Arc 1 - The Sin Emerging

  Chapter 1 - Cleaning Duty

  It did not take long for the group to get into discussing the mission they received. Avidia, still standing around the coffee table, carefully opened the letter she had in her hands and presented the contents to the rest of the Sinners.

  Elmer and Rita tried to curiously look over her shoulders to find out what Soren wrote, one with a frown and the other with a gleaming smile. From his letter came instructions, or rather a job contract.

  “Seriously?! Another cleanup mission?” Elmer burst out.

  “It is imperative that we take on menial tasks to keep up a stable income,” informed Avidia.

  “Look on the bright side! At least we get to show our newbie the basics!” Rita exclaimed, tapping on Damien's shoulder.

  This news gathered a varied mix of reactions. There were those like Avidia and Rita who saw nothing wrong, and then there were those who groaned in annoyance.

  Sumi sighed, “What do we have to stab this time?”

  “The enclosed contract serves as a summons to Ihuy Association, or one of their branches, presumably. It appears that they require assistance with Zeta-level Lesser Angels that are currently locked in their cellar.”

  In a single sentence, many terms that Damien never heard were spoken. Understandably, he was confused. Slight hesitation came up, yet he raised his arm, albeit very slowly.

  “...What's a — pretty much everything you just said?”

  Everyone looked somewhat distraught, thinking that this was all the boy could do, except Avidia, who began explaining her words immediately.

  “Then, assuming that the general knowledge of the world of the subject is slim and next to none, it is pertinent to explain the terminology with the highest degree of verbosity so that there is no room for misinterpretation of the facts. The term 'Association' refers to organizations located in New Order, taking on tasks of their specialty. In the case of Ihuy Association, they take on the role of healing squads, providing assistance in large-scale conflicts.”

  Avidia ceased her explanation for a moment to check if Damien's expressions were still within the realm of understanding. Her brief look at the boy made him seem quite stupid, but to feel more engaged, he came up with his own input.

  “So, the Sinners are an Association, too?”

  “Yes. It would fall under that definition,” Avidia continued, “when speaking about Lesser Angels, it is important to experience or see them first-hand to truly grasp. Generally speaking, Corruption is the first step to turning into a Lesser Angel — without the need to elaborate, I will for now say that Lesser Angels are the deformed creatures that descend from the skies.”

  Elmer interjected, “Hold on, I think you skipped past something very important.”

  Avidia glanced at Elmer, silently telling him that it was intentional, and then spoke. “I obfuscated that fact for obvious reasons.”

  With the feedback the genius received, it was clear that the rest of the Sinners did not agree with her. She stood silent, letting someone else do the explanation.

  Rita stepped up. “Damien, do you know... what Lesser Angels are?”

  “Yeah, Soren always showed me how they fall from the skies like comets.”

  “Indeed, but... do you know what they are?”

  Damien was stunned to hear that emphasis. It is true that Soren always brought him to watch them descend onto New Order, but he never explained what these beings really are. All the boy knew was that Angels are the source of humanity's current state, both in suffering and progress. The Ichor that humans bear is the same blood that flows in the veins of these Angels.

  That question brought him back to a certain memory from days past. He still remembers it like it was yesterday — that scene of a burning house.

  “...Something that has no place in the human world,” Soren's voice echoed.

  It was the memory of young Damien and Soren, carefully examining a strange creature. Back then, the parent introduced it as an Angel, but Damien knew that this was a broad term used for any living being with Ichor who was not human.

  It was heavily injured, resembling a badly cut and lacerated human, except it lacked the nature and shape of one. The exact details were lost in memory, but Damien still recalled the abnormalities of this Angel. It had a thick, long, and dense torso with six arms protruding from its body, three at each side. The head looked almost normal, until the creature glanced at Damien, revealing a face with nothing but a grotesque number of disfigured mouths and tongues. The vertebrae on the spine poked out of its back due to how starved it was, being nothing but skin and bones.

  That was just one of many different forms that he saw during that night. It was thanks to Soren that he managed to come out unscathed. Although he did not remember exactly how his rescue played out, he recalled that neither he nor Soren were injured.

  Damien owes Soren his life.

  “They are... disfigured people, completely robbed of humanity and made to follow nothing but their instincts like animals,” Damien himself answered.

  Avidia entered, “Precisely. The phenomenon of Angels starts from Corruption, which turns individuals into Lesser Angels. You will see in a moment with your own eyes. We are almost there.”

  Damien's head perked up upon hearing that sentence. “What? We've been moving? But we're in a building!”

  “We are in no ordinary building. Our headquarters, as you may call it, are the confines of Hermes, my invention. It allows us to travel seamlessly to destinations using uninterrupted rift travel. To then reconnect with the material plane, we must take advantage of a nearby doorway, otherwise we would be stuck in the rift. The moment our mission's location was revealed we were already on our way to the destination.”

  Damien's eyes shined with amazement. Him realizing the truth was even more fruitful because he found out why the loud hum of the bar below ceased instantly upon entering this room. The moment he stepped inside, Damien was already in a very different space where the sound couldn't reach. Just for her invention, Avidia was the first Sinner he truly respected personally.

  On second glance, this chamber looked very different from the bar one floor below. It is much nicer looking, and it features a number of amenities and beds to suit the Sinners.

  It was much different than what he had expected — there was nothing that would resemble a professional working space for warriors. It looked more like a playroom than a job site.

  Then, a heavy thud was heard, and a blue grid-like flash covered every object in the room before fading back into normal colors, marking the end of the hidden travel.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Every Sinner began walking out one by one, and Damien trailed behind them.

  The boy watched as Elmer somehow manifested the large bat he used earlier out of thin air. The man himself was unfazed, spinning the weapon around once and resting it on his shoulder. It left Damien very confused once again. There is a lot he needs to learn.

  Rita hopped over to a corner of the room and picked up a long spear that was about as long as one and a half copies of her stacked on top of each other. Unlike Elmer, her weapon seemed to be a normal tangible object. There was a yellow light on the arrow-like metal tip and some kind of wire that extended down the pole to an unknown container.

  The enigma, Null, took out a heavy-looking military rifle. It was mostly black, bearing a triangular pattern with red highlights. Several accessories were mounted on it, such as a scope, the stock, and a laser sight.

  Sumi walked out of the room with nothing in her hands, somehow puzzling Damien more than the previous ones did. She had a devilish grin on her face, clearly not afraid of being unarmed.

  “Damien, you will be shown the Sinners in action. While watching, I will be explaining their individual abilities. Please do not stray too far from them, as you could easily come to harm,” Avidia warned the boy, then exited right after.

  Excitement was on the rise — Damien would truly see Sinners for what they are. Not only that, but it would also be his first experience as a Sinner, too. He was eager to see how they fight, and even what they fight.

  As Damien stepped out of the moving construct, Hermes, he noticed that they were indeed in a completely different location. It was much darker and definitely indoors. They arrived right in the exact spot they needed to be at — the basement of Ihuy Association's branch.

  All of the Sinners gathered in a line, gazing at the wriggling filth in front of them. It was an innumerable amount of those same creatures that he was saved from by Soren as a young child. Some were smaller than a toddler, and some were as large as the well-built Elmer. Their shapes and sizes also differed dramatically. There were so many that they stepped and crawled over each other, and the noises accompanying this sight were not any less pleasant. Strange howls and moans echoed through the stone walls of the basement; they sounded like it, but they were not human.

  At that moment, they noticed the group approaching. All sights were set on the Sinners, and the monsters were determined on killing them. Their decrepit voices intensified, and soon after, the filth charged at them.

  Sumi initiated, “Let's get started, then.”

  She took the first step towards them. She lifted her arms behind her and assumed a pose much like Soren's when he took off. She waited until the wave came closer, and when it was close enough, she charged toward them with a wave of light. Damien barely caught sight of it, but she produced two translucent golden blades in each of her hands. She cut through the swaths of vile beings, and the Sinners followed soon after.

  Rita pierced each of the vermin as they approached with her spear. However, the weapon sparked with every swing and every thrust, creating controlled explosions that worked in her favor in clearing out the waves of creatures.

  Elmer swung his bat like a madman, bludgeoning them with impressive strength. His weapon seemed to light up before every swing as if it was empowered by something. The strikes were especially deadly when that effect occurred.

  Null crouched down and started carefully started picking them out one by one with his rifle. Steam escaped the weapon with every shot, and the projectiles shot were too fast to be seen with a naked eye. Every landed shot resulted in complete pulverization of the target.

  With their combined efforts, it was apparent that they were in no danger whatsoever. This was a one-sided slaughter of the enemy. There were still too many to stop, and the Sinners kept up their efforts.

  “These are known as Husks, the weakest of the Angels,” Avidia sighed, “regardless, there are some explanations that need to be made.”

  Avidia calmly spoke despite the slaughter in front of her. Damien was captivated by what was happening in front of him, not even hearing Avidia's words. She nudged him a little to catch his attention, and the boy snapped back to reality.

  “I assume it is common knowledge that New Order uses Ichor for its benefit. Here, you can see that demonstrated in action by Elmer and Sumi, each one using techniques fundamentally the same, but also different at the same time.”

  Damien glanced over to the pair. One was swinging around a seemingly physical object, while the other danced around the enemies at lightning speed with two luminous and translucent thin blades. There was a distinction to be made.

  “Starting with Elmer, currently, a user of a Manifest — the application of Ichor engraved on the soul. Earlier, he was able to create it out of his blood, but there is more to it than an unsophisticated blunt object. Elmer's weapon is Heist, a club-like weapon that can be imbued with Resonance to empower its effect.”

  “Resonance?” Damien spoke over the screams of dying Angels.

  “This is where Sumi comes in. As you can see, her arsenal is in no way, shape or form physical. This is Resonance — the general application of Ichor that anyone should in theory be able to perform.”

  Damien looked at the two once again, this time more well-versed. And indeed, he saw it more clearly now.

  He excitedly stated, “I see! So Manifest is the innate ability of a person, and Resonance is the general usage of Ichor.”

  “Yes. It could be understood that way,” Avidia confirmed, “however, Resonance has more applications than Sumi's blades. For example — look at her movement. It is accompanied by a faint glow. That is the sign of Resonance usage on mobility, she is using it to hasten her body and move faster than an ordinary person. Then there are various other uses of Resonance, such as shields, hardening, and flying slashes. In truth, it depends on the creativity and skill of the wielder. There is no limit on what one can accomplish with Resonance alone.”

  Damien was carefully absorbing every piece of information Avidia was giving her. The way they were moving made it seem like it was easy. Elmer may have appeared to be just a madman with a bat, but even his moves were methodical and carefully choreographed. It must not be easy for Sumi to be moving around at such high speeds, knowing how dizzy Damien got on Soren's back, but she was seemingly unaffected by it.

  The slaughter came to an end as the screams and howls of the Angels faded out of hearing range. What was left after that scene was a bloody golden mess all over the floor, walls, and ceiling. Sumi sat on the corpse of one of the Angels, stabbing it repeatedly with one of her daggers with a crazed expression. 'Stab! Stab! Stab!', she mumbled to herself while also breathing unsteadily.

  Elmer came over to the pair, “Jeez, what a lunatic.”

  “And that is only a small amount of what I can teach you about Ichor use. Unfortunately, as you can see, the Sinners ran out of test subjects.”

  Rita popped in, too, “There we go! Damien, did we give you a good show?”

  Damien, still taking it all in, briefly nodded in agreement.

  “I'm sure that if you ask Elmer or Sumi, they will teach you something as well. Though — probably not Sumi, she might turn you into a pin cushion if you do something wrong,” Rita warned.

  Elmer added, “Sure, you don't seem like much talent, but we'll see what we can do.”

  “Damien managed to not empty the contents of his stomach — that is commendable,” Avidia congratulated him in her own way.

  Null stood close by, but still a few meters away, tending to his gun after sizeable target practice.

  “It was quite entertaining to watch you fight! How long before I can do that too?” Damien said.

  “Assuming that you have not yet awakened your Manifest or the ability to use Resonance, it will take months of training before you can efficiently aid us in —”

  The boy responded dejectedly, “A month? That's too long! Soren gave me a week. Is there anything else I could use?”

  Rita thought for a moment, “Well, you can pick up anything with a sharp edge and be useful that way. The hard part is not dying in the process!”

  “You have a normal weapon, right? You can train me with that spear of yours!”

  “That is not happening! Do you know how hard Gas Spears are to get in the city? If you break mine, I won't be the one fighting with bare fists, mind you!”

  Damien felt somewhat disappointed — he could not make himself useful unless he endured months' worth of training. He realized that this visit of his might truly be temporary and that he might have to go back to the manor for a few more months, or even years.

  That is until Sumi proposed a bright idea.

  “What if you gave the boy that fancy blade that the pipsqueak doesn't want to use?”

  “Those Driftblades suck! You have no idea how many times I crashed into the wall with one!” Rita complained to Sumi, who was the most covered in blood out of them all.

  Avidia thought about the idea, “...Damien, how do you feel about swordsmanship?”