"Of course you ooze divinity, you were killed by a damn deity! Do you think you'd just magically brush the stuff off?"
Abraham laughed as he spoke, shaking his head in disappointment at the girl's poor deduction skills.
She blushed, realizing that, in fact, it wasn't as far-fetched as she had believed.
T-that makes sense…
Finishing his cackling, the young boy relaxed in the chair again and patted his chest, closing his eyes.
"I'll be dozing off here for a while. Feel free to leave. We've finished talking, I'd assume."
Eleanor nodded, looking across the room towards Aurora, who glared at the child sleeping in her shop without a care in the world.
Whispering her goodbyes to the boy, she made her way towards the woman, apologizing on behalf of Abraham for his disrespect.
"Oh, it doesn't bother me, girlie! I've met my fair share of idiots in my time, so one more won't do me in!"
The blonde girl laughed at the elderly woman's statement, then bid her farewell and headed towards the door.
As she reached for the handle and pulled it open, she heard Aurora shout out across the room.
"NO LOITERING OR I'LL CALL THE ANGELS!"
Eleanor stopped in her tracks, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she could guess what was soon to come.
And as she had predicted, another booming voice rang out soon after.
"Really!? That'd be amazing!"
…
Eleanor spent the remainder of her day around the market district, inspecting various businesses and their goods.
Prioritizing her search for powerful artifacts that could assist her in strengthening her soul before she returned among the living, she found five that she determined to be worth buying.
Firstly, there was an emerald ring with a beautiful lime glow that radiated warmth.
It could give the wielder extreme resistance against frost with a side-effect of always feeling slightly too hot.
Secondly, a sword enchanted with an elemental seal, making it unable to conduct mana, but in return, giving it the sharpness to cut through rock like it were butter.
Thirdly, in the back of an antique store, she had found a clock bearing the ability to freeze time in its immediate surroundings for up to 2 seconds.
When unfrozen, the whole area would rapidly catch up to the rest of the world, disorienting anyone trapped within it.
Fourth, there was a ship floating within a bottle that, when uncapped, would unleash the winds from the top of the tallest mountain in the universe.
It was said that it could push forward a vessel the size of an island at considerable speed.
Side effects included the chance of the bottle shattering and the wind exploding outward like a bomb, killing its user.
Finally, the item that caught Eleanor's eye the most was a set of earrings made of solid gold.
The shopkeeper had said that whenever a man touched them, they would instantly feel dizzy, weak, and their vitality would be drained away.
However, if a woman were to wear them, their appeal would skyrocket, and their appearance would become dramatically prettier, with the most notable imperfections getting obscured.
The earrings could be useful while making male friends, though I don't think they'd have the right motives…
Chuckling quietly under her breath, she fully relaxed into her desk chair.
She had returned to Droskyn St. around 10:30 p.m. and had already showered and changed into fresh clothing for bed—all that remained was to write a letter to Lady Ariel.
Already having pieces about her conversation with Abraham listed, she prepared to finish it off with a few additional questions of her own.
If she wishes for me to continue searching for clues on my own down here, that's fine, but at any moment I could be brought back and be forced to scour the entire dimension for a single Angel…
While she had accounted for such a scenario, she thought it highly unlikely that the blond-haired boy would be capable of reviving her so soon.
What if it's not even possible to repair my body? Lady Ariel and Lady Prudentia didn't seem certain themselves.
Feeling the anxiety begin to build, she closed her eyes, breathing out hard.
No. I'll learn the truth soon enough, after I meet with Death. He should be able to tell me whether it's possible for me to return within the next 25 years… Waiting that long would truly be hellish…
Chuckling to mask her innermost thoughts, she began to scribble down the questions for the Angel.
Specifically, she inquired about the Angel whom she had been requested to find, asking about anything that could be of use to her when she went back to her dimension.
After finishing the letter, she hurriedly summoned the messenger spirit, who gazed at her with wary eyes.
He must still be mad about the letter I asked to send outside of the city walls…
Placing a gentle smile across her face, she passed the bird the freshly sealed envelope, his black pupils gazing at the name before he cawed.
"NO PAYMENT DUE! YOU HAVE 2 FREE LETTERS SAVED! BYE BYE, HALF-DEAD ANGEL!"
Eleanor blinked in surprise, only for the spirit to have already vanished, a single black feather left in its wake.
Is he repaying his debt? What a funny bird.
Shaking her head, she stood up and made her way over to her bed, where she promptly collapsed.
Walking for hours on end truly drained her of all energy, allowing her to quietly slip away into her dreams before even burying herself in blankets.
…
Groannnnnn!
Eleanor stood in darkness, the smell of dirt filling her nostrils, and the eerie groaning of the ceiling overhead sending shivers down her spine.
Her mind was hazy, everything appearing vivid and discolored at the same time.
As she took a step forward—without understanding why she did such a thing—a torch lit up ahead of her, illuminating the now clear corridor around her.
No longer was she within her peaceful apartment, but rather in a cold tunnel, one that was covered in a material that she recognized immediately.
Human skulls lined the tunnel walls, their expressions eternally trapped in tormented screams that could never be quenched.
Dust floated down from the ceiling in areas where wooden roots shattered the smooth gray slate that held endless amounts of dirt from cascading inside.
Drip. Drip.
Water dripped from a place she couldn't see, the sound just faint enough that she could sense when it was disturbed by something.
Continuing forward, the blonde-haired girl didn't understand even her own actions, let alone her surroundings, her legs moving slowly down a flight of stairs that had appeared from nowhere.
There were deep cuts in the surface of the rock, filled with liquid bronze that seemed to glow whenever she got near it.
After what seemed like hours of descending, she reached a maze of twisting corridors, the sound of scurrying creatures and heavy breathing emanating from each direction.
She couldn't tell where to go, relying only on her gut feeling that had been instinctively guiding her.
There was a left, then a right, then another right, a left, a left, a right, a right, straight, down, then up, then left, then left, then left, then left, then right, and finally, down.
Eleanor's mind couldn't process the route quickly enough to remember; only the brief features she could observe after each turn stuck with her, such as a hanging corpse after the straight, or the nest of cow-sized spiders after the fifth left.
Only after reaching the last staircase leading down did her body cease its relentless march, and the girl regained control over her own muscles once more.
While testing if her fingers moved without issues, she looked ahead, noticing a wooden door standing before her, a putrid gray mist permeating from the unsealed bottom.
As if in a trance, she walked towards it, her hand stretching out to touch the handle, a cool, relaxing sensation washing over her like a spring breeze.
Right as she was about to pull, her head whipped around to follow a sudden sound.
"Wake."
Her eyes met with two yellow pupils; the head of the creature turned completely backwards to stare at her.
The very same owl that she had met twice before now stared straight into her soul, its beak flickering oddly.
Eleanor's mind shook, and the underground region trembled too, as if synced with her consciousness.
With her head turned away from the door, she heard it begin to creak open, the loud sound echoing through the chamber.
She wanted to turn, to look at what rested behind it.
"No. You are not ready."
The owl spoke again, its wing stretching out and touching the girl's cheek, redirecting her gaze back towards it.
She frowned, noticing the expression on the creature's face.
It was stoic, unyielding, emanating power, and most importantly, regal.
Something about it reassured the girl, her entire form growing rigid and her eyes swaying uncontrollably.
The owl stared down at her as she collapsed like a log, her figure seeping into the stone floor and then dissipating as if she had never existed in the first place.
The animal looked up at the door; the sight of a smiling, certainly insane man in chains residing behind the door reflected in its eyes.
He did not speak, only stared at the magnificent bird with a look of sheer euphoria.
Then, two saffron eyes appeared behind him, his appearance blurring and then exploding into chunks of flesh and sprays of blood, leaving behind only a mutilated corpse.
The eyes that had emerged behind the man stared at the owl for a few seconds longer before closing and disappearing as fast as they had come.
Now utterly alone, the creature rotated its head back to the normal position, its gaze now directed upward.
It watched as the cavern began to collapse, the walls caving in and the skulls of the dead reanimating, clacking their teeth as if asking for help.
And then, in a flash of darkness, the world vanished, the underground tunnels lost to memory.
…
"Huff… Huff…"
She awoke in a cold sweat, the vivid nightmare that she had just experienced sending shivers down her spine.
T-that owl… It was in my dream, and it spoke!
She couldn't hope to piece together the meaning of her vision; however, there being a meaning at all already meant something in itself!
Closing her eyes, she tried to remember as much as she could, but only glimpses, such as the door and the feelings associated with it, remained.
Not only that, but the features of the tunnels themselves stuck with her clearly, an idea crossing her mind suddenly.
There were skulls lining the walls and an aura of death… Only one place could reek so badly, even in the Great Beyond itself…
She, of course, was referring to the catacombs, a network of interlocking tunnels that stretched throughout the entire dimension, connecting various regions to one another through their murky depths.
In a world where bodies simply regenerated from the sky, there was no need to bury anybody; however, the catacombs still served a purpose within this realm.
Those who fully died, entering a state of eternal rest after fading away, had their spirits erode into statues resembling their original skeleton.
It was the only way to record the lost, and as such, the gravekeepers of the Angelic Order took their duty to remember their lives very seriously.
As for those in Hell, they did not meet the same fate, for if one was lucky enough to fade there, their bones would be burned in hellfire for all eternity, in the Lake of Boiling Skulls.
If those were the catacombs, that means it's where Abraham harvested his spirit from. In that case, maybe that owl is one of those mystical spirits you can summon, and it's taken a liking to me!
Her heart rate increased at the thought of her own personal pet owl, her dream of owning a pet possibly realized.
I'll write to Lady Prudentia soon enough and ask her about a possible trip into the catacombs. Though… that doorway…
Biting her lip at the thought of the door that seeped her flesh in such a feeling of madness that Eleanor fully dismissed the idea of going back to sleep.
Fatigue shouldn't accumulate as much down here. Even if I only slept 20 minutes, it should still feel like 8 hours.
Stretching and yawning, she completed her morning routine quickly before returning to the main living space.
There, on the desk that was empty just before she left for the bathroom, a letter lay, neatly folded and signed with golden ink.
Did Lady Ariel respond so quickly?
Disregarding her crazed hair that she had wrapped with a towel, she unfurled the note and began to read it.
"Your writing is much appreciated, child. I must congratulate you on passing Lady Prudentia's test, as she is notoriously picky with who she chooses to mentor. As a reward for your accomplishment, I'll provide you with some of the information that you requested (don't worry, I still would've provided it anyway)."
Eleanor chuckled as she read the note hastily scribbled into the margins, trying to imagine the Angel realizing how her words had sounded and deciding to try to fit an explanation at the edge.
"Lady Esmerelda was a motherly figure to all the false Angels of the Angelic Order. She commonly took in lost children, opting to promote them directly to interns and pay them out of her own salary so they wouldn't be subjected to the endless work of Neutrality. When we dispatched her earlier this year, she appeared ecstatic; however, deep down, I could tell she was nervous to overtake a body that wasn't her own.
"I reassured her, telling her that while extremely rare, it wasn't unheard of for an Angel to incarnate into a vessel not of their own, and as such, she should ignore the fear and bask in the joy of life once more. Before she had died originally, she had been a beautiful archbishop who lived within the Sea of Songs with a voice as wondrous as the heavens themselves.
"She hoped to be reincarnated in the body of a Songster; however, it didn't work out, the only suitable corpse being one on Strava in the Sea of Dreams. There was never any recorded information transferred back to us about who she actually incarnated as; however, we can assume that the reason for her disappearance is tied to her new body. Therefore, when you return to life, that is the primary objective I will give you. Figure out who Esmerelda reincarnated as, and report back about her present state.
"Other than that, I was already planning to write to you today to break the good news. You have been authorized to visit Infinium tomorrow, and your badge is attached inside this letter (rip it apart after you finish reading to retrieve it).
"I wish you luck and hope you continue to achieve many great things."
The letter ended with her signature and a smily face with two wings jutting out behind it, a sigh escaping Eleanor's lips.
She's like a child…
Smiling, she held the paper tightly, tugging at the two ends and ripping it into pieces with ease.
Out of nowhere, a lanyard and a badge fell out, her eyes glancing at the letters engraved into it intricately.
Eleanor Lynn, Incarnated Angel of Undying.