Hope or Despair (End of Volume)

For a while afterward, Angel felt as though she were trapped in a dream. She could barely remember what had happened.

Of course, she remembered Leonard hurrying toward his captain, Dunn Smith, so excited that he waved his arms like a curly-haired baboon. She remembered Daly Simone clutching her lover in disbelief and crying in front of everyone for the first time. Klein held Angel tightly by the shoulders, watching his teammates reunite with a grin that stretched across his face. Off to the side, Ince Zangwill lay alone beside the fountain. His Beyonder Characteristic had separated from his body, but no one paid it any attention.

They had too much to say and too many questions to answer. But as Nighthawks, they all knew that Beyonders from the nearest church, along with Iliya, the Goddess Eye, who had received advance warning, would arrive within minutes.

"You... aren't planning to return to the Church?"

Leonard could not help asking as he watched Klein put Creeping Hunger back on. Angel, beside him, still looked dazed.

"Too much has happened. I can't go back. But Angel... I think the captain knows something. Maybe you can ask him later."

Klein straightened his top hat and switched his glove to the Traveler's soul. Watching it turn transparent, he spoke slowly.

Seeing Dunn Smith alive had given him an inkling of why the captain had grown so much stronger and why he had stayed hidden until the moment he could deliver a fatal blow to Ince Zangwill.

The "Goddess Troop."

The name surfaced in his mind. Angel had told him about the team, which she herself had somehow joined.

As for Klein, he had little reason to return to the Church's ranks.

Besides, he had disguised himself as a believer of the Goddess again and