When they arrived at the inn, Velvet immediately crashed her back on the bed after taking off her clothes except the dress and glove as the sleeves and coat were sown together in the black belt around her shoulders. The therion had decided to let her hair loose for a bit before fixing it but her mind was on something else as she stared at the ceiling. Kurumi had joined Mikleo and Lailah in Sorey's room to calm Alisha down a bit.

Velvet looked sadly at the ceiling as she thought about her ruthless attacks against the palace guards under their escape.

"I did it again but I had to, Simon." Velvet thought out loud in hope that her love could hear her. "In order to protect them." She held up her hand to look at it in determination. "I will use this power to protect them and set things right, to hold my promise to you as the Lord of Calamity that I still am."

A knock on the door snapped Velvet back in reality after the long time of peace and quiet from what happened a few hours ago, she didn't expect someone to go and knock on her room.

"Who is it?" Velvet asked as she sat up on the bed.

"It's me, Sorey. I really need to talk to you." Sorey said on the other side.

"You can come inside. I have nothing to hide." Velvet told him. 'Except your origin.' Sorey walked in with a troubled expression on his face which worried the therion. "What's wrong, Sorey?"

"I've been thinking about what happened in the aqueduct, I shouldn't be able to use seraphic Artes outside the armatus, I'm a human." The Shepherd explained as he sat down beside her. "How did you react when you first obtained your powers?"

"My therion powers came in my head on instinct and I just used it without paying attention." Velvet explained as much as she could to not mention her past. "While my seraphic abilities activated when I was thinking about my husband saving my life, healing an old wound that wouldn't heal. I was trained to use my abilities by an old seraph later on."

"Then I guess I'm the only one in this situation." Sorey pointed out before sighing. Velvet placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you're scared of hurting people with your new power. I can show you how I managed to control my powers." Velvet held out her hand and summoned a flame in her palm. "Try finding your inner flame. These flames can't be extinguished no matter how much you try." Sorey closed his eyes and the Nephilim had her hands close to his hand after dismissing her flame in the process. "Now, try making a similar flame in your hand without getting it out of control."

Sorey concentrated as much as possible and after a few minutes, a blue flame appeared in his palm and opened his eyes to see the flame burning in his hand. Velvet was smiling proud over that her son learned it so quickly, the mother usually summoned that flame as a reminder and sign of hope for her to keep moving forward.

"This is amazing." Sorey said in happiness.

"The flames that resembles you are the flames of purification." Velvet told him. "A sign of purity and the Shepherd. The blue color is symbolizing the sky and sea, meaning wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven."

"You know a lot about that." Sorey commented as Velvet stood up to walk to the fireplace in the room. "Who taught you?"

"My husband." The black haired woman replied as she stared at the flames. Sorey unconsciously dismissed the flame in his hand when he saw the sad look in Velvet's eyes. "He would always talk about the discoveries he had made and I usually don't take any interest in what people told me when it came to that stuff but something was different when he was the one that explained it. I would listen for hours and hours without complaining, founding it interesting." Velvet chuckled quietly at the memory. "It's quite funny really, consider I'm not actually the type that goes looking for information about culture, history, items. You name it. Guess that's how it is when you love someone that much."

"He was an adventurer!" Sorey replied excited and the black haired woman giggled.

"You could say that but after meeting me, he took his adventuring to a stop to take care of me and our baby as well getting on with his research."

"You had a baby?" Velvet realized she told him that by accident as those were important memories to her.

"Yeah, I had one but he died by the time my husband died. Please, don't ask about my son. It brings back bad memories." Velvet knew that didn't happen but how else could she avoid questions like that when she knows the truth. "It's something I don't like to discuss."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad like that but you seemed so happy when you talked about your husband." The Nephilim turned to look at Sorey surprised as those words reminded her of something Laphicet would have said.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad to have these memories of him. Everytime I go to check on him under his research, he would jump out of his chair when he notice me there. He would always ask if I'm okay when I act different than I usually do. He could be silly at times but he was gentle and kind to everyone. He saw me as myself from the time he found me out in the forest, not as a monster nor sacred being. Just the person under that I have hidden from so many people." Velvet crossed her arms as she kept herself from crying. "I miss him a lot, he was different from normal humans."

"Is it okay if I ask you his name?" Sorey was now standing up and placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort, Velvet smiled as she let a tear run down her face.

"His name was Simon. The most wise and kindest person you could ever meet." Velvet wiped away the tear to not start crying. "You remind me of him a lot."

"I'm just trying to help you overcome that sad look of yours, it didn't fit your image. You're pretty with that smile of yours."

"Thank you, Sorey. You're one of the only two that make me comfortable to talk about these kind of things."

After a long conversation between the two, Sorey decided to go back to his room to sleep of the stress from earlier. After saying good night, Sorey left Velvet alone in the room again. The therion was happy to get to know her son after 17 years away from him, knowing that Zenrus raised him well to be a kindhearted person just like his father. She walked to her bed to look under it to get out her bag, taking out the book of her past and the truth of the history of the world. Velvet took a deep breath as she also took out Simon's letter to her which had started to get old with time, she had kept it with her as a reminder. Velvet stared at it happy before deciding to get some rest, hiding the book and letter back into her bag.


The next morning, everyone was gathered in Sorey's room to talk about their next move to get blessing to the world and find the Lord of Calamity. Velvet's mind was on her past once again, trying to finding clues from her adventure and her life with Simon about the Shepherd while the young people in front of her was talking to each other after what had happened the night before. Sorey was glancing at the black haired woman a few times and thought about their conversation the other night.

'How do she live with all that sadness?' Sorey thought sadly. 'I'll have to talk to her later on about it.'

"I've decided I'm going to Marlind." Alisha suddenly said which brought everyone's attention.

"That's a plague town!" Mikleo pointed out. "You can't really mean to obey them?!"

"Whatever twisted motives the chancellor may carry, the order is official." Alisha clarified to the group. "And besides… it doesn't change the fact that Marlind is suffering."

"I see, that's the only reason you're going through this." Velvet said, knowing what the princess was thinking.

"Yes, I want to do everything I can for the people of Hyland." Alisha finished and Velvet nodded.

"Alisha…" Sorey said, snapping out of his thinking.

"If you found yourself in that situation again, you're on your own." Velvet pointed out. "You have to follow your own path, alright?"

"Of course, Velvet." Alisha agreed. "May the council and people laugh, so be it. I want to do my best to help everyone I can and redeem the council's action."

'She acts like Eleanor, even before she knew of me being a daemon back in Hellawes.' Velvet thought in amusement.

"Alright, I'm coming with you." Sorey said and Kurumi sighed in annoyance.

"Sorey, this is Alisha's problems. We shouldn't be involved in these situations to be fair." Kurumi said serious and worried.

"But how do you plan on getting to Marlind? The bridge has washed away." Sorey pointed out while standing up. "If Velvet haven't gotten a better idea?"

"The only way to get to Ladylake was through Marlind and over the bridge." Velvet explained. "There is another way there but it'll take longer time to get there as well. You won't be saving a lot of lives by taking that route."

"So we have to wait until the bridge is fixed in order to get to the other side." Lailah guessed and the Nephilim nodded.

"It's only been a day since we helped Uno at the bridge so they should've started with the foundation of it at least." Velvet told them before she frowned. "We'll need that bridge if we're going to continue with finding the Lord of Calamity to set a stop to this."

"There's something I need to ask you." Mikleo said, which made Velvet look at him. "Why do you want to stop the Lord of Calamity so badly?" The room was quiet except the crackles of the flames in the fireplace as the black haired woman curled her fists.

"Because he killed people dear to me before he became a Lord of Calamity." Velvet replied angry, shocking and terrifying everyone in the room. "I know his identity and everything, but I want him to feel the suffering that he made the people in my village have. I might be the only survivor from that time."

"You're doing this for revenge?!" Mikleo exclaimed while standing up.

"I've already done that once to someone I used to consider my family." Velvet pointed out, glaring at the water seraph. "But I'm not doing this for just revenge, there's another reason why I want him dead. A more personal thing that I can't tell that easily. It isn't easy to purify a being with that amount of malevolence."

"Mikleo, what Velvet is telling us is that she has a personal goal of her own under this journey." Lailah told the beginners of the group. "She might be the only one we know that can't be affected by malevolence. I know you three are tired from last night but arguing about someone's personal goal isn't the answer."

"I have to agree. Lady Velvet is fighting with her will to stop this while the Shepherd fight because he have to." Kurumi agreed and Velvet was starting to feel her anger about Artorius again when hearing those words but then saw that the malevolence coming out of her hands as it slowly goes up her body.

'Oh no! I'm starting to lose control of my malevolence. I need to get out of here.' Velvet thought in panic and ran out of the room to not reveal her secret which shocked the group.

"Velvet!" Alisha called out worried as she stood up from her sitting position on the bed.

"Kurumi, what's wrong with Velvet?" Sorey asked the wolf. "Did we say something wrong or something?" Kurumi shaked her head as an answer.

"I'll go check on her, I think I know what happened. We'll meet you at the bridge." She said before going after the Nephilim.

Kurumi checked their room but Velvet wasn't there, so the wolf had to search for her sent and followed it through the town. After a little while, Kurumi found Velvet at the spot where they were without the wolf, standing by the edge while looking out at the ocean but the aura of malevolence was coming out of her body.

"I see, that's the reason." Kurumi said as she arrived, revealing to Velvet about her presence.

"Yeah, I was starting to panic a bit. I just wanted to get away from them to calm down." Velvet explained guilty. "I knew this would happen sooner or later." Velvet turned around to face her friend. "You can come here, my malevolence doesn't spread like it normally do."

"Apologizes, an old habit." Kurumi said as she and the therion sat down by the edge. "Is the malevolence coming out because of you were with your son?"

"No, the only way for this to appear is when I'm feeling hatred or despair without control. I didn't tell you because you would misunderstand the situation of my malevolence."

"How long has this been going on exactly? Ever since you saved my life from those hunters, I never sensed malevolence nearby." Velvet narrowed her eyes at the memory of her awakening as a therion, knowing exactly how it appeared and the moments she's discovered about it.

"Ever since I was turned into a therion. You know that I was forced into a hellion with a special case? There's two different types of malevolence inside me. One of hatred and the other despair, the reason I can't tell because I made a promise to myself and a friend."

"I see. When they mentioned words that have connections to your past and you told them a bit of your goal which made you lose control of your mental wall. I can see why you would want to keep it a secret, especially when you are immune to the flames of purification's power as you have your own." Velvet put on a small smile as the aura slowly disappeared.

"That's true, besides I've been like this for so long now that there's no turning back to being human again." Kurumi chuckled at the comment. "Sorey is going for a real surprise when finds out how old I really am."

"You seem to be in a better mood about Lord Sorey now, something happened last night?"

"We just had a little conversation and me promising to teach him how to use seraphic abilities. He still have a lot to learn about himself, his powers and his role. This world isn't what it is said to be if you don't look closely."

"Then should we go and check on what our comrades are doing, otherwise they will get into trouble."

"True. If he's like Simon, trouble would get to him instead."

"You seem more happy than usual, did something interesting happen last night?" Velvet stood up as she stared at the ocean.

"Who knows? I've been feeling a lot better since we got here."

Kurumi silently giggled as she knew what Velvet had meant. The black haired woman had gotten more happy since they've met the young Sorey and the seraphim accompanying him, it made the wolf happy to see the woman with more energy than normal which was an improvement you could say.

The two begun to walk to the bridge but something felt off and Velvet asked Kurumi to ask Alisha, who was at the bridge with a few guards. Velvet had a pretty good chance that the stream was too powerful for them to work on it in a matter of a day despite they fixed the problem but Sorey wasn't in sight. Kurumi came back in a hurry as if something had happened. The duo haven't been that far behind from Sorey and the others and still the females haven't seen the Shepherd and his seraphim companions since their arrival.

"What's wrong, Kurumi?" Velvet asked the wolf. "What did Alisha say?"

"Lord Sorey has gone to Rayfalke Spiritcrest to find an earth seraph for help!" Kurumi replied.

"Those idiots!" Velvet exclaimed a little angry as she ran forwards another path nearby forwards a big mountain rage. "A full fledge dragon is rumored to live on the Spiritcrest. He's as reckless as his father!"

"They left a while ago, with Lailah's informations of things are under the rock."

'Sorey is still not used to his powers yet, he'll get himself killed if he continue like this.' Velvet thought worried. 'I want to help Eizen but I can't risk my only child's life to do it.'

Velvet and Kurumi hurried as fast as they could up the mountain as they heard some type of sound that Velvet had heard somewhere before as well people talking. When they arrived, they saw Sorey, Mikleo and Lailah face to face with a very familiar seraph that sended a pendulum on Sorey, how dodged it all, as they prepared to fight that made Velvet sigh in disbelief before using her flames to teleport, surprising Kurumi a bit as she got to the group slowly.

"Do you really think I'd be willing to just drop the Shepherd and his toadies into the dragon's lap, so he can gobble them right up?" Zavied said to Sorey as they were to start the fight until they saw flames appearing in front of them.

Velvet came out of the flames and kicked Zavied before taking out her therion claw, slamming it at Zavied, who rolled around a bit away from the group. Sorey was a bit surprised at the sudden appearance as Kurumi came to the group before shaking her head in disappointment.

"Who are you to just appear out of nowhere and barge into our fight?" Zavied asked a bit irritated as he slowly stood up.

"I should be asking you that question myself ever since we first met." Velvet growled a bit as the wind seraph looked up only to be shocked of Velvet's presence.

"Velvet?" Zavied asked in disbelief.

"The one and only." Velvet replied as she transformed her arm back. "It's been a long time, Zavied. What happened to your old creed of not killing anyone?"

"Heh, a lot has changed since you disappeared all those years ago." Zavied answered as Velvet walked close and takes out her gauntlet blade which made the wind seraph flinch. "Okay, okay! Don't need to take out everything deadly!"

"Kurumi, do you know why Velvet knows Zavied?" Mikleo asked utterly confused why Zavied was a little afraid of the Nephilim.

"I'm afraid I don't. We might have been travel partners for years but most of Lady Velvet's past is still untold to me." Kurumi replied.

"Well, we can count on their relationship wasn't that great." Sorey pointed out.

"So why is someone like you hanging around a Shepherd of all people?" Zavied asked as Velvet stopped, glancing back to see that they were quite far away from the group so they couldn't hear their conversation.

"I have my reasons." The therion explained. "I've lived here for the last twenty years, Zavied. I've changed too under the years and I know that the Shepherd isn't entirely human persay which is the reason why I'm with him."

"I see, you know the truth but keep it a secret, huh?" Zavied concluded. "Sounds like the old Velvet to me."

"I know how it is that way, I just don't want to talk about it when he's present." Velvet continued guilty. "All I can say is I'm involved in everything." Zavied just laughed at the sentence which irritated the woman as she crossed her arms.

"Then let me tell you why I'm here and then I'll leave you to your business." The wind seraph said before looking at the mountain. "I'm keeping a promise to Eizen. I'm going to use Siegfried to kill him, he has completely lost his sense of self now. It's the least I could do for him."

"It isn't too late to help Eizen." Velvet pointed out which made Zavied to look at her with an raised eyebrow. "I can devour the malevolence enough for the flames of purification to take effect, just give me some time and we'll bring him back in one piece."

"Using the Shepherd I suppose?" Zavied asked and Velvet looked away in shame.

"I'm not using him. I'm helping Sorey realize that it takes time to save the world." The former Lord of Calamity explained. "I've gotten stronger and Sorey need guidance or else he'll be like his predecessors."

"Alright, alright." Zavied said with a smile. "You have good entation to this. Invite me to the fun next time, your little adventure sounds exciting!"

"If you do this sort of thing again, I won't play nice." Velvet told the seraph before he started to walk away.

"Be careful about that dragon now! It isn't as strong as Silva but he packs a punch." Zavied warned them as he walked down the mountain as Velvet got back to the group.

"What is that guy's problem?" Mikleo asked irritated, definitely not liking Zavied.

"His power… It doesn't feel like purification at all." Sorey said a bit confused. "Almost more like it feeds on malevolence."

"No, that's not the case." Velvet replied. "It's the weapon he's carrying that have that sort of effect. It amplifies the power of those he hits which can be the result of what happened to that man." The whole group looked at the unmoving man on the ground with sadness, Sorey being the most affected over Zavied's action.

"Can we at least give him a proper burial?" Sorey asked the females of the group. Velvet crossed her arms as they looked at Lailah.

"What do you think, Lady Lailah?" Kurumi asked the fire seraph.

"Let him do it, it would affect him in a lot of ways." Lailah replied and Velvet nodded in agreement.

The group quickly buried the man and Sorey was looking at the little grave sadly over the man's fate. If he had known what Zavied would have done a few moments ago then he would have saved the man from death. The young Shepherd was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that Velvet walked in front of him and hit him on the forehead with a snap, Sorey exclaimed in pain and the seraphim laughed at the boy's reaction.

"Why did you do that?!" Sorey asked while rubbing the sore spot on his forehead.

"I didn't hit you that hard." Velvet pointed out before sighing. "Don't get this depressed when people die, Sorey. Sometimes when malevolence can get too tough to purify, death is the only option."

"But your therion arm? Doesn't it devour malevolence?" Sorey asked, getting Mikleo's attention too and Lailah looked down, somehow knowing the answer.

"In order to devour malevolence completely, I have to sever the source." Velvet explained as she shadowed her eyes with her bangs. "That means I have to kill my victims to gain their malevolence and abilities." She then looked up again. "Sorry, Sorey. That's the only way for those that can't control their malevolence to be purified. In the old times, the flames of purification didn't exist."

"What Velvet said is entirely true." Lailah pointed out a bit guilty.

"You don't have to say more, Lailah." Mikleo said with a smile. "We know you can't tell us because of your oath. We'll find out soon enough about all of this."

"Yeah, that's true." Sorey agreed with a smile of his own. "Now, let's find an earth seraph and fix the bridge so we can get to Marlind."

Velvet and Kurumi nodded in agreement as they continued up the Spiritcrest, however the Nephilim had sensed that there's really strong malevolence somewhere but it felt similar in a way. Something was on its way to them and it wouldn't be pleasant.