Chapter 127: Kicking Off

Grace found Diana and Venus exactly where she’d left them—except now Diana had some village girl pressed against a wall, one hand up her shirt, the other gripping her butt.

[Of course.]

“Oi, oi,” Grace crossed her arms. “I don’t remember seeing you in the Love Sister courses.”

Diana pulled back from the girl’s neck. A massive hickey was already forming, dark purple against pale skin. The girl’s eyes were glazed over, mouth hanging open.

“Just some research.” Diana didn’t even look embarrassed. “Testing local stress responses.”

“Uh-huh.” Grace watched the girl try to walk. “Have you learned anything actually useful?”

“These ladies are very responsive, for one.”

The girl giggled, wobbling away on legs that clearly weren’t working right. She bumped into a post, giggled again, then stumbled around the corner.

“Scientific breakthrough right there,” Grace said.

“I do my best.” Diana wiped her mouth.

“Right.” Grace shook rain from her wings. “Anyway, I’ve got news.”

“Demons?” Venus asked from her bench, not even bothering to wipe the water off. She’d apparently been enjoying Diana’s show.

“Killed about ten. Maybe twenty.” Grace sat next to her, armor squelching. “Lost count after a while.”

Diana’s eyebrows shot up.

“Yeah?”

“They kept coming.” Grace tried wringing out her hair. Pointless effort. “Wasn’t hard. Most were under Le- I mean, weak.”

“Most?” Diana raised a brow.

“Yeah, about that… There’s a Primal down the mountain. Big one. Just sitting there.”

Venus’s whole body went rigid. Her casual lounging pose vanished.

“A Primal? Here?”

“Half mile down. Hiding in some dead trees.” Grace remembered that bone-deep cold, the weight of its attention. “Felt massive. Ancient. Like the mountain grew a consciousness and decided to hate everything.”

“Did it attack?”

“No, but then again, I ran out pretty fast as soon as I noticed it.”

Diana frowned, finally giving Grace her full attention instead of eyeing passing villagers.

Grace continued.

“I saw movement near it. Might not have been alone.”

Thunder crashed loud enough to rattle windows. The buildings shook. A fish fell from the sky and smacked the ground at Grace’s feet. Still flopping.

[Right. Normal Tuesday in Stormcrest.]

Grace picked up the fish. It stared at her with accusing eyes.

“This is bad,” Venus said, ignoring their new fish friend. “It would seem we’re on a timer now. Fighting a Primal and a Pillar at the same time seems… suboptimal.”

“No shit.”

“I mean it.” Venus’s usual playful tone was gone. “Primals don’t just wait around. If it didn’t go after you, there’s a high likelihood it’s planning something.”

“Great. Love it when demons have plans.”

“Let’s go talk to the mayor,” Venus said. “We should try to make some progress before we meet our Primal.”

They headed back toward the mayor’s house. The storm had gone from bad to absolutely crazy—lightning struck every few seconds, and rain came from at least six directions now.

They reached the mayor’s house. Grace knocked. The door opened before her knuckles finished hitting wood.

“Angels.” The mayor looked worse than before. Red eyes, trembling hands, shirt buttoned wrong. “Any progress?”

“Uh, yes,” Grace answered. “I cleaned up a lot of the demons surrounding the town. Now, we need the Tempest’s location,” Grace said.

“The thing causing all this.” Venus waved at the weather circus. A small tornado made of spoons whirled past. “Where is she?”

“The… the peak.” His knuckles went white gripping the doorframe. “The very top of the mountain. But no one goes there anymore.”

“Why?”

“The storms are worst there. Lightning every second. Wind that can throw a grown man off cliffs. And the cold…”

He shivered like someone had walked over his grave. Then dug it up. Then walked over it again.

“What about the cold?”

“It burns like fire but freezes your blood. Makes you want to tear your own skin off just to feel warm again.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Three angels tried investigating a few years ago.”

Grace’s stomach clenched.

“What happened?”

“We found them in pieces. Took them forever to reattach.”

Dead silence.

“Pieces,” Diana repeated flatly.

“Arms. Wings. A torso.” The mayor’s voice cracked. “Nothing whole. It completely ripped them apart.”

[Okay. That’s… that’s actually terrifying.]

“By Eternia,” Diana muttered.

“How do we get there?” Grace asked.

“There’s a path behind the old shrine. But—”

“We’ll find it.”

The mayor stared at them like they’d lost their minds. Fair assessment.

“You’re serious? You’re going up there?”

“Yeah.”

“All of you?”

“Someone has to stop this.”

“But if she tears you apart—”

“Then we’ll pull ourselves together and try again,” Diana said. “We’re angels. Stubborn is kind of our thing.”

The mayor’s laugh had no humor in it.

“I distinctly recall those other angels saying the same thing.”

To be fair, from his point of view, their odds didn’t look too good.

Grace thought about it. Three angels versus one pissed-off Pillar in her home territory. With a Primal below and weather that literally tore people apart.

However, Grace knew damn well they could do this…

… Though she did want to take a few precautions.

“I’ll scout first,” Grace said.

“Terrible idea,” Diana said immediately.

“Why?”

“Because you’ll end up in pieces.”

“I handled the Flame alone.”

“You lost an arm.”

“It reattached.”

“That’s not the point—”

“And I handled the Tide.”

“By fucking her into submission!”

“It worked!”

Venus cleared her throat loudly.

“Perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere? Away from civilians?”

The mayor had gone from white to red. They left quickly, stepping back into the meteorological nightmare.

“You can’t solo a Pillar that dismembers angels for fun,” Diana said the second the door closed.

“The Tempest feeds on emotional instability.” Grace had to shout over the wind. “More people means more emotions. Might make her stronger.”

“Or we might help,” Venus suggested.

“How?”

“Moral support?”

Grace snorted.

“Since when do I need—”

Lightning struck ten feet away. The crack of thunder hit like a physical blow. All three angels jumped.

“Fuck!” Diana’s wings flared instinctively. “Too close!”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Grace’s ears rang.

The ground where the lightning hit was glass now.

“Look.” Grace wiped rain from her eyes. Again. Pointless. “Let me scout first. See what we’re dealing with. If it’s too dangerous, I’ll come back.”

“Define too dangerous.”

“If I start losing limbs? If I get turned into dust?”

“Not funny.”

“Wasn’t joking.”

“Grace—”

“Diana, we need information. We can’t go in blind.”

“We also can’t go in solo!”

“I’m not going in! Just scouting!”

She lied. She was absolutely going to try to resolve this whole thing on her own.

They stood in the rain, which now came from seven different angles because physics had given up entirely. A tornado made of leaves danced past.

Diana stared her down.

Then…

“One hour,” Diana said finally. “Scout for one hour. Then get back here.”

“Two hours.”

“One.”

“Ninety minutes.”

“One hour.”

“Hour and a half.”

“Fine.” Diana crossed her arms. “But if you’re not back—”

“You’ll come find my pieces?”

“Grace.”

“Sorry. Nervous joke.”

“It’s not funny!”

“It’s a little funny.”

“No, it’s not!”

Venus sighed deeply.

“This is incredibly stupid.”

“Most of my plans are.” Grace’s blade materialized, golden light cutting through the gloom. “Where’s this shrine?”

“Wait.” Grace turned back to the mayor’s house. “Hey! Where’s the shrine?”

The mayor poked his head out, looking even more terrified than before.

“Behind the old temple! Northern edge of town!” He pointed with a shaking hand. “Stone arch! Can’t miss it! So… You’re really going?”

“Yep!”

The mayor blinked.

The door slammed shut. They heard multiple locks clicking into place.

“Northern edge. Stone arch. Got it.” Grace spread her wings again.

As if on cue, lightning struck something in that direction. The boom rattled windows all down the street.

“Of course it did,” Diana muttered.

“Alright. I think I’m good to go.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“When have I ever—”

Another lightning strike. Closer this time.

“Just…” Diana’s jaw worked. “Don’t get torn apart. It’s annoying putting people back together.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Unfortunately.”

Grace spread her wings. The wind immediately tried to introduce her face to the nearest building wall, but she pushed through with a grunt.

[Not gonna make it easy for me, eh? Alright then. Ninety minutes to find an emotionally unstable weather goddess who rips people apart. No pressure.]

She launched herself toward the shrine, fighting wind that changed direction every three seconds. Left, right, up, down, diagonal—

“Scout first, my ass,” she muttered. “Should’ve just stayed in bed. But no. Had to be a hero. Had to—”

A fish smacked her in the face.

“Ah, ew!”

She spat out and kept flying. The fish fell past her, looking offended.

“Sorry!” she called after it.

Hand-shaped hail pelted her. One grabbed her hair. Another poked her in the ribs.

[This is so stupid. So incredibly stupid. I probably should have taken them with me, huh? Is this what having too much bravery is like? Dang.]

But she kept flying, already regretting every decision that led to this moment.

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