Jill P.O.V

Jill was not prepared for the transformation to her body that came with the advancement. Thankfully, they had all switched to the blood clothing Mash provided, so she wasn’t left naked. Instead, her clothes changed to fit her and adjusted for the wings. Yeah, she had wings now, or rather she had a single wing. It came from her back and spread out to her right side. Unlike the pristine white of Ythass’s scales, her feathers were dirty and marred. Grey and black patches smudged the otherwise white feathers. She stared at the wing for only a moment, before focusing on her status.

Name: Jill Class: Fallen Astral Valkyrie

Level: 150

Health: 3000 / 3000

Stamina: 3250 / 3250

Mana: 3200 / 3200

Fortitude: 275 → 300

Endurance: 300 → 325

Strength: 225

Agility: 365 → 565

Intelligence: 320

Wisdom: 175 → 275

Charisma: 195 → 395

Free Stats: 20

Skills: Eyes of a God-Killer → Broken Halo, Spatial Manipulation, True Teleport, Threads of Time, Localized Time, True Bond of the God-Killer Needle, Teleportation Marks → Improved Teleportation Marks, Chosen by the Universe, Unbeliever’s Understanding → False Angel’s Manipulation, Unnatural Charm → False Angel’s Seduction, Combat Foresight, Temporal Reaction, Fallen Valkyrie’s Right Wing

Eyes of a God-Killer → Broken Halo (Passive)(Unique): A shattered power manifests for you. Half a halo, you gain access to part of its power. Omniscience is something you grasp at. Pieces of it drip down from the halo and grant you true vision.

Spatial Manipulation (Active): Manipulate reality itself, bend and contort it to your will. Space is the truest form of power, and you can alter it to your will.

True Teleport (Active): Any distance is merely an instant away. Move between the fabric of space. Mana cost varies on distance. Any teleport within your vision has no mana cost.

Threads of Time (Active): When looking at something, you can see that which it intersects within the shared connections of fate. See and understand the relationships that others would miss.

Localized Time (Active): Alter the time of your body, both able to speed it up and slow it down.

True Bond of the God-Killer Needle (Active) (Unique) (Legendary): A legendary weapon, it has developed a semblance of sentience. The legendary needle was said to have been used to fight against the gods themselves. Threading the weaves of fate, it pierces through an opening within a God’s future. Bend even the proclaimed immortality of gods.

Teleportation Marks → Improved Teleportation Marks: Mark those you damage to know their location regardless of the boundaries of space. Similarly, mark allies to teleport to them. Removes the additional cost of teleporting marked allies regardless of distance. Reduces the cost of teleports when teleporting to a mark. No limits on the number of marks you can place.

Chosen by the Universe (Passive): Reality itself is enamored by you. Time and space bend themselves to be more beneficial to you. Your magics come more naturally to you.

Unbeliever’s Understanding → False Angel’s Manipulation: Gain an understanding of the emotions of those around you. As a False Angel, you relish in manipulating the emotions of others. Twist and turn their minds as you desire.

Unnatural Charm → False Angel’s Seduction (Passive): With an Angel’s constitution, you gain beauty that humans could never compare with. An appearance that can truly never be disturbed. Automatically charm those who look upon your visage.

Combat Foresight (Passive): Glimpse a moment ahead of your enemy. Learning of their next moves before they do them.

Temporal Reaction (Passive): Time slows for any attack that would otherwise hit you. Step into the realm of gods and react before they understand what has happened, escape almost every attack

Unbeliever’s Resistance (Passive): A god is a personification of its belief. You refuse to conform to those beliefs and resist the powers of such beings. Lesser beings fail to comprehend your strengths let alone your weaknesses. Resist those who you can understand. Block up to 20% of an enemy’s abilities.

Twisted Brand of The God-Killer (Passive) (Unique): You have warped the bond given to you and stolen some of the God’s power. Having learned the skill from a god, you can use it to siphon a portion of a god’s attributes, gaining 1% of the God’s highest attribute.

Fallen Valkyrie’s Right Wing (Passive)(Unique): The tainted wing of a twisted Angel, it is an existence antithetical to divinity. Grafted to your body and magic, the wing is made from the very fabric of reality. Nothing can truly ever touch the wing.

Jill hadn’t known what to expect from her power. Her eyes drifted again to her new wing. Her single dirty and discolored wing felt the truth. It would never break.

“What’s that on your head?”

Jill turned as Mash’s voice caught her attention. Her eyes fell upon Mash, and it felt like time stopped for a moment. Mash was no longer just a person in her eyes. He had grown in an unnatural way. His body was right in front of her, but she stared past it. It was only a small part of the monster that gazed at her. A million eyes filled the world around her, each reflected Mash’s own eyes. It polluted the air and ground, and even her own body. She could see his eyes as part of her skin. The disgust of that was foreshadowed by what she saw beyond that.

Mash wasn’t humanoid as his body would indicate. She saw it now. A mass of flesh and creatures that covered the world in horror. It filled the sky, blocked the sun and it was growing. It churned and changed the more she looked at it, and she could swear she saw the aspects too. They were grafted into his skin like tumors. The sight went further and further. It was if he had consumed everything. As if she were inside him. The image flashed with reality, and she panicked as Mash reached out to touch her. Fear. That single thing drove her.

______________________________________________________________________________

Red P.O.V

Red watched Jill’s transformation with interest and had walked up beside Mash. Jill didn’t even seem to notice her; she was just staring at her wing. Mash spoke up from her right side.

““What’s that on your head?”

Red was curious about the half circle floating over Jill’s head too. It was dark and seemed to suck in the light. Jill glanced at Mash, and her wing shot out. It was too fast for anyone but Mash to react. Even still, he only managed to raise his hands to block. The wing didn’t seem to care. It struck and the world around him ripped. It actually tore for a moment and Red lost sight of everything near the impact for an instant. At the same moment, Mash was sent hurtling through across the field like a beam of light. Red could barely process what had happened, but she saw the look in Jill’s eyes and stepped between her and Mash. It wasn’t anger on her face, but fear. The kind an animal had when staring down its death. Red didn’t know if she had ever seen that on Jill before.

“Shut your eyes!”

Red shouted the words. Jill saw something that Red couldn’t. It made her freak out. Her mind raced with the possibilities, but she had to calm Jill down first. If Jill teleported away, then no one could catch her. Jill nodded and slammed her eyes shut. Red stared at the sweat sliding down Jill’s forehead. How? Jill had a skill that stopped things from messing with her appearance.

“Explain what you saw. I can’t help you without understanding.”

Jill’s wing turned into a seat for her as she fell back into it. It caught her and hung in space impossibly. Red was amazed at the level of control Jill had already. Jill didn’t answer and the silence stretched for a few seconds. Red really had to try not to yell her next words.

“Jill, I need to understand the situation to help you. Luke, try healing her. I doubt it will work, but you should try.”

Red didn’t actually need to tell Luke that, but she said the words aloud hoping it would calm Jill down. It would also warn her that it wasn’t Mash approaching. Luke shook his head even before touching Jill. He still made the gesture, but Red didn’t expect it to work. There was rustling in the distance, and Mash reappeared at the edge of the clearing. Just how far had he been launched? Red held her palm toward him, and he halted. His domain was convenient for that at least. Red knelt beside Jill and whispered more gently to her.

“Tell. Me. What. You. Saw.”

Red said each word slowly and carefully. Jill still didn’t move. Lisa did though, and she pressed her hands against Jill’s head. The halo blurred around the movement, but Jill visibly relaxed. Red nodded at Lisa. Soothing skills like hers were extremely valuable. Red wondered if Lisa planned on sticking around permanently. She guessed that Lisa would, her obsession with Mash would probably be enough to convince her. Jill’s head rose with Lisa’s touch. Her eyes remained closed, and she spoke carefully.

“It’s Mash. I can see him. What he really is! He is a monster.”

Jill said the words quietly but fervently. Red noticed Lisa frown and matched her but for a different reason. She wanted to know what Jill saw. Although her advancement likely wouldn’t give her the same insight.

“That’s a little mean, right?”

Lisa muttered her remark, but it was clearly audible. Jill shook her head.

“No, I don’t mean it like that. He’s a monster. Not like the ones we fight. You don’t understand. I see everything that he is. All the things.”

Jill talked quickly, and her voice broke a little more near the end.

‘I don’t hate Mash, but I can’t be here. I hope it's just this world where it's like this, but I can’t look at him.”

Jill sounded pathetic. Red warred with concern and annoyance. It was one thing to be scared and another to run away.

“No, it’s one of your skills. Determine which and stop it.”

Jill flinched at Red’s hard tone but nodded. Red had seen fear like that before, and she knew that a worried tone would just make her more afraid. Her father had taught her a handful of tricks, and she knew that harshness could beat fear. Lisa was helping too. Slowly, Jill opened her eyes and took a slow deliberate breath.

“Ok, I think I should be okay.”

“Good now tell me about your class.”

As soon as Jill indicated that she was fine, Red turned her attention to something more urgent. Hopefully, it would help distract Jill a little too. It worked to an extent. Jill readily explained the changes to her class, and Red’s eyebrows rose as she mentioned her unique skills. Jill’s stats were lacking, but her skills made up for it. Lisa had a lower stat total, but her intelligence dwarfed anything Jill had. Even still, Red would be on Jill in any fight. Maybe even against Mash. Her skills were just ridiculous. An invincible wing with her premonition ability was overpowering. Could anyone even hurt her? They would need to seal her skills to even touch her at this point.

Even after everything was said and done, Jill refused to look Mash in the eyes. Her gaze always dropped a little when she turned toward him. Everyone noticed but didn’t mention it. Red didn’t care that much either. It was finally her turn.

“My turn, Mash.”

She glared at him into silence before he could complain. Then he sighed and a few bodies of Priscilla began pouring out of his arms. He grumbled about unfair treatment Then he stomped back over to Ythass to continue his tale. Red noticed that Mash was unhurt. Red was certain that Jill’s strike would’ve killed her or Luke, but Mash didn’t even seem injured. That wasn’t fair. She doused the bodies with blood only to watch as her poison did nothing.

[My bodies are mostly magical creations. Their bodily functions are as perfect as I could make them. Poison and disease will likely not affect them. The process would be slow even if it did.]

Red didn’t respond to Priscilla but instead resorted to a more mundane option. The metal blades that hovered behind her back dove for the bodies and glanced off their scales.

[You lack sufficient power to.]

“Stop. Just have them open their mouths.”

Priscilla went silent, and the snakes on the ground obligingly opened their mouths. Jealousy made her voice venomous, and Priscilla knew better than to comment. Thus began a very silent and pathetic killing as Red struggled to kill them. She didn’t even say anything when she leveled up the first time. After a few hours, Lisa walked over.

“Red, what are you going to do about Jill and Mash? I don’t know if Jill can work with him like that.”

Lisa’s extremely concerned voice made Red snap. She turned toward Lisa and spoke very calmly. Her words were harsh though.

“I don’t know and don’t care. Either way, it is none of your concern. You will follow Mash regardless.”

The words weren’t shouted, and her voice was completely natural. The words burned though, and Lisa flinched.

“Sorry.”

Red watched as Lisa walked away. The single word from Lisa froze Red in place. Now, Red’s frustration and anger turned inward. What was wrong with her? She of all people didn’t have the right to say anything like that. This self-loathing was familiar. Her last advancement had been the same, hadn’t it? It seemed like a curse now. Would she always hate herself when she advanced? The question bounced in her mind and then she felt it. The rush of a level. It was time to advance.