Broker Field Report

Devos coldly removed her hand from the filthy soul's head.

Though this was not the duty of an Ascended, she could not resist looking through his sinful life.

Rarely, the Paragon of Loyalty felt a trace of long-forgotten disgust.

By rights, no Kyrian should allow emotions to enter into their great work.

For them, whether the souls they escorted were noble or guilty, whether they were ultimately assigned to Revendreth or Bastion, all they needed to do was sound the Skyveil and fulfill their duties.

Devos had once thought the same. After all, the Arbiter dispensed justice, not the Firstborn.

Yet over the countless millennia, she had gradually caught a scent of unease within the Kyrians' eternal calling.

Under the leadership of the great Archon Grysia, the noble Ascended seemed to have slowly confused their original responsibilities. Some had even begun to believe that the people of Bastion ought to possess every virtue. They tried to involve themselves in fairness, in justice... in all things that appeared noble and sacred, even though they had never been asked to do so.

Devos admitted that striving for a perfect character was a good thing. It drove an imperfect person to improve themselves. But acknowledging the existence of a perfect character and claiming it as one's own was something terrifying.

Because it meant they would forever believe only in themselves. And once they discovered that things did not operate as they had imagined, would that despairing sense of rupture destroy someone driven into madness?

Devos knew this all too well, because she had once been trapped within it without realizing it.

The Paragon of Loyalty gently touched her chest. Inside her robes, close to her heart, Devos had secretly sewn in a small object. Not even her most trusted scribe, Adrestes, knew of this secret.

It was a faded piece of Memory Glass, one she had picked up long ago while hunting a Forsworn in the Temple of Remembrance.

The so-called Forsworn were Kyrian who had strayed from the proper path. Perhaps driven by a craving for memories, perhaps immersed in the bonds of their former lives, they sank deeper during repeated purifications and failed to ascend. Their growing doubts eventually turned them into embodiments of corruption, their azure skin replaced by a deep, dark purple.

Though no Forsworn had appeared for a very, very long time, Devos clearly remembered that she had indeed been one. She had purple skin and ominous wings, yet seemed different from ordinary Forsworn, because she wore armor Devos had never seen before.

Those bizarre spikes seemed rooted in flesh and blood. Spectral cold iron wrapped around icy bones, and strange runes adorned its surface. It was an ominous suit of armor that not even the House of the Chosen in Maldraxxus would forge, enough to make the Paragon's skin crawl.

That hunt had ended in failure, yet the other party had still achieved her goal. Devos felt that the pursuit had actually been a performance. Guided by that Forsworn of unknown identity, she had seemingly by chance picked up that faded Memory Glass.

It was a fragment of her own memory—a dream she had personally abandoned tens of millions of years ago, only for it to return thousands of years later, as though yesterday's farewell had arrived an entire lifetime late.

Temptation crushed the Paragon of Loyalty. Terrified yet desperate, she read it, and thus learned of a hopeless memory.

Within that shattered dream, Devos recalled the identity she had once forsaken...

She had been a little girl's mother.

At that moment, Devos finally understood that the hunt had been a trap laid for her. But she understood far too late—far too late.

Once the gates of memory opened, they could never be shut again.

Regret, fury, self-reproach, despair... these painful emotions had nearly overwhelmed her. Yet at her most desperate moment, she received unexpected help.

A field report from a Broker.

She had obtained it from an eccentric Broker named Ve'nari while frantically searching for clues among the attendants in Oribos. These strange beings could travel between different worlds. They formed cartels as their factions, used anima as currency, and conducted every sort of transaction with all things.

Through this peculiar field report written by another Broker, O. Feilim, she learned some horrifying secrets. Yet the report abruptly ended at the critical point.

When she urgently sought Ve'nari's help, the answer she received was that the report's author had suffered a mental collapse while pursuing forbidden knowledge and vanished without a trace.

When she was utterly disheartened, Ve'nari offered help once more. Through their conversations and an analysis of the residual energy on the Memory Glass, every clue converged upon the irredeemable place known as The Maw.

As her memories awakened, the reckless side of Devos's nature emerged as well. Driven by urgency, she had nearly leaped into the River of Souls—the only place from which The Maw could be reached.

Fortunately, Ve'nari trapped her with a stasis trap, allowing her to calm down.

"My judgment has always been excellent. I hope you'll value the fruits of my labor instead of rushing off to die and letting my investment go down the drain," the Broker woman said in a hoarse voice, mocking the Paragon's recklessness.

When Devos curiously asked why she was helping her so much, Ve'nari shook her head.

"We Brokers pursue equivalent exchange. I have demonstrated my value, so you must demonstrate yours as well—though not now."

"I am looking for allies, and so I desire your help."

She left behind a crystal as a communication device, then disappeared. With the mysterious Broker Ve'nari's departure, Devos buried this experience deep in her heart.

It was precisely because of this experience that the Paragon of Loyalty could properly observe the present-day Bastion as an outsider.

She soon discovered that Bastion now seemed to lack a trace of feeling.

Those golden fields and snow-white halls had not carried laughter for a long time. It had gradually become harsh, become indifferent, and even some dutiful Kyrian had begun to feel lost, doubting the proper path they had once believed in without question.

Yet the Forsworn... had indeed not appeared for a very long time.

Under such abnormal currents, there had to be some kind of cause.

Devos had secretly conducted investigations, but ultimately found nothing.

She was a sensible woman. She knew what fate awaited a defiant wave amid this forward-surging torrent, so all she could do was offer slight warnings to her subordinates.

As for anything more... even as the Paragon of Loyalty, she was powerless.

Still, Devos had a feeling that Ve'nari's plans might be closely connected to the predicament she faced. Moreover, that mysterious Broker woman surely held many other secrets, though the time was not yet right.

But as she had said, Devos had never been one to wait for death. Since she knew the target, she needed to make proper preparations. The archives of Elysian Hold should contain some secret records concerning The Maw. Once she returned, the Paragon intended to make good use of her position and investigate thoroughly.

But for now, she still had to focus on the work before her.