Torae Puera was watching the latest Sense Stone recording of the subject in room 313. He had labeled them a Sword due to being utterly destructive for the sheer enjoyment of it. Most Swords found their only purpose to lie in the annihilation of everything around them, and he often wondered if it would have been better if his greatest achievement had been one of those instead of a Shield.

  He wasn’t entirely sure why his god had Chosen Uriel Karislian instead of one of the Swords that were more prone to the task of destruction, but he could only assume it was in support of his own theory that had made him invest in Shields in the first place: They had greater potential and motivation.

  While the Swords were great, the Shields had always impressed him with how often they would struggle far beyond their normal limits to ensure the safety of their Pillar—or Pillars in Uriel’s case. The way the young boy had ceaselessly fought and endured excruciating pain for the sake of his parents and sisters had been a delight to watch.

  Losing him when the bleeding-heart traitor in their midst had informed the Blade of Pure Wrath of their location had been the ultimate setback in his mind. Once he had realized the mistake in his own efforts to flee and managed to track the Annihilator down, it was already too late to extract him without bringing other gods or the city’s entire guard down on them.

  Destroyer himself had assured him, though, that letting the boy grow a bit more outside their control would teach him to appreciate things again and hopefully find new Pillars to bond with. Pillars that they could then leverage to get him back under their control.

  Puera was definitely curious about who could possibly entwine their lives with a Chosen of the Destroyer in the way that he needed. Perhaps some orphan that reminded Uriel of his deceased sisters? It was unfortunate that he had lost both of them. Maybe Uriel had discovered some long-lost relative instead? He doubted the boy was capable of finding a lover with how paranoid he had become toward the end of their time together.

  They had broken him well in the Rings. Teaching him to fight without mercy or restraint. It would take a truly twisted soul to fall in love with the monster they had cultivated.

  As the Sense Stone recording flashed with a bright green light from the Corrosive spit of the subject it had been watching, Puera gave a heavy sigh. He swore that dumb little beast somehow knew they were watching despite not knowing hardly anything else.

  That was another thing that he had enjoyed about his time spent training Uriel; the boy was smart. Observant and quick to catch on, he could often see the subtle meanings behind his words, and it had become almost a battle of wits when they clashed. He actually missed those days.

  “High Priest!” a voice loudly interrupted as the door to his small study slammed open. The spotted felion now standing before him twitched excitedly as she said in a rush, “He’s here! Destroyer’s Chosen! The Annihilator is in the city!”

  Puera raised a pale hand in an attempt to calm her and said, “Settle, Dahlia. Are you certain?”

  Her large brown eyes never wavered from his as she nodded vigorously. “Yes, High Priest! I felt him. I felt the pull of his Soul Mark and followed it. He’s staying on one of the upper floors in that ice fortress you told me about. He’s Sapphire now. He looks so powerful and properly menacing in those clothes he wears!”

  “Did you see his new companions? Are they planning to come here?”

  “Into the Labyrinth?” she asked, tilting her head at the question. “Why wouldn’t he? You said he was going to come home to us, right?”

  Puera nodded. “Of course, but I don’t know if he’s learned of where we are yet, my young Acolyte. Now, tell me about his companions, and then go clean up room 313.”

  She scrunched up her kitten-like nose, whiskers trembling as she whined, “But I hate that room! The Spitter always ruins my clothes!”

  “You know we haven’t picked an actual code name for that one yet,” he retorted. “Basing it off of a single ability is not usually our convention. Now, the compan—”

  “But it’s the most annoying ability!” Dahlia interjected. “It’s also obviously its favorite. Which is why it always ruins—”

  “Report on his companions NOW!” Puera yelled, cutting her tangent off.

  The young felion shrunk in on herself, tail stilling between her legs. “Yes, High Priest…” she obediently replied, then began recounting everything she had seen before the group was apparently summoned to the palace.

  Dazien was resting early upstairs with Saiya to hopefully help keep his dreams calm. The eclipse had passed and the tattoos had gone dormant once more, but they had decided to return to their temporary home instead of researching more.

  Uriel didn’t particularly like seeing the voxen wrapped around his partner in bed like that. It brought up bad memories of walking in on him with past lovers and the jealousy that would stir within him. Before it had been because he had been harboring his secret desire for his best friend, now it was because he wanted nothing more than to be able to touch and comfort his partner himself.

  He knew there wasn’t anything romantic going on between them—Dazien definitely would have mentioned something to him if there was—but those memories and the reminder of his own current inadequacies still stung.

  Phoenix was currently reading in her room with Tala and Ren, while Rayna had decided to do a bit more exploring in the city with Camilla who had just woken up for an early morning.

  Uriel readjusted the gloves on his hands and decided to take the rare moment alone to try his favorite hobby again. He hadn’t tried cooking anything since they left Tulimeir, having mostly been living off Bits and previously prepared food that had been kept well preserved in their dimensional storages.

  Now that he was Sapphire Caste, he could finally try out some of the higher caste recipes that he had been eyeing for years.

  While they didn’t need to eat since entering the Emerald Zone, he knew everyone enjoyed his food, and it was one of the few things he actually took pride in now. When he had felt consumed by the despair of only ever being a mechanism for delivering destruction, creating something delicious that brought others joy had been a light in the darkness for him.

  He pondered his current options for a moment, cross referencing his mental catalog of dishes and what they had available for ingredients. Phoenix and the others had all given any monster meat they had looted to him, and they had killed quite a lot of Sapphire Caste monsters by this point that it had definitely begun to pile up.

  A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth when he contemplated making the Sapphire version of Monster Stew. Trying to teach Phoenix to cook had become one of his favorite memories. The way they had started to open up more to each other had slightly terrified him at the time, but she hadn’t pushed him, and he was glad to be the one teaching her something new for a change.

  She ended up being pretty good at the infusion rituals they had done, but when it came to actually cooking things, he had ended up needing to take over most of that. Still, there was only so much you could accidentally ruin with a basic stew…

  Phoenix had never tried cooking again, but he loved when she would spend time with him chatting while he was toiling away. Seeing her eyes light up with delight when trying one of his more experimental recipes always made him feel—

  Uriel cut off that train of thought, shaking his head and trying to refocus on his task. Cooking. New Sapphire ingredients. Delicious new recipes. Not focusing on pleasing Phoenix.

  He took a few steps to one of the cupboards he knew stored the dimensional baskets he used for various ingredients. These focused on keeping food as fresh as possible and were cheaper and easier to come by than a more generic dimension storage container of equivalent size. Finding the ones labeled “Plant-Attuned Meat,” “Icy Veggies,” and “Seasonings,” he pulled them down and set them on the counter.

  Uriel liked that his bigger fortress meant a bigger kitchen, giving him a coveted island counter where he could prepare things a bit easier than he had before. He pulled out some of the seasonings first, wanting to get the broth base started warming first. There was a particular type of seed he had been holding onto for a while that he had read would give an extremely savory flavor when cut open and steeped in warm liquid over a long period of time.

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  He picked up the little cloth bundle he had written “Safreed” on, and opened it to see the handful of large seeds about the size of a Mana Bit but perfectly round. It took him just a moment to grab the Crystal Knife that had been part of the cooking set Phoenix had given him, and he pondered briefly if it would be strong enough to cut the seed per the instructions he could remember.

  Uriel knew his own strength should be up to the task now, but he feared the lower Caste item potentially breaking from the effort. Deciding to be cautious, he deposited one of the seeds on the counter and carefully held it in place while slipping the knife’s tip under that same palm and slowly pressing the blade down upon the seed.

  Unfortunately, his gloves were making it difficult to keep his grip on the seed and it slipped, causing the blade to clatter against the counter and the seed to go flying off the counter. He gave an annoyed huff, but was slightly relieved there wasn’t a hungry kitten nearby to claim the morsel that hit the floor.

  Walking over to pick up the escaping ingredient, he frowned when he bent down but was unable to grip the seed well enough to actually pick it up. He gave another frustrated huff and pulled on his left glove to remove it and pick up the blasted thing.

  Able to properly hold it now, he made his way back to the counter and was horrified when he set down nothing but a few shards of seed, his skin having annihilated a majority of it.

  Looking from the remains to his perfectly clean palm, then to the glove being held in his other hand he realized his newest problem. While there were likely a few things he might still be able to do while cooking, he wouldn’t be able to do everything he used to.

  He wouldn’t have felt comfortable touching raw meat with the gloves. Even if they didn’t have to worry so much about Mundane sickness as Casters, the habitual concern was so ingrained in him already. The gloves had self-cleaning enchantments on them but those still took some time to do. He couldn’t just quickly wash his hands to move to the vegetables, and he definitely wouldn’t want to try kneading dough with them.

  There was no way he could make his cookies for everyone again…

  The crushing despair that hit him at that moment actually made him take a few steps back, as though trying to flee the evidence of his destruction. His back hitting the other counter against the wall—rudely exclaiming there was nowhere to run to—made him turn in surprise and his arm knocked into the pot that had been awaiting his prepared ingredients, sending it tumbling off the counter.

  In his mild panic, he automatically reacted by trying to catch the item before it hit the floor. It wasn’t until he placed the Crystal Pot back on the counter that he realized his left palm had annihilated a hole into its side. His heart felt like it was crumbling when he registered that he had destroyed the gift from Phoenix—like he had reached inside of him and used his own voidtouch to rupture that particular organ that he apparently no longer felt he had a need for.

  Afraid of potentially making things even worse, he simply fell to his knees, leaning his forehead against the counter cupboards that wouldn’t dissolve from his touch, and covered his mouth to keep his sob from escaping and disturbing any of the others upstairs.

  His power was nothing but a curse.

  He was nothing but an Annihilator.

  Uriel’s vision blurred as he let his body collapse against the wall of icy doors holding the tools and more ingredients for the hobby he loved. They were useless to him now. Years of collecting them and cultivating his skill with them were completely pointless now. He was never meant to create.

  “Uriel?” Her voice was soft and her touch on his shoulder even softer as Phoenix asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Stay away!” He yelled, jerking his entire body away from her and turning to try and hide his tear-stained face.

  “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “I said stay back!” he shouted again. His voice broke slightly as he tried to explain, “I’ll destroy you too!”

  “You won’t,” she firmly replied, moving herself so that she was practically in his lap as she leaned over to try and see his face.

  “I will!” This time, his yell came with a slight shove as he tried to put space between them, and he saw her flinch as his bare hand brushed her arm. He froze, shocked and ashamed that he had done exactly what he had wanted to avoid.

  Uriel turned as his body simply gave up. He let his back rest against the cupboards, his arms and legs limp, and his voice sounded more like a whine, “I… I destroy everything… everything I touch…” He weakly gestured up toward the opposite counter. “I can’t even touch a seed… Jerem was right before.” He glanced up to finally meet her gaze and show her his despair as he admitted, “I’m an Annihilator… I should have been ended long ago.”

  “No, Uriel,” she immediately countered, scooting closer to him and taking his gloved hand. “Your powers have saved lives.”

  “By taking them!” he retorted, pulling his hand from her grasp. He regretted the action as soon as he saw that hurt look on her face. It was like the world itself was bent on punishing him whether he tried to touch her or not.

  “You just saved Dazien with your powers,” she pointed out, then startled him by practically throwing herself into his chest and wrapping him in a hug.

  “Stop! Don’t—”

  “Please don't push me away,” she softly said, but Uriel could hear the broken sorrow that threatened tears to come. He stilled under her, focusing on keeping his left hand away instead as she said, “You won’t destroy me, Uriel. I can’t die, remember?”

  “That’s not true,” he replied. The memories of her being eaten by a monster and bleeding out from a dagger he had plunged into her heart flashed before his mind. His throat felt constricted as he spoke. “You can die. I’ve seen it.”

  “I’ll come back. I’ll always come back to you. You don’t need to be so afraid—”

  “Of course, I’m afraid!” he harshly interjected. “I’m always afraid! What if I hurt you? What if I kill Daze? What if you both realize I’m not worth keeping around? What if you finally realize I’m a mon—”

  “Stop,” she commanded him and surprised him further by covering his mouth with her bare hands. She didn’t flinch from the pain he knew he was causing as she stared him dead in the eyes and firmly stated, “You’re not. We already talked about that. And you won’t hurt us. You’ve never hurt us.”

  He grabbed both of her wrists to free his lips. “I hurt everything!” he barked, moving to show her the hand that had been touching him and that was still getting cut into from his own bare hand. “Look! My kiss slices, my embrace rends flesh, my touch annihilates… You should just… leave me and let me die.”

  He released her arms, hoping he had finally gotten the message across to her that he had finally reached the end. He couldn’t take it any more. It had been less than a fortnight and he was expected to live like this for the rest of his life? He wouldn’t be able to last an eternity without touching the person he loved or being able to do anything more than destroy. At this point, he was ready to take his chances on the afterlife taking pity on him.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she finally replied, surprising him yet again by taking his left hand in hers, ignoring the damage he was causing. She seemed determined to let that hand become ashes before she would ever release it.

  He groaned in frustration and practically growled, “Why are you always so stubborn at the wrong time?!”

  “Because I have to be,” she replied, those emerald eyes never leaving his face. “I don’t want to be, but if it means protecting my friends… protecting you… Then, I will defy every god, magic power, or degrading word that tries to get in my way. I see you breaking, and I won’t let that happen. I won’t let your fear take you from me.”

  She squeezed his hand tighter, whether in reassurance or pain he wasn’t sure, and she added, “You might be afraid of yourself, but I’m not afraid of you.”

  “Why can’t you understand? I don’t like hurting you and that’s exactly what will keep happening.”

  “It hurts more to see you hating yourself so much that you’re talking about dying…” she whispered, and a tear finally escaped the corner of her eye. She seemed to straighten as she let go of his hand finally to wipe it away, smearing blood on her cheek that made him want to punish himself for causing it. With a forced cheerfulness, she tried to smile and reassure him. “We’ll figure out how to deal with this. There’s always a way to make it work. Always a solution to a prob—”

  “I’m not some enchantment puzzle for you to solve!” He retorted, frustrated that she would try to comfort him after he just shredded her hand—that she could smile through the pain he kept causing her body and heart. “There’s no answer to be found that doesn’t end with me causing you pain!”

  She seemed to get slightly angry at his shout and snapped back at him, “I’ll make an answer then! I’ll change the puzzle! If there’s a way for me to save an entire nation from a tyrant, then there’s a way for me to save you! You are worth more to me than all of them are! Worth more than anyone else!”

  Her words made him freeze and stare at her in disbelief. Did she really think that, or was she just trying to comfort him? What about her brother? What about Paul? Didn’t her family mean more? Did she think of him as family, too? Even if she did, why would she place him above any of the others when he knew he belonged in the dirt.

  He didn’t react at first as she slowly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on the cool black tunic covering his chest like she had in the past. The line between them seemed to blur as she snuggled against him and whispered, “You’re not just the Chosen of Destroyer, Uriel. You can be so much more than that, and I want to help you become that butterfly I know is within you.”

  “Is it even possible?” he quietly asked, his anger and fear beginning to give way to defeat and exhaustion. “To be more than what I am?”

  “That’s why we cultivate, isn’t it? To become something more. I believe you can be, and I will be there every step of the way. No matter what.”

  A shuddering sob escaped him at her promise and the confidence she had in him that he surely didn’t feel himself. Carefully, he put his other glove back on, lifted up the face mask that had been added into the front portion of the hood around his neck, and finally wrapped his arms around Phoenix as he cried in her embrace.

  He didn’t want to let go of her. Didn’t want to disappoint her or make her regret believing in him. All he could do was to try and believe in that small spark of hope her limitless determination was giving him and keep holding on.