Calamity’s ear. Who knew for how long or where Calamity intended to take her.

But she knew that Calamity had agreed to teach her.

"Can you teach me a skill that will help me?"

"Most of what I have to teach is too much for you to currently handle. Mana Detonation had been intended to satisfy you through your early Levels."

“If not skills, what will you teach me in my mothers’ stead?”

“That you have a place in the world. You have obligations to take care of it. This world is the only one you have and there is precious little of it left to you.”

Soleil thought she already knew the answer to her question, but she asked it anyway. “And in exchange?”

Calamity locked eyes with Soleil. A wicked smile began to spread across her face. “In turn. The world will take care of you.”

Without warning, Soleil felt herself begin to fall.

Calamity had let go.

Soleil instantly found herself weighing fight or flight instincts. No one prepared her for something like this. Soleil had never attempted to grasp at wind magic.

She quickly discovered that trying to learn under present circumstances was a fool’s errand.

She could [Analyze] the air around her, but what would that get her?

Soleil instead tried to mimic something that she remembered Calamity doing. Drawing upon every last drop of Intensity she had, Soleil attempted to push against the air itself.

She swore there had been a reaction, because the adjustment to her fall made her want to lose her morning meal.

Okay, the ground was getting alarmingly close now. What more could she do?

“I have a place in this world.” She thought out loud to herself. “I have an obligation to take care of it.” No ideas were coming to her.

How could the world take care of her when it was rushing up to crush her?

Soleil closed her eyes, poured her Focus and Sensitivity into the [Analyze] skill, and cried out in fear. She could only hope that the mana would hear her dread and give her something, anything.

All at once, memories began to pour into her.

Brigid buried a third and final axe into her chest before grabbing her by the shoulders and throwing her over the edge. The pain was agonizing, but she had never felt so alive. Finally, someone who could match her blow for blow without demanding she answer the same hundred questions or so that humans endlessly cycled through. Without limbs willing to respond to her demands to catch anything on the way down, Calamity would just have to create new ones.

Her back erupted into flames. Adapt or die. Such was the life of a Demon. She would have to remember that line of Brigid’s.

[Soleil’s soul gained a level.]

Soleil gained knowledge of the skill [Calamitous Wings.] The skill’s rank cannot be raised.

Soleil’s eyes shot open. It was do or die now.

Whether she intended to or not, Calamity had shown her everything she needed to. Even her name lost significane in her mind.

She reached for the new skill, drawing upon every last point of Adaptability she had within her soul.

And she began to instinctively change in a way that only a child of mana could.

The ground hit her hard, instantly demanding every last point of vitality be forfeit. Soleil lay there for a while, a soreness spreading throughout the entirety of her body.

She was alive.

The forest floor was probably a poor place to take a nap, but Soleil had just burned through her soul’s capacity to channel several different attributes of mana. She wasn’t sure if she would have much of a say in the matter for long.

Soleil absentmindedly began to count the red feathers that lay on the ground around her. Without any Focus, her only thought was to remark how pretty they were. If she did not associate them with Calamity, she thought she would very much like to have red feather wings one day.