Author Notes: A slightly shorter chapter this time since I could not find a place for this in the whole event that is to follow. The next chapter will be longer. Also, we are slowly approaching the end of this volume, after which there will be a small timeskip before the beginning of volume 2.
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Holy Energy and Light rampaged like a tempest within the Seventh Heaven as Aetherion's form sat at the center of this hurricane of energy.
His body's structure wavering every second, like water rippling after a stone throw, with no fixed structure, his holy energy and light continued to climb in intensity and density.
For a moment, his form changed completely.
In the place of the Twelve-Winged Angel, a strange, incomprehensible entity hovered over the land, cloaked in such pure Light that it might as well be the very embodiment of that concept, while strange geometric shapes that simply could not be described took the place of his corporeal body.
However, this form soon faded as Aetherion's humanoid form reasserted itself and the lightshow stopped.
The First Angel of Heaven sighed tiredly as he nearly fell back onto the floor in exhaustion.
'I really wish I could see my level right now. I bet it would show that I am at least in the 150s, maybe even more.'
He thought as he got up from the ground and concentrated on the next part of his personal training.
With a thought, Light condensed in his outstretched hand and solidified into a light spear. One of the most common abilities of an angel and a fallen angel.
However, unlike the other angels and the fallen, Aetherion's light spear was anything but simple.
Due to his extremely potent light energy, the spear manifested from it looked extremely unstable, with waves of energy running across its surface, ready to explode at any moment.
This was how it had been ever since Aetherion's level started increasing steadily, thanks to the power of Faith pouring into the system, and by extension, its administrator. Him.
He knew that this faith energy was only going to increase from now on. Hence, his rigorous training routine.
Ever since Seventh Heaven Inc. and its subsidiary, the Global Human Welfare group, was established just a month ago, the quantity of Faith energy had started to rise dramatically.
While the main company had not done anything yet, the GHW had already established a few homeless shelters in the cities that have the biggest problem with said homeless people.
Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Prague, Rome, Toronto, the list went on and on.
More than fifty shelters were opened by the organization in the last month in places with high concentrations of homeless people and orphans roaming the streets. All of which were filled up to capacity in a matter of a day or two, showing how bad the problem was.
Normally, to receive the power of Faith, a human has to pray to a specific god or location. The purity and power of the Faith energy depend on how much the human believed in said god or how pure the human's faith is.
However, in these shelters, the sheer gratitude that these people had for the 'owners' of this shelter was so high that it automatically converted into faith energy and went straight to the Heavenly System despite the shelters not propagating any religious teachings, letting the people in them follow their own religions, as it was their choice.
And from what Aetherion learned from his allies in the Hindu Pantheon, it was the same over there as well. They were receiving tremendous faith energy, noticeable even through the ridiculous amount of faith energy that they receive from millions of followers daily.
So, it was no wonder that the Hindu Pantheon decided to invest in their own version of the GHW. Well, more than usual.
Much to the surprise of Aetherion, similar institutions already existed in India and many other territories with a similar structure, where the humans organized these kinds of shelters and organizations under the guidance of the Hindu Gods.
It was just unfortunate that the bureaucracy of the mundane Governments, which usually have their own supernatural divisions, always got in the way of making these organizations, and mostly stopped them from working properly due to various reasons, both valid and petty. And given the way the Hindu Gods did not wish to interfere in the mortal world after the Mahabharata war, just like the other gods who did not wish to, or could not interfere, these organizations and their counterparts in these pantheons' territories were clearly struggling.
But now, with the GHW showing what could be gained from helping the humans, the gods from across the world started investing more into this kind of thing, breking out of their habit of non-interference for the first time on many centuries.
Although the Greeks might start cursing out the gods more from now on, given that Olympus has decided to become more involved with the humans in their turf once more, which might be a bad thing, given their infamous reputations.
Thankfully, Aetherion had already thought about this situation and included the clause of seduction and mind control resistance into the System, making sure that the Greek Gods won't get up to their usual shenanigans with the humans and cause problems for everyone by popping out a few dozen demigods every year.
Anyways, with the unexpected gain from GHW, Aetherion had been feeling like something within him was shifting. As if some kind of block within his power was slowly loosening over time under the power of Faith.
And along with this loosening of the block, he has been feeling as if he was just about to touch the threshold of something more.
However, this new form of power seems to have some kind of drawback, as every time he tried to access it, he could feel his very body unraveling and turning into a strange entity that he simply could not describe.
That is why he has been training rigorously to try and master his power as it increases, so that no accidents happen when the time inevitably comes to confront a certain group of beings and cause damage to his own people.
With a sigh, he dismissed his Light Spear and headed towards the exit of the Seventh Heaven.
The moment he walked out, he was confronted with his sister, who was eagerly waiting for him.
Her eyes brightened the moment she spotted him as her smile grew to the limit, making Aetherion smile in return.
"Brother Aetherion! Are you done with your training?"
"Yeah. I am. Why?"
"I heard that the Church is going to conduct a ceremony where the trainees will be chosen by the Holy Swords that the Church has with them. I want to go there to see the ceremony."
"And you want me to join you?"
Gabriel nodded happily at those words as Aetherion chuckled.
"Sure. It will be good to get some fresh air after being cooped up here all this time. Let's go."
With that, the duo left the Heavens and headed for the Vatican.
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Author Notes:
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