"Wha..Who goes there?! Identify yourself!" The University Guard yelled while running in their direction.

"Idiot! What are you doing?!" Julia screamed before grabbing the angel's unresisting arm and pulling her back through the tunnel. After winding through the irregular pathways for a few minutes, they broke through into the streets of the old city. A few minutes of running saw them once more hiding in the abandoned tea shop that had been serving as their base of operations for the time being.

They'd nearly succeeded in infiltrating the University, but Cariel's little episode had thrown away the hours of prep work they'd sunk into bypa.s.sing the outer wall. The pa.s.sage would most likely be guarded from this point onwards, now that the guards had located it's entrance.

"What's wrong with you?!" The cat beastman yelled, once they were finally able to relax. "Do you have any idea how much effort it took to get that tunnel made? How many people I had to bribe in order to get that Earth Mage to make it? Why in the h.e.l.ls would you give us away like that?!"

The angel looked at her blankly for a moment. "Well, I got a message from my G.o.ddess."

"That's no…" Julia started to yell, and then frowned, finally begrudgingly asking. "How does that work? Did she just talk to you in your head, or something?"

Cariel didn't respond initially, instead wandering over to the window to look out at the walls of the University. "Normally, yes, but this was different. Jumbled somehow. I'm still trying to make sense of it."

"What did she say? I hope it was important enough to interrupt our infiltration attempt."

Without looking, the angel replied. "The part I understand is that I've been failing a lot. I've not only met the Hero once, but twice, and both times I failed to recognize him."

"We pretty much knew that already. Haven't I basically been saying the same thing?"

Cariel shook her head. "This is different. I could feel her anger, her frustration with me. I mentioned that I'm something of a screw-up, right? Well, I've never heard her like this before. I think she's running out of patience with me."

Julia was about to say that the G.o.ddess was right to be angry, but held back her words at the last second. She took another look at the angel, and realized that she'd never seen her this depressed. Despite all of the difficulties they'd faced, Cariel had always maintained an upbeat att.i.tude, never letting the situation get her down. Now, she looked ready to give up.

[Whatever happened between her and her G.o.ddess is definitely bothering her...Ugh, whatever. I can be mad at her later, I guess.]

"I'm sure she's just upset that it's taking so long. In your defense, you've been busy with other things. Securing transit to this city, surviving a s.h.i.+pwreck, getting rescued by raiders and then joining them, and finally fighting to protect Almir from undead hordes. Honestly, I'm impressed you even had the time to look for the Hero, let along guide him."

Finally, Cariel looked back at her, a confused mix of emotions threatening to burst free at any moment. Tears were beginning to bead up at the corner of her eyes. "Really? Then you don't think I've failed?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that, precisely. More like you've been...delayed. Yeah, that's it. You've been delayed by unforeseen circ.u.mstances beyond your control. Completely reasonable. Why, anyone else in your position would have likely floundered in the face of those challenges. You not only persevered, but succeeded, and now you are standing on the threshold of completing your mission. The only thing we have left to do is get past a little wall, nothing to worry about. Quite frankly, it's downright admirable that you've gotten this far."

"Then...then, you think I can still complete my mission?"

The cat beastman gave her companion a confident grin. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you can report back to your G.o.ddess with news of success."

With tears pouring down her face, Cariel suddenly gripped her in a bone crus.h.i.+ng embrace. "Thank you so much! I was really worried there for a second, but I'm so glad I have such a great friend watching my back."

"Urk...can't...breathe."

Finally letting Julia go, the angel wiped her eyes with the back of one hand, a broad grin on her face. "Alright! I'm all fired up now. Let's get to work on the next infiltration plan. I have a good feeling about that whole posing as fishermen and landing on the sh.o.r.e near the lighthouse. I bet we could really sell it, after all of our time with boats."

*Cough, cough* "We would need a boat for that...well, nevermind. I'm glad you're feeling better. I'll try to come up with something that will work. Worst case scenario, I suppose we can just try to leave a message for that guy...Speaking of which, was there anything else to your G.o.ddess's mind thing? Any kind of clue that might help?"

"Hmm, not that I can remember...wait, I think there might have been something else, something about going different ways?"

"What, like we shouldn't try the usual routes or something?" Julia asked.

"Hmm...that sounds about right. I think she was trying to warn me about something."

"Well, can you message her back and ask her to clarify? This could be important."

Cariel frowned for a few seconds and then shook her head. "I think she's busy. That or one of the other angels is screening my prayers."

"...Is that a thing?"

"Of course. You don't think a G.o.d has time to listen to everyone's problems, do you? Unless you are particularly important, your prayers mostly just go to one of the angel clerks. From there, they usually get sent to the one of two places...what were they called again?"

"Some sort of processing location, maybe?"

"No...Ah! I remember. Disposal is the big one. Almost every prayer ends up there. Only a few get sent on to...what was it...uh...stoppage? No...Oh! Storage. Then, in a few years or so, one of the more senior angels might get around to looking at them."

Julia looked at her companion, aghast. "It can't really be that bad. I mean, isn't there some kind of category for particularly sincere prayers or something?"

"Not that I know of...but I could have forgotten about it. They were always coming up with new rules in heaven, so it was hard to keep track of them all..." The angel replied in a carefree tone. "Anyway, what were we doing?"

"Figuring out how we should go about finis.h.i.+ng your mission."

"Hmm, what mission?"

Julia sighed deeply, allowing every ounce of the sheer frustration she'd been feeling over the last few days to drain out of her, before finally grabbing Cariel's shoulder. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are supposed to meet the Hero, and become his guide in the mortal world so that he might save the world when he is needed most. This is a mission given you to by Aminatrea, who is the G.o.ddess of the Sun in case you've forgotten."

"...Right…" The angel responded with a blank look.

"All we need to do is to talk to him a bit, explain your intentions, and then convince him to take you along with him. With the possible exception of that last bit, this shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. Do you think you can remember that?"

She took a moment to return Cariel's blank stare, before sighing again. "Well, just stick with me and I'll do the talking."

"Awesome! Thanks, Julia."

She managed to fend off another rib-crus.h.i.+ng hug. "Now we need to focus on how we're going to meet him in the first place. Considering that last bit of your divine message, I'm guessing we need to think outside of the box. Do something really out of the ordinary."

"Hmm..." Cariel frowned in thought. "Can I just blow a hole in the wall?"

"...Let's save that for a last resort."

"Then I don't know. Even if we ask, I doubt they'd be willing to let us in."

Julia tapped her lip as a sudden thought came to her. "That's not exactly the case, now that I think about it."

"Huh?"

"Ugh..don't let it bother you. Just don't wander away from me, and I'll take care of everything."

---------------------------------------------------

Far away in a divine realm, the sun G.o.ddess sneezed again. This time there was no flour involved, and in fact nothing that should have caused it. However, because she was still busy with her baking exploits, she ignored it.

Which was something she would come to regret in the following days.

---------------------------------------------------

Mike watched the council of religious leaders gather in the Pontifex's office, waiting until there was a small crowd fighting for s.p.a.ce in the chamber before sneaking in himself. He made sure to keep his stealth skill active and remained on the outskirts of the group, but otherwise trusted his disguise to keep him from being noticed.

Thankfully, the clergy members were a little distracted by the worrying nature of their gathering. Judging based on the whispers he could overhear, they were clueless to the reason for it, but were concerned that something serious had happened.

He began scanning the members of the crowd with Appraise, and quickly determined that these were mostly high level functionaries of the church. They almost universally had the Priest or Priestess cla.s.s, with some even having the high variations. However, there was one other person who shared the Pontifex's Hierophant cla.s.s, and her status was interesting.

-----------------------

Grace

Age: 92

Race: Human

Cla.s.s: Hierophant

t.i.tle: Living Saint

-----------------------

[I feel like that t.i.tle is implying that other types of Saints are usually dead. Does that mean my t.i.tle is an unusual one?]

By all appearances, she was an una.s.suming, wizened, old woman who was still in fairly good health despite her advanced age. Thanks to a slightly crooked back, she was forced to rest the majority of her weight on a simple cane. Nevertheless, she carried herself with a confidence that could only have come from a lifetime of power and influence.

The other members of the group seemed to be paying her a rather extreme amount of deference. In fact, they almost appeared afraid of the woman.

[Maybe she's some kind of specialist leader or advisor. I'm guessing that anyone referred to as a Saint is probably fairly influential...well, at least in cases besides mine.]

Finally, after more than thirty people of varying races, but almost uniformly in the later stages of life, enter the room, Alaine told her receptionist to close the door and keep all other visitors out until they were done.

"It has come to my attention that the Anathema have once more taken root in the heart of our organization." The Pontifex announced.

An astonished silence filled the room. Eventually, one man, looking to be close to his seventies spoke up. "How could such a thing have come to pa.s.s? They were supposed to have been destroyed during the Purge."

"I do not know, Xavier. Truth be told, I only found out a few minutes ago that they even still existed. However, I have received information that suggests at least one of the senior priests has not only become an inquisitor, but achieved the t.i.tle as well."

A sun elven woman with a tattoo of a sunburst on the center of her forehead spoke up, "That's quite troubling. Out of curiosity, Your Holiness, how did you find out about this?"

The Pontifex gave the woman a hard stare before answering, "A representative of the Hero of Almir paid me a visit just a little while ago. Apparently, the Anathema have decided to label the Dragonknight as an Apostate, and sent a kill team to deliver judgement."

"Good G.o.ddess! Are they insane?!" The old man named Xavier exclaimed while clutching his chest. His face had paled so much that Mike was mildly concerned that he was having a heart attack. Of course, being in a room with this many Divine Mages, he was likely not in any danger of dying.

"Why they thought it was a good idea to a.s.sault a Tier 4 mage with their numbers and skills, I do not know. This does, however, create two problems for us." The Pontifex continued.

The older Hierophant, who'd said nothing up to this point, chose this moment to finally speak up, silencing everyone else with the firmness of her voice. "What have they demanded as recompense?"

Alaine replied respectfully, as if to someone of a higher rank. "Astute observation as always, Master. The Dragonknight's representative asked only for a token monetary gesture to cover both the trouble of the attack itself, and the effort of returning the members of the kill team to us. Considering the prize he's been awarded by the kingdom already, I had intended picking a few items from the treasury for that purpose."

[Token monetary gesture. I guess I really should have asked for more…]

"Then he is not yet an enemy of the church. Good." The old woman stared off into the distance for a few seconds before continuing. "I suspect that means you are focusing on the inquisitors at this juncture. What progress have you made in identifying the senior members responsible for sending the kill team?"

"That leads me to the second problem. Once the Dragonknight delivers the prisoners-" The Pontifex started.

"There's no time for interrogation. Besides, I doubt anything short of complete Soul-Shriving will succeed in freeing any information from someone with the Divine Scourge t.i.tle, and we definitely can't sit around until the summer solstice. No, this requires more extreme measures."

"I have already taken the liberty of securing the two members of the high clergy that were most likely to be involved in a resurgence of the Anathema. If we dig into their past actions, I suspect..."

Grace clicked her tongue, causing the younger woman to trail off. "Not an unexpected leap in logic, but I'm afraid it won't do you much good. When I was dealing with them during my time as Pontifex, they proved quite adept at creating scapegoats among their colleagues. Oftentimes, the most obvious suspects were the ones with the least connection to the enemy."

"Then who is responsible for this?" Xavier asked, having listened to the exchange with increasing hopelessness.

The old Hierophant smiled. "Based on my experience, the culprits have more than likely infiltrated the highest level of our order."

The current Pontifex grimaced, "Then you are saying…"

Before she could finish, Grace slammed the tip of her cane in the ground, creating a shockwave of force that swept over the room. The energy pa.s.sed harmlessly through the group before concentrating on the doors and windows, creating s.h.i.+mmering barriers of light.

"I have sealed the exits." She announced, a hint of fatigue in her voice. "Now, let us find the traitors among us."

[Hmm...this might be problematic.]

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