The perks of being Seraph’s direct agent involved having a comfortable temporary apartment to reside in. It had all the basic necessities: constant power, plumbing and running water, and even food could be delivered to their doorstep. Most of all, it was luxurious. Something an entrepreneur would dream of having.

But it wasn’t what Leona would consider ‘home’. Everything was unfamiliar. Everything was too big. It’d take ten seconds to jog across the living room and they didn’t need the second floor for anything. She’d always hated these large and extravagant homes in spite of being born into wealth. What would she do with all the extra space? Cozy homes were superior. Like the Shens’ place, now confirmed it’d been destroyed during the Disaster. She’d grown intimately fond of pestering that frustrating man to cook her favorite dinners and he’d moan and whine and do it anyway. She liked playing that game with him all the while Althea sat in the living room silently listening as a small smile blessed her.

Being in this gaudy apartment was a constant reminder that her old life had been destroyed. Again. Now, she was the Celestial War Empress, known internationally as a member of the Dawn Baptists. The single group tasked with and had successfully completed their mission of banishing the Kreutz Sungrazers from this beautiful world.

Insane, all of it was insane.

Dropping her bag on the ground, Leona collapsed on the soft couch that could fit comfortably fit ten people. Too tired to go to the kitchen to fix herself something to eat, too tired to change clothes or take her shoes off, but too worked up to sleep. Having nothing better to do, she fetched the remote sitting in a small container at the center of the coffee table and turned on the TV.

It was switched to a news station.

Anchors were explaining the ongoing discussions within the Global Guards, sharing details they were made aware of and attempting to deduce their intentions. This time they had an expert who’d worked within the institution but nothing groundbreaking was concluded. It was the same thing they'd said yesterday and the day before and the day before that: the public didn’t know what the hell the Global Guards were going to do, and it was anyone’s guess.

Leona was privy to the details, disclosed by Rector through simple expositions during their twice-daily meetings. Angels Guild had established close connections with some of the officials present during the talked-about meetings.

Currently, the Global Guards were attempting to accomplish mainly two things: one, order an international crisis. Yet some officials were pushing to use language beyond a mere ‘international crisis’ like the Great Crisis more than a decade ago. They were basically advocating to refer to this as a ‘multiversal war’. Stronger language and thus stronger actions. After all, the Great Crisis was an anomalous increase of portals to an apocalyptic degree. The Ordo Disaster was an intentional attack—like Pearl Harbor to the United States during World War Two.

Which led into the second point: the creation of multiple agencies and commissions and boards, whatever the official language was. They had outlined multiple goals: invent technology to travel the multiverse, increase recruitment in both systemic and non-systemic fields, anticipate and produce necessary supplies for the war effort, coordination between nations and create advisory boards, production of portal redirection sites, analyze funds and budgets, and that was the limit of Leona’s memory. Understandably discussions were taking a long time. Different nations had different needs. Different nations had different levels of development varying from region-to-region. Many had to be supported by the Otherguards while some didn’t need them at all.

That was the practical reason for the delay. Politically, several nations were concerned about the consequences of following along. Would their sovereignty be relinquished further than it already had? Others hated to be bossed around in general. A few had spoken up about individual rights: the Guards had been discussing methods to increase the number of Slayers since its founding. Across the world, there was an entire population of civilians with a high Growth Potential opting out of becoming a Slayer (like Leona herself before the Disaster). These dissenters were postulating that the Guards may implement a draft of some kind. Or more specifically, force citizens with a high Growth Potential to emerge.

(Rector had humorously stated these dissenters didn’t actually care about individual rights. Everybody wanted more Slayers but for themselves—nobody wanted to give ground to the Guards.)

This spiel didn’t account for corporations (like the Alliance) and guilds and individual Slayers—Leona already had a headache thinking about seeing the conflict through the eyes of a nation, and she hadn’t begun on these entities. The Guards had plans for everyone and everyone had plans for themselves.

What was immediately relevant took place here, in Ordo. The eight-fourteens had already caught wind of Operation Darkspace and were in the midst of investigating, then they had officials attempting to seize any materials relating to the Sungrazers including the universe splitter—and finally, they were interested in what had happened with Sage and the hero of the incident, but they had gone missing.

Neither side was budging at the moment. The Guards’ patience was tested but not breaking; they couldn't take any hostile action against Angels Guild. Not yet. Seraph and Rector, Kosmos even, were present still. Attempting to harm them would reflect horrifically poor and threaten the already-precarious world balance.

That was a good thing, but that balance was going to tip any day now.

So what madness will I wake up to tomorrow? Leona thought as she heard beeping from the front door. She picked her head up and saw a flutter of black hair step into the apartment: Althea, coming in with a large backpack strapped over her shoulders. She walked haggardly, dragging her feet.

From her [Spirit Housing Necklace], Shandian popped out: purplish-blue and electrifying. His shell was dim tonight. He must’ve spent a considerable amount of energy today.

“Long day?” Leona asked the Lightning Spirit sweetly.

“Rava, ra-ra…” Shandian barely acknowledged her before weakly hovering to his little doghouse underneath the TV: a spirit recovery capsule, a special device made for spirits like him to recharge his mana—his version of a bed so he could go to his version of sleep.

He hopped into bed and shut the canopy, closing his golden eyes and allowing a blue mist to wash over him. A soft “Brr…” echoed throughout the living room.

“I wish I could sleep like that…” Althea joked tiredly, giving Leona a small wave before ducking into the kitchen.

“Don’t we all?” Leona smiled as she came out with a cold can of lemon-lime soda. “How did your day treat you?”

“Shitty as usual.” She sat down next to Leona after taking everything off, her heavy backpack and her cumbersome shoes. “Lots of reconstruction work, lots of distribution, lots of drama. Finally talked to Hei at the end of the day, who pushed me and the B-Ranks home. She’s prolly gonna work through the night.”

She’s busy no doubt. “And our college graduates?”

“They’re still living together over in, uh…” Althea struggled to remember the location for a moment, “…East Cove. Yeah, East Cove. They sound like they’re doin’ fine but I haven’t talked to them much lately.”

“I’ll call them later.” Leona thought back to the other members of the Baptists: Damien was with his father and brother, Votary was with High Dominion, Initiate was doing the same job as Leona’s, Problem was monitoring the cosmic materials, Firebrand was with Chie, and Vernon was…

Althea seemingly knew who she was thinking about at that moment. “That asshole is still M.I.A.; nobody knows where he is. I’ve asked Levin, she doesn’t know. Mark’s off on an expedition killing shit so I definitely can’t ask him. So Vernon went poof. Gone.”

Knowing his mother and sister-in-law died, I’d withdraw myself the same. “Do you really blame him?” she asked, the thought of mentioning their own parents was dangling at the tip of her tongue but she didn’t voice it.

They both were intimately familiar with losing family. That didn’t need to be said.

Althea heard the hidden words behind Leona’s question and darkened. “I don’t blame him. I—! Ugh, I’m just worried, that’s all! It’s been almost a week since we last saw him and that’s when we killed those fuckers. Aren’t you worried ‘bout him? Did you find out anything?”

Leona bit her lip. She didn’t have time to investigate Vernon’s case like she promised. “Sorry, but no. I was so caught up with the drama involving Site 3 that it slipped by me. I’ll try asking some of the high-ranking Royals but if Levin doesn’t know, then…” She paused, contemplative, “...well, I guess the only one who would know is either his father or Monarch herself. But Monarch is busy.”

“I dunno where his dad is either,” Althea stated. She was about to continue her train of thought until she strangely leered at Leona, narrowing her silver eyes and seeing something she didn’t. “You look like shit, Leo. You’ve been takin’ your medication, right? You eaten anything today?”

Leona eyed her bag. She took the medicine Shinzo had prescribed to her. Since she was no longer a Pseudo, the human body was readjusting to the return of normalcy in the most uncomfortable way possible. The pills helped to make the process less tortuous. Admittedly, however, she hadn’t eaten anything. Nothing close to a full meal. A couple bags of chips.

Her silence gave Althea all the information she needed. “Seriously, you haven’t been following Shinzo’s directions—?”

“I’ve been busy, I didn’t have the time—”

“You’re the Empress, you can make time!” Althea scowled and withdrew her phone. “Let’s order something. It doesn’t hafta be anything fancy, maybe a big-ass burger. Everyone likes burgers—”

“You don’t have to go that far.”

“I’m just ordering food for us. Y’think I’m crazy enough to let you starve—?”

“I’m not saying that at all. You don’t need to go out of your way—”

“Outta my way?” Althea shook her phone in offense. “I’m literally fucking ordering food on my phone. It’s literally just a few taps, it’ll go on our company credit card, that’s it. It’s not hard work.”

Leona’s knuckles turned white from clenching her pants, her veins visible through her pale and unhealthy skin. “That’s not what I mean. You’ve been acting like this—”

“Acting like what?” Pissed, Althea slapped the back of her phone against her thigh. “What have I been doing wrong? Huh?”

Leona did not answer.

Like before, her silence had only given Althea the justification she needed to rightfully be angry. Angry that their second conversation for the day had turned into an argument, angry that the adult in the room was acting far from one. What a loving guardian, a whole basket of issues.

“Tell me what the hell is going on with you,” Althea demanded. “This is why I got pissed earlier. You haven’t eaten, you look like paper, and right now you can’t even look at me in the fuckin’ eye and talk. I have enough on my plate already with OU and Angels, so what’s the deal?”

That was a good question. There was Site 3, there was that unfortunate encounter with Lee Seung-hyun and the Alliance, there was this whole freaking mess and all Leona wanted was a smile on Althea’s face—and now she had become the very reason for her troubles.

Yeah, what a loving guardian she was.

“It’s nothing,” Leona answered factly and disappointment twisted Althea’s face. “I’m sorry for looking like this. I’ll take care of myself better.”

“Is that it?” asked Althea without a hint of anger in her voice.

Leona nodded. “That’s it.”

“‘Kay. I’mma go do some research in my room. Text if you need me.” She picked up her backpack and soda, marched down the left hallway and disappeared. Her footsteps were the only sign of her before the final slam of her bedroom door followed, the sound echoing in this empty, empty apartment.

This was the first time they had the night to themselves and this was how they were spending it. Separately. Alone. No more of their usual banter or their jokes, or killing time by watching dramas. Just painful solitude.

Her life as a college senior had been so simple once upon a time. Studying, working, flirting with that handsome cook—now look at her, sitting here absent of company listening to Shandian sleep in his little bed. She operated as a dependable agent for two of the greatest Slayers in the world and was going insane in the process. She was the magnificent and beautiful Celestial War Empress. She would be the hottest new thing once the world truly knew of what’d happened in the Disaster. She was strong and smart and reliable, so dependable and capable—the world was her oyster and she could do anything.

That was what he had believed, when he tried to push her away because of his own self-loathing.

Leona had believed that too. Before she couldn’t keep her beloved Althea in the same room as her.

What was wrong with her? What was wrong with the world?

As the news anchors on TV continued speaking about the Disaster which mixed in with Shandian’s gentle humming during his slumber, her gray gaze turned to the ceiling fan and admired particularly nothing about it, staring like that for a long time.

At some point her phone buzzed.

Althea:

i ordered food its coming soon

please eat

~~~

“You really don’t mind doing this?” Nathan asked Aiden over video-call.

The screen was angled where Nathan had clear view of both his protégé and his daughter who was sleeping soundly under her blanket. As soundly as anyone could hope for. Aiden stood outside the cracked door speaking in a whisper to not rouse her awake.

Aiden rubbed his neck and licked his cut lips. His fiery eyes he was known for were dim, possessing a few embers from keeping them all but extinguished. “Nah, it’s my job. I’m off the call anyway unless a big emergency ruins my night. If that happens, I’ll text ya or Rector.”

Nathan felt terrible for putting Aiden on babysitting duty but they both acknowledged his fatal flaw: he wasn't skilled in anything administration. So mainly, his duties were going on expeditions and killing any remaining monsters in cordoned zones. Off-the-clock, he split his time between Chie and Ariella.

“Please do," said Nathan, "I want you to eat and get some proper rest, okay?”

“I know, I get told that all the freakin’ time now. Don’t be an annoying worrywort, Kosmos.” Of all men, I least expected Aiden to insist on using my codename instead of my real name. “I’ll try being there when Ari wakes up in the morning, but no promises.”

“Yeah, don’t I know a thing or two about promises…” muttered Nathan, shutting up at the end as his eyes swept towards his sleeping daughter. Yup, wasn't that the truth? He could write papers about promises, making 'em and breaking 'em. “Thank you for saying that anyway. It means a lot to us.”

“Yup.” A dense quiet filled the next few seconds. Aiden turned his head and roughly rubbed his lips. He broke the silence, “Chie’s lookin’ better.”

“Has she? I don’t have the time to visit her but Shinzo keeps me updated lots.”

“Yeah, she got color on her skin so that’s a good thing.” After nearly tearing off his lips, he rubbed his nose next. He might be looking at the camera but his eyes and head were distant. Taken elsewhere. “We still dunno when she’s gonna wake up. Same for Alex. The Hospital might be looking after 'em but we're running blind here.”

"I know." Alexander and Chie were both kept at the Hospital—it wasn't actually a hospital but a secret location where they could receive the best medical care and security. Because they both could potentially be classified as Anomalies and thus receive a Color Order designation, their safety took priority. Unfortunately that meant restricted visits knowing the Guards were tracking Angels twenty-four-seven.

Regardless of where they were treated, their absence hurt their friends and family.

Like Aiden, who couldn't stop thinking about the genius Sage.

"She'll be fine," Nathan reassured him. "She has Shinzo watching over her and I'm pretty sure she's some version of an onmyōji. There isn't anyone better than her." Especially if Shinzo is connected to you-know-who...

“Yeah yeah, I know. I know…” Aiden joylessly laughed, “...I can’t stay the night in Chie’s room anyway. Shinzo kicked me out ‘cuz she needs to conduct some tests or whatever. I woulda complained but it worked out in the end.”

Nathan chuckled with him, trying to lighten the heavy air. “I’ll let Chie know how worried you were. It’ll give her a ton of ammunition for her jokes.”

“I’d bet.” Aiden yawned. “I think that’s the sign. I’ll catch ya later, whenever that’ll be.”

“Good night, Aiden.”

“Night.”

The call ended and Nathan dropped the System. Everything was quiet, now. Eerily quiet; all day he’d been flying across the city handling chore after chore as the world's strongest. Now that night had fallen and the monster concentration was at an all-time low, there was no need for constant warfare. Just the soft action of workers trickling through the city streets as Ordo’s lifeblood, keeping the urban dream alive.

Before Nathan could turn around, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around his collar then a head resting on his right shoulder. From his peripheral, he spotted a dirty set of silver-white hair. His [Compound Myth Armor] made embraces like these uncomfortable but she didn't care and neither did him. God, did he need this right now...

"Feeling okay, Angel?" he asked softly, laying a hand over his wife's.

Sera nodded, angling her head to find the crook of his neck. “I'm tired and overwhelmed. How’s Aiden? Is he staying the night with Ari?”

“If nothing bothers him during the night. Knowing our luck, he’ll only have a couple hours of rest before someone calls him.” Nathan broke free from his wife’s arms and led her to a couple chairs where they could talk and catch up. They’d been separated all day; this was the only time they could physically be present.

Sera was the first to sit down, dispelling her [Wings of Seraphim]. “Ordo’s winding down for the night, giving us a semblance of normalcy as it was before the Disaster. Problem isn’t reporting any, well, problems with the Guards tonight and our merchandise is at the moment safe. And the eight-fourteens are surprisingly quiet. Our contacts say they aren’t moving and assume they’re using tonight to rest. But there’s one issue.”

Nathan crossed his legs. “Which is?”

“Phenoms,” Sera answered. “The Da’at is officially sending Phenoms from Binah and one or two Keters. Most worryingly, the Binah Sephirah is coming. They’re expected to arrive two days from now.”

Which could only mean one thing… “I guess the Guards and the Society have finally agreed to a collaborative deal. Have you told Problem?”

“Problem was the one who told me. He still has connections inside the Society thanks to Master Alzahrani.” One of the Constellations of the Almagest; in this context, a former Keter. “He deduced it’s the reason why his ‘gnats’ are inactive. They're preparing for the Society so he's preparing his sanity. Especially if Sephirah Hamidi is taking the lead.”

“I’ll discuss plans with Problem since the Society is more in his wheelhouse. On the topic of the Department of Cosmology, how’s your investigation on Martials Guild? Have you found their cosmic merch?”

Alma, the former Journey of Scholars, had personally informed them of the deception behind Operation Wolf Prowl which resulted in the Martials acquiring Fragment Carn’s body. The events were engineered by Jin Tiehan and Catalyst, who’d known his location from the beginning but neglected to disclose the information.

Angels did not have proof, and it wasn’t like they were planning on formally accusing Martials either.

As Nathan hated to admit it, they were more useful as a potential ally than an enemy to be scorned.

Sera shook her head. “No. Jin Tiehan is more of an effective leader than I imagined. He immediately made revisions to guild protocol and changed permissions everywhere for everyone. My people don't have access to the same information they had previously under his father. Even then, I don't think they'll know the location of the missing spoils anyway. But we can't afford souring our relationship with the new Guild Master. After Problem informed me about the Society, I relayed the message to Jin Tiehan. While we have our gross differences, I want to be on good standing with Martials. It’s a poor decision to let him misuse the materials, but it’ll be even poorer to allow the Guards and Phenoms to seize them.”

The unfortunately correct decision to make. Martials Guild had a hidden history of losing rare materials due to international regulations. Righteous Jin Tiehan had little love for his global rulers and the Angels shared his sentiment. It’d be better to keep their enemies close, here in the same city, instead of an ocean away.

“Alright…” Nathan recounted something Leona had told him earlier. “The Empress said she had an encounter with one of the Alliance members.”

“Alliance?”

“Korea.”

“Oh right.”

Nathan hummed. “Lee Seung-hyun to be specific, of NC Trading. I don't think the Alliance is planning on making any moves, but we need to keep our heads on our shoulders knowing there's a dozen more organizations who're sniffing us out."

“We aren’t doing anything with the Alliance to be clear?”

“Oh, goodness no. Business-wise? Absolutely not. As a threat? Not yet. I’ll try to speak with Hunter and see what him and Kim Yena are going to do—”

A blue screen appeared before them but its contents were restricted for viewing. Briefly Nathan was severely confused until he realized the notification was probably for the Guild Master sitting next to him. Sera leaned forward in her seat and closely read the alert.

“It’s Kashan,” she told him before answering the call. “VGM, Nathan’s here with me—”

“They took them!” Kashan yelled through the call, sounding like he’d ran a marathon before this. Before either of them could even think about responding, the Vice Guild Master yelled at a few people and shouted orders.

Through the frantic noise, Sera’s voice pierced through: “Kashan, update us on the situation. We don’t understand what’s going on. Who took who—?”

“The eight-fourteens!” he exclaimed. “They’ve found out where the Alumnus and the two Alba girls were staying and brought them into custody! Scrutiny informed me when the Alumnus had suddenly changed locations in an eyeblink.”

Nathan and Sera looked at each other, the revelation slowly working through them like poison.

Kashan continued, “I’m having her inform the rest of the Baptists and tell Shinzo and Problem to raise their defenses just in case the Guards plan on killing two birds with one stone.”

“What about Damien and Duskfire or High Dominion?” Nathan asked. “Have you talked with Monarch?”

“Neither. I haven’t heard a thing from all three but I’m going to contact them myself. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how the eight-fourteens are holding our Baptists.”

Sera suggested, “Use the Alumnus’ location-tracker.” The System had a location-tracking feature in the [Map]; it was impossible for anyone but the Slayer themselves to switch it on and off.

“I know that. Scrutiny was the one who caught the incident in the first place. That’s why I said how, not where. The eight-fourteens are keeping them in Eden Center. It looks like they took over an abandoned artisan-house to carry out this operation there, government-owned I’m guessing.”

Sera stood up, activating her [Wings of Seraphim] to grow six gorgeous white wings. “Send us the location—”

“No, let’s be smart about this,” Kashan said to them. “It’s a poor idea to send all of our sluggers to a single place, not when we have multiple interests on the field. Here’s how we should split up…”