The evening before

„You three will go on a mission tomorrow." Uriel dropped the bomb.

Currently Ezekiel, Jeanne and Dulio were sitting in front of Uriel, drinking tea in the living room. Dulio put a ton of sugar into his though. It would be the first mission for Ezekiel and Jeanne. That is the reason Dulio would lead the team.

It has been another two years and Ezekiel and Jeanne turned 12 only some weeks ago. Dulio was already closing in on 16 and did a lot of missions in the last two years. Vasco mentioned he became a lot more hardworking since their first spar. Since then he improved by leaps and bounds and managed a win in his second match with Ezekiel.

Ezekiel however learned even faster and overtook him in no time again. Purely based on combat potential no one close to him was his match. He did not create many new techniques, but he perfected his existing ones while engraving the basics into his very being and going further and further in training his physical body. Due to that he could use his prediction ability far longer, but he was still far away from perfecting it and being able to use it passively.

Jeanne managed to fuse her swordplay and sacred gear to create devastating effects. Attacks like from two years ago when she mowed down a big part of a forest no longer put a big strain on her.

"Dulio will lead the team this time since he has done this often already and fighting isn't the only thing involved when dealing with assignments in the human world." All three of them nodded. Dulio was clearly the best choice for their mission to go the best way it could.

"As you know our counterpart the devils are not inherently evil. Despite this they have individuals that do not fit in and do whatever they want. One such individual was recently taken down by his own servants. That would not be a situation for us to concern ourselves with, but he had the habit of forcefully reincarnating strong people as his servants after luring them into traps. Some of them due to hostages, others were poisoned, and the list goes on. After reincarnating them they lost their chance to fight back and became further part of his crazy games, driving them into madness which spiked into the death of their former master. All of them are now on the run and all of them were already kind of strong before they became devils. Their story is tragic, but they need to be dealt with. They already left behind a dozen corpses of innocents and they are far behind redemption." Uriel had a grave expression while explaining the details of their targets.

The reincarnation system from the devil faction was met with mixed feelings from the church and angels. It was a good way to fill their ranks with new people again, but it would have been better if it were overseen properly. That way people would not just be plotted against until they die or become forced to accept their new role as a servant. The church had their own shady dealings in their history, but the angels always tried to work together with the people some way or another.

But as tragic their past is, they need to be put down before they can harm any more innocents.

"I know all of you became really strong in the past month, but as we preached you more than once, you can not only rely on your personal strength when dealing with enemies. I want you to promise to me, that you will be careful."

"We will uncle, you don't have to worry." Ezekiel seriously answered. By now it has become a second nature to him not to hold back and even more so since not just his own life is on the line. The other two nodded as well. And who knows, someone might just surprise yourself with something unexpected.

Satisfied with their response Uriel began to go into the details of their targets: "From what we know, they are seven devils, not considering they might have joined up with others. All of them have been former humans with two of them having sacred gears and all of them being proficient in magic. One of them has a sacred gear to enhance his senses as far as we know, so expect them to notice you much earlier than normal people would. The other one's sacred gear enhances his magic to close double its normal strength. I will send Dulio their past route for you to locate them as soon as possible. If you don't have any questions, I advise you do clear your head and get a good night's sleep before going early tomorrow."

Since nobody had anything they were curious about, all of them took their leave to spend the evening by themselves.

Ezekiel walked to the back of his house to swing his sword for a bit and think of their task at hand.

He took out his sword he got from his father. Even though he trained with it every day to its utmost capabilities it didn't look worse for wear in the slightest. That was probably expected since it was made of some of the best materials in existence.

He began to go through the forms of his own created sword style while thinking of the past two years. After Ewald taught him the basics of swordsmanship and told him to find his own path, he experimented a lot with his idea of using it together with his dominating energy and wings at the same time.

The result? A still incomplete but nonetheless overwhelming way to fight was born. As he advanced, he began to feel his sword no more as a weapon, but it was as if it became part of himself. It was an extension to his reach and at the same time it felt so natural as if he were missing it his whole life. Vasco once said it was a feeling you experience once you reach a certain proficiency with the sword and become familiar with your weapon to an extent to know its ins and outs even with closed eyes. His fighting style was wholly centred around offensive. His destructive sword style and magic wouldn't be held back since he could either evade or block an enemy's attack with his wings.

That was another thing he found out. His wings were probably even able to block his own sword. If that were not enough, he could always infuse his energy into them upping their toughness even further.

With his future path decided his mentors thought it was time to begin their own spars with him. Uriel however said to still wait a few years to fight with him. As a seraph himself that lived for a few thousand years, his experience is nothing to scoff at. That still left Griselda, Ewald and Vasco though.

Griselda was the first one he managed to win against, even if it took him most of the first year. She was really one nifty lady with her bow, always managing to keep her distance and strike his weak points. Of course, he could have just caused widespread destruction, but that wouldn't be beneficial to either of them. Now he already is at a point where Griselda mostly loses in their exchanges.

Ewald was peculiar in that he did not allow Ezekiel to use any energy and only wanted him to fight using his physical body and a sword in their matches. At first it was kind of contradicting considering everything he learned from him. Ewald was a tricky opponent who often used everything even barely giving him an edge over his opponent. After talking with him it made sense, however. If Ezekiel reached a certain point of power some petty little tricks won't make any difference. His power would grow as he grew up and trained further, but his techniques had to be honed. Ezekiel knew of their importance and thought himself already a high level, but that changed after their first spar. Ewald was a real genius with the sword and after using two and later three at the same time, he completely overwhelmed Ezekiel in the technical department. He still loses more than half his fights against him. Being close to half in wins on the other hand speaks for his tremendous progress.

The only real frustration was born from Vasco. He did not restrict Ezekiel as much in the use of his techniques, but Vasco was something you could only describe as monstrous. He would even give a dragon a run for his gold in a physical fight. Up to now he still could not win against this oldie, but he was getting close. It was as the others had said, he was growing at a shocking rate and he could not wait to reach higher. If you have a will strong enough, then there is nothing better to grow than seemingly impossible challenges and it held true for Ezekiel so far.

His light workout coming to and end he sat down with his sword in his lap and began to calm his breathing. Tomorrow he would go on to hunt down stray devils, to kill for the first time in his life. Fortunately, or not his targets have gone mad and were nothing else than a risk for innocent people, people most angels wanted to guide into a brighter future. He already resolved himself after the talk he had with his uncle Uriel one evening. He knew that at some point he had to take that step and wanted some of his doubts answered. Uriel was alive for an exceptionally long time and began to tell him of his first time to take a life, about his experiences afterwards and how it affected him. Ezekiel was not as anxious as Uriel was at first it seems, maybe a product of his divinity or just part of his character but he it was still a new experience to be made, one that would affect him stronger than most.

Calming down from his training he shook himself out of his thoughts and walked back into the house to prepare himself for the night and rest before tomorrow.

-o-

Jeanne was always the odd one out in the orphanage. She was a very cheerful person who would always try to have a smile on her face. Considering the place, she lived in, most children weren't as happy as she tried to be.

She was a bit confused about her constant dreams, but since overthinking won't explain why she had them she just let them happen as she lived through part of another woman's life. The woman was born as a farmer's daughter in poor circumstances. It was a time plagued with constant wars and an uneasy populace. When the opportunity presented itself, she took the chance and stepped up for the little people, for the common folk.

She was gracious as she wielded her sword and seemingly made even the act of war seem like a piece of art. She motivated the people under her banner and led them through constant victories.

Jeanne did not know when it happened, but she wanted to be more to help the people. As she was the woman in her dreams as a goal to work forward to, she made herself a wooden sword to practice the techniques she saw inside her dreams. As natural as it came to her, she faced many hardships without a real mentor. Almost every day she would go into the woods to practice further and not to worry the sister in the orphanage.

She always wondered if there would come a day where she could use what she had learned.

As if to answer her thoughts in the sickest of ways, only moments later an abomination of flesh formed into the appearance of a hog fused man attacked her. Brought out of her thoughts and met with the unknown she was panicked and full of fear. She wanted to run away, but her feet wouldn't move in the slightest. The monstrosity rushing at her with increasing speed, crushing its surroundings with every leap if made and far faster than its stature would let one imagine.

"Is this my end?" she thought, before closing her eyes. The woman from her dreams flashed before her eyes, fighting one battle after the other. Time seemed to stretch and only seconds let her live through many scenes she once saw in her dreams before coming to a stop. The constant war around the woman came to a halt and began to fade into the background, she herself slowly fading away.

Just a moment before she completely vanished, she turned to Jeanne and for the first time looked her into the eyes with a gentle smile. "Stand strong." She whispered. But her whisper rang out through Jeanne's whole being. She always viewed the woman as a peak existence, a ray of hope and something clicked inside of her. It was as if a dam broke lose and she felt strength fill her body. When she opened her eyes, she saw the malformed being rushing at her already and throwing fantastical attacks in her direction. Flaming balls of energy, blades made of wind and other weird shapes of energy. In her trance she didn't even register the damage her body received. Filled with adrenalin and resolve, she brought forth her new strength and before her very eyes she gave birth to a literal wave of swords swarming everything around her.

The constant stream of noises stopped abruptly, the only sound present being her rough breathing. She felt different, but she was unsure what it was that changed inside of her. As she was slowly coming down from her high, she became more and more aware of the situation before she noticed two people came down and landed in front of her.

At that moment she still didn't know just how the person in front of her would change her life in the future, how much she was resolved to serve him as his sword, to keep him safe from harm and help his cause to change the world for the better.

While thinking of past events, Jeanne finished her own workout in preparation of tomorrow, a small smile and resolved look adorning her face.