THE WORLDAnd it came to pass in those days that the world went totally fucked up. Following the fall of the Council, in addition to wars mentioned before, the alchemists gave way to scientists. Technology was reinvented, such as giant mechs, plasma cannons, and unsavory sources of energy that spewed blackened smoke everywhere. Large machines with gears and coal-burning engines clogged the air everywhere they went, and mad science reigned supreme. And with it came all the lures and flaws of technology.

    In the wake of science, came pseudoscience such as sociology and environmentalism. People formed bureaus to catalog people into races and types supposedly to equalize everyone, by singling out people to give special privileges. At the end of it all came the concentration camps. And those concerned with global warming now turned to super-science to create clouds to blot out the sun, while those seeing the climate as a cooling trend tried to get underwater volcanoes to erupt. The air became filled with sulfuric and nitric fumes, society collapsed, and that was only the beginning.

    Towns began to unify into cities and cities into states, government gradually became bigger, until finally the State began to return. Income taxes went from about 0% to closer to 80% overnight. In response to the crippling debt of the common people, such governments proposed a global currency system using credit cards, from the check card model. Only, the governments decided simple cards were difficult to keep track of, so they proposed the RFID system. They advertised it as also being successful keeping track of lost pets. Surely, this couldn''t be used to keep tabs on regular people as though they were criminals. Open borders were also imposed in the name of freedom to visit other countries, sending floods of illegal aliens from other lands and dimensions to do as they wished with the countries of the New Earth. In effect, the Council was like the Fisher King, while they did well, the world moved towards a brighter future. Now that they were gone, governments continued to misrule, and the world was suffering their excesses.

    Of course, some governments refused part or all of this agenda. Phoenix refused to adopt the global currency, or Aquamundo ignored the environmental “science” in favor of natural magic and alchemy and using traditional methods. But almost overnight, many towns became different to the point where the average person away from the area wouldn''t recognize things. Why, Gruumi became a crowded metropolis!

    The only good news was that as they continued, they would ultimately fall apart from their own excesses. The Mandate of Heaven dictated that as leaders became more corrupt, their rule became harder and more expensive to manage. This is true even in an economy that prints its own money. Failing a revolt from the people themselves, natural disasters will happen, invasions from outside, bandits take over, and eventually the old dynasty falls and the new dynasty takes over. And the new dynasty would treat the people well, until it too became the old dynasty. This cycle would continue forever, without the intervention of a power like the Council preventing any centralized system, or people actually learning from history. But the latter was probably too much to expect.

    While all these wonderful things were happening on the rest of the New Earth, in Heaven, there were other problems, mainly that of a revolt. Unlike the revolt of Satan, this was no demonic uprising. It was simply one angel not happy with the general negative trend of the world. “The Council fell. The world is back to petty wars for control of nations,” Estheriel said. God shrugged, Estheriel was less than pleased with this response, “You know?!? Why won''t you do anything?”

    God explained, Estheriel scowled, “Free will?” Estheriel fumed, “Free will?!? Why do you continue to allow such a thing to exist in this world? It causes more harm than good to the humans who have it.”

    God had been there from the beginning, and been alone for much of it. God knew that a homogeneous mindset was boring. Estheriel on the other hand, had witnessed eons of suffering as humans competed and fought with each other. He wasn''t against free will, the angel simply disliked its side-effects. God explained. And God told the history of Drudges.

    Estheriel had enough. he screamed, “I leave to form a pure world, without evil.” The angel, ever the idealist, had no desire to create suffering of any kind. He simply did not understand why Earth could not be more like Heaven. God nodded, if it was possible for someone like God to nod, that is. he said, It would not be known until much later that this prophecy referred not only to Tamashii, a tomboy with powerful abilities of fire, but also to the one known as Ash who became female as a result of lightning setting him on fire. But that''s a story for another day.

    Estheriel looked shocked. “How can such a thing exist on this world?” she asked. God saidGod doesn''t banish people. Not from Eden, not from Heaven. They decide they are no longer welcome, and thus they are.

    AMBROSIA

    I''m worried about what happens after my journey... I remember the Aiken master''s words, “This is all very well and good, but what happens next? After you get all the Crests and stop the great evil demon who returned, then what happens? You grow old and die, with nothing to show for it.” I brushed that question off at the time, but now I''m a tad bit concerned. I know other people believe in the Afterlife, but I don''t actually know what happens after you die. I know the physical stuff, the body dies and gets recycled into the ground. But what happens to my soul? I know about Heaven and Hell, but they were actual places. What actually will happen to me? I have visions that everything will just fade away, and I won''t exist anymore. I cried out, “I wish I knew what will happen to me after I die!” At once, there was a rush of wind, and I heard a voice speak to me. Fear not, a still small voice from God said to me, I have a plan for you. I asked, “Really? What is it?” His voice continued, There is little I can tell you. Still, I can tell you that your feelings and the way you live your life greatly affect things. The Afterlife is not just how you treat others, but how you feel about yourself. Your heart will guide you. Nevras grasped my hand, “Let''s build our Afterlife together. Wherever it is, I don''t care. I’ll be with you when you die. I promise.”

    We walked together to our ride, Bahamut, the dragon lady. Lilith hauled around that huge rock she called Christina, much to Bahamut''s annoyance. We charted a course for Aiken Monastery, but with the weight of all of us, plus the addition of Lilith, plus a giant freaking boulder, Bahamut had to stop and take a breather. We landed on the forest just outside Galaxia, and had to walk the rest of the way. And no, I don''t mean in the forest, Bahamut is rather big, and seeing all those nice leafy greens, she just plopped herself down and began eating everything that was vegetable matter. Dragons don''t need to be meat eaters, since all that protein just weighs them down. She needed fiber and carbohydrates to run her massive system, so she started munching on trees. Bahamut told us that she would eventually be able to carry extra weight, but her was just not used to a sudden increase of weight like that. “I''ll need to rest and recuperate for at least a week,” she said, “then I''ll be able to carry more.”

    The angry displaced animals of the forest tried to charge us, but Lilith quickly showed us what Christina could do. She held the big stone one-handed, knocking animals prone. We wound up with a lot of deer meat, boar meat, and even some wolf meat. Lilith watched me salt some of it for later, while Azrael and Elias used their runes to preserve it. Then I cooked up a meal using wild greens and onions as she watched. “I wish I knew how to cook like you,” she said, “I mean, so little of demon impulses are acceptable around other people. But here, you''re cutting apart animals with a big butcher knife, and nobody so much as blinks.” I smiled at her, “Okay, then. Now, let''s start with chopping vegetables...” I had her do that, then got her to chop meat, and while I seasoned, I had her stir the pan. Her strength was really too much, as she almost chopped through the cutting board at a few points, so we worked on getting her to control her strength first. After awhile though, she seemed to have at least novice potential. Sear?h the n??el Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    I was gonna get her a butcher knife in town, but as it turned out, all the shops had some kind of special requirement now to buy anything. It didn''t matter if we were renting a boat (many of which were shut down from some sort of licensing requirement) or trying to get a room at the inn. It seemed like we were stuck, so we went around and talked to a bunch of townsfolk. Some young girl dressed in rags told us that the Council fell, and the governments started experimenting with a new money system. “You''ll need to go to Phoenix,” she said, “they refused to change from Gold. If you can get there, your problems ought to be solved. If not... well, you''re screwed.”

    NEVRAS

    Weird. That little girl looked like a younger version of Ambrosia. She even talked in the same way. It didn''t seem to be Jesus, though. Resisting the urge to stare at her, I instead worked on drafting a letter. I needed to get word to my parents to pick me up.

    Perhaps you readers don''t know how a real post office works. You thought you gave mail to the carrier, and they sorted it by zipcode and sent it into zones, and delivered it to your door by that way. I''m not sure how that method didn''t take a week to get anything delivered. No, the way mail works now is that you have a letter or package marked with either a stamp or a rune. The stamp has a rune on it, so if you don''t know how to write runes, you could pay the post office 10 Copper to add a stamp to the mail. We couldn''t use money right now, so I had to do the other one. The runes didn''t need to be active since tossing them in the mailbox would do that, which was a relief for me since I was educated at the palace in how to write a few common runes, but I had virtually no mystic power. Inside the mailbox, a ley line energized the runes, and the rune said, ?Teleport? allowing the thing to instantly reach its destination with a 5% chance of burning to cinders instead. This was another reason people bought stamps, these were protection against that chance.

    But supposing you didn''t have either stamps or the ability to write runes? Every day, the mailbox was opened, and mail crow delivered it. It may surprise people to know that carrier pigeons are simply birds taken from their homes and they fly back to start. But these birds were different. Awhile back, people discovered that crows were more intelligent than the average bird, so they bred them to be able to learn more and more. Because Lamarck happened to be right, these crows eventually became clever enough to read Common and navigate to post offices in specific towns. The humans in those towns working at the post office would filter it out and deliver in person. Since I wasn''t keen on my letter exploding, and Phoenix Castle had its own mail center, I just addressed it to Phoenix Castle, and I wrote my letter, ? Dear Mother and Father? I said, ?I am currently in the state of Galaxia but I regret to inform you that the economic system has now changed. I will require assistance with extraction from this location and I appreciate your help at this time.? I tossed the mail in, and watched the bird take off. To be on the safe side against storms or interception, I also made a rune-marked duplicate letter, writing in parentheses that this letter was a duplicate in case the mail was lost.

    I actually enjoyed going to the post office nowadays. Yeah, I know, you readers think immediately of insufferable bureaucrats when thinking about the postal service, second only to that of the Department of Motor Vehicles. No, today the post office is a model of customer service. It all started when one person had a local business, and they wanted to place their business card where they were sure everyone would see it. Nobody had heard of direct mail marketing. But the post office did have bulletin board for events. So they stuck a few business cards up. Other people who were also small business owners also did so, now and then, but inevitably such cards no matter that they were small and inconspicuous were always taken down. Sometime after that, the post office put up signs saying that putting up such signs was against federal regulations and/or illegal. Then things got worse, as frustrated business owners probably tore down those signs. More regulations came up, these ones strictly forbidding vandalism of signage by postal workers, and finally a sign on the front door was posted threatening legal action if customers displayed aggressive or irate behavior. In other words, not only was the customer forbidden from acting out, but they could no longer air their grievances without being accused of being “irate.” This of course was unconstitutional, as one of the customers finally pointed out, after watching the amount of posters on this bulletin gradually diminish to only community events and those for-profit posters that happened to be okay with the post office (because like those who set up laws everywhere, they were damned hypocrites). In the middle of the night, the customer put up a sign on the outside of the door, covering to with about four layers of tape to stick it, and insulate from wind and rain. Then they nailed it, 95 Thesis style, to the glass door. The next morning, the door was seriously cracked, but it made enough of an impact that a few people read the note, which complained that: “(1) The post office is appointed by the United Stated Constitution, the same document that gave the Bill of Rights; (2) the Bill of Rights granted freedom of speech, the right to assemble peacefully, and the right to petition grievances to the government, as well as the 10th Amendment guaranteeing rights to the people that were not secured by the government; (3) as they have torn down signs and denied the right even to complain about it, they are in violation of most or all of these rights and behaving in an unjust and unconstitutional manner; (4) that those who simply wanted to advertise were being treated like criminals as a result of their actions; and (5) that although private businesses had the right to act independently of the will of others under certain circumstances as in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado, the same was not true of businesses paid by the taxes of people.” This of course got legal action from the post office, as they said the person had behaved in an aggressive and irate manner (not to mention completely smashing up their door), so this matter got taken to court. The case was lost, and the apparent vandal was put to death if I remember correctly by being tied from head to toe with Priority Mail tape; however, a class action lawsuit listing a other grievances such as late or lost mail allowed this issue to somehow make it to Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the complaint, and a number of reforms were ordered to the system. As a result, postal workers now have a business board for support of small businesses (so long as they are a regulation size of not more than 3.5'''' by 5''''), as well as the events board, a news board of local current information, and a miscellaneous board which tends to get covered with cooking recipes, songs, and random meme pictures. They have become a meeting place for all kinds of people to assemble and chat. Another change is that since that event, all postal workers wore a badge on their chest. The logo had an African swallow delivering a coconut in its beak and bore the Latin words ?Tabellarius Caenum Sunt ? meaning basically “postal workers are scum.” This was not so much to humiliate them as to remind them of their deeply bureaucratic past, and to not turn their back on the public. The logo was a vague reference to Monty Python, to remind them that postal workers need a sense of humor.

    Within an hour, I got a return note marked with the royal stamp and the wax insignia of the king''s crest. It was addressed by my dad, but when I opened it, it was Mom writing. As was the case with much of my kingdom, my dad took credit for being the ruler of Phoenix for the sake of face, but my mom was the real ruler. At least they got the money right. ?Nevras, you know we love you and we will help you out of this problem. The Council is a wreck and we are fighting a war, so we cannot send our royal ship. We will instead send a low priority vessel for hauling turnips so as to not arouse suspicion. You must disguise yourselves in any way possible and present the following tickets. They should be there tomorrow. Please be careful, my beloved son. -Vicky? it read.

    Setting up tent outside, we changed our clothing. Ambrosia put her rags back on. Thanks to Zoe, we had loads of old grubby clothing. I changed up my hair by tying it in a ponytail, and put on a maid dress. Michael changed his sex to female, and made herself look less radiant and more like a drab girl in tattered gray dress. Elias refused to wear a dress, so he donned work clothes. Aqorm and Zoe didn''t have particularly nice or distinctive clothes, so they stayed the same. Azrael just found a traveler''s hood and put it over her exorcist outfit. And Lilith found a nice dress and an umbrella, then she acted like she was our supervisor. The ride to Phoenix wasn''t very pleasant because Lilith decided to put us to work the entire time waxing the floor, painting the deck, and scrubbing the furnace. Some of this stuff, I knew did not actually need to be done, but discipline was key if I ever did want to be a governor of a country. I still had to act the part to not arouse suspicion, so I swept and dusted everything as a proper maid should. Meanwhile, Lilith sipped tea and sat in the sun, shifting position only to bark out orders. For lunch, we had turnip juice. For dinner, turnip stew, and just before we came to port the next day, turnip sandwiches. It turns out that too many antioxidants are not all that great for the body and I do not need to spell out the effects of high dietary fiber, not to mention our intestinal tract was screaming for other food by that point. We rejoined with our own boat from there, thanking my parents, and sailed towards Ghobli. After some walking, we came to Aiken Monastery.

    AMBROSIA

    Oh, not this place again. The door was unlocked, but then there was the screening process by Gwendolyn, the resident Seer and Truthteller. The half-elf woman in a long flowing gown interviewed us, the last line of defense after the giant wall, aerial defenses, and the orichalcum muting all magic used against it. She had the final say on who entered and who was not allowed, since she could not only detect who was untrustworthy but she knew the possible futures.

    “Ah, I recognize that voice,” she said to us, even though I hadn''t said anything yet and before I knocked on the gate. I knocked on the door and called out, “Hey Gwendolyn! We''re back!” Gwen responded, “Ambrosia, how are you doing? Oh, it looks like you have more guests! Hmmmm... Nevras, do be careful not to break her heart! It would change everything.” Nevras looked embarrassed, and shrugged as if to say that he had no idea what she meant. I had no idea either, since our relationship seemed to be going well. We hadn''t had a good conversation in awhile, but this was because we had been busy traveling and fighting. I''d have to do something about that. Oh my, was he going to cheat on me later?!? I must have made a weird face because Nevras shook his head frantically. I knew it, he''s guilty about something. Gwen continued to see into the future, “Zoe, is that you? I''ve missed you so much! It looks like you''ve got a little girlfriend too, good for you!” The two of them went red as beets, as the girl foresaw more, “And you two! Are you sure there''s nothing between you? Angels and demons can be together, you know. Oh, but there''s a complication... I see. Hmmm, but this won''t do! This won''t do at all!” She continued to confuse all of us, so finally I just asked, “What won''t do?” She explained, “This demon must not be allowed to enter! For I see that she will wreck things in the Aiken Monastery. All of you are welcome, but she must be left outside.” As we stepped inside one at a time, Lilith became more and more enraged, until finally she spit Hellfire, burning down the door.

    LILITH

    What? I was pissed off. Besides my claws, tail, and my pet rock Christina, I have a few ways of attack. Aside from Fallen, which have demonic powers in addition to major Script abilities, most demons don''t have what would be called magic. We can''t use runes, we just sorta summon fire or darkness in our hands, and some other tricks that I can''t do like possess people. What I can do is stare at someone and turn them into stone, charm people, and of course, use Hellfire.

    Hellfire is sorta the inversion of Script. While Script was a powerful force of creation, Hellfire was a power of destruction. They were roughly equivalent in power to Void, but while Void was a power of antimatter, Hellfire was a sort of mixture of flame and darkness, able to bypass resistance or even immunity to either. Hellfire was how demons destroyed each other, and while there were certain items that could screen out Void, it was said only intervention from a deity could protect from Hellfire. The flames were far hotter than Druidfire (yet just as controlled), reaching temperatures of just past the Planck Temperature, that is, the hottest things can get without... weird things happening. At the temperature that Hellfire raged, conventional physics just doesn’t work. Gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear forces kinda merge together into a unified whole. The flames weren''t gonna try to turn the Earth into a sun or anything (although they could if aimed directly at the Earth''s core by a powerful enough demon). This meant that in addition to burning people, animals, and objects to nothing but stardust, the flames also warped matter, broke down regeneration, runes, and even melted materials that were supposed to be indestructible. Basically the only thing that could stand up to Hellfire were things made by God: souls, Conception, and First Material (no, bodies were not made by God, although the original model of human bodies was; they formed around souls using the dust of the Earth). Hellfire could also be used indirectly, spread out to the point of not completely burning and decaying things but rather used as an effective tool to breaking down curses and such.

    I''ll be honest. I didn''t really hold back. I melted that door down to a singularity, blinding everyone looking directly at it for awhile. We needed to take a break anyway.

    AMBROSIA

    After being blinded by intense light, loads of healers helped get us back to normal. “As I was saying,” Gwendolyn explained, “And here we have an example of self-fulfilling prophecy. Think about all of those predictions I made. These may happen, but they will happen if you act a certain way in response to what I mentioned.” Wow, Gwen sucks.

    After a few days in treatment, we made our way up the tower. We passed by the Druids and people training in the courtyards, and walked all the way towards the top floor. Well, that''s not accurate. You see, Gwen decided to sound the alarm, “Nephilim invaders in the Aiken Monastery!” So while our main party walked up there without problems, Michael and Lilith had to fight their way through the entire tower. “Why did you do this?” I asked Gwen as she followed us to the top. I suddenly understood why the last time we went up here she managed to make it before us. She was in peak shape despite being virtually blind and had memorized the layout of the place from her prophecies. We were gasping to keep up with her, and she passed us and made it to the top steps. “Oh that?” Gwen answered, “those two need to be tested. Aiken doesn''t have the same concept of sin as Jews and Christians. We care about worthiness. All of us have worth, but to be worthy requires belief in oneself. They must be tested.” Jerk.

    LILITH

    Hard to believe that just a week or so ago, I only had more time indoors to look forward to, if I didn''t want to be bullied by the worst sort of demons. Now I was getting to explore the world! I just imagined I''d do so without being involved in some brutal battle. The martial artists in the courtyard we wound up fighting first. They were unarmed, but they were able to channel elemental power through their hands and feet. Unlike magic, these elemental effects actually hurt since they weren''t runes but actual energy. It was a relief that my skin was at least heatproof and sturdier than that of mortals. I kicked, punched, clawed, and otherwise beat them up, but they were very skilled, and there were a few of them. “Iron Cage - Duration: 1 Day,” Michael said, just as one of them did an electrical punch. It appeared their elements were the real thing, as the lot of them in the cage got zapped and were knocked out by the charge.

    “Don''t think I owe you for this or anything!” I said to the angel. He smirked. He knew as well as I did that this was only something a giant tease would say. “Oh, it''s no problem,” Michael responded, fighting off his own martial artists. I tossed a couple of fireballs in their direction, scorching those guys just enough to take them out of the battle. Fair is fair, after all.

    The remaining martial artists were black belt master ranks coming from one of the floors of the Monastery tower. Beyond simply knowing elemental ability, they could blend it together as chi. From my centuries alive, I had done some reading. There were rumors of what this power could do. A skilled practitioner could heal with a touch, or paralyze just by poking someone. They could even target pressure points. Michael simply closed his wings and expanded his personal aura, and they were unable to get close to him, so they all targeted me. I moved to slash at them with my claws, but they did some acrobatic trick and cartwheeled out of the way, then jabbed with their index and middle finger at specific parts of my arms pressing on about twenty or so regions along left arm, and climbed over my shoulder with terrific agility and did much the same to my left shoulder and arm. I have a strong body, able to regenerate and take a lot of punishment, but all of a sudden my arms went completely limp, as if I had just had a seizure. I could lift them, but they immediately flopped to my side when I tried. I managed to keep them from disabling my neck or head or internal organs, by sheer dumb luck of stepping out of the way in time. They tried going for my legs, but since I didn''t want to be crawling like a baby or stuck inside one of the angel''s Medical Spheres, I reacted by blocking with my wings, and countering with my tail. My body has its own chakra system like humans, but there are a few regions that such attacks kinda... don''t work on. My wings and tail are an offshoot of my spiritual anatomy and as such fully retractable. They could not be paralyzed since they had no pressure points to begin with. I made short work of those guys, being careful not to kill people. I didn''t want to murder, not if I could help it. After these guys had been defeated, we headed toward the main tower of the Aiken Monastery, but our battle had apparently drawn the attention of some Druids. I could still move around, but I couldn''t really lift my arms enough to toss any dark balls or fireballs, and I wasn''t gonna test out Hellfire on these Druids. It was Michael''s turn to battle.

    MICHAEL

    Casters always believe their long range makes them invincible, just as people with guns thought they couldn''t be touched by a knife. Actually, it''s possible for a normal human to rush someone trying to shoot someone, enough to stab them. How much more easily would it be for one such as me to stop someone from finishing what they were saying enough to halt their runes? I made quick work of nearly twenty Druids, likewise avoiding lethal force. As an archangel, I had to kill, and it didn''t bother me as much as humans so long as it wasn''t excessive, but this demon seemed to hate the sight of blood, so I did what I could. Perhaps later it wouldn''t be an issue, but for now, she seemed relieved that some of them were still alive.

    We worked our way up the tower of the Monastery, spotting straw dummies that were used to train chi attacks on the 16th floor. Those fighters earlier must have been from here. The 25th floor had the Make Aiken a Great Monastery Again group that Ambrosia told about as a funny story. But it didn''t seem so funny now, with them armed with torches and pitchforks Not that those could hurt either of us, though.

    “A demon!” one said. “And an angel,” said another. “We don''t want your kind around these parts!” cried a third, pointing not to Lilith but to me. Typical. The third decided he liked the looks of Lilith though, for he said, “Hey baby! How about a horny woman like you give me some tail?” Lilith, clearly bothered by his unwanted advances, or perhaps entertained by them (this being more difficult to read than her aversion to murder), smirked and said, “As you wish!” Coiling her pointed organ around the man, she quickly penetrated him from the rear with her barbed tail. He began to bleed from the point shoved up there. “Don''t worry! After you lose your virginity... back there, everything will be fine. But for now, you won''t be able to sit down for a few weeks!” Yes, she was clearly a demon. The rest decided to venture to the bottom floor. As some of them were sorcerers, from the window we saw them instead focusing their energy on rebuilding what Lilith had smashed of the wall and gate. The man who had hit on her was limping around a bit, but did not seem overly upset.

    We passed by a woman on floor 64, who urged us not to make too many people mad. She explained that they were only trying to defend their homeland from outsiders. Lilith nodded, “I understand. I just want to get to the top of this tower, and it seems like everyone''s barring my way.” The woman nodded, “Yes, that''s the way things are with us.” No sooner did she finish speaking than she too put up a powerful barrier. Fortunately, I had something for that without hurting her. “Alter Attributes: Sword - Traits: Barrier Breaking, Duration: 1 Hour,” I said. My sword became coated with a reddish energy, capable of cutting any barriers (except mine of course, mainly because I made it). I swung hard and broke down the field, along with most of the other barriers blocking us in floor above. The 97th floor no longer had necromancers, having done their job of constructing a save point, they probably left to rejoin Thanatos. On the 98th floor, Lilith and I booked a room for a few hours. No, not like that! We had just pushed our way through nearly 100 floors of extremely hostile people, and we needed to rest and meditate. Lilith''s Lucre was no good outside of Hell, really. That''s part of why it was money suited for Hell, it was the only suitable currency there, and worthless everywhere else. Meanwhile, my money was good everywhere else. I pulled out a Record of Value, and the man proceeded to write a blank check for himself, of a rather huge amount. No, I''m not gonna mention it. Let''s just say, even by today''s standards it would ruin a small country if someone had to pay it. I''m pretty sure it wasn''t that much in Gold, but humans tended to overcharge us angels, because our Record could pay any price, which the merchant could later exchange for Gold at face value. He wouldn''t need to work again.

    Our time together in the same hotel was pretty awkward, actually. Lilith apparently had pretty weird rules about modesty, not that the Nephilim race really cared much to start with, but watching her come out of the shower without bothering to use a towel, and sleeping in the nude was making me uncomfortable for some reason. But I decided to put up with it. Complaining about it would probably just make her try it more to annoy me or something. It didn''t help. Since we had actually paid way more than the hotel was worth, the next day we found the deed to the hotel on the desk. As owner of the hotel, she kept doing stuff for me, cooking for me, trying to do sweet things for me.

    I see. She must want this land instead of her house? “But won''t you be lonely here too?” I asked. Lilith shook her head, “Demons will never accept me,” she said. “But here, I will be able to make a go of things. Maybe people will accept me because I do good work.” I refused, and we spent most of our time fighting. The room was ransacked as a result of our struggles, until finally we got to our quest again. Somehow or other I seem to have misplaced the paper, but no matter. That deed would wait until later.

    After this, we left and headed towards the top. The 99th floor had Gwendolyn, who despite probably being for the most part a pacifist, I could tell Lilith strongly wanted to make an exception. “Ah! You made it! Let me invite you to the top floor,” she motioned to the stairs. Lilith tried to attack her instead, but was slow enough to run afoul of Gwen''s sensory abilities, and never managed to hit her. Lilith eventually gave up and joined the others on the top floor, hours late to the party. “Did I miss anything?” Lilith asked. Ambrosia had already gotten her last Crest, and was showing off several techniques, such as Opening/Closing, which let her make her body intangible or super hard (respectively), much like Vision from Marvel Comics, only she couldn''t do the whole reaching inside a chest and solidifying it thing, because her moves all required dance steps. Or her Hold The Ball stance, which actually made a ball of energy that only wounded a certain amount without killing. After this, her Trigrams ability was basically obsolete, as it was able to be controlled by her instead of being random, and it was much faster. But I wonder, how did she get her powers in the first place?