Maria wasn’t happy to see the message box so she quickly dismissed it.

The party braced themselves for a tough fight once they saw the 2 bosses.

“Alright everyone...we have to get rid of the healer and mobs first, we’ll deal with Captain Heather later...”

“[Inspect]”

[Guard Captain Heather Lv. 40]

(Rare-Elite Boss)

HP: 500,000/500,000

MP: 50,000/50,000

ATK: 600 ~ 800

M.ATK: 300~400

DEF: 400

Captain of the Sacred Temple’s 12th Division’s 10th Squadron, currently on a mission to escort a Priest Candidate to the neutral territory’s Hollua City]

[Priest Candidate Joseph Lv. 35]

(Rare-Elite Boss)

HP: 250,000/250,000

MP: 80,000/80,000

ATK: 100 ~ 200

M.ATK: 600 ~ 800

DEF: 250

Skills:

Cure Lv. 10

Heals the target for 20% of their max HP. Cooldown: 30 seconds. MP Cost: 500 MP

Hi-Cure Lv. 2

Heals the target for 10% of their max HP and heals all surrounding allies within 10 meters of the target by 5% of their max HP. Cooldown: 2 minutes. MP Cost: 1000 MP

Protect Lv. 5

Casts a barrier around the target reducing all incoming physical damage by 25%. Cooldown: 5 minutes. MP Cost: 1500 MP

Heal Lv.10

Cleanses all debuffs on the target and grants immunity to all debuffs for the next 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. MP Cost 500 MP

A young priest candidate heading towards the neutral city Hollua to complete his ascension to a priest]

Once Lizzy shared the two bosses' stats, everyone except for Maria charged towards the boss.

Maria had a different task. She rose in the air and dove down to at 10 remaining guards that were surrounding the two bosses and opened up a path for her friends.

While the rest of her party was going to be keeping the boss busy, she would eliminate the remaining 10 guards before joining them.

“Captain! SAVE US!”

Maria couldn’t help but grimace whenever she heard their shouts. However, this was a quest and she had to complete it. When she remembered the consequences of failing the quest, Maria frowned a little.

If she failed the quest then so would her friends, and they’d lose levels because of it. All the hard work they put effort into for today would wind up being all for nothing if they failed.

“SHUT. UP!!!” Maria yelled out and cleaved down on one of the guards.

[Slay Guard (41/50)]

[50,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

Maria continued killing the rest of the guards until the last one fell.

[Slay Guard (50/50)]

[50,000 exp gained]

[Objective Complete]

When Heather saw the last of the guards killed, the NPC immediately bellowed out in rage, “YOU!!! HOW DARE YOU KILL MY SQUADRON!!!”

[Warning! Warning! Guard Captain Heather has turned berserk! ATK increased by 50% and DEF has decreased by 70%]

Heather locked eyes with Maria and charged at her.

“DIIIEEEE!!!”

The Guard Captain’s sword began to glow red as it was slashing down onto Maria’s body.

Maria was surprised to see the Guard Captain almost instantly arrive in front of her, she panicked and quickly backed away with a flap of her wings, but the sword was able to hit and slice off the tip of her wing.

“AAHHH!!”

Maria screamed in pain. For some reason, she actually felt the realistic pain of her wing being sliced off. Heather was just about to charge forward again and attack, but she had to dodge away and parry the black feathers flying at her.

“Mary?! Are you okay?!”

“Y-yeah...but...the pain parameter...it’s set on low, but I felt the pain from her cutting off the edge of my wing!”

“What?!”

“Is it another bug?”

“Mary, be careful! Try to avoid all of her attacks! Once we finish off Joseph, we’ll come to you!”

“O-okay!”

“Try to draw Heather away while we deal with Joseph! We don’t want his heals to land on her!”

Maria nodded and kept her distance. She drew away Heather from the rest of the party. It was pretty easy since the captain was in a berserk state and kept on aiming at her.

She didn’t try using any melee attacks and only kept on sending her feathers and a [Gehenna’s Eye] at the NPC.

The cat and mouse chase continued for another 30 minutes before a tragic yell was heard from afar.

“NO! JOSEPH!”

Heather snapped out of her berserk state when she heard this scream.

[Slay Priest Candidate Joseph (1/1)]

[400,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

[Objective Complete]

The Guard Captain took off the helmet they were wearing. A beautiful face was revealed and tears were running down profusely from her eyes.

“You...you demons took away my son!”

“Huh?”

“My son...my one and only son...Kill...Just kill me...”

*DING* [Guard Captain Heather has lost all intentions of fighting. Hidden requirement met! [Angel’s Compassion] activated!]

With Heather, who actually turned out to be Joseph’s mother, kneeling in front of her, Maria was at a loss. Then, another notification window popped up in front of her.

[Heather is pleading for death, will you grant her this mercy or will you let her live in grief and despair? Activate [Angel’s Compassion]? YES/NO]

[NOTICE! Your actions will bear consequences in the foreseeable future, please choose wisely!]

“...”

Maria looked down at the NPC and felt saddened, but...she had to do what she had to do.

Maria raised her ax slowly. She aligned it with Heather’s neck.

[Would you like to activate [Angel’s Compassion] YES/NO]

Maria didn’t answer and straightforwardly cleaved her ax down onto Heather’s neck.

SCHLLIIIICCCKKKK

[[Angel’s Compassion] activated! Acquired 500 Purity]

[Title Gained: Angel of Death]

[Slay Guard Captain Heather (1/1)]

[600,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

[Level Up! Lv.15 → Lv.16! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]

[Objective Complete]

[Quest: Envoy’s Might has been completed, report to High Priestess Hella to receive your rewards]

Lizzy and the rest immediately noticed that the quest was completed. They quickly rushed over to Maria’s location and saw her huddling down by herself with her wings wrapping around her.

“Mary? You okay?”

“...Mhm...”

Lizzy couldn’t help but smile at her friend.

“Hey, it’s done...let’s go back now.”

“Yeah...I hate these quests...”

“Hahaha~ everyone does! Even us from the beta test...you really can’t get used to the feeling of cutting down someone that looks human like us...”

“Mhm...”

“Let’s go! Look on the bright side Mary, we completed the quest and we’ll get our rewards. Also! Since you know about these types of quests, we can just avoid all of them in the future!”

“Yeah...”

Maria stood up and stretched her wings. When her friends saw this, they couldn’t help but exclaim.

“M-Mary! Look at your wings!”

“Huh?”

Maria turned her attention on her wings and noticed something off.

“Th-there’s more?!”

Maria noticed that underneath her two large wings on her back there were two smaller ones closer down to her waist. Unlike the two black wings, these small wings were white in color.

Maria immediately opened up her [Log] and quickly read down the list of messages that she had dismissed earlier and saw something...good?

[Hidden Requirement Achieved: Executing Race Ascension]

[Congratulations! You have ascended from a low-rank Fallen Angel to a High-Rank Fallen Angel! Status Updated!]

[Unlocked: Angelic Hierarchy]