The children were understandably alert when Noth approached from down the hall. They vaguely knew what that room's purpose was. They’d seen what state the girl in the next cell had come back in multiple times. And they’d even seen Noth walking past them with Therrus, the very man who had beaten them senseless. The children had already been wary of the suspicious teen before, but all this other new evidence combined didn’t paint Noth in a particularly trustworthy light.

At least Therrus wasn’t with him this time.

To be fair, the obvious way that the teen had had control over the frightened man was what scared them the most. Hurt though they may have been, they’d all been listening closely to the short altercation just a little ways down the hall. And of course, all three of the children had seen what Noth was capable of in the alley previously. It only made sense for them to be afraid of him.

It would have been a lie to say that they didn’t feel a small sense of relief when Noth chose to stop at the girl’s cell next to them. Of course, they quickly lost their relief and switched to worrying over what he might do to the already broken girl, and all of their eyes were plastered on the two of them with an anxious gaze. However, what they saw next completely baffled them. With just an odd little mumble and the tossing of a weird looking flower, the girl’s dying and taken apart body fixed itself.

It was a miracle that only a [Saint] or [Saintess] could have possibly pulled off.

Was that what he was? Was that why he was so powerful? Could it be that he hadn’t been lying about the angel?

…Had they made some kind of mistake?

***

All it had taken was a little wish, and the cell doors of the children were easily unlocked.

Noth absolutely hated the sight of what the monster had done to the poor girl. He could tell from the various stages of purple and rotting on her limbs that her wounds and removals hadn’t all been inflicted at the same time; The poor thing had probably been suffering through these repeated horrific events for almost a week now. The fact that she hadn’t yet died from the state she’d been left in could only be attributed to a powerful [Healer] or [Doctor] stopping the blood flow, or possibly even due to the girl’s own [Gift] somehow. Who knows if her resilience was truly a blessing or a curse in this situation, however. If her survival had been because of her own [Gift], she surely must have been cursing having it right now.

The boy leaned over and dropped one of the flowers he was carrying onto the little girl’s chest, hoping that its calming effects could somehow help her in any way right now. He was sure she’d need it.

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to suffer like this for any longer. I’ll save you from this, and then I’ll save you again. However many times you need saving, I’ll be there. I may not know your name, but I’ll promise you this.”

He shot a quick glance back at Serris, making sure that he was actually able to pull off what he was planning to do. Her face looked a little concerned at his decision, but she ultimately nodded at him, deeming it acceptable. Noth knew what was making her worried, and honestly, he should have been worried too, but there was no way he could just leave this suffering child here. He would just deal with the repercussions of his actions later.

The wish was quick; All he asked was for the perfect recovery of the poor girl in front of him.

And the results were equally as fast, to be expected.

Her removed bits were completely regrown, almost in the way a lizard might regrow their tail. Even her eye was in pristine condition, and her previously sunken eyelid covered it nicely again once it reformed. Noth scanned her over thoroughly, making sure that not a single piece of her had been forgotten. Her now steady breathing and rosy complexion signalled her full recovery, and when the boy was fully satisfied with the results of his wish it felt like a heavy fist had removed its grip on his heart.

He’d have to just endure the sensation of a million tiny needles stabbing into his arm that he was feeling right now.

Doing his best to mask the pain he was feeling, Noth made his way over to the cell of the other children. The looks of wonder they were throwing his way as he entered their cell almost made the boy chuckle. What fickle kids they were; He’d seen how scared they’d looked when he’d first made his way over, and he knew how badly they must have thought of him. He didn’t hate their change of opinion, however. In fact, Noth had to hold back how pleased he felt now that he’d finally impressed the kids he’d so desperately wanted another chance with all this time. At least he didn’t have to look directly at their admiring faces as he loosened their ropes, although he could still easily feel their stares upon him.

As Noth made sure that the children could escape the ropes if they wanted to, he quickly cautioned them.

“It’ll look suspicious if a guard comes in here and sees that you’re all suddenly free, so do your best to at least look like you’re still being restrained. I can’t heal all your wounds just yet, either. I’m sorry, I hate to put you all through this for even a second longer, but if I want to make sure that evil man will never try to capture you again then I’m going to have to use you all as bait. I promise on my life though, that I’ll save all three of you from this disgusting place, and that I’ll never let you get hurt again. Please just put up with it for a little while longer until that horrible man comes back, and then I’ll take you all out of here.”

Noth hurriedly handed each of the children one of the flowers he was holding, trying to not give any of them a chance to say anything back to him about his plan. He was embarrassed about how unreliable he sounded to his own ears.

“This flower will represent my promise to you all! Until I rescue you, this holy flower from the God-dess will help to calm you and keep you safe! Let it be the reminder that you will be leaving here today.”

And with his hopefully heroic sounding speech made, Noth stiffly marched out of the cell and closed the door behind him, practically rushing into the room at the end of the hall to get away from the children’s eyes.

He couldn’t have possibly stayed in front of them for another moment and still have looked trustworthy.

The pain in his arm was just far too strong.

Noth huffed, struggling as he swept off the bloody implements from the top of the desk, and then climbing up to sit menacingly on top of it. Through bared teeth from the pain, Noth growled out his reply.

“It’s simple. I’ll wait for him to come. There’s no way he won’t.”

The angel floated over to the boy, gingerly picking up his tensed arm, and traced her finger over the jagged edges of the almost shattered looking bracelet.

“I’ll just have to hope that the bracelet can regenerate enough for me to make at least one good wish. Maybe if I’m lucky I can even take Thergurd by surprise and play a little war of attrition with him until I have enough power recovered to finish him off. But really, at this point? There is no plan. I never expected to have gotten myself into this much of a mess.”

It was easy for Noth to think over all the needless uses of his wishes and demands he’d made today. How simply could he have just taken Therrus’s keys to the cells away before he turned him, and them, into a tree? Why had he used too many demands on Therrus before deciding to finish him off? Perhaps if he was a bit more persuasive he wouldn’t have even needed to use most of the demands he’d made against him. But it was easy to overanalyze your choices when you weren’t in the middle of making them. And it was easy to beat yourself up over a choice that you had no way of knowing would spiral out of control. All he could do was accept these mistakes, learn from them, and figure out how big the new mistakes he was about to make would be.

Serris gave Noth’s arm a small kiss, the feeling leaving a tiny tingling sensation on the boy’s skin, and then she placed it down upon his leg and made her way over to the patch of glowing flowers.

When Noth shot her a confused look, the angel laughed and gracefully picked one of the beautiful flowers and brought it over to the boy, slowly twirling it around as she held it in front of him.

As the angel drew even closer she started to run the fluffy feeling petals of light back and forth against the boy’s lips with an almost mischievous look on her face. Noth was a little annoyed with her antics, but he knew her well enough to know there was something more to all of this than just what she was saying. He did his best to inquire further without opening his mouth too much wider so she couldn't suddenly stick the flower inside.

“...What kind of benefits do you mean?”

Noth wasn’t sure that he could trust that she wasn’t omitting something, just like usual, but if she hadn’t told it to him by now, then she probably wasn’t inclined to tell him at all. He looked down his face, seeing the almost blinding light of the holy flower that was pressed against him. It was made of pure, solid, fluffy light. Could that possibly hurt him on the way down? Or perhaps there was some repercussion for consuming something named after the love of the almighty deity that controlled this world? Was it possible that he’d be cursed or something for doing it? Maybe this time the God-dess really would hate him like everyone had always said.

“What’s… the catch?”

The almost cooing laugh that Serris let out at his words, along with the sly face she showed him as she took the shining flower away and held it to her chest, made Noth’s worry instantly go up another tier. Every word that the angel annunciated in her soothing tone had the exact opposite effect as they fell from her lips.

The predatory smile that she flashed before continuing her words made Noth’s skin turn to goosebumps.

Although he hated to admit it, his mind immediately understood what she was saying. If someone grew addicted to the power that the flowers gave and wanted more, then the best way to get more was the corpses of the innocent. There were likely plenty of innocent enough people roaming around on the streets for him to pick from. How many constant deaths would someone be able to cause to keep up with the craving for flower driven power? Noth doubted that he would so easily fall victim to the power trap, however, especially considering that just like his angel had said, he was not someone with a normal [Gift]. How would having a huge amount of wish uses feel any different than having his bracelet fully charged? Besides, he was a monster hunter. Why would he want to engage in the very same activities as the kind of monsters he hunted?

With confidence in his resolve strengthened, Noth stood up and firmly seized the flower from his angel, tightly closing his eyes as he devoured the flower’s petals in one big bite.

The slightly warm petals immediately dissolved on his tongue before he swallowed them.

At first nothing felt different at all.

Noth even considered triumphantly that he’d been right, and that he wasn’t supposed to feel any different.

But that thought was quickly dashed once the tingling set in.

It was almost like a small electric current was running through his body, one that was stimulating all his muscles and even his very soul. Noth felt himself growing gradually stronger and stronger. Eventually he felt almighty, like he could tear down this entire facility if he so much as thought about it. The teen was so preoccupied with his sudden feelings of power that he didn’t notice the changes in his body that were taking place right away, but eventually they began to catch his eye. His hair had grown past the length that he’d been strictly keeping it at; His slightly curly hair that used to just barely tickle the base of his neck was now a few inches past his shoulder and brushing his chest. The orange-rust shade that the ends of his hair had been infected with by his angel was now a shade darker, close to turning into a bloody colour, and those same ends were curled outwards in a menacing spike-like shape.

On top of his obvious hair growth, another phenomenon was taking place: Noth’s eyes were emitting heat.

It almost felt as if his eyes were so hot that they’d start boiling, but at the same time it didn’t hurt somehow. When the concerned boy asked his smiling angel what had happened to them, she just laughed and told him that his eyes were now glowing. The fact that the light they were putting out was strong enough to light up the hand he brought near his face to check easily confirmed what he’d been told.

Noth’s eyes felt hot, yes, but there was also a burning sensation from his back. And yet when he tried his best to reach back and feel what was happening there, Serris quickly came close and filled his vision with an obscenely wide smile.

Her distraction easily worked, as Noth’s brain was too overtaken by the reminder that he was now, in fact, far too strong. And he liked it. Finally, he felt like no one could defeat him. What was the first thing he should do with all this newfound power? Should he rampage through the building and destroy everyone who opposed him? Should he break the building apart brick by bricks so he could lay its sins bare to the world outside? Should he build a throne out of the corpses of his enemies so that everyone would learn not to stand in his way? But a small counter argument in his brain quickly stopped any such impulses. What if the kids he had promised to save were shown something unsightly? Wouldn’t that add another big trauma onto the ones they already must have from this awful experience? He couldn’t show them something so frightening. Yes, it would be better to stick to his original plan and dispose of Thergurd in here, away from their young eyes.

Noth perched himself on the edge of the desk, looking casual and yet dangerous, as if he was primed to strike at any moment even from his leisurely position.

“The plan's still the same as before; I wait here for my unsuspecting prey, and then demolish him.”