Anna shifted her position slightly and touched the locks of the chains that linked all of the nails together. She wished that the locks would open, and activated her Soul Skill.

There was a soft buzzing and a strange puff of smoke as the chains vanished in an instant.

The Angel watched her, her blank gaze following Anna's movements. There was no hope in those golden eyes, for she had seemingly given up on that luxury long ago. It was only through deeply ingrained habits that she had even begged and pleaded for the pain to stop.

With all the chains gone, all that remained were the large spikes pinning the Angel to the wall, and the spikes which tortured her, increasing her suffering.

Suddenly footsteps approached the door and they both tensed, but luckily Anna had closed the door behind herself. Both of them stayed perfectly still, they were trying so hard to not be noticed, that they had even stopped breathing.

The Angel had gone silent without any prompting, she had probably figured out that Anna wasn't there to hurt her, and she didn't wish to draw a torturer into the room.

As the footsteps paused for a second at the door, both girls tensed, their fear increasing exponentially.

After seeing the Angel, and hearing the overly graphic descriptions that the Angel had given her of the imaginations and abilities of the torturers, Anna didn't want to be caught.

However, after what seemed like an eternity, the footsteps started up again as the guard turned around and resumed his patrol. He had probably been thinking of entering the room to have some fun, but had changed his mind for some reason.

After waiting for a long period of time, Anna knew that the guard had definitely left, so she started moving and breathing again.

The Angel said something extremely ominous, she said that Arre would do worse things to Anna than had been done to the Angel. She began explaining to Anna how Arre feeds, how he devours the pain and despair of Heroes, by sucking them dry of their love, belief and hope... His favourite food being pain...agony and heartbreak.

She said that she had seen him do it many times, even back while she had been serving him, and that Anna would be far from his first.

Then she revealed the rather deep secret, that the war between the Humans and Demons was created and orchestrated by Arre, as an excuse to summon Heroes and Demon Kings for food.

She also said that once she died, from being fed on by Arre, he would take her soul and imprison it in a Celestial body and do all kinds of brutal and sadistic things her for the rest of eternity. She had seen this happen to many attractive female Heroes before, they become Celestials, tormented by Arre, and used by the real Angels for venting frustration when they suffered under Arre as well.

Strangely though, Arre was almost never violent, sadistic, and brutal towards true Angels who pleased him.

All of what the Angel said rang true for Anna, she didn't think that the suffering girl was lying to her, there was no real reason for her to.

This really made Anna terrified.

When the Angel had first started talking, Anna tried to convince herself that the Angel was threatening her, but it was too obvious that the Angel was sincerely trying to warn her.

However, the Angel still flinched whenever Anna moved, acting like she still thought that Anna was going to begin that day's tortures with something new, and brutal.

She still couldn't accept the fact that Anna was actually trying to help her.

This was because of the Angel's complete loss of hope. She had suffered for so long at the hands of Humans, the Church, and even the god who created her.

But, even after all the pain that she had gone through, and the belief that Anna was an enemy, she still tried to warn Anna... Still tried to help her.

This was how a real Angel should be.

As Anna touched the first of the nails, one in the Angel's right wrist, the Angel whimpered quietly, bracing herself for the anticipated agony.

Anna sighed, she knew that this would hurt the poor girl intolerably, but she also knew that it had to be done.

Placing a hand over the Angel's mouth, she quickly pulled the nail out. The Angel let out a muffled shriek, but this was nothing, pain wise. So she kept her presence of mind, casting a slightly questioning look at Anna.

Bracing herself, Anna moved to the nails in the Angel's large, but still somehow perky, breasts. She knew that she should do these ones next, so as to allow the Angel to breathe properly.

Eliciting muffled screams and uncontrollable twisting from the still restrained Angel, she pulled the two spikes out as quickly as she could.

When the nails were removed, the Angel began to gasp, seeming happy to be able to breathe properly again.

Moving her hands down, Anna grabbed the next nail that she would remove, making sure remove it out before the Angel could move, she thought that would make it easier to get out.

As she pulled the massive nail out, she realized that while it was fairly thick, the width of three fingers, it was surprisingly long, it stretched and distorted, changing shape as she pulled.

While it was large and stretched out the Angel's internal organs and cause unimaginable pain, both when still inside and when it was being removed.

It was also strangely pliable and came out with surprisingly little damage to the insides of the Angel.

It was similar to the tubes that were pushed down the patient's throat in hospitals, to supply oxygen when the patient couldn't breathe.

But this device was designed to cause pain, and it looked like partially melted metal, Anna couldn't imagine how it had been put into the Angel.

The Angel shrieked and squirmed as Anna removed the strange instrument, apologizing constantly.

She felt sick and could barely continue, but she knew that it would be worse if she stopped, so gritting her teeth and continued.

Finally the strange metal filling was removed from the Angel, crimson runes covered its surface.

Once the metal filling was removed, Anna was worried that the Angel would bleed to death, but the wounds healed unexpectedly quickly.

"T, thank, you..." The Angel gasped as she spoke, but it seemed that most of her pain had been coming from her metal filling, but no torturers had ever removed it before.

Anna looked at the Angel's face and couldn't help but apologize over and over.

She also knew that the next part would hurt, maybe not as much as the metal in her intestines, but it had to be done. Bracing herself, and forcing the bile back down her throat, she began removing the spikes from the Angel's joints and wings.

After what seemed like an eternity, Anna thought that ordeal was over, the spikes were removed and the Angel had collapsed onto her ruined knees. She screamed, but she didn't shift her position.

On her hands and knees, it was revealed to Anna that the Angel's back was covered in whip marks, and she also had to remove a large and spiky instrument that she didn't notice because of the Angel's positioning before.

Anna skipped over that part, but from her sickened look, it disgusted her more than most of the Angel's visible wounds.

The flesh on the Angel's body was writhing and moving strangely as she healed at an incredible rate. It seemed that the nails had served the purposes of restraint, unending pain, and inhibiting the Angel's natural regenerative powers.

Kneeling on the ground, the Angel had her mostly bare wings wrapped around her body. She was desperately hugging herself, trying to shield herself from the world, to protect herself from the still lingering pain in her body and the almost constant pain that came from her memory.

Anna stood beside the curled-up Angel, looking at her, a feeling of rage and hatred building within her. She felt rage towards the despicable Humans, and the abomination of a god who would give such a beautiful and good creature over to the mercy of those Humans.

He even encouraged them in tormenting her.

After waiting for the Angel to regenerate a bit more, Anna gently placed a hand on the undamaged skin of the Angel's shoulder, causing her to twitch and look up at her.

The Angel still seemed confused as to why Anna had released her, and why she hadn't started torturing her yet, the Angel believed that maybe this was some new form of psychological torture.

Anna again explained that she wasn't going to hurt the girl, and the Angel finally seemed as though she was starting to believe her, a slight light had returned to her eyes and her shivering had decreased slightly.

"So, why did you help me?" The Angel's voice was soft, and strangely melodic. Anna felt like her heart was pulsing to the girl's words.

The strange reaction caused Anna to twitch and back off slightly.

"I can't leave someone in such pain, living through such suffering. I was summoned as a Hero, so I have a conscience," Anna smiled reassuringly at the Angel, her eyes were sucked deeply into the Angel's golden eyes.

She felt something strange brush against her mind, it didn't hurt her, but it felt strangely massive, and ancient.

The Angel tilted her head in confusion.

Anna was taken aback, she felt some form of odd attraction or almost magnetic pull from the Angel.

It scared her, if it had been a sexual attraction, she would have understood it and not been frightened, but this was different... It was more as though she wanted to protect and obey this being, helping her with everything she had.

She didn't know that this was a deeply ingrained reaction of a lower league being to being in the presence of a higher league being, and she had removed the bindings from the nails and Runes which hid this.

"I feel something similar when I look at you..." Anna looked at me with narrowed eyes for a second before muttering again, "But is that such a bad thing?"

I smiled at her, trying to reassure her.

Anna looked at me again and then sighed, she shrugged with a slightly apathetic look before continuing her story.

"I see, well, thank you," the Angel smiled, though her mouth was full of blood, staining her perfect teeth.

Anna nodded to her, she would have said more, but she was struggling to keep her mind and will from being affected by the unintended effect of the Angel's Aura.

"Is there any way that I can protect my friend and brother, the two who were summoned alongside me, from Arre?"

Anna noticed that the Angel twitched at Arre's name.

The Angel frowned slightly and Anna felt the almost uncontrollable urge to do anything to bring the beautiful smile to that bruised, but alluring face.

"I am sorry, you are already marked, from even before you were summoned. There is no way to escape his claws, he will feed. Since you are female, and if your friend is as well, he will make you into eternal toys, suffering under him and the true Angels, tormented in his realm."

Anna felt at an intense surge of fear at the Angel's words.

She twitched back, for she knew the Angel had no reason to lie to her, the Celestial Being was telling the truth.

This was when Anna's heart broke, for the first time. Or at least when her heart started to show signs of cracking.

The Angel seemed to contemplate something, her golden eyes narrowed as she stared deeply into Anna's eyes.

Anna felt as though her soul was being read.

"I, I have lived for far too long. I have a way to supply you a tiny amount of protection... It will also allow my body to die, for me to not feel this pain anymore. Finally I can be partially released from this world; you will understand my words later..." The Angel spoke quietly and slightly hesitantly, though she added on extra part when she saw the confusion in Anna's eyes.

Anna felt slightly surprised.

She knew that the Angel had suffered a lot, and probably also done bad things when serving Arre, before she was thrown away.

The Angel watched Anna's face for a short time before she unfurled her wings.

Even though her wounds were healed, she still seemed as though she was suffering, Anna suspected that one of the effects of the Magic was to imprint the pain into the Angel's nervous system, making so her torture would never end.

With slow movements, the Angel reached out and grabbed Anna's arms, struggling to pull herself to her feet.

When Anna realized what the Angel was doing, she quickly grabbed the soft and delicate hands which were reaching out to her and helped the Angel stand up.

After the Angel managed to struggle to her feet, she collapsed forwards into Anna's embrace.

"Forgive me for this," she whispered softly, her eyes glowing and sucking Anna in, stopping her from moving. Anna found out that while she could still move, she lost control of her body, lowering her head toward the Angel.

Her lips met the soft lips of the Angel, the soft and plump lips felt nice on Anna's.

Anna felt shocked.

To Anna, the Angel tasted both of blood and an unidentifiable but incredibly sweet taste, something Anna could only describe as Ambrosia, the drink of the Gods.

Suddenly the Angel parted her lips, Anna, without her control, followed her motion, she still hadn't regained control of her body and she was scared.

Without warning, something flowed from within the Angel's mouth and into Anna's, and in turn down her throat.

Anna struggled to swallow before she suffocated.

The liquid, seemingly condensed energy, kept flowing down her throat without pause.

Just as Anna felt like she was about to drown, the flow stopped and the Angel's body turned into dust and floated away, even though there was no breeze.

Anna felt the Angel's essence melt into her body, feeling herself changing. To her senses, she was rapidly getting stronger, and she could feel an unknown energy surrounding her body, permeating her.

Then she noticed that she could somehow feel the Angel inside her, an ancient mind and immense presence, which seemed to be mostly asleep somewhere behind her own consciousness.

Anna decided that one day she would resurrect the Angel, and allow her to finally live a good life.

As she was telling me this story, Anna was sobbing almost uncontrollably again, I started having trouble understanding her words.

When she spoke of the Angel's loss, I saw an unconscious look of bliss cross her eyes, she didn't notice it.

After finish speaking of her internal promise to resurrect the Angel, she blushed and looked into my eyes, "I don't make it a habit to kiss girls, but for some reason, recently..." Anna softly touched her lips with her hand as she spoke.

For some reason, Anna was trying to explain all of her lip work recently, she was blushing and acted flustered.

Emitting a strange noise, she recovered and drew her mind back to her story.

Feeling an odd numbness in her limbs, her mind was slowing down, she realized that she was going into shock. She felt the uncontrollable need to return to the room that she shared with Mike and Shannon as quickly as she could, and then lay down on the comfortable bed and just shiver while hiding under a warm blanket...to use it to protect herself from the scary world, like she used to do when she was a child.

As she was sneaking out of the now empty room, she realized that the stench of the Angel's blood and other bodily fluids was starting to make her feel sick.

She also felt freezing cold, her body was trembling like she had been thrown naked into a snowstorm.

Peeking out the door, Anna made sure that the guard wasn't nearby.

She darted down the corridor and up the staircase.

Luckily she didn't even hear a single footstep of the patrolling guard.

Running as quickly, but quietly, as she could, she finally made her way back to the room.

On the return journey, like on the way out, she didn't pass anyone.

Shannon and Mike were peacefully sleeping, so Anna managed to sneak into the room and jump onto the bed, wrapping the blanket around herself without anyone asking any awkward questions.

All she could do was curl into a ball and shiver.

There was no way that she could imagine falling asleep, the image of the ruined body of the Angel, and the graphic descriptions that the Angel had given her on some of the things that the humans did, was seared into her head.

The thought of ending up like that terrified her, but according to the Angel, she was already marked by Arre.

Barely managing to get her thoughts back under control, she decided to focus on the thought that she would help the Angel. She found that making the decision had somehow allowed her to decrease her fear.

She would bring the Angel back to life, and she felt that the massive consciousness could lock its own memories, allowing it to have a second chance at life, without the pain and memories.

As she said to all of this to herself, she heard something.

"Thank you." A soft, inhuman voice, whispered inside her head. The Angel's consciousness was obviously slightly aware of her surroundings and her host's thoughts.

"Am I insane?" Anna asked me, worry in her eyes.

In return, and for the first time for quite a while, I stared deeply into her emerald-green eyes.

Probing deeper, I surprisingly saw the brief flash of another consciousness look out at me, assessing me... It seemed strangely similar to Master, making me feel a deep nostalgia.

"You are sane," I reassured the worried Anna, who knelt in my arms, looking at me worriedly.

Her worry disappeared and she looked reassured.

With a happy smile, she continued her story.

Just after hearing the voice, she suddenly felt a strange pressure fill her head. She felt agony that seemed similar to a super migraine, surges of pain lancing through her head. It itched and burned, and suddenly she felt her Soul Skill activate.

Everything seemed to distort.

Her memories twisted and writhed, shifting and changing in a way that terrified her. They rapidly shifted between fuzzy and clear, the contents changing and reverting.

Anna said that she suddenly felt strangely ethereal, almost like she became a phantom or ghost. The odd reaction of her Soul Skill and memories terrified her.

But she drifted into unconsciousness suddenly and without warning, not even realizing when her agonized writhing changed into the blissful darkness and oblivion of unconsciousness.

This event must have been localized to the Human capital since I didn't sense anything, and Arre wasn't powerful enough to use a worldwide spell without me detecting it, especially since I was just below demigod, and he was only a particularly powerful Younger God.