PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

<Name: Cecilia Laezir. Two-star class, medium level.

Human race. (?)

Energy System: Mana.

Elemental Affinity: Light.>

<Warning.>

<Celestial energy signature detected.>

<Analyzing...>

<Celestial Embryo detected.>

<Updating report.>

<Name: Cecilia Laezir. Two-star class, medium level.

Race: Human/Celestial Embryo.

Power System: Mana/Arcana.

Elemental Affinity: Light.

Arcane Law: Compassion.>

<Warning>

<A celestial embryo has been detected. According to the internal code of hunters\' interdimensional association, a high-level alert will be issued to report such information.>

<Notification>

<The high-level alert has been overridden.>

<A Celestial has taken the case under her supervision.>

<New emergency mission issued.>

<Mission: Guard the Celestial Embryo>

<Emergency mission aborted under the authority of the celestial in charge of the case.>

<Warning: Any damage to the Celestial Embryo by Hunter Desmond Astryd will be considered a direct attack on the Celestial Race and will be met with extreme measures.>

With the end of the endless list of notifications came an expression of extreme helplessness and irony from Desmond. All his questions and doubts were answered instantly, and all he had to do was use the stupid analysis function on Cecilia; Desmond wanted to find a wall solid enough to smash his head in and die.

"It took you quite a while." Dozens or perhaps hundreds of female voices of different tones and nuances came in unison, forming a single voice of melodious composition, bringing an air of purity and dominance.

Desmond didn\'t even look surprised; when he saw the notification about Celestial taking custody of the case, Desmond knew precisely what was going on and who was responsible for it all.

Seeing Katya float calmly behind him only cemented the truth of Desmond\'s assumptions. That same long white hair, those eyes like suns, and that same supreme beauty; It was no exaggeration to say that Katya was the most beautiful woman Desmond had ever seen.

However, the archangel\'s beauty only distracted Desmond for a fraction of a second, no matter how dreamlike Katya\'s appearance was; Desmond was in no mood to appreciate her.

"What the hell is going on, Katya?" Genuinely annoyed by the neutral look on Katya\'s face, Desmond pulled no punches and questioned the archangel, not caring at all about the difference in power between them.

However, Katya was neither offended nor upset by Desmond\'s outburst. She just watched everything calmly, which caused Desmond\'s expression to darken even more.

"I do not understand your question." A couple of words finally slipped from Katya\'s fragrant lips, but they were far from what Desmond wanted to hear.

"I\'m not in the mood to follow your games. What the hell is a celestial embryo?"

"It\'s exactly what you think it is."

"What will happen to Cecilia?"

"As long as you protect her properly, nothing will happen to her."

"Why was this not reported to the association? It seems this must have been handled by someone else long before it fell into my hands, or am I wrong."

"It was not necessary."

"Damn it, don\'t come to me with that. You could clearly get Cecilia out of this place and end all the problems; Why leave her here to experience all this torment?"

"It is necessary for her to be reborn as a Celestial."

"Are you even going to tell me how that is supposed to happen?"

"Sharing such information is unnecessary."

If it was possible, Desmond would have wanted to insult Katya to death for her shitty responses, but even as angry as he was, Desmond was still well aware of how suicidal it would be to do that.

His anger was not only because of how vague and dry Katya\'s answers were but also because Desmond didn\'t believe a single word. A contradiction, the answers given by Katya didn\'t seem to fit with the information Desmond got from the hunter\'s book. Instead, it appeared that Katya was somehow using her authority to overwrite the commands in the pad to censor the whole event.

This made Desmond aware once again of a problem he had previously noted within the association; the authority of the celestials. As the founding fathers of the association, the members of the celestial race had a lot of power. Although they remained primarily neutral, according to Elaisa\'s words, there were times like this when they imposed their will.

At first, the influence of the Celestials within the association contradicted the so-called neutrality of the association itself. Still, as it was a subject beyond Desmond\'s purview, he hadn\'t overthought it.

Unfortunately, none of that mattered now. Katya was not someone Desmond could challenge. She also seemed to have seized the authority of both his mission and the discovery of the celestial embryo, so Desmond\'s hands were essentially tied.

"You\'re upset."

"You think? It must be because I don\'t like being manipulated so blatantly."

Looking thoughtful for a brief moment, Katya nodded in understanding before adding. "I understand; I\'ll try to be more discreet next time."

Desmond almost spit blood at Katya\'s strange comment, but when he was about to respond, Katya gave him a genuinely confused look before adding.

"That was a joke. didn\'t I do it right?"

What else could Desmond do besides smile helplessly? As annoying as Katya can be, it was clear that she had zero social skills, and this wasn\'t the first weird conversation Desmond had with the archangel where this became apparent.

"For such a beautiful woman, you have no charisma." Desmond commented with a tired smile, but little did he know that his response would elicit an intense reaction from Katya.

Two suns completely filled Desmond\'s field of vision, and everything around him seemed to lose meaning for a brief moment, his mind hazy, waiting for the will of the owner of those suns.

"Do you think I\'m beautiful?"

"The most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life."

"You want me?"

"I don\'t."

"Why?"

"You\'re beautiful, but you\'re not my type."

The sequence of questions and answers was almost monotonous, but the light of consciousness soon returned to Desmond\'s eyes, who glared at Katya, who had just played with his mind.

However, Katya showed no conscience at all for having manipulated Desmond\'s mind; she seemed to be distracted in her own thoughts by something that she probably had nothing to do with Desmond.

"Relationships are complicated."

Katya muttered a couple of words to herself, but as soon as Desmond heard them, he immediately knew the problem. The archangel was still having trouble understanding human relationships and love, which must have made her life difficult.

Feeling downright powerless in the face of this antisocial entity of immense power, Desmond had to sit on the bed and massage his temples to contain his current exasperation.

Having calmed down a bit, Desmond commented. "How difficult is it for you to understand love?"

But instead of an answer, Katya delivered another question. "Tell me, can a tool be loved?"

A tool, that\'s what Katya called herself; this certainly baffled Desmond greatly. Usually, Katya had been very proud of who and what she was, but right now, there was a trace of genuine confusion and anxiety on her face.

Desmond didn\'t know how to respond, or rather, he didn\'t dare to react for fear of what Katya would why Demond couldn\'t bring himself to answer that to the archangel.

Desmond came up with an answer he would give Katya in a moment of inspiration. "I don\'t think do. Why was Desmond afraid? Well, that\'s because the answer to Katya\'s question was quite simple but cruel. Tools can\'t be loved and shouldn\'t be loved, that was the answer, and it was easy to see why Demond couldn\'t bring himself to answer that to the archangel.

Desmond came up with an answer he would give Katya in a moment of inspiration. "I don\'t think that\'s the right question, Katya. I think the real question is, can a tool love? and if you can love, so it\'s even a tool in the first place?"

To a certain extent, Desmond\'s words were nothing more than sophistry, but that was the best he could give to an entity that he did not understand. Perhaps, instead of wondering what a tool is or is not allowed to do, it was better to wonder if it was even a tool they were talking about.

Desmond was too ignorant to know that the words he had given to Katya and the doubts these words would cause the archangel were, to some extent, the greatest sacrilege a celestial can commit. But it was too late, the seed of doubt had been planted inside Katya\'s mind, and it was difficult to estimate its consequences.

"I see." That was all Katya replied.

Seeing Katya\'s wings begin to give off a faint glow, Desmond knew immediately that the archangel was preparing to leave, but he couldn\'t just let her go.

"Wait."

The glow on Katya\'s six wings remained, but it had stopped increasing; Katya met Desmond\'s eyes with hers, waiting patiently; she didn\'t seem to be in the mood to continue the previous conversation.

Ignoring Katya\'s grumpy mood, Desmond did his best to describe his current problem with Cecilia, which could roughly be summed up in Desmond\'s last words when explaining: "I can\'t protect her."

"You can not?"

"You have to be kidding me. Just one holy knight is enough trouble; twelve of them are more than I can handle."

"You just have to beat all twelve of them."

"Assuming that was feasible, there would still be an entire army behind them; the church would not let Cecilia live no matter what."

"In that case, just crush their army."

Desmond was speechless, he never expected Katya\'s demands to be so irrational, and it didn\'t matter how much Desmond burned his brain; he couldn\'t find a way to make Katya\'s words work.

Sensing Desmond\'s doubts but not in the mood to stay any longer, Katya just gave Desmond a slight sidelong glance with her attention focused on a particular point of his person or, rather, an object in his person.

"These parasites are very confident in themselves; show them your pride Desmond Astryd."

Without another word, Katya flapped her wings and disappeared from the room in a flash of golden light, leaving Desmond in a thoughtful state as he held the sword scabbard at his waist.

We finally get a glimpse of Katya\'s reasons for sending Desmond to care for Cecilia. What did the archangel mean by showing them her pride? As always, all comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.