On the other end, Sanciel was listening to Clara straightforwardly explain the situation as they stood beside a fresh human corpse in the Inbetween. Its skin was covered in inky splotches and purple bumps, and being near it cause nausea. Black butterflies, majestic and haunting, landed and ‘fed’ on it, absorbing the ‘poison’ contained within to further strengthen themselves.
“There are two impudent, moronic and death-seeking fools who want to ruin everyone's peaceful time in this world. It's vague but I've been feeling sudden spikes in corrupt mana, and now look at this. Those idiots want to start another fucking war,” Clara began.
"Putting my feelings aside, the miasma butterflies are getting deadlier and deadlier, as you can probably tell. I know I called them fools, but that doesn't mean they aren't well-informed. To think there came a day where I'd see those servants of Lust plan and not run straight into something is impressive.”
“Clara, aren't you also a—" Sanciel interrupted only to find a slender finger on his lips.
"We need to find more of these corpses and dispose of them unless we want Gathriel's higher-ups to say ‘oh, they're being hostile and killing some of our people’ and make it an issue. Ugh, ugly old farts in their bedazzled thrones.” She rolled her eyes. "It should be easy. I know you can't kill these butterflies since they're almost extinct—your desire to preserve endangered species and all—but do kill the most lethal ones. The corpses are also poisonous to humans so keep them away or just let them be. No one above cares for the people down here.”
What she said was right and wrong at the same time, but Sanciel wasn't going to correct her on it. A butterfly perched on his nose, and purple bloomed where it touched, the purple forming crystal patterns. The poison spread quickly on his skin, to the point where it reached his eyes and made it bleed red. He raised his hand and touched its thin, fragile wings, his touch light as a feather. In front of him, Clara sighed exasperatedly as the butterfly disintegrated into glowing purple ashes, the sigh reeling back her immediate anger, irritation and worry. He catched its ashes, put it into a small jar made to contain poison in small portions, and said, smiling, “Alright.”
The purple poison dispersed and after mere milliseconds, before she could advise against his eventual actions, all the butterflies met the same fate. They flew around in futile effort as their wings faded, rendering them useless. Darkly colored wind formed a vortex and gathered to catch their ashes. Clara felt a headache rising—she wanted to punch this man in front of her.
“What do you think you're doing?! Idiot! This-”
Eithria left her room to meet Adam, eyes lidded from her mostly sleepless night. She yawned and enjoyed the feeling of the risen sun on her skin, stepping out of the inn wearing raiments embroidered with colorful flowers at the edges. Adam, arms crossed and leaning on a light post, greeted her with a wide toothed smile after she entered his view. He waved, “Eithria! It's a beautiful morning, isn't it? Did you sleep well?”
She groaned, "No.”
He blinked once, then again, and enthusiastically said, “Well, I hope you do tomorrow, the day after that and further. Ah, right, I went to where I planned to meet with Heira and Des but they weren't there. You've woken up late.”
“You went without me?" She was now wide awake, and all her previous exhaustion was thrown out the window. If the two didn't come to the place where they planned to meet at dawn, then the possibility she dreaded happening happened. Heira and Des were especially punctual angels, and not once have they missed an appointment. Either the demons killed them or the demons stopped them from coming. The latter could result in the former happening but either way, this wasn't good.
She held his wrist and pulled him, striding towards the gate separating the Inbetween and the Commoner's Region. People were awake at this time of day, and as she ran through the streets, bumping into others wasn't rare. All she could say was quick apologies as time was tight. If angels were near enough with each other, they could detect each other's presence. Running around in the Inbetween wasn't the best solution but her wings couldn't be revealed.
The guards didn't bother asking their purpose for entering the Inbetween and opened the gates for them. Behind the wooden gates was a large, dilapidated plaza, and in the middle of the stone brick path growing moss was a pedestal. On it was a marble statue depicting the Goddess of Knowledge, an open book in her left hand and a blade on the other, leading her people. It was in shambles, and one punch from a drunk man could send it crumbling but the people kept it in good condition, nonetheless. Weeds growing through the cracks of its pedestal were pulled out, the statue was kept free from dust, and broken parts were reattached haphazardly but they at least tried.
The Goddess was their hope in this dark place.
Gathriel, being in the middle of the great continent, amassed wealth from farming livestock and crops, therefore fields of produce were always seen in every bit of territory the empire owned. But, at the end of the day, it was their goddess' kindness that made it the golden empire it was. It was her mercy and her generous protection of the land when harm befell it.
Eithria saw a pallid child around eight-years old approach the statue with a basket of fruit in his arms. He kneeled before the statue, muttered things she couldn't hear from this distance as a prayer, and laid down the offering on the ground. He looked around cautiously and spotted them standing near the gate, then he ran as fast as he could.
Adam waved him goodbye, having no idea why he ran but doing it just because. “What a fast child. Eithria, what do you think he was doing?"
“Praying for good health. Someone close to him is sick." To bring offerings to the Goddess usually meant they wanted to ask for something, and a basket of fruits was for good health. Back in the day, when gods were as plentiful as gold, there existed a God of Medicine but he was lost with time and people who worshiped him lessened. His duty was then replaced by the Goddess of Knowledge and now, she was the first god to come to when needing to alleviate sickness.
Skilled doctors were rare and healers, even more so. To be able to afford the service of either one, you must be part of the high nobility but the case was different for Gathriel. Healthcare was provided for free at the hands of doctors in either the hospital, the Church of Knowledge or inexperienced but trained doctors in the empire's academy. So, why did the child need to pray to the Goddess? Even the people living in the Inbetween had no need to pay.
Eithria and Adam followed the path the child took, only to stop partly through when they sensed corrupt mana in a dark alley. A lone black butterfly flew out, flickering with purple light like a firefly. Adam, at the sight of it, immediately entered the alley so she had to soon follow. What greeted them was a bloodless corpse, dried out on the ground, in more ways than one.
“It's mana-less,” he said the obvious,”This may be the work of a vampire…"
She sighed, “Adam, they're extinct."
"You're right, but a man can dream. The world was wonderful when vampires still existed!”
‘It wasn't,’ she thought. Atrocities took place in the west of Vanagloria which led to vampire's getting hunted and placed bounties on. At the time, he wasn't allowed to leave the barrier so he had no source of knowledge except for the child-friendly books about vampires which somehow made their way in Raziel. With this naive belief, he was truly like a silly younger brother.
Eithria inspected the dried corpse, trying to avoid having much contact with it all the while. Its skin still had residual poison and traces of corrupt mana, although astonishingly faint to be able to kill an adult, were still in it. The corpse was of a woman around twenty-years old. It had been about half a day since her death, and marks from a tightly bound rope marred on her skin. Eithria, with a cold face, stood up while shaking her head.
“It reeks…”
Adam, uncomfortable with the smell and the blatant nakedness of the corpse, suggested leaving and following the path the child took but she didn't budge.
‘I saw a brothel at the side of the street,’ she thought, ‘Could she have been working there? If so, who were her last customers? Corrupt mana can only be transferred through touch so, how many people has she touched before dying herself?’
Although deprived of life and pale, the woman's former beauty still shone through. She would have had one of the brightest smiles if she were alive, and the angel would soon find out she would have been able to leave the brothel if she survived another day. How unfortunate… Eithria was more and more eager to find those two demons who committed such atrocities.
She entered the brothel with Adam close behind, and they were greeted by the prostitute's pimp. He was a gallant man, rather good-looking and was quick to put on a sheep's fleece. The pimp smiled harmlessly after seeing them, inquiring why they were here while leering at her.
With a bright flash of light, Adam conjured his halberd and pointed it towards the pimp, offended in her stead. “Don't look at her like that!"
‘This…’ Eithria approached the pimp and pushed down the blade, her eyes seemingly saying ‘stop it’ as she looked at her fellow angel. The halberd disappeared as a golden barrier quickly surrounded them, completely separating them from the world. All noise would be blocked and no one could see them if they were inside. As far as she was concerned, inside the barrier was a whole other dimension accessed only by mastering the usage of divine mana.
Eithria turned to the frightened and speechless pimp with the same harmless smile he greeted them with. “Now then, would you like to talk?"
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Haha, I forgot to update last week, I think? QWQ Anyways, have this and the following chapters as compensation, kinda.