An excited and agitated Zahariel woke me up before the sunrise.

"What is wrong, dude? Why are you barging in like that. Let me put on some clothes, whoa!"

No time for that it seems. The angel dude yanks me from the bed, I barely have time to pull the sheets back to protect my wives' modesty.

"The baby's name giving ceremony is today. We need to get ready."

"You are going ahead of yourself again. Stop and explain to me like I was a dumb troll. What do we need to do that requires preparations to begin this early, and why?"

"Wait, but you are..."

"I'm not dumb."

"The baby, I stole a peek at her. And I figured out one thing. She is not Cursed."

"Well, why would she..." I cut off my train of thought when he gives me a 'really, dude?' face. Oh, he is talking about the Curse of faithlessness that every person in this world is subjected to as a parting gift from the morningstar himself. First of the nine and all that bullshit.

"The Curse only sets in during the name-giving ceremony. While you took Hilde to visit the Hill, I went to houses where babies were born a day before ours, and they were all Cursed already. But the ones that have yet to go through the name-giving ceremony don't. Adding it all up, the Curse can't affect people that have no name yet or it only sets during the ceremony. Go ahead and appraise the baby."

"Okay. Privacy in this world is a myth anyway."I shrug my shoulders and get out of the bedroom. Marcy stirs in the bed and winks at me.

I use remote senses to peek inside the room where Bertramus and Bredda were locked up the whole day. The door only opened to give them food and water, that was when Zahariel peeked at the baby, most probably. And in there I used Appraisal on the baby.

Name: _________ Race: [N/A] Human Job: Villager: 40 ( ☆ ) Prowess: 24 -12 (24 HP) Agility: 24 -12 (12 ST) Magic: 26 - 13 (26 MP) Condition: Baby (-50% stats) Age: 1 day SP: 39 Titles: Grindtastic!, Twink Baby, Magic Infused

I stumble backward but Zahariel supports me. What is going on with this world? Why is a day-old baby at the cap of the job? And with enough status to kick a goblin's ass all around the forest?

"What is wrong? Did you see anything wrong with the baby?"

"Why is the baby already capped for Villager? And she has a ton of titles that are awfully strange."

Twink Baby [C]

Those that reach a job level cap before becoming 1 season old.

+4 all stats.

Magic-Infused (A)

Those that are gestated exposed to a high magic flow and are fed magic-infused food upon birth.

+1 to MP multiplier. Immune to mana poisoning and mana depletion.

"During the incident yesterday, we got a lot of Exp just housesitting. The baby has the same title we got, somehow she also chipped in the Exp."

"The pendant. It must be a side effect of Bredda's pendant. Probably the flow of magic, when she was expecting, was due to the pendant too."

"Anyway, it is not a bad thing, right?"

"It is if this gets known. She won't have a normal life. This headstart over the other children will set her apart."

"Then it is a good thing she has so many caring uncles and aunts."

"And even a guardian angel. Yes, we can work that out somehow. And how are we going to try to stop her from being Cursed during the name-giving ceremony?"

"We need to consecrate the ground, and you keep casting Curse Break on her. Did you maxed it out already?"

"I'll do it now. It is at level 7. I hope I would get a nice technique to help her. 27 SP.

Curse Breaker level 10. {Cursesight} learned. This skill can be used as Appraise (curse).

I got a technique called 'Cursesight'. Let me test it." I'll appraise my bug bait title.

Bug Bait

Duration:

Permanent

Caster:

Beelzebub

Rank:

C

Magic Stat:

1,800

Release Conditions:

Defeat a rank S bug without being bitten.

"How was it?"

"I got all the details of the curse. Including the value of the absurd magic stat of Beelzebub. Eighteen hundred. But now at level 10 I can dispel it. {Curse Breaker}!"

Bug Bait (curse) has been dispelled.

"Can you still appraise the baby?"

"Yes. Wait a moment... Confirmed. She has no curse. Let me see someone on the streets."

I go outside invisible and fly over the town. The first person I see gets appraised.

Name: Jeff Race: [N/A] Human Job: [3] Artisan: 12 Prowess: 23 (69 HP) Agility: 26 (52 ST) Magic: 13 (13 MP) Condition: Age: 18 years SP: 23 Curses: Faithlessness

Faithlessness

Duration:

Permanent

Caster:

Lucifer

Rank:

SSS

Magic Stat:

?????????

Release Conditions:

???????????????????????????

It is my first time seeing a triple S. I'll try just for kicks. I'll cancel the dragon wings and invisibility and tap his shoulder from behind. "Curse Breaker"

Curse Breaker failed to remove Faithlessness. Missing condition: Belief.

I try two more times and get the same message. Jeff becomes super angry at me, but I just wipe out his memories, cast invisibility again, and fly away.

I teleport back to the living room. Zahariel is excited, "How did it go?"

"I found a guy on the streets, and he had 'Faithlessness' in his curses entry. The rank of Faithlessness is SSS and I couldn't see neither the caster's magic or the release conditions. But I got one important piece of data: One of the conditions to dispel it is 'belief'. Hold a minute there, I'll try something else."

I teleport to Mirfield and follow the tracking beacon on Mercy. She is already up and working at the guild. I try Curse Breaker on her straight away.

Faithlessness has been dispelled.

"Hey, Beowulf, fancy 'seeing' you there. Why the invisibility?"

"I am in a hurry. Is Soren around?"

"We got some owlbears yesterday evening, she is dismantling at the warehouse."

"As always. I'll go check on her." I become invisible again and fly to the warehouse. Indeed Soren is dismantling her third owlbear.

Faithlessness has been dispelled.

"Eep! Beowulf, don't startle me! What brings you here?"

"Nothing, I just came to dispel a curse that was placed on you."

"Was I cursed? Who cursed me? Since when?"

"The answers are 'yes', 'a fallen angel', 'seventy-five centuries ago'. But now I have to go. Have you met Petal?"

"Yes, that lovely fairy! And her sister Sepal too!"

"Be sure to thank her. She was the one that rescued you when you fainted on that roof. Bye! {Teleport}!"

My destination is not Colchester. I need to visit Ranna in jail. I wipe her memories of being incarcerated and check her curse entry.

Curses: Enthrallment, Damnation

Damnation

Duration:

Permanent

Caster:

Lucifer

Rank:

SSS

Magic Stat:

?????????

Release Conditions:

???????????????????????????, Redemption

Enthrallment is my own. Damnation had almost the same specs as Faithlessness, but I could see a 'redemption' entry. What would happen if this curse were to be lifted? But I can't use Curse Breaker on her or the enthrallment will be automatically dispelled.

Back to Colchester. The girls are already awake and we begin to prepare the holy ground to prevent the baby from being Cursed. I will use Earthkeeper to infuse the ground beneath the house with holy and light attributes, Helen will use consecration to do the same so our magic stats add up and Zahariel will make a temporary guard contract with the baby using his seraphic magic advanced spell {Guardian}. When the name-giving ceremony begins I will spam Curse Breaker on the baby.

"Everyone should maximize the Faith skill. It boosts holy attribute magic," Suggests Helen. It costs 34 SP for me.

"If this doesn't work, I can now lift the Curse from people whose trust I have earned. I just tried on Mercy and Soren. I can earn the baby's trust and then dispel it. Might even become easier as I level up."

Zahariel didn't like my plan B, "That won't do. I want this baby to be never touched by that wicked power."

"Okay. Now get ready to learn Curse Resistance, Zahariel." One of the effects of the Guardian spell is to share the resistances of the angel with the warded person.

"Bring it on!" I begin to spam {Hex} on Zahariel. Curse Resistance is an B-rank skill, it should be awfully hard to learn. But his angelic resistances includes protection from curses. We are aiming for the double synergy. Once he learns the level 1 he is going to max it using SP.

Half an hour later, he yells, "I got it!"

Curse Magic level 4. {Weaken} learned. Decreases the damage dealt by the target.

Despite the ominous sounding name, this school might have lots of debuffs to use on enemies.

"Then let's get started. It will take an hour to consecrate the ground here. Helen, your hands please." I sit with Helen in front of me on a corner of the living room. We had to move some furniture away. I focus on my senses and she does the same. I can feel the flow of her magic power and we both begin to infuse the ground with our holy and light elements.

"I am going upstairs to give Bertramus and Bredda their breakfast. I will need half an hour to do the Guardian contract with the baby."

"Sacrifice Aura, designate Proxy for Helen." I trigger my ability. 95% of all damage she takes will be mine to bear, including her HP to MP conversion. "Go wild. We will be here to support you." Marcy will stay ready to heal her in any case.

Between Helen and I we have over six hundred Magic points. The hardest part was to draw enough magic power up from the Earth keeping the side effects on the town to a minimum. But if we have to choose between screwing the mana levels of this town and the baby, I'll just wreck the rest of the town I didn't do yesterday. We pour all our MP pool into the consecration.

We finish consecrating the ground and meditate for several minutes. After recovering enough MP, I went to the backyard and placed a demon body on the ground, it whithered and broke into fine ash in a couple minutes. Given that the ones I took in front of Kareena showed no reaction, I think this step was correctly done.

I return inside and the ceremony begins. Bertramus and Bredda come out of their room wearing new clothes that were bleached under the sun for the whole day yesterday. Beneath the clothes I can see a purple glow, her pendant that is still active and in her proud hands the baby. Behind them like a page comes Zahariel. He gives me a thumbs up and winks, a gesture that has a nostalgic feeling.

"My family. Bredda and I proudly present to you the name of our daughter. She shall be called..." I activate remote senses. All of my senses can be projected to a spot, including touch. This way I can use Curse Breaker remotely. I cast heroism on her and spam Curse Breaker. Put your heart in it, Grendel. Bend this fucked reality and banish enough of the darkness that covered this rock for too long. Today there will be one spot of light amidst all of this darkness. "...Sofia!"

Through the link with the hallowed ground I feel a power, a pressure like darkness flooding in from all directions as if we were the Egyptian troops in the red sea. It comes and threatens to drown everything and dye it in black. It is a split second that feels like an eternity in slow motion. The target is Sofia but as it approaches her the direction changes and it all converges on Zahariel. I change my touch viewpoint to him and spam Curse Breaker on him too.

The baby laughs and makes a high pitched squeal. She is two days old and shouldn't be moving, but her physical specs are equal to a teenager's thanks to some power leveling. Her hands reach for somewhere in front of her in a way we are all familiar. She wants to touch some System message that is in front of her. The pressure ends and everything seemingly returns to normal. Zahariel loses most of his HP and the strength on his legs but I use prestidigitation to remotely support him.

Around us everyone is delighted with the new member of our family. Bredda is beaming. Tears of joy from everyone. The women crowd around Bredda, every one of them wanting their turn to hold the baby. Azelinus hugs his son. I want to appraise Sofia but this is not the time. I sidestep along the wall and reach Zahariel.

"How are you? And your status?" I whisper to my winged accomplice.

"Beaten. But still alive. All of my MP were drained out at once, just that. Have you checked her yet?" He whispers back.

"Take this handkerchief because your ears are bleeding. But about her status, I haven't checked yet, and don't jinx it. Take my hand, I'll move you to the couch."

We wait on the sidelines until the humans had their fill of joy with the new life. Sofia cries and Bredda breastfeeds her, the soft and faint purple light of the amethyst pendant, the symbol of the bond between mother and daughter bathing both.

"Ouch! I still can't believe how strong this girl is!" Bredda complains as the baby feeds. I can't help but agree. She is the strongest human baby in the whole world, I can vouch for that. I wonder if the aristocracy also twink their babies.

Time goes by and the talk flows as Hilde retell old stories of Bertramus and Helen's childhood. Bredda approaches me, "Do you want to hold her, uncle?"

"I'm too scared."

She touches the pendant that Sofia is playing with, "I will never be able to thank you for how much this amulet helped me."

"You just did. I'm honored you liked it but I did it out of love for you. Congratulations for the baby. She will be someone very important for everyone around her."

"I want you to know that I heard about your true... nature. I still can't believe it but I decided that I will judge you for what you've shown me. I could only hear the noises yesterday but your first concern was to shelter us, right? Come, bend your elbow and put your forearm up front, hand facing up like this..."

And with a swift move she puts the baby Sofia on my arm. I froze. I could only stare at those beady hazel eyes sparkling and staring back at me. A monster that crushes castles and slaughters armies is not worthy of holding something so precious. I had to use all my mental strength not to tremble, but couldn't help but cast water magic on my face. Its water magic, okay?

Bredda holds my wrist from behind to support me and whispers, "You are a fake. True monsters can't cry or understand beauty. You can pull her in. Hold her tight. It's alright. Let Sofia get to know the sound of your heartbeat, uncle."

"Her name means 'wisdom'. It is a splendid choice, Bredda. I am sure she will grow into a woman that will make all of us proud. We will do all we can to train and educate her."

"The hero's niece. I only worry that such a grand destiny might be a burden to her. How is it with you?"

"It is hectic, running up and down and getting tangled in all sorts of problems. But the sense of accomplishment, the warmth you feel when those problems are solved really pay off."

"I wonder how strong she can become..."

"She is already the strongest baby around. I want to check her status, can I?"

"Yes, why not. It won't hurt her."

"Appraisal!"

It is time to check if our efforts bore fruit or not. With the baby Sofia on my arms, I use appraisal on her.

And her stats are even better than before.

Name: Sofia Race: [N/A] Human Job: Villager: 40 ( ☆ )

Prowess: 28 -14 (42 HP) Agility: 28 -14 (14 ST) Magic: 30 - 15 (30 MP)

Condition: Baby (-50% stats) Age: 2 days SP: 39

Titles: Grindtastic!, Twink Baby, Magic Infused, Unblemished, Guarded by Angels, Seraphic Pact

Curses: N/A

Skills: Curse Resistance: 1, Dark Resistance: 1, Unholy Resistance: 1, Death Resistance: 1, Faith: 1

'Seraphic Pact' is the spell Zahariel used on her to transfer the Curse to him. It would have annihilated him like positive and negative charges canceling each other if we had not weakened the Curse with the hallowed ground. What are the other titles?

Unblemished (SS)

The first ones belonging to the people races, born on this world, and never touched by the Faithlessness Curse.

Awakens the level 1 and doubles the growth rate of the Curse Resistance, Dark Resistance, Unholy Resistance, Death Resistance, and Faith skills.

+4 to all stats.

Guarded by Angels (S)

Those that are loved and protected since birth by several angels.

Increases HP multiplier by +1. Grants a reserve of energy that can be used in moments of dire need. Energy reservoir can be replenished by praying to the angels.

Someone was way too generous on this title's design. I don't mind but I am a little envious. I wonder what does 'several angels' means. There's only Zahariel here, right? Or is that System entity angelic in nature? One of the Nine? And if you think of it, Zahariel doesn't have a 'Last Seraph' title. Where are the other Seraphs? But I was bewildered by a skill I've never heard of. What does 'death resistance' do? We can find it out later.

What really matters is that "We did it! She is free!"

Everyone crowds around me and I explain what happened, an abridged version.

We celebrated the entire day and into the night. Before going to sleep I renewed the sentry ward and we canceled the hallowing, restoring the magic flow to the normal town levels.