Forged Legacy

As they all caught their breath after escaping their daring assault on Hell’s second lieutenant, radiant light began bursting from Harvey and Tyler’s weaves. Harvey tried to hide his elation as he checked his notifications, seeing that his Class had risen to Level 62 and his Race to Level 57. Ascending two whole Class levels in a single day was mind-bogglingly fast and not a feat he could hope to continue once they made it back down to Earth, but landing the killing blow on a key target of the System’s quest had its perks. Cash and Celeste had both grown increasingly annoyed as the two brothers took giant steps forward after every battle while they were stuck being artificially weakened by the System, but they were too overjoyed to begrudge their progress. Steve, on the other hand, groaned as he looked between his two sons. “Seriously? How many levels did you get this time?”

“Two,” Harvey replied.

“Just one. Don’t worry about it, pops! You’ll catch up with us someday!”

Tyler’s snicker was interrupted by a light slap to the back of the head. Steve’s decision to forego evolving until he could level up his Profession had cost him at least a dozen F-Grade Class levels so far, but he had time to rectify the problem now that Heaven was finally ahead. Even as the thought came, Harvey could barely believe it was true. For the first time in weeks, Heaven could go to bed knowing they wouldn’t be fighting on the edge of a knife the next morning. The war was in no way already won, but their destiny was finally back in their own hands.

“I need to go talk with the Commander about our plans moving forward, but the four of you should take the night off. Get some rest, you’ve earned it,” Celeste said.

“So have you!” Harvey replied.

Her youth shone through the mask of a hardened warrior she’d been forced to wear for so long, but disappeared as she shrugged. “Someone’s gotta be responsible around here. Try and decide what materials you want for your anointment ink. I’ll take you guys to an alchemist tomorrow who can help make Tyler’s since we already have everything we need for his.”

With that, Celeste left their group and mingled with the rest of the angels under her command. Harvey laughed when he saw the rowdy celebrations pause at her approach, only to roar back when the normally stoic woman jumped right in with them. Several groups pulled Cash into their celebrations as they made their way down the street, but he never lingered long before following the three of them home. They walked in to see Cassandra anxiously waiting by the front door once more, but this time they’d avoided getting chewed out.

The four took turns showering while the others played with Max and helped their mom prepare an early dinner. Sitting on the floor and holding an action figure that was getting battered by the one in Max’s hand, Harvey realized that, for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have anything to do. No new skills waiting for him at the Loom. No half-finished projects piling up around his forge. No countdown towards his imminent demise. Sure, there were plenty of things he could work on, but nothing demanding his immediate attention. So, he played with his brother.

The family avoided any talk of demons and death at the dinner table. It was never the best topic, but nobody wanted to think about the gluttonous general munching on monster corpses while they dug into a gooey pan of brownies. Instead, they let Eleanor and Cassandra take the lead, sharing stories from their latest lessons in angel school.

“I’m coming back tomorrow,” Steve mumbled through a mouthful of food.

Cassandra couldn’t help but smile as she rolled her eyes and lightly slapped his hand. “That’s great! Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Finally going to get those last couple Profession levels? What kind of Profession do you want when you evolve?” Harvey asked.

“I don’t know! I have a few ideas, but I figure I still have some time to decide.”

“You could be a blacksmith,” Harvey ventured. “I’m happy to teach you.”

Steve didn’t seem to love the idea, but none of their other suggestions caught his eye either. The conversation quickly devolved into everyone blurting out the weirdest Professions they could think of while they cleared the table and washed the dishes. Even Cash joined in, suggesting he could copy Harvey’s Awakened Armament skill and become a master ventriloquist. Food was replaced with decks of cards, and they taught Cash one of the Thorne family's favorite games.

“It’s called Nertz. The goal is to get rid of your pile of 13 cards before anyone else,” Eleanor explained.

“How do I get rid of my cards?” Cash asked hesitantly.

Half a dozen voices scrambled to talk over one another and explain the game, only making the rules more confusing until Harvey shouted. “Let’s just play a practice round! It’s easier just to show you.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

They played for hours, cursing when they learned Cash was actually very good at the game. It didn’t take long to realize that playing speed games when each person was at a different level and thus had different Dexterity and Wisdom stats made it hard to keep things fair. Even when trying to artificially limit themselves, Harvey and Cash still dominated his lower-level mother and sister. When the accusations of cheating grew too heated, they switched to playing Monopoly.

“But I don’t want to pay you $180,” Cash complained.

“Who cares? You landed on my property, and now you have to pay up! Do they not have rent on your planet?” Harvey retorted.

“No. Is rent not just a part of the game?”

The clear look of confusion on Cash’s face started a whole other conversation about what life was like back on the angel’s homeworld, distracting them from the game long enough for everyone to decide they’d rather go to bed than finish it out. When Harvey headed towards the garage instead of upstairs to his bedroom, Cash stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

“I thought I’d finally get started working on your armor,” Harvey answered.

“Nope. Not tonight.”

“Why?”

“You’ve earned a night off. Dinner and games were great for helping us relax, but now it’s time we sleep. In our own beds. The Commander’s mansion was better than the Honeymoon suite, but we both know it’s not the same as home.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this my home either,” Harvey said as he gestured to the cookie-cutter house his family had been assigned, matching the thousands of others containing Earth’s faithful.

“It’s the best we’re gonna get. At least for a while. Things have changed. Even if we make it back tomorrow, you’re not going to walk into your old apartment and pick up where you left off.”

Harvey sighed at that, looking down at the work boots he’d left sitting by the garage door. He didn’t keep them in his spatial ring since the storage devices kept the items in the exact same state as when they were placed inside, and he didn’t want to slip on sweaty, smelly boots every time he started a project. “I won’t stay up all night.”

“Yep, because you’re going to bed right now.”

“Fine. Do you want to sleep here? I’m sure Mom wouldn’t mind you taking the couch.”

“Screw that. I’m not sleeping on any more couches. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Harvey debated walking down the stairs and starting Cash’s armor anyway once his friend had closed the front door behind him, but dutifully walked up to his room. Lazily brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas, he collapsed onto his bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow. Thankfully, the nightmares he’d suffered the night before didn’t return, and he woke up feeling refreshed and ready for a heavenly Tuesday. The calm was almost unsettling as they all ate breakfast together before splitting off, with Harvey and Tyler going to find Cash and Celeste on the battlefield while Steve, Cassandra, Eleanor, and Max all went to school.

Harvey joined the procession of angels chaperoning an array of divine beasts towards the frontline when they exited the neighborhood, and found that Brutus was using his larger reserves to include a few of the more expensive beasts in with his usual mix. When they reached the gates, Harvey quickly found his friends and walked over.

“I’m surprised to see so many angels. I thought Brutus was going to give everyone the day off now that we killed two lieutenants for him,” Harvey said after greeting Celeste.

“We’ll start pulling back slowly once we get a feel for the new paradigm. We want to be prepared in case Hell tries to throw everybody they can find at our lieutenant”

“Do you think they will?” Tyler asked.

“No. I’m guessing they are still licking their wounds and will want a few more days to prepare. We’ve got our normal gate guards doubled though to make sure they don’t try and pull the same stunt we did.”

“You guys can go home if you want,” Cash offered. “I know things didn’t look great when you first got here, Harvey, but we got this.”

“Are you kidding? I need the levels if I’m going to keep up with you guys once we make it back home and you’re allowed to evolve again,” Harvey replied.

Cash just shrugged. “Up to you!”

Harvey felt a lot more comfortable around Heaven’s soldiers now that he’d gotten to know Celeste a little better, but he still wanted to evolve so he’d be ready in case Heaven faltered or turned out to be tyrants. His Class would eventually reach the F-Grade cap of Level 75 as long as he kept fighting, but his Profession was going to take a lot of work to bring all the way up from Level 52. Luckily, he had a wealth of materials to experiment with, especially the two horsemen of the apocalypse tucked away in his spatial ring. Anointing his weave up to E-Grade would be taken care of with his promised rewards from Brutus. He just needed to decide what direction he wanted to take his weave.

When the fighting finally started, Harvey found that he couldn’t get close enough to kill anything without flying out over the army's heads. As Celeste predicted, Hell hadn’t sent a legion of demons to aid their summoned beasts in assaulting Heaven’s lieutenants. They were relying on their army of monsters to kill as many creatures as they could before dealing with the rest themselves. It was the same strategy Harvey had cursed Heaven for using since the beginning, and he couldn’t fathom why both sides were making the same mistakes.

Whenever he thought a pack of Hellhounds or Brimfiends was going to get through, a larger flock of Eagles or Lions came to intercept them. When a brimfiend missing half its left arm finally flapped in range of his shotgun, he took aim, only to have an eagle snatch the fiend out of the air. The essence from just one of the weak beasts who were already significantly lower level than him wouldn’t have helped much, but it would’ve been better than nothing. Celeste and the other Captains never made the call to push alongside their summoned beasts, a call Harvey could understand after everything they’d been through. Part of him was happy they didn’t want to end the war as fast as possible since it gave him time to level up.

[Yeah, if you actually manage to kill something. Give me the gun and let me fly over!]

I don’t want some bat to snatch it out of the air and lose it. We can’t afford to forge another Cataclysm every day.

[Then how are we supposed to level up? I can’t believe how useless Hell is now!]

I don’t know. Maybe we can make a sniper rifle? That would let us get some kills and should net us a few more Profession levels.

[You have to make two. That way you can’t hog it all the time and leave me with this stupid revolver,] Julius swore.