Night

"Tomorrow, a senior deacon will lead a team of Nighthawks to escort Sealed Artifact '1-63' to the Holy Cathedral. It will be broken down there and restored to a Beyonder Characteristic. On Arianna's orders, that characteristic will be yours."

Anthony Stevenson, Archbishop of the Church of the Evernight Goddess's Backlund Diocese, spoke evenly, as though discussing tomorrow's breakfast rather than a precious Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.

Judging by the effects and drawbacks of the Sealed Artifact known as the Witch Mirror, it had formed from a High Sequence Witch Beyonder Characteristic, most likely a Sequence 3 Unaging characteristic... Angel had already suspected this when Arianna promised her an Unaging characteristic. Now her guess was confirmed.

Whether it was a Sealed Artifact or a contaminated characteristic, only a full-strength strike from an angel could shatter it. The pieces would then reassemble into a "clean" Beyonder Characteristic through the Aggregation Effect. Only then could it serve as a potion's main material without passing on the contamination.

The Holy Cathedral is at Serenity Church in Winter County. It's nearly seven hours from Backlund by steam train, but that doesn't mean I'll have the characteristic tomorrow. Shattering it and letting it reassemble will probably take longer, and...

"But the entire process may take about a month. You won't receive this reward until July."

Anthony continued.

Angel nodded in understanding. Her digestion of Despair, even counting the premature acting she had done by taking Panacea's place in spreading disease during the Great Smog, was barely past halfway. Unless she personally killed one or two demigods and drove them to despair, she likely could not meet the conditions for advancement. Besides, the Unaging Witch's promotion ritual left her utterly baffled. Taken literally, it might require her to grow old and undergo a change in outlook before