Chapter 72: Mission ReportGrace watched the sky long after Azrael had disappeared, her heart still hammering in her chest.

    That hand on her head—it felt so casual, almost friendly. But at the same time, there was almost a hint of "I could snap your neck in a second, you know" in it.

    Still, not at all what she’d expected from the leader of the Veil.

    [What the hell was that about?] she thought, rubbing the spot where Azrael’s hand had been. It still tingled, weirdly enough.

    "Angel?"

    A soft voice pulled her from her thoughts.

    She turned to see Ivy emerging from the tree, which had now returned to its normal state. The bark had lost its creepy purple-blue corruption, and the branches stretched toward the sky like trees were supposed to do. Ivy looked like shit, to be honest. Clearly exhausted. But, she was alive, her green wings drooping as she stumbled forward.

    "You’re okay," Grace breathed, relief washing over her like a cool shower.

    Ivy nodded, looking both grateful and embarrassed.

    "Thanks to you. I... I’m so sorry. I thought I could handle the Root on my own." She stared at her hands, which still had faint traces of corruption that were fading fast. "I was stupid. I didn’t know what I was messing with."

    "None of us did."

    Diana walked up, eyeing Ivy like she might turn into a monster any second. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "You sure you’re not still corrupted? No weird... plant stuff happening inside you?"

    "I-I promise, I’m clean," Ivy said. "The Root let me go completely when..." She glanced at Grace. "When whatever happened between you two happened."

    Mara joined them, looking surprisingly normal for someone who’d been a plant zombie not long ago. Her eyes were clear, her skin back to normal.

    "Mara, how are you feeling?" Grace asked.

    Mara blinked, confused.

    "Fine? Why wouldn’t I be?" She looked around at their concerned faces. "Did something happen to me?"

    Grace exchanged looks with Diana.

    "You don’t remember being... you know, corrupted and loopy?"

    "Corrupted?" Mara’s face scrunched up. "The last thing I remember is helping villagers and then... now I’m here." She shook her head. "Did I miss something important?"

    Diana and Grace glanced at each other.

    "... It’s fine," Diana muttered.

    Willow approached with the other Earth-Tenders.

    "We’ll take Ivy back with us. She needs our help and lots of rest."

    Ivy nodded gratefully.

    "Thank you for understanding."

    "And thank you," Willow said to Grace, grabbing her hand. "What you did here... it was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it."

    "I just did what needed to be done," Grace said, feeling awkward about the praise.

    Willow’s eyes lingered on her face a moment longer.

    "Maybe. But not many could’ve pulled it off." She squeezed Grace’s hand before letting go. "Have a safe trip back to the Dominion."

    As the Earth-Tenders left with Ivy, Grace watched them go with slightly mixed feelings. Part of her was relieved this nightmare was over, but another part felt uneasy as hell. The Root’s warnings about other abandoned pillars, Azrael showing up out of nowhere—it all pointed to a festering, chaotic situation she wasn’t entirely sure she was ready for.

    "Well, that’s that, I guess. Ready to go home?" Diana asked, standing beside her.

    Home. The Angelic Dominion. Where she’d have to explain all this mess.

    Grace nodded, though her stomach twisted into knots.

    "Ready as I’ll ever be."

    "Right. We just need to go grab-"

    A loud moan reached their ears. It sounded like Petriel. Grace blushed, Mara giggled, and Diana sighed.

    "Likely our two Love Sisters’ doing. I’ll go grab them."

    ---

    The journey back to the Angelic Dominion was a blur. Alia and Zephyr chatted non-stop about their village adventures, completely oblivious to all the very serious stuff that went down with the Root and Azrael. Apparently, they’d been showing "techniques" and "methods" to Petriel to "help" increase her "healing".

    When they finally arrived, Grace couldn’t wait to report. Even she, a new, rookie angel, knew that Azrael showing up personally like that was a big deal.

    The council chamber made Grace feel tiny as she stood before Celestia, Seraph, and Venus. Mara soon took her spot among them. Given that she didn’t remember what happened on the mission, probably as a side-effect of that corruption, this was just as much a report for her as it was for the others.

    The leaders of the Angelic Dominion listened as she told them everything—the corruption, the villagers, the Root.

    "And you made a deal with this... ancient entity?" Celestia asked, her rainbow wings shifting slightly.

    Grace nodded.

    "It was the only way to save Ivy and stop the corruption from spreading."

    "Hmm..."

    "There’s something else," Grace said, her voice dropping. She glanced at Diana, who nodded at her. "After I came out of the tree... Azrael showed up."

    The reaction was instant. Venus sat up straight, her golden eyes wide. Seraph jumped halfway out of her seat, reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. Mara blinked, stunned at the fact that she missed this.

    "Azrael?" Seraph’s voice was sharp. "The Veil leader? You sure it was her?"

    "It was her," Diana confirmed with a grim face. "No mistaking that bitch."

    "What did she want?" Venus asked.

    Grace swallowed hard.

    "She said... she, uh... She felt Eternia nearby. She thought Eternia was there."

    "Was she?" Celestia asked.

    "No, no, she just uh... Mistook me for Eternia," Grace replied. She wasn’t sure if Eternia wanted her to casually confirm her presence in Linaria, so she erred on the side of caution and lied.

    This caused another stir. Seraph slammed her fist on the table.

    "That bitch! After all this time, she shows up looking for a fight with Eternia? The fucking nerve!"

    Venus rolled her eyes, calming down a little.

    "It’s fine. If she’d actually found Eternia instead of Grace, Eternia would have kicked her ass."

    "She didn’t hurt you, did she?" Seraph asked Grace.

    "She didn’t attack," Grace responded quickly. "She just... touched my head and left. Said she was wrong."

    Celestia, who’d been quiet during all this, finally spoke.

    "She simply... left? No threats or demands?"

    "Yes," Grace nodded. "She even said sorry for bothering us."

    "Sorry?" Seraph repeated like Grace had just said pigs could fly. "She’s probably planning something."

    "There’s a little bit more," Grace continued, feeling very uncomfortable with everyone staring at her, but pressing on. "The Root warned me about other abandoned pillars—other things like itself that helped make Linaria before being... tossed aside."

    Celestia’s face darkened visibly.

    "And what did this Root tell you about these... pillars?"

    "That they feel abandoned by Eternia. That they’re pissed off." Grace hesitated. "I promised I’d speak up for them here, in the Dominion. Maybe... I don’t know. Find them and give them some form of rest?"

    The silence that followed was heavy. Celestia stood up, her rainbow wings spreading a little.

    "Grace, these pillars can’t be trusted. They’ve corrupted over time, twisted by their anger. They actively create and spread corruption now—they’re where many demons come from."

    "But—"

    Grace wasn’t to disagree, and say that actually the demons she’d seen had been made by Fallen Angels or Primals. But, she wasn’t given the chance.

    "The plant creatures you and Diana fought," Celestia continued, "weren’t they basically demons? Created by the Root’s corruption?"

    That, however, Grace couldn’t deny it. Those creatures—human villagers turned into mindless plant-zombies—were still fresh in her mind.

    "I... guess they were."

    "These pillars might talk about being abandoned and treated unfairly, but look at what they do. They corrupt and destroy." Celestia scoffed. "You can’t reason with them."

    Grace’s promise to the Root suddenly felt stupid for just a moment.

    Had she been played? The Root seemed real about its pain, but what if that was just some form of manipulation?

    "I understand," she said quietly, though doubt nagged at her.

    The debriefing dragged on, but Grace couldn’t focus. She was torn between the Root’s story and Celestia’s warnings. Both seemed true, but they couldn’t both be right. Could they?

    By the time they let her go, exhaustion had settled deep in her bones. The walk back to her room in the unused rookie wing felt like miles. She barely heard Alia and Zephyr talking as they walked with her, their voices just background noise to her tired brain.

    Her bed looked fucking glorious. Grace fell onto it fully clothed, too tired to even change. She should think about everything—Azrael’s weird behavior, the Root’s warnings, Celestia’s concerns—but her eyes were too heavy.

    [I’ll figure this shit out tomorrow,] she thought as sleep took her.

    And then, suddenly, she wasn’t in her bed anymore. She stood in that familiar white void, the same place she’d first met—

    "Hello, my little creation!"

    Eternia appeared before her, looking exactly like Grace but with massive tits and wider hips. Her smile was bright, but her golden eyes looked serious for once.

    "Well well, it seems we need to talk," Eternia said, her playful tone not matching her expression. "About a lot of things, actually."

    Finally, something Grace could easily agree with.