895
"What, you thought he seemed nice, so you couldn't wait to curry favor?"
"Why put it so harshly? Weren't you thinking the same thing?"
"But you've even lost 'Attendant of Mysteries'..."
Pallez couldn't help letting out a few strange chuckles. "You don't even have your characteristic anymore, yet you're still taking this so seriously. Are you acting as air? Digesting air? You clearly haven't given up on advancing, Zaratul. Just be grateful the Fool is fairly broad-minded. These days, nobody wants to take in an angel like you-disloyal, impious, and still thinking about advancement."
Which angel or demigod these days hadn't grown up listening to myths about the god they believed in, offering that god complete loyalty and unconditional obedience?
Angels like that, Church Beyonders like that, were a god's finest believers and fighting force. Angels from the Fourth Epoch, who needed a god's investment before they would choose a side, who had no faith and cared only about profit, had already been swept into an ignored corner, where they were simply waiting to die off quietly.
"To be fair, before the Fool appeared out of nowhere, I was a strong contender for that position too."
"Although I think blaming everything on fate is a defeatist attitude, I have to admit that it was Their inaction that brought fate to this point. When the Fool descended, all of us lost our chance to compete."
"Just like big fish eating little fish, our fates were swallowed."
Zaratul unhurriedly poured himself another cup and muttered as he drank:
"But... how could my desire to advance possibly die? I'm not like you, Pallez."
"I don't mean you specifically, but if what I sought wasn't advancement, a long life, and power, but family, descendants, love, or a clan... then I would have peacefully