After being hit by the magic, the Shadow Empress felt her soul pulled from the aether and deposited into a terrifyingly bright space. Though she had a body, it was incorporeal, and she had no access to her mana realms, the gates were shut tight.

She began to walk along the light, with no landmarks, she just walked to avoid going crazy. After some time she heard a voice.

“Why must you always do the opposite of what I wish? If you could have just stayed put, this would have been over much quicker,” the voice rang out. Suddenly a woman was right beside her.

It was the Light Goddess, Hikari, in her full resplendent formal garb. The Shadow Empress would normally attempt to fight someone like this, but she was fairly sure that the goddess was the reason she was there, so she held back.

“So, why am I here miss Light Goddess? Wherever here is...” the Empress asked.

Seemingly unfazed, the goddess smiled and responded, “Because you have a role yet to play, and despite your previous life, you will ultimately be on the side of light.” The Empress frowned at that. She didn't like being told what to do. It was why she became Empress.

“And if I refuse to be your little pawn in whatever war is about to be waged, because I'm smelling a war. I should know, I started several,” the Empress shot back at the goddess. Despite this, the goddess felt it was going well. She knew how horrible the woman could be, and this was her at her most reasonable.

“Fortunately you can't refuse. I have saved you, I own you, and I will be reincarnating you. How it happens is completely up to you,” The goddess elaborated as they walked. The Empress would have tried to catch her lying, but this was the Light Goddess. She was the very definition of good.

“Fine I accept, what's the catch?” She asked cynically.

The Light Goddess smiled again, “Well, now that you mention it, you have to suffer a Divine Punishment. I know exactly which one I am going to give you too. Self-defense. You will only be able to kill if you are threatened. If you would please hold your arm out.” The Empress glared at her for a moment.

“I am only asking as a courtesy,” the goddess reminded, and the Empress thrust her right arm forward. The goddess pricked her own finger and traced her own symbol, a radiant sun, in blood on the Empress's arm. As soon as it finished, the blood boiled up and black flames engulfed the symbol, burning it into her skin.

“Now, you will be needed, but until then, goodbye Anatheia,” the goddess politely bid her farewell with an unfamiliar name, and then the light suddenly brightened until the only thing her mind would focus on was the light.

From the outside, the goddess looked at the woman who would now be Anatheia being placed into stasis in her divine realm. How many people had she killed? Was this really the best candidate.?

No, she was the only candidate, she corrected herself. She sighed before opening a portal to the other room. Time to deal with Her...

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Anatheia awoke to the sounds of birds, the feeling of brush covered ground beneath her, and a bit of sunlight falling upon her face. As her eyes flitted open, she saw the canopy of a forest above her, light filtering down between the branches.

She sat up and looked about the glade. A small pond sat nearby, and her parched throat cried for water, so she got up slowly and made her way over to it. Right as she was about to drink, she saw her reflection and paused to look.

She had shinging golden hair that ran all the way to her mid-back. Her eyes were gold with flecks of blood red. Around her neck she wore a heavy ring of black metal. However the most striking feature about her were the pair of wings on her back. Stretching, she shook them out to their full, massive size and took a closer look.

The very tips of the wings were white, the mid-section was a huge expanse of pitch-black feathers, and at the top blood-red feathers took up a third of the wings. They were very large, easily 12 feet tip to tip. She didn't feel like testing if she remembered how to fly, and leaned back in to drink before noticing a slight burning sensation on her arm.

She looked down to see a fiery, black brand in the symbol of the light goddess. That...was bad. She remembered the goddess placing this brand on her, what was that for again? She got flashes of a person she knew was herself, but she looked completely different. But she couldn't remember much. Only that she was quite capable with shadow magic.

Realizing this, she thought to check her status window

Name: Anatheia

Race: Angel - Fallen

Class: Angelic Healer

Level: 1

Titles: Fallen Angel , Punished

Funds:

Stats:

HP: 240

Mana: 240

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Toughness: 20

Agility: 10

Mind: 20

Perception: 10

Magical Affinities: Shadow, Light, Ice, Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Blood, Life

Abilities: Evaluate, Shadow Sight(Angelic ability), Angelic Recovery

Bonuses/Penalties: Divine Punishment - Self-defense

She grimaced at seeing herself at level 1. For some reason she felt she belonged higher, much higher. This was not her place, and she would reach the top, that she knew. She had taken quite some time to think, and as a result she was just thirstier than before.

This time, as she leaned over to drink, the sound of heavy, tramping steps came from the other side of the clearing. She spun around, tucking her wings as much as possible. There would be many who would kill an angel for their parts. Being such a low level, she wanted to lower her profile as much as possible.

The group that entered was 4 strong. At the head of the group was a scout, he wielded a crossbow and looked like someone who knew these woods well. Next was a man in full plate carrying a tower shield and curved sword. Then came a swordsman in leather armor, he held his sword in a two handed grip. Finally, bringing up the rear was someone in a cleric's robe and carrying a staff. Every one of them had the symbol of the Goddess of Light upon their equipment.

Oh fuck me, Anatheia thought to herself. She stood there doing nothing. She would wait for them to make the first move. If she felt threatened, she would fight. She just got here, she wasn't about to go that quick.

“Hail stranger! Did you happen to see the light that came down upon this glade?” The man in full mail asked her. With the passive use of examine, she found his name to be Taylor Kilroy. He was a human, level 5, and a shield knight. Evaluate offered a surprising amount of data.

Ana smiled and replied, “No I didn't, I was actually taking a nap and something woke me. It could have been the light. I am Anatheia by the way, pleasure to meet you.” As she spoke, she gestured to the right accidentally exposing her brand.

The entire party's eyes widened. For the Goddess of Light to use a brand that dark, this person had done horrible things. How were they only level 1?

Then the cleric noticed the wings, the ring about her neck, and began to tremble. This was not someone they should bother. She could be hiding her level after all.

“She's a Fallen Angel,” he exclaimed. Ana smiled again, but this one didn't reach her eyes.

“So what do you plan to do now that you know I am a Fallen Angel?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. The man with the crossbow faltered slightly and took a step back.

“Fallen Angels are no better than demons! You shall be eliminated in the name of Hikari,” Taylor proclaimed as they began moving towards her. All except for the cleric who took a few steps back.

“Wrong choice,” she laughed and dug deep, opened the doors into her Shadow mana world and unleashed the element into the air around them. A simple spell, Shadow Cover, but it completely blocked their vision. With her Shadow Sight from being an Angel, she was able to move through it easily.

As she came out of the other side of the ball of shadow smoke, she saw the cleric, cowering in fear. She grabbed his staff and tore it from his grasp.

“I'll be borrowing this thanks,” she cheerfully told him before re-entering the ball of shadow. Checking her mana she had plenty to do what she wanted. She held the staff out and forced light to coalesce around the end into the blade of a scythe.

Now that Ana had a weapon, she whirled the blade at the nearest enemy, the crossbow wielder. Since he couldn't see, and she could, the hit was almost a guaranteed critical. A second slice took his head from his shoulders and splattered her with blood. She dashed back to the right as the swordsman swung wildly and almost connected with her by pure chance.

Then she lopped off both of his hands before repeating the head-removal from the first enemy. This time she dodged the fresh spray of blood. At that time the shadow began dissipating and the shield knight saw her.

He rushed forward and tried to ram her with his shield, but Anatheia deftly danced out of his way and brought her scythe down against the back of one of his legs. Hobbled, but not dead, he did not surrender. He slammed his shield into the ground to stabilize it, and sunk into a ready stance.

Unfortunately for him all that did was anchor him and she darted around to his shield side. As she passed, she swiped at a gap in his the armor of his arm. Ana felt something sever and laughed coldly as the man screamed from the pain.

Unable to hold himself up any longer, he began to fall, but he still did not give up. He swiped at her in a half-spin from his knees. It was easy for her to dodge, but she admired his spirit. He was a warrior, and she would give him a warriors death. She changed her blade from a scythe into a spear, and without hesitation thrust it through his neck. With the martial types out of the way, Ana turned to find the cleric.

He was where she left him, except now he was on the ground which was suspiciously wet. She smiled, this would be fun. Checking her mana she saw she was low, so she dispersed the light blade and picked up the short sword. She gave it a few test swings, and ultimately determined it would do the job.

She swung at the man to finish the job, and suddenly her vision was filled with flashes of light as the brand on her arm burned with pain. The flames on the brand grew larger as the pain grew. Screaming in anger, Anatheia looked at the cleric again.

“You, are you going to tell anyone about me or what happened here?” She asked threateningly. He seemed dead terrified, so hopefully he would leave well enough alone.

“I-I-I have to n-notify t-the church h-how they d-d-died,” he stammered, and she frowned.

“I wish you would have lied,” She said, grimacing as she reached forward. She now knew he was a threat to her, and slit his throat to keep him quiet. The small spray of blood covered her face, just as one of her feathers turned red.

Looking at her status she saw that she had hit level 3 by slaughtering these church peons. If only they had left well enough alone, she wouldn't have had to kill them.

Oh well, their loss, she thought as she began to assign the attribute points she had received. As a supposed healer, she would need Mind without a doubt. And with her fighting style, Agility would be necessary.

After assigning her attribute points, she gathered everything off the bodies using the system. Ana put the Cleric's robe on, and despite it not having wing holes when it was on him, it had them for her. The system was tremendously convenient for things such as that. It was only a the second lowest rarity, a Gray item, <Robes of the Light Acolyte>, but it was the best in class for her due to the bonuses it provided. Most importantly it covered up the damn brand.

The cleric also happened to have a nice ring of Green rarity. The <Ring of Alternate Truths> gave her a nice boost to her Mind stat for this low level, and it allowed her to use the Deceive ability. For such an amazing item to be Green was a little disappointing, but she would find a way to keep it.

Deceive allows the user to hide their information by editing it. The only thing she really needed to edit was her race and class, but if she had a cover for her wings, she could pass as a human. There may actually be a way of hiding them magically, but she would have to think on it.

The ring was not the best, as it drained her mana every time someone examined her. But ultimately that was fine since it was such a useful and rare skill early. It made Ana wonder why a cleric of the Light Goddess of all beings had such a ring.

Finally, after keeping the short sword, and a pair of Gray <Boots of the Wind>, she scrapped the rest of the items. In return she got some low tier crafting items and some cash. Looks like this world used Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. As well as something called Titans. She furrowed her brow as she received 4 Silver and 84 Bronze from scrapping the items. She also collected another 18 Silver and 12 Bronze from the belongings of the religious adventurer's.

As she finished collecting and sorting the loot, she heard footsteps through the brush again. She activated her scythe, flared her wings, and spun to point it at the new invaders.

The lead member of this party of adventurers was a human woman, her shoulder-length black hair tied back into a high pony tail. She had tight fitting leather armor, and carried a long sword sheathed on her hip. As she walked into the clearing, all she saw was a blood-spattered angel with wild eyes weilding a scythe of light that was now pointed at her.

It took her breath away.

============================================================

Name: Anatheia

Race: Angel - Fallen

Class: Angelic Healer

Level: 3

Titles: Fallen Angel (Civilized Races Killed: 4) (Monsters Killed: 0) , Punished – Light Goddess

Funds:

Silver: 22

Bronze: 96

Stats(Added) [Equipment Bonus]:

HP: 360

Mana: 600

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Toughness: 20 [+10]

Agility: 20 (+10)

Mind: 30 (+10) [+20]

Perception: 10

Magical Affinities: Shadow, Light, Ice(Sealed), Fire(Sealed), Earth(Sealed), Wind(Sealed), Water(Sealed), Blood(Sealed), Life

Abilities: Evaluate, Shadow Sight(Angelic ability), Angelic Recovery, Deceive(item)

Bonuses/Penalties: Divine Punishment - Self-defense