The woman stared in astonishment at the sight of a blood-stained angel, and then immediately sank into a defensive stance with a smile. The rest of the woman's party came up behind her, and one of them, a man with a buckler strapped to his arm, stepped between her and Anatheia.

“Lilith, stand down! Stranger stand down! We don't want a fight right now. Especially you Lilith. After the shit you pulled in the dungeon, you should be toeing the line,” he barked orders to both sides before berating the swordswoman.

Before Anatheia moved, she looked at the rest of their party. Another shield wielder, a female bowman, a woman with a spear, and a mage in the back. She could likely take them if they didn't average level 10.

Instead, Ana sensed an opportunity here. She needed to get to a town, and they looked beat up from their travels. She dispelled the light blade, folded her wings, and spoke to the apparent leader. His name was Marcos, level 12, and a simple Swordsman.

“I am Anatheia, why did your scout, Lilith was it? Why did she stumble in here and prepare for a fight?” Anatheia asked him without a sense of shame. She knew well enough the four bodies she now stood between were still warm.

Marcos grimaced, “Well Miss Anatheia, you are currently surrounded by bodies. Warm, looted, human bodies. Anyone would be on edge, and our Lilith dances along the edge at all times in the field. I apologize if she got the wrong idea when first arriving,” he answered as he walked around flipping the bodies with his foot.

He continued, “Impressive work. Yours I take it, based on that scythe you had. Pretty violent for a healer. What did they do to offend a great angel such as yourself.” His tone was almost derogatory, but Ana didn't fall to his bait.

“They felt that I was a disgrace to Lady Hikari and attempted to rectify my existence. I judged them unworthy of that honor, and dealt with them as such. Tell me Marcos, does your party need judgment or healing?” She dropped the barely masked threat of judgment before following with an offer of aid. It would not take a genius to see what Marcos should choose. However his foot kept resting on one of her kills as he stared at her.

Finally a smile crossed his face, “We would love some healing! We have no healers among us, and we just came from a grueling dungeon!” Anatheia smiled, but she did not like this man. His smile didn't reach his eyes. Nothing he said could be trusted. He then insisted upon being healed first, which annoyed her more.

A leader waited until their troops were taken care of before meeting their own needs. Where had she learned that? She really couldn't remember, and that kind of pissed her off. So she healed his wounds with extreme lack of speed, using her life magic. The process was annoyingly itchy when done this way, as the skin and muscle knit itself back together. It quite literally felt like your skin was crawling.

Once she had finished healing him, she moved onto the others, finishing with the woman Lilith. Her status said she was a level 10 Human Shadow Assassin. A redhead with gorgeous waves, right now she had theses waves tied back in a ponytail. Her facial features were soft and kind, and her blue eyes sparkled like the clean water of a spring. All said, she was a striking girl who doubtless attracted too much attention.

As she healed the woman, Ana noticed that Marcos was far away, so she decided to foment a little bit of rebellion, just because she didn't like him.

“So, Lilith, it seems you and Marcos don't see eye to eye,” Ana said, trying to coax something out of the woman.

“He's a useless leader and a terrible person. He only keeps me around because I am good at killing monsters. He treats me like his attack dog,” Lilith complained venomously. She made it clear that Anatheia did not need to do much to push her to revolt. She would save the coup for later though, as she needed to convince them to allow her to tag along.

“Well, just stick with him as long as you require, and then discard him like the trash he is,” she advised the younger woman. Then again, even though Anatheia looked in her early 20's, she was likely quite old. She didn't know herself. It seemed a lot of her memories were locked away, and she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it had something to do the damnable brand on her arm.

“Even though I hate him, I would hate to abandon them and have them die. And at the same time I would love to watch him suffer a bit,” the girl admitted sweetly, making Anatheia pause a second in surprise.

To this point she had seemed rather innocent for someone who was a killing-focused class in this kind of a world, and then she went and said that. Ana decided maybe this girl was secretly a sadist, if that was true, they would get along famously. Plus, she would have a protege.

As Ana thought, Lilith changed topics abruptly, “I've never seen wings like yours Miss Anatheia. They're so vibrant.” Lilith marveled at Ana's wings, trying to get a better look at them. Ana obliged her by snapping the one wing open for her. They already knew she was an angel, so there was no harm in it.

“You've seen many angels?” Ana asked curiously. Lilith nodded.

“Only 2, both had mostly white wings,” she replied quickly. Ana smirked.

“That means they were cowards, or they did nothing with meaning. White feathers mark good deeds worthy of the title of angel. The black, are morally questionable or objectionable actions according to the angels,” she explained as the girl stared at her wing.

The girl's head slightly cocked to the side, and she asked, “What does red mean?”

Anatheia gave a wicked grin, “Righteous slaughter.”

“Like that?” Lilith giggled and nodded toward the bodies. Ana's resultant laugh sent a chill down Lilith's spine, but she wasn't sure if it was fear or something else.

“Exactly like that dear,” the fallen angel laughed. The other members of Lilith's group looked at her with fear. She was an angel, but that laugh felt anything but angelic.

“If you're willing, I can follow the group as a healer for a short while. Plus I'm competent enough with my blade to save myself. I don't like guys like him either. The first thing he did upon seeing me was give me an order...” she trailed off coldly. She decided she had made a connection here, and she was going to use it to get what she wanted. She almost felt bad about manipulating such a pure girl.

“I can talk to him for you,” the excitable assassin chimed so loud that Marcos walked over.

“Talk to me about what?” He asked with a chuckle. Again that smile that didn't reach his eyes was plastered on his face.

This man is not someone to let watch my back, Ana thought with a shudder. Even if he wasn't that strong, she was still quite weak at the point due to whatever had happened to bring her to level 1. Since she was fallen, she was sure it had to do with the ruling Council.

However, she had this mashup of memories that didn't make sense. They felt like they belonged to different ,people, so she could only make sense of some of them so far. Most of those were general knowledge things.

She came back to hear Lilith speak, “Miss Anatheia wants to join the group for a while. She said she can provide healing in exchange for travel.” Ana didn't remember saying that, even if it was what she was going to offer. Was this girl psychic, or just really good with people.

I seem to remember someone like that, she thought, and the image of a smiling face with blonde hair cascading about it came to mind. Shaking the image out of her head, she listened to Marcos's reply.

“We could definitely use a healer, and she's good at handling herself against multiple higher-level opponents. I think we can safely say we'd love to have Miss Anatheia along for the journey back to town. Who knows? Maybe she'll enjoy our company so much she stays,” Marcos blathered on for a bit before accepting. Ana rolled her eyes, but was thankful he had accepted. Not that he really had much of a choice.

Fat chance of staying here, she thought, but then remembered Lilith. Maybe she would be willing to stay to save that girl from this tyrant. Good with people and a potential sadist, she had all the makings of someone Ana would love to keep around. On top of that, the Shadow Assassin class was difficult to get under normal means for even a level 50. To have it at such a low level, she was promising.

“All right everyone, we still have daylight to burn and now we're all healed up. Let's bury these bodies and get on the road,” Marcos began issuing orders.

Anatheia bristled, “We leave the bodies where they are to feed the animals and monsters. They are more useful that way, and that is their punishment.” The rage sparked in Marcos's eyes, but Ana was not afraid.

“I am in charge here, and we will bury them! It is the duty of every member of the Church, clergy and congregation, to see to believers' burial,” he spat back. She stepped to him and stared him in the eyes. Despite being shorter by nearly half a foot, she was far more intimidating to the rest of the party. Part of that was the unknown factor, the other part was the known part of being an angel. Even a low-level angel could be extremely dangerous.

“I am an angel with authority of the Light Goddess, these are my quarry, and I will not let you usurp my ruling. If you wish to keep me in the party, you would do well to drop this matter now,” she threatened him. To the amazement of the rest of the party, Marcos dropped it. None of them had ever seen him get so thoroughly bullied by someone so thoroughly smaller than he was.

“Wonderful, shall we get going then?”Anatheia asked with a sickly sweet voice before moving to Lilith. Lilith stood up right away and they set off together, the rest of the party still staring. Meanwhile Marcos was fuming, and his thoughts were venomous.

Just who is this angelic bitch, how strong is she really, and why is she here?