The outskirts of Renar were quiet that night. A silence too still, too heavy, broken only by the rustle of reeds along the riverbank and the faint hum of distant lights from the city’s edge.

  With tendrils writhing around her body, under the effect of Concealment plus Cloaked Malice, making her appearance practically gone. But if anyone noticed her, it cannot be traced back to Lea, just another freaky Pathstrider...

  She let out a self-deprecating ugh, hollow and weak... I became more of a Horror than an actual Horror...

  A bird mask that makes her look like a pgue doctor, clothes made out of Cursed Constructs... she looks suspicious as hell.

  Shaking her head, Lea got back to drawing her Brandings and Hexes on the wall of a building. Due to her unfamiliarity with the yout as well as the full power of her curses, Lea decided to just cover as much as possible.

  Brandings blends into cracks and crevices, her Hexes become part of graffiti and wall arts. Since getting Cloak, her marks leave little presence, almost hidden to all but the keenest of eyes.

  Finishing another section, Lea decided to head back. She used up all her seastone dust; she doesn't really need it, but having a medium helps her curses work better. She pretty much covered a third of the Outer Northern District - the Restap District, with around a hundred thousand people living here...

  She was about to sink into the shadow—

  "Hold it there!!"

  In an instant, the ground became uneven, knocking her out of Shadow Sneak.

  Lea turned to the voice, seeing a... girl in a frilly dress radiating the color pink... everything about her is pink...

  Lea was weirded out... she looked utterly ridiculous. But Lea could sense how strong this Pathstrider is...

  "I'm on official business for the royal court.", she stated, trying to resolve this peacefully.

  "You? Who looks very suspicious doing it in the middle of the night? Who would believe you?!", her voice was high-pitched, like a child...

  Lea looked down at herself, covered in writhing bck tendrils with a golden glow underneath— hold on a moment...

  She saw through my Concealment and Cloaked Malice?!

  "Just who are you?", Lea said, trying to stay composed.

  The girl smirked even wider, "Salvation and Creation at my fingertips!! I am the warrior of love and justice!! Follower of the God of Light, Agnes!!"

  God of Light...

  Lea's eyes constricted, hatred radiated out of her like a flood, startling Agnes, who stumbled in the air—

  She threw three paper balls into the air, using her tendril to unch them at the girl.

  "Judgement."

  All of them contain her Brandings.

  Three golden astral bdes formed behind Lea, unching at high speed. Agnes widens her eyes, summoning a golden barrier.

  But the swords hit the balls before they touched—

  Boom!!

  The consecutive explosion caused the lights around them to be turned on, but Lea doesn't care about that. She sees Agnes falling to the ground.

  Who would have thought that accursed book has followers...

  "You deserve to die."

  The shadow beneath writhes and extends beneath the strange girl. Cursed Constructs instantly struck out, attempting to strangle Agnes.

  But another barrier formed, encasing her in a golden sphere.

  Using Shadow Sneak, Lea appears before Agnes, staring down at the girl with pure hatred. Malediction made it so her negative emotions are clear to see...

  Unsheathing Hastur, she performs a quick ssh, cutting straight through the barrier in an instant. The triple combination of Severance, Rend, and Rift was too much for Agnes to handle.

  "Filthy follower of the Tome of Light, for worshipping that thing... You deserve to die in the most painful way possible!!"

  "W-Wait!! Please, no!!!", she screamed with tears in her eyes.

  Before Lea could kill her, a golden light enveloped Agnes. Lea only sliced through the air.

  Looking around, seeing people are coming out to check the situation, Lea clicked her tongue and sank into her shadow and quickly got away...

  =0=0=

  Rising back up in her room, Lea sat down on the bed. She pulled off her mask... her yellow eyes were radiating hatred and fire, she had yet to calm down from her encounter...

  Thinking back, Lea remembers that girl's introduction... a Pathstrider of Salvation and Creation... Salvation... the one Path that is impossible to obtain. What did that little girl do to obtain it?

  Her hit list grew once more... now a supposed follower of the Tome of Light.

  Closing her eyes, she chanted the Honorific Title of Lady Keter... entering the monochrome library.

  "Lady Keter...", she opened her eyes, staring at Lady Keter in her seat of honor, reading a book titled 'Madoka Magica'.

  "What do you seek, Dantes?", she asked with a smile.

  "I encountered someone prociming to be a follower of the Tome of Light... do you know something about them?"

  The "Goddess of Time" closed her eyes for a moment, recalling something. Then she spoke with a smile.

  "In the advent of Its ascension, there were indeed people chasing after the Tome of Light, either drawn to or tricked by its light. They called themselves Knowledge Hunters, quite a surprise that there are people following It. They are a non-issue at first gnce, just maniacs trying to go insane."

  But... Lea could feel that word coming.

  "But the one knowing how to summon the Tome of Light is here, it may not be a coincidence that a Knowledge Hunter has been attracted. fate is fickle, and destiny is hirious, after all."

  Lea continued her report, "And this Knowledge Hunter, calling herself Agnes, has Salvation and Creation, with Salvation possibly as her primary Path."

  For a moment, Lady Keter's eyes widen in surprise...

  "So, a Magical Girl...", she muttered, "I didn't think I would see one."

  "Magical... Girl?", she questioned... There is a Pathstrider call that?

  "Yes, Salvation and Creation, Magical Girl. One of the special combinations in the unmarked Secret of Life book. It has the ability to contain its Pathstrider power in an item that can be released anytime the user wants, like a transformation, but normally? It's impossible to distinguish from a normal person.", she nodded.

  "So if the person using that combination is a man—"

  "Still a Magical Girl, their gender changes every time they transform. But aside from shooting beams of pure willpower, being the Annihition Series' bane, you don't really need to worry."

  That little girl was my literal nemesis?! And Lady Keter just brushed it aside?!

  "Why shouldn't I worry?! That Magical Girl could counter everything I got?!"

  "Because unlike other Attributes, the Fourth Step ritual is the most impossible.", a grin formed on her face, "Do you think a Third Step Pathstrider can kill a fully formed god?"

  "Fourth Step of Salvation, kill the origin of the world's suffering."

  Gods cannot truly be killed; that is the truth. The world remembers, a copy identical to the original would still live on, forever existing.

  Lea knows that it is impossible... she let out a sigh of relief.

  "So, be at ease. Without the power of Exchange, that Magical Girl would run out of steam sooner or ter.", Lady Keter's words comforted her.

  "Thank you, Lady Keter..."

  There was a quiet moment between them. Lady Keter just continued to read her book, while Lea just stood there...

  "Is there... something you need me to do?"

  "Payment, of course. I'm not running a charity, here.", she casually said, "All of the time you asked me, I deducted it straight from your passcard."

  Lea's heart dropped... her Cee... money she meant to use to buy more seastone dust...

  "Y-You can do that?!", her eyes were wide open.

  "Of course... though it's mostly Mashhith. She usually just takes your passcard and heads to Lacrosa to get your account transfer."

  "That's robbery!! You haven't even informed me of it, it's unfair!!"

  She was screaming, yelling at a deity. To be honest, she has the justification to.

  Under Lea's storms of insults, Lady Keter never once gnced up, only calmly reading her book. And the Avenger noticed it, whether it is the suppression effect of the library, her Mockery never nded.

  After ten minutes of hurling insults, Lea was tired... and Lady Keter was fine.

  "Are you done?", Lady Keter tilted her head, closing the book.

  "Hah... hah... yes...", she relented.

  She pulled from her pocket three talismans, pcing them on the table. This was her payment.

  "You can go back now."

  And with frustration, Lea was gone from the library.

  =0=0=

  Jim stood at the edge of the devastation, where one of the Oath Keepers forbade anyone from coming.

  But he was ultimately an outsider to this nd; he respected the rules, yet sometimes they needed to be broken. The volcanic region stretched before him, a ndscape carved by divine wrath, painted in ash and molten gss.

  This is what I have to fix... he thought, swallowing hard.

  He'd witnessed the battle. Seen gods csh with casual ease. Lady Keter's infinite judgment bdes. Nova's righteous fmes. Astrelnoia's precise devastation. And the Heavenly Demon, standing until that final crimson beam crushed him into oblivion.

  Now it was just Jim. A Fourth Step Pathstrider standing before the wreckage of divinity.

  He took a breath and extended his hands.

  The world responded.

  Red strings materialized in the air around him, countless as the stars. They connected everything, shattered mountains to their original forms, boiled rivers to their sources, and the dead forest to the memory of life.

  These were the strings of Fate. The threads that dictated what would happen.

  But fate alone wasn't enough. Fate was a possibility without direction. An ending nobody knows when it would come.

  Jim closed his eyes and reached deeper, finding the blue strings, more solid. The strings of Destiny, things that would happen in the near future.

  Lady Keter had warned him not to tug them, but after seeing such destruction, how could he not when he seemingly had the ability to?

  His fingers moved through the air like a conductor, carefully, cautiously. Each gesture tugged at specific threads, coaxing them back toward proper alignment.

  A red string connected to a colpsed mountain. Jim pulled gently, and the fate shifted, from "remained broken" to "reformed over time". Not instantly, but inevitably. The mountain would rebuild itself, yer by yer. Another red string led to a dried riverbed. Jim traced it back to its source, then pulled. Water that had evaporated would condense, clouds would gather, and rain would fall.

  Blue strings were harder. They were destiny itself, things that must be. Things that can be done to steer the rowing boats on the river of Fate.

  Jim found one connected to the forest. Its destiny had shattered from "flourishing ecosystem" to "lifeless ash".

  He pulled out seeds he'd collected from surviving regions. Scattered them across the ash, then grasped the blue string.

  "I offer a forgotten future in exchange for growth...", he murmured, "What was lost shall return, not as it was, but as it will be."

  The blue string pulsed.

  Accepted.

  The seeds sank into ash, and tiny green shoots began pushing through.

  Jim moved methodically across the devastation. Each broken thing had strings; red, blue, all tangled by divine violence.

  The more he touches and pulls them, the more entuned he is to the fate and destiny of the nd.

  A shattered vilge.

  Red strings showed multiple fates.

  Jim pulled the thread that led to repopution. Survivors would be drawn back. Rebuilding would feel natural. A poisoned ke where Nova's fmes had burned too hot. Its blue string read "contaminated forever." Jim frowned... too absolute.

  He poured purified water into the toxic ke, "I offer purity in exchange for restoration."

  The string resisted. But Jim was Fourth Step.

  The string shifted to his will.

  The ke's destiny changed from "poisoned forever" to "cleansed over decades".

  ...

  Hours passed. Jim worked without stopping, fingers dancing through invisible threads.

  Red strings for fixes, water flow, pnt growth, and stable terrain. Blue strings for long-term changes, ensuring recovery, guaranteeing future thriving, making certain devastation wouldn't become permanent death.

  A Trailbzer didn't just walk the path. They made the path.

  Jim was carving a route from destruction back to life. Being more in touch with his power more and more...

  Finally, as the sun began to set, he stepped back.

  The region still looked devastated. But the strings were different now. Where before they pointed toward entropy and ruin, now they pointed toward recovery.

  Jim colpsed to his knees, utterly spent. He'd just performed repair work on a region destroyed by gods. Used his power over fate and destiny to redirect the future.

  The red and blue strings shimmered, then faded from visibility.

  Jim stood slowly, brushing volcanic ash from his coat.

  Behind him, the first green shoots were already pushing through the ash, following the fate he'd woven for them.

  The world would heal. Because he'd decided it would.

  And on the Path of Divinity, that kind of decision carried weight beyond mortal comprehension. The Trailbzer, one who carves a trail nobody dares to step on, a pioneer to countless possibilities.

  This day, the Demigod of Motion truly realized his power...