Did Your Job
The soldiers, being mostly ordinary mortals with a few psychics thrown in, immediately recognized their inferiority. They stumbled over each other, running back through the destroyed gate behind Fate.
Fate watched them go, killing a few with his TK to encourage them to go faster. When the last fleeing soldier passed through the gate, tripping once or twice in his rush to get away, Fate turned back to the crowd watching him with rapt attention.
"You're welcome," Fate said, walking further into the city and ignoring the stares. He wanted to read up about this "Avatar Trithmund" that Timathol mentioned, and his best bet to do that was in the city's library.
As he skirted around the corpse of a nobleman cut down in the previous battle, he caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of his eye. Looking up from the corpse, he found a contingent of what looked to be rangers marching toward him. They had hoods of forest green that hid most of their faces, with light metal armor of the same color on their chests, arms, and legs.
Underneath the metal, leather armor was visible, covering the joints and gap left by the stronger armor, simultaneously allowing a freer range of movement. All of them carried a bow and quiver on their backs, a dagger at their hip, and the one in the front even had a sword on the opposite hip.
Their movements told Fate that they were used to both stealth and fighting, making hardly a sound with their steps yet keeping their hands close to their daggers, or in the leader's case, sword. They kept scanning the surrounding area with their gazes, taking in every detail at every moment. Only the leader kept his eyes trained on Fate, perhaps out of trust of his companions.
Fate attempted to walk past them, but the leader held his arm out to his side, barring Fate's way. "Hold. I am Edward Stingin, Captain of Avatar Renli's Rangers. Explain to us what happened," the leader said in a commanding tone.
Fate gave "Captain Stingin" a look of contempt. The man flinched; unbeknownst to Fate, his recent increase in power to the peak of the Exemplar Level had also changed his appearance slightly. The whites of his eyes were now a deep black, emphasizing the piercing blue of his pupils all the more and compounding with the blood still covering him to give him the appearance of a demon.
This change was evidence of his newfound knowledge of his Manifestation, strengthening the bond between the two. While he knew nothing about this change just yet, he had no way of knowing that more drastic changes could very well happen in the future.
"I did your job for you while you were too busy sucking up to your Avatar to help her people," Fate said in a bored tone. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go check on something."
Fate pushed the arm out of his way, then quickly pivoted on his heel to catch Captain Stingin's wrist. He looked at the sword that was now a few inches away from his masked face, then to the face of the captain. Unsurprisingly, he found a look of rage on the man's face.
"Disrespect of Lady Renli and her Rangers is punishable by death," the man spat out.
The contempt in Fate's gaze grew. Stingin reached for his dagger with his free hand, and Fate retaliated by snapping the wrist of the man's sword arm, forcing him to drop the sword with a cry of pain. Fate slipped into intangibility, allowing the dagger of one of Stingin's Rangers to pass through him, the momentum carrying it straight into Stingin's throat.
Stingin gurgled, a small tide of blood flowing from his mouth and the cut on his throat. As Fate watched, the cut stitched itself back together, leaving not even a scar. Stingin blinked in confusion, rubbing the spot where the dagger had cut him. He looked in anger at the man who attacked, shouting "Jeremiah, what the fuck are you doing?"
The attacker, evidently called Jeremiah, looked at his bloody dagger in bewilderment. "I don't know, sir. I could have sworn there was something there, something that was disrespectful to the Lady."
"Do you need to get your eyes checked, whelp? There's obviously nothing here. I should have you tried for this! You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Thank those cowards of Avatar Trithmund for running away with their tails tucked between their legs, or else I would've—"
Fate tuned out the nonsense they were spouting, having already turned a corner on his way to the library. After a few dozen minutes of walking, he finally found it. It was a grand building; at four stories high, it was the second tallest building in the city, overshadowed only by the massive church in the center.
The walls appeared made of a type of green granite, with carvings of whom Fate assumed to be Avatar Renli performing various deeds for her followers and against her enemies. The double doors, each as tall as three men and half as wide, were made of dark green stone with white engravings of leaves and other nature things. It was a pretty building, Fate thought, but a bit too extravagant for a library.
He pushed open the double doors, entering to find hundreds of bookshelves twice as tall as he was filling the building. In the center of the library was a large, ornate spiraling staircase of wood, circling in on itself to take up minimal space and vanishing in the ceiling to reach the floors above.
After a bit of searching, Fate finally found a book that might shed some insight on Avatar Trithmund, titled "Our Lords and Ladies: The Embodiments of Pensintana." He had heard the services of the library were free, so he simply plopped in a comfortable chair in the corner of the building and got to reading.
When he was about halfway through the book, he heard the voice of a mature woman say, "Ah, that's an interesting one. A little outdated, though, and full of flowery words that don't exactly paint us in the proper light."
Fate looked up from his book to find a woman in her late thirties standing above him, looking at the book in his hands. She was quite beautiful, with long, forest green hair, eyes of the same color, and ruby-red lips. She was clothed in simple blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt that matched her hair.
The jeans mildly surprised Fate; he thought this planet was stuck in the fashion of the Milky Way 1700s. He also noticed leather boots on her feet and gloves colored pale green covering her hands.
The woman extended her hand to him, and Fate grasped it, shaking her hand. "I'm Avatar Renli, the ruler of this city. Please, come with me. I have something I'd like to talk to you about."