Dei spent the rest of the day with his family, then it was time for business. The longer he waited, the longer his dad would suffer, so he couldn't stop and smell the roses, no matter how much he wanted to.

The moment his father was out of imprisonment and he was known to the government, his time on Earth would be limited. They would surely find a way to exploit him if he stayed too long, as any government was known to do.

So he set everything in motion immediately. One day for his family, which was yesterday. Today he would work on his alibi, his identity that would soon be known to the select few privy to magic.

Sitting in the passenger seat of his mother's car, he leaned out the window, letting the wind rustle his hair. It was a nice sensation he'd forgotten. Sure, he could run at the same speed as the car, but it wasn't the same when he was dodging attacks or running for his life. He didn't actually have to move when he was in the car, which made it a lot more relaxing.

They were on their way to Taj's house. He'd decided on a half-truth for who Dei was when it was time to tell his story, and how Dei related to the Hardie family.

He would say that he was a dimension-hopper, and that there were certain points in different universes he had to anchor himself to before he could make it there- of which, the Hardie household would be the anchor point for this universe, hence why they were the first to know him. He would tell them he was still very new to universe traveling, and didn't exactly know what constituted anchor points or allowed for him to leap to that particular universe, but he intended to leave as soon as he figured out how. Supposedly, traveling to the Hardies was a fluke he aimed to recreate.

All things that were partially true at least, but definitely not the full image. Dei still wanted to spend time with them though, so the second part was that they agreed to help Dei find his way on Earth in the short time he was here. Dei would live in their house for a bit, in exchange for a few favors.

For one, Dei would remove the curse placed on Taj. True, the Hardies did not like Taj, but they had an innocent daughter named Jennifer who suffered for something her parents had done. The Hardies, in their mercy, now had an expert magician at their disposal and managed to get him to agree to free Jennifer from her parent's curse. What wouldn't be said was how Dei wanted to see this pseudo-Leven, and was pretty sure he'd be able to do some incredibly interesting stuff with an echo of himself. He needed to take it, but also needed a reason to do so in a way that wouldn't make the government think he was specifically weaponizing it.

The next favor the Hardies asked of this "Dei" character was, of course, to free Oscar Hardie from his curse, and see if there was any way to permanently alleviate the issue.

The last and- most importantly- optional favor would be to free all the others who'd lost themselves to their affinities from their curses.

From discussing it with his mom, Dei found that his dad wasn't just in prison- he wasn't even in the state anymore. He'd been flown to a facility designed for people like him, where they would investigate his madness and see if they were somehow able to reverse it. From what Dei found, there had actually been some successes, but it wasn't the most effective. They were able to bring perhaps forty percent of the patients back to their senses, which was abysmally low for a cure to work but much higher than zero.

When his mother went there, she saw just how many other cells there were, and admittedly felt bad for them, so she asked him to help these people too.

He agreed, but decided to make half the reason for his own benefit as well- to gain small pieces of these people's affinities, and investigate any niche affinity they might have.

Dei already knew that Earth had unregulated affinities. This meant that it also had the affinities banned from the System, though he didn't actually know what they were. In a facility of people overwhelmed by magic, Dei had to guess that at least a few were from the list of banned affinities. After all, there had to be a reason for the System to kick an affinity out. If it had particularly adverse effects on someone, wouldn't that be more than enough of an excuse?

He admitted that he didn't think that's actually how it worked though. Edward- may Aloran rest his soul- gained the Madness affinity shortly before dying. If that wasn't directly harmful to people, Dei didn't know what was. Yet, the System hadn't banned it. What could be worse than literal Madness? No, it had to be some other criteria that made an affinity forbidden, and if Dei was going to find it at all, it would be in a large concentration of mana flooded people.

All in due time. All in due time. For now, he'd be working as a medium. The car ride to Taj's house was a bit quiet, all of them tense except for his mom. He sighed. 'Man I just want to interact with my echo, not Taj. I wish we could've kicked him out before I got there, but he just HAD to insist on meeting me first.'

It would be uncomfortable, no doubt, but Dei had long admitted to himself that he wasn't going to harm Taj any more than what'd already been done to him. He was crippled and cursed, so Dei could do little more than kill the man if he wanted revenge.

That would only hurt his child though, as Taj now worked from home as a remote agent in a call center and took care of Jennifer as a stay-at-home dad. Even thinking about ending the man's life made Dei feel guilty.

'I've already had my revenge, even if I wasn't around to enact it. He's suffered for his actions, and that is enough.'

It was not as satisfying a release as when he'd killed the Spirit Frog, but the grudge in his soul was slowly coming undone as he internalized that the issue was resolved.

"This is so bullshit…" he mumbled. His family didn't comment on it though, as he'd already explained the issue with grudges and them being left unresolved in the first place, as well as his stance on not bringing any more harm down on Taj or Emily.

Still, interacting with them would be absolutely infuriating.

* * *

Pulling onto the grass of Taj's yard, everyone got out. He let his mother take the lead, following a bit behind her with Sophie and Jack behind him. Taj and Emily came out of the house to meet them, Emily carrying Jennifer on her hip, the little girl on her hip.

He kept his facial expression stony, but seeing the young girl look at him shyly softened his heart, his grudge fading from his mind

A new clause cleared upon his soul, and he felt he'd unlocked a new Rule of Wrath

I will allow no harm to come to those under my care.

Children must be protected.

He sighed, 'Dammit.' He wanted to hurt Taj and Emily further, but what could he do without their daughter being the one to suffer?

He decided that, no matter how much he wanted to kill them, Jenny came first, so he would leave them in peace.

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Or at least, that's what he told himself.

Taj looked between him and his mom, asking "So this is how you're going to get rid of…" but trailed off, still not entirely sure how to refer to Leven's echo without offending his mother.

"Yes," his mom responded coldly. "I don't forgive you for what you've done, but others shouldn't be caught in the middle," her eyes briefly flickering to Taj's daughter as well.

Taj nodded then, looking at Dei, asked "The government said it was… exorbitantly expensive. What do I need to pay you?"

"Already paid," Dei responded simply.

"How?"

"Doesn't matter."

Taj looked ready to keep speaking, but seemed to realize he wouldn't get anything out of Dei. He simply nodded quietly and stepped to the side, Emily following his lead.

"Stay out here. Should be done quickly." Dei spoke to the general air then leisurely walked inside Leven's old house, closing the door behind him.

* * *

He investigated the entire house. Every nook and cranny other than the very room where he knew the issue was, just to be sure. If that was the source of the curse, he at least wanted to get any other vestiges out of the way if there were any. It wouldn't do to have outside forces help. During his exploration, he also checked the drawer where he'd seen Taj pull out the two incense sticks the first time, when he almost killed him in a blind rage minutes after arriving back on earth.

Sure enough, the entire drawer was full of the things. Picking one up, he studied it physically, not seeing anything of note. Admittedly though, he couldn't actually sense mana.

"What's it looking, partner?" he asked Perumah through their connection.

"I'm not completely sure. There is certainly something in these sticks, but it's not mana. It's more of a… feel."

"Like a concept? That works with what we know so far. Mana is less of a currency here, more of a burden. It can't leave living organisms, only be passed off. I wonder if that's how the idea of Jesus was made? What if wizards in Rome thought to put all their mana in one man and kill him, thus removing it?"

"Jesus?" Perumah asked, and Dei shared the concept of Jesus with her from everything he knew. "Dei, that sounds like it's real. Why are you talking about it like it's a myth? That's almost definitely true."

"What? No way, there aren't Gods on Earth. We've met one for real, those things can't exist here. Jesus is dependent on God."

"Dei you're an idiot. A God might just pass through sometimes, and this Jesus character seems incredibly realistic for the exact reason you say. What if he was a prophet of the passing God, who curried significant favor by traveling around and un-cursing many mad mages, bringing them back to their senses? Then, when he'd built up enough mana, he willingly died and disposed of it. He might've even conversed with Grim just as Aloran did, and resurrected himself. Not at all impossible."

"Huh… didn't think of it like that."

"Ok, it doesn't matter. Now tell me what this mana tastes like" she told him, then sent him all the unfiltered sensations she could glean from it.

It staggered him for a moment because her outer mana sense was significantly more developed than his ever were, even before he'd begun the process of cutting his off. It reminded him of his own internal mana sense, but she could taste the world itself, around the affinity she needed him to scan. The grandness of the planet itself made him want to flinch, but he cut the feeling off and focused on the task at hand.

The mana type he needed to look at was… Bright. It was hard to discern in its heavily diluted state, but not impossible. Its color was somewhere between yellow and pink, like a tropical flower. It warmed his heart and protected him from despair. It was the sibling to Kindness, serving a much similar function. Kindness was to help others from darkness, but this was to help oneself from darkness through grit and attitude. It did not change anything on its own, it was simply a mindset.

It was not Fortitude, but it protected the mind.

Not Justice, as it wanted to impose no morals on others.

Nor Abstinence, as there were no temptations to avoid in the name of righteousness.

It was a burning flame in the heart. Diligence manifest. It was the power of the soul, the knowledge that success would come despite all evidence to the contrary.

It was Faith.

He sighed, letting his mind relax as he parsed through its purpose. When he shared his full thought process and discovery with Perumah, she merely shuddered. He could've simply given her the answer, but he didn't forget that her trip to Earth was specifically so that she could learn more about Virtues.

This also gave him a clue as to how he could better remove his echo, as it was, for some reason, weak to Faith.

He'd directly come under the effects of the spell as well, so he knew what it did- it told him Taj was already suffering, and to put him out of his misery would be a mercy. That was why it was simply a bandage. Faith, in this case, was not actually assuaging the hatreds reasoning, it was insisting that the hatred was correct, but altering its view of the situation. It told the echo that, if it let Taj continue to suffer, its anger would abate. Taj did not live a good life, why should it put him out of his misery when it could watch him? It made the construct look towards the future, many more weeks, months, and years of Taj in pain.

But that's all it was- a temporary fix of a permanent problem. To remove it at its source, Dei would have to do what the incense did not. He would have to tackle the source of Leven's anger, and resolve it there, removing its will to exist in the first place.

That was, if he didn't just flat out kill the thing with his fists, but he felt like it would be a waste. Sure, he could just punch it away with his ability to deal damage to intangible enemies, but this was him, it was his past, his hate. It was the culminate fury of a man scorned to the last moment of his death.

No, it was his fury. It was his scorn. He would take it into himself. Just as Kindness was his shield and Wrath his sword, this would be the whetstone to sharpen himself upon.

Walking out of Taj's bedroom, he gently closed the door behind him, turning to face the room of his final heartbeat.

As though sensing his intent, Dei watched the doorknob turn on its own, the door creaking open to reveal the barest of slivers into the dark room. Peeking out, the hateful eyes of a beast met his own. When it saw him though, the look changed from that of hate, taking on a grinning rictus of understanding. It opened the door fully, stepping out to face him.

Dei could sense no mana, but this construct tapped into the remnants of the Spirit Realm, dipping out of Physical reality slightly, invisible to the naked eye but clear to him.

Now, Leven stood before him. Smiling brightly. In the same suit he'd died in. The flesh and fabric were gone though, replaced with a semi-transparent red cloud. This was no man, nor a remnant of him. This was pure Wrath

"I knew you would come back," the echo said.

"You're not Leven, but you know that. Why are you here?"

"Need you even ask that?" he smirked. "Why are you here?"

Dei nodded. "Revenge."

"And yet, you stand before me instead of Taj's body."

"It's over. It has been since dad broke him."

"Can you truly say that," the construct asked him, getting inches from his face. "Can you say that, despite everything Leven lost? The years of giving it his all? The years of fighting to never hurt others? He gave everything he was for this world, and what did he have to show for it in the end? Nothing. Not a kid, not a wife, not a friend. Leven died alone and scared, yet you are here to step on the fragment of his will to drive him deeper into the grave from which he clawed himself out of, giving you your chance. Can you say that you are not angry? That you do not want everyone to understand the despair Leven felt, knowing it was all for nothing?

"I am angry, but I understand Leven more than you ever will. Your very existence is flawed, missing the half he was proud of, the control he exerted over his urges. You don't know his love for others."

"And you know hardly even a fragment of his hate. You, too, are a flawed existence, lacking in Leven's understanding of who he was. The understanding he came to of himself. Despite all your power, your mind is weaker than his ever was."

They stared at one another but… there was no real resentment, nor disagreement. Not anymore.

"You claim I don't understand him?" Dei challenged the echo. "Then show me."

Dei put his hand out, and the echo didn't even glance at it.

"For Leven" it said, clasping his forearm.

"For Leven" he responded, gripping it back.

They pulled at the same time, falling into each other as the world went dark.

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