#1230am

quiero paz.

quiero dejar de sentirme triste.

no quiero caer en depresión de nuevo (ya lo estoy).

But, these souls had vessels they belonged to, and even having a nibble would ruin it irreversibly. As far as he could tell, these were souls of good people who didn’t deserve a fate like that.

He slipped them back into his pouch, taste lingering on his fingers and mind. One day he’d find a wretched soul to feast on. Those those always seemed to taste wrong. Fermented, heavy, moldy. How the Angels delighted on those as easily as a good soul was a mystery to him.

“You alright?” 1230 asked, pulling the last few golden orbs up from the ground, along with some Angelic Cloth that had dropped. “Wanna take a break?”

“Oh. I’m fine.” He said quietly. Preoccupied would be a better word. 1230 was aware of this, but didn’t push it any further.

“Let’s go to the recovery center, then. And maybe you could make something cool with this cloth.”

Angelic Cloth was soft, silky smooth, but durable and much easier to care for. Worked well a lot like armor to mundane weapons. He inspected it carefully and pocketed it with a thanks to his partner.

Whitney told you to use your vines and strangle it while he went for the kill. He stressed to look out for the sword it had-- make sure it can't use that.

Its body was a mess of eyes and goop, smelled like oil and a heater.

Its eyes turned to you, the others followed Whitney. Vines shot up around it, especially around the neck and arms. This thing was huge. One swipe of the hand and you'd be out of commission for a while. Whitney shot up into the air and back down, popping the eye atop the angel's head. Souls spilled out from below, but the Angel wasn't dying. You tightened the grip around the neck and made sure you casted a passive healing spell on your partner.

"12!" he shouted, flying over as fast as possible.

Is everything alright? Wait, what? You were on the roof of the next building over, your sweater stained with blood.

"Ça va?" he asked quickly, his flaming sword glowing bright as the sun. "Heal yourself. I can handle the rest of him."

"What happened?" You asked, rolling up your sleeve and letting the ivy wrap around your scrapes.

"He's stronger than I thought. I'll slice his head off." he lingered for a moment, making sure with soft hands that you were alright. Then flew over to the Angel and--

Dodged the swiping hands. Fuck. You casted Vines again to create a net around it to slow it down. Whitney's sword sliced through its neck like butter. For a moment it acted like it was going to do something crazy, like sprout two heads. But the head fell of with a wet sound-- Whitney caught it so it wouldn't cause property damage.

And it also fireworked into souls and loot. This one had thousands of souls.

"Great work." he glided over to you and took your hand to help you descend the building. "It seems the busier the city, the bigger the Angels."

Out with your net to gather the souls. Whitney got his bottomless bag and began cleaning up as well.

"I've never fought in big cities like this. I never even fought in Houston. New York is... It's scary."

"We're only stationed here a few more days." he said softly. "You can keep the EXP orbs. I have no use for them. I suppose after you reach a certain amount they start to taste like rotted apples."

"Really? They taste like Fuji apples to me."

"Then you've still got room to grow." He had no face, but a warm, honest smile was in his voice.