I am the Scholar.

I am the fore of Lady Cosmos' selection team. I have been tasked to prepare information, along with the rest of my team, concerning which champions to employ against the Lord Chaos in order to bring him to justice at last. My job is a simple one. I must deduce how well each choice will work with others, how well they will work for us, and how lethal they should prove.

It is not easy work, working for this Goddess. Other angels have taken much easier employment with other Gods. I have a friend who is employed by Altana, and a brother who works for Faram, and neither of them seem to have the problems I do. Which is something, because Faram does not have an easy world to work in.

But that's not what I'm supposed to be recording here. Chaos and Cosmos are fated to fight for eternity. There can never be harmony between Order and Disorder, and every time a world is made, invariably these two stick their noses in it and start a war. Chaos has lost 12 times now, and Cosmos has made a name among the Gods for solving the problems Chaos stirs up on their worlds.

Chaos has challenged The Lady to yet another match, though the odds are somewhat different this time. As a 13th world is being prepared, Chaos wishes to challenge the legitimacy of Cosmos' victories. He has summoned 10 champions, and the Lady has asked that I and my team prepare 10 champions for her, that Chaos might be stopped.

And it will not be easy. Once a man myself, I look out at the sea of souls who have unwittingly served Cosmos and fought Chaos, and I feel nothing but guilt. How can the Gods be so crass? Men are not pawns, to be pitted in simple war-games. Men are Gods waiting for a chance to shine, and I am not so sure that Cosmos will give them that chance.

After all, what Order is there in so much brilliance?

Ah, but the others are arriving. We will be debating our first champion soon. A hero, we must pick, from Chaos and Cosmos' first war, from a conflict all too personal in this matter.

The meeting is under way now, and the Engineer has dropped the dockets on the table. My team each takes one and begins to Scan them. There are only Six Candidates, and we will be debating them each. I am lead to believe Six is a high number, and that we are being this careful because Lady Cosmos remembers these warriors personally.

Yet no world is named as their home, which bothers me. Nothing, it seems, is even known about the pasts of these six people. Names are not even assigned to them. It's a little bothersome, really. If Cosmos loves these six so much, why has she not recorded anything about them for us? We have only their deeds to go off of, and that is not a good sign.

I once temped for a God who wanted to choose a human bride (another bothersome trait of Gods. They deny the right of man to be one of them, then gladly sex up whatever man they like. Well, not all Gods, but more than you'd think.) and all we had was a list of her accomplishments in life. We were to assess her willingness to wed a God, or rather, to be bedded by a God, and to assess how this would impact her faith in said God.

Sadly, the list did not mention marriage as a part of her accomplishments, and so when we deemed her entirely likely to survive the encounter (she was healthy, and if Gods are going the sex route instead of immaculate, it can get disastrous) and to be in good faith when it ended. A pleasant dream at best. One she wouldn't share, but wouldn't feel ashamed of.

She was absolutely mortified to hear the proposal, rejected her own God, and became his enemy for the rest of her days, eventually leading to a break down in that society, and the end of a civilization.

It has been a long, hard trip back to employment since then.

My friend, The Chronicler, has closed his docket and passed it across the table. I have not even read mine. I don't need to. No one called "The Black Mage of Light" could possibly prove loyal to Cosmos. It sounds harsh, it's true, but there is a very small amount of time in which we can choose these candidates, and, given that Chaos has chosen his personal Avatar, Garland, to represent this world, we're looking for someone who can compete with Garland a little more evenly.

No offense to this Black Mage of Light, but Black Magic against someone like Chaos's personal Avatar is never going to work.

We have narrowed our choices down to two men. Which must sound sexist at first, but in our defense, there was only one woman in the lot, and she was the White Mage of Light. What good is a healer against the human incarnation of Chaos?

I will here record the two candidates, and then our decision:

Name: The Light Monk.
Species: Hume
Age: 23

The Light Monk, not actually one of the four "Light Warriors", was a close companion of the group, along with the White Mage of Light. A powerful young man whose origins were, like his comrades, largely unknown. It is believed he was raised by a sect of monks who lived high in the mountains above the city-state of Gaia. It was believed that he and the White Mage of Light may have been lovers, but this report makes no use of such information.

The Light Monk, unusual amongst men, fought with his hands, rather than with a sword. At best he'd use nunchucks at times. He also wore little armor. We believe this is detrimental to facing Garland, who is known for heavy armor and weaponry. Nevertheless, the Light Monk was an incredibly strong individual, and his physical prowess allowed the Light Warriors to defeat Kraken, Chaos's Fiend of Water.

Unfortunately, the Light Monk met his end long before the Light Warriors ever reached Garland. He was defeated by Malirith, the Fiend of Fire. His death, however, was undone by the triumphs of the team over Chaos.

It is believed that memories of dying, if restored, could prove painful, but also would provoke him to stopping Garland, that he may return alive to his home.

We are considering The Light Monk because he is a swift and powerful young man. His fists can pierce steel, and he is capable of performing a blade-catch. More to the point, he worked well with others and, as a Monk, would be very loyal to Cosmos, his religious convictions compelling him to work for her.

To that end, the Light Monk is scored as follows:

Team Work: 100%- He was willing to die that others could live.

Lethality: 75%- The Light Monk's fists impact with a great amount of speed and force, it's true, and many monsters fell before him. But he was not known for mastery of Blitzes.

Faith: 80%- The Light Monk was a devout follower of Cosmos prior to his death. He would continue to serve her here as long as all he knew was that he was serving The Lady. Should he realize that this battle changes nothing, and that Chaos and Cosmos will war again after it's conclusion, his faith might shake.

Opposition: 51%- The Light Monk is a powerful young man, but he never actually confronted Garland. He was not present when the Light Warriors killed him, and he was not present when Garland became Chaos. His power to fight Garland is questionable in that respect.

Name: The Warrior of Light
Species: Hume
Age: 24

The Warrior of Light. What to say about this young man? Well first that his face is what caught my attention. It's hard to explain to angels who never saw heroes in their life what one looks like. Normally they name their Gods or parents as heroes, but this man, I looked at his face and I just knew. Here was the hero we were looking for. But that is personal opinion. It does not factor into the equation.

The Warrior of Light was the leader of the Light Warriors in their quest to stop Garland. He was not the brightest of men by any means, his intelligence was humble, it's true, but he had a kind heart and forgave more people than one could possibly imagine. Blessed by Cosmos' Light, the Warrior, who normally was without magic, could manifest blades of light to add to his own.

It's possible he was a soldier in the military of Corneria prior to Garland's defection, but this is not known for certain. Mere rumors are all Cosmos has left us to work on! Where is the fact? The sources? How can this Goddess expect us to operate without full canon?

Nonetheless, The Warrior was brave beyond words, and a man much more of emotion than thought. Moved by the Light Monk's death, he defeated Malirith himself, ruining her once beautiful body, breaking her again and again, leaving her a wasted husk. His power with the sword was unparalleled in his world, he having defeated Garland in a duel at the start of their journey.

Not as devout a follower as the Light Monk, the Warrior of Light was still a good man with a lot of faith. Surely the restoration of his memories, coupled with having to face Garland again, would not break this man's faith in Cosmos. The fact that he wasn't exactly a genius makes it very likely that he could not fully grasp what was going on here, and thus is less likely to lose faith.

In short, because he's an idiot, the fact that he's less faithful doesn't matter.

Nevertheless, this man was a great leader, given his comrades. But even more important than the fact that he could lead a team to break a cycle which would have given Chaos command of Time makes him a very, very impressive individual. More important than even that, The Warrior of Light works exceptionally well with others. The fact that he can forgive almost any sin against him makes him the best of soldiers for Cosmos.

Team Work: 90%- The Warrior forgives almost any sin committed against him, but some people have gone too far. Garland's attempt to live forever by killing and dying forever was apparently something the Warrior deemed unforgivable. In fact, it seems he is a firm believer in the fact that a man can change his own destiny.

Faithfulness: 78%- The Warrior cannot comprehend every aspect of his religion, and thus is capable of drawing the wrong conclusions. It is highly unlikely he would ever turn on Cosmos, though. Surely he wouldn't abandon the crystals.

Lethality: 79%- The Warrior dispatched a great number of demons along the way to Chaos, and all of them were left a mangled mess when he finished. For a man as kind and humble as he, brutality toward monsters is second nature for him.

Opposition: 80%- The Warrior defeated Garland twice, and while once doing that he was playing into Chaos' hands, the second time frustrated Chaos' entire plans and set the God into the desperate struggle he finds himself now.

We may revise the scoring system at a later point. The percentage system displeases The Wanderer. He would rather we go for 1-10, despite the Engineer repeatedly pointing out percentages are more precise, despite being almost the same.

Our conclusion, of course, was inevitable. Given the Light Monk and the Warrior of Light's records, it was only a matter of time.

A decision was made, and we are all entirely comfortable with it.

The Warrior of Light has been selected over the Light Monk. He is simply a better decision. Sure, the Light Monk is more loyal to the Lady, but The Warrior is not likely to ever crack what is really happening here. Not from Garland, his foe. Even Chaos wouldn't be so foolish as to allow his Mouth to spill the truth of this conflict.

A swordsman, the Warrior will be able to strike blow for blow against Garland. Faced with the Story, that should he fail his past efforts will be undone, is most likely to spur him to undo Garland as quickly as possible. We believe this to be likely given the fact that, when he saw a comrade fall in battle, The Warrior fought much more powerfully and quickly. He will do so again to save the lives of his friends back home.

The decision made, The Messenger is now carrying our words to Lady Cosmos. We are sure she will be pleased with this decision. It is a little unnerving, though, as from here on out the process both simplifies and grows much more difficult.

We shall have fewer candidates for champions from Cosmos' other projects, it's true, but she cannot simply provide us with the souls we require. We await approval from the Gods of these prospective worlds before we can continue our plan. Yes, sadly, there is red tape even in Heaven.

At least, there is red tape when it comes to Wars and Politics in Heaven.