Where she just stood, a demonic claw pierced the air. The next moment, the demon it belonged to was tackled to the ground by the winged human. Looking around, she quickly realized what was happening.
The guy behind her had revealed himself to be a demon and tried to attack her, and he was not the only one. Every target the invaders had tried to attack had transformed, either under the force of the being that captured them or in an attempt to attack the members of Minas Mar protecting them.
More experienced ones acted similarly to her; others didn't notice until the demon broke its claws on the oatharmor. The demons were not strong enough to pierce the relic-rated sets, but the ones that got hit still suffered a mean bruise and maybe some broken ribs.
Seth would totally chew them out for denting their armor like that. Meanwhile, the winged one had pinned the demon to the pavement, strangling the struggling beast as it was wildly flailing and trying to get out of its grasp.
Where the demon claws stuck the newcomer, it slashed would oozing with golden blood, but the winged humanoid was like a rabid dog, without a care for the damage it suffered itself, completely fixated on immobilizing and potentially ending the demon.
With the reveal of demons in the crowd, the situation took a sudden turn for everyone. So far, things had happened too quickly for bystanders to realize what was going on. By the time they realized that there was an attack, it was already clear that the presumed attackers were actually apprehending a hidden danger.
Some people still fell into a panic, while most people were just confused, not knowing how to react at all. At this moment, someone ran out on the street. A young man, wearing ragged robes and spoke of long and perilous travels.
"Sorry, sorry! Those are my angels! Please calm down, I'm sorry if I surprised everyone!" he called out apologetically, but at a volume that could be heard across the venue. Although apologetic, his tone was calm and reassuring.
These were angels? Faenys was distracted by what he called the winged beings. Well, she had heard about the typical depiction of angels after her world was connected to the Pathworks, but to her understanding, angels were beings and helpers of a god. Did that mean the man who just stumbled on the road was a god?
"They detected demons with evil intentions, and I couldn't hold them back," he admitted embarrassedly.
"Why are you apologizing? We helped, didn't we?" A female angel appeared behind him, her aura was less holy and more lascivious in Faenys' opinion.
"Paolo, is that you?" someone suddenly asked over the murmur of the crowd, which was only more confused by the sudden appearance of the owner of the attackers.
"You know him?" Faenys blurted out, surprised, asking Isabella, the thief of Ortega's party. It was the recently promoted desert warrior who had exclaimed the intruder's name.
"Yeah, he is part of the Oathguard! Weren't you and Marco always together?" Isabella answered Faenys but turned back to Paolo.
"Wait, Marco? Right, wasn't there a memo that said his partner vani- hmmph!" The big hand of Ortega suddenly covered the mouth of Angar, their healer, before he could blab out anymore.
"I apologize to everyone if we surprised you with this sudden demonstration. We just wanted to show you that even during such a festive day, our security is always tight. Not only when it comes to sniffing out intruders, but even during unexpected attacks, you can count on us," the bull spewed some bullshit as a smokescreen at the same volume as Paolo.
"Please continue to enjoy the parade," he called out and gestured for Paolo and the field team members to assemble. It was clear that he intended to leave the parade to the Oathguards and golem, while they would... deal with the sudden return of their missing member.
The Angels followed them, carrying the apprehended demons.
...
Having quickly returned to the embassy, demons, angels, and Paolo in tow, they reported to Mary about what happened, and then Paolo reported what happened to him. He explained how he was sucked into the Pathworks and found himself in a world without the system.
How he ended up as a sacrifice in a selection ritual and ultimately became the saint of a foreign god he didn't even know the name of, and changed his class to Angel Summoner. He left out the part where the strongest angel that forced the contract was a perverted masochist who fell in love with his fist.
Paolo also talked about his Odyssey when trying to get back. The difficulty of even finding rifts to the Pathworks, most of the time, not knowing where they would lead. The many worlds he came through, most of them stuck in a medieval age, if there was any civilization or people at all. His definition of people had also widened, as few of these worlds were purely governed by humans; many didn't have any humans at all.
"That sounds like navigating an impossible maze. How did you even find back, like at all?" Caldar, the archer of Ortega's team, asked in terror. It was hard for him to imagine that it was even possible to return home like that.
"It took quite a while until I finally managed to get into a system world; things got easier from there. Though it was harder than expected, since Chrona left before I could return," the mentioned. Since Chrona left, the local congregation of the System Church was more selective in who or what they let through the gate, while connections to Chrona were completely cut off after they ran.
"However, I managed to find a System Church that was ready to port me to Urth, though I dropped somewhere around Omega and had to travel here, evading the mutated zombies," Paolo described how he came to Urth.
"You didn't get infected, did you?" Mary asked, concerned. Although the gates were still equipped with the soul cleansing barrier that could eradicate small infections, if Paolo ended up becoming one of those sentient mutants Cromwel had mentioned in his last report.
"No, I was hurt once, but my status as an Angel Summoner gives me immunity to diseases and curses. No need to worry," Paolo assured her of his health.
"Heh, as if a petty, little disease could harm my Paolo," the vixen spoke up, hugging the priest from behind. The angel would keep appearing and disappearing from time to time and start touching Paolo however she liked. The target of the affection only looked embarrassed and a little annoyed.
"Judging by your story, the angels aren't that strong, but they seemed quite capable earlier. How strong are the angels you can summon?" Mary asked the important questions, ignoring the pervert in the room.
"They grew stronger after contracting with me and becoming affected by the system. Since then, I could not only strengthen them, but they can also level up individually. Taking that into account,
They are actually a powerful race.
Their level was only judged to be in the 20s when the system assessed them, but they already rivaled someone in the 60s at that point. Since they started leveling up, their strength almost doubled," Paolo explained how the Angels were able to rival the advanced Oathguards in relic-rated armors. The angels were proper monsters, which counted as pets under the system. The angel behind him grinned at the praise.
"How about a little match? You, how about we fight?" the pervert suddenly said, pointing at Faenys, who had silently listened up to now. "I might not be able to take on the bull, but I'm sure we could have an exciting fight!" she added with a sadistic smile.
It was clear that she thought she could take on Faenys. Not just take her on, but play with her. She felt doubly insulted. Not only did the perv think she could take her on, but she also thought Faenys was weaker than the bull. The Chosen of Phobos glared at her, the already empty glass in her hand cracked as she failed to control her strength for a moment. She placed it on the table, where it fell apart.
"I like your confidence. Let's see if you can keep it."
She stood up and signaled the winged woman to follow her as she took a course for the training rooms in the embassy.