Chapter 156: Celestia’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea
Despite the brief spike in tensions, things simmered down after Grace came back to the Dominion. She wasn’t sure why, it wasn’t like the Veil had a lower chance of swinging by and swiping away angels or something, but she was glad her presence had randomly had a beneficial effect.
In the night, Grace practically skipped toward Celestia’s chambers, ready to announce her team for the Bloom mission. She’d already mentally planned everything. Petriel for healing, Venus for... Venus things, and Mara for maternal support when things inevitably went sideways. Again, she planned to be the only fighter, to continue building her independence. And, after being the sole fighter for the Void’s mission, she was feeling fairly confident.
She pushed open the door without knocking, a habit Celestia had never bothered correcting.
"Hey, so I’ve decided on—"
Grace froze.
Celestia stood in the center of her study, arms outstretched, rainbow wings spread wide. But her usual prismatic glow flickered, shot through with veins of blue-purple energy. The same corruption Grace had seen in Isolde. In the Veil angels.
Sin energy.
"Celestia, what the heck are you doing!?"
Celestia’s eyes snapped open. The corruption vanished instantly, rainbow light reasserting itself.
"Grace," her eyes widened. "You should knock."
"And you should not be messing with Sin energy!"
"It’s... research." Celestia lowered her arms, trying for casual and missing by miles. "Experimentation. Nothing more."