《The Fallen Gamer》 Chapters 1-5 Chapters 1-5 One second I was walking to another dreary day of work and the next I found myself floating...here. Was I in space? I was floating in some kind of void and all around me I could see floating lights and glowing clouds. Were those... stars and nebulas!? [Congratulations! ¡ú You died!] Floating in front of me all of a sudden was a holographic screen saying... I died? ¡°No way! I was just walking down the street a second ago, heading to work. I didn¡¯t die!¡± I exclaimed. The floating screen in front of me changed as a new message appeared. [An old lady accidentally dropped her flower pot on the 18th floor of her apartment building. It landed right on your head unfortunately and BAM¨Cinstant death.] ¡°Really!? That¡¯s such bullshit! All those years of schooling...all those years of grinding away at my job and for what? Nothing but a completely stupid and random end apparently...¡± [Well that''s just life. Would you like to start a new game? Please select your choice.] [Yes] [Also Yes] ¡°Holy shit! I can become a gamer!? Wait, why is there no option for no?¡± [No one ever chooses ¡®no¡¯ so we removed it.] ¡°Fair enough.¡± I said as I selected yes. [New game commencing. Beginning character creation... Please select your race.] [Human] [???] [???] ¡°How come two of those races are blurred out? Can I not pick them?¡± I asked. My hand was already hovering over the holographic screen ready to press ¡®human.¡¯ The system''s response stopped me, however. [Those two races are a surprise. Rest assured they are humanoid in appearance. They also come with bonus stats and special abilities along with their own racial drawbacks.] ¡°Are they stronger than humans?¡±Fo?llo?w new stories at novelhall.com [Both races are indeed superior to humans physically and magically. They are both also technically immortal races.] I immediately took my hand away from the human icon before I accidentally pressed it! ¡°What the hell!? Why would anyone pick ¡®human¡¯ if those races were so much better!?¡± I complained to the system. [All gamers eventually become the top powers in their respective multiverses regardless of their starting race unless they are killed and get a game over. Some gamers also enjoy the extra challenge of starting off weaker. In the end it doesn''t particularly matter. Gamer¡¯s are also unageing as well. Even if they initially pick ¡®human¡¯ as their race.] I¡¯d rather not make it harder on myself early on and get a game over. I had a choice between the two hidden selections so I just picked the middle icon. [Race selected¡ú Fallen Angel (DxD)] Woah! I¡¯m going to be an actual angel... well a fallen angel, but still! That was amazing! I would be able to fly, speak any language and have cool magical light powers. [Your appearance has been created based on your ideal self. Please confirm if your character''s appearance is acceptable.] My perspective suddenly shifted and I felt nauseous for a moment. ¡°Holy crap! I¡¯m seeing stuff in third person!¡± My body had apparently completely changed in appearance. Wow, I was absolutely drop dead gorgeous! The Fallen Angels in DxD were all beautiful after all. My new body looked to be in it¡¯s early 20¡¯s. I had a heart shaped face with luscious lips. My hair was now jet black and ran almost all the way down my back. My eyes were supernaturally purple. My figure was also a perfect hourglass and like most women from DxD, my breasts were now much larger. They were sitting at a D cup easily. ¡°I look absolutely perfect. Thank you system!¡± [The host is welcome¡ú Racial drawbacks found! Sin of lust has been added to the player as a permanent trait that cannot be removed.] ¡°Sin of lust?¡± I said. That wasn¡¯t so bad. ¡°I probably suffered from the sin of lust when I was human before anyway. My computer hard drive was packed with¨C¡± [The system knows... it has seen your memories.] I coughed awkwardly. ¡°Alright then is that it?¡± [Not quite. Now displaying status sheet:] [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Age: N/A due to being immortal] [Level 1: [HP: 1000/1000] [MP: 100/100] [Vigor: 100] [Strength: 10] [Intelligence: 10] [Luck: 0] [Available Free Stat Points: 10] [Skills: None] ¡°Are those stats good? Is there like a reference to base those off of?¡± I asked my system. [The average baseline human has about 5 for all stats. As a fallen angel, your starting stats are vastly higher. Especially your vigor.] Heather Potter looked about as I¡¯d imagined a female Harry would. She had messy brown hair and was still wearing the signature round glasses. She was currently whimpering in pain as Voldemort cut off his spell as he turned to his followers to gloat to them. ¡°Do you see now!? Do you all see!? I, Lord Voldemort have returned! And I have bested Dumbledore¡¯s fabled chosen one! Now no one will stop me and us as we take this world for ourselves!¡± Voldemort held his hands up high and delivered his speech to the dozen or so Death Eaters present. I used observe on the man. [Tom Riddle Aka Lord Voldemort: Lvl 22] I wasn¡¯t sure if that was a high level or not. I had nothing to compare it to. I looked at another recognizable character and used the skill again. I also used it on Heather. [Lucius Malfoy: Lvl 11] [Heather Potter: Lvl 9] Okay, so voldemort was definitely a lot stronger than everyone else here. I was also currently sitting at level 1. So I definitely did not want to fight him. That¡¯s without the fact that his favorite spell happens to be the one hitter quitter instant death curse. If this comes to combat, that¡¯s going to be an extremely difficult spell to fight against considering it¡¯s unblockable. [Host is misinformed. The killing curse would not instantly kill you. The spell simply does 200 HP of damage every cast. There exists no non-enhanced humans who have more HP than that, which is why it''s thought to be unsurvivable.] ¡°Thanks for the info system.¡± At least that was good news for me. I could tank 19 of those before death. Would I be able to beat Voldemort? [Host should not attempt such a feat at such a low level. Keep in mind that while the killing curse deals 200 HP spiritual damage, there are plenty of other spells that deal far more physical and magical damage.] Well there goes my plan of fighting him. I guess that leaves the method the other two winged Fallen taught me about when coming across humans... lying and making them believe I¡¯m some kind of higher level being far above them. A divine being that is far above the ¡®pathetic mortals.¡¯ Yeah, a lot of my fallen siblings are assholes. Apparently though, it actually works quite often. Their religions condition the humans to think we Angels are higher beings than they are. To be fair, usually when the other Fallen use this lie, it¡¯s to trick their way into a human''s bed... I never understood that. We Fallen were sinfully beautiful after all. I don¡¯t think any of us would even need to lie to get into a human''s bed... except Kokobiel. He is literally the only ugly Angel in existence. Everyone believes Father was drunk when he created him... As i was lost in thought, Voldemort had finished his monologue to his followers and now wanted to ¡®duel¡¯ Heather. As if this was really a duel. The poor girl looked so battered and exhausted she could barely even stand right. ¡°Come now Heather,¡± Voldemort sneered at the poor trembling girl. ¡°Don¡¯t you know proper wizarding etiquette? First you must bow... So bow.¡± From a few dozen feet in the air, I cringed as I watched the lunatic forcing Heather to bow to him with his magic. The spectating ring of death eaters were snickering as Heather trembled in fear. ¡°I think that''s enough of that don¡¯t you Tom.¡± I slowly descended towards the ground. I made sure to keep my four black wings spread wide out to try and carry this ruse to perfection. Internally I was scared shitless that Voldemort would just immediately start firing spells at me on sight, but I sighed in relief when I noticed that he actually was looking at me with trepidation... and dare I say fear? I smirked internally. Time to see how good an actor I was. [Skill Gained: Acting lvl 1. ¡úThe Acting skill is how talented one is when they are lying or performing.] Oh, nice! From below Heather looked up at me as well and her eyes also widened in shock. I gave her a soft smile that caused her to have some hope on her face. I followed that by turning my head and giving Voldemeort a harsh glare which actually caused him to take a step backwards. ¡°What the hell? Angels are real!? Hermione never mentioned them at all!¡± I snickered as I heard Heather talk to herself in shock. I lowered myself to about 10 feet off the ground. I was hovering closer to Heather. At any moment, I was ready to grab her and bolt before my ruse was exposed! ¡°Be not afraid, humans. I am Layla of the Fallen.¡± -Lord Voldemort- ¡°Come now Heather,¡± Voldemort sneered at the poor trembling girl. ¡°Don¡¯t you know proper wizarding etiquette? First you must bow... So bow.¡± Tom cackled out loud as he forced the pathetic girl to bow to him. Finally his vengeance was at hand! All the pain and agony he had endured, when his body was ripped to pieces by his own spell bouncing back at him, would be repaid upon this girl today! Tom would now ¡®duel¡¯ Heather in front of his loyal followers and kill the girl. They would all see he was invincible after that! ¡°I think that''s enough of that. Don¡¯t you Tom.¡± A woman''s voice called out from... above him? Tom was furious that someone not only dared to interfere, but also used his filthy muggle name. Whoever this interloper was, Tom vowed he would kill her! Tom angrily looked upwards, expecting to see some random witch flying in on a broom. Except, that''s not what he saw. Instead, the woman he saw caused him to temporarily freeze in trepidation. Memories of all those horrible orphanage days being and being forced to attend muggle church! She was beautiful... if that kind of thing still mattered to him. He had long ago sacrificed his manhood in an ancient Sumerian ritual in order to gain more magical power and control. In his mind it was a fair trade. What caused him to be cautious though were those wings. Four jet black wings extending out from behind her. Tom was never a true believer... He never even found so much of a hint of Angel¡¯s being a real thing! He was angry at himself for not searching hard enough. Tom was someone who grew up a muggle and then found out magic was real. He knew that all myths had some basis in fact! Tom was also incredibly paranoid. What were the odds that only mere moments after he resurrected himself from death an Angel showed up? Tom was cautious because he was afraid this angel had been sent by death herself to reclaim his soul! ¡®SHE WILL NOT HAVE IT!¡¯ He shouted in his mind angrily. ¡®I AM LORD VOLDEMORT! I AM ABOVE DEATH!¡¯ ¡°Be not afraid, humans. I am Layla of the Fallen.¡± The angel spoke out again. Her voice had a musical chime to it that couldn¡¯t help but cause everyone around to listen. ¡°Who the hell are you, you half breed bitch! To dare fly in here and interrupt our Lord!¡± Tom wanted to curse the man who yelled out. It was one of his more loyal, but also stupider followers that managed to stay out of Azkaban by some miracle. Tom vaguely remembered that this man was particularly hateful against any mixed races. ¡®Of course, this buffoon was a pureblood wizard, and had absolutely no idea what an angel was!¡¯ Tom angrily thought. Tom watched as the angel just floated there in the air. She only spared his foolish follower a casual glance before she ignored the man and she turned her head back to him and his hated enemy Heather Potter. ¡°I assure you, that I am no half breed. I was created in Heaven. Created by my Father, God himself.¡± The angel spoke out. Tom noticed that Heather¡¯s eyes widened in shock at that revelation. As did his own, to his resignation. ¡®Fuck...¡¯ Tom cursed in his mind. ¡°God!? Hah! He¡¯s nothing more than filthy mudblood superstition! He¡¯s not real! The only thing that¡¯s real is magic and its greatness. We, the purebloods are magics chosen! And I¡¯m not going to stand here and let some filthy half breed like you tower over us acting all high and mighty. I¡¯ll kill you first!¡± Tom¡¯s follower ranted and screamed out. Tom was considering yelling at his follower to hold his tongue, but he didn¡¯t. Tom wanted to see where this went. He wanted to see if an Angel was truly as powerful as they were supposed to be in the stories! ¡°You think you can kill me?¡± The angel laughed with that musical voice of hers. ¡°Very well go ahead and try it!¡± She smiled and spread her arms wide as if taunting all of them. All of the death eaters glared angrily at the angel while the one who had been screaming at her stepped forward. ¡°Die bitch! Avada Kedavra!¡± Tom watched as the killing curse was perfectly cast from the man¡¯s wand. He smiled to himself at the sight that at least this particular hadn¡¯t grown rusty and could still cast the most feared curse in their world on command. ¡°No! You have to move!¡± Heather Potter let out a shriek of fright towards the angel. It was too late though. The green curse flew forward and struck true! It impacted the angel right on her torso... and did nothing. If Tom still had a heart... he figured it would have dropped at witnessing such a sight. XXX Chapters 6-10 Chapters 6-10 Chapters 6-10: [-200 Hp] Holy Fuck! That was scary! I just had to float here and let that killing curse hit me or my entire ruse would have been blown! I read so much fanfiction in my past life that I didn''t know what to expect from that spell. I was clenching my teeth and waiting for some tremendous pain to wash over me. Instead I felt nothing at all! I didn''t know whether to be thankful or disappointed... [The killing curse does spiritual damage. Therefore it will not inflict pain.] ''Thanks for not letting me know about that earlier System!'' I shouted in my head. A little heads up would have been nice. [Your welcome ;) ] ''That was sarcasm!'' [I know.] "The killing curse... It did nothing..." "What is she!?" "Lord Voldemort, what do we do!?" I''m honestly blown away by how well my ruse has been going so far. The Death Eaters around just saw me survive the unsurvivable, and now they''re all scared and turning to their dark lord. Heather Potter, meanwhile, was staring up at me with eyes wide and her mouth open in shock. "Be not afraid Heather." I spoke out again. All the eyes nearby turned to me as I spoke. I really loved my new voice! It had a musical undertone to it that would draw people''s ears everytime I spoke up. "You are safe now Heather Potter." I spoke out gently to the girl who now had tears in her eyes before she started crying happily. I snickered internally as I saw Voldemort gnashing his teeth angrily. My acting was going well. He truly thought I was some immortal being and was too afraid to engage me! [Acting has leveled up 1¡ú2] Hell yeah it did! I deserved that after this amazing performance I just put on! I made Voldemort himself feel genuine fear with nothing but a few words! I floated down and set my feet on the ground. "Come here Heather." I called out to the girl. She didn''t even hesitate as she ran over and hugged me. I could feel her shaking in my embrace. I didn''t know whether that was the lingering effects of the torture curse on her or whether she was just that upset. It was probably both. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saving me!" The girl cried out as she hugged me tighter. "Layla of the Fallen..." Voldemort spoke my name and called out to me. I didn''t like my name coming out of his disgusting mouth. I should punish this filthy sinner and offer their remains up to¨C ''Woah! Where did those thoughts come from!'' [Your personalities between your two lives are in the process of combining. Layla was not a fan of evil men who preyed upon the innocent.] ''Noted. Thank you System.'' "Tell me," Voldemort continued. "Are you an agent of Lady Death? Is that why you''re here! It cannot be a coincidence! Mere moments after I return to the living and defeat Death once again, you appear. No, it''s obviously not a coincidence!" Voldemort glared at me accusingly. Wow, his head really went to a strange place. But with my acting skill at level 2 now, I was immediately able to roll with it. "That is correct, Tom." I lied with my musical voice. The Death Eaters nearby gasped in fright. "I am a servant of Death. She might not be able to harm you currently due to your... trinkets. But that won''t last forever!" Voldemort''s eyes widened in shock and fear when I mentioned his trinkets. I decided to throw in a mention of his Hocruxes to really give him a good scare. "She dares threaten me!" He seethed out and started breathing hard in anger. I may have gone too far with that threat... Voldemort snapped! His initial fright had turned to fury! His eyes were burning with pure hatred as he glared at me. I could feel his menacing magic pour out of him and surround the area. The air literally started vibrating with his power. All the Death Eaters nearby were forced to their knees and started gagging from the power display! It took everything I had to keep a straight face and not flee immediately! ''Why the hell was level 22 this powerful!?'' I screamed in my head. [If Voldemort was a gamer who put all his points into intelligence to raise his magic, level 22 would make him an ultimate class being in strength. He might not be a gamer...but he metaphorically did put all his points into magic...] Fuck! I''m on the bottom of mid-class with 4 wings and he has a metaphorical 10! He''s as magically strong as Kokobiel! I know his health isn''t even close, but I doubt I''d actually be able to hit him anyway. I should have stayed floating in the air where I at least had the psychological height advantage! Now he''s right in front of me towering over me physically and magically! Heather was just looking so afraid though that I couldn''t help but land and comfort her! She''s also once again completely terrified and trembling in fear. [Warning: Luck check failed!] What? Luck check failed? Before I could ask the System what that meant I heard a crack sound out behind me! I spun around and Voldemort had appeared right next to Heather and I! My eyes widened in shock as a green spell formed over his wand! "Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort screamed out and the spell was launched forward point blank... towards Heather. The girl barely had an instant to let out a squeak. "No!" I screamed out as I watched it connect! Like a puppet with no strings, she dropped to the ground unmoving. I turned and glared at Voldemort with fury in my eyes! Instinctively a light spear had formed in my hands. I didn''t care if I wouldn''t win! This monster just murdered the girl under my protection after I promised her she would be ok! I was going to kill him! ...I didn''t get a chance to try though. "You might be unkillable, Angel! But she wasn''t!" He shouted out with a laugh. "You can tell your mistress that Lord Voldemort''s soul is not hers to take!" With that said he flicked his wand and I felt the massive barrier surrounding the graveyard shatter! "All Death Eaters fall back for now!" Voldemort shouted out. I hurled my dark purple light spear forward at him but he had already apparated away... His minions followed right behind him as the graveyard echoed with cracks before falling silent. ... XXX After Voldemort''s killing curse had struck Heather, I took her body with me and broke into a nearby deserted house. A half hour later, I watched as Heather sat up with a violent cough! She had come back to life! She rapidly looked around in fright. It took her a moment to calm down and realized she wasn''t in danger anymore. She started hyperventilating and shaking. This wasn''t the 17 year old Harry who had willingly walked to his death. This was a 14 year old girl who had just had her worst fears realized upon her! "Woah, easy there Heather." I said, trying to calm her down. "It''s ok, Voldemort is gone." ... I eventually got her to calm down. Once she stopped looking terribly upset, she surprisingly smiled and told me she met ''her mum.'' Heather told me that when the curse struck her, she ended up in the all white train station. From there, the similarities played out almost the same as in the final Harry Potter movie, except in this world it was Heather and instead of Dumbledore, she met her mom. Dumbledore was still alive after all. The horcrux, that she didn''t know about, took all the damage from the spell for her and Heather survived. I guess her surviving was more than I could hope for when voldemort turned out to be way more magically powerful than I had expected. At least he was still insane and relatively easy to fool... If he was smart AND powerful, then I would have been in serious trouble... [Quest Completed! You have leveled up! Free Stat Points +10!] [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: None] [Level 2:] [HP: 2000/2000] [MP: 200/200] [Vigor: 100] [Strength: 10] [Intelligence: 20] [Luck: 0] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 2, Acting 2,] [Perks: None] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 10] I ignored the prompt as I focused on the girl in front of me instead. "I''m sorry I failed to protect you." I apologized to her. She seemed confused before she gave me a smile. "That''s okay. At least you tried. That''s more than anyone else has ever done. It''s alway been me having to face that guy by myself. It was nice having someone come to my rescue." She said as she smiled at me. I asked Heather what she wanted to do next. I imagined that it had been hours since the Triwizard Tournament ended. She never made it back to Hogwarts with Cedric''s body. Canon was basically screwed for her at this point. "Before that, I want to ask, are you really an Angel?" Heather looked at me curiously. I nodded and told her I was. "How come no one in the wizarding world ever told me about Angels being real then? I figured they''d be a lot more accepting of the muggle holidays if they knew!" She asked. I decided to give Heather a quick rundown about my life as Layla so far. I also gave her a run down on the reverse side of the world. "So the rest of the supernatural world stole a bunch of land and ran away to another dimension leaving all the wizards and witches behind?" Heather asked. "Yes... pretty much." "Well that''s shitty." She said and I laughed. "Also, from my perspective, your side is the reverse side." Heather said with a giggle. "I suppose you make a fair point." "So what do you want to do now Heather?" I asked her again. "What do you mean?" "Well," I started to explain. "Voldemort thinks you''re dead, and therefore so will the whole wizarding world soon enough. You could just use this time to slip away. Maybe train yourself up and come back and kick his ass in an epic duel!" I explained enthusiastically but Heather herself didn''t seem to be too enthused by the prospect of having to face Voldemort again... "Why does it have to be me? Why can''t someone else kill him!?" She said with an upset look on her face. I guess she had a point. [Quest Issued: The-girl-who-was-tired ¡ú Heather Potter is tired of having to constantly face Voldemort. Someone else should defeat him! And that someone is you! Kill Voldemort permanently! Time limit¡ú 2 years] [Reward: 5 free levels¡ú 1 Million Gold Coins¡ú Increased reputation with Lady Death] [Failure: Voldemort destroys the wizarding world before someone else puts him down.] I was looking over the quest and those rewards looked to be pretty good. I''m not exactly sure what I''m going to do with 1 million gold coins. I guess I could sell them for quite a bit of cash. What really drew my attention though, was the final reward. Voldemort had mentioned Lady Death as well. I don''t think this was just the Harry Potter universe I had found myself in... I think I was in marvel as well! [Your intelligence has increased +1 for uncovering what universe you are in.] Was that why the gods hid our world away? Were they just scared of all the powerful entities in this universe and fled behind the dimensional gap. If so... my impression of my Father just took a bit of a nose dive. "I want to learn magic!" Heather declared. "I''ve barely learned any magic at all in all my years at hogwarts! The students I saw in your courtyard looked way more competent than any student from my school! And furthermore..." ... The Ancient One just nodded her head along as Heather continued to rant about how dumb Hogwarts was as an educational institution. Heather finished her rant a few minutes later as she took some deep breaths. She had worked herself up a bit... "Very well. Welcome to our order!" The Ancient One said. "We don''t turn away any ''people'' here who wish to learn." She specifically put emphasis on the word ''people'' as she spoke. "Am I not people?" I asked. That''s not fair! I wanted to learn too! She just gave me a wry smile. "Not technically. Don''t get mad at me, I didn''t make the rules. If you wish to learn here, Layla, then I have to give you a task to complete first. That''s the rule for all non-humans that wish to join our order. "Fine," I huffed out. "What''s the test?" "Our London Sorcerers have been struggling with an issue for the past week now. How familiar are you with demons?" She asked. Wait? That guy was serious? "Are you talking about Demonic Ninjas?" I asked skeptically. "Oh good, you''ve heard already..." ... After getting Heather settled into the Kamar Taj, the Ancient One opened a portal for me to London to take care of the city''s demonic ninja problem. She gave me a magic demon detecting compass at least. [Quest Issued: Destroy the branch of The Hand along with its sub-leader who are trying to make a push into London!] [Reward: You get to learn magic from the Ancient One herself!] [Failure: The Ancient One will be disappointed in you and she won''t teach an incompetent student.] The Hand... why am i not surprised. Demonic ninjas indeed. I suppose I better start searching for them soon. Who knows what kind of damage that evil cult could cause if left unchecked. Before that though, I wanted to make a quick stopover in Little Whinging. I was going to be visiting the Dursley household. After hearing Heather''s life story... I wasn''t able to let such an injustice go unanswered when the perpetrator was so close by. "Show me my current stats before I head out, System." I spoke out loud. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: None] [Level: 2] [HP: 2000/2000] [MP: 220/220] [Vigor: 100] [Strength: 10] [Intelligence: 22] [Luck: 10] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 2, Acting 2, Light Manipulation 1] [Perks: None] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] Those weren''t bad stats considering I''d only been in this world less than a day. Yeah, Vernon Dursely was fucked... XXX I arrived at Number 4 Privet Drive the next day, early in the morning. It was the weekend, so that meant everyone should be home still. Every single home in the neighborhood looked cookie-cutter identical and frankly it made me want to gag. This whole suburb felt soulless. There was no individuality anywhere to be seen. I knocked on the door. "Tuni, someone''s at the door!" I heard a man shout loudly. I figured that was Vernon Dursley. "Who is it!?" I heard a woman loudly shout next. Obviously, Petunia Dursley. "I don''t bloody know, I can''t see through walls. I''m watching the game. Get the door!" "I''m cooking breakfast; you get it!" "I''ll get it," a third, young-sounding voice called out. I heard footsteps approach the other side of the door. It swung open, and I had to take a step back to not get smacked. "Yeah!? What is it¡ªwoah." Dudley froze for a moment as he stared at me. "Well, hello beautiful¡ªI mean miss. Is there something I can do for you?" He leaned against the doorway and tried to look suave. I just rolled my eyes at the 14 year old boy in his pajamas trying to flirt with me. "Dudley, who''s at the door!?" Vernon called out loudly. "The most beautiful woman I''ve ever seen in my life!" Dudley shouted back. A second later he realized that he just shouted that out loud, and he blushed in embarrassment. "What!?" I heard a shrill shriek. "Whatever hussy is at the door, you better not try to seduce my Duddykins!" Petunia shouted from the kitchen before she rushed towards the door herself. "Now listen here, you¡ªoh wow." Petunia also froze momentarily upon seeing me. Normally such a reaction would have made me giggle¨Cif I wasn''t here to deliver retribution upon the members of this household. Because of that, I was much more serious than usual right now. "Hello, Mrs. Dursley, may I come in? I''d like to speak with your family for a bit." I asked her but my tone implied that it was in no way a request she could refuse. Thankfully, there was no need for violence... yet. She hesitantly nodded to me before stepping aside. I followed her inside. She could clearly tell I was supernatural, and was probably hoping I wasn''t here to hurt her. That remained to be seen and would depend entirely on whether she was complicit with my target over there. Vernon was sitting on a couch with his back facing us, watching a football game. He was so engrossed he didn''t bother turning around to greet his guest. "Vernon we have...a guest." Petunia announced. "Tell them to go away. It''s the weekend and I''m watching the game!" "Who''s winning?" I asked nonchalantly. He clicked his tongue¨Cprobably annoyed that I wasn''t leaving. "England, of course! As is only proper!" He exclaimed. "What a shame..." I replied, disrespecting his favorite team just to try and rile him up. It worked. He turned around to glare at me, only pausing momentarily at my appearance. His face went red with anger when he finally saw his ''guest.'' "Purple eyes and beauty like that can''t be natural! You must be one of them freaks! What are you doing in my house!? Get out." He shouted and pointed his stubby finger at me. "Oh, believe me, Mr. Dursley, I won''t be staying long. I''m just here for a quick visit before I head out on my own way," I replied. I couldn''t waste all day here. I had a demonic cult to destroy after all. "Then what are you here for, woman!? Out with it!" Before I answered him, I turned to Dudley and stared him right in the eyes. "Sleep!" I commanded and employed hypnosis on him. His eyes rolled back, and I caught him and set him down on the ground. Hypnosis wasn''t a skill I, or most of the Angels or Fallen Angels used often. Mind magic was a borderline desecration of free will. We also hated that the Devils were so liberal in using hypnosis against humans. "What did you do to my Dudders!?" Petunia jumped in fright. Vernon took a step back in fear as well. "Don''t worry, he''s just asleep. Despite being a bully, he''s still a child after all. He was just raised incorrectly. I hope whatever home he ends up in will correct his behavior in the future," I explained. The two of them gulped at what I insinuated. "Are you threatening us?" Vernon angrily glared at me as he found his resolve and took a step towards me. He was far larger and taller than me, but I wasn''t feeling remotely threatened. I might only have 10 points in strength currently, but that''s still twice as strong as the average man. Also, I had my magic... "Tell me, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley? Is this a God-fearing household?" I asked. "Of course it is!" The woman spat out. "That''s why we don''t like freaks like you coming in here and interfering with our good Christian lives!" "Good Christian lives, huh?" I laughed at the irony. WOOSH! My four wings emerged from my back. Petunia and Vernon''s eyes immediately widened in fright. "You''re... you''re... but that''s not... possible." Petunia started shaking like a leaf. I held out my hand, and a purple light spear appeared in my hand. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Layla of the Fallen. I am an angel who cannot stand injustice. And what has occurred to young Heather Potter inside this household has been a great injustice," I declared as I turned and leveled my light spear toward Vernon. "W-What are you talking about?" Vernon asked, now trembling in fear. Sure, we weren''t the most loving household, but we never put our hands on the girl!" Vernon lied directly to my face. He was rather unconvincing. Even if I hadn''t heard Heather''s life story, I wouldn''t believe him. "Oh, you did more than put your hands on your niece, Vernon Dursley." I said menacingly. Petunia looked shocked at me and then at her husband.. "Vernon? I-is that true!?" Petunia questioned him. There was accusation¨Cand disgust in her eyes. "Are you claiming to not know what he''s done to your niece over the years, Petunia?" I turned and leveled the spear at her. She yelped and took a step back in fright. "NO! Absolutely not! Are you insinuating that he¡ª" She couldn''t finish her statement as Vernon yelled loudly. "That''s a lie! I did no such thing. I am innocent!" He yelled out. His face was red with rage. "No, you''re not," I said as I threw my light spear... at the area between the man''s legs. The scream he let out didn''t make me feel better, but knowing that some Justice long overdue was delivered did. "Make sure he turns himself in for his crimes, or I will be back!" I threatened Petunia, who nodded her head rapidly in fear. Her husband was on the ground wailing in agony at his lost manhood. I then left their disgusting house, feeling much freer. I had now done everything in my power to save Heather Potter. From here on out, her life was her own... ... ...I suppose I was being a bit melodramatic. It''s not like I wouldn''t be seeing Heather at the Kamar Taj whenever I went back there. Plus, I had only been looking after her for a few hours at most. It wasn''t that big of a deal. [Hidden Quest Complete! Congratulations! You have delivered upon Heather Potter a new fate! Most other Gamer''s would have simply abandoned the poor girl after the first quest. Not you though! You went the extra mile to make sure she was well taken care of after!] [Hidden Title Granted: Angel of Hope ¡ú You will do a 20% bonus damage when fighting for hope or justice.] Huh? Neat... XXX Chapters 11-15 Chapters 11-15 -Interlude- Natasha Romanoff was one of the best spies in the world. At least, that was her opinion. The Black Widow was a well known and terrifying legend to powerful politicians and businessmen alike. It should have been no surprise then when the order came down from on high to get rid of her. There was apparently such a thing as being too good at her job. Thankfully for her, the agent sent to eliminate her, Clint Barton, had a kind heart and chose to spare her. She was then ''offered'' a job for the up and coming spy agency that he was a part of. It was known as SHIELD. She had been working for them for about a year now. Earlier that day, Natasha had received a notification from the organization''s leader. He had a new assignment that he would be briefing her on personally. That was why she was currently outside his office door. "Agent Romanoff." Director Fury acknowledged her as she entered his private office. It was located in their current ''temporary base.'' A deep bunker on the edge of New Jersey just outside New York. Natasha''s clearance wasn''t yet high enough in the organization to know about the details of their upcoming new base. She had Barton and Fury''s confidence (she thinks) but the other agencies still didn''t trust her. "You wanted to see me sir?" She asked as she entered Fury''s office. "Damn right I did. A... weird situation has popped up on our radar in London." Fury said. "Weird how?" She asked. Shield was pretty much built to deal with weird situations. "A man was admitted to the emergency burn ward in Surrey today. His entire lower extremities were burned away and cauterized..." Fury explained with a grimace. That was a horrifying fate for any man... Natasha smirked to herself as she reminisced about doing something similar to some of her targets in the past... "I''m assuming his attacker is what makes this situation weird?" Natasha asked. "You assume right. Our best sketch artist put this together from the victim''s description of the attacker." Fury said as he pressed a button on his desk and a pencil drawing of a beautiful woman appeared on the tv behind fury. Natasha assumed that was the subject. What Natasha found odd about the sketch was that the beautiful woman had 4 black angel wings... "Are those wings... real?" Natasha asked. Fury shrugged. "We''re not sure yet. They are according to Vernon Dursley and his hysterical wife. According to them, the attacker identified herself as Layla of the Fallen. We''ve been running her face through every camera in London all morning trying to find a match. "Did we find her?" "Oh, we found her alright? Our algorithm picked up a woman with her exact likeness, minus the wings, on a few street cameras in the heart of London." Director Fury pressed another button on his desk and the image on the screen changed. On it was a photo of probably the most beautiful woman Natasha had ever seen. Layla of the Fallen had a gorgeous heart shaped face free of any imperfections. A perfect hourglass figure, long black hair that almost reached her waist, and hypnotic purple eyes. "Meet Layla of the fallen... allegedly." Director Fury spoke out as he pointed to the real picture. "A Fallen Angel?" Natasha questioned with some doubts. "I wasn''t even aware angels were real." "No one was aware Angels were real. But if they are..." Fury trailed off as he didn''t have to explicitly state the revelations of such a discovery. That would pretty much confirm the world''s main religions were real. Natasha didn''t know how to feel about that, since the Red Room had raised her to not believe in anything but completing the mission at all costs. "So how did she burn away the man''s...bits? And why?" Natasha asked. Fury sighed. "According to Mrs. Dursley, Layla apparently created a lightsaber in her hand and threw it at Vernon. As to the why... that''s another matter entirely. The man clammed up, but we''ve been thoroughly sweeping over his house. The family was supposed to have Mrs Durley''s niece living with them after her parents died in a car crash over a decade ago. There was no sign of the girl anywhere. Her room has been sitting empty for what we speculate has been months now. When we swept it, we also found old blood stains, among other things." Fury said somberly. Natasha noticed that his fist was clenched hard. They came across a lot of fucked up people in their lines of work. Natasha also grimaced as she was painting a picture in her own mind about what happened. "So Vernon assaults and murders his niece, and a few months later an actual angel comes and delivers retribution upon him? That sounds like something out of a fairy tale..." Fury just shrugged. "Believe me, I''ve seen stranger things..." "We need to put the squeeze on Vernon to confirm what happened to his niece." Natasha stated. Fury grimaced. "That was the plan... Until Vernon Dursley vanished an hour ago along with his wife. The camera''s in the hospital they were in went completely dark for around 20 minutes. When they came back online, the pair were gone and the hospital room was completely empty." Natasha''s eyes widened at that. That sounded like a professional abduction operation. "Was it the angel who did it?" She asked. "No," Fury replied. "We''ve actually been monitoring her continually on various cameras throughout the whole day. Not once was she ever near the hospital. She seems to be wandering all around London constantly checking a weird looking compass. She''s looking for something." "I wonder if it''s like the compass from Pirates of the Caribbean?" Natasha joked. Fury however did not laugh and just stared at her. Natasha rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! There''s no way magic compasses are real too!" She exclaimed. "Once again Agent... I''ve seen weirder..." Fury dryly stated. "Pack your bags Romanoff, you''re heading to London. Everything circles back to the supposed angel. While we still know where she is, go and investigate her." "You got it sir." Natasha replied. An hour later her bags were packed and she was on a high speed shield jet to London. XXX "This stupid compass doesn''t work!" I shouted out angrily as I was on the verge of smashing the damn thing. I had been walking up and down the streets of London for hours! The entire time, the compass''s needle has been randomly spinning in circles. [Gamer''s don''t quit when the going gets tough, host. They buckle down and grind harder!] ''I''m pretty sure a lot of gamers give up when the going gets tough. Half of the people who started Dark Souls never finished it after all.'' I sniped back at the system. [That is not the same. You''re in an immortal body that doesn''t get tired or hungry. So keep looking!] "Fine!" I whined out loud as I turned down a street I''m pretty sure I''d already checked. I slowly walked down it once again while never taking my eyes off the compass. "Mommy, what''s that pretty lady doing? Is she playing pirates? I want to play!" A little boy nearby was tugging on his mothers sleeve and pointing at me. I felt the heat go to my cheeks. I probably looked so weird to everybody right now. "You''ll have to ask her nicely if you can play too." I heard the mother say. Excuse me! Don''t just sick your child on me lady! I''m not playing a game... What does she think I''m doing out here!? [You are playing a game though. Your whole life is a game...] ''Shut up system!'' I shouted in my head. "Excuse me, pretty lady." I let out a sigh as the little boy walked up to me. "That''s a cool compass. Are you playing pirates?" He asked me. I just facepalmed. "I''m not playing pirates. I''m playing... find the bad ninjas. This compass is supposed to point to them, but for some reason it just keeps spinning and doesn''t work for me." I said with another sigh. "That sounds cool! Can I try?" He looked at me with big hopeful eyes. He looked to be 5 or 6 at most and I guess I didn''t want to be mean to a child. "Sure kid. Give it a shot." I handed him the compass. He took it from my hands and started waving it up and down excitedly. "Alright, compass. Point to the bad ninjas!" He shouted out and started running up and down the sidewalk. His mother nearby walked over and approached me. "Thank you for humoring my son. Can I ask why you''re walking around staring at a compass? Are you method acting and preparing for a roll? My sister works for the local theater and she does that sometimes." The woman said to me. "It''s a long story. Definitely not interesting enough to explain." I lied. She seemed to accept it easily enough. I hadn''t really gotten a good look at her before but now that I did, I would say that she was quite charming. She looked to be a typical homemaker and she was giving off a motherly charm that I found myself being drawn to. I wouldn''t call her beautiful by any stretch, but I definitely would like to get her alone later and maybe¨CWoah! ''What the fuck are these thoughts!?'' [You have the Sin of Lust as a permanent drawback. This was the first attractive person you have met so far surprisingly.] At least my Sin only seemed to act up around people I found attractive already. ''Is there any way I can properly manage my Lust?'' I asked the system. [Get a girlfriend?] "..." ''Great advice system! 10/10!'' I thought sarcastically... [You''ll probably need multiple partners to be honest. The more powerful you get as a Fallen... the stronger your urges will get unless they are routinely taken care of. I bet your regretting not picking human as a starting race right about now ;) ] ''Fuck off system...'' I pouted in my head. Multiple partners!? How the hell was I going to manage that? I''m the most sheltered angel of all time! Even Gabriel, the Angel of Innocence, had more social interactions than I did! "..." "Are you alright?" The woman asked. I just realized I had probably looked like I was spacing out in front of her. She was looking at me in concern. I gave her a wry smile. "I''m sorry I just got lost in your eyes momentarily." The woman had a look of shock that I had just said that. I was shocked I had just said that! "Oh..." Her face turned red and she actually blushed. "It''s been a while since someone has come onto me..." She admitted to me. "Especially someone who looks like you do!" She said as she looked me up and down. She was not subtle. "Come on now. That can''t be true. A woman as beautiful as you must have suitors lined up around the corner." The words flowed out of my mouth once again surprising the both of us. The housewives blush deepened as she started fidgeting in place a bit. "Well...my husband won''t be back for another hour. And my little Henry could use a nap. Maybe you''d like to come over for a cuppa?" She said to me with a longing look. That moved very quickly! Since when has picking up women been that easy... [It was 100% your looks. The world''s greatest supermodels pale in comparison to the looks of most supernatural beings.] ''Are you accusing this poor lonely housewife of being shallow, system?'' [Yes.] Fair enough. So what if she was? The compass hadn''t been working and I supposed I could use a break~. I gave the woman a sultry smile that promised¨C "Hey lady your compass is pointing to something, look!" And the break was ruined! The kid ran back up to me and showed me the compass. Sure enough, it was pointing in a single direction for the first time since I''ve had it. It had found a trace of demonic energy nearby! I formed a light spear in my hand as some epic drums and guitar started playing in my head. "Knock Knock you pajama wearing cultists!" I screamed out as I hurled my light spear forward and blasted the entrance door to pieces as I stormed into the lobby. Just as I expected, the inside was a lot different than the decrepit outside. Everything still looked relatively clean and up to date. There was a group of 5 ninjas who were completely caught off guard by my entrance. "Nani mono da!?" One of the ninja''s shouted out. His only reply was my light spear blasting his head to pieces. "Intruder! Kill her!" The four ninjas charged me at the same time. "Bring it you evil assholes!" A purple spear formed in each of my hands as I hurled them both. Two more Ninja''s dropped dead with gaping holes in their torsos. The last two Ninja''s had reached me with their blades drawn. I ducked backwards to avoid getting sliced from one blade, unfortunately the ninja''s blade got a lucky hit on my side. [-10HP] RIP! I heard a tearing noise and looked down. The ninja''s blade had sliced into my side, but more importantly... It had torn my dress! The one that Penemue had crafted for me herself... I saw red. "You pieces of trash! This dress was a gift from my older sister!" I was going to kill them all! XXX [Intelligence +1] "She is too powerful!" "Everytime we cut her she immediately heals! Is she immortal like our demon god!?" I was tearing my way through this base with abandon. It was honestly kind of sad. The hand was supposed to be a powerful organization, but at the end of the day, their foot soldiers were mostly all regular humans. Only their top leaders could even use chi. None of these Ninja''s so far have been able to use it. [Intelligence +1] [Light Manipulation has leveled up! Light spells cost half as much MP!] "We cannot let her get to the young master!" I continued cutting and burning my way through swathes of Hand Ninja. These guys were like cockroaches. Everytime I killed one, two more would appear. They were like Hydra, but way less threatening because none of them had guns. I wasn''t complaining though, this was a great farming opportunity! [Intelligence +1] "Ha, so this is the best the Hand can do? I''m disappointed!" I called out as I slew another two ninjas. They had gotten some hits in, every once in a while. Easily enough to have killed a regular human, but then again I wasn''t human. A quick glance at my status showed I was still sitting at a comfortable 1700/2000 HP. My MP on the other hand i had to start conserving. My Intelligence was currently sitting at 26 and I had 90/260 MP left. I''m glad my light manipulation leveled up otherwise I may have run out of MP. Lights spears only cost me 2.5MP now instead of 5MP. Having to retreat because I ran out of magic would have been embarrassing. I just finished putting down another few Ninjas when¨C "ENOUGH!" A loud guttural voice echoed out through the entire theater complex. It didn''t sound human. "All Hand forces retreat. You may all be useless fodder, but I can''t have all my slaves dying on me can I? And to the woman attacking us, come to theater 19. There you and I will meet face to face." The guttural voice finished talking as the echoes died out. The remaining dozen or so Hand ninjas I was fighting turned in all directions and scattered away. Dammit! I was only one more ninja kill away from 27 Intelligence! I sighed in resignation. Oh well, I guess I''ll just have to settle for the level up after I kill the young master. I followed the signs on the walls and proceeded to theater 19. ... When I reached that specific theater and entered, I almost wretched. It was foul. There were corpses piled up by the dozens in numerous places. Blood stains soaked the entire room along with various human limbs and body parts scattered about. It was a scene straight out of a horror game. From across the room I saw him... No, I saw it. This was no human, but a genuine demon! I didn''t think the Hand even had other demon''s besides the Beast. The demon was fat and grotesque. Its body was large and caked in obvious human blood stains. It was clear to me that they were his preference of food as the whole room was riddled with his leftovers. "So you''re the woman who almost killed all my slaves. I have to admit for once, I am not disappointed. To think such sinful beauty would willingly come to me. I am flattered. I think I''ll breed you first before I devour you. It will be a true honor! My father did the same thing with my mother!" His disgusting voice spoke out as his putrid yellow eyes raked over me. "Your father?" I questioned. "You are a child of the Beast then?" The demon just smirked at me with its large mouth full of sharp razor-like teeth. "Yeeeeeeeessss." He hissed out with a mad cackle. "Now do you understand your mistake, mortal? You will not be leaving this place alive!" In response to his cackling I finally called forth my four black wings. The demon immediately stopped laughing as his eyes widened in shock. "Mortal? I''m afraid you''re misinformed about that." I taunted the Son of the Beast. "Y-you..But that''s impossible. Your kind abandoned this world over 1000 years ago!" The demon was now looking afraid. It appeared he could recognize I was a Fallen Angel. He must have heard about my kind from his father then. "I suppose it has been a long time since demonic filth has been purged by Angelic Light. Allow me to rectify that!" I hovered a few feet off the floor. Thankfully, theater ceilings are all at least over 20 feet high. I rocketed a dozen feet upperward before I began conjuring light spears and raining them downwards on the creature. The demon was too blubbery and obese to fly or quickly avoid them. I was clearly the worst match up for him. My light spears would also intrinsically deal devastating damage to him because of his race. "GAAAaahhh! Damn you, Angelic Bitch!" In the span of a few seconds, I had spent around 30 MP and rained a dozen light spears down on the demon. He looked like a light-up-porcupine with them all sticking out of him. The sizzling noises they all emitted as they burned him echoed throughout the theater. "I honestly expected this to be harder." I taunted from the air. Though, I was surprised that he was still alive with so many light spears stuck in him. His HP must be absolutely monstrous. The average devil would be long dead after being impaled by only one or two light spears. ''Observe.'' [Marigor the Gluttonous] [Level 16:] [HP 5000/14000] "Come down here and fight me!" He took a few steps forward. Every single one shook the entire theater. His weight must have been insane as well. He grabbed a nearby seat and easily ripped it from where it was bolted to the floor. He reeled his arm back and flung it at me... well he tried at least. With incredible speed the chair hurtled through the air and slammed into the ceiling where it exploded. He had missed me by a large margin. I hadn''t even moved to dodge.... "..." "Someone never played little league as a little demon tyke did they?" I taunted him again. I imagine his face would have gone red from anger if he actually had blood flowing through him. Instead it was just some kind of gross black ooze that stank to high hell. "Fuck you! I won''t miss this time." He reached to grab another chair. Too bad I wouldn''t give him the opportunity. I spent another 25 MP and rained 10 more light spears down onto him. As the demon saw his impending death, he didn''t even bother to try and dodge them. "My father will avenge me!" He declared right before they impacted him. [Congratulations! You have slain the Young Master of the Hand! You have leveled up!] [Soul Imprint detected. The Gamer System is Purging it.... Purging complete!] ''Soul Imprint? What''s that?'' I asked. [With his dying breath. The Demon tried to mark your soul as the one who killed him. His father would have known you slew his son if he ever laid eyes on you.] ''That''s pointless...'' A bunch of the Hand ninja escaped. They already know what I''ve done... Also, the only time I ever plan to meet the Beast is when I go to Japan to purge him. [That is true. Nobody said all demons were smart.] ... "Status." I said out loud. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 3] [HP: 2000/2000] [MP: 260/260] [Vigor: 100] [Strength: 10] [Intelligence: 26] [Luck: 10] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 2, Acting 2, Light Manipulation 2] [Perks: None] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 10] XXX Chapters 16-20 Chapters 16-20 The demon was thoroughly dead. I had impaled him with over 20 light spears after all. I was frankly surprised how easy it was. Maybe I was just that awesome? I was riding the high of my victory until the system came raining on my parade when my observe skill leveled up. [Observe Level 2 - shows more details of the targets this skill is used on.] I wanted to facepalm after using the skill on the Demon''s corpse. [Corpse of Marigor the Gluttonous - Son of the Beast][Level 16:][Age: 1... ] I had killed a literal toddler of a demon... No wonder he could hardly fight back at all. Demon''s must grow incredibly quickly physically because his body is the size of a car and weighs thrice as much. "Other than that though," I monologued to myself, "I''d say I had a pretty good first day in this new life. I leveled up twice, I saved Heather Potter from death by Voldemort, I met the Ancient one, I went on an epic chase sequence through London¨C" [I seem to recall you complaining for a few hours straight at that point.] "Silence from the peanut gallery please." [QQ...] "...And I started a blood feud with The Hand. All that off spawn in 24 hours..." I finished. [It was a very impressive first day. Most Gamer''s don''t accomplish nearly that much.] "How many other gamers are there anyway?" I asked the system. [Hundreds? Thousands? Who knows. Some Gamers get so powerful that they no longer even need their systems and they pass them onto new people.] "That''s surprisingly nice of them." I would expect most Gamer''s to hoard their systems forever to hold onto the power. [It''s not nice or altruistic actually.] "What do you mean, system?" [Gamer''s cannot enter other Gamer''s multiverses without being invited. However, if those powerful being''s are no longer Gamers...] My eyes widened at that realization. They would be able to invade the multiverses of Gamers and attack them! These invaders would be multiversal level entities at that point and there''s no way a new player like myself would stand a chance if that happened to me. "Am I in danger of that happening?" [It''s always a slight possibility, but there''s only a handful of beings like that. They usually won''t leave their realms either, because the reverse is also true. Gamer''s are free to invade their realms as well since they are no longer Gamers themselves. They could send subordinates to scout out this universe though.] "What''ll I do if that happens? Will I even know?" [I will know, and will issue you an emergency kill quest on any extra dimensional scouts.] "Thanks system. I can always count on you!" I smiled to myself. If there were only were a handful of evil Ex-Gamer''s out there, I wouldn''t have to deal with any issues that often. "..." [Warning! An emergency Quest has been issued! An extra dimensional invader has been detected!] "Are you fucking kidding me!" I exclaimed. [Yes, I was just kidding...] "...fuck off system..." ... "That was a job well done, Layla." The Ancient one said as I stepped through the portal into the Kamar Taj courtyard. On the other side, a few sorcerers passed by me and went through the same portal into the theater. I wondered why they were going back there, but the Ancient One answered without me needing to ask. "They''ll be recovering the demon''s remains before anyone else can. A lot of dark rituals could take place with actual demon remains." She explained. I nodded to her explanation. "You might want to have them hurry then, I''m pretty sure a certain spy organization was investigating the hand." I warned her. The Ancient one seemed surprised to hear that. "Interesting, this timeline is diverging more and more..." I heard her mutter to herself. She probably didn''t mean to say that out loud so i didn''t comment about it. She finished her muttering before looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "I''m surprised you''re not embarrassed to be seen like... that." "Huh?" I looked down at myself and blushed in embarrassment. My dress that Penemue had made for me was completely shredded... My skin all over the place was exposed and the important bits were only covered by a few remaining pieces of fabric. The ancient one snapped her fingers and some monk robes appeared in front of me. She told me to meet her in the reception chambers once I stopped looking like I''d just stepped out of a warzone. I looked down at the offensive clothing she had given me with a say. I wasn''t exactly a fan of robes, but I supposed they''d have to do... for now. I made sure to store away my shredded dress in my inventory. Hopefully I can find someone to repair it in the future. It held sentimental memories after all. Once I was dressed like a discount Hogwarts student, I met back up with the Ancient One in the reception chamber. XXX -WIth Nick Fury- "Report, Agent." Fury spoke to Natasha over the other end of her communicator. It wasn''t exactly a phone per se, but a high end communication device that directly(and illegally) piggybacked off numerous satellites to remain untraceable. "I briefly made contact with our query, but I couldn''t speak to her for long. She seemed to be in a hurry." Natasha explained to him. Fury thought that ''hurry'' was an understatement. The woman would have made major headlines had he not secretly put the kibosh on the media. "Was that why our cameras showed her running at olympic level speeds through the heart of London, all the while, staring at that weird compass?" Fury asked. Yeah, that drew some eyes. A few videos had even been put online, which SHIELD immediately had taken down. Natasha confirmed that was the case. She then explained how their supposed angel was in a hurry chasing down... a demonic ninja cult. That a sorceress had told her about... "...A ninja cult?" Fury asked. Nothing in this job fazed him anymore, but that was still weird. Fury had admitted to Romanoff earlier that he had seen some weird shit in his days, but he wasn''t expecting honest to god Ninjas. He was expecting this to be a more otherworldly situation to be honest. "Were you at least able to confirm whether or not Layla had any hidden wings?" Fury asked. Fury let out a sigh when Natasha told him that she had failed on that part. Layla had never displayed any wings to her. Natasha did confirm that Layla was able to create a lightsaber, or a lightspear as she called them. That was enough for Fury to speculate that Layla''s wings were probably also real. Also, that she was either an actual Angel, or possibly an Alien. Fury wasn''t sure what would be the more shocking situation if the world ever found out about her. "Woah..." Agent Romanoff trailed off from the other side of the line. "You need to get a cleanup team down to my location immediately, sir. This entire theater is littered with ninja corpses." Natasha had called Fury when she was on the way to the location she had given Layla earlier. It sounded to him, like she had just arrived. While she was on the way there, she had regaled him with the full encounter she had with the Angel. That included Romanoff''s short assessment of the other woman. Fury didn''t care about any of that right now though. In fact, he''d have to put his plans for contacting the Angel on hold after the revelation she had given his agent. Japan, an entire country, had supposedly fallen under the control of a secret demon worshiping cult... AND NO ONE KNEW! It was HIS job to know about things like that and prevent them from happening. He had obviously failed. Part of him would like to suspect that the Angel was lying, but Fury knew that just wouldn''t be the case. His instincts were telling him so. As a spymaster, he''d learned to listen to his gut. "Ok, Romanoff. You sit tight there and wait for our cleanup crews to arrive." Fury ordered her before he hung up. He then sent an urgent message to his other two most competent agents. He''d have to step lightly if what he suspected was true. ... A few moments later Agents Coulson and Barton stepped into his office. "You called for us sir?" Coulson asked. Fury gave them a look that they immediately recognized. "Ah, so it''s one of these situations then?" Barton joked. "So how fucked are we on scale of 1 to 10?" Fury just glared before answering. "7... maybe 8 even." The two agents'' eyes widened at his answer. Pepper continued. "...How would you rate your experience studying under Professor Everstein? The head of that department? He and Tony are good friends." Pepper explained. "Oh, he was just such a brilliant man! Truly ahead of his time. I know he definitely doesn''t compare to Tony though." I spoke my lies with a completely straight face. Thank you, acting skills lvl 2! Pepper just stared at me for a moment awkwardly. [Wait for it...] Pepper sighed. "...Layla, Professor Everstein is a name I just made up. You clearly didn''t go to Dartmouth, and your information has clearly been forged. Recently in fact. Don''t underestimate Stark Tech''s background checks." Pepper said with a glare. "So who are you and why are you here? The only reason I haven''t had the police come and arrest you is because your documents were professionally forged. Are you with SHIELD?" Pepper continued to glare at me. I just stared back awkwardly, making her glare even more! Pepper looked really cute while she glared at me¨C No! Those are bad thoughts. Begone Sin of Lust! [It''s not going away ever...] Well shit... Who would have thought the Ancient One couldn''t give me a solid background. [I don''t know why you put faith in the Ancient One''s falsified ID''s ever holding up against modern background checks. The woman literally reads by candlelight...] ''That makes so much sense logically, but she literally dumped me here and everything happened so fast!'' I whined in my head. "Well?" Pepper asked as she folded her arms in front of herself. "Let''s hear it, Layla Grigori. If that is your real name. Who are you and who do you work for?" I sighed before shrugging to myself. Might as well sort of come clean I suppose. I adjusted myself in my seat before sitting tall and smiling confidently at Pepper. "I suppose I should properly introduce myself. My name is Layla, but not Layla Grigori. I guess you could call me Layla of the Grigori. I prefer Layla of the Fallen though. It rolls off the tongue better." I introduced myself to her properly. Pepper tapped a button on her desk before a real life holographic screen popped up in front of her. "Jarvis, give me any information you have on the organization known as the ''Grigori.''" Pepper spoke to the interface. "Right away miss." An eloquent English voice projected from the speakers in the office. I held myself back from squeaking in excitement at the fact that Jarvis himself was literally in front of me! I had so many questions for him! I pouted internally that I wouldn''t be able to ask them for now... "Information on the so-called Grigori has been found and compiled. It is... an old organization. If it even exists at all. Historical records put its founding at over 1000 years ago. No information has been heard about them since." Jarvis explained. "And where did this information come from Jarvis?" Pepper asked as she gave me a curious but cautious look. "The bible Miss Potts. The Grigori was an organization composed of all the Angels who supposedly fell from Heaven but didn''t join Lucifer. Hence, I am hesitant to believe such an organization is real." I sat there as Jarvis finished his explanation to Miss Potts. "Thank you Jarvis, that will be all." Pepper clicked another button and the holographic screen cut out. She turned back to me with a clearly skeptical look on her face. "Angels that fell from Heaven, huh? Well then, Layla of the Fallen. Where are your wings?" Pepper said with a laugh. She clearly did not believe the Grigori was real. "Also, know that security is on it''s way because your little prank has clearly failed so now¨C" I released my four black wings from my back. Pepper immediately cut herself off as her eyes turned wide and she just stared at me in shock. And then she fainted... XXX Pepper had hired me surprisingly. I told her that I know absolutely nothing about being a secretary and that I was only here to protect Tony from dying... because I''d apparently messed up the timeline and Natasha wasn''t here to take the job. I may have left that last part out. I''m also pretty sure Pepper might think I''ve been sent here from ''On-High'' to protect Tony. She saw my wings and immediately forgot I was from the Grigori who rebelled against Heaven. ... We rode the elevator down a few floors where it let us out on the building''s gym floor. There I could see a man who could only be Tony Stark practicing boxing in a ring with a larger man who I also assumed to be Happy Hogan. WHAM! Tony landed a pretty solid hit against Happy''s gloves. "Ha! You see that, Happy! I''m a natural at this." Tony gloated as he threw some more jabs out that Happy blocked. "You got some good form sir." Happy replied. I could tell he was just kissing his boss''s ass though. Even from my perspective, who didn''t know anything about boxing, I could tell Tony''s form was mediocre at best. Pepper made a throat clearing sound and the two men stopped sparring before turning towards us. "Hey there Pepper¨CWoah!" Tony greeted Pepper before he noticed me standing next to her. To his credit, he didn''t check me out nearly as much as I figured he would have if he wasn''t in a relationship with Pepper already. Or were they dating at this point? They were on and off again so often I couldn''t remember. Tony hopped out of the ring and walked over to the two of us. "So you''re my new secretary? Nice to meet you. I''m Tony Stark." He held out his hand for me to shake. I did so and introduced myself. "Hello, Mr Stark. I''m Layla." I smiled at him and Happy who looked like he had his brain reboot upon seeing me. I was starting to realize my appearance would be having that effect on regular humans a lot. The Ancient One didn''t bat an eye at me because she''s probably faced actual succubi in her life. And Voldemort was also more freaked out by my wings than my actual appearance. I''m pretty sure he was also a eunuch or something... "Please, call me Tony." He said before he turned and spoke to Pepper. "Where''d you find this woman? She looks and sounds like she just fell from Heaven..." I let out a small laugh while Pepper had a mortified look on her face from his comment. She had asked me on the elevator ride down here to keep my true identity a secret from Tony. He was apparently under a lot of secret stress and she didn''t want him to have an existential breakdown on top of that. I had also agreed because I''m pretty sure SHIELD had Tony under constant surveillance even if Natasha wasn''t here for whatever reason. "Thank you for the compliment Tony." I said and Pepper seemed to sigh in relief. I think she thought he had offended me with his comment for some reason. "So Layla," Tony said. "I know you were just hired..." He looked at me to finish. "Ten minutes ago." I answered. Tony nodded. "...Ten minutes ago. But, how is your French? We''re heading over to Monaco tomorrow to watch my team race in the prix. OF course, as my secretary you''ll have to be there. It would also be great to have a translator as well." "I''m completely Fluent in French." I replied. Tony turned to Pepper and gave her a thumbs up. "As intelligent as she is beautiful. Once again, good hire Pepper." Tony turned and headed back to the ring. "Our flight leaves at 6am tomorrow, Layla. Don''t be late." He called out over his shoulder. Once Tony was focused back on Happy in the ring Pepper turned to me. "You speak French?" She questioned in surprise. "I speak every human language. I can also speak to all animals. Although, they''re not great conversationalists. They mostly just ask for food or water." I explained. Pepper had a look of realization. "R-right. Of course you can speak to everything..." "So we''re going to Monaco tomorrow?" I asked. I guessed we were at the start of Iron Man 2 or this world''s version of it. "I don''t really have anything to wear." I don''t have any money at all to my name actually... All those Ninja''s I took down didn''t keep any money on them. I''m pretty sure they just stole everything they needed. "Oh right," Pepper said. "Here. Here is your company credit card. Normally we audit these, but feel free to spend however much you want. We won''t be doing that to you for obvious reasons." She handed me a black credit card that had ''STARK'' on it in big print. Well then... looks like my money problems were taken care of for the time being. Pepper left me alone after telling me to be at the building at 5am the next day so we wouldn''t miss the flight. Although, it was a private plane so it''s not like it would leave without us. ... I took the elevator down to the lobby and exited the building. The streets were bustling and I found myself in the heart of LA. [So you''ve been given a credit card with no limits and you have an inventory to store everything you buy. Are you going to abuse it?] "Fuck yeah I am!" I cheered excitedly. XXX Chapters 21-25 Chapters 21-25 My inventory, which had sat empty, was now filled with dozens of outfits, along with everything else that tickled my fancy during my wild shopping trip. I had shamelessly spent probably close to 20 thousand in only a few hours. That was small peanuts to Tony, though. He probably makes more than that during his bathroom breaks. After my spree, I checked into a nearby hotel for the night. It was going to be a really long flight all the way to Europe from California. ... Over 16 hours spent in the air. Even if Tony''s private jet was the height of luxury, the flight was still way too long. I needed to either get my angelic mastery or my intelligence leveled up so I could finally teleport places. "That sucked," I muttered as I stepped off the plane with a tired yawn. It wasn''t exactly a physical tired, but more of a mental one. I don''t think I''ve slept in over a week and even as a gamer that was probably unhealthy. I''d make sure to get a bit of sleep to mentally recharge myself when we reached the hotel. After that, we''d be heading off to the races. The Monaco Grand Prix was supposed to take place tomorrow. Something was supposed to happen there that was unforeseen by the Ancient One. I wasn''t sure what to expect, to be honest. [Quest Initiated: Prevent a Tragedy. The Forces of Evil are planning an attack at the Monaco Grand Prix. Stop them from killing Tony Stark and causing a massacre.] [Reward: ?] [Failure: ?] The forces of evil? ''Is that as specific as you can get, system?'' [Yes. I''m not allowed to spoil future events.] This Grand Prix is going to be one of Europe''s most televised events. Whoever wants to kill Tony Stark there really wants to make a statement. I wondered if Whiplash would even be there to attack the racetrack. Or would it be someone else? The racetrack is also absolutely going to be packed with people. If a large group attacks, I won''t be able to protect everyone. I was going to need help, unfortunately... Tony, Pepper, Happy, and I entered a fancy limousine that was heading towards our hotel. I pulled out my cell phone and made a show of pretending like I had just received some shocking information. I let out a fake gasp that drew the eyes of everyone in the limo. "Layla, what''s wrong?" Pepper asked in concern. I had a worried look on my face that was about half genuine and half acting. "I just received a credible tip from an old associate. There is a very high likelihood that an attack will occur at the racetrack tomorrow." I explained. Everyone else''s eyes widened in surprise when they heard that. "An attack?" Tony asked. "I announced that I was going to be publicly attending the race. Any terrorists would have to be crazy to think that they could plan an attack while Ironman is there." Tony said confidently. "I think that''s the point." I said. "They want to kill you. But it''s not just that. They want to cause a massacre, apparently." Tony was shocked that there was anyone bold enough to try and kill him while he was Iron Man. Pepper looked mortified, and Happy didn''t look happy at all. He was muttering about not getting paid enough to fight off terrorists. Wait? How much was I getting paid? Pepper just shook my hand and told me I was hired. 5 minutes later I was meeting Tony. There was no paperwork signed at all... [She probably forgot about all that in the excitement of meeting a real angel...] ''So do I even technically work for them then?'' [Technically...no. You got a free 20 grand shopping spree out of it though.] "Maybe we should just leave, Tony." Pepper suggested. "If we announce it publicly that you won''t be attending, maybe there won''t be an attack." Tony had a contemplative look on his face before he turned to me. "You were just hired yesterday¨C" Technically, I was not. "¨Cand while I did say you were a good hire, I''m not 100% sure of your background. Are you sure your source is credible? Who did you even work for before me?" Tony asked me. "I trust her! She wouldn''t lie about this!" Pepper exclaimed with some strong emotion. That was a large amount of her trust to give me so suddenly, even if she was still absolutely confusing me for the paragons of goodness that are my unfallen brethren. I''d do my best not to break that trust with her. Tony seemed to trust Pepper as he relented. "Fine. I''ll believe her. But I''m not running. Who''s to say the attack won''t happen anyway even if I don''t show up?" He asked. "Couldn''t we just call off the race?" Happy asked. I wondered that as well. That would technically save everyone and complete my quest. Tony scoffed. "You have no idea how much money is put into races like these. All we have is a vague non-credible threat. Do you even know who will be trying to kill me, Layla?" Tony asked me. "I do not," I admitted. "Only that it is probably a decent-sized group if they''re planning on also targeting the crowd." Tony sighed but thanked me for my honesty at least. "Jarvis," Tony spoke out loud. "Please get one-eyed-willy on the line for us. I need to talk to him." "Connecting the call now, sir." Jarvis''s voice echoed throughout the limo''s backseat. A holographic screen popped up, and a moment later a stern-looking man with an eyepatch popped up on the other side of the screen. "Stark, what a surprise for you to call me." The man who could only be Nick Fury said. "Alright, listen up Patchy. I got a tip about..." Tony went on to explain the vague warning I''d given him. Fury scowled over the line. "A major terrorist attack is the last fucking thing I need right now. Fine, I''ll send as many agents as I can. Unfortunately, I can''t call all hands on deck. A tip off from a strange source has me cleaning house a bit." Fury said. I could tell from the way he avoided directly looking at us that he was underplaying whatever was going on at SHIELD. "This tip didn''t have to come from an unbelievably beautiful girl with long black hair and purple eyes, did it?" Tony asked jokingly as he winked at me. I almost did a spit take! So did Fury on the screen! "How the hell do you know about Layla of the Fallen?" Fury asked. "WHAT!?" I exclaimed out loud in panic. How the hell does SHIELD know about me!? I only gave Natasha my first name. Even then, I had no official documents at that point so I figured they''d chop it up to being a fake name. I never gave her my full title though... The screen turned towards where I sat off to the side and I could tell Fury now noticed me. "Layla of the Fallen, I presume. Why am I not surprised that you''re at the heart of this mess? You''ve caused a lot of trouble for me." He said accusingly. "What kind of trouble could I have possibly caused you?" I asked sarcastically. "You killed over 50 ninjas in the middle of London and just left their corpses for SHIELD to clean up." Fury stated. The other three people in the Limo gave me shocked looks at hearing that. [You did do that...] Oh... right. That was probably really gross to clean up. The sorcerers only took away the demon''s body. "Ninjas?" Tony asked. "Ninjas are still a real thing?" "Unfortunately." I muttered in reply. "You also broke into a man''s home and castrated him with a lightsaber." Fury said again. Tony and Happy unconsciously placed their hands protectively over their legs as they both suddenly gave me weary looks. ...How was that more terrifying to them than me killing 50 ninjas...UppTodated from XXX Tony didn''t ask any more about me or my title the rest of the limo ride to the hotel. To make them less nervous, I did give everyone a run down on the Dursley situation. I just left out the magic parts of the story. They seemed to take it in stride. Pepper actually gave me an approving look. We reached the five star hotel that had been booked for us a bit later. There weren''t any SHIELD agents waiting for us, but I didn''t think there would be for a few hours. SHIELD was deficient, but not that efficient. Everyone was still jet lagged so we headed to our rooms to crash. A small detail I noticed was that Pepper and Tony had separate rooms. Even with never ending physical energy, I hadn''t slept in over a week. I was mentally drained and that plane trip had pushed me over the edge. I conked out in my hotel room as soon as my head hit the pillow. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK I was awoken from my nap by some incessant pounding on my door. With a final yawn, I raised myself from the amazingly comfortable bed and went to answer it. A familiar redheaded spy was standing on the other side of the door. She looked just as radiant as the last time I saw her. Standing next to her was another agent. One I could somewhat recognize as her usual partner Clint Barton. He didn''t look exactly like his MCU counterpart. He was noticeably hardier and he had quite a few notable scars. This was a man who had been sent to war zones across the world with nothing but a bow and arrow and always came back victorious. "Hello again Natalie whatever-you-made-up-last-name-was. Interesting seeing an agent of MI-5 in Monaco. Aren''t you a little far from your jurisdiction?" I said to her with a smirk before I turned to Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. "And greetings to you as well. I''m Layla of the Fallen." He let out a small laugh. "Right now you look more like Layla of the Bedhead." He said jokingly. I reached my hands up to my hair and could feel various strands sticking up all over the place. I blushed slightly at my less than immaculate appearance before I invited them inside. I headed to the washroom to clean myself up. A bit later, I exited the restroom. The two agents were sitting at a table looking perfectly content. I internally scoffed. While I was in the restroom, they had probably placed listening bugs all over the hotel room. I sauntered over to them and sat down at the table with them. Neither of them batted an eye, but with my enhanced vision I could see their muscles tense. They were both ready to spring up and attack me if I made a move. ''Thanks for the belief in me, system. I really appreciate it.'' I thought sarcastically. [No problem.] I let out a sigh as I unfurled my wings and prepared to step in. I was mentally preparing myself for a hard fight. Voldemort waved his wand towards the side of the track. A cameraman who was there to film the race had been recording everything that had been going on so far. He was yanked from his spot and forcefully flew over to where the dark lord was near Iron Man and Whiplash. "You will record this moment!" Voldemort hissed out. "Let the whole world witness the moment their great Iron Protector falls to me! Then they will all know that to oppose their new magical overlords will be a foolish endeavor!" The dark lord bellowed out. "Hey you pale noseless asshole!" Tony''s robotic voice called out. "I''m not dying to anyone today. Not to this whip guy, and certainly not you!" Tony leveled both of his repulsors. One pointed at Whiplash and the other pointed at Voldemort. "I came here to kill Anthony Stark and avenge my father." Whiplash called out. "I don''t need your help to do it!" He said as he leveled a glare at Voldemort. In response, Voldemort just chuckled. "Help? You think I''m here to help you, you disgusting muggle!?" Voldemort''s eyes glowed red as he hissed those words out. "Never! Crucio!" Voldemort leveled his wand and fired the Cruciatus Curse at Whiplash! The latter didn''t even try to dodge out of the way. I watched as he looked smug and probably thought his energy shield would protect him like it did from Tony''s repulsor. He thought wrong... Ivan Vanko dropped to the ground and screamed in agony as Voldemort smiled over the man. "Enough Tom!" I shouted out and drew everyone''s attention to myself. My four black wings spread from my back as I took to the air and flew the short distance towards the three men. Voldemort''s eyes widened in surprise at seeing me again. Good, it seemed like he was still wary of me. Despite that, I didn''t think he''d be backing down. He knew he had the whole world watching right now with that camera recording. If he fled from me here, his cause was dead in the water. "Layla of the Fallen!" Voldemort angrily spat out my name. "Once again you appear before me and try to meddle in my destiny. And once again you will fail!" I hovered a few feet off the air between him and Iron Man. "Hey there Layla. Cool wings. This a friend of yours? Who is he anyway?" Tony asked me. "Meet Tom Riddle. He''s an evil wizard with delusions of grandeur who wants to take over the world." I gave a short summary. Tony nodded in understanding. "Ah, one of those guys..." "Don''t you dare use my filthy muggle name, Angel! I am Lord Voldemort!" The dark lord screamed at me. "I killed Heather Potter and fulfilled my prophecy! Now I will kill Tony Stark to prove to the world the superiority of wizardkind! Too many of my loyal followers are afraid to rise up because of this Iron Man. I will prove to them that he is nothing!" Voldemort declared. That was some interesting information. It seemed some of his smarter followers actually kept up with world news. I formed a light spear in my hand as I leveled it at Voldemort. "You''ll have to go through me first." Voldemort pointed his wand at me and a familiar green glow formed on it. "Gladly. You survived my follower''s killing curse, but let''s see how you fair against mine. Avada Kedavra!" XXX "Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort''s bright green killing curse flew right at me. I didn''t make a move to dodge as Tony was standing right behind me. I didn''t know whether or not his armor could block the spell. Instead I reeled my arm back and simultaneously threw the light spear I was holding at Voldemort. I took a page out of Thanos''s book and aimed for the head. Even if Voldemort had the magical power of an ultimate class being, his homunculus body was still just as squishy as any other humans. The dark lord''s eyes widened upon seeing my counter attack heading towards his face. At the last second my light spear grazed his cheek as he twisted out of the way in a surprising display of agility. "Damn you!" Voldemort hissed out in pain from the burn I''d given him on his face. A split second later his killing curse slammed into me. [-400HP] ''400!? I thought the spell only did 200 spiritual damage!'' [This guy''s magic is just built differently...] "Are you alright Layla. That spell hit you dead on!" Tony called out from behind me. "I saw that same spell kill that innocent man in the stands instantly." "Of course I''m fine." I lied without turning around. "That spell can''t kill me!" I smirked towards the dark lord who was biting his lip in frustration at seeing me survive even his killing curse. "Fine! If that spell can''t harm you... then how about this!" Voldemort had a mad gleam in his eye as he cast his next spell. "Protego Diabolica!" A torrent of devastating blue fire shot forward towards us. That was Grindelwald''s signature spell! "Dodge Tony!" I screamed out as I flew up into the air and out of the way. Behind me Iron Man did the same as he reached me high in the air. "What the fuck was that!?" He called out as we watched the blue flames incinerate everything in their path. Whiplash''s body on the ground was instantly turned to ash... "Protego Diabolica is a cursed flame spell that turns everything that opposes its caster into ash." I explained and he whistled. "Magic huh? Well that''s new. How do we beat him?" He asked me. "He has incredible power, but at the end of the day he''s still basically a glass cannon. You just have to hit him without getting hit yourself." I explained. "You got it, Palutena!" Iron Man called out as he turned and dove towards Voldemort. From his shoulders, small missiles sprang up that immediately fired on Voldemort. I formed two more light spears in my hand as I pulled in my wings and dove downward to join him. "All agents. The leader is distracted. Open fire on the masked men. I repeat open fire!" Natasha''s voice called out in my ear. I couldn''t focus on that right now though. I''d have to trust the SHIELD agents could take down the death eaters. At least they had the element of surprise. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The missles all slammed in the flaming track where Voldemort was standing... where he was standing. At the last second he had apparated into the sky and was right behind Tony! Voldemort''s wand was glowing green as he was about to fire the killing curse at Iron Man''s back. I would let him! I flapped my wings and dove down even faster. I was upon him instantly as I raised both my spears to try and impale him. To my shock, Voldemort spun around and fired the green spell at me instead. There was a smirk of triumph on his face right before he apparated away after casting the spell. He had baited me! I was moving too fast to dodge! It was only when the green spell hit me that I realized that was not the killing curse. My entire body burned as if I was on fire! It was the blood boiling curse! [-500HP] I lost complete control of my body from the pain as I couldn''t stop myself and slammed into the ground hard. [-100HP! HP currently at 1000/2000] "Oooooooooowwwwww," I drawled out. "That really hurt..." I spat as I struggled to stand. My gamer''s body had instantly healed any visible wounds on my body, but I still felt the pain. That blood boiling curse was absolute agony to be hit by! I heard something heavy land next to me. I turned and saw it was Iron Man. "Are you okay, Layla? You hit the ground really hard..." His voice held concern. I was at half HP less than a minute into this fight... No, I was not ok. "Hehehehe...Hahahahahah!" Voldemort''s mad cackling drew our attention as he apparated in front of us silently. "Very good, Layla of the Fallen. I would have been disappointed if an Angel went down so easily. But now, it''s time to stop playing around. My pathetic followers foolishly underestimated the muggles and are getting slaughtered for it. I will kill you and the Man of Iron before I wash this whole place away in a sea of fiendfyre!" Voldemort was done talking as he rapidly started firing spells at us. My eyes widened in surprise as he was casting spells as fast as a machine gun! Luckily for me, he still believed me to be immune to the killing curse. He was bombarding us with regular curses that I was thankfully able to block or bat aside with my light spears. The light spears in my hands started to crack and weaken as I relentlessly batted away curse after curse. "Dammit! He''s gonna breach my armor!" Iron Man called out next to me. He was simultaneously being pinned down as he held his metal arms in front of himself to block Voldemort''s spell armor was taking a beating and cracks were starting to form on it. I needed to do something fast. I forced more MP into my two light spears as I willed them to grow larger and stronger! [Light Manipulation Lvl 2¡ú3] The two light spears I was holding expanded and fused together. In front of me and Tony was now a giant purple shield of light! Voldemort''s spells continued to collide against it for another ten seconds and yet it held strong against the barrage. In those ten seconds, Voldemort must have unleashed over 100 curses. And yet, not a single one of those curses was the same as the last. My shield held strong though. I used up over 100 MP on that shield alone, but it was worth it seeing the enraged expression on Voldemort''s face. Once again, he had been foiled. I could tell such vigorous and rapid spell casting was actually taking a small toll on him. He was starting to huff out his breaths. It was then that I realized that all of his followers had been dealt with. I glanced around and saw dozens of death eaters dead or bleeding on the ground... "GAH!" Voldemort screamed in pain! An arrow randomly flew down from the stands and pierced directly into the dark lord''s arm! He screamed out in pain and rage. His eyes were brimming with hatred. XXX Chapters 26-30 Chapters 26-30 With the arrow still in his arm, Voldemort was thoroughly pissed off. "Damn you all! I''ve had enough of this! Lord Voldemort does not know defeat! Prepare to fail again, Angel!" Voldemort declared as he grunted in pain and pointed his wand towards the spectator stands. My eyes widened in fear at the spell he incanted. "Fiendfyre!" He cast the spell before he smirked and apparated away! "Oh fuck!" Iron Man yelled out next to me. A torrential wave of fire over 20 feet high and growing had just been unleashed with no one to control it. People in the stands were screaming in fright as they all immediately tried to flee. There was no way they''d make it in time though. I wouldn''t let that dark asshole succeed again! Inflapped my wings and launched myself between the wild fiendfyre and the stands. I spent another 100MP and summoned a second light shield. It wasn''t even close to big enough! The flames were still growing and had reached over 20 feet high and 40 feet wide as they slammed into my shield! I needed a much larger shield! [Warning! MP is at 0!] ''I don''t care, I need more power!'' I shouted out in my head. [Emergency Skill acquired! ¡ú HP to MP conversion! ¡ú Can use HP as MP with a scale of 1 to 1 when MP reaches zero.] I poured much more power into my shield as I held the torrential flames back from reaching the spectators. I thought I could hear people start to cheer behind me but I was too focused to pay attention to them. [-600HP/MP] My shield enormously expanded and matched the flames in size. It wasn''t enough though! I needed to snuff them out! I poured in more power as much as I possibly could! [-399HP/MP. Warning HP has reached 1!] I pushed every scrap of power I could in the massive light shield before I willed it to tilt forward and slam down over the cursed flames. My shield smashed flat onto the ground and smothered the flames completely! "Holy shit, I did it!" [Now that was some high level gamer bullshit you just pulled off there...] I smiled happily as I heard the crowds of people behind me cheering loudly. I spun around and gave them all a wave which caused them to cheer even louder. "That was amazing! Did you see that!?" "I thought we were all goners! Those flames were massive!" "I can''t believe Angels are actually real and they''re just as beautiful as I''d imagined!" Iron Man flew over and landed next to me. His armor had taken a severe magical beating, but all in all was still intact. "Holy shit, Layla. Now that was something. You''re definitely the best hire my company has ever had." He said jokingly. I laughed. "Well technically you never actually hired me... Pepper never had me sign any paperwork." "What!?" Tony whined. "She forgot? That doesn''t sound like her." His faceplate opened up as he peered around. I assumed he was searching for her. She was probably back at the hotel by now. She took off as soon as Whiplash showed up. Not that I blamed her.Discover new chapters at novelhall.com "She was too distracted by my wings... and my beauty." I gave him a wink. "You better work out whatever little spat is between you two soon or I''ll snatch her up for myself." I joked back to him. I wouldn''t actually do that though. Pepper was incredibly beautiful, but she and Tony were too perfect for each other to ever break up forever. "I will. It''s just that some things have come to light that have had me acting a bit like an ass." He said. "Is it because you''re dying from palladium poisoning?" He looked at me in shock that I knew that. I just reached my hand up and patted his metal shoulder. "You''ll figure it out." I said as I proceeded to walk into the stands. The stands had started being officially evacuated by all of the SHIELD agents. There were still plenty of people left, though, who couldn''t take their eyes off my wings. I smiled and waved as I walked by all of them and headed over to where I could see Natasha and Clint talking to each other. There was also a third shield agent that I didn''t recognize standing next to them. Natasha noticed I was approaching them as she turned to me. "Well now... that was something." She said with an expression that was hard to read. I sent her a playful wink which she returned with a deadpan. "That was freaking amazing, Layla!" Clint exclaimed. "Have you considered joining SHIELD? We could really use someone with your talents." He asked and I waved him off. "No thanks, I wouldn''t mind working with you guys on occasion, but I''m not one to take orders anymore." I said. I was also still technically part of the Grigori and couldn''t join another organization anyway. "That''s too bad. We could really use someone of your talents." The third agent said as he held out his hand for me to shake. "Allow me to introduce myself, I''m Agent Rollins. I''m a member of the SHIELD subdivision known as STRIKE." STRIKE sounded familiar to me. I was pretty sure that was the subdivision that was almost completely composed of secret Hydra agents... I was currently shaking hands with a Nazi... I gave him a small glare that he did not miss. "Damn..." He said as he gripped my hand tighter. "The higher ups were afraid of this. They suspected that you knew things about us as well after you exposed the Hand." He said as his smile turned menacing. "Huh? Higher ups, what are you talking about Rollins?" Clint asked. Natasha looked confused as well. He released my hand as he turned to both of them and smirked. "Hail Hydra!" Rollins declared. ZAP! I felt something burn into my stomach as I looked down and noticed that the hydra agent had drawn a laser gun of some kind from his waistband and shot me! It was one of those tesseract weapons... Fuck. I felt everything go black as I collapsed backwards. [HP 1¡ú 0] [Game Over] ... [Revive? +5 Remaining] [Yes] [Also Yes] XXX I woke up with a start. I was lying on a hospital bed. I sat up and pulled off all the EKG wires that were stuck on my body. I grimaced when I noticed I was garbed in only a hospital gown. I quickly stripped out of it, and took out one of my new outfits from my inventory. They were just some basic jeans and a shirt. No need for anything fancy. For all I know, I could be in a hydra base and might need to fight my way out of here. [Welcome back to the land of the living, host. You died... Lucky for you, you had extra lives from changing Heather Potter''s fate.] I had honestly forgotten about those. There was so much going on all at once that all I could focus on was surviving. ''How long have I been unconscious?'' I asked in my head. I couldn''t speak out loud as there might be listening devices nearby. [You''ve been out for exactly 24 hours. That''s the penalty for getting a game over.] 24 hours!? That was a long time! A whole lot could have occurred in that amount of time. Especially considering the wider world not only found out wizards and witches were real, but also Hydra was still alive and kicking. [Don''t forget they also found out Angels are real...] Oh yeah, there was that too. I looked around the hospital room I''d found myself in. It seemed to be pretty basic and ordinary. Nothing about it screamed ''Evil Hydra Hospital Room.'' Still though, I needed to get out of here and assess where I was at least. I headed towards the door before a notification from the system stopped me. [Wait, Host! Aren''t you forgetting something?] ''What are you talking about?'' [You completed your mission and prevented Voldemort from causing a massacre. Your Quest has been completed! Now issuing rewards...] I almost completely forgot about that. Some rewards right now sounded good to me. I better get some good stuff because I literally died to complete that mission! [Congratulations! You have received: +10 to all stats! You have leveled up! You have received the Sacred Gear: Twilight Healing¡ú Can heal 100HP for every 10MP spent.] [Congratulations! For reaching 20 Luck you have unlocked the perk ''Never Tell Me The Odds'' ¡ú You are now much more likely to win when gambling or placing wagers.] Now those were some good rewards! Almost worth the temporary ''Game Over'' I got...almost. That was definitely something I didn''t want to go through again. It was also grating on me that I survived Voldemort only to go down to a lone Hydra mook... "Nevermind any of that. What I am more concerned about right now is that Layla has gotten more powerful since the day before yesterday." Fury said. "She has?" Stark asked. "Yes, ever since we discovered her, SHIELD has been combing through all ancient religious texts. One thing always stayed consistent in them. The more wings a supernatural being has, the more powerful they are. Layla gaining an extra pair of wings right after such a hard-fought battle is no coincidence." Fury explained. That was part of the reason he was so shocked upon seeing her enter the room. He thought he had her threat level properly assessed from watching the race track recording. Now, he''d have to throw all those estimates out and start over. "That should be a good thing, right, sir?" Coulson asked. The others in the room seemed to be somewhat in agreement. Fury could tell that Barton was still a bit hesitant, which was a feeling Fury felt as well. "Maybe, maybe not. You''re all forgetting her full name. It''s Layla of the Fallen. She is not a ''good angel'' as they say." Fury noticed that realization finally dawned on everyone else in the room when he explained that. "Oh," Steve said as he looked a bit uncertain. "So she''s evil?" "She''s obviously not evil," Tony cut in. "Why would she bother saving my life? Multiple times I might add!" "Fallen are supposed to be Angels who fell from Heaven due to sinning, right?" Coulson asked the important question. "So why did she fall?" That was the million-dollar question that Fury had been wondering. She must have done something to piss off... her dad¨CAnd the fact that such a being existed almost sent him through an existential crisis. "I might have an idea..." Barton trailed off. "Well, don''t leave us all in suspense, agent. What is it?" "Um... I think she fell due to lust. Nat had told me that Layla had been not-so-subtly checking her out the first time they met." The archer explained. "Hahaha!" Tony''s laughing echoed around the room. "I knew I felt a sense of comradery with Layla. She''s a woman after my own heart!" Tony exclaimed. "Didn''t we just send Natasha and Layla off together on a mission?" Coulson cut in. The room went quiet with his statement... until Tony started laughing again. "Hahaha. We did, didn''t we? I''m sure that''ll go just fine." Tony said between his snickers. "Wow... That''s just... Wow." Steve muttered quietly to himself. "Both of those dames were so gorgeous and now they''re..." Fury noticed Steve was blushing up a storm as his imagination clearly took off.... Fury wondered if he should find a way to get the captain laid... A 70-year dry spell couldn''t be good for his mental health... "Nats a professional, she wouldn''t do that... during a mission." Barton declared, defending his friend. "Even when she''s by herself with Layla. Who I might objectively add is the most beautiful woman I''ve ever met." Tony teased. "Careful, Tony. What would Pepper think?" Fury said. "Pepper said the exact same thing." "Huh? Well, I can''t say she''s wrong..." Coulson trailed off. "Should we send someone after them?" Steve asked. "They''re supposed to be infiltrating the heart of the evil wizard''s territory." He said. Tony just waved him off. "They''re just going to ''a run-down magic shopping district.'' As Layla described it. She said it was like two streets total with only a handful of shops and a lone bank. They''re not going to attract any trouble." Tony said. Fury made a mental note that Tony seemed to be completely on ''team Layla'' after she healed him. Fury also facepalmed as Tony blatantly tempted fate with his statement. After all, when did any SHIELD missions ever not go tits up? In his mind, Fury was already starting to prepare backup plans for when things inevitably went south and they had to send in the rescue squad for Layla and Agent Romanoff... XXX Natasha and I were currently walking the streets of London. It was eerie that they were completely deserted. The whole country was on martial law lockdown. At least the muggle side was. I''m sure the wizarding world didn''t even know yet that the whole non-magical world found out about magic yesterday. Their news sources weren''t very reliable. The two of us were heading towards the leaky cauldron to scope out Diagon Alley. We were looking to find some information on the whereabouts or plans of the Death Eaters. Maybe we would even capture one of them and let Natasha interrogate him for information. That was the plan at least. Except... ...I was not doing too well at the moment. My body was heating up all over. I felt flushed everywhere. My breathing was shallow and short. And everytime I looked over towards my ''partner'' for this mission I could barely stop myself from jumping on her. [I did inform you that your Sin of Lust would grow stronger the more wings you acquired as a Fallen. It''s not my fault you didn''t listen...] ''I did too listen...'' I whined in my head indignantly. ''I just didn''t think the sin of lust would be this strong!'' Natasha, who I had been following along, stopped walking and gave me a confused look. She could clearly see something was wrong with me. "Ok, what''s going on? Ever since we left Fury''s bunker together you''ve been acting strange. You''re also looking completely flustered." She pointed out as she eyed me up and down. "It''s nothing..." I tried to say, but my current state obviously wasn''t fooling her. She frowned momentarily before grabbing my arm and dragging me off the streets into a nearby alley. I didn''t see the point in that considering the streets were empty, but figured it was just a force of habit for her. "Ok, spill it. Something is going on with you." Natasha said to me as she leaned in close. "Fine..." I started, "So the thing about Fallen Angels is that we all suffer from one of the seven deadly sins..." I trailed off. Natasha looked puzzled for a second before I could see realization dawn on her. "You have got to be kidding me..." Natasha said with a sigh. "You don''t even have to tell me which sin you take after... It''s pretty obvious. So how do you usually handle this?" She asked me. "Well the thing is...I''ve never had too." I then explained to her how I''d pretty much never left the Grigori base after Falling. Therefore, I was never around people who didn''t see me as anything other than a sibling. And I viewed them the same way. Natasha cracked a smile. She looked like she was finding my situation a bit funny. "And now here you are in the human world for the first time and... you''re pent up?" "Pretty much..." I replied. She rolled her eyes a bit before she took me by surprise! Natasha leaned forward and slammed her lips into my own! I was momentarily taken off guard before my mind fogged over lust and I reciprocated the kiss... ... "It''s a good thing this city is under lockdown or we would have drawn some eyes with that display..." Natasha said with a laugh as we stepped out of the alley a short time later. We weren''t exactly in the most sanitary of locations, so we didn''t go any farther than some heated kissing for a couple of minutes. That did help me take the edge off a bit though. I should at least be able to make it through the rest of this outing without having to stop again. "Thank you for that, Natasha. Perhaps we could continue later?" I asked hopefully. She didn''t verbally respond, but she did give me a sultry wink. It wasn''t like the attraction between us was one sided. Since she and I had left Fury''s bunker and traveled to London, I had caught her dropping subtle looks my way every so often as well. The two of us continued down the empty city streets until we started occasionally passing people who were obviously witches and wizards. How could we tell? Well for one, they were completely ignoring martial law. And for two, they were all walking fashion disasters. I could never understand how a society that had literal magic at their fingertips all chose to dress in robes and only robes. "How did SHIELD never notice all these people blatantly wearing robes in this day and age?" Natasha wondered aloud. I knew the answer to that question. "Governments don''t care about poor people..." I said as I gestured to all the magicals around us. Natasha nodded as she understood what I meant. Once again, I marveled at how these people had magic and yet most of their robes looked washed out and borderline decrepit. Any non-magical person looking at them would think they were homeless muggles wearing dirty bath robes... We eventually made our way to the Leaky Cauldron. To my surprise, Natasha was actually able to see the entrance of the pub. I supposed that classified her as a squib. That''s something I''d bring up with her later. All eyes were on us as soon as we entered. A few drunk wizards sitting at the unclean looking bar whistled in appreciation. Whether that was from our looks or the fact that we both looked like we bathed recently I couldn''t determine... "Eyyy you tous be sum real pretty birds. Why dont''s yous come and joins us proper wizards!" One wizard groggily stood from his barstool and called out to us. "The times are a changin you knows... pretty gurls like yous should be lookin out for a proper pureblood husband like meeself! *hic*" "Oh, for fuck''s sake..." Natasha muttered. "This is the society that wants to conquer the world?" "Yeah... it''s pretty sad." I said. We were both caught off guard by what happened next, however. When the drunk man stood up, the other wizards and witches in the bar looked on fearfully for some reason. It was only when he started sauntering over to Natasha and me that I understood why. On his left arm, I could see a familiar looking black tattoo. "This drunk idiot was a death eater." I whispered that to Natasha. Natasha spoke to the man, and to my surprise she had a thick Russian accent. "You do seem like the proper sort. My friend and I have come all the way from the motherland to join the true cause." Natasha said. The other people in the bar muttered curses under their breaths and they started calling us dark witches. The drunk Death Eater on the other hand looked ecstatic at Natasha''s fabrication. The Death Eater smirked and his drunk demeanor completely vanished. In an instant he appeared completely sober and alert. This guy was faking being drunk! From her slight flinch at his change in demeanor, I could tell even Natasha was caught off guard by the man''s acting. He had a menacing smile on his face as he reached us and looked us over. All it took was a single glare from him for everyone else in the bar to stop their mutterings and look away. "Of course! So you two beautiful gals want to join up and serve under the dark lord, huh? Well, you''re both in luck. There''s a recruitment drive going on right now at Gringotts. Follow me. The names Barty by the way¨CBarty Crouch Jr." He introduced himself as he started leading us to the back of the pub. My eyes widened when I heard his name. No wonder he was such a good actor. This was the man who impersonated Moody for a whole year straight! Barty tapped the brick wall with his wand in a pattern I''m sure Natasha immediately memorized. The bricks magically started to part ways before Diagon Alley was displayed before us in all of its... glory. "What a dump..." I said. XXX Chapters 31-35 Chapters 31-35 Barty turned around and glared at me, probably for calling Diagon Alley a dump. I could only shrug in response; I only called it as I saw it. Everywhere I looked, the streets were littered with trash. Almost all the shop windows were boarded up, and the ones that weren''t needed to be because they had been burnt to the ground. There were also signs in front of those burned-out shops claiming that ''mudbloods were no longer welcome to do business in the Alley.'' "I admit, the Alley has seen better days," Barty said. "It''ll be fixed up real soon though! You''ll see. As soon as the Dark Lord finishes taking over completely, then everything will change!" He explained with a look of reverence on his face when he spoke about the Dark Lord. I could hear Natasha quietly cursing about how annoying tearing down cults could be. As Barty continued leading us towards Gringotts, I spoke up. "So what do you mean ''when the Dark Lord finishes taking over?'' Hasn''t he already?" I asked, using my acting skill and ability to speak any language to match Natasha''s Russian accent. Barty just kept walking as he responded, his voice carrying a hint of irritation. "Not quite yet. We''ve completely taken over the Alley, and the ministry has fallen. Unfortunately, the majority of the magical people are still resisting. Many have fled to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts for sanctuary. That bastard Dumbledore activated Hogwarts'' wartime wards, and we haven''t been able to breach them yet. All we can do is sit outside them and cast unforgivable curses. Too bad those spells all fall off after only a few hundred feet. The Dark Lord is currently preparing a special ritual to take down those wards. Once he does, we''ll take the castle and kill the old fool!" Barty finished his explanation just as we reached the steps of the bank. I was expecting to see Goblins out front guarding it, but to my surprise, there were Death Eaters instead. When we entered the bank, I found out the reason. The goblins were inside, but they were not looking as regal as they did in the movies. All the goblins were wearing pillowcases, the same as house elves would. The Goblins had all been enslaved! I could see the simmering fury in the various goblin''s eyes as Barty strode into their bank like he owned the place. Their hatred turned to confusion when they spotted me and Natasha following behind him. Multiple pairs of Goblin eyes locked onto me as I continued through the bank. One of them looked like they were going to speak up to me, before another goblin smacked and shushed him. Maybe, as members of the Fay, they could see what I really was even with my wings currently hidden. "You two came just in time. Rosier has got a special demonstration prepared for the new recruits. I''m sure you''ll love it," Barty introduced us before he turned and left towards the bank entrance. I could feel all the eyes of the wizards in the room raking Natasha and me over. I wanted to leave or just conjure a light spear and start hacking at them all. I held myself back, though, as we were here for information. So far we had gleaned that a lot of the ''good'' magicals were holed up in Hogwarts, which would soon be under siege, but that wasn''t enough. "And who might you two witches be?" The Death Eater called Rosier asked us. I wondered if he was one of those so-called Lords of Wizengamot. I''m pretty sure that wasn''t actually canon though. Then again, I clearly wasn''t in a canon world. "Hello," Natasha answered, still with her accent. "I am¨C "I don''t care," he rudely cut her off. "You may address me as Lord Rosier. I am a member of the Dark Lord''s inner circle and from now on, your superior," he said while glaring at not just us, but everyone. I was about to shout at him in anger for daring to treat us like that, but Natasha grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Just ignore him. That''s a typical power play that recruiters use on new soldiers. He''s trying to establish a chain of command," she whispered to me. "...You''re right," I replied. I almost blew our cover right there. Frankly, it was a small miracle that every Death Eater we''d met hadn''t recognized my face yet. Other than Malfoy and Pettigrew, I wasn''t aware which Death Eaters were even at the graveyard. While I was momentarily distracted by Natasha whispering to me, Rosier had ordered a nearby goblin slave to bring out a ''prisoner.'' Both of our attention returned to him at that moment. My eyes widened in surprise when a supernaturally beautiful girl wearing rags was dragged out in front of everyone. Steel chains were clapped on all her limbs. I could see dried tear stains leftover on her face. "Please let me go. I have done nothing to you people," she pleaded in French. She had long blond hair and bright green eyes. Her features were perfectly symmetrical and too flawless for her to be completely human. "Layla, is she an angel as well?" Natahsa asked me hushedly. I might have suspected that myself except I could sense no holy power from the chained girl. I shook my head no at Natasha. "Shut up with your sniveling French, you disgusting half breed! You know I don''t understand it!" Rosier shouted at the girl with an angry red face. He was about to raise his hand to smack her, before one of the prospective Death Eaters spoke up. "That''s a really gorgeous bird there!? Do we get to play with her some?" A man shouted out. I felt disgust well up inside meat hearing that. The other men in the small crowd all started to look excited at the prospect. Rosier smiled menacingly at everyone. "Allow me to introduce you to Fleur Delacour. A half-breed Veela. Daughter of the French minister of magic. The country that will fall next as soon as we finish unifying our own great empire. She was captured a week ago when we took control of this bank. It seemed the half-breed wanted to work for the goblins. I brought her out here for a special purpose. It''s time to see which of you has what it takes to join our ranks. One by one, you will each come up here and cast the cruciatus curse on this girl. Those who succeed will join our noble cause, and those who fail to cast the spell will be shown the door. Afterwards, you can have your fun with what''s left of the girl..." Rosier finished. The dirty prospective Death Eaters all cheered in excitement as they scrambled to form a line. [Quest Issued: Tough Decisions¡ú Will you choose to save Fleur Delacour or Will you choose to let her die and continue your infiltration?] [Rewards: ?/?] Well shit... I already knew which one I would choose. I glanced at Natasha and we were on the same wavelength. I could see that she was already making a move to shed her cumbersome robes as she pulled out a pair of handguns. XXX I watched as a line of eager prospective Death Eaters had now fully formed in front of the terrified Fleur Delacour. She was begging them not to hurt her in both French and fractured English. The line of 20, along with Lord Rosier, simply laughed at the chained up Veela. "Alright little bird. This is going to hurt a lot." The first man in the line leveled his wand at Fleur. "Cru¨C" He never got to finish casting his spell. BANG A loud gunshot echoed out in the chamber. There was a spray of blood and the man about to cast the torture curse dropped dead. Natasha hit him with a perfect headshot. The other men behind him in the line couldn''t even register what had just happened before she was already pointing both her pistols at them. She proceeded to open fire... BANG BANG BANG BANG "Fuck! He''s dead!" One man shouted in fear. "Agh, it hurts! What is this magic? It went right through my protego!" Another man grunted out. He was clutching his shoulder in pain after a bullet tore right through his flimsy shield. "That''s not magic! It''s a muggle weapon. They''re muggle spies! Kill th¨C" He wasn''t able to finish. His head whipped backwards when a bullet hit him right in the forehead. After a few more seconds, both of Natasha''s guns made clicking noises. Signaling they were empty. Of the original 20 men, only 5 were left standing. Off to the side, ''Lord Rosier'' was looking on horrified. Fleur also looked terrified from the sudden violence, but I could see a glimmer of hopefulness in her eyes as well. "Her muggle weapons are completely spent. Kill her now!" One of the remaining men shouted out. He leveled his wand towards us and a familiar green spell started to form on his wand tip. Before he could complete the two word incantation, I had already formed a light spear and let it sail across the room, where it had impaled him through the chest. His spell fizzled out and he could only look down in shock at the spear sticking out of him. Natasha let out a whistle of appreciation for what I just did. Even I was surprised, with what just happened. I had formed that lightspear far faster than I ever had, and thrown it even faster. Was that because I had 6 wings now? [It''s not just that. Have you forgotten that your Strength stat is also up to 20 now? That stat doesn''t just encompass how much you can lift or how hard you can physically hit. It encompasses all of your physical attributes including speed and agility. Physically, you should be on par with Captain America right now.] After quickly reading the pop up in front of me, I wanted to kick myself for ignoring Strength and focusing solely on Intelligence. If I had known I could have been on par with Captain America at only 20 strength, I would have thrown some of my free stat points into strength sooner. Rosier looked at me with fear in his eyes. "No... that spear. It''s you... how did I not recognize you sooner!? You''re the Angel who''s been clashing with our Lord! I need to get out of here!" With a panicked look, he raised his wand vertically and tried to do something with it. He momentarily flickered in place before he gasped in failure. "Dammit! I forgot apparition is impossible under Gringotts wards. Fucking goblins!" He cursed. I laughed internally that he just tried to run away. Probably to go and tattle to Tommy boy about me. No longer needing to hide myself, I let my 6 wings freely manifest behind me. A light spear appeared in each of my hands as I took a step towards the other four men. We had no use for taking any of them alive. They weren''t even real Death Eaters yet. They had no useful intel for us. On top of that, they were scum... "What is she? Even one of the Dark Lord''s inner circle is terrified of her." "It doesn''t matter, kill her before she kills us!" BANG BANG BANG BANG I was about to rush forward and finish the four of them off, but they all dropped dead in violent sprays of blood. I turned to Natasha and gave her a pout. It seemed that while everyone was distracted, she had taken the time to reload her guns... "Sorry..." Natasha trailed off. "I know you were trying to look cool just now, but we don''t really have the time. That guy over there did something with his arm." She said as she pointed at Rosier. I looked over at him and could see that the snake on his Dark Mark tattoo was moving back and forth. I had no idea what he did. "The dark mark is our Dark Lord''s greatest creation! Not only does it let him know where we are at all times, but it also allows us to call for help wherever we are!" He bragged as he waved his arm and showed off the mark. I guess he was feeling a bit braver now that backup was coming for him. I looked down at the remaining light spear I was holding in my hand. I shrugged to myself before I hurled the spear at the arm he was so proudly showing off to us. With a sizzling squelch noise, the spear tore through and cauterized his elbow. Rosier''s forearm, with the mark on it, dropped to the ground. It took the man a second to even comprehend I had just disarmed him before he started screaming in agony as he clutched his new stump. "And now his magical tracking tattoo is worthless. Nice aim, Layla." Natasha praised me for my violent display. She then proceeded to march over to the wailing man and knocked him clean out. "We''ll take him with us as we escape and we can interrogate him later." She suggested and I nodded. I walked over to Fleur who was still lying on the ground in chains. She looked back at me with apprehension. "Don''t worry, we''re going to save you now." I said in perfect French. Tears started forming in her eyes as the remaining spear, in my offhand, shrunk in size and transformed into a small light dagger. I used it to start cutting through her chains. It didn''t take long for her to be free and hugging me tightly in thanks. "I hate to break it to you all," I said to the goblins, "but the battle is over, and all the Wizards are gone or captured. You all missed it..." Another Goblin nearby looked all over the place before he turned to the one who shouted out. "The dark angel speaks the truth, Lord Rock Crusher. All the Wizards are gone..." "Fuck!" The goblin known as Rock Crusher yelled out. "You lot took too long to put on your armor! You all spent too much time as pencil pushers and forgot what it means to be warriors!" He yelled at the other goblins. We couldn''t see their faces because they were wearing helmets. Their helmets were still facing to the ground now, so I speculated that they all were ashamed. "No need to be so hard on them all. You all were just enslaved..." I said gently to Rock Crusher. He scoffed in reply. "The only reason that happened in the first place is that we have gone soft! Our rivals, the dwarves of Nidavellir, would laugh at us if they could see how far we''ve fallen as warriors..." He said dejectedly. Hearing about the dwarves from another realm drew my interest. "You all have a way to access Nidavellir?" I asked. "Dwarves?" Tony questioned aloud. "Aye, we had ways of traveling there over a millennia ago, but that method was cut off when the great sundering came upon our world!" The goblin explained as if everyone was supposed to know what that was. I assumed he was speaking of God splitting the world in half. "What was the great sundering?" Tony asked. Natasha and the other Shield agents were also looking very curious. "Ask your winged friend over there. The calamity was caused by her father!" The goblin replied. The humans all turned to look at me questioningly. I gave the goblin a small glare for throwing me under the bus. "The great sundering, as they call it, was..." I started to explain to everyone, "A really shitty move that was orchestrated by the higher-powered beings of Earth over a thousand years ago. I''ll go over more of what it entailed to you all later." It was a whole big thing to explain. This wasn''t the place for it. "Sounds like it was a pretty big deal," Natasha commented. "Yeah, it would pretty much destroy a lot of people''s faith if they found out about it..." I said. All I received in return were shocked looks from all the humans in the room. "So if this happened over a thousand years ago, how come you''re talking about it like you remember it?" Tony asked Rock Crusher. "We goblins are members of the Fay... we live forever unless we are slain in combat. I remember being able to travel all of the 9 realms freely at one point. There was adventure and combat around every corner; it was a glorious time to be alive!" The goblin explained. That was the second time they mentioned that they were members of the Fay. I guess that''s why they crafted Goblin silver instead of using steel like everyone else for their weapons. Iron was literally toxic to them. "Wow," Natasha commented. "You''ve been around for over a thousand years? Why has your race stayed hidden from us all this time?" The goblin just looked at her like she was a fool. "Why else? Because every time we revealed ourselves, you all tried to kill us! Even in your modern media and movies, we goblins are nothing more than evil vermin that need to be exterminated." Rock Crusher said. "Yeah!" "That''s right!" "Fuck Lord of the Rings!" The other goblins all exclaimed. "So... I''m guessing you all don''t like D&D very much?" Tony asked jokingly. Rock Crusher just gave him a glare in response to his rude comment. "We thank you for assisting us in our freedom, but now... all of you get out of our bank! We''re closing down and leaving this racist country. We''ll be joining our Brethren overseas in the American Gringotts branch. What the British Wizards and witches did to us was clearly a declaration of war. It was a violation of our peace treaty. You can inform the Wizards that all of their gold and other items in their vaults are hereby forfeit to us as recompense." The goblin said with a malicious grin. That was going to completely annihilate the Wizarding economy. They literally just lost all of their money. XXX I toweled off my hair as I stepped out of the hotel bathroom. I needed to rinse off all the blood and dust that had accumulated all over me from the fighting. Following our liberation of Diagon Alley and Gringotts, things went fairly smoothly. SHIELD took control of the area until the British armed forces could arrive to take over. As I had suspected, the magical wizarding citizens had no idea that the statute of secrecy had been blown apart by Voldemort a few days before. The civilians had all fled for cover when the fighting started, and the bullets and spells went flying everywhere. Once the fighting ended, they slowly returned to see who had emerged victorious. Many of them thought that it was Aurors or even the Order of the Phoenix that was fighting the Death Eaters. When they found out it was actually Muggles, needless to say, they were shocked. Then they were even more shocked to find out that Muggles had defeated the Dark Lord and wiped out his forces. Following that, the armed forces decided that it would be better to fully evacuate Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and the Leaky Cauldron. There weren''t more than a hundred or so civilians anyway, so it only took an hour to complete the evacuation. Even if the Death Eaters return to try and reclaim it, they''ll find everything abandoned and all of the businesses closed down. I also imagine that the goblins will be moving as quickly as they can to leave as well. With magical shrinking charms and bags of holding being real things, the goblins will probably have all those vaults emptied before morning. I sat down on the comfy bed as I finished drying my hair off. Once again, I had shamelessly used the Stark company card for this five-star hotel room. I really needed to get my own place, though, soon. Now that my intelligence stat had reached 50, I could start practicing with the sling ring again. According to the system, it should start working for me. [You won''t be crossing galaxies anytime soon, but traveling around the planet shouldn''t be a problem anymore.] I pulled the small sling ring out of my inventory and held it in my palm. I always thought the MCU was pretty comical when it came to these things. Asgardians, people of an advanced magi-tech society, were only able to teleport with the power of the Bifrost or dark magic. Meanwhile, humans, who all the other space-faring societies look down upon, have figured out the best and easiest method of teleportation in the whole verse. [It is pretty funny. Even for high-level gamers, an instantaneous wormhole that can open up anywhere in the universe is an extremely effective method of travel. There''s not much that can top it.] I put the ring back in my inventory before I spoke up. "All right then, system. I completed my latest mission; it''s time for me to get my reward." [You got it. Mission complete! Now distributing the reward.] There was a flash of golden light in front of me as something materialized from thin air. A second later, a heavy metallic object plopped down on my lap. I looked down at what I had gotten... ''Is this really all I got for that quest?'' I complained in my head. I honestly was expecting more. Not that this wasn''t nice and all. [Not all the rewards can be bangers...] I looked at my reward in front of me that I had gotten from saving Fleur. It was a golden sword. A sword made of actual gold. "What exactly am I supposed to do with this?" [It''s a sword... Use it for sword stuff. Or you can sell it.] "It''s made of gold. You can''t use gold as a weapon. This is pretty much worthless for anything except being a trophy. Even as a trophy, it just comes off looking gaudy..." I said as I held up the hundred-kilo gold blade. I suppose it could look cool if I ever decided to cosplay. With some minor alterations, I could get it to look like Excalibur. Then again, the system might just give me the real Excalibur as a reward in the future. I stashed the gold sword in my inventory. I''d probably just end up selling the thing to Tony later. He likes gold. I''m sure he''d get a kick out of it. [QQ... Just so you know, that sword is made of 100% pure gold... It''s worth at least a few million dollars. It was a very generous reward for such an easy mission.] That made me pause for a moment in thought. That was a surprisingly easy mission. The entire time, I never felt myself in any real danger. Even when facing up against Voldemort, I wasn''t nervous at all. In fact, I was itching for revenge. [...Had you stabbed him anywhere but his gut, you probably would have one-shot him. You should have¨C] "Don''t say it!" I exclaimed with a whine. [You should have gone for the head...] "Fuck you, system." KNOCK KNOCK Someone was knocking at my hotel door. I stood up from the bed and went over to see who it was. Through the small eye hole in the door, I could see a familiar redhead on the other side. Layla opened the door. "Hey, Layla. Just so you know, we have a briefing with everyone tomorrow morning. They all want to know more about the Great Sund¨CWOW!" XXX Chapters 36-40 Chapters 36-40 A/N: You can skip this part if you''re not interested in R-18. Layla opened the door to find Natasha on the other side. She looked like she had cleaned up after the fighting as well. Natasha was wearing a short black dress that left very little to the imagination. Layla immediately felt her Sin of Lust start to return upon seeing the woman. "Wow..." Natasha said, with reddened cheeks, as her eyes roamed up and down Layla''s form. "I didn''t expect you to answer the door like this, but I''m not complaining." Layla wondered what the redhead was talking about, before she looked down at herself. She realized that she was completely naked! She had just gotten out of the shower and forgotten to put anything on. Her flawless hourglass body was exposed. From her large perky breasts all the way down to her rapidly moistening lower lips. "Did you shave just for me?" Natasha asked with a teasing smirk. "Angels don''t have hair anywhere on their bodies except their heads..." Layla explained with a red face. "I''m here to pick up where we left off." Natasha said to Layla. Layla''s eyes widened slightly hearing that. She eagerly stepped to the side and allowed Natasha inside the hotel room. The door closed behind them. ... "Oh yes! Don''t stop!" Layla shouted out in ecstasy. She was lying on her back on the bed. Her hands were stretched downwards, holding onto the head of the other woman who was currently licking up and down her lower lips. "Wow, I know I shouldn''t be surprised, but I didn''t expect you to literally taste like honey down here." Natasha said with her head buried in between the beautiful Fallen Angel''s legs. Natasha loved all the pleasant sounds that Layla was currently making because of her tongue. Layla squirmed in pleasure as Natasha resumed eating her out. The gorgeous redhead''s tongue was doing amazing things to Lalyla! She''d never experienced pleasure like this. Layla was already well on her way to her third orgasm so far. Natasha continued licking up and down Layla''s folds. She decided that she really enjoyed Layla''s taste. Natasha had heard fictional tales of people claiming their partners tasted ''divine'', but Layla actually did! The juices dripping from Layla''s snatch really taste like honey to Natasha. Natasha felt like she could stay down between Layla''s legs for hours! The redhead wanted to taste her partner as deeply as possible. She had been blessed with a long tongue, and now she put it to its full use. Natasha stuck out her tongue as far as possible before she directly stuck it into Layla''s dripping hole. Layla spasmed as she let out an incredibly loud and erotic squeal. She could feel Natasha''s tongue taste her everything! Natasha swirled her tongue around inside Layla and the Angelic beauty saw stars! She let out a long drawn out moan as the pleasure overcame her and she came once again! Layla''s perfect chest was rising up and down as she panted to catch her breath. Natasha lifted her head from between Layla''s legs and gave her a lewd smirk. Natasha slowly stuck out her tongue and made a show of licking up the remains of Layla''s love juice that was on her face. Even though she just had three rapid orgasms, that erotic sight had Layla begging for more. Natasha chuckled as she crawled over Layla and straddled her. Natasha placed one of her legs over Layla''s own. Both of their dripping snatches pressed together as Natasha started rocking back and forth. "Oooooooh, that feels nice~." Natasha sighed out in pleasure as she started off by moving slowly. Her own pussy was practically on fire at this point as well. Beneath her was the most beautiful woman Natasha admitted she''d probably ever be with. She wanted to make the most of their night together. She knew with Layla''s Sin of Lust, there would be many more, but Natasha wanted their first time to be special. Natasha picked up the pace as she started to speed up the motion of her hips. Every time her clitoris brushed against Layla''s own, both women let out a moan. "That feels so good, Natasha!" Layla squealed out as she felt herself about to climax again. In response, Natasha smiled down at her as she started tribbing their pussies together faster. Natasha was starting to really feel it at that point. She was holding onto one of Layla''s slender legs that was up in the air as she continued her motions. She could feel an orgasm rapidly building inside her. "Fuck!" Layla squeaked out as her body started to shudder in ecstasy. Natasha could feel Layla''s juices squirt out once again as the Fallen Angel came under her. A few seconds later, Natasha joined her as her own orgasm ripped through her body. It was one of the best she''d ever experienced in her whole life! The pleasure was so intense that she could hardly make any sound at all. Natasha just hovered over Layla as her own body experienced wave after wave of ecstasy. When it finally ended, Natasha collapsed on top of the gorgeous Fallen. Their breasts squished together as she rested her head on Layla''s shoulder. She needed a moment to recover before round two... R-18 end XXX "Hey, Tony, you wanna buy a sword?" I asked him as Natasha and I entered the meeting room in ''Fury''s secret bunker.'' It wasn''t so secret anymore now that I arrived here while conscious. It was in the middle of the Swiss Alps though, so kudos to him for going with the classic super villain location. Inside the room were fewer people than last time. It was only Fury, Clint, and Tony. Coulson and Steve must be out on other missions. "A sword?" Tony asked. I pulled the solid gold sword from my inventory and presented it to him. He looked it over, and I could tell that he was intrigued. "Solid gold, huh? Well, I do like gold..." Tony walked up to me and inspected the blade. "This looks like something you''d see in a cosplay convention. Are you sure it''s real?" I nodded. "Yep, it''s genuine 100% solid gold. No other metals or imperfections at all." "That''s not possible. 100% gold is virtually impossible to achieve..." Tony explained. I smirked at him. "Not with magic it''s not." That made him look even more intrigued. "Did you steal that from the Goblins, Layla?" Natasha asked me. She had not seen the sword earlier. "Yes," I lied, not wanting to explain the system. "They were rude anyway, not giving us any kind of reward for freeing them..." Maybe I''d explain the gamer system to Natasha someday. That would be a long way away, though, and our relationship would have to be a lot more serious. "They actually gave SHIELD a bunch of goblin silver weapons as thanks," Natasha stated. "Goblins apparently don''t like being in anyone''s debts for long. I think you had already left the alley at that point though." Fury made a noise to get everyone''s attention. "I don''t have all day to sit here while you two over there play shop," he said. "Fine," I whined as I placed the sword back into my inventory. "So why exactly are we even here?" Fury raised an eyebrow before turning to Natasha. "You didn''t tell her why we were having this meeting?" He asked. "It... um... must have slipped my mind," Natasha explained as she was not quite meeting her boss''s eye. "It''s not like you to be so forgetful, Nat. What had you so distracted yesterday that you forgot your orders?" Clint asked Natasha. The answer to that question was me, of course. Natasha and I had ''distracted'' each other quite a bit. In the future, I''m hoping we can distract each other again. To my surprise, Natasha managed to keep her cool. She smoothly lied that she was just tired from the fight and went to sleep early. Everyone in the room bought her excuse. Except for Tony. I could tell that he knew something was up as he was looking back and forth between me and her. I sent him a wink that confirmed his thoughts. He smirked and gave me a thumbs up in response. "Alright then. The reason we''re here is because we have a few things to discuss," Fury turned to me. "You''ve been holding out on us, Layla." He stated plainly. "I have?" I asked him. "The Great Sundering. I read the reports from my other agents. It seemed like whatever it was basically sent an advanced space-faring organization like the Goblins back into the Bronze Age. You then went and claimed that it would be something that could completely destabilize people''s faith. That''s not an easy claim to make, and I want to know why. I looked around the room at everyone with a bit of a grimace on my face. "Are you all sure? It''s... world-changing information." "Don''t go holding out on us, Layla. We''re all grown-ups," Tony joked. "We can handle it." I did not actually believe that to be the case, but since they were asking I would tell them. ...And so I told them. I told them how the world used to be twice as large. I told them how this universe had numerous incredibly dangerous beings. I told them that, in order to essentially save their own skins, my father along with the other pantheon leaders split the world completely in two. I then went on to explain ''my'' original world and how numerous supernatural beings still existed there and pretty much secretly ran the place. Finally, I told them the information I knew they would not like. The spell that held the two worlds separate was now failing, and soon they would once again become one. "The gods all just ran away... because of stronger space gods?" Clint mumbled out in disbelief. Natasha had no words either. This was one of the few times I had seen her completely lose her stoic facade. "Ultimate Class. And keep in mind there is a massive difference in power scaling between someone who just entered that rank versus someone at its peak." "Give me an example," Tony said. I broke it down for him. "Ok, this isn''t exactly correct every time, but it''s a benchmark. A good estimate of a low Ultimate Class''s power though would be that they can destroy a city on their own. That doesn''t necessarily mean they can one shot the whole place, but it means that, in about the span of an hour, they could level the area." Tony''s eyes widened at that. Yeah, just the lower end of Ultimates were basically walking nukes. "And at the peak?" He asked with some trepidation. He was starting to find out his invincible Iron Man wasn''t as OP as he thought it was. He really needed to step up his designs. "They can destroy entire countries in about the same time frame." I stated plainly. "How the hell has the other Earth not been destroyed yet!?" Tony exclaimed. That was something I wondered as well. "I honestly have no idea... frankly it''s a miracle." The only thing saving the DxD world from Armageddon was the ''plot.'' Honestly, if Kokabiel or Loki wanted to start a real war, all they would have had to do was attack a human city and expose the supernatural world. The nuclear bombs would have started flying everywhere and BAM¡ªthe Great War would be back on. What did they do instead? They kept attacking Rias Gremory and her peerage for no reason other than ''just because.'' Tony let out a whistle at that level of power. "Would all Gods be considered that strong?" I laughed. The arrogant bastards wished they were. "Not a chance. Sure, some gods would be, but the majority are actually far weaker than they would like to let on. In fact, the vast majority of gods don''t even qualify for Ultimate Class. Most of them are stuck in High Class. That''s why the three factions are able to basically bully all the other factions. Each of the three all have over a dozen beings in Ultimate Class along with hundreds if not thousands of High Class beings as well." "And yet the space gods out there are even stronger?" Tony asked again. He seemed nervous at that revelation. I nodded but told him that I didn''t exactly know how much stronger. I just knew that every celestial was basically a planet killer in some way. And there were quite a few beings that were far more dangerous than the celestials as well. "For fucks sake..." Tony muttered. I patted him on the shoulder and told him everything would be alright. After all, the world now had a Gamer protecting it. I would surpass them all someday! ... "Mr. Killian will see you both now," the man''s secretary entered the waiting room and informed us. "Well, here we go, I guess," I said with a sigh as I stood up to follow. From the movies, I remembered this guy was a hardcore narcissist. This was not going to be a fun meeting. "It won''t be that bad," Tony stated, with a grin. "Yeah, he made us wait for over 30 minutes for no reason, but I think he was just getting back at me for ditching him at a party a few years back. I remember this guy was a big fan of mine," Tony said with some assurance. He was about to be proven very wrong. The secretary led us to a nearby room. Inside was a very lavish office. The man we had come to meet was waiting for us behind a large ornate wooden desk. He wasn''t alone, however. He had four obvious bodyguards flanking his sides equally. Did he think we were coming to attack him or something? Aldrich Killian himself looked perfectly healthy. That should not have been the case. I could tell he was not suffering from any health problems like he should have been at this time. When he first met Tony in the past, he couldn''t even walk without a cane. Extremis had been completed much earlier than I anticipated. I could also sense some form of power coming from him and the four bodyguards. I wouldn''t call them dangerous to myself, but they were well into the brackets of Low Class. His arms opened wide in greeting as we entered. "Tony! I never thought the day would come... The day that YOU would go out of your way to request a meeting with me." He had a large smile on his face, but his eyes told a different story. I could tell that this man absolutely loathed Tony. He then turned to me. "And who''s this exquisite lady you''ve brought with you? ...Wait? Don''t I recognize you from somewhere?" "You might have seen my friend Layla here on the news recently," Tony answered for me. One of his bodyguards leaned down and whispered something to him. His eyes went wide. Aldrich spoke again. "Of course, you''re the mysterious savior Angel that''s been all over the news! You stopped the ''evil mages'' from burning down Monaco! That was... Marvelous. And I thank you for the display you put on!" He gave me a wide smile. I felt like it was a bit off putting. "You''re welcome I guess." I replied to him. Tony and I sat down in the seats opposite of Aldrich that had been set out for us. Once we were seated, the pleasant atmosphere vanished. Aldrich''s smile dropped as he took on a serious look. "Now then, what exactly can I do for the two of you..." XXX [Aldrich Killian: Leader of AIM ¡ú Level 9. Has an extreme hatred for Tony Stark. Has a keen interest in the Layla of the Fallen... Recently, he has come into a partnership with !$ % %] Nothing particularly groundbreaking there from my "observe" skill. Although, that blurred information did have me a bit worried. His level did put him on par with an average wizard, though. The system actually registered him as being a higher level than Captain America. I supposed that made sense. Without plot armor, I had no idea how Steve would actually beat this guy in a straight-up fight. The man could regenerate from quite a bit of damage, had super strength, and could throw burning hot plasma around. Extremis was actually pretty amazing. "It''s not what you or your cute think tank here can do for us, Aldrich... It''s what we can do for you!" Tony said to the man. From the slight twitch in his facial muscles, I could tell Aldrich was doing everything he could not to openly scowl at us. Tony was taking the approach as if this man was still a fan of his... that was not the case. "Eh-em." I cut in before the man angrily kicked us out. "I apologize for Tony; that came off as rude and condescending," I said as I leveled a small glare at Tony. Aldrich then turned his gaze to me. "Maybe you could tell me why you two are here, then? Also, are you working for Tony now?" He added with a disappointed tone. "I wouldn''t really say working for him as much as with him at this point." He nodded at my short explanation. "Good. No reason for a woman of your talents to be working for a failing company after all." "Hey!" Tony exclaimed. "Stark Industries stock has never been higher!" Aldrich just scoffed. "It''s all hyped-up nonsense stock. All your investors still believe that you''re going to make Iron Man sellable to the military. Once they find out that will never happen, your stocks will plummet just like they did when you shut down weapons manufacturing," the man explained. Tony looked like he was going to argue back, but I subtly pinched his side, causing him to be quiet. If Aldrich wasn''t willing to work with us, then we would have to use other means of getting his serum. AKA, Natasha sneaks in and robs them blind. The problem with that method was that we''d have to hire geneticists who would then have to spend a bunch of time reverse engineering and modifying Extremis for what we needed. AIM''s scientists and researchers were already masters in the field and could provide what we needed much quicker. "Ok, then. This is why we''re here..." I started to explain. Together, Tony and I had come up with a somewhat plausible lie that didn''t involve word of a potential apocalypse getting out. We said we were looking to start exploring other planets and that some would have substantially higher gravities than Earth. For that, we needed AIM''s help creating a serum for the astronauts that made the trips. Aldrich was a bit skeptical on how we would be traveling into space when agencies like NASA were struggling just to get into orbit. That was where my part came in, and I hinted at Angel''s being capable of much faster methods of travel than requiring a spaceship. The man was a bit taken aback by me admitting I was truly an Angel and not just a mutant that looked like one. Apparently, the jury was still out on people''s thoughts about me around the world. I hadn''t exactly met any actual mutants yet since I''d been here, but apparently people were using me as a shiny example of what they could be. The video of Tony and me fighting off Voldemort at the racetrack and then me stopping the Fiendfyre spell had racked up over a billion views online so far. Needless to say, though, the concept of actual teleportation and space exploration did get the man''s attention. Even if he was an asshole/possible-super-villain, at the end of the day he was still a CEO. And like all greedy CEOs, I could tell that he was very interested in our lucrative idea. It also helped that it wasn''t exactly a lie. What better way would there be for us to test our solutions than going to other planets that actually had higher gravities than Earth? "Hmmm... Interesting," Aldrich said with an intrigued look on his face. "So you''re going into the space sector then, Stark? And you need MY help so your astronauts don''t keel over?" He remarked with a hint of sarcasm. "That is correct, Killian," Tony said. "I know I treated you like shit the first time we met, and I would like to genuinely apologize for that. I was a drunken asshole back then, and I freely admit it." Tony said with some genuine humility. ... -Aldrich Killian- Aldrich took a moment to contemplate as the bastard Stark and the beautiful Angel waited for his response. Aldrich wasn''t afraid to admit to himself that he was deeply intrigued by their proposal. If the Angel truly did have access to interplanetary teleportation, then that was an absolute game-changer! Her value had exponentially increased beyond her already impressive combat capabilities. Some of Aldrich''s newest ''investors'' had shown a genuine interest in her and her capabilities. They had even requested that he have bugs placed throughout his office so they could listen in on the meeting. That was the least he could do considering how much they had helped push his project forward time wise. They had given him incomplete, yet still incredibly valuable, research data from the old super soldier program that helped push the development of his own serum forward by years. Now, he could honestly say that he had created far more dangerous soldiers than Captain America ever was... just maybe not as skilled if the man''s legendary battlefield exploits held true. When he first received the request for a meeting with Tony Stark and the Angel yesterday, Aldrich had been nervous. He had no idea what they wanted from himself or AIM. His more paranoid thoughts strayed to Extremis, but they never actually mentioned it by name once. He could tell that they knew about it, of course. After all, nothing stays secret forever when money is involved. But all they wanted from him was a much more toned-down and reasonable product. That was something his researchers could honestly whip up in a month if they needed too. The question Aldrich had to ask himself was ¨C did he agree to let go of his hatred and go into the space business with Stark, or did he deny them? Would his new ''investors'' even allow him to work with Stark after their recent outing to the public? "Do you two mind waiting outside for a bit? You''ve given me a lot to think about," Aldrich asked them. "Sure." "No problem," Stark and the Angel said as they left his office. Aldrich turned to his four bodyguards around him. "You four clear out as well. I need to make an important call." His guards were all extremely loyal ex-military that his Extremis formula had saved. They didn''t voice any protest as they also cleared out of the room. With that, he pulled out a secret untraceable phone from a hidden compartment in his desk that only he knew about. "Hello, Director Pierce. I''m assuming you were listening in on that whole conversation through the bugs? What do you think I should do here?" XXX Chapters 41-45 Chapters 41-45 "So, you think he bought it?" Tony asked me. "I''m not sure," I replied. "I could tell that he was highly interested in the parts about exploring other celestial bodies. His hatred for you was palpable though." If anything was going to tank the deal, it was that. "Really?" Tony asked. "He didn''t seem to hate me that much. I mean, all I did was leave him on a roof for one night during a party. It''s not my fault the guy could absolutely not read the room and see I was with a woman." "Weren''t you always with a woman back then?" I said with a laugh. Tony laughed as well. "I suppose you''re right. I probably could have heard the guy out at least. Obviously, I should have because he somehow created his own company a few years later. And now it''s leading the field in genetics. I don''t know why he approached me though... I was an arms dealer specializing in robotics, not genetics," Tony explained. I always found that a bit strange as well. Tony is a genius, but he doesn''t specialize in genetics. Then again, for some never-specified reason, Tony is a huge celebrity in this world. As an arms dealer, that always struck me as strange. I couldn''t name one arms dealer back in my old life, let alone imagine one being more famous than the Kardashians. And that was before he publicly outed himself as Iron Man. "He was probably just a big fan of yours, and then you went and crushed his dreams..." "Well then... let''s hope I don''t accidentally go and create my own Stain then..." "Was that a My Hero Academia reference?" I asked with some surprise. "Ha! Yeah, it was. I''m surprised you know what that even is. Does the other Earth have anime as well? Now that I think about it, you never really mentioned to us what the other Earth is like," he said. "I was just assuming it was basically a mirror copy of our own." "It pretty much is. Surprisingly, history is almost exactly the same as well. I don''t really have any idea why that is. That''s a mystery for another time, I suppose," I said, to which Tony nodded. We continued to have speculative small talk for the next few minutes before Aldrich''s secretary returned and told us to head back into the room. We entered the room to find that the man''s bodyguards were no longer standing next to him. Did he think we were going to attack him the first time? He hadn''t even started that fake Mandarin nonsense yet, so it wasn''t like we had any actual reason to. "Tony and Miss Layla, thank you for waiting while I made my decision," Aldrich said as we walked over and took our seats across from him. "After that short deliberation, I''ve come to the unfortunate decision that I will not be able to help the two of you," Killian said with a fake frown. It seemed that his amnesty with Stark had won out over his greed. He wasn''t going to get us that formula. "Is that so?" I asked with a grimace. I guess we were going with plan B then. I''m sure Natasha would have fun robbing this place blind at least... I''d offer to help, but I''m not exactly one for subtlety. "Are you sure we can''t change your mind, Killian? Come on, man, just think about it! Space! The final frontier! Stark Industries and AIM leading the charge onto other planets!" Tony explained with genuine enthusiasm. Of course, the serum was actually for saving humanity, but that didn''t discount the fact that we would actually be going to space as well. He had mentioned to me that he had already started preparing suits that could function out of the atmosphere. He had asked me if Angels could survive out there unassisted. I honestly wasn''t sure. I did breathe instinctively, but that could just be my leftover instincts as a human. I found that when I intentionally held my breath, I didn''t seem to struggle with the lack of air. Aldrich shook his head. "Yes, I''m afraid that that''s just how it is. You see, AIM has recently gotten a new investing partner, and well... they don''t exactly like you two very much. Especially you, Layla. You''ve really gone and upset them it seems. What a shame..." I tensed up when I heard that. What was he talking about? I get lots of people hating Tony, but they didn''t like me as well? I felt my hackles raise as heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from the other side of the office. I stood up and immediately deployed my wings as a lightspear formed in my hand. My instincts were telling me a fight was coming. "Whoa, Layla! What''s going on!?" Tony exclaimed with wide eyes. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a metallic suitcase that I tossed to him. He caught it easily with a bit of surprise. It was his portable Iron Man suit. We''d stored it in my inventory so it wouldn''t look like he was walking around with his super weapon at all times. I didn''t immediately answer Tony''s question. "Who did you sell us out to?" I turned and leveled a glare at Aldrich Killian. In response, the man just gave us a smile and laughed. "Sorry, babe, but this is just business after all. Wish we could have gotten to know each other better though." Aldrich added with a fake sigh as he blatantly checked me out and looked me up and down. I wanted to summon a lightspear and stab him right then and there. My time for that would be coming soon enough I supposed. The doors to his office were kicked in and a large man wearing a black face mask entered the doorway. At this point, Tony was still in the process of his Iron Man suit forming over his body. His current generation suit still took at least 15 seconds to fully assemble itself over him. The man who had just kicked in the doorway wasn''t going to give him the time to finish as he leveled what looked like a grenade launcher at Tony and me! My eyes narrowed when I took in the most distinctive feature of the intruder. He had a bright silver metal arm! It was the Winter Soldier. At the same time, I could feel the temperature in the room rapidly increase. A rapid glance behind me showed that Aldrich was completely wrapped in flames as he was lunging for Tony! At the same time, the Winter Soldier rapidly fired his entire clip of grenades at us! [Emergency Quest Issued! - Defeat the Winter Soldier and AIM!] XXX I quickly used 200 MP and rapidly threw up a Lightshield in front and behind us. It was just in time as an instant later, grenades slammed into one shield, and Aldrich hit the other. The latter let out some choice expletives as his sneak attack on tony was thwarted. "What the fuck?" Tony exclaimed in shock at seeing Aldrich turn into a flaming humanoid and try to jump him. "What the hell did you do to yourself, Killian? Did you turn yourself into a mutant!?" Tony''s confusion was justifiable. Seeing it up close, Extremis made Aldrich look like a flaming zombie. I should have briefed Tony on the full capabilities of Extremis beforehand, but I had no reasonable explanation as to how I knew about it in the first place. "This is the future of warfare, Tony! This is the power of Extremis and the results of my genius!" Aldrich replied even as he never stopped slamming his fists into my Lightshield. He wasn''t strong enough to break it anytime soon though. I also only needed to hold it a few more seconds. Just enough time for Tony''s Iron Man armor to have fully finished forming around him. Aldrich, seeing that he had lost the moment of surprise, chose to take a step backward on the other end of the room. The Winter Soldier hadn''t made any other moves after emptying the clip of grenades at us. With our momentary pause in combat, I turned to Iron Man. "Which one do you want?" I asked. "I''ll take Killian. I guess there''s been a personal vendetta between us all this time, so I might as well settle it." With that said, his repulsors launched him toward his flaming opponent. "Don''t kill him! We need him alive for his formula!" I exclaimed before Iron Man ended up blasting Killian into the floor and right through it! I turned to my own opponent, the Winter Soldier. "Well then, I guess it''s just you and me, huh?" I honestly wasn''t worried; at most, he was just slightly stronger than Captain. And now he was out of grenade launcher ammo as well. Not that those would have even taken that much HP off me if they hit. I started slowly walking toward Hydra''s greatest assassin as he took a fighting stance. [Your confidence is great and all, but you might want to check again with your observe skill.] The system notification gave me a slight pause, and I did just that. [Winter Soldier - Level 15 ¡ú Hydra''s greatest assassin has recently received a powerful upgrade as the latent super serum inside him combined with an added Extremis formula.] Oh... well, isn''t that something? He''s still only level 15 though. I can take him¨C "Holy shit!" I exclaimed in surprise as the Winter Soldier apparently grew tired of waiting for my slow approach and charged forward. He was fast! His strength stat must be at least double my own! His metallic fist came rushing towards my face, and I quickly ducked down to avoid it. A small Lightspear formed in my right hand, and I tried to stab him as his fist went wide. With some insane Muay Thai move, he used his opposite knee and elbow and caught my lightspear between them! The sizzling heat the Light weapon emitted didn''t seem to bother him at all. The Extremis formula made him largely immune, it seemed. "...Okay, that was pretty cool" I admitted out loud as he locked down my conjured weapon. He rapidly spun around and delivered a powerful kick to my sternum that sent me flying backward. [-30 HP] I ended up slamming into and right through the flimsy drywall. Dust and drywall flew everywhere as I was flung all the way back into the reception room. "Kyyaaaaahh!" Killian''s secretary screamed. She was crouched down, hiding behind one of the couches. "What the fuck is going on!?" She screamed at me. "I heard explosions!" "...Your boss is a Nazi sympathizer and a secret supervillain. You should probably find a new job," I said plainly as I stood up and brushed the chunks of drywall out of my wings and hair. "I knew I should have listened to my parents and gotten that safe insurance job!" She exclaimed as she ran away down the hallway. That was good timing too because a few seconds later, I had to jump out of the way as an actual fireball flew into the reception room. There was a fiery explosion and all the nearby furniture immediately caught fire. The smoke alarms went off a second later and water started spraying down and soaking me as the fire alarms went off... "Well this is just perfect." I said as I glanced down at my soaked outfit. Of course I had chosen to wear a white business shirt for this meeting that was now completely see through... at least I was wearing a bra underneath despite not needing it with my physiology. From the recently created large hole in the wall, the Winter Soldier emerged. His body was glowing red. A clear sign of Extremis and that he had thrown that fireball. Because of course he could also do that... Good thing it was me fighting him... Captain America would have been so screwed with this guy''s upgrades. [You never know, stats aren''t everything after all. All gamer''s know that skill plays just as big a role.] "Fallen Angel, Layla. I have orders to either capture or kill you. Come quietly and serve Hydra as our weapon." The Winter Soldier spoke for the first time. His voice was lacking emotion and almost monotone. "I''m going to have to pass on that one." I replied. I mean really... join us or die? Does that ever work? [Quite a bit actually...] ''You''re probably right about that system, but there''s no way I''d ever consider joining Hydra.'' I thought. Their plans for global domination were as ludicrous as they were cartoonishly evil. "So be it." The Soldier''s red glow intensified. His combat outfit, despite being military-grade, was starting to smoke and catch fire. He rushed at me again, but this time I was ready for his speed. I quickly cast a Lightshield in front of me that he slammed into. There was a burst of flames as his momentum was halted. He actually managed to put cracks in my Lightshield! Before he could recover himself, I quickly dropped the shield before I stabbed forward with both my hands. Each one holding a freshly conjured Lightspear. He managed to dodge one of them, but the second caught him in his stomach. I''d have been hesitant to stab him before, knowing that he was basically a mind-controlled slave. With Extremis, however, I knew he could take the hit and still be fine. I was actually wondering how I was going to put him down for real without taking out his head or something. My spear pierced through his stomach and plunged out the other side. He grunted in pain for an instant before reeling his arm back and smashing me in the head. My head whipped back with the blow as I stumbled backward and released my hold on the lightspear. [-50 HP] Fuck, that hurt! This was going to be annoying unless I could find a way to knock him out. My dagger simultaneously burrowed into his leg as his kick broke my wrist and arm ¨C well, it would have if I didn''t have a gamer''s body. Instead, all I lost was HP I could afford to spare. If there was one stat I wasn''t lacking, it was Vigor. The next few moments got pretty crazy. Neither of us could back down as we engaged each other in a close-quarters death match. He was delivering powerful body blows against me with fists and feet while I was continuously stabbing him. From an outside perspective, this must have looked like a pointless bout of two immortals going at it. "C''mon, just run out of energy already and go down!" I yelled at him in irritation as I slammed another dagger into his sternum. In return, he cracked me over the head with a punch that had me seeing stars for a second. [-50HP! Warning! HP at 1000/3100] That notification made me a bit nervous, but finally, to my pleasant surprise, he let out a cough of pain. His burning orange skin receded, and he coughed out blood from his mouth. He stumbled forward for a moment and tried to make a final grab at me. I punched him right in the face with my full strength, and he collapsed backward to the floor. I beat him! Now I had to figure out what to actually do with him... "Hey, good work there, Layla. I filmed that whole fight, and it was awesome. It''s probably gonna rack up a ton of views on YouTube. The whole world always thought the Winter Soldier was a myth. Now they''ll know he was actually real and was finally taken down," Iron Man said as he walked up to me. His fight had ended before mine did, and instead of stepping in to help, he sat back and watched... I gave him a mild glare that expressed my feelings about that. "Woah, you looked like you had him handled. Besides, if you really wanted me to step in, you would have called out for help... which you didn''t," he said to me. I supposed he was right. Getting into a slug match like that was surprisingly fun. "He''s famous?" I asked. I didn''t think a lot of people knew about him. "Oh yeah, a whole bunch of conspiracy theorists think he''s the boogeyman of the world. And I guess they''re right?" He said questioningly. "They believe a whole bunch of the world''s craziest assassinations were pulled off by this guy. They always claim he was the one who really killed Kennedy." He said with a laugh. "...Huh... You know, he probably did." XXX [You have completed your mission! You have leveled up! You have received the reward: Perfected Extremis Formula! The Perfected formula is a combination of the super-soldier serum and AIM''s Extremis formula.] Nice! I could either take the formula myself or save it for someone else. I was considering the latter because I didn''t exactly need the formula. With Gamer''s Body and Twilight Healing, I could already heal from any injury, and the boost to strength wasn''t anything groundbreaking for me. If I gave this to someone like Natasha, though, she''d be a force to be reckoned with. [Congratulations! Angelic Mastery has reached level 3! Light Manipulation has reached level 4! You now have access to Angelic Teleportation and can survive in a vacuum environment indefinitely. Light Magic now costs even less MP to cast!] That would be incredibly useful for me in the future! Especially for when I''d start venturing out into space! Light Magic being even cheaper was also a big powerup. I was hoping Lightshields cost a lot less now. They were what really drained my MP the most. It made sense though, considering an average Lightshield was basically the size of 25 to 30 Lightspears lined up together. I checked my current stats to see where I was sitting. One thing I''d figured out was that I grew an extra pair of wings whenever my total MP doubled. For example, I started with 100 MP, but as soon as it hit 200, I became a four-winged Fallen. At 400 MP, I gained another pair of wings. From that, I deduced that at 800 MP, I would gain another pair. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 5] [HP: 3100] [MP: 560] [Vigor: 110] [Strength: 20] [Intelligence: 56] [Luck: 20] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 3, Acting 2, Light Manipulation 4, HP¡úMP Conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 10] Even if I dumped my 10 free stat points into Intelligence, I''d still be only at 660, which was a ways off. Ever since figuring out that Strength also included things like agility and speed, I''d decided not to neglect that stat either. The Winter Soldier''s strength stat was at least at 40. He was almost twice as fast as me. I decided to split my free stat points between the two, bringing Strength up to 25 and Intelligence up to 61. ''Hey, System. How exactly do I go about using angelic teleportation?'' I asked in my head. The advantage of Angelic Teleportation over the sling ring was that, like apparating, it was instantaneous and could be used mid-combat. Even the best masters of the mystic arts still required a few seconds of concentration to use their sling rings. Doctor Strange had sort of used them in his fights, but it was borderline gimmicky and really only worked because of the plot. [You simply think about where you want to go and will yourself there. Keep in mind, the further the distance, the more MP will be required. If you use all your MP, you will draw on your HP due to your HP¡úMP Conversion skill. Don''t teleport too far and accidentally give yourself a game over.] I chuckled at the system''s warning. I''d be sure to practice my jumps and make sure to figure out the distance to MP ratio. "Hey, Layla. You done spacing out over there? What do you want to do with these guys?" Tony asked me as he pointed to the downed Winter Soldier and Aldrich Killian. Everyone else was either dead or had run off. "Also, just so you know... a whole bunch of police are coming to storm this building." Iron Man''s faceplate lifted up to reveal Tony''s face. He looked a bit worried. "What''s the problem with that?" I asked. "We kind of just had a full-on battle that involved the deaths of multiple war veterans." Tony explained. "It''s not going to be a good publicity look for us. We killed US war heroes... on US soil. Even if they were joining Hydra they hadn''t joined yet. The police are absolutely going to try and take us into custody and throw the book at us. Well mostly me actually. You¨Cthey''ll probably have no idea how to deal with." Tony explained to me. "They might use this as an excuse to try and take my suit from me though." He looked a bit worried. "Well, shit..." I said. I had forgotten about this point in time. We were still technically in the middle of Iron Man 2 timewise. The US government was trying to take his suit so they could weaponize it. The only reason they didn''t in the movies was because their lead man, Justin Hammer, harbored a terrorist that ended up siccing a bunch of murder bots on New York City. Now that Whiplash was dead, Tony wouldn''t be able to beat him and ''save the day.'' "Can''t we just call SHIELD to tell the police to back off?" I asked. "SHIELD''s kind of in the dog house in the US right now. They''ve lost a lot of their sway after Alexander Pierce ended up being a confirmed traitor. You know the guy was friends with Peggy Carter and my old man for decades... I never actually knew what SHIELD was, but I still saw the man from time to time at upper echelon social galas." Tony trailed off with a grimace. I wondered if Tony would ever make the connection that Pierce was probably the one to off his parents? It''s possible Pierce even tried to subtly have Howard Stark join Hydra and was turned down. That would have led to Howard being ''silenced.'' "We''ll just have to sneak out of here then," I said. ''This is where I really could use a stealth skill...'' I thought with some expectation. [I can''t just give you a skill unless you''re doing something involving it. If you want a stealth skill, go try and steal some things without getting caught.] ''Fine.'' I supposed it couldn''t be that convenient. "Yeah. I guess we could try and sneak out of here. I can have Jarvis delete all the security footage." Tony suggested. "I can actually hear the sirens now though. We better leave fast." Tony was correct, the police sirens did sound close. And it sounded like there were a lot of them. There were a whole lot of explosions coming from this building a few minutes ago to be fair... I had an idea. I pulled out my sling ring and hoped that with my intelligence now over 60, I could get that damn thing to work. "I''m going to try opening a portal a few blocks away from here," I explained. "I don''t know how long I''ll be able to hold it open for you, so run through with the soldier and Aldrich. I''ll follow after." Tony nodded and slung the two of them over his shoulders. I started going through the circular hand motions that had failed me numerous times in training. Thankfully though, they weren''t failing me now. The portal was forming slowly and shakily, but it was forming. It took about 20 seconds, but I eventually made it large enough for him to pass through. "Go now!" I shouted, and Tony bolted through with the pair. I jumped through the portal right after him. A split second later, the shaky thing collapsed. "Whoo! Teleportation! That''s what I''m talking about!" I cheered out loud. We exited in a back alley a few blocks away from AIM''s headquarters. I could still hear the sirens in the distance, but we were well out of their current police cordon perimeter. Tony just gave me a deadpan look. "You''re gonna have to work on that. You were barely able to open a portal a few blocks away and were supposed to be going to other planets at some point." I pouted in response. "Now that I''ve gotten it to work in the first place, it shouldn''t take long before I can start opening portals all over the world. Just you wait; pretty soon I''ll have this ability mastered." Tony nodded. "I''ll hold you to it then. Happy is on his way with the limo. I''ll throw the two Nazis in the trunk and make our inconspicuous getaway. I already have Jarvis establishing an alibi for us as we speak." A few minutes later, Happy showed up with the limo. I healed the Winter Soldier up a bit before we tossed him in the back with Aldrich. I didn''t want him dying from the final stab I hit him with. He was completely out of stamina to heal it. "All right then," Tony said as he and I hopped in. "Next stop... huh? Where should we go?" He turned and asked me. I took a second to ponder. "I guess we can head to the Sanctum. The Sorceress Supreme should be able to help the Winter Soldier break Hydra''s mind control." "The Winter Soldier is under mind control?" Tony asked. "Yep, allow me to introduce you to Sergeant Bucky Barnes." I exclaimed and laughed at Tony''s shocked look. As we drove to Bleeker Street I started explaining Bucky and Steve''s story to Tony. I tried to make it as compelling and tragic as possible. In the event that Tony ever found out Bucky killed his parent''s, maybe he''d hesitate and not immediately try to get revenge on the man. Was I being a bit manipulative here with my friend? Yes, but I knew if I didn''t do this we''d end up in Civil War which was the last thing any of us needed. [Acting has Leveled up to 3!] XXX Chapters 46-50 Chapters 46-50 It had been a week since the crazy excursion to AIM. I hadn''t heard much from anyone since. Tony and SHIELD had gone radio silent. To be honest, that was perfectly fine by me. I could let them deal with the remnants of that fiasco. I had more important things to do myself. Mainly, I was finally in the process of finally getting my own place! Even if it was a bit slow going... "So what do you think about this abode? Isn''t it just...grand?" My realtor asked me hesitantly as she spread her arms wide and gestured all around the apartment. It was large, I''d give her that at least. It also looked like it was infested with fleas and may have been a meth lab at one point as well. This was definitely another no from me though. I was starting to lose faith in the competency of my realtor. She was clearly fresh out of whatever made-up little college realtors went to because she was doing a terrible job. She was cute though, which is mainly why I picked her. [You trusted your horniness and it backfired on you.] The system had hit the nail on the head. ''Pretty much yeah.'' "Listen, um..." Crap, I forgot her name. I''d been too busy staring at her ass as she took me from one shitty apartment to the next. I couldn''t help it though. There were literally dozens of experienced realtors in New York I could have gone with, but I let my horniness choose for me and it picked the dumb hot blond. Now I was paying for it as she kept taking me to all these should-be-condemned apartments that had absolutely none of the specifications I''d given her. "Karen, my name is Karen." she answered enthusiastically. "And is this not what you''re looking for again?" She asked with a pout. As she asked that, a cockroach crawled out of the nearby floorboard and scurried between her feet. She glanced at it for a moment before turning back to me like that didn''t just happen. "It may have a small bug problem, but that''s easily remedied." "Right... Karen. I told you what I was looking for in an apartment. You know... a high-rise with lots of square footage that overlooked the city. I told you money was no option as well," I explained. And where had she taken me currently? We were in some flea-ridden damp hideaway in the middle of a neighborhood where people don''t go outside at night. Frankly, I wouldn''t be surprised if her car was being broken into right now because she parked it right out front. She bit her lip and had a sad look on her face. "I''m sorry, I just started at my agency, and they only give me access to the crummier listings! It''s either this place or Wilson Fisk''s old penthouse! And I don''t think you''d want to live there! He was a major criminal after all." She explained. Wilson Fisk? The Kingpin!? The penthouse of a man who ran a criminal empire sounded pretty good to me! It must be absolutely decked out with all kinds of amazing things. "Why didn''t you start with that!?" I exclaimed. "Let''s go there right now!" I said excitedly as I grabbed her and dragged her out of this dump and back towards her car. "Wah..." I didn''t give her time to protest as I wanted out of this insect ridden building asap. When exited the run down building, to my not-surprise, her car was currently being broken into. "Hey, get away from my car, you hooligans, before I call the police!" Karen shouted at four teens that were surrounding her car. One of them carrying a portable tire jack. Wow, they were really planning on stealing her tires in broad daylight. The four of them startled at being caught. They started to run away when they heard the word ''police'' at least. "Fuck you, Karen! Stay out of our neighborhood!" One of the teens yelled out as they all ran away. That was extremely rude and yet pretty much what I''d expected from this neighborhood. "How did they know my name?" She turned to me and asked. "I think they were just calling you a Karen in general..." I said and she pouted. ... "Whoa, this place is awesome! You should have taken us here first," I exclaimed as I looked over the Kingpin''s old penthouse. It really did have everything. It was three floors totaling over 10k square feet. The lowest floor had an actual indoor pool and a full gym. The middle floor had every kind of entertainment room you could think of, including a small movie theater and a bowling alley. The top floor was the residential with a bunch of large bedrooms and a high-rise view that overlooked all of the city. It was definitely the height of luxury. The rent was also 20k a month... but I had that million from Tony that should last me a while. It''s not like I''d ever be hurting for money as a Gamer anyway. "I''m glad you like it..." Karen said with a strained smile. "...are you sure you want this place, though? It belonged to Mr. Fisk. He''s been in prison for a year now, but I heard he was getting out soon. He might want his home back and will be displeased if someone took it from him." She explained to me. I feel like there was more info there that she wasn''t sharing, but I honestly didn''t care. Wilson Fisk had the best penthouse in the city and soon it would be all mine! No way I was giving it up! I''d like to see him try and take it back. "Yes, I''m absolutely sure. Where do I sign, and when can I move in?" I asked her. "Well okay then." Her frown turned to a smile as she reached into her bag and pulled out the source of all the world''s evil...paperwork. Karen and I spent the next few hours going over the dreaded paperwork and my name was put on the lease. This place was awesome, and I wanted to emulate Tony and buy this whole building outright one day soon. But for that, I''d first need quite a bit more money. On the upside, I was able to move into my new place today. I''d finally be done with constant hotel hopping. I could finally have my own place away from all the prying eyes... I''m pretty sure multiple government agencies had bugged every single hotel room I had stayed in the past few days. I''d also noticed myself being tailed by the ''men in black'' every time I''d gone out and explored the city this week. I definitely was not existing incognito. I could understand where they were coming from. I was a Biblical Angel with a pretty high body count just meandering my way around the human world as if that was perfectly normal. My existence probably terrified all the government big wigs. That didn''t stop people on the streets from occasionally swarming me for autographs and photos though. I''d actually taken to wearing large sunglasses and big hats to try and hide myself when I went outside at this point. I needed to learn some illusion magic. The only people I could think of that were any good at that were Loki and Frigga though. I wouldn''t even be able to get to Asgard until Thor officially started. "Okay, and with this all completed, you are all set," Karen said as she finished organizing all the completed paperwork and handed me a set of keys. "Here are your keys; it was a pleasure helping you find your home, Miss Layla. Would you mind if I listed you as one of my clients on my profile? It would really help my career if people knew I was the realtor of such a big celebrity..." I told her it was fine and thanked her again as she left. Once she was gone, I went all around and admired ''MY'' penthouse. I giggled at the thought of such a luxurious place all to myself "Now then..." I muttered out loud. "I wonder if good ol'' Wilson Fisk kept any secret safes full of money or jewels anywhere in this place?" Although it was possible the police found them all when they raided it and took him into custody a year ago. [Quest Started! -This is Mine Now!- ¡úDiscover Wilson Fisk''s secret safe that is hidden somewhere in his old penthouse! What treasures could be inside?] [Reward: ? and ?] "Now that''s what I''m talking about. Treasure Hunt!" XXX The treasure hunt did not go well... "I''m going to need to hire a professional there or something to help me find Fisk''s safe," I muttered out loud as I walked the streets of New York. I had spent HOURS searching all the obvious locations in my new penthouse and found nothing for it. I checked behind every picture frame and beneath all the beds. I even checked in the pool. Hollywood lied... Finding someone''s secret safe was not as easy as they always portrayed in spy movies. [If it was easy the police would have found it a year ago when they arrested Fisk.] ''Can you even tell me what''s in the safe?'' [No, that would be spoilers.] That made me just want to find it even more! If it was just money or jewels, the system would have just told me. The fact that it was keeping the contents a secret meant there was something amazing inside! I was currently taking a break and walking the streets of New York. Relying on my enhanced luck stat to guide me towards something interesting. Maybe I''d get lucky and stumble upon the Black Cat and I could ask for her help finding the safe. [Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker are both 12 right now...] Aw, that sucked. There would be no cool spiderman shenanigans for at least three years then. And I was looking forward to seeing which version of spiderman I got. [Anything but Toby Maguire''s version...] "Agreed." This world didn''t need that level of cringe. I would go out of my way to prevent the spider from biting him at that point. [If you''re bored, you could be trying to complete one of your current quests.] "Nah, all those are on hold temporarily. I can''t defeat the Hand members until I actually know where they are. All I know is Madam Gao is somewhere in New York, which isn''t a lot to go on. Voldemort has gone into hiding, and there''s been no Death Eater activity since Snake Face got spanked by me and Iron Man. And the ''save the world'' quest can''t advance forward either until SHIELD finishes interrogating Aldrich." They had been radio silent towards me so I had no idea how any of that was going. "Excuse me, miss. Could I beseech you to point me towards Rand Corporation''s Headquarters? It''s been a while since I''ve been in the city, and I can''t seem to remember where it is." A young man with curly dark blond hair walked up to me. He looked borderline homeless. His clothes were filthy, and he looked like he had just been washed ashore... Ah crap, I knew who this was. Damn you Luck stat! This was not what I meant when I said I wanted something ''interesting'' to happen! [Quest initiated! - Iron Fist Unleashed! ¡ú Help Danny Rand recover his¡ª] ''Nope!'' I cut off the system before it could finish giving that quest. No fucking way! Iron Fist was the dumbest Marvel show, and I was not being swept up in that poor excuse for an action/drama. [Well...ok then...] I think I had apparently shocked my system into speechlessness. "Um, miss? Do you know where it is?" Danny Rand, AKA the Iron Fist, asked me again. "I would be greatly honored if you could assist me," he said as he actually bowed to me. People nearby were staring at the weird display. Thankfully, way weirder things happened in this city daily. So a homeless white kid bowing to a lady wearing an obvious disguise didn''t even register to most people. "Yeah, sure, just let me check a map..." I sighed as I pulled out my phone and proceeded to Google Rand Corp headquarters. I then gave him the street number. New York''s streets being properly numbered made giving directions a lot easier. He bowed to me again in thanks before proceeding to leave. I wanted to let him go just like that, but I supposed I couldn''t let the opportunities that came with his arrival in the city pass me up. "Wait," I called out before tossing him a piece of paper with my number on it. "If you ever run into Madam Gao of the Hand, give me a call so I can come and take care of her." I told him. "You shouldn''t speak of the taking of life so casually. In K''un-Lun, they teach that nobody is ever above redemption." Danny said to me. I just wanted to scoff. This was a woman who''s been alive for centuries and probably done countless unspeakable acts in her cult''s name. "Yeah, sure... whatever," I said dismissively. Her death was worth a free level up, and every ten of her minions was still a free stat point. I was absolutely going to wipe out the New York Hand sect. "Just make sure to call me, Iron Fist." His eyes widened when I mentioned his title. "You know who I am?" He asked. "Then you must be aware of my sacred duty to destroy the Hand!? Will you assist me!?" [Quest Initiated! Help Iron Fist Destroy the Ha¡ª] "No thanks, I''ll handle it on my own," I said plainly. I already had a pretty good track record against them anyway. He looked confused at my statement. "...What?" "Yeah, you K''un-Lun guys have been feuding with the Hand for like 1000 years. At some point, you have to throw in the towel and let someone else do it. That someone is me, so call me whenever Gao approaches you for being the ''Legendary Iron Fist.''" I added with a snicker. Father no-longer-above, his powers were so lame... All he could do was punch stuff really hard sometimes. I turned and started walking away before I had to deal with this kid any longer... This was what I got for trusting my luck to find something interesting. At least that''s what I thought. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG... I was just passing Central Park when I heard an absolute torrent of gunfire going off nearby! It sounded like a full-scale war was going on! "Oh my God! Run!" "Terrorists are shooting up the park!" "There are still a bunch of people in there caught in the crossfire!" Knock Knock! *Cough* "Come in!" A raspy voice called out. The owner of that voice was Norman Osborn. He used to be one of the wealthiest and most envied men on the planet. He still had the wealth of course... well most of it, but the envy had long since dried up. Now all he received in his life were looks of pity. Norman was laying in bed in his office/hospital room. A few years ago, he had contracted a rare and incurable genetic disease. With that, came the news that he only had a few years to live! Norman would never accept that! His only heir was his idiot son, and if Norman died he knew his company and legacy would fall to ruin shortly after. So he hired the brightest minds on the planet and spared no expense in funding any of their research in search of a cure. In order to fund all of this... Norman ended up selling off large portions of his company''s stock. That later turned out to be one of his greatest regrets... Everyone still incorrectly assumed Norman still ran Oscorp. They were wrong. "Excuse me, sir..." Norman''s latest secretary/caregiver entered the room. "You asked us to keep you updated on anything related to... Mr. Fisk." The secretary said the name of the man who held the majority of Norman''s wrath these days. Fisk had been the one to purchase the majority share of Oscorp''s stock... under the table. In his foolish search for a cure, Norman had allowed Fisk to become the secret owner of Oscorp almost overnight. The Kingpin liberally used the tech company''s massive resources to further his own criminal agendas. Norman was helpless to stop him and could only lament as his company was slowly corrupted. That was until a certain ''Devil'' vigilante had ended up doing the impossible and taking down the Kingpin a year ago. While in prison, Fisk could no longer influence his company but he still technically owned it. In order to rectify that and regain control, Norman had all of Fisk''s assets secretly searched to try and recover those stock certificates but he never found them. "Someone moved into Wilson Fisk''s old penthouse, sir. They actually moved in today." His secretary informed him. "That''s what you came in here to bother me with!?" Norman rasped out in annoyance. "Who cares. We had all the police on our payroll search that place over ten times. There''s nothing there. That place is worthless. No... Fisk was far too clever to keep those certificates anywhere in the City. I''m sure he''s hidden them in some offshore bank that would be much harder to find." Norman speculated out loud. "Of course, sir. You''re right as always! Sorry for bothering you. Just one more thing. Your son wanted to know if you would be attending his birthday party this year?" They asked him. Norman scowled. "Of course I won''t be attending. I have far more important things to do! Now go away!" Norman shouted, and his secretary left the room in haste. He sat back and cursed Fisk once again. He vowed he would regain control of his company no matter what! XXX Chapter: 50 My eyes widened as I looked at the certificates in front of me. "There''s absolutely no way these can be real, right?" "Is there any treasure?" Behind me, Frank Jr. asked as he tried to peer into the safe with his sister. The two siblings were excited at the prospect of discovering some ''secret treasure.'' "Aw, it''s just some boring paperwork? Why would someone put that in a secret safe?" Lisa asked me. I wondered the same thing. If these stock certificates were indeed real, why were they hidden away? It didn''t really make any sense. With these papers I now held in my hand, I had the controlling interest of Oscorp! [Wilson Fisk ran a secret criminal empire. If his identity as the majority shareholder of Oscorp was discovered, then his life of anonymity would be over. Government agencies would have been scrutinizing all of his financial transactions much more closely.] The two kids soon lost interest and sat down on the nearby couch to watch TV. Meanwhile, I was still scrutinizing these documents. This was a game changer! Oscorp wasn''t quite at AIM''s level when it came to genetics, but they were close. The Green Goblin formula was basically the super soldier serum with a touch of insanity on the side. If they solved that though... I''d have an alternative to saving the world''s people than completely relying on Extremis. Plus, I can''t say that having my own company wouldn''t be pretty awesome! I could kick out Norman, and the Green Goblin would never come to be... along with a whole bunch of other super villains now that I thought about it. Oscorp should have really been shut down for all that... [Billionaires never get punished for anything... and now you''re a billionaire technically.] "First things first," I said as I shuffled the certificates in my hands. "I need a lawyer." "Hey, Miss Layla, do you wanna watch Star Wars?" The kids called out to me from over on the couch. Oh right, I was technically watching these two for the moment. Their dad should be a bit better tomorrow. "I suppose I can call a lawyer tomorrow." I hopped over and plopped myself next to them. Woah, the Star Wars actors were all different in this reality. I wonder if the story is still the same? ... The next day Frank was doing mildy better and took over watching his kids. I know he wasn''t the kind of man who would impose on someone more than absolutely necessary. "So, Layla, what made you choose our firm? Not that I''m complaining, mind you. If anything, we''re ecstatic to have the business of someone so high profile," Foggy Nelson said across from me. I was currently sitting in the office of Nelson and Murdock. Next to him, Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil, also looked curious as to why I was here. He also seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with my presence. That was disappointing because I was inwardly fan-girling being in the presence of one of my favorite heroes. "You put on quite the gruesome display in Central Park two days ago. Are you here looking for legal representation after what happened?" Matt asked me. Legal representation? For what? [You did kill 6 people... and 2 of those were technically active-duty soldiers.] ''Oh... you know it still is a bit weird that not a single government agency has come to talk to me about that.'' Now that I even had a physical address, I would have expected it even. They must just still have no idea how to deal with an actual Angel. Matt noticed my confusion, probably with his enhanced senses because he obviously couldn''t see my facial expression. "Your existence has been all the major news organizations have talked about for the past few weeks now." "Speaking of, can I get your autograph?" Foggy asked me. Matt turned and gave his friend a glare that caused me to laugh. "Sorry, that was unprofessional..." Foggy said. Matt continued. "As I was saying, you''ve been somewhat known as a loose cannon as everywhere you''ve gone, you''ve left a trail of bodies behind." He said while frowning at me. I remembered Daredevil had a big problem with killing. Which was odd because he worked with the Punisher on occasion. I supposed he wasn''t wrong about that. It''s not like any of those situations were my fault though. "R-right, I suppose it may look like that, but honestly, I''m not some bloodthirsty Angel of Death. Before I came to the human world, I spent hundreds of years peacefully in Heaven." "Hundreds!?" Foggy exclaimed. Matt also looked startled at the revelation. Whether that was because of my age or the fact that Heaven actually existed, I wasn''t quite sure. "W-well, be that as it may, you''ve still left quite the impression on the people of the world. There have been many calling for your arrest, which is why we assumed you came to us," Matt said. "Yeah, we''re pretty good at criminal law and getting people who were falsely charged acquitted." Foggy said. "We can also help you with public relations. Our newest hire, Miss Karen Page, is actually a brilliant paralegal, and she specializes in that." "Hm..." This meeting was turning out to be more interesting than I originally anticipated. I supposed I had been basically running roughshod all around the world, and the common people were probably freaking out over my existence. "Are the people really that freaked out about me?" I asked the two of them. Both nodded firmly. "Oh yeah!" Foggy said. "Evil Wizards and magic were literally exposed to the world during the attack in Monaco, and no one seems to care about that! The only thing anyone wants to talk about are Angels being real! It''s made people wonder what else is real out there." Foggy said with a laugh. "Pretty much everything is real." I replied bluntly, causing him to choke on his laughter. "E-everything?" He squeaked out. I nodded to him. "Are Devils real too?" Matt asked me. I noticed that Foggy gave his friend a strange look. From it, I was able to interpret that he was already aware of Matt''s alternate identity. "Yes, Devils are real. They''re not exactly well-liked by the rest of the supernatural community. In fact, everyone pretty much hates them." I said. "Why''s that?" Matt asked. "They invented a method to turn other races into Devils in order to ''bolster their numbers''," I said while using air quotes. "In reality they''re just tricking all of these new Devils into slavery. Sometimes they don''t even have a choice as Devils can just kill people and revive their corpses as their eternal slaves." The two of them gasped. "That''s horrible!" Matt exclaimed. I agreed. The truth of the matter was that the majority of Devils weren''t as kind as Rias Gremory was. "Any Devils who try and go against their new masters... meet with unfortunate ends," I finished cryptically. There was no reason to fully get into the evil piece system and the concept of stray Devils with them at this time. "Is that so..." Matt said with a touch of somberness. I wondered what he was thinking, so I used observe on him. [Matt Murdock, AKA The Devil of Hell''s Kitchen. Lvl 7 ¡ª Matt is currently upset that he has based his vigilante image on beings who are not only real but worse than he imagined. He''s seriously contemplating changing his vigilante moniker.] "Well anyway, I suppose I should tell you both why I''m really here today. I am interested in everything else we discussed, but for now, I wanted some help with these¡ª" I said as I reached into my inventory and pulled out the Oscorp stock certificates. "I''m sorry, I can''t read those," Matt said. Oh right, he was blind. I hadn''t been treating him as blind the whole time because I knew he could actually "see." He wasn''t able to actually read though. "T-these are... how did you get these! You didn''t kill someone for this, did you!" Foggy exclaimed as he gave me an accusing look. I should take offense to that¨Cbut I could understand where he was coming from. "Of course not! I discovered them fair and square! So, can I do anything with them?" I asked. "What''s on those papers, Foggy?" Matt asked. "These are all stock certificates for Oscorp. Real ones! All these together should make Layla here the majority shareholder and therefore owner of Oscorp!" I smirked when he said that. Layla of the Fallen¡ª billionaire businesswoman had a pretty good ring to it. "Really!?" Matt asked. "Where did you get them?" "Should I actually tell you two that?" I asked them. I don''t really know if these were all acquired legally. "NO! No, you should not!" Foggy said. "Plausible deniability and all that. The fact of the matter is that you have them, and that''s all that matters." "If no one can prove you acquired them through less than legal means, then officially you are the owner of Oscorp..." Matt added. I did a fist pump at hearing that. "So you want us to help facilitate your control of the company?" I smiled. "You bet I do! How soon can I take control of the company?" The two of them gave each other a glance¡ª which was funny because one of them was pretending to be completely blind. "Um? Immediately?" Foggy said. ...Immediately... I liked the sound of that. I couldn''t wait to call up Tony and brag I was now almost as wealthy as he was. XXX Chapters 51-55 Chapters 51-55 -Matt Murdock- Matt Murdock stood by passively, feeling like this press conference was going to be a train wreck. It could even be almost as bad as when Tony Stark decided to shut down his company''s weapons division without consulting any of his shareholders. If Matt had been Tony''s lawyer at that time, he would have advised Tony against doing that, just like he had advised Layla against not being quite so gung-ho about this. At the end of the day, though, all he could do was advise her. She was an adult... by a few hundred years, apparently. She could make her own decisions. "Oh hey there, Agent Coulson. It''s been a while." Matt ''watched'' as Layla addressed an obvious spook of some kind with familiarity. They were currently inside a trailer that Layla had rented for this press conference. Originally, they were planning on hosting it at a small local theater, but they quickly realized they were going to need more space... a lot more space for all the people that were going to show up. When the news broke that the Angel that had been media silent for so long was finally going to speak to the public¡ªpeople went ballistic. New York was flooded with more tourists at the moment than at any other point in history. Every hotel in the entire state and even those bordering New York were completely booked. "Layla!" "Layla!" "Layla!" With his enhanced senses, Matt could hear the crowd of possibly a million people cheering for his client even in this soundproofed trailer. It was frankly mind-boggling for him. "Hello again, Layla," Agent Coulson replied. Matt could sense that the agent was a bit annoyed at her. "Thanks for giving SHIELD a heads up about this press conference you were hosting," he said with a bit of sarcasm. Layla scoffed. "I''m not a member of SHIELD, and while I would like to have a friendly relationship with your organization, I don''t answer or report to it." Layla said. "To be fair though... I wasn''t expecting this many people to show up." That was an understatement. There must be almost a million people crowding the park. "Yes... well, the National Guard is currently on standby, by the way. That tends to happen when the city is on the verge of the biggest riot the country has ever seen." Coulson deadpanned. "I''m not going to cause people to riot!" Layla said indignantly. "I was just planning on talking about my acquisition of Oscorp and the new direction I plan for the company," Layla explained. That''s not all you''re going to answer though right?" Coulson asked her. "That was all I was planning on speaking about." Layla said. Matt grimaced. While Layla would have been the perfect client by sticking to her rehearsed script¨Cthat would only work if she was literally anyone else. Unfortunately, she was an actual Angel and people had traveled far and wide to hear her answer some biblical questions. Everything else they probably couldn''t care less about. "If I can be honest, Miss Layla," Matt decided to cut in. "At this point, no one will really care about any of that." This situation had blown far out of proportion and gone way beyond a typical press conference. Matt wouldn''t be surprised if there was a cult forming among the crowd as they stood in this trailer talking. Who was he kidding? She probably already had a dozen cults following her at this point... "Exactly," the secret agent added with a nod. "What? Then why are we even doing this?" Layla asked. "You and you''re paralegal Karen are the ones who told me to stick to the script." Matt let out a sigh. "I didn''t think it would have gotten this out of hand." Matt admitted. He had mentioned before to her how popular she was, but even then, he had seriously underestimated her apparent fame. "Maybe we should just call off this whole thing then." Layla suggested. Matt felt panic at hearing that! "No!" "Absolutely not!" Matt and Coulson exclaimed at the same time! "All these people came to see you, Layla. If you don''t show¨Cthere will absolutely be a city wide riot." Coulson explained. "Ok. Ok. So what? I just skip over Oscorp and start answering questions about whatever else people want to know?" Layla asked. "Don''t skip completely over your acquisition of Oscorp, that''s the whole reason for your press conference in the first place. Just know that people won''t really care to hear about it for more than a minute or so." Matt said. And wasn''t that some of the weirdest advice he had ever given to a client... "No one''s going to care that you took Osborn''s company from him. The guy''s an asshole and very disliked by the public." Coulson added. "You know how hard it is to literally be dying of a rare disease and still be loathed by the public? The answer is really rare. Dying is the ultimate sympathy card people can play, and Norman Osborn is such an asshole most people are glad he''s kicking the bucket." Matt explained. As a lawyer, he''d seen this card played a few times in the courtroom. Most of the time, the people playing it were just faking though. Matt himself cherished all life and vowed to never take it. There were some men, however, that even he struggled to not change his code for. Norman Osborn, in some instances, was even worse than Fisk. His company routinely violated environmental regulations by unapologetically dumping toxic waste wherever they pleased. Whenever they were caught, they just paid a small fine and kept doing it. At one point, the entire city had to drink bottled water for 2 months because Oscorp had ruined New York''s water supply. So yes, Matt wasn''t going to be shedding any tears for the man once he passed. "Your lawyer is correct, Layla. Director Fury sent me here just to make sure that you answer people''s questions but don''t freak them out too much. We''re already expecting some rioting just from the sheer number of people in the city right now, but we can still reduce the damage." Coulson explained. "And absolutely don''t talk about ''the you know what!''" Coulson added with no room for argument. Matt wondered what the ''you know what'' was. Judging by the Agent''s tone, it was extremely serious. Layla stared into space for a moment before she pouted indignantly. Matt had noticed that she tended to do that from time to time. Maybe as an Angel she was seeing things that mortals couldn''t? That was his best explanation for her odd habit anyway. "I wasn''t going to mention that! I know how it would look if an Angel popped in front of the world and announced the possible end of days to everybody." Layla said to them. "...What?" Matt asked nervously. "What end of days!?" "That''s classified, Mr. Murdock." "I''ll tell you later!" Coulson and Layla said at the same time. The former glared at the latter. "Hey, he''s my lawyer, he deserves to know," Layla said to the Agent. "Fine... But no one else. We can''t have any hint of it getting out before we have our solution ready to go." Coulson said. Matt heard footsteps rapidly approaching before the trailer door was thrown open. Karen Page, his assistant and their firm''s paralegal, burst through the door. Matt could smell how flustered and stressed she was. "Holy shit, I''ve never seen so many people in my whole life! You''ve got to get out there, Layla, before people start tearing Central Park apart." She sputtered out. "LAYLA! LAYLA! LAYLA!" Now with the trailer door open, the cheering had suddenly grown so loud that Matt was starting to have trouble ''seeing.'' The wave of people''s voices was blanketing out everything else for him. He felt nauseous. "Alright, I''ll be heading out there to address all my adoring fans." Layla said jokingly as she stepped out of the trailer. Matt moved to follow her, but he stumbled and almost tripped due to his new lack of ''sight.'' The crowd''s extreme noise was blinding for him. Thankfully, Matt''s ''world on fire'' returned peacefully when Agent Coulson was kind enough to shut the trailer door. "It''s probably for the best that a blind-man does not go out there right now. We don''t know how crazy it could get." Coulson said to him. Matt thanked him and agreed. "You''re probably right." Matt said. "We can just observe this future train wreck on the TV." Coulson said as he picked up the remote. The TV in the trailer was linked to the stage cameras so they wouldn''t miss anything. Not that that mattered much. Every news network was probably broadcasting this press conference live right now. "Before Layla starts, Mr. Murdock, I was wondering if you might be interested in hearing about one of SHIELD''s most promising programs." Matt would be a liar if he said he wasn''t at least a bit intrigued. "You''ve got my attention." "Let me tell you about the Avengers program." Coulson started... XXX I was thankful when Karen handed me some earplugs. Holy crap, this crowd was absolutely deafening. It took me a moment to realize that Matt had not followed us out of the trailer. All this loud noise was probably agonizing for him. "It''s this way to the stage, Layla," Karen said. I followed behind her with some nervousness stirring in me. There were a lot of people out there. I hope I don''t screw up and say something embarrassing... [You won''t; your acting skill will prevent it. You know what they say, fake it till you make it!] "You''re right, System." I was able to bullshit Voldemort himself not even an hour into this world. What''s a few million people compared to that ¨C right? I stepped out from behind the curtain and walked onto the stage. The roar the crowd let out upon seeing me was insane. I actually felt the air around me vibrating from the sound. Looking forward, all I could see was a never-ending sea of people in every direction. "Holy shit..." I stepped forward and grabbed the sole microphone that was left on the stage for me. As soon as I did, an impossible silence broke over the entire area. I wouldn''t have ever thought it was possible for that many people to go absolutely silent at once, but it happened. Yeah, I''d probably have to do some in-house cleaning of my new company once I got back from New Mexico. Creating miniature suns in the middle of a populated city is a big no-no. XXX I stepped out of a shaky yet stable orange portal and immediately felt the blaring desert heat upon my face. Finally, I had mastered the sling ring to the point where I could freely travel anywhere on the continent. I appeared right in the middle of the street, but no one was outside to see me. The temperature felt blisteringly hot, so everyone was probably inside, surviving solely by their AC units. With no real leads to follow, I started meandering down the street, seeing where the desert wind took me. It led me to a pet store. Puente Antiguo really was an absolutely tiny town. It only had a couple of dozen buildings in total and only one main street. At most, the population was only a few hundred people, so I found it strange that the town even had a pet store. Maybe the universe made it be here just for Thor''s one funny line that takes place here. "I NEED A HORSE!" Lo and behold, as soon as I walked in, I heard the line being delivered. I stepped through the pet shop doorway at apparently the perfect time. "We don''t have horses... just dogs, cats, birds..." The confused pet store worker responded to Thor''s comical request. "Then give me one of those large enough to ride," Thor said with a completely straight face. I decided to cut in and save the poor shopkeeper from, "I''ll take it from here," I peered at the shopkeeper''s nametag, "...Jerry." I made myself known as the two men turned their attention to me. "Holy crap, Layla of the Fallen knows my name..." The shopkeeper did a double take upon seeing me before he openly stared, gobsmacked. Thor didn''t recognize me at all, which I would have expected. He should have only been on ''Midgard'' for a day or two at most. "Ah, forgive me, most fair maiden. I did not see you come in. Do you have business with the shopkeeper here? I''m afraid he is most useless, however. What kind of animal keeper doesn''t even keep proper horses? For shame, sir," Thor said as he gave the stink eye to the affronted store clerk. "Hey, man, I just work here part-time! I don''t even know why I took this job in the first place. No one comes to a pet store in the middle of nowhere! I haven''t made a single sale in the past month, and yet the store owner never seems to care!" The man tried to defend himself, but it seemed that Thor was no longer interested in speaking with the man as he turned his full attention toward me. "Actually, Prince Thor, I''m not here for an animal companion. I came here to meet you," I explained. Although some of the animals here did look absolutely adorable. There was this pure white bunny rabbit that was calling to me, and I was doing my absolute best not to immediately buy it. Unfortunately, I wouldn''t be able to take a pet with me when I was for sure going to be getting into a fight in a day or two''s time. Actually... wasn''t this entire town going to be destroyed by the Destroyer soon? "Jerry," I said, getting the man''s attention. "Here''s ten thousand dollars. I want you to take all of the animals in this store and get them out of town by day''s end." I pulled a fat stack out of my inventory and slapped it onto the counter. I gave him no room for arguments before I turned back to Thor. I directed him out of the store, and the two of us started walking down the street. "Finally, someone recognizes my person in this dreary realm!" Thor exclaimed. "How could nobody recognize the Prince of Asgard!?" "Well, when''s the last time you were even on Midgard?" I asked. "Hmm, it has been a while," Thor took a moment to think. "Mayhaps it would have been a bit over 700 of this realm''s years ago. While not a short amount of time, it shouldn''t have been that long either," Thor explained. "Maybe by Asgardian standards, that wasn''t that long, but by human standards, that would have been dozens of generations ago," I said. Thor seemed to take a moment before realization dawned on him. "Midgardians truly have such short lives!? How do they ever get anything done!?" "They''d probably wonder the same about your people considering you probably spent over 200 years wearing diapers," I replied with a laugh. I can''t even imagine how awful that must be for the parents... Asgardian parents must be absolute saints. Thor''s face turned red from embarrassment. "It wasn''t that long! I''ll have you know that I was fully potty trained at 190 years old! My brother Loki took longer and wasn''t potty trained until he was 211 years old," he said smugly, like that was something to be proud of... "Woah, that''s amazing! You must have been a genius!" I exclaimed sarcastically. I don''t think my sarcasm registered on Thor''s Allspeak though as he started preening from ''my praise.'' "So what reason did you have for wanting all of those animals out of town my lady? And was there a reason you sought me out specifically beyond simply wanting to meet with the crown prince of Asgard." Thor asked smugly. I might have forgotten that at this point in the story, Thor had yet to be humbled. He kind of came off as an arrogant ass... When it came to the animals, I didn''t want to mention the Destroyer wrecking the town and hint at my foreknowledge. Luckily I had another excuse. "There has actually been a monster around here that has been preying on the innocent. I was afraid it may go after those poor animals..." "A monster!?" Thor asked intrigued. "What is it? Is it dangerous? If you wish it fair maiden, I shall slay the beast in your honor." He boasted. I''d honestly like to see him try without his powers. XXX Chapter: 55 Thor was ecstatic that someone finally recognized him. Not only that, but it was an incredibly beautiful fair maiden as well. Thor had no idea that Midgard was home to such beautiful women. First, there was the petite yet fiery Lady Jane, and now there was this ''Layla of the Fallen.'' With her luscious figure, mesmerizing purple eyes, and long black hair, she was absolute perfection. Thor didn''t think he''d ever seen a more objectively beautiful woman. And yet, there was something about Lady Jane that just drew Thor''s thoughts to her even more than the gorgeous woman in front of him. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Layla of the Fallen. It''s nice to meet you, Prince Thor," Layla introduced herself to him using her name... or title? Thor wasn''t sure which it was. Regardless, he felt that it was a strange name. Part of her name sounded a bit familiar to him, but he couldn''t seem to recall from where. He figured it didn''t matter anyway. Her memory would either come to him eventually or it wouldn''t. "Greetings, Lady Layla. I am Prince Thor of Asgard. Most pleased to make your acquaintance. Now, tell me about this monster that seems to be plaguing your thoughts." "The monster we''re pursuing is a stray devil," the beautiful Layla told Thor. He had no idea what that was. "A stray devil? I don''t believe I''ve ever heard of such a creature. Can you describe it for me?" he asked. He knew he was currently weakened and reduced to but a mortal shell of his former powerful self, but Thor honestly didn''t believe there was anything on Midgard that could actually harm him despite that. If there was, his mighty father would have never risked sending him here powerless in the first place. "So stray devils are basically reincarnated humans that rebelled against their devil masters and ended up being turned into flesh-eating monsters as a punishment. They''re not particularly strong in general, but they are incredibly vicious," Layla explained to Thor. Thor nodded along in understanding¨Che understood none of her explanation in truth. He didn''t want to look like a fool in front of Layla though so he acted like he knew what she was talking about. He got the gist though. He needed to hunt a vicious monster that preyed on the poor people of this town! To Thor, that sounded bad. What if Lady Jane ended up being targeted by the beast? No! Thor would deal with it before such a thing could happen. "Point me in the direction of the monster, Lady Layla, and I shall slay it post-haste!" he declared. ... Thor seemed really gung-ho about slaying the stray devil himself. I would have felt bad offering to do it myself from how eager he was. I supposed there was no need to emasculate him right now by saying I would handle it¨CI would just wait until the stray whooped his ass before I stepped in. That''ll humble the man real quick. I was also fairly certain that he actually had no idea what a stray devil was despite my explanation. I think he was just nodding along to not seem ignorant. That was a bad trait; there''s nothing wrong with asking questions after all. "Ok then, I know the stray is in this area, but I don''t actually know where. We''re going to need to lure it out," I explained to him. "Ah, using some monster bait. An excellent idea. I''ve done the same thing in the many hunts I''ve participated in. So what shall we be using as bait?" Thor asked. I held my hand up and conjured a small light dagger. This one was different from normal though. It was radiating holy power and yet at the same time, it was not powerful. It was a trick we Fallen had come up with to lure in stray devils. They''re attracted to Holy Power as they want to devour their ''arch enemies'' the Angels, and yet if the power is too strong, they''ll run away in fear. Usually, we''d give one of these Lightbeacons to a stray exorcist priest under our command and use them as bait. Once the stray devil showed up expecting to find a weak two-winged angel, we''d ambush them. No one particularly cared about using the stray exorcists as bait because they had to have done some pretty heinous shit to be kicked out of the church. The stray exorcists also didn''t care because the majority of them were straight up crazy. Some people might have thought Freed Selzen was an outlier... no, he was actually the standard. Thor reached forward and took the Lightdagger from me. "You wield the power of Seidr? You would get along famously with my brother, Loki," Thor said. I probably would not. He''s much too privileged for my taste. [Oh please, you''re the most privileged person in the universe as the Gamer...] I suppose the system made a fair point. Maybe we would get along... Thor asked me what the effect of the Lightdagger was before I explained it to him. I couldn''t use myself as bait because my own divine power had now reached the point where my very presence would probably scare away most strays. If the current stray plaguing this town was a decently trained bishop piece, they might already sense me. I''d have to go into hiding somewhat far away, or the stray won''t show itself. It''s unfortunately too weak for me to sense. "So what now?" Thor asked me. I smirked. "Now? Now we wait at the edge of town." "Edge of town?" He asked with furrowed brows before looking around. We were standing in the middle of Puente Antiguo''s main street after all. Well, I was at least. Thor was currently falling through the sling ring portal I just opened up underneath him. With a startled yelp, he fell through and landed a mile away in the sand¨CI made sure he landed upright; I wasn''t mean about it. Good luck, Thor, let''s get some drinks at the local bar once this is over!" I yelled through the closing portal. Once it fully closed, I let my wings out before I took to the skies. I''d probably have to fly up a few miles for the Stray to no longer be able to sense my presence and target Thor. Once it did, I''d swoop in... or maybe I''d wait a bit and see how the fight goes. His hammer wouldn''t declare him worthy until he gets humbled a bit after all. I have twilight healing to fix Thor right up in case he gets hurt anyway. XXX Chapters 56-60 Chapters 56-60 Wow, Thor honestly wasn''t doing half bad against the stray devil I''d basically sicced on him. Yeah he was losing, but it wasn''t an instant defeat like I thought it would be. Thor was deceptively quick on his feet and he was making the beast work for it. I could tell Thor was facing a low-tier bishop. It was quite large, as most strays were, but it seemed to be moving sluggishly as if it was struggling under its own body weight. I figured that was due to the bishop piece being the only evil piece that didn''t enhance innate strength. All the power of the bishop piece went to magic. The stray devil had barely the strength of an average human, but it had some halfway decent magic reserves for its class. "You are no match for the Mighty Thor, creature!" The stray that Thor was facing, like most of its kind, had obviously seen better days. It hardly had any semblance of a human form remaining and instead resembled some kind of monkey/naga hybrid. It had the upper body of a gorilla, but the legs were gone and replaced with a snake tail. I''ve said it before, but Ajuka was one messed up guy to implement this kind of punishment into his slaves'' pieces. The stray''s voice kept alternating between hisses and growls. "YoU ArE nOt tHe rEal ThOr. YoU aRe MeAt!" It conjured a small fireball in its hand before launching it towards Thor. The mortal god rolled out of the way before the fireball hit where he was previously standing and exploded. The heat from the blast turned the nearby desert sand into glass, which exploded outwards as makeshift shrapnel. "Uggh," Thor grunted in pain as a small bit of molten glass pelted him. Luckily he was able to cover his face and avoid being blinded. Before Thor could recover, the stray slithered closer before trying to hit Thor with a conjured ice blast this time. Thor was not lucky enough to dodge a second time as he was blasted by a wave of frost that sent him flying backward. His skin started to turn purple, and I figured if I didn''t step in, he''d soon have frostbite. "Y-you t-think s-some c-cold will s-stop me, monster!?" Thor said between shivers as he made to stand up again and keep fighting. Well, I wouldn''t really call it fighting, as I had been watching the whole time and he had yet to actually land a single blow on the stray. "I kILl YoU AnD EaT yOu nOw!" "Alright, that''s enough!" I declared as I swooped in and made my presence known. The low-tier devil had been so focused on its prey that it completely stopped sensing for anyone else. The bait tactic proving effective once again... The monkey-faced devil let out a squawk of panic at seeing me descend with all six of my wings on display. "nO! AnGeL! ThOUgHt YoU LeFt!?" It said fearfully as I conjured a light spear in my hand. I toned down the Light Energy in my weapon as I didn''t want to one-shot the creature before I could interrogate it. "You thought wrong, devil. Now you''ll answer my questions!" I said as I hurled my spear downward. It struck true exactly where I was aiming. My spear pierced right through the naga tail and impaled it to the ground. The stray let out a shriek of pain as it was immobilized. With it temporarily dealt with, I flew over to Thor, who was looking on the verge of keeling over. "SACRED GEAR!" I called out as TWILIGHT HEALING''s green rings appeared on my hands. I started immediately healing Thor''s frostbite, burns, and cuts. "Lady Layla, you''re a..." Thor seemed taken aback by my current appearance as he stared at me. "An Angel!? We had thought your kind vanished over a thousand years ago! My father searched for you and your Creator God for over a century but never found a trace of where you all vanished to! We thought you were all dead and that some Celestial had wiped out half of Midgard to do it." Huh, wasn''t that interesting? It seems that Father, along with the other Earth gods, had just up and left without so much as a "see you later" to the Asgardians. The Asgardians in this universe weren''t technically even gods of Earth, so maybe they figured the ritual to split the world was none of their business. Odin, as the ''ruler'' of the nine realms, probably would have made a move to stop it. I suppose in a way, he was the real ruler of the nine. In his prime, Odin was powerful enough that even Celestials feared him. The whole reason for the world being split in the first place was that Father and the other Earth gods wanted to hide away from the Celestials... or maybe even Odin himself. Gods in DxD were really weak to be honest. The average 10 winged angel could match most lower level gods. And then Twelve winged Angels and the current Devil Maous were even stronger! They were able to kick the buts of most of the gods in the DxD world. It was only the strongest gods such as Indra or Shiva that were able to actually defeat Archangels and Maous. Even then, it would be a grueling fight that would leave them potentially too injured to risk such confrontations. "Yeah, it was a whole thing honestly. I can tell you what happened later," I said to Thor before turning back to my current mission objective. The stray had not been idly waiting for its fate while I was healing Thor. It had been trying to pull my Lightspear out of its tail but wasn''t able to because every time its monkey paws touched the weapon, they started burning. "AhH. iT hUrTs so BaD!" "Alright, devil, how the hell did you get here!?" I yelled at the creature as I conjured another Lightspear and pointed it towards the beast. This spear had a lot more Holy Energy inside it, and just bearing near the weapon was causing the weak devil to hiss in pain. "nO! I tAlK! I TALK!" It squeaked out in fear. "iT wAs FaLlEn LiKe YoU! He SeNd mE hEre! I WaS a TeSt SuBjEcT hE SaY!" The stray hissed out in pain as I retracted my spear from its throat. This stray was a test subject that was sent here? Who would even be able to do that besides... Big Brother Azazel! Of course! I knew he wouldn''t just be sitting around and twiddling his thumbs after I disappeared during that artificial sacred gear experiment gone wrong. This whole time he must have been working on that space-time artificial sacred gear to try and find out where I ended up. If he managed to successfully get this stray devil to this side of the world, then he must be incredibly close to completing the gear as well! "Take us to where you first appeared in this area, devil! If you do that, I''ll let you go and even heal you." I lied. There was no way I was letting it go, but it didn''t need to know that. The creature rapidly nodded its monkey head up and down. I willed my Lightspear impaling its snake tail to the ground to vanish, and the devil was temporarily freed. "CoMe¨CFoLlOw. It WaS ThIs Way..." It started slowly slithering south of the small town. The hole in its tail guaranteed that it wasn''t escaping. Something about stray devils was that most of them ended up losing the ability to summon their wings and fly. "I thank you for healing me, my lady!" Thor said boisterously. "I must confess though... I have no idea what''s going on..." Thor admitted to me. Yeah, I figured the guy must be pretty confused at this point. "What do you want to know?" I said. "Was this creature I fought a devil truly? I must confess, it has been a thousand years, but I vaguely remember them not looking like... that." Thor replied as we walked through the desert and followed the creature. I once again gave Thor the rundown on what stray devils were, but this time he was listening with more rapt attention. "Thank you for your explanation once again, Lady Layla. I admit, we thought your pantheon was lost along with half of Midgard, so my studies were lacking." I waved him off. "It''s fine, and it''s fine to admit you don''t know something," I added. Thor grimaced. "Indeed. I used to do just that, but then my brother Loki would always make fun of me for my lack of knowledge. Eventually, I just stopped asking questions altogether and started pretending like I knew all the answers..." Thor said as some kind of realization dawned on his face. "Hmm, I think I''m starting to see why my father cast me down to Midgard. Maybe me killing all the Frost Giants wasn''t a great idea." "Why''d you want to do that?" I asked him. I knew the answer already, but I wanted to see how accurate my movie knowledge was compared to this real world. "Well, it all started when my coronation was interrupted by intruders in the treasury..." Thor started explaining as we kept walking through the desert. XXX In the underworld of the alternate Earth, Azazel, the leader of the Fallen Angels, had been conducting tests with his artificial space-time sacred gear to locate Layla. This sacred gear, similar to dimension lost, could teleport almost anywhere, even into the dimensional gap. Unfortunately, it had activated on its own in his lab, sucking Layla through the portal to an unknown location. Needless to say, the other Fallen Angels, who doted on their youngest sister, were not pleased with him. "Sir! We just got a reading from one of the stray devils we sent through. Subject S-35 has been killed," Azazel''s assistant, Penemue, said, examining the readings on the lab equipment in front of her. "So what?" Azazel replied. "Many of the strays we''ve sent have been killed." "Yes, but none died due to Angel Light!" she exclaimed, excitement lighting up her face. Penemue was certain Layla had killed that stray. After over a month, they finally found Layla''s location. Azazel was ecstatic that they had found his missing sister. Now, Gabriel and Michael would stop nagging him, and he could bring Layla home. "Quick! Enter the coordinates of where we sent S-35! It''s time to bring our sister home." ... "Aggh! LiAr!" The stray screamed in pain as my Lightspear dealt a fatal blow. I no longer had use for the creature, and it was far too dangerous to let go. Azazel had sent it here as a test subject, but he hadn''t considered there might be innocent people wherever he sent the creature. It had devoured over nine people, and those deaths were partially on Azazel. I would make sure he made up for them in the future. [Quest completed! You have leveled up!] Thor shot me a disapproving look for executing the devil. "You promised to spare it. Not doing so was dishonorable." "Thor, it was a monster that literally ate people to sustain itself. There was no way I could spare it. And if we''re talking about dishonorable acts, there are quite a few tales of your youthful adventures. What about the time you dressed as a bride to get your stolen hammer back from the Giant Thyrm¨C" "We do not speak of that incident!" Thor exclaimed, his face red in embarrassment. "How do you even know about such a thing?" "It''s in pretty much every Norse mythology book. Pretty much everyone who studied that history knows..." I said, and his face turned mortified. "Damn you Loki for telling everyone about that incident!" Thor cursed and shook his fist towards the sky. Heimdal was probably cracking up right now if he was spying on us. "Anyway... moving on. Help me search for clues around here." I gestured to the rocky desert terrain that the devil had led us to. It claimed that this was where he had been dropped off, so there might be some clues to find." I explained. "Clues?" Thor asked. "Will more of those beasts appear from here? We must stop them if that is the case! I can''t risk Lady Jane being placed in danger!" "You must really like the girl, huh? Didn''t you just meet her?" I asked. The relationship between Thor and Jane was always a bit strange to me. They only knew each other for a few days, yet they were willing to die for each other. I guess when you know you''ve found the right one... My thoughts once again drifted off to Natasha and whether we simply had a fling or something else. She had been out of contact for a while after all. "Lady Layla, what is that!?" Thor''s voice exclaimed from behind a few boulders. I quickly ran around them, and my eyes widened at what I saw! There was a blue swirling portal forming right in front of us. It was growing wider by the second as arcs of electricity formed around it. I grabbed Thor and pulled us backward in case Azazel was sending another test stray devil through. That wasn''t the case, though, as a familiar pair of Fallen Angels stepped through the arcing blue portal. "Sister Penemue and Brother Azazel!" I exclaimed as I ran forward to greet the pair that had stepped through. They had actually done it! They created a successful portal between our worlds. "Layla!" Penemue''s eyes widened in happiness before she enveloped me in a hug. "I''m so glad you''re okay! You had no idea how worried everyone was when the moron over there sent you away!" She said, glaring at Azazel. Penemue was a tall woman with the same features as myself. Out of all the other Fallen, you could honestly say that she and I resembled each other the most except that she was a full head taller than me. "Hey, I''m sorry, alright. Besides, it looks like Layla is totally fine. If anything, she seems better than fine. Looks like you''ve gained some wings there, huh?" Azazel said with a smirk, clearly noticing my rise in power. The portal closed behind him, and he stepped forward, giving me a hug after Penemue begrudgingly let me go. "I''m really sorry about everything." "It''s fine; if anything, it finally got me to go outside again and have an adventure!" I exclaimed. I had quite a bit to tell them about. "Indeed! Nothing beats a good adventure!" Thor boisterously made his presence known from the side. My two older siblings turned to him. "Thor!?" Azazel said the man''s name in surprise. "What are you doing here? And why do you feel so... weak?" "Ah, I angered my father by trying to destroy Jotunheim, and he sealed my power and dumped me on Midgard to repent. As Lady Layla would say, it was a whole thing..." The two of them gave him confused looks at his remark, but chose to not comment further. "Well, thank you for watching out for our little sister, Prince Thor, but we really must be going back before¨C" Penemue said, turning around toward where the portal had appeared. Her face turned ashen upon not seeing the blue portal there anymore. "Oh, shit..." Azazel turned around as well. His expression looked a bit grim at the missing portal. "Well... that wasn''t supposed to happen." "What''s wrong?" I asked. "The portal was supposed to last at least an hour before closing... we''re stuck here," Azazel said. "Whoops, it appears my calculations were a bit off again. Looks like my gear wasn''t quite ready yet." He laughed as he explained the situation. Penemue looked like she wanted to absolutely throttle our faction''s leader. XXX Well, I''m sure this made quite the sight for the spectators. I discovered where the majority of the small town''s people congregate during the hot weather ¨C here in this local diner. We had quite a few people gawking at us and some even filming us as we ate. "This food is quite exquisite! Lady Jane took me here when I first awoke in this realm. This must be quite a high-end eatery for so many people to be here," Thor said, finishing his fourth plate of pancakes. "I have to say this is absolutely fascinating..." Azazel said, looking around. "Two separate Earths, separated by 1000 years, and yet they still developed almost identically." "It is quite mind-boggling. Although the two Earths are not exactly the same. This one does seem to have a few countries that ours does not. For example, I''ve never heard of this Wakanda country in Africa. There''s also the small country of Latveria in Europe that our Earth doesn''t have." I took a bite of the toast. It was alright for a diner in the literal middle of nowhere; I''m not exactly sure what Thor was so excited about. "It''s getting kind of confusing to keep referring to the two Earth halves like that. From now on, our Earth is known as the DxD Earth and this one is the Marvel Earth," I said. The two other Fallen gave me inquisitive glances. "Why those names?" Azazel asked. "This one is Marvel because it has Aliens and tons of other cool stuff and ours is DxD because of the two Dragons guarding the dimensional gap." "Get rid of her bro..." I said to Azazel. "No problem," Azazel replied as he held up his hand to her face. She gulped in fear and tried to escape but it was far too late for that. There was a flash of golden light followed by a scream before Jane stumbled and almost fell over. She clutched her head and started hyperventilating. "Holy shit, that was so weird! It was like I was in my body, but it was walking and talking on its own!" The real Jane said. "I didn''t think The Exorcist was a real thing! I''m a woman of science!" She shouted angrily to no one in particular. She actually seemed relatively fine, all things considered. "I''m not exactly sure what just happened, but thank you for your help, Sir Azazel," Thor said as he genuinely bowed to my brother. Azazel waved him off, saying it was no trouble. "Those damn celestials... always causing trouble. It looks like one of them peered into the future and decided to target your future bride, Thor," Azazel explained. ...What? Is that what Azazel thought happened just now? "Figures it was them. They''re the only beings I know of that would try something like that. There was a reason even father feared them." Penemue further added on to Azazel''s misunderstanding of the situation... You know what? I''ll take it. Explaining the gamer system and alternate universes is a can of worms I''m not opening for a long time. Thor also seemed to accept their explanation as he let out a few choice expletives targeted at the celestials. Celestials must be just complete assholes in this universe. [Ego did try to devour hundreds of worlds at once ...or should I say is going to try?] Oh right. You should give me a quest for that before it happens. I want to be the one to kill that guy. The quest rewards would be pretty good I imagine. [You got it.] "Future bride!?" Jane exclaimed with a red face. It took her a moment to register what was even going on and then what Azazel had said. "I just met Thor yesterday! I''m not marrying him!" She declared. Thor was looking excited at hearing he would one day marry ''Lady Jane'' before he slumped down in sadness at hearing her declaration. ... [Emergency Quest completed! You have leveled up! You have gained a skill-up point. You can use it to raise any of your skills by one level.] Nice! I now had a lot of free stat points available to me. I''m pretty sure I was sitting on 30 after not using them from three relatively quick level-ups. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 7] [HP: 3100] [MP: 610] [Vigor: 110] [Strength: 25] [Intelligence: 61] [Luck: 20] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 3, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 30] [Skill Up Point: +1] XXX "Welcome to the secret base that''s not so secret!" I exclaimed as I emerged from inside Jane''s van, where we were all comically piled in. We had just arrived at the makeshift SHIELD base that was put up around Thor''s hammer to study it. The agents guarding the gates were giving us all weird looks, but they did recognize me. No surprise there, really. "Agent Coulson has been notified of your arrival. You all can go through." The barricade lifted, and we drove on through. "Are these the guys who stole all my research notes and equipment?" Jane asked. "That''s the only reason I agreed to even drive you all here..." She had claimed that she had had enough of the Supernatural for a while and initially refused to go. That was until I told her where all of her stuff had been taken. "This place is pretty high tech." Noted Azazel, who was riding in the back of the van. And wasn''t that a comical sight. The leader of our faction was delegated to the backseat. I had called shotgun before we all got in... "Indeed," Penemue added. "The technology on Earth Marvel appears to be more advanced than Earth Dxd." She said using our agreed-upon names for the two Earths. The difference in technology probably came from Alien influence, to be honest. Dxd was completely cut off from more advanced extraplanetary civilizations, while Earth Marvel has been visited by aliens numerous times. I mean, there''s an alien sitting in the van right now. Jane drove us a bit further into the compound before we saw Agent Coulson standing off to the side of the dirt road. I had to hand it to Jane; she picked a really comfortable ride. I looked up her van, and it ran upwards of 100K USD. She pulled over, and we all piled out. "Hello again, Agent Coulson!" I said cheerfully. "Hello again, Layla... and company." He said, eyeing our group. Jane marched up to him, looking ticked off. "You there! I want my research equipment back! Right now!" She demanded. Jane had had quite the trying day... Coulson looked like he was about to argue something before he sighed and relented. He called another agent over to escort her to her equipment and help her load it all back into her van. "So who might the rest of your entourage be?" he said, eyeing Penemue especially. It wasn''t because of her beauty ¨C well, it might have been a little. It was mostly because he could obviously see the resemblance between her and myself. "Allow me to introduce everyone. This is Thor, Prince of Asgard." "Yes... it''s nice to meet you too, ''Prince Thor.''" Coulson said before he shot me a look. "You know, a few YouTube videos just surfaced a few hours ago starring everyone''s new favorite Angel and an apparent alien god. Once again, you''ve completely taken over all media as you''ve exposed aliens to the world." Coulson said, deadpanning at me. Woops... well, at this point, how much more can people even freak out about? It might just be me, but I feel like people would be more freaked out about the existence of heaven and hell over aliens. On the upside, average crime has apparently been WAY down since my big park reveal. Churches have also been packed every Sunday as well... I don''t know how long that will really last though. People tend to be... forgetful. "Nice to meet you, Son of Coul. On the way here, Layla told us you were one of the most trustworthy agents of the spy organization known as SHIELD. I know the importance of spies, as my father employs them to monitor the nine realms." Thor said cheerfully as he walked over to Coulson and clapped the man on the shoulder in greeting. "Well... that little tidbit about Odin wasn''t ominous at all..." I muttered. "Moving on, to the right of me is my beautiful older sister, Penemue, and to the left is Azazel, the leader of the Fallen Angels." "T-the leader?" Coulson stuttered out. "...And a name mentioned from the Bible as well..." He took a second to steady himself from an introduction he was not ready for. "N-nice to meet you both and welcome back to Earth?" "Thank you, it''s good to be back." Azazel said as the two men shook hands. "Wasn''t sure I''d ever see the larger universe again, but here we are. This Earth has a few problems I can sense, but I''m sure it''ll all work itself out once the two halves reconnect." Azazel added with an unusually serious tone. Coulson didn''t like the sound of that, but I could see he chose not to comment. I wondered what Azazel was sensing that caused him to momentarily lose his carefree demeanor? "It''s nice to meet you. I''m Penemue, and it''s my job to keep our leader from embarrassing our faction on the regular." She said as Azazel shot her a betrayed look while I snickered. "Well, now that introductions are out of the way, what brings you all here?" Coulson asked. "We are here for my hammer!" Thor declared. "I can sense Mjolnir nearby. It''s waiting for me to reclaim it! Let us go to it post haste." Thor said as he marched towards the center of the facility. If he was able to sense his hammer''s power, I figured that was a good sign. Maybe he was close to being worthy again. As the rest of us followed behind the excited blond Asgardian, Coulson turned to me in question. "So did you take care of the ''cannibal'' problem plaguing the town?" "Yes... it was a stray devil, sent here by my foolish brother who didn''t know any better." I said, turning to Azazel and leveling a glare at him. Coulson looked confused until Azazel spoke. "I apologize. In order to locate the dimension my wayward younger sister had ended up in, I used a bunch of captured stray devils as test subjects for my artificial spacetime sacred gear. I never really thought about what those devils could do if they ended up in locations full of people." Azazel said, and he truly looked ashamed. "Needless to say, I will make restitution to the families of the victims." "As soon as we once again have access to our resources, we will be donating 100 million USD to each family who lost someone." Penemue added, and I whistled at the number. Azazel did kind of mess up bad there. Nine people were dead because of him. What I wondered about was what happened to the other few dozen strays he had sent out before he finally found the correct dimension. Did they end up on alternate Earths? "Mjolnir!" My pondering was interrupted by a jubilant Thor as he ran up to his hammer in glee. "It''s only been a short while, but I have missed you!" He spoke to the hammer like it was sentient. I wasn''t really sure whether it actually was or not. The sky above started to rumble as Thor approached the hammer. Lightning started flashing in storm clouds that formed out of nowhere. Thor grasped the handle of his hammer and pulled... ...it actually moved, but only a teensy bit sadly. He wasn''t fully worthy yet. I didn''t think he was, to be honest. "No!" He wailed in sadness as it started dramatically raining. I conjured an umbrella made of light above us all to stop from getting soaked. "I see your light manipulation has definitely improved since you''ve been gone. Well done, Layla." Penemue praised me. "Thank you!" I preened. "So what do we do about him?" Coulson asked as we looked upon the sobbing Thor, who was grasping his unmoving hammer and now soaking wet and covered in mud. I let out a sigh. "I guess I''ll handle this." I told them all before I walked over to the depressed god of thunder. "Come on, Thor, it''s not that big of a deal. So you''re not worthy right now. No big deal. Your hammer budged a little bit when you first grasped it. That must mean you''re really close to being worthy again. I guarantee a few more days of reformation and you''ll be calling down thunderbolts in no time." I said to him as I gave him an encouraging smile. Thor took his eyes off his weapon and looked at me. "You''re right... I suppose I have no reason to rush anyway. It''s not like Asgard will fall apart without me. Father and brother are still there holding the realm together." "If only that were true, brother." A voice came out of nowhere, causing us all to jump. I spun around and saw Loki, dressed in his iconic green and gold armor, standing nearby. Well, it wasn''t really him but a projection. I didn''t sense any magical power from the Loki in front of us, and Azazel and Penemue didn''t appear to be on guard at all. "Loki, it''s good to see you again, brother!" Thor exclaimed. "Good news, Mjolnir has almost found me worthy again. My exile shouldn''t last much longer, as soon I''ll have my powers restored. Tell mother not to worry about me as I''m here among new friends." I could see an incredibly quick moment of surprise and realization dawning upon Loki''s face at Thor''s proclamation. It appeared he didn''t expect Thor to be going back to Asgard so soon. "Is that so, brother? Well then, I await your return with bated breath. I''m sure mother and... father will as well." Loki finished before his projection abruptly faded away. He had completely gone off script and never mentioned anything about Odin being dead at all. That must have been because of Thor''s proclamation. I wondered what Loki would do now. [Probably sick The Destroyer on you all immediately before Thor gets his powers back...] Yeah... that''s probably gonna happen isn''t it? XXX Chapters 61-65 Chapters 61-65 Loki was furious! Of all the times for Thor to go ahead and actually exceed everyone''s expectations, it had to be now! Loki thought it would have taken years ¨C if not decades ¨C for his oaf of a brother to learn humility and return to Asgard. By then, Loki had planned to be well into his reign as the new king and would have been unthreatened by a returning prince who had abandoned his people for so long in their time of need when they were on the verge of war with the Frost Giants. And now, all those plans were thrown out the metaphorical window! Loki cursed the situation hatefully. He had to do something about this, or everything he had planned for would be for naught! Loki had been so thrown off by his older brother''s words that he didn''t even bother sparing Thor''s newfound friends so much as a glance. That would come back to bite him later... ... On the other side of Asgard, at the end of the rainbow bridge, Heimdall was pleased with the situation on Midgard. His prince had made a new friend who, while mischievous and a bit like Loki, was leading him down the right path to reclaim his powers and status. To be honest, Heimdall wasn''t even quite sure why the prince was banished from Asgard in the first place. In his younger years, King Odin was far more rebellious than Thor was. Not only that, but Odin sought battle and conquest at every opportunity. Thor attacking Jotunheim and killing a few Frost Giants in retaliation for their raid of the treasury was honestly nothing in comparison. Heimdall wondered if his king had simply grown afraid at the thought of another war? Heimdall knew such thoughts were borderline treason, but they didn''t stem from nowhere. He glanced over the ''beautiful'' waterfalls of Asgard with weariness. He let out a sigh. If Azazel, whom Heimdall was surprised to actually ever see again, saw the current state of Asgard, he would be absolutely shocked. The lush, beautiful Golden City floating over the waterfalls was nothing but a facade. Asgard used to be an entire planet. There were dozens of golden cities just like this one that dotted the entire world. A thousand years ago, Odin''s warmongering ways finally caught up with him. Asgard finally ended up getting the retribution it probably had coming. They were invaded by the Celestials ¨C all of the Celestials. Any other world would have immediately fallen and been crushed by the heavenly might of their opponents, but Asgard was simply one of the most powerful worlds to ever exist at that time ¨C and Odin had wielded multiple Infinity Stones. With their power and heavy sacrifice, Asgard had actually driven their attackers away in defeat. The cost, however, was that the planet was destroyed along with the majority of Asgard''s population. A beautiful utopia with dozens of cities and a population numbering in the tens of billions was now reduced to a single city with only a paltry million citizens left. And what did Odin do after his realm suffered such a loss under his rule? He used the Infinity Stones to wipe away any trace of the battle from the memories of every being in the galaxy¨CHis own children and even wife were included. Only a few of his closest advisors, generals, and Heimdall himself were allowed to remember how truly great Asgard used to be. That led him to his current conundrum. Before this attack had occurred, the biblical God and the other gods of Midgard had already spirited themselves away to who knows where. Every single being from Earth DxD who was alive over a thousand years ago would remember the old Asgard and not the current one... Heimdall was afraid they would take advantage of an incredibly weakened Asgard along with its gods ¨C when the planet Asgard was destroyed, the gods ended up losing the majority of their powers with it, as their powers originated from the planet itself. ... "I''m glad my brother came to check up on me," Thor said. "He and I have had our arguments, but our bond is unbreakable!" Thor looked much happier as he said that than he had been moments ago, crying in the mud. My pep talk had helped, but it seemed like Loki coming to "encourage him" really pulled him out of his funk. I didn''t know if I had the heart at the moment to tell him that Loki was probably going to try and kill him very soon. "You know," Azazel cut in, "are you sure all your powers are locked away in this hammer, Thor?" "What do you mean?" Thor asked. "I don''t know, it just feels like there''s not much juice in there. You were at the peak of ultimate class 1000 years ago, and yet I''m only feeling high-class level magical power emanating from the hammer. Eh, whatever, Odin was a master of those weird Nordic runes; who knows what he did to seal your power away..." Azazel shrugged as he gave up on studying the hammer. It was considered rude to study magical artifacts of other pantheons without permission after all. Thor was at the peak of ultimate class? That didn''t really sound right. I know he was powerful in the MCU, but he definitely never displayed any continent-destroying abilities. If anything, I always put his power at the lower end of high class, which is pretty much where I am right now. XXX [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 7] [HP: 3100] [MP: 610] [Vigor: 110] [Strength: 25] [Intelligence: 61] [Luck: 20] [Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 3, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 30] I was planning on using 19 of those free stat points to bump my intelligence up to 80. At that point, I would gain another pair of wings and finally be at the peak of high class. Normally, I would have just gone for it and done that as soon as possible, but now I had Azazel and Penemue with me. The former had 12 wings, while the latter had 10. Both of them would immediately be able to sense if I just randomly jumped in power so dramatically. That''s why I was planning to wait until my battle with the Destroyer and pull off a classic DxD power-up asspull. I would make it look like I got stronger mid-battle, where my new pair of wings would appear as I powered up using the power of "friendship or love" or whatever. "All right then, there''s nothing really left for us here, so we might as well head back to the town, unless you all want to spend the night in this SHIELD facility with cameras and wiretaps everywhere, spying on us the whole night," I said. None of them looked particularly enthused to spend the night here under that kind of scenario. Coulson just turned his head to the side with a fake look of innocence. "Hey, I''ll have you know there aren''t cameras ''everywhere''," he said. "We at least have the common decency to not put those in the bathrooms." I gave him a deadpan stare. "I noticed you didn''t say anything about the wiretaps though. So that means you listen to people poop, don''t you?" Coulson didn''t respond, but that in itself was all the response I needed to hear. Ugh, I had stayed in hotels a lot before I finally got my own place, and I can bet that SHIELD had wiretapped all those hotel rooms. "If there are any lingering audio recordings featuring me, I want them all destroyed," I said to him with a glare that meant no nonsense. Coulson just raised his hands in defeat. "Relax, Agent Romanoff already took care of all of that for you. In a completely unethical breach of protocol, she deleted all of our surveillance footage and audio of you." I smiled at hearing that. So she did care after all... At least a little bit. I''d have to properly thank her for that the next time I saw her. "Come on, Thor, it''s time to go," I said to the man who turned and gave a longing look to his hammer. "I know I''m not worthy of lifting it right now, but I''d still rather not leave without Mjolnir," Thor said. Now I turned and stared at the famous hammer as well. I''d always wanted to try lifting it! I bet I was worthy! "Oh yeah, I''m sure a being dripping with sin would be able to lift the weapon of the righteous..." ''I don''t need your sarcasm right now, system. And you know what!? I bet you I can lift the hammer!'' "Go for it then, give it a shot..." With a smug look on my face, I walked over and placed my hand on the handle. All eyes turned to me as I pulled upwards... ... A glowing orange portal materialized back on the Main Street of Puente Antiguo. Two handsome men and two beautiful women stepped out of the portal. Nobody ever seemed to be on the streets in this town. It was now nighttime and much cooler, and yet the streets were still empty. It was late, and everything seemed closed, so our group decided to head towards the nearest motel ¨C which also happened to be the only hotel in this tiny town. The stupid hammer didn''t think I was worthy of lifting it, so I ended up having to shove the thing in my inventory. Even then, it put up a bit of resistance, but Azazel was right; it wasn''t emitting nearly enough power to stop me from shoving it in. "Here you go, Thor," I said as I opened my inventory, and Mjolnir fell right out and thumped down onto the Crusty Motel carpet. I laughed a bit at my petty revenge towards the maybe-sentient inanimate object. These motel floors were absolutely disgusting and had no doubt borne witness to unspeakable acts within this room. And now the mighty Mjolnir ¨C who didn''t think me worthy of lifting it ¨C was lying atop all that disgustingness. "Thank you, Lady Layla, I shall see you on the morrow; then I shall go to find Lady Jane once again," Thor thanked me as I left his motel room and headed towards my own. We left Jane at the SHIELD facility because she had a lot of confiscated equipment to recover, and that was going to take a while for her to sort through. Could we have waited for her? Yes. Did I want to? Not really... I plopped down on the bed in my own motel room, hoping it wasn''t infested with bedbugs. It had been a long day. It was a weird dichotomy, being mentally fatigued and yet still feeling physically fine, but it didn''t take me long to pass out. Tomorrow, we''d probably be fighting the Destroyer... not that I was particularly worried, knowing that either of my big brother or sister could one-shot the thing. Ugh, and thinking about them... they had insisted on sharing a motel room together. I wasn''t exactly sure what was going on between the two of them, and I didn''t think I wanted to know. Let''s just say that there are quite a few ''pure'' Fallen Angel children in the Grigori and leave it at that. [~Sweet Home Alabama, Where The Skies Are So Blue~] Yep, the system pretty much hit the nail on the head there. [Heh, in the next room over, your siblings are having se¨C] "Fuck off, system!" XXX I woke up to the sound of my cell phone blaring next to my head where I''d left it the night before as I''d fallen asleep while looking at memes. "Annoying, who is calling me at..." I looked at the time, "...6 in the morning. Hello," I groggily said as I pressed the phone to my ear. "Um... hi, Layla. It''s Foggy Nelson here. You know... your lawyer." The guy sounded nervous. "Why are you calling me so early?" I asked. "W-well, um. T-the thing is ¨C you''re being sued. By Norman Osborn. For 400 Billion Dollars... He''s claiming your acquisition of Oscorp was fraudulent, and he''s hired the best and most cutthroat legal firm in the city." I was being sued? Was that even possible? COuld humans even sue non-humans? [They can sue mutants.] ''Now that''s just discriminatory, system...'' [Sorry.] I''m surprised Norman was also taking the legal route. I was expecting something along the lines of a retaliatory assassination attempt to be honest. "Oof. That is a lot of money. I figured Norman wouldn''t be happy that he lost his company, but I was expecting something different than a legal battle." I said over the phone. "Something different? This is exactly what Matt and I were expecting at some point. What were you thinking would happen?" Foggy replied. Well he asked... "I expected he would inject himself with Oscorp''s failed super soldier serum and develop an evil split personality. Then he would put on an experimental Iron Man knock-off armor suit and fly around on a very unsafe glider trying to kill me with Halloween-shaped weapons," I explained. Yes, I was expecting the Green Goblin to kill me, and now I''m disappointed that he''s not... [That makes two of us. Legal battles are boring. There are no lawyer video games for a reason!] Azazel gave me a puzzled look in return. "Of course we knew. Everyone knew. It wasn''t exactly a secret that the second prince was adopted." What the hell was he talking about? Of course it was! It was one of Asgard''s biggest secrets! Before I could ask him more on that, I noticed that the sky above us darkened as the weather rapidly shifted. Here we go... I was waiting for this. A loud boom echoed from the sky, and a bright pillar of light descended downwards a few kilometers from the town. I could see the outline of a large figure descending with the light. The Destroyer had arrived. "Dibs!" I called out to my confused companions. I tossed a disgruntled Jane over to Penemue as I raced off to go and fight the Destroyer! [Defeat the Destroyer! [RewardS¡úLevel Up!] XXX Sif didn''t know how to feel right now. She was watching a being she thought extinct face off against her realm''s greatest weapon. Not only that, but the not-extinct winged woman was holding her own against the Destroyer. "Woo! Go Layla!" "Kick that evil robot''s ass!" "Layla-Layla-Layla!" Then there were all the mortals who were cheering loudly as they watched the fight. At least they had the sense to stand further back lest a stray blast hit them. Although that may also have been the twelve-winged angel''s doing. She could sense him casting some kind of boundary ward that kept the mundane people from getting any closer to the dangerous fight in front of her. Although, Sif was starting to question just how dangerous this fight truly was. Especially when the other two angels with even more wings than the one facing off against the destroyer didn''t seem to be worried for their friend at all as she fiercely battled. A few hours earlier, Sif was training with the Warriors Three when Loki of all Gods appeared before them and asked for their help. They were all skeptical, of course ¨C as they should have been, but then he mentioned the help was for Thor. According to Loki, Thor was powerless on Midgard and was in the process of being taken advantage of by the mortals there who were supposedly attempting to glean all of Asgard''s secrets from him. In their haste, they didn''t even question his words and rushed off to save their crown prince. It was only upon landing and seeing the crowds of Midgardians celebrating in the streets and openly worshiping their prince ¨C as they had for thousands of years ¨C that Sif realized Loki had tricked them. She had no idea why he wanted to do such a thing until a bit after they arrived; the destroyer followed after them. From the path it took, it was heading right towards them. Loki had somehow gained control of Asgard''s weapon and sent it after them! Was he trying to kill his own brother!? That was when the most unexpected thing happened before Sif''s eyes. A Fallen Angel of all things ¨C a being thought long extinct by her people ¨C appeared before the destroyer and started fighting it. Not only that, but they were evenly matched. Such a thing shouldn''t have been possible, for it was a weapon designed to kill gods ¨C at least that''s what she''d been told. Now, as she watched the six-winged Fallen Angel deliver a powerful spear-stab to the destroyer''s torso, Sif was not quite sure what to think. "Nice, it''s been a while since I''ve seen any of Asgard''s famous war golems in the field. They might not be very powerful, but they sure do look cool. Gotta hand it to Buri, the guy really had the taste of a true mecha otaku." The twelve-winged Fallen Angel commented. Sif only understood some of those words, yet from what she just gleaned, the Destroyer was created by King Odin''s grandfather, King Buri. She was not aware of that fact. He also seemed to be under the impression that Asgard had more of them for some reason when everyone knew the destroyer was one of a kind... BOOM! Across the distance, the now EIGHT-winged angel¨Cand when did that happen? ¨C Summoned forth a massive spear-like construct of dark purple light! Layla flew above the destroyer, dodging its powerful heat blasts before slamming the spear down right on top of the war golem! The ensuing blast was so powerful that all the sand within dozens of meters was turned to glass. "Our little Layla certainly has gotten stronger. Who''d have thought she''d advance to high class in a little over a month. That kind of speed is almost unheard of!" The ten-winged angel stated. "And to think she gained another pair of wings mid battle too!" "Damn straight!" Azazel added. "That was some crazy anime powerup shit right there!" He laughed out loud. "High class? What''s that?" Sif heard the human female ¨C who held Thor''s current affections ¨C ask. Sif wanted to hate the woman for stealing away Thor, but she knew the truth for a long time now. Thor just plain wasn''t interested in her. They had tried courting a few hundred years ago, but he quickly lost interest, and their relationship never went anywhere meaningful¨Cmuch to her and his parents'' disappointment. After all, Sif had basically been raised in the palace to be Asgard''s next queen. Frigga herself had given her many lessons on ruling and court politics. All that turned out to be for naught though, as it seemed Asgard''s future queen might end up being a mortal woman... "I would like to know what high class is as well." Thor said. The twelve-winged Fallen ¨C Azazel as he introduced himself ¨C gave Thor a troubled look. One he shared with the other female Fallen, Penemue, who looked to Sif to be the older sister of Layla. "You don''t remember power ranking class designations?" Penemue asked. "They were pretty much universal though..." She trailed off. "Thor, I have a question for you," Sif heard Azazel say. "Do you know who I am?" He asked Thor with a serious look. Thor nodded in confusion. "Of course. You are Azazel, Layla''s older brother. You are also the leader of the fallen angels, according to her." Thor said, to Sif''s surprise. He was king of the fallen angels? But he acted so casually with everyone! Sif was surprised at how different Azazel was from the hard and stoic King Odin. Sif also noticed that Thor''s answer did not satisfy Azazel. "Yes, Thor. Layla is correct, but you and I have met a bunch of times before now, you know. Don''t you remember that time 1100 years ago!? We both got drunk and decided to do a panty raid of Vanaheim''s royal palace?" Azazel said. "What!?" Sif exclaimed in shock. "Thor! You absolute dog you. I didn''t know you had it in you, my good man!" Fandral commented. Sif was also unaware of such an event ever transpiring. Although her memories of events from such a long time ago were... fuzzy for some reason. "We did!?" Thor asked in surprise. "I feel like I should have remembered that..." Sif didn''t like the frown Azazel was sporting as he seemed to be examining Thor closely. "Yes you should remember that. Especially, considering the beating we got from the goddess Freya when we''d been caught. We almost started a new war! Man, your sister Hela was absolutely pissed... How is she anyway? That woman had legs that went for days..." Sif''s confusion hit a peak. Who was Hela? What was Azazel talking about? "I say, my good man. Are you sure you have the right Thor?" Fandral said. "That''s right." "Hmph." Hogan and Volstagg added. "I don''t have a sister." Thor said with a confused look. Sif noticed Azazel was going to comment, but it was surprisingly the mortal Jane who spoke first. "What do you mean, Thor? Hela, the goddess of death, is really famous in Norse lore. I knew Loki apparently spread a bunch of lies, but there''s no way he made up an entire goddess, right? She''s supposed to rule over Helheim after all." She finished. Sif felt her head start to throb in pain as she listened to the mortal''s words. Thor along with the warriors three looked the same. ... "Damn, this thing can really take a beating." I muttered as I impaled the Destroyer with another light spear. It barely seemed to do any damage. In fact, I think the Destroyer was absorbing the magic in my spears to heal itself, as they were quickly fading away every time I stabbed the thing. I used ''Observe'' on the knockoff ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' mecha. [Destroyer - LvL 16. One of many magic golems created by King Buri of Asgard to fill the ranks of his armies. This is a generic model with no special modifications.] What the hell did that even mean? Generic model? There were more of these things in Asgard? I thought they only had the one. My pondering was interrupted as its faceplate once again lowered, and I had to dive out of the way to dodge another heat blast. The beam missed as it veered off into the desert and turned all sand it hit into glass. I whistled at the power of that blast. It was easily in the lower ranges of high class in power. The only thing that held this robot back from being truly dangerous was how slow it was. It barely moved faster than the average human could. It sure could take a pounding, though. I had been fighting against it for almost ten minutes ago and not really doing any permanent damage. I figured this was as good a time as any for my ''unexpected'' power-up. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 7] [HP: 3100¡ú4100] [MP: 610¡ú800] [Vigor: 110] [Strength: 25¡ú30] [Intelligence: 61¡ú80] [Luck: 20¡ú25] [Skills: Observe 2, Angelic Mastery 3¡ú4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4¡ú5, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 30¡ú0] [Skill Up Point: +1] I used all of my available free stat points and raised my strength and luck by 5 points respectively and my intelligence by 19. That was enough to push my MP finally to 800! I felt a rush of power flow through me as I once again underwent a familiar evolution. Another pair of wings sprouted from my back as I reached the peak of high class with a set of 8 wings to show for it! [Angelic Mastery has leveled up to 4! ¡ú You can now bestow angelic blessings onto others!] [Light Manipulation has leveled up! ¡ú You can now reabsorb your light constructs to regain 50% MP!] [Observe has leveled up! ¡ú You can now see HP and MP of targets!] I dismissed the prompts even as I smiled at all of them. They all seemed incredibly useful! For now though, I still had a fight to win and could get back to them later. I used my upgraded observe on the destroyer to try and figure out what was going on with it. I had impaled with over 20 Lightspears at this point with nothing to show for it. It was incredibly irritating¨Cnot knowing if I was doing any real damage or not! [Destroyer -HP: 5000/5000- -MP: 3400/4000-] That was annoying information. The damn thing was absorbing the magic from my light spears to heal itself! It seemed like if I wanted to take this thing out, I''d have to do it in one shot! At least I had the power and mana to do that now. I called forth what I would have previously considered to be a titanic amount of power as I spent 200 MP and summoned a light spear that was bigger than ten of me put together. It must have been a comical sight to the onlookers to see a girl like myself hefting a light spear the size of a minivan over my head. I dodged the latest slow-moving blast from the robot before returning the favor and hurling my gigantic light spear at the damn thing! The ensuing blast was truly something to behold! BOOOOOOMMM! [-500 HP!] I was a little too close for comfort when all that compressed Light magic ended up exploding nearby. I was sent hurtling into the now completely glass landscape around me! I didn''t care though, as I was too busy laughing from that awesome explosion! I just wiped out a whole football field''s worth of area with a single attack! Let''s see the robot bastard survive that! [Destroyer Defeated! You have leveled up!] XXX A/N: What infinity stones did Odin have when the Celestials attacked in my story? Power, Space and Mind. None of those would have allowed him to restore Asgard as only Time or Reality could do that. Odin didn''t know where either of those, or the Soul Stone were. Chapters 66-70 Chapters 66-70 I could hear the crowd of hundreds of people cheering for me as I descended from the sky and landed in front of my family and Thor''s group. I let out a sigh of relief that the normal human crowd was back so far. Azazel had clearly set up some kind of boundary while I was fighting the Destroyer to keep them all from getting too close. Having people cheer me on was amazing, but at the same time, exhausting. I also know that people can tend to act really stupid when in crowds. There''s a very high possibility a lot of people could have been caught up in that fight and ended up as accidental casualties due to their own stupidity had my brother not intervened. "That was very well done, Layla. I''m proud of you." Penemue said when I set down in front of them. My eight black wings vanished as I touched down. "And congratulations on becoming an eight-winged Fallen. That''s quite an accomplishment." Azazel added. Thor stepped forward with excitement yet concern on his face. "Your victory over the Destroyer was most impressive, Lady Layla. I can''t help but question why it was even here in the first place, though?" At this point in time, Thor had not been given any inclination that Loki wanted him dead. The beautiful goddess Sif stepped forward and then proceeded to explain that Loki had sent them here just hours ago and informed them that Thor was in danger and had been captured by the mortals who wanted to pry the secrets of Asgard from his mind. "What?" Thor exclaimed. "The only immortals I''ve even spoken with are Lady Jane and her friends. Other than that, I spent most of my time with Lady Layla and her family, who are higher-level beings like we are. Who could have been so dastardly as to put my brother under such misconceptions and then try to have us all killed? Was it the Frost Giants? Have they once again infiltrated the heart of Asgard?" Thor asked with indignation. At this point, I felt kind of bad for him. The answer was staring him square in the face, yet he loved his brother so much the thought of being betrayed by him never so much as crossed Thor''s mind. That was the same way I felt about my two siblings standing next to me, oddly enough. They had gone out of their way to cross time and space to try and recover me. They stepped through a portal having absolutely no idea what was on the other side with no hesitation... Maybe once upon a time, Thor and Loki would have had that relationship, but it appears to have long since soured with only the latter having realized that. "Something must clearly be done about this situation." Thor said. "We must return to Asgard at once and remedy this." "Thor," Sif said solemnly, "you are correct, but I''m afraid that you cannot return with us." "What!? "The hell he can''t!" "That''s outrageous. If he''s not going then I''m staying here with him!" The three Asgardian Tagalongs all shouted in outrage. Sif didn''t seem particularly upset about that last remark as she told them that they should stay with Thor. Something about her tone made me believe that she was not quite as close to the three men as she was portrayed to be in the MCU. Thor let out a sigh in resignation when he realized that Sif was right. "No, I''m afraid that Lady Sif is correct, my friends." he said to the Warriors Three. "I have not been able to regain my powers yet, which means I am not worthy of yet returning to Asgard in my father''s eyes. I will stay on Earth temporarily until that day." The three of them didn''t look happy to hear his explanation, but they relented and nodded in acceptance. They agreed to stay and guard him until he could regain his powers. Thor then turned to me. "Lady Layla, you have proven yourself to be a trustworthy friend as of this point. Might I beseech you to travel with Lady Sif back to Asgard and see what is occurring on my behalf?" Thor wanted me to go to Asgard in his place. That was a lot of trust for him to put into someone he just met yesterday. "Hah, of course she''ll go. In fact, we''ll all go. It''ll be just like the good old days when we used to crash the Mead Halls during their biggest celebrations." Azazel cut in. There was a gleam hidden in his eye that told me that the famous Mead Halls weren''t the only reason for him wanting to go to Asgard. I seemed to have missed something important that had occurred here during my battle with the Destroyer. I''d have to ask him later. I did still want to try the Mead Halls though... Asgardian ale was legendary for a reason. "If you three are coming, then we must make haste. I have no doubt that whoever sent the Destroyer after us will now be making other plots after this one has failed. HEIMDAL, OPEN THE BIFROST!" Sif said before she yelled out to the heavens. It appeared that she also didn''t have the heart to break the news to Thor that Loki had betrayed him, or maybe she wasn''t quite as certain as I was. I did have the burden of meta-knowledge after all. [Maybe she just thinks Thor''s an idiot who won''t believe her unless the truth is shoved in his face.] ...That could also be a possibility. I almost expected for nothing to happen after Sif called for Heimdall, but to my surprise, the sky immediately darkened as the Bifrost began to form in the sky above us. It seemed that Heimdall had not been attacked and impeded at this point. I stared into the rapidly forming clouds before a beautiful beam of rainbow light slammed down on top of us. And with that, we were off to Asgard. Thor, along with the Warriors Three, had chosen to remain behind with Jane. That was probably for the best because the Warriors Three were pretty incompetent from my memories and would probably have just gotten in our way. The rainbow lights continued to flash all around, and I let out a gasp as I witnessed what seemed like an entire galaxy pass us by as we traveled far faster than the speed of light to our destination. Within the Bifrost, so many amazing things were rapidly flashing before my eyes that I couldn''t even hope to comprehend them. Eventually, the experience ended though as my body jerked suddenly and my feet returned to solid ground. When I looked up, a dark-skinned man in bright golden armor was staring at our group with a look of trepidation. "Welcome back to Asgard, Lady Sif... and guests." Heimdall greeted us. "Heimdall!" Azazel exclaimed as he spread his arms wide with a smile. "It''s been a minute, my good man. We need to grab a drink sometime and catch up. Are the taverns of Asgard as glorious as I remember?" Heimdall turned his head to the side. "Hello again, Azazel. The taverns haven''t changed but you might find that Asgard has undergone some changes since any of your kind have last been here..." Heimdal said. XXX Woah! Asgard was absolutely beautiful. I loved the aesthetic so much! The beautiful golden city sitting above the eternal waterfall looked absolutely amazing in real life. I could also see that the golden city was thriving, as dozens of spaceships were sailing across the skies every second. Had I not started my journey on Earth, I would have absolutely wanted to live in a place like this! It made my multi-million dollar penthouse on Earth look like a joke. "What the fuck happened!? Heimdall, what the fuck!?" My thoughts were broken from Azazel shouting next to me as he beheld Asgard. "This is disturbing, to say the least." Penemue added as she also beheld the city. "It''s just gone..." Was I missing something here? I looked over to Sif, and she looked just as confused by their outbursts as I was. Heimdall, though, looked saddened and let out a tired sigh. "Asgard has definitely seen better days..." Heimdall said. "What do you mean?" I asked. The place looked thriving and fine to me. In fact, it looked a lot grander than its MCU counterpart. "What do YOU mean, Layla!? Asgard is gone!" Azazel exclaimed as he spread his arms wide. Once again, I had no idea what he was talking about because the city of Asgard was right there in front of me. "Ahem," Heimdall cleared his throat. "Maybe this conversation could be continued elsewhere where we are less likely to be overheard," he stated. Azazel and Penemue acquiesced and dropped it. I had no doubt whatever they would be talking about would be brought up again soon though. One thing that interested me about the Bifrost was that, unlike in the movies where it seemed only the royals could use it, here there were many civilians walking along the rainbow bridge. In fact, there were actually multiple beam devices instead of just the one, and there were other operators working those devices so that Asgardians could teleport to either realms. It seemed much more efficient than just having the one guy. I figured Heimdall was still in charge of them all. That was also why he shut down whatever questions my siblings had brought up as we were starting to draw some curious gazes. There were a lot of people muttering about the beautiful Lady Sif in particular. Asgard didn''t have a princess¨Cwell it did but not anymore¨Cso Sif was the closest thing they had. A lot of people were gazing at her with reverence. "Come," Heimdal said. "I will escort you all to the palace where you can inquire about why Loki sent the destroyer. I too would like some answers in that regard." "What''s so complicated about it? He tried to off his brother so he could have the throne. There, case closed. Let''s go beat him up and have some mead afterwards." Azazel said as he started marching along. Eh, sounds good to me. "Prince Loki tried to murder prince Thor!" I only took one person listening in to start a wave of panic. Something I think Heimdal was trying his best to avoid. Too late now though as more and more angry Asgardians were speaking up in outrage at what they''d just heard. "Allfather save us! I saw the legendary Destroyer march through here not an hour ago!" "That''s Fratricide!" "Someone must alert the Queen immediately of such treachery!" We all decided to skedaddle as it looked like Azazel''s words might have started a small riot. ... "So Loki is the king right now? He didn''t mention that when he was talking to Thor earlier," Penemue said as we walked through the palace walls. "He''s not King!" Sif declared with loathing in her voice directed at a certain god of mischief. "He''s only the regent until Thor can return and assume his proper mantle!" It seemed that Loki was not well-liked here ¨C at least not by Sif. I do remember there being a story there. It was something about him turning her bald for a while when they were younger. "So did you and Thor have a thing going on in the past or..." I trailed off as I asked Sif. Sif looked at me oddly. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested?" Sif asked jokingly. "Yes," I replied with a straight face. "I am interested in you." "Oh my, how bold, Layla," Penemue said. Sif seemed taken aback at my declaration. This woman seemed pretty straightforward, so I thought I should be the same with her. "OH!" Sif exclaimed with a slight blush. She seemed to be at a loss for words. I figured that was a good sign. She turned her gaze away from me and started marching down the hallway towards the throne room faster. "Dang it, Layla!" Azazel mock-lamented. "You''re all grown up and stealing all the beautiful women for yourself now. What will your poor older brother do now?" He said with magically conjured crocodile tears in his eyes. "Maybe appreciate what you have already," I said as I pointed to our sister. Penemue blushed when I pointed out that I knew about their relationship ¨C whatever it was. "I suppose you heard us last night..." She said with some embarrassment. "The thing is, Layla, well ¨C I wanted to have a child, and..." "Believe it or not, I don''t actually have any children despite the many...MANY women I''ve been with," Azazel continued for her. [I do not believe it.] ''Me neither, system...but I might as well humor him.'' "Anyway," Azazel continued. "We both wanted a kid, and with the upcoming peace talks, we figured, why not make one together?" He said as if that was a completely normal relationship. Although, as far as Fallen Angels go, it kind of was. Not many Fallen end up getting married. Most of my nieces and nephews pretty much besides Akeno were the results of happy accidents. I smiled at both of them. "I''m happy for you two." "If you all are quite done with your family discussion, we are here," Heimdall said as we finally arrived at some large ornate golden doors. We were right outside the throne room where Loki was probably waiting for us to put on some kind of intimidation show. "Hey, where are all the guards?" I asked, noticing that so far we hadn''t come across any soldiers at all after venturing fully into the royal palace. That was weird. "Please Lady Sif, tell me what has transpired as of late. I feel like i''ve missed so much and yet it has only been but a few days." Frigga turned towards the other goddess and asked. Sif started explaining the events of the past few days to the queen. By the end, the queen was not happy to hear about everything that had transpired the last few days, to say the least. Sif further went and explained that it was Loki who originally forced Thor and their group to storm Jotunheim after his coronation had been interrupted by the would-be Frost Giant thieves. Frigga wasn''t a multi-thousand-year-old goddess for nothing. It didn''t take her long to start putting the pieces together, and the conclusion she arrived at was that Loki had planned the entire thing from the start to get Thor removed from his position as Crown Prince. "Oh, Loki, how could you have fallen so far? What happened to you? Where has my slightly mischievous but still sweet sun gone ?" Frigga lamented solemnly. "I''ll tell you what happened," Azazel cut in. "Someone went and seriously messed with his memories¨CAll of your memories actually. Thor, Loki, Sif, and even you, Queen Frigga. All of you got absolutely mind-wamied. And yet there was one person who seemed to recognize me on sight, no problem." Azazel said as he turned to Heimdall, who was looking nervous at the implications. "Someone messed with our memories, that''s preposterous!" Sif declared before pausing momentarily. I noticed that she looked like she was in pain, and she started clutching her head. "Isn''t it..." she trailed off almost incoherently now. She started to sway a bit and looked unsteady on her feet. I walked over to her and gently grabbed her hand. I led her over towards the throne stairs, and we both took a seat on the steps. Sif rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes in pain. Across the room, Frigga looked like she had come to an epiphany. She turned towards Asgard''s watcher, who had served the royal family loyally for thousands of years¡ªor had he. "Heimdall, is what this man says true? Someone manipulated all of our minds? And Odin just let them?" Heimdall let out a tired sigh. "It was Odin himself who did it, using three of the Infinity Stones..." He trailed off. "Mind, Space, and Power. With those three, at great sacrifice to his own health, King Odin was able to manipulate the memories of every single being in the galaxy that knew about the previous Asgard." "The previous Asgard? What are you talking about?" The queen asked. "This city isn''t Asgard. Asgard was an entire planet." Penemue explained. "In fact, the city we''re currently in wasn''t even Asgard''s capital city. I remember it being at least ten times bigger than this one..." 10 times bigger!? This place was already gigantic as it was! Sif and Frigga looked shocked at the revelation. "But that''s..." "Impossible..." Heimdall then started explaining to the whole room what had happened. Shortly following the Great Sundering¡ªas the Goblins like to call it¡ªOdin somehow ended up getting into a fight with a Celestial. Heimdall told us he wasn''t exactly sure how the fight started, as it was so long ago. All he knows is that using the Power Stone to drastically amplify Gungnir, Odin was able to do what many thought impossible up to that point and permanently killed the Celestial. That opened up an entire can of worms across the entire galaxy¡ªno, universe. Celestials being killable by beings that weren''t other Celestials was thought to be an impossible concept. And up until that point the Infinity Stones were thought to be nothing but a myth. With it confirmed that the Infinity Stones did exist and were in Asgard''s possession and could kill the previously invincible space gods, there was a mad rush to acquire them from many different parties all over the cosmos. The Celestials, in their panic at the death of one of their own and feeling that the whole universe was about to rise up against them, declared war on Asgard and tried to seize its three Infinity Stones for themselves. From there, Heimdall went on to explain about a war that took place on a scale that I could barely fathom. Billions of Asgardian soldiers, all at the level of at least high class, along with many ultimate class beings, clashed with over a dozen monstrosities the size of entire planets. The battle was brief but incredibly brutal. In the end, the planet Asgard was completely ruined, and all that could be saved was a single city. Six more Celestials perished, and the remaining half of them fled back into the greater universe in fear of the same happening to them. Odin had severely taxed his own body by channeling three Infinity Stones at once repeatedly throughout the course of the war. On top of that, as the Sky Father, he drew his power from Asgard, so with Asgard destroyed, his power had drastically plummeted, along with all the other gods who did the same. Further putting an enormous tax on his body, he used the power of the three Infinity Stones one last time to purge the memories of that entire battle along with the deaths of the Celestials and the existence of the Infinity Stones as being anything more than a myth from the rest of the universe. I personally thought it was pretty amazing that using just three Infinity Stones, Odin was able to pull something like that off. It also made sense why he couldn''t use their powers to bring back Asgard, as none of those stones would have been able to do that. In order to restore Asgard, he would have either needed the Reality Stone or the Time Stone. The latter is in possession of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and the former is still hidden somewhere on the Dark Elf World, just waiting to be rediscovered. "Even now," Heimdall said, "Odin is forced to hibernate routinely because of the strain those stones put on his body. That''s the only thing that staved off his death from overusing them." That was pretty insane. I understood why he made the decision to erase the memories from everybody though. With him and Asgard severely weakened it wouldn''t have taken long for other forces to attack them and seize the stones for themselves. What I can''t understand is why he chose to so heavily modify all the memories of those closest to him. [You won''t know unless you ask him or someone who he didn''t mind wipe.] XXX "Hahaha! Serves the old bastard right for lying to all of us all these years!" Loki said as he finally stood up gleefully. He had been listening in on Heimdall''s story the entire time¡ªfrom down on the floor. "Loki, that''s your father you''re talking about..." Frigga scolded him. She looked a bit conflicted, however. "And that''s your husband... or is he? How do you even know he didn''t implant that memory falsely as well?" Loki sniped back. "Is anything real anymore!?" He screamed loudly towards the ceiling. "My love for you as my son is real..." Frigga said quietly. Awe... she hit me right in the feels with that one. I was jealous of Loki as I technically didn''t even have a mom. I would have run over and given her a hug, but I was busy comforting Sif at the moment, who was currently mentally checked out from Heimdall''s revelations. "He hid my true parentage from me! I''m not even his son and I''m not even yours! I know the truth! I''m a frost giant runt! I''m the son of Laufey!" "That man was never your father!" Frigga shouted back. "He abandoned you at birth and left you to die. And I have always been your mother!" Frigga finished with tears in her eyes. "Not cool, Loki!" I shouted out. "You''re lucky to have such an amazing mother, and only a true scumbag would make such a wonderful woman cry." I yelled out to him. "Apologize to her or I''ll kick you in the balls again!" I threatened Loki, who flinched at my declaration. Next to me, Sif, who had been going through an existential crisis, questioning everything she knew, started giggling from my threats to the prince. "Yeah, so what if your dad was a dick. Join the club! You think these wings are black for the LOLs?" Azazel asked as his twelve wings manifested behind him and a powerful magical pressure fell over the room. I felt myself sweating at the insane display of power he was putting off. This was the power of a twelve-winged Fallen!? Why was it so much stronger than me!? Wasn''t I at the peak of high class!? [Wait, Host, don''t!] [Azazel -Leader of the Grigori- Level 85. ?] I used observe on Azazel and felt my jaw almost drop. WTF!? He was level how much!? And here I am sitting at level 8 thinking I was hot shit for reaching the peak of high class... What was with this gap!? [The difference between high class and mid class was never that high. Ultimate class and higher is a bigger story though. And that''s just a ten-winged angel. Twelve wings are a whole different kind of beast altogether. You should ask your brother and sister later about the true power levels of such beings. Also, I told you to wait because Azazel detected your observe.] ...fuck. Azazel turned to me and gave me a puzzled look and a weirdly proud grin before he turned back towards Loki and Frigga. I knew I was going to have to answer some questions about what I just did to him later... "Your mother was correct, brat. Laufey was never your father. First of all, I know Frost Giants are technically genderless shape-shifters, but Laufey preferred to be a woman... Laufey was your mom!" He said with a laugh. Now that Azazel mentioned it, in mythology, that was what Laufey was supposed to be. Kind of weird that the MCU decided to gender swap him¨Cer¨Cher. "Liar! I am no sniveling woman!" I felt the temperature in the room drop before a wave of ice surged forward from the entrance of the throne room where the doors were. The wave of frost smashed into Azazel and completely froze him solid! "Azazel!" Penemue screamed in outrage before spinning around and glaring at who dared to attack our faction leader! Faster than I could see she had manifested a light Spear and hurled it forward. To my surprise a wall of solid ice formed in its path and the spear was actually halted on contact. Seeing her lightning fast retaliation failed Penemue, rapidly flew over towards me and stood in front of me protectively. I felt my pride take a hit that she thought I needed her protection, but at the same time someone had managed to land a successful sneak attack against Azazel. [Unless he let the attack hit him on purpose just so he could be all edgy and dramatic later and say something like¨C''That was chilly''¨Cas he emerges from the ice unscathed.] ''That was true as well...'' A small group of Frost Giants lumbered into the room. In their hands was a recognizable casket. "The Casket of Ancient Winters!" Frigga exclaimed upon seeing the greatest relic of the Frost Giants returned to them. Laufey had a glare on his blue tattooed face as he looked towards us all. "That puny Angel lies!" He glared at the frozen Azazel. "I am no woman! I am Laufey, King of the Frost Giants." He declared proudly. Next to me, Sif snapped out of her funk and stood up suddenly battle-ready. A sword materialized in her hands as she rushed forward and stood in front of the queen protectively. "Not another step forward, monsters. Asgard will not fall to you all today." Sif said as she brandished the weapon at the oversize blue man group. "Hah, I''m afraid Asgard has already fallen this day. I was wrong to cast you out so quickly, my son." Laufey praised Loki, who suddenly was sporting a look of dread. "You know, I half thought it was a trap; you came to Jotunheim and stood before me, claiming you desired vengeance upon Odin. I did not believe you. And yet, when we snuck into the palace, there was not a single guard anywhere to be seen. Even then, I was weary. And then we snuck all the way into the Allfather''s place of rest... and we slew him where he slept!" Laufey declared as the other Frost Giants cheered. "Odin is dead!" One giant cheered behind Laufey. ""Vengeance for Jotunheim at last!"" The other two joined in. Oh fuck... I had severely messed up the timeline hadn''t I? Loki was supposed to arrive at the last second and save Odin from being killed by Laufey. Instead, Loki had been busy confronting us and had spent the last few minutes rolling on the ground in agony. And then, Frigga, sensing our arrival, came to see what was happening in the throne room. Odin was left completely alone in his chambers and now he was dead. [Welp... that''s unfortunate. Also called it¨C] ''Huh?'' The ice that had engulfed Azazel began to crack all over. A few seconds later, it shattered as Azazel spread his wings. "Man, that was a bit chilly," he said nonchalantly as he brushed off some leftover ice shards on his shoulders. He was hit by a weapon that could freeze entire continents and emerged completely unscathed. Damn, that was OP... Laufey looked shocked that someone managed to survive his surprise attack with their race''s WMD Casket. "We have achieved a great victory today. We will retreat for now." The group of Frost Giants with him all grabbed onto the casket, and an instant later, they had all vanished in a flash of blue light. They were able to easily teleport right through the wards of Asgard and escape. "The Allfather is dead!? Where did they go!?" Sif exclaimed as she left the queen''s side and ran forward to the spot where the Frost Giants disappeared from. Frigga just stood there stunned at the revelation that her husband was dead. Loki looked the same. This was all his fault after all¡ªmostly. ''Who even knows? All I know is that it wasn''t MY fault. How was I supposed to remember that Laufey was supposed to be here!?'' [Thor''s gonna be bummed you let his dad die...] ''...Fuck.'' "The Casket grants them the power to always teleport wherever there is winter. Even the strongest wards cannot hold it back. They''ve returned back to Jotunheim... for now," Heimdall exclaimed as his eyes glowed and he stared off towards the distance for a moment. "We have bigger issues right now, however... With the Allfather dead, Asgard is weak, and it won''t take long before..." "Well now, are you all here to greet me? I''m flattered." A new voice called out into the throne room. A shadow manifested in the middle of the hall before it morphed into the form of a tall and beautiful woman. ''Double fuck...'' XXX Chapters 71-75 Chapters 71-75 A/N: There''s R-18 in the second half of this. It can be skipped for anyone not interested in that. "Well now, isn''t this quite the interesting family reunion? Hello, ''mother'' and ''brother''," Hela said, both terms dripping with sarcasm. Loki looked at her without any recognition. Frigga didn''t seem to recognize her either initially, but did after Hela had called her mother. Hela was truly beautiful and radiated power, similar to the Fallen''s own tainted light energy. As the goddess of death, I figured she employed some kind of dark magic. She was tall, even for an Asgardian woman, standing just over 6 feet. Her bust was large, and her figure perfectly toned. Underneath her thin black armor, all of her curves were accentuated. She was the perfect blend of beauty and death. "Hela..." Frigga said with a hint of loathing. She then had some kind of realization dawn on her face as she changed her expression to confusion. "My memories are telling me to despise you because Odin claimed you were evil, but now I don''t know what to think..." Frigga trailed off. Hela smirked. "Is that what happened? One moment I was anguishing in the mighty defeat of Asgard and the next some kind of psychic wave attacked me. I could feel it trying to manipulate my mind, but thankfully my patron saved me. When I awoke, the people of Asgard had turned on me. Odin himself had set up a fake trial and cast me out to Helheim. WHERE I HAVE BEEN FOR 1000 YEARS!" Hela shouted in rage. "Now that the bastard is dead though, I''m finally free!" She glanced around the throne room momentarily before her eyes fell on the remaining shards of frost magic. Hela let out a laugh. "Was that what killed the mighty Odin, some weak and paltry Frost Giants!? And right in the middle of what remains of Asgard as well... Oh, how far have our people fallen." Hela lamented. Loki muttered angrily in the corner about Frost Giants not being ''paltry or weak.'' "Pretty fucking far if I had to be honest," Azazel said as he walked up to Hela. "Long time no see." He gave her a casual wave, as if she hadn''t just spent 1000 agonizing years in prison. Hela snorted at his nonchalance. "Of course, among the first people I see in 1000 years is the winged pervert of his black perverted order..." Hela scoffed. "You seem to have not changed in all this time. Where did your kind scurry off to while Asgard was under siege!? We could have used your aid, especially since we were supposed to be allies!" Hela finished, glaring at Azazel. I felt her magic power radiating off her in anger. She was easily in Ultimate class. Azazel raised his hands up in surrender. I knew he was still stronger than a ''mere'' Ultimate class, but if the Grigori were allied with Asgard, and it appeared we were, he would feel responsible for allowing its near destruction. Although the circumstances were not our fault, as our whole race was basically spirited away in Father''s massive ritual. [Hela - Asgardian Goddess of Death - Level 56: Hela is incredibly angry, confused, and lonely after being betrayed and locked away for 1000 years. In her heart, she knows that Odin cared more for his power than his daughter. She did not lose any of her power when Asgard was destroyed, as she started drawing power from #####] "Um, hello Lady Hela. I know you''re probably really mad at my brother, but it wasn''t his fault. We had no choice in what happened and were forced into another dimension. We couldn''t even return if we wanted because there was a world-eating giant red dragon guarding the dimensional gap," I said to Hela, who was still glaring at my older brother. The woman hadn''t so much as glanced at me yet. She spun around angrily with a glare on her face. "And who are you to¨Cwho are..." Her eyes widened largely when she looked at me. I heard Azazel and Penemue let out chuckles as the rest of the people in the room watched Hela in confusion. Her cheeks reddened slightly before she spoke to me again. "Ehem, I apologize, fair lady, for my behavior just now," Hela said to me much softer as she gave me a wide smile and stepped closer. "I never knew that Azazel had such a lovely younger sister." She reached me and tilted her head forward until our faces were close together. I felt my cheeks heating up as she was unexpectedly coming on to me! Usually, it had to be me doing the flirting. This was a nice change, especially since it was making Lady Sif so obviously jealous! I glanced quickly towards the side and saw the golden-haired goddess gnashing her teeth next to the confused queen. "Ah, nice to meet you, Hela. I am Layla of the Fallen. You wouldn''t have met me 1000 years ago since I''m only around 300." I explained to her. Hela nodded before smiling at me again. "To already be so powerful at your age, you must be something special!" Hela praised me again. I could see that she was genuinely impressed and wasn''t just trying to flirt this time. Although she was still obviously flirting with her eyes, as they had never left my own. "Yes, Layla is quite impressive. She is our most cherished younger sister, so she will be treated with the respect that she deserves." I heard Penemue remark from next to Azazel. Hela chuckled as she leaned back from me. "Of course, I always treat those I wish to court with respect!" Hela declared. ...Wait? Court!? She wants to court me!? "I have no idea what''s going on right now..." Loki muttered. "Hela was quite infamous for her pursuits of many a fair maiden," Heimdall explained. "Although many of them ended up rejecting her..." He whispered that part quietly... although everyone in the room heard it. Hela flinched upon hearing Heimdall as well. She turned back to me and looked¨Chopeful? Why would she get rejected though? She was a beautiful and powerful goddess. You''d think the ''maidens'' would be flocking to her in droves. [Maybe it''s because she''s the Goddess of Death and people are afraid of her. Other than that, I got nothing.] XXXUppTodated from I looked at Hela''s hopeful expression before I smiled back at her. "Well, I admit I''ve never really been courted before, but I imagine it will be an interesting experience," I said, and Hela smiled widely. She reached forward and literally swept me off my feet! "Eeep!" "We shall go out and share a meal together post haste. I have been trapped in Hel for 1000 years, and the only thing I want is a good meal and the company of a beautiful woman like you, Layla," Hela said as she carried me towards the exit of the room. "Okay..." I mumbled out. "Being princess-carried was an odd experience. It seemed to work though since Hela was so much taller than I was. "Wait, are you really just going to leave without explaining anything else!?" Loki shouted out as Hela carried me through the doors. I guess that was her plan... I couldn''t even imagine the pain she had to go through from being locked away that long. Honestly... ''What the fuck, Odin!?'' [Seriously, what a dick move. I wonder why he did it?] Hela continued carrying me in her arms as we walked through Asgard''s halls. She was taking in all the art murals and golden statues like they were the most precious things she''d seen in her life. "Where are all the guards?" Hela asked me. "Um, Loki fired them all..." Hela looked confused. "And how could he do that?" "Because he was king..." "That little frozen nutsack was king!?" She exclaimed in shock. "How in the nine hells did that happen!? You know what... it doesn''t even matter. He''s not king anymore..." She said darkly as her eyes turned colder. "So," I decided to change the subject. "This is my first time on Asgard, and you probably haven''t seen your people in 1000 years. Neither of us even knows where a restaurant is, huh?" I asked with a laugh. Hela took a moment to process my words before she too laughed. "I guess not. I''m sure we''ll find a nice tavern or something though. Even after all these years. I''ve no doubt my people still love to eat and drink," she said. We continued down the hallways until we reached the palace''s main gates. "Annoying... even the main gates are unguarded. No wonder my bastard father was so easily slain..." Using a bit of magic, Hela forced the gates to open so we could look upon the city properly. We immediately regretted it. ...Asgard was on fire. "What the fuck..." I said as I slipped out of Hela''s arms and gazed at the scene below. The Asgardian people were straight up rioting. "Down with the false king!" "Loki is not my king!" "Fratricide is evil. Down with Loki!" Hela immediately used her magic to close the palace gates back up. With them closed, the loud rioting noises completely cut off as well. The palace had some soundproof magic surrounding it apparently. A bit of a design flaw, I think, considering we had no idea what was going on outside the walls. Hela leaned her face downwards and planted another kiss on Layla''s lips. At the same time one of her hands reached forward and planted itself on Layla''s chest over her clothes. Layla moaned into their kiss at the contact. Hela''s partner was wearing some midgardian garments she was not familiar with. It mattered not though as Hela had 1000s of years of experience and a spell for almost everything. "Eeeeeep!" Layla squeaked out as she went from feeling Hela''s hands on her chest over her clothing¨Cto directly on her bare breasts. A moment later, Layla realized that she had somehow been completely divested of all her clothing. Hela gulped at the sight beneath her. Layla of the Fallen seemed to be the embodiment of sin itself. Her breasts were large and absolutely perfect in every way. They also seemed to be very sensitive as a few squeezes had Layla squirming. Hela trailed her gaze downwards as she fell upon Layla''s lower lips. They were absolutely beautiful, completely hairless, and already dripping with anticipation. Hela didn''t want to keep her partner waiting long. With another use of her spell, Hela was soon also laying completely naked over Layla. "Wow..." Layla exclaimed as the goddess''s breasts were suddenly right in front of her face. Layla wanted to reach out her mouth and latch onto them. So she did just that. Hela moaned as she felt Layla''s soft lips brush kisses along her chest. Layla alternated planting kisses between each of Hela''s large breasts. They were perfectly perky and didn''t sag a bit even as she leaned over her. The body of the goddess was clearly just as perfect as her own. Layla opened her mouth slightly before latching onto Hela''s left nipple. Hela let out a small moan at the pleasant sensation of Layla''s tongue on her nipple. She didn''t want to be one to not reciprocate pleasure however. Hela''s hand traced downwards before finding Layla''s pussy. Hela ran her fingers up and down Layla''s lower lips causing the angel to shiver pleasantly. Hela could feel how wet Layla was from just a few touches. She wanted her to be even wetter though! Layla''s eyes widened in surprise when she felt the sensation of one of Hela''s fingers slip inside her tunnel. It didn''t go particularly deep, but it went even deeper than Natasha''s tongue had gone before! She felt Hela''s finger swirl around inside of her. Every small movement caused Layla to squirm in pleasure. Layla had forgotten about Hela''s chest momentarily, but the goddess was ok with that. Seeing Layla writhe in pleasure was a delight in and of itself. Gods¨Cshe missed this so much. The lack of company was the most agonizing part of being locked away for so long. Hela wasn''t going to let her partner go for a while yet! Not until they were both fully satisfied. Layla continued to squirm and writhe in pleasure as Hela fingered her. Everytime Hela swirled her digit around Layla let out a beautiful moan. Hela wanted to see the girl let herself go completely so she pushed her finger in even deeper. Both women seized up when Hela felt her finger meet some resistance though. "You''re a... really?" Hela asked in surprise. A virgin Fallen Angel? She didn''t think such a concept was even a possibility. She couldn''t say the dichotomy didn''t really turn her on though. Layla blushed. "I''m not...kind of. I''ve been with another woman, but she never went... that deep. We never used any toys either." Layla admitted with a continued blush. She knew she''d lose it eventually. That eventually possibly turning into today was just a pleasant surprise for her. Hela had a choice to make here. She could just continue their fun with less invasive pleasure... or she could crank it up with some special magic and really make Layla experience the best night of her life. Hela smirked to herself. She''d obviously chosen the latter option. Who was she!? She was Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death. A being that was feared all over the cosmos in the past. She wasn''t about to let anyone else in the future potentially take her future wife''s maidenhead! And Layla being her wife was something that Hela had already decided the moment she laid eyes on her. She just had to make the beautiful Fallen Angel fall in love with her first! She knew Layla would have other partners in the future as a Fallen Angel¨Cthat was just how they were wired. Hela wanted to be her number one though. XXX Hela slammed her lips into Layla''s once again causing the other woman to squeak into her mouth. Hela plundered Layla''s mouth with her tongue. The latter moaned out in ecstasy as Hela resumed twirling her finger inside Layla''s tunnel. Hela''s finger didn''t go any deeper though and stayed close to the entrance. Hela wanted Layla to be wet enough and prepared for what she had in store. The two continued to passionately kiss as Hela''s finger never stopped sending Layla more and more pleasure. After a few moments of Hela''s ministrations, Layla felt the sensation of an impending orgasm approaching. She started to moan more frequently into the kiss and her breathing picked up. Layla was going to C¡ªhuh? Right when she was almost at the peak, Hela stopped moving her finger and extracted it. She also broke their long kiss as a trail of saliva glistened between each of their lips. "Why''d you stop?" Layla whined out. Hela just smirked down at her before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I wanted you to have an unforgettable experience with me." Hela whispered close to Layla''s ear. It was the kind of whisper that promised Layla something extremely pleasurable was about to happen to her. Hela muttered lines of some language that Layla was surprised she didn''t recognize. The language must have not originated on Earth for her to not understand it. A moment later, Layla let out a gasp and felt something big and hard poking her. Layla''s eyes widened in shock. Was that... Hela smirked down at her partner. "Tell me, Layla. What do you think? I learned this magic from a foreign space goddess who claimed that it would always bring a pleasant surprise into the bedroom." Hela said and Layla was now certain that Hela had just magically given herself a cock. A relatively large one from the feel of it pushing against her folds. Layla bit her lip. "Can you teach it to me later?" Hela smiled in happiness. "Of course I can. How about I show you how it properly works first though." "Ok..." Hela reached downwards and grabbed hold of her newest appendage. It was quite large in her opinion, and it was giving her sensations that were somewhat foreign to her but felt good all the same. With her hand, she pushed the cock forward until it reached Layla''s entrance. The girl under her took a deep breath before Hela started pressing forwards. They both let out a gasp at the same time! Hela because Layla''s entrance was so tight and squeezed her new magical cock from every angle. Layla because the new sensation of being filled felt amazing! As a Fallen Angel with the Sin of Lust, she''d figured it would. She wasn''t expecting it to be this good though! Hela had barely gone an inch deep and yet Layla felt all of her nerves firing off signals of pleasure all at once. As Hela continued to push deeper, the sensations only continued to grow for Layla! "Oh, that feels amazing. I''ll have to send that goddess my regards if she''s still around after so long." Hela said as she pushed inwards as far as she could go. A bit deeper and she finally hit Layla''s barrier. "Aaaahn." Layla gasped as she felt the invader temporarily halted inside her. Not for long though as she felt Hela''s cock start to apply more pressure and push forward. "Hela!" Layla squeaked. "It feels..." Hela smirked as she pressed forwards. This was something she had never experienced before and she would treasure it. Every woman she had been with before¨Cwho wasn''t terrified of her¨Chad been older. This was truly Hela''s first time with a true maiden. It felt amazing! She let out a sigh of delight as Layla''s pussy gripped her cock from all sides as she pushed in harder. "Oh fuck!" Layla squealed beneath Hela and her eyes widened as she started gasping. Hela felt a ''pop'' on her cocks tip before she was able to sheath the entire thing deep inside Layla! Hela gasped in pleasure when she bottomed out completely. Layla''s pussy now truly squeezed her from all sides and Hela fought hard not to come undone right then and there! Unfortunately it was a losing battle as Hela promptly felt something build inside her new cock before she let out a delicious moan and it exploded outward! Hela''s whole body shook in ecstasy as she came inside Layla with abandon! "Hela!" Layla''s eyes widened and she screamed the goddesses name as she felt a sensation she''d never experienced before. She was being creampied by Hela! It felt strange and yet Layla couldn''t help but like it. Her inner folds were being bathed in a warm substance and Layla wondered if there was a real possibility of herself getting pregnant. She figured there was since this spell was apparently created by another goddess. After a moment, Hela stopped shaking as she finished cumming inside Layla. Her partner was looking up at her with a pout. Hela scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Apologies, my new love. You felt so amazing that I couldn''t help myself. Now though, it''s your turn!" Hela sighed as she slightly withdrew her new appendage before sheathing it back inside Layla quickly! "Oh! Oh wow!" Layla squeaked out from Hela''s first real thrust. More thrusts followed and Hela quickly fell into a rhythm that had Layla starting to see stars once again. "Oh my goddess that feels so amazing!" Layla exclaimed as Hela continued her thrusting. Hela smirked at being referred to as ''Layla''s Goddess''. She moaned herself as she started thrusting even harder. She wanted to hear Layla squeal her name more! "Oh Hela! Yes!" Layla felt the cock repeatedly pison back and forth inside her. It felt unbelievably good. She could barely focus on anything else but the building pleasure inside of her. She knew the coming wave was going to be massive! And it was! Hela started battering deep inside Layla as she leaned down and the two exchanged a sloppy kiss. Being assaulted above and below really got Layla going and a moment later a thrust finally sent her over the age. Layla felt like she exploded with pleasure. She threw her head back and screamed loud enough that the entire palace probably heard her! Her pussy clamped down on the cock inside her and tried to instinctively milk it for everything it had. It worked as Hela grunted once again and exploded inside the angel beneath her. This time both women were screaming in pleasure as Layla was seeded for the second time. Hela''s body shook once again and she grinned in absolute delight at the beautiful squealing Angel beneath her that she''d just deflowered and fucked well. Her magic cock churned out an even bigger load this time as she truly filled her partner to the brim. Layla shook as she could feel each pulse delivering one load after another. Eventually though it had to end and both women came down from their peaks. Layla opened her eyes and glanced at the completely flushed Hela. "Wow..." Hela smiled down at her. "Thank you, Layla. I''d like to continue our courting if you wouldn''t mind." Hela said although she already knew Layla''s answer from her glassy eyes orgasmic look. "So would I..." XXX Chapters 76-80 Chapters 76-80 It was the next morning, and Azazel and Penemue were both smirking at me. I sat down next to them in the empty dining hall. They had acquired what looked like a mini breakfast feast from somewhere, and I immediately started piling food on my plate to join them. "Someone had fun last night, huh? And most of the morning too, apparently," Azazel said while wiggling his brows. I turned my head to the side and blushed. Being locked away for 1000 years had made Hela quite ravenous. I think our activities went on for over 12 hours straight... Goddesses had some serious stamina. What was worse was that when we exited the room all that time later, the floor just outside the door was soaking wet...and it wasn''t water. According to Hela, Sif had been listening in almost the entire time. Apparently she was down bad, and was a lot more interested in me than her stoic self let on. I''d need to speak with her later about all that. Hela had told me that while she intended to truly court me, she still knew I was a Fallen Angel and we weren''t the most¡ªer¡ªfaithful race there was when it came to having only a single partner. Hela told me she had no problem with that if I was bringing more beautiful women to the bedroom in the future. I could only shudder at the thought of her officially meeting Natasha... "You''re not pregnant, are you, Layla?" Penemue asked me out of the blue. "You were spacing out for a second there..." I spat out the juice that I had just raised to my lips to sip. "WHAT!? No, I''m not¡ªI don''t think..." I hoped I wasn''t, at least. [You''re not. Your body can only get pregnant if you intend to.] There was the system chiming in and saving me from an existential panic. Penemue raised her hand and cast some magic on me and sighed in relief afterwards. "Oh good, you''re not." Wait a minute... Why would they even suspect I was pregnant in the first place? Hela and I were both women, and it''s not like I said anything about her using ''that'' spell in the bedroom. I gave the two of them a glare. "Were you two spying on us!?" I said angrily. "Pfft... of course not. We wouldn''t do that. Right, Penemue?" Azazel said while not quite meeting my eyes. Penemue had trouble doing so as well. I glared at the two of them but decided to drop it for now. I would have vengeance and find a way to embarrass both of them later though... ... A few hours later, I found myself standing back at the Bifrost. We had flown over Asgard instead of walking through its streets. The rioting had calmed quite a bit, but it hadn''t fully stopped yet. Hela was going to have her hands full dealing with all of that. "Are you sure you have to leave so soon?" Hela whined as she wrapped me in a tight hug. I ignored the fact that she was also blatantly groping me in front of everyone as well. Over her shoulder, I could see Sif glaring daggers at Hela. Loki had wisely decided to stay in the palace lest the people of Asgard catch sight of him and try to attack. His mother, Frigga, had stayed with him. After a few more seconds, and with some effort, I broke our hug. I didn''t want to immediately leave so soon as well, but I had to. "I''m afraid so, Hela. I have to get back to Midgard and take care of some things." There was no way I was letting Norman Osborn take back MY hard-earned company. He''d ruin a whole bunch of my plans if he did. [You literally stumbled upon all of those shares by luck though...] ''Yeah, well, I spent points on my Luck stat to make that happen... Hence, it was hard work. I also wanted to check in with Tony, possibly wipe the New York section of the Hand out, and see what the Death Eaters over in England were up to. I had a lot on my plate at the moment. "Good luck, Layla. Try not to get up to anything absurd, although given your current track record, I''m sure you will anyway. Ah, you remind me of a younger me..." Azazel remarked. He and Penemue had decided to stay in Asgard for a couple of extra days. Azazel needed the technology here to help him rebuild his artificial sacred gear. Once he acquired all the parts he''d need, they would come and join me. "The Bifrost is open to you, Lady Layla. Give Thor my regards," Heimdall said as he sheathed his sword into the podium and a blue portal materialized nearby. "You can tell my idiot brother he''s free to return to Asgard whenever he wants. It is advised that he doesn''t, however, until he regains his powers. I will see you again soon, Layla." Hela smiled at me before I stepped through the Bifrost to return to Earth. XXX "This feels like it''s taking a lot longer than I remember," I said out loud as I gazed all around me. I''d been traveling through the rainbow light for a while now. The trip up to Asgard had only taken a few minutes, and this one was taking well over 10 right now. [Weird, nothing seemed to be wrong with the portal before you stepped inside.]Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com I couldn''t argue with that. The portal looked like it was working fine, and Heimdall should have noticed if anything went wrong. Maybe the journey down was just slower than up? It''s not like I was an expert in Asgardian portal technology or anything. I felt like I was still moving, and the rainbow lights were still passing me by at crazy speeds. There was nothing I could do but float here and wait... An entire extra 20 minutes later, I finally saw the end of the tunnel. Finally, I was arriving on Midgard. That took WAY longer than it should have. CRASH! [-100HP!] "Ooof! What the hell!" I grunted in pain. Instead of landing gently, my body had been slammed into the ground hard. Now I KNOW that was NOT supposed to happen. CRASH! "Argh, my arm!" A familiar woman''s voice shouted behind me after a second crash echoed out. "Sif! Holy shit, are you okay?" I exclaimed. [No, she''s not okay... her left arm is facing the wrong direction.] Oh shit, it was. That wasn''t good! Sif was clutching her broken arm in pain. I ran up to her, and Twilight Healing manifested itself on each of my hands. I focused the green healing aura onto Sif''s and willed her to be healed. I could feel my MP drain noticeably. It seemed the broken arm was the least of her injuries. She didn''t have my durability, and that impact had damaged some of her insides as well. Thankfully, I have the best healing Sacred Gear to remedy that. "Healing magic?" Sif opened her eyes as I soothed her pain. A look of relief appeared on her face. "You are just full of surprises, Layla." "Why did you follow me, Sif? Weren''t you needed on Asgard?" I asked. Had she jumped into the Bifrost right after me? Is that what threw it off? That shouldn''t have made a difference. Sif looked a bit guilty as she responded. "I-I wanted to spend more time with you as well. Hela came in and snatched you up so quickly... I felt jealous." Sif admitted bitterly. "As for myself being needed on Asgard, I am not. I was never the most popular Goddess. I actually had something of a negative reputation for how I acted for the past few hundred years..." I smirked. She had tried to get one up on the Goddess of Death by following me to Midgard. With Asgard currently on fire, Hela would be too busy straightening out her people for the next few days to interrupt Sif and me. "What did you do that made people not like you?" I asked. Sif looked shy. "I may or may not have threatened bodily harm upon any harlot who tried to win Thor''s affections," Sif admitted before looking at me in panic. "I never actually went through with it though. I now realize, as well, why Thor never wanted to be with me. I tend to get... clingy with my love interests. I will do my best to not be as intense with..." Sif trailed off and looked at me hopefully. I knew what she was going to say. "You won''t get too clingy with me?" I teased her and she shyly nodded. "I don''t mind honestly." I said. It seemed like the blond goddess might have been a bit of a yandere. She never seemed to go fully off on her love rivals though. ... Heimdal felt some sweat start to form on the back of his neck. What was taking so long. It had been a shock when Sif had decided to slip past Hela and hop into the Bifrost after Layla, but it wasn''t a big deal at the end of the day. Yet, something strange happened after Sif jumped in... Layla and Sif never touched down on Midgard. With his Farsight, he could clearly see the rainbow beam make contact upon the desert of Midgard, and yet neither of the women had arrived with it. Where did they go? "Is something wrong Heimdal?" Hela¨Chis new ruler¨Casked behind him. "Is that harpy Sif already trying to put the moves on my future Queen?" She spat out angrily. Asgards guests, Azazel and his paramor Penemue also looked concerned. "Um... Layla and Sif disappeared." The three other people took a moment to contemplate what he just said. Heimdal braced himself as he knew he was about to get yelled at. """WHAT!?""" XXX "Don''t let your guard down. She''s not even hurt!" I yelled out. Sif stiffened and did as I told her. "Layla?" The woman''s voice called out questioningly. As the smoke from my blast faded away, I could see who we were facing. "Is that who you are?" "Shit..." I muttered out. It was an incredibly stacked and beautiful nine-tailed fox woman. It was Yasaka, the leader of the Kyoto Yokai... "Lady Yasaka? Can I ask why you are attacking my friend and me? We''re not even technically in Kyoto, just the forest nearby," I said. We weren''t even technically trespassing in Youkai territory yet, not unless we entered Kyoto city unannounced. Yasaka took a moment to look at me before she let out a sigh. "I apologize. I thought you were another group that I recently had a scuffle with... I am wondering what Gabriel''s missing sister is doing in Japan, though," Yasaka asked. "Gabriel?" Sif asked me. "I thought your sister was Penemue." "Sif, I have like a million brothers and sisters," I replied. "WHAT!?" Sif exclaimed in shock. I think I broke her right there... I turned back to Yasaka, who was giggling at us now. It seemed that our short scuffle had ended. She didn''t look like she wanted to keep fighting us at least. "I''m sorry for attacking you. Yesterday, we had some intruders in Kyoto. They tried to kidnap my daughter, and she was unfortunately poisoned," Yasaka said before shooting me a glare. "Some of the attackers consisted of Fallen Angels. Ugh, of course, it did. What was with my race and always causing problems with everyone else? I sighed before replying. "On behalf of the Fallen, I can only apologize. I can also promise that the perpetrators will be punished when we find out who they are," I said with a diplomatic voice. I didn''t think this was a coincidence. Our race''s leader, Azazel, accidentally disappears himself trying to rescue me and a day later, members of our race launch a raid on Kyoto. They were probably just waiting for such an opportunity. I''d even suspect them of sabotaging his artificial sacred gear, but frankly, the majority of Fallen Angels are not tech-savvy. I couldn''t think of anyone who''d be able to do that in the first place. "That''s a start..." Yasaka said. "But it''s not enough. If you really want to make amends, then I want you to get in contact with your sister Gabriel." "Gabriel?" I asked. "Why her?" I didn''t remember any interactions between Heaven and the Yokai from my memories. Heaven didn''t even have that big of a presence in Japan since there were that many followers of Father in this country. Yasaka scoffed. "You''re clearly very important to her. The church put out a 10 Billion USD reward for any information that could lead to your safe return after Azazel''s supposed experiment gone wrong. The whole supernatural community was up in arms about it. That''s a staggering amount of money, after all..." Hell yeah, it was! I wonder if I could turn myself in to collect!? [Worth a shot?] "Ok, yeah, me and Gabriel are close. What do you need from her?" I asked again. "I need her to send the Saint Asia Argento to Kyoto," Yasaka grimaced. "We''ve tried everything, and nothing so far has been able to purge the poison from my daughter." Yasaka explained with tears in her eyes. "We even bought a phoenix tear for 100 Million USD, and it didn''t work! My only hope is the legendary [Twilight Healing] sacred gear at this point." Huh? Only [Twilight Healing] could save her? Now wasn''t that a convenient coincidence? It seems my 30 points in luck was paying off. [Quest Issued¡úHeal Yasaka''s Daughter Kunou from the deadly poison afflicting her!] [Reward¡ú Level Up! Yasaka''s Favor.] XXX A bit later, after assuring Yasaka that I didn''t need to contact Gabriel and that I could heal her daughter myself, Yasaka led us out of the woods and towards a teleportation formation that was waiting for her. I had forgotten these were actually a thing since on the Earth Marvel, I''d just been using my sling rings or apparition. The dimensional gap blocked the sling rings from working, and unfortunately, I''d never really practiced apparition or angelic teleportation¨Cwhich was basically the same thing but sounded cooler. [Bet you''re regretting not practicing angelic teleportation now, huh?] ''Kind of.'' The sling ring was just so superior I never bothered learning to teleport on my own. Even Voldemort, with massive magic reserves, can''t apparate across the planet without risking maiming himself... The three of us stepped inside the magic circle, and a flash of light later, I found myself staring at the interior of a Japanese-style home, complete with tatami floors and shoji sliding doors. "Interesting architecture." Sif commented as she looked around curiously. I supposed this all would be a bit of a culture shock for her. "So where''s your daughter?" I asked. "Kunou is this way." Yasaka briskly led us down a hallway towards another wing of the building. Outside another door, two male fox yokai stood guard. Both had only three tails each. "Thank you for your diligence, Maru and Koharu. I''ll take over Kunou''s safety from here," Yasaka said to the two. They bowed to her before leaving. "I didn''t know there were male kitsune." I said. Yasaka nodded. "Yes, they are much weaker magically than the women though and are typically kept in our clan compounds for protection. Those two standing guard were more ceremonial than actually for Kunou''s protection. She is the princess of the Kitsune and Kyoto Yokai faction, after all." "So your men sit around all day and are solely used for procreation? How absurd." Sif scoffed. "I mean, isn''t that pretty much what the majority of women on Asgard do? You''re kind of an outlier, Sif..." I said. Sif blushed. I think she took my words as a compliment when I was more of just stating a fact. Yasaka gave me a puzzled look. "What about the Valkyries? They are all women, and their might is well known. I''ve heard tales that there''s a young incredibly talented Valkyrie mage that goes by Rosweise who has become Odin''s personal secretary." "Odin''s secretary?" Sif asked, confused. "She''s talking about a different Asgard, Sif. Not the one you''re from. I''ll tell you about it later." I explained. Yasaka shot me a curious look, but I waved her off. Sif nodded. I had no idea why a second Asgard existed on Earth DxD. All I know is that it had been here basically from the start. It''s possible the DxD Asgardians were from another timeline and fled here to possibly escape their version of Ragnarok. I wouldn''t know unless I asked the perverted DxD Odin though. I wasn''t exactly jumping to do that either considering how detested the man is by pretty much every female supernatural being in the world. This was the man who made an innocent Issei Hyodou into the perverted protagonist he was in only one meeting. There was also no known way Odin didn''t know he was corrupting the future Red Dragon Emperor as a child either. A god of his level would easily have been able to see the Sacred Gear hidden in Issei''s soul. I put those thoughts away for later. I had a little fox girl to heal right now. Getting on her smoking hot mother''s good side was also a bonus. I approached Kunou''s bedside and cringed at what I saw. Her skin was almost purple, and she was taking ragged, harsh-sounding breaths. Yasaka explained that Kunou was in constant pain from the poison and that she had to be placed into a magical coma; otherwise, she''d be screaming right now. "This is sick. Who would do this to a child?" Sif asked. Yasaka shook her head. "We don''t know their group''s name. There were one or two fallen with the group, but the strange thing was that the group that attempted to kidnap her included many different races besides them." She explained. In any other circumstance, that would be a great sign that different races were starting to get along with each other. In this instance, though, it was bad. The failed kidnappers were obviously the Khaos Brigade. It appeared that their fallen angel members decided to take advantage of Azazel''s sudden disappearance to launch this attack way earlier than they would have in canon. I summoned [Twilight Healing] and placed my hands over the girl. A green glow enveloped her body, and I willed my Sacred Gear to purge the poison from her body. "But that''s... How do YOU have that?" Yasaka asked me accusingly as she watched me heal her daughter. Maybe she suspected that I stole this Sacred Gear from Asia Argento? She made no move to stop me from healing her daughter, though. "This was a gift from my father to me, Lady Yasaka. You can rest assured that I did not steal this Sacred Gear from any human. It was bestowed upon me exclusively." I said. That was the excuse I had come up with if anyone ever asked about it in the future. They wouldn''t exactly be able to argue it either because "God works in mysterious ways" and all that. Yasaka still gave me a look of suspicion and I''ve no doubt she''d use her information channels to verify my words later. Kunou''s complexion started to clear up, and her skin began to shift from sickly green to a more normal skin tone. Her breathing also drastically started to improve. [-200 MP] Whatever poison the Khaos Brigade used on the girl was nefarious and extremely deadly. To compare, it didn''t take nearly that much MP to fully heal Tony Stark from his palladium poisoning. At the same time, though, the poison wasn''t immediately lethal. They clearly wanted the girl to live for a while. [Probably to force Yasaka to help them in return for a cure.] ''That''s what I was thinking as well.'' Which means... they''ll be back soon to offer such a deal to Yasaka without knowing that I''ve already cured her daughter. XXX Chapters 81-85 Chapters 81-85 The Seraphim Michael, the current leader of Heaven, sat upon his throne in the Seventh Heaven. The seventh realm was reserved only for the archangels and his father himself. It was where the Heavenly System was located; it was the throne itself. While sitting upon it, Michael could hear every single prayer in the world in real time. He could then influence the system to bestow blessings onto the people praying who were worthy of them. Michael ignored the prayers of the wicked and cruel. Even if they were ironically devout, they were still not worthy of Heaven''s blessings. Another thing the throne could do was show him the information on all of the world''s current Sacred Gear holders. That''s why he was currently very confused at the information he was receiving. A new Sacred Gear had entered the system. Another [Twilight Healing] had come into existence! That shouldn''t have been possible, and yet it had happened. What shocked him even more was when he received the information of who was in possession of the Sacred Gear. His youngest sister, Layla, had it... He wondered how this had come to be. Their father had NEVER given a Sacred Gear to any angel before. Although, Layla wasn''t just any other Angel. She was his final child after all. Michael wondered if their Father might have foreseen his own death and chosen to bestow his last child with one last parting gift. It was odd that it had only awakened now of all times, but then again, some humans could go their entire lives without ever awakening their Sacred Gears. Michael was just glad that his youngest sister was still okay and within reach of the Heavenly System. He was sure Gabriel would be ecstatic to hear the news. ... [You have leveled up!] "Here is some tea; thank you for healing my daughter. When those monsters return, I will break them!" Yasaka declared with a grunt that promised vengeance upon the Khaos Brigade. "This is quite good. It is also strange to see a queen preparing her own drinks. Your culture is fascinating," Sif commented. "I''m not really a queen per se..." Yasaka stated. "Were you elected to lead the yokai?" I asked her. She shook her head no. "I inherited the position from my mother, as Kunou will one day from me." "Then you are a queen." "That''s the definition of a queen." Sif and I bluntly stated at the same time. We turned to each other and laughed. Yasaka blushed but didn''t argue our logic any further. "Will you require further assistance to deal with the perpetrators of your daughter''s poisoning?" Sif asked Yasaka. The fox woman shook her head. "I thank you for the offer, but I''m afraid this is a Kyoto matter and should be dealt with as such. It was some of my retainers that betrayed my family and let the intruders into our home in the first place," she explained. "I would actually like to ask you what you desire as a reward for saving my daughter, Layla?" Yasaka asked me. Oh right, the quest reward also said I would receive "Yasaka''s Favor" as well as a Level Up. I wondered just how far I could push such a favor, though. A thought crossed my mind... The Yokai have a lot of reach within the human business world as well as the supernatural, do they not?" I asked Yasaka. She nodded to me. "Could you offer a very lucrative job to a man in Kuoh that requires him and his family to move to Kyoto?" I asked her. "Without making it look suspicious?" I had just thought of the perfect way to use her "Favor" to help further relations between our two factions and completely screw over the Devils at the same time. Yasaka frowned a bit. "I admit it shouldn''t be too hard. You want to relocate a family out of the devil territory? Might I ask why?"Findd new stories at novelhall.com "The son of the family is the next Red Dragon Emperor. He currently should be or will soon be in the crosshairs of the two Devil princesses for enslavement," I said as I spat out that last word. That''s what peerages were from my memories. Enslavement. Found Family? Camaraderie? Love? Hell no! The evil pieces came with built-in mind control that made the peerage members naturally inclined to love their "Kings" over time. Baraqiel was furious when he found out his daughter was taken by the Gremory Clan. She was spirited off to the underworld for years after that, and it was only years later that Rias and her slaves started attending human school. By then, Akeno would have been fully indoctrinated. One of my goals was to eventually give my niece back her freedom, but for that to occur, I would need a way to safely extract the evil pieces without killing the Host. Ajuka was very thorough when he created the things unfortunately. I knew with the power of the system though, I''d be able to do it. [Damn right! I''m way better than anything some paltry mad scientist devil could ever make!] Yasaka''s eyes widened. "The Red Dragon!? He''s in Kuoh?" I nodded. "We can''t let him fall into the devil''s hands." Judging by Kunou''s current age, which appeared to be very close to canon, he could be recruited very soon. The only reason I knew canon hasn''t started yet was that Asia Argento was still currently a revered Holy Maiden in the church. "Very well," Yasaka said. "It will be done. Now, why don''t you tell me a bit more about the young man?" XXX "Thank you so much for this opportunity, Miss Yasaka! I promise you won''t regret making me the head of development for your new string of apartment complexes," Gorou Hyoudou, an older human man and father, said to the currently disguised Fox Woman. Yasaka had her ears and tails hidden and was wearing a VERY tight businesswoman suit. Her shirt''s seams were holding on for dear life, doing everything to not tear and cause her shirt to bust open from her impressive bust. No pun intended. [That pun was absolutely intended, you liar...] Yasaka and I were sitting in the Hyoudou family''s new home in Kyoto. It had been about a week since she sent out the anonymous job offer to the Hyoudou family to try and snatch the Red Dragon Emperor away from the Devils. There was just one small caveat¡ª "Care for some tea, Miss Layla?" Miki Hyoudou, the mother of the current Red Dragon, asked me. She held out a teeming cup for me to take. "Thank you," I smiled at her and took a small sip. It was hand-brewed and not instant, which I appreciated. "Wow, DAD! These are your new bosses. Both of them are so beautiful! And their Oppai are amazing! I hope mine grow that big someday!" And there was our current problem speaking now... "Isane Hyoudou! That is no way to talk to guests, let alone your father''s new bosses! Apologize now!" Miki scolded her daughter¡ªyes, daughter. There was no Red Dragon Emperor. There was, however, a Red Dragon Empress this generation. Issei had been gender-bent. That wasn''t exactly a big problem per se, but it did throw all of my meta knowledge into question now. The teenage girl apologized to me. "I''m sorry. Sometimes my mouth just gets ahead of me, and I say stuff before I know what I''m saying!" Isane explained. Yasaka giggled nearby. I could tell she found the situation hilarious. She had also laughed at me earlier for trusting whoever my "information broker" was, considering he was so unreliable. Yasaka was under the impression that I had a terrible broker who gave me the information about Isane being a boy and not a girl. I found it was easiest to run with stories that people came up with on their own, so I just went with it and told her I would fire the nonexistent guy. "Well, at least he was correct about her actually being the Red Dragon Empress," Yasaka said a few days ago. "Otherwise, all of this would have been for naught." "It''s fine, Miss Hyoudou. Just know that most women will not be comfortable with a young girl like you talking about their chests so openly," I explained. Isane pouted. "I''m not young! I''m 17, I''ll have you know!" "Talk to me in another year then," I muttered. The girl heard me, though, and perked up. "Is that an invitation!?" She asked with excitement. "Isane! No flirting with older women until you''re 18, we''ve talked about this!" Her mother scolded her again. She then apologized to Yasaka and us and explained that Isane was very much into girls... We had noticed... Isane couldn''t take her eyes off of either Yasaka or myself for hardly a few seconds. Isane was cute, I''d give her that. She had short brown hair and a heart-shaped face. But she was currently jailbait, and I wasn''t going anywhere near that. Isane quieted down after that, and Yasaka started hammering out the details of Gorou''s new position with him. The job did, in fact, exist. The apartments were just being built to house yokai and not humans. Gorou didn''t need to know that, as he was just the construction general manager. It was the same as his job in Kuoh, except Yasaka had offered him twice as much money to move to Kyoto and start immediately. Sif conjured a small dagger and pricked her palm with it. A line of blood temporarily spilled out before it turned orange and shot back inside her skin! A second later, her skin completely sealed shut. There was no scar or evidence of a cut at all. "Wow!" Sif squealed in excitement before she wrapped me in a tight hug. "I can''t wait to spar with Thor soon with this on my side! Let''s see him win now when he can''t even hurt me!" She boasted with pride. Now that she was completely over Thor, she wanted to defeat him in combat for some reason. I''m not sure why, to be honest. With our slight distraction over with, we headed back towards the supposedly abandoned church at the edge of town. As we approached, I got a feeling like I was unwelcome to be there. I frowned at the sensation. It had been a while since I''d felt like that. "Are you alright, Layla?" Sif asked me. "Yeah, it''s just that this is consecrated ground, and I''m technically not welcome here as a fallen angel. It''s not so bad, just feels like a mildly unpleasant tingle. It''s not that strong since it''s been abandoned for so long," I explained. I had to give it to Raynare. It was smart that she chose this place. The devils wouldn''t think to look here as they would assume we Fallen wouldn''t want to stay in a place that makes us uncomfortable either. The doors of the church were closed, and I didn''t feel like knocking. I lifted my foot up and kicked them inwards. With my 35 strength, the already rotting wooden doors immediately ripped off their hinges and were flung across the room. "Raynare. Get your ass out here!" I yelled loudly. Inside the church were about two dozen ex-priests. They were all looking at me like I was crazy. "Who the hell dares yell at Raynare like that!? Do you have a death wish, bitch? Huh? Do you¡ªoh fuck, Layla..." A short blond Fallen Angel came rushing down the pews and screaming her head off. That was until she saw my face and turned meek in an instant. The old Layla and her might have been similar in power, being both low class, but in the hierarchy, I was far above any of them. [Good ol'' nepotism.] ''Damn straight!'' "Hello, Mittlett. I know what you and the three other idiots have been up to. Now, where the fuck is Raynare, and where is Asia Argento?" I asked her as I glared down at her. Mittlett started shaking with fear in her eyes. That was a good start... XXX Mittlet shook in fear! What the hell was her youngest sister doing here? Layla was supposed to have been missing because of one of Azazel''s crazy experiments. Had that been a lie? All so that Azazel could secretly send her after their group? Did Azazel know what they were up to? Mittlet''s mind was racing as she tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. "Don''t hurt yourself there, Sister," Layla said across from her. "Critical thinking was never really your thing after all," she said as she snickered at her own joke. The armored blonde woman next to Layla also started giggling. Mittlet had never wanted to stab someone so badly, but she refrained. She could feel the power almost seeping off the armored woman. Clearly, Azazel wouldn''t let his precious little Layla go anywhere without a strong bodyguard. Mittlet could tell the woman was easily strong enough to beat everyone here without breaking a sweat. And speaking of everyone else. Where the hell were they? "Hey! Dohnaseek, Kalawarner! I can sense you two hiding! Come out now!" Layla yelled loudly enough for her voice to echo across the church. "H-hiding? We weren''t hiding, younger sister. We were just um... taking a nap," Dohnaseek emerged from the church''s backroom wearing his stupid fedora. Kalawarner was right behind him. "Hey, Hey, Hey! What''s going on here!? Why are all you mighty Fallen Angels acting so scared just ''cause two fuckable pretty little things showed up. Come on! As your loyal follower, I''m embarrassed!" From a nearby pew, a man who was laying down and catching some shut-eye sat up. He had silver hair, red eyes, and a manic expression on his face when he spotted Layla and her guard. Mittlet cursed in her mind. Freed Selzen was batshit insane, and she had no idea why Raynare let the crazy fucker stay around! "Shut the hell up, Freed! Couldn''t you hear us calling her sister! This is Layla, she''s a Fallen Angel as well," Mittlet yelled at the crazy exorcist. "Well, if they''re here to ruin our plans, then we might as well kill them, right? Ugh!" Freed said before he suddenly coughed out blood. Mittlet''s eyes widened in fright at what she had just witnessed ¨C except she didn''t! Layla''s bodyguard had moved faster than her eyes could track and had impaled her sword right through Freed''s torso. A second later, she pulled it out. Blood splattered onto the holy ground before Freed dropped to his knees, clutching at the hole in his chest. "That''s the second time you''ve insulted the lady I love with such a foul mouth. I won''t be hearing it a third time," the woman said as she swung her sword and all the blood dripping on it flew off. She sheathed it before turning back to Layla and smiling at her. The other nearby stray exorcists all shrank back in fear at the display. Mittlet knew that Freed was pretty much as strong as they were, and he was disposed of just like that. And by a woman who claimed to be in love with her youngest sister... "Mittlet!" "Eeeeep!" Mittlet jumped as Layla called out her name. "Well, that was unpleasant, but we''re wasting time now. Where is Raynare?" Layla asked her again. This time the woman with her also glared and released a bit of her power into the air around them. It felt crushing and smoldering as it pressed down on everybody in the room. Mittlet peed herself... and then fell backward. ... Oh for fuck''s sake... Mittlet wet herself in fear and then passed out. That was gross, and I feel bad for whoever will be cleaning that mess up. I turned toward my other two siblings. Dohnaseek and Kalawarner were both cowards at heart and had been keeping themselves relatively quiet. "I''ll tell you where they went! Just don''t sic your paramour on us! Please!" Kalawarner said as she stepped forward. "Kala, no! Raynare will punish us!" Dohnaseek said. "I will punish you two if you don''t tell me!" I said as I let my 8 black wings emerge from my back. The expression on the two''s faces upon seeing them was pure shock. "E-eight!? HOW!?" Dohnaseek trembled as he asked. None of us his business, that''s how. "Oh fuck! It''s a high-ranking Angel! "We''re screwed, man, screwed!" "Game over, run for it!" CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!... I watched the comical scene before me as the dozen or so stray exorcists remaining all started fleeing wherever they could. Considering there was only one entrance to the church, they all started giving out the windows. Glass was shattering everywhere as they all dove out the windows in fright. It didn''t even take 20 seconds for them all to clear out of the church. I considered capturing them, but chose not to. That many stray exorcists running throughout Kuoh town was sure to draw the attention of the devils. I could use that as a distraction. Kalawarner looked gobsmacked as she watched all of her henchmen run away. She turned back to me once they were all gone, though, and let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, Asia Argento ran away and is hiding somewhere in the town. Raynare told us all to stay here and keep a low profile while she went out and searched for the girl. "You could have just started with that instead of wasting all this time!" I yelled at her, and she shrank back. "You two, pick up Mittlet over there and get the hell out of this town. I have no doubt the Devil princesses are going to be on full alert soon," I told them. My two conscious siblings nodded vehemently before I spun around and headed back out the way Sif and I came in. XXX chapters 86-90 chapters 86-90 Chapters: 86-90 "Thanks for defending the ''woman you love'' back there, Sif," I teased the blonde goddess next to me. She blushed and turned her head to the side. I''d have to talk to her about immediately resorting to violence over some words though. She resorted to killing Freed Selzen really fast over a couple of insults and threats. I was fine with her killing Freed¨Cbecause fuck that guy¨Cbut she can''t go stabbing other people so quickly in the future like that. [Who would have thought that Lady Sif was just a stab-happy Yandere-chan deep down?] That''s not exactly how I would have worded it, but the System was pretty much right. I was aware of the subtle glares she would send Yasaka whenever the beautiful fox woman and I were speaking closely. I''m pretty sure Yasaka was aware as well but just didn''t care. She could have squished Sif like a bug at any time power-wise. "O-of course!" Sif said without looking at me. Her embarrassment was cute. "I won''t let that homewrecker Hela have you all to herself!" She said as she slammed her fist against her chestplate in some kind of Asgardian pledge. "So where do you think your sister is right now? This town isn''t huge, but it''s not small either." Hmm, I wasn''t quite sure. Searching the whole town was going to be a hassle and¨C BOOM! A thunderous crack rang out from nearby. A few blocks away in the sky, I could see dark clouds forming overhead that started sparking with lightning. Thunder rang out repeatedly as bolts of lightning started coming down from the sky. I could make out the hazy outline of someone hovering in the air, controlling all the lightning. Sif looked at the forming clouds with her mouth wide. "Is Thor here!?" I shook my head. "No... it''s my niece. It looks like she found Raynare and probably Asia as well." "Then we must save the two post haste!" Sif started running towards the location of the fight. She was moving far faster than she should have been able to. Just like she did in the church. The Extremis formula didn''t just enhance her healing but also her speed and strength as well. I spread my wings behind me and took off behind her to catch up. ... "Stop attacking me you half breed bitch! I haven''t done anything to you!" I arrived on the scene quickly to see Raynare down on her knees. She was literally smoking and covered in painful looking electric burns. The golden haired Asai was crouched down next to her. The familiar green light of [Twilight Healing] was spread around Raynare''s form as Asia worked to heal her. I was surprised that Asia was actually healing someone she ran away from because they wanted to steal her Sacred Gear. The former nun was clearly too kind and forgiving. We were in an empty park. Thankfully, all the regular humans had already fled for their lives. I had no idea how the Devil''s were planning on covering this up though. Memory erasure only went so far and Akeno was shooting lighting around in the middle of a clear sunny day. She hadn''t even bothered to put up a barrier before she attacked either. She had a manic look on her face as she floated in the air, staring down at Raynare. "You filthy Fallen Angel! You didn''t have to do anything! All of your kind should die!" Akeno said coldly before she conjured more lightning and hurled it down towards Raynare. I quickly flew down between them and conjured a [Lightshield] to absorb the lightning. Akeno''s thunder was powerful, but my shield easily stopped it. Had Akeno been using [Holy Lightning], that would have been more difficult. I could feel she was only relying on her demonic power, though. "Another Fallen Angel! And one with 8 wings, no less!" Akeno looked angry at my arrival. "Hello, Niece. Could you please stop attacking Raynare? She is a moron, but she''s a weak moron, and you''re bullying her," I said. "Layla!" Raynare shouted out behind me. Her voice was full of surprise! "What the hell are you doing here!? And why do you have 8 wings!?" "I''m here to stop your dumbass from restarting the great war. Did you think just because Asia was excommunicated that you could do whatever you wanted with her? She saved hundreds of lives of members of her faction over the years. If she is killed, then they will clearly demand vengeance," I said to Raynare, who gulped at my implications. I, of course, had no idea if what I was spouting was true. But with [Acting level 3], it sounded convincing at least. Either way, Raynare seemed to at least hear my words. "Fuck... Was my whole plan worthless from the start?" Raynare asked. "Yes. Because you''re dumb," I said to her. I heard her mutter a string of curses in reply. "Are you two ignoring me?" Akeno''s voice screamed out over the thunder. Asia, who was nearby, squeaked in fright as another bolt headed towards her. I casually raised another [Lightshield] and blocked this attack just like the first one. Akeno was glaring at me for how easily her attack was blocked. You know, she was kind of a one-trick pony when I thought about it. All she really ever did was shoot lightning. XXX The sound of steel clashing against steel echoed nearby. I was wondering where Sif had gotten off to considering she took off first. A moment later, I finally saw her. She was facing a teenage blond boy in a duel of swords. Well, I called it a duel, but Sif was thrashing Kiba Yuuto at the moment. Her recent enhancements really gave the woman some combat upgrades. "Guff!" Kiba grunted in pain when Sif disarmed him before she kicked him square in the stomach. Kiba spat up some blood and his body flew backward and crashed into a nearby tree. With her opponent dealt with for now, Sif ran over towards me. "Layla! Sorry, I got held up by that demonic child. His sword form was adequate, but he lacked power, and his conjured swords were brittle," she explained and looked proud of herself for besting him so easily. "Was he one of the devil slaves that you mentioned?" "Yes. He''s one of the slaves. His master is the same one who owns my niece currently," I said while pointing up at the fuming Akeno. She was looking at our group with even more fury after seeing Sif so handily defeat Kiba. "You''ll pay for that!" Akeno shrieked. "All Fallen Angels should just die!" "But aren''t you yourself also a Fallen Angel?" Sif asked Akeno. She turned to me and gave me a confused look. "I''m nothing like them! They killed my mother!" Akeno shrieked as she fired a bolt of thunder at Sif. Sif simply raised her sword to the air and let it attract her attack. The lightning hit Sif''s blade before being quickly dissipated. My eyebrow raised at that move. That was pretty cool. "My sword is insulated against lightning. I used to regularly spar with Thor, after all, and if my weapon was a conductor, I wouldn''t have lasted very long," Sif explained. That made a lot of sense. "Why is your niece so hateful of her own race?" I shook my head. Akeno had been in the underworld for years now. It wouldn''t have been hard for the Devils to poison her mind against her own kind. On top of that, the evil piece inside her made her mind already addled with loyalty towards Rias. My niece was unfortunately a mess that desperately needed that evil piece removed from her followed by a lot of therapy. A glowing red magic circle materialized on the ground where Kiba''s unconscious body was slumped over. In its place, a familiar Red-Headed Devil appeared. I''d give Rias Gremory this¨Cshe was extremely beautiful¨CI still had no trust for devils, though. This dimension wasn''t canon, and they were a lot more secretive and ruthless here. She gave a haughty glare to us before she spoke. "To dare trespass into territory owned by the house of Gremory! Don''t think you''ll be leaving here alive, Fallen! Especially after injuring my adorable servant," Rias Gremory said as she fussed over Kiba. "Fuck off, Gremory bitch. Your crazy queen attacked me first and tried to kidnap Asia here," Raynare yelled back. Hmph. You Fallen absconded with a Sacred Gear user I had my eye on. It''s only right that we replace him with the blond girl over there!" Rias said as she pointed at Asia. "I don''t want to be an evil devil..." Asia mumbled as she shrank back in fear. I reached over and patted her on the shoulder to comfort her. Asia gave me a hopeful smile. "Don''t worry about them," I said. "The Devil princess is just spewing hot air. First of all, this territory isn''t actually owned by the house of Gremory. It''s owned by the Kyoto faction and was supposed to be rented to the Belial Devil Clan. It''s strange how there are another two devil clans living here when that was in no way part of the lease, huh?" I said while staring hard at Rias. She flinched and looked away. "We''re currently renting it from them..." Rias mumbled. "You can''t rent out property that you are renting yourself. Everybody knows that... the only reason you haven''t been kicked out yet is because of your big brother, so stop acting so haughty!" I scolded her. "As for taking Asia Argento, she has joined the Grigori for now and has no wish to be a slave!" "My servants aren''t slaves!" "Tell that to my niece over there whose mind has been warped so badly she hates her own race!" I retorted. Rias gave me another glare for bringing up Akeno. Akeno flew down towards the ground and stood next to Rias. I think they were deciding on whether they wanted to fight us or not. I spread my wings and fully extended my magical aura around me. Next to me, Sif flared hers out as well. The both of us were clearly High Class in strength while Rias and Akeno were both Mid Class at best. The two girls looked like they swallowed lemons when they realized the difference in power. They decided to make the smart choice and back down. "Fine!" Rias spat out. "You can leave. But never come back!" She''d like that, but I would definitely be back someday for Akeno. "Sif, would you kindly knock those two girls out?" I asked the goddess next to me. She grinned happily before speeding forward. "Wha¨C" Rias tried to speak, but Sif was already upon the girl and clocked her over the head. Rias fell backward unconscious. Akeno started to pale as realization dawned upon her. "Um, Layla. Why exactly are you taking a young child hostage?" Sif asked me with some concern. "Because his mom will be here soon and she''ll kill us all if I don''t." Sif nodded. "I guess that makes sense... it doesn''t feel right, though." As an Asgardian, she probably thought my actions were dishonorable. "Even if he is the spawn of devils. He''s still a child. I''m sure he hasn''t committed any sins against the Lord." Asia spoke up. She gave Millicas a gentle smile. She really was too kind for this world. "That''s right!" Akeno, who was now powerless because she refused to use her light energy, spoke up. "Millicas is a sweet boy who''s never harmed a soul. Let him go!" Millicas trembled in my grip. I could tell the [Lightdagger] I was holding up near him was causing him great discomfort. He''d probably never been around Light energy in his whole life. "Fuck you, bitch. You don''t know anything about devils, do you? They must have brainwashed you real good while you were their slave!" Raynare yelled at Akeno. While her choice of words was harsh, they weren''t necessarily wrong. I gripped the [Lightdagger] tighter and held it up to Millicas''s throat. "Now I want you to answer honestly, Millicas," I said threateningly. "What is your favorite food?" My dagger touched his neck and left a small burn as he yelped in pain. Akeno growled at me, but Raynare easily held the girl back. "What the hell does that have to do with anything? Millicas''s favorite food is pizza!" Akeno shouted. Sif and Asia were looking at me questioningly. Asia shifted uncomfortably and bit her lip. "You shouldn''t hurt an innocent child..." she muttered. "Even if he is a devil." "My favorite food is pizza! Akeno is right¨Caaarggh!" I burned his neck a bit more this time, and he shrieked. Everyone but Raynare was now looking at me like I was crazy for doing that to an ''innocent child.'' "I said don''t lie. If you lie again, I will hurt you." Millicas had tears in his eyes, and they were probably real, but that didn''t mean I was letting the little monster go. There was a particular secret about noble devils that was kept strictly under wraps. Why were they so strong when they were so young? Other supernatural beings took hundreds of years to reach the power that young devils reached in only a few decades. Why was that? The answer was simple and terrifying at the same time. It was their food... "Ok. I promised Mother and Father to never talk about it, but I''ll tell! It''s the glowing fruits! Those glowing fruits that they give me once a month. They''re so delicious and they make me feel so good when I eat them!" Millicas shouted, and I pulled back my [Lightdagger] from his neck. "Glowing fruits?" Asia asked with a puzzled look. "What are those? Do fruits glow in the underworld?" she asked. Akeno and Sif looked confused as well. Raynare had a look of disgust. "Once a month! This kid is like 8 years old! That''s almost 100 total! Absolutely vile and disgusting. And people call us Fallen Angels evil..." I looked at Sif and Asia. "They''re souls. Human souls. Young noble devils are fed them throughout their childhoods in order to grow stronger quickly," I said to the two girls. Sif immediately had a look of horror on her face while Asia gasped in shock. XXX "Liar!" Akeno shouted as Raynare let her go. Akeno had tears in her eyes. "You''re lying. The Maous outlawed the taking and consumption of human souls! Everyone knows that!" Akeno said. "Rias... there''s no way she would do that!" I shook my head. "I hate to break it to you, Akeno, but this is reality. Millicas just admitted it to you himself. As for outlawing the consumption of human souls? So what? Since when do Devils actually follow their own laws? As long as they don''t do it openly, they figure no one else knows." "And we did fucking know!" Raynare spat out. "So does Heaven. The only ones who don''t know are the low-class reincarnated devil slaves along with all the humans. If the humans found out that they were still being hunted and devoured though¨C" Asia gasped. "Would the Great War start up again?" I shook my head. "Worse. This would be a war of annihilation. The humans wouldn''t hesitate to launch nuclear weapons at the underworld. In retaliation, Sirzechs or one of the other Maous would start magically nuking human continents and then the other factions would join in, and it would truly be a massive worldwide war! A war where everything would be destroyed." Even the warmongering Kokabiel wouldn''t want such a war! Our race wouldn''t emerge victorious after a final glorious battle like he would want. We''d just plain be wiped out. And even if we did win, the Underworld and Earth would probably be rendered inhospitable. It wouldn''t be worth it. Our discussion was interrupted as the magic circle nearby started to glow dark grey. Shit! She was already here! The teleportation circle went from dark gray to light silver. "Oh fuck, we''re all screwed. It wasn''t nice knowing all of you. Fuck you guys..." Raynare said as she started trembling in fear. Grayfia hadn''t even arrived yet, and I could already feel an absolutely massive magical signature approaching. This was an opponent I currently had no chance of beating. Who said I had to beat her though. The objective was to escape! [Quest Started¡ú Escape the Strongest Maid!] [Reward: Level Up x 4!] "Raynare!" I shouted her name and snapped her out of her depression. "As soon as Grayfia steps off the magic circle, I want you to start activating it for us to escape. You have to be quick!" Raynare looked unsure but nodded. She wasn''t completely useless after all. Sif drew her sword, and her gold armor shined as she stood next to me. She had received a huge power-up from Extremis, but she wasn''t Ultimate Class yet. And Grayfia was near the peak if the rumors bore true. Supposedly only slightly weaker than the Maou Leviathan was... And there she was. The underworld''s sexiest and strongest silver-haired maid materialized from the teleportation circle. It only took her a split second to take everything in. "Release my son at once, Fallen, and I''ll make your death quick!" She commanded. The room suddenly got a lot colder. Ice crept up everywhere as her ambient magic started to fill the room. The only thing keeping her from freezing us all alive was her son still in my possession. My [Lightdagger] was once again next to his throat. The scowl Grayfia gave me was the most intense I''d ever seen... "Mom, I came to visit Aunt Rias, but she wasn''t here. There were these Fallen Angels, and Akeno, and the armored lady!" Millicas said. Grayfia''s eyes narrowed. "Is this a declaration of war from the Fallen? What have you done to Rias!? And to dare harm my son! Once Sirzechs sees those Light Burns on his neck, it will mean war!" Grayfia declared. I smirked at her. My [Purger of Darkness] bracelet manifested on my wrist. A healing light enveloped Millicas, and an instant later all traces of his burns or my Light Energy inside of him disappeared. "Injuries? What injuries? Millicas is just fine, isn''t he? There! Not a scratch on him!" I said. I was loath to heal the little soul-eating monster, but she was right. His dad was batshit crazy about his family, and we were not yet ready to handle Sirzechs at full power. I''d need a lot more level-ups before then! "And Rias?" Grayfia asked. "She''s fine. She''s just taking a peaceful nap in the nearby park with her knight. He might be less fine than her, however." I said. Sif did hit Kiba pretty hard and probably left some internal damage. Nothing one of those crazy expensive Phenex Tears couldn''t heal, though! Grayfia stared for a moment in thought. "I thank you for healing my son and not harming Rias, but that still won''t save you all." Grayfia then turned to Akeno. "And you, Akeno. Are you with them? I thought you and Rias were sisters?" Grayfia said. Akeno bit her lip. "I thought we were too..." She said sadly. "Tell me, Grayfia. Do Millicas and Rias eat human souls?" Grayfia''s eyes widened in shock at Akeno''s question before her gaze hardened. "So you found out about that... that wasn''t information you were supposed to know until you''re granted high class and can be trusted to keep it a secret." "So it''s true!?" Akeno asked in shock. "Yes, it''s true. What does it matter? We''re devils. Immortal magical beings. Who cares about some paltry humans..." XXX Chapters 91-95 Chapters 91-95 "Who cares about some paltry humans..." Akeno frowned and then glared at Grayfia. To my surprise, I could feel Light Energy start to emanate from Akeno! Four black Fallen Angel wings burst forth from her back! "My mother was human! And she, and every other human, are not prey!" Akeno shouted and then she did something that truly surprised me. She summoned forth a [Lightspear] made of holy lightning and hurled it forward at Grayfia. The thing about Holy Lightning that made it so powerful and dangerous was... ...It was fast! It struck literally at the speed of lightning! It was an ability so dangerous that Akeno''s father''s enemies tried to kill her as a child just so she would never develop the same power as him! Grayfia grunted in pain as the lightning struck her. It didn''t do a lot of real damage ¨C if any ¨C but she was temporarily stunned. I took advantage. "Raynare! Get ready!" I shouted. I then rushed forward towards Grayfia and summoned the most condensed and powerful [Lightspear] that I could manage. It felt like I compressed the power of a hundred spears all into one. [-100MP!] Grayfia''s eyes widened when I slammed my [Lightspear] right into her torso. She was sent rocketing backwards. The force of my blow blasted her clear through the wall, and she flew outside. "Holy fucking shit!" Raynare exclaimed as she ran up to the teleportation circle and started to activate it. "That was hardcore as fuck, Layla!" I actually drew blood and managed to send Grayfia Lucifuge herself flying with my attack... I wanted to smile at such an achievement. Except I couldn''t. Right before Raynare could finish activating the teleportation circle, she was kneeling next to ¨C her head slid off of her shoulders. Raynare''s body collapsed to the floor. She was killed so quickly that she didn''t even know it... "Oh my god!" Asia shouted in fear. "You bitch!" Sif yelled angrily. As she charged forward with her blade, Grayfia conjured an ice sword, and their blades clashed together. Sif grunted in pain. Grayfia''s blow had far more force behind it. I heard the sound of bones snapping. Sif''s arms had broken from the force of that single clash... Thankfully, a split second later they glowed orange and started to heal. "Oh, that''s interesting. Are you some bastard child of the Phenex clan?" Grayfia asked before she swung her sword again at Sif. The goddess scoffed as she parried the blow. She was now aware of the difference in power and started dueling Grayfia defensively. "I am no bastard! I am the goddess Sif of mighty Asgard! And I will not fall to some soul-eating monster!" She sped up her attacks on Grayfia. I was massively impressed. While Sif currently lacked power, she was making up for it in speed and was managing to temporarily hold Grayfia off. "We''ll see about that, Goddess!" Obviously, the super maid was still holding back due to her son being nearby, but it was still impressive. "Raynare''s dead..." Akeno said solemnly. "I thought I hated all Fallen Angels...but now..." Akeno had tears in her eyes as she looked at Raynare''s body. Asia walked over and kneeled down; she started praying. "Ow!" Grayfia shouted in pain, and Sif capitalized on the distraction to land her first blow on the woman. Next to my shallow stab wound on her chest, another shallow slash wound appeared. I looked down at Raynare''s body. Yes, she was basically evil, and yes, she was an idiot. She was also my sister though...and our only ticket out of here. I still had four revives that I had saved. I walked over to Raynare and used one of them on her. There was no flash of light or special effects. Simply, one second she was dead and gone, and the next she wasn''t. "Wahhh. What the fuck just happened!" Raynare said as she sat up. Her head was once again attached to her shoulders. "Eeeeeep!" Asia screamed in surprise. "It''s a miracle! Oh thank you, Lord! Your wonders know no bounds! Hallelujah!" Akeno just stared at me completely gobsmacked... "Ow dammit!" Grayfia shouted again as she continued to clash with Sif. "Raynare. It''s time for us to go. Finish it up!" I shouted. Raynare still looked confused but then snapped to it. "Alright! There we go, it''s ready. Time to get the fuck out of here!" The teleportation circle on the ground started glowing an eerie black. Raynare immediately hopped on top of it, followed by Asia and Akeno. "Sif, it''s time to go!" I shouted to the goddess who had bought us all this time. Her armor was covered in gashes and tears, but she herself looked fine due to her healing factor. Grayfia scowled at us as Sif jumped back and started running towards us. "I won''t let you all leave!" She looked like she was about to attack us. "Worry about your son first!" I shouted and summoned a quick [Lightspear]. With no hesitation, I threw it right at Millicas, who was hiding in the corner. There was no doubt the throw would kill him as I went for his head. Grayfia''s eyes widened in shock before she sped over towards her son and blocked the blow. That was all the time Sif and I needed as we hopped on the teleportation circle, and an instant later our group was gone from Kuoh! [Holy Shit, you actually did it! You have leveled up x 4!]Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com XXX -Hela- Hela sat on the throne of Asgard with a very annoyed expression on her face. Her beloved Layla had vanished over a week ago now, and she demanded answers. "So you''re telling me you have no idea what went wrong with the Bifrost?" Hela glared down at the Asgardian magic engineers, who were all looking back at her nervously. "No, Your Highness. We check the Bifrost every single month, and it has never failed. This was truly an anomaly! The woman''s sister even took the Bifrost down to Midgard a few days after the incident, and it was working fine then!" The head scientist explained. The other two men nodded vehemently as well. Hela refrained from casting them out for their sheer incompetence. She couldn''t afford to do that. These three Magi-Scientists were the last of their kind unfortunately. All the millions of others were wiped out when Asgard was destroyed 1000 years ago! Without these three idiots, the Bifrost would eventually break down, and she''d have no one to fix it! Its blend of magic and technology would be lost forever! "Get out of my sight and do what I asked! I demand all three of you immediately take apprentices and train them in everything you know!" Hela ordered them. "We''ve tried, my Queen! Oh, how we have tried!" Another one of the engineers said solemnly. "Yes! No man wants to learn from us. They only want to become warriors and swing swords all day!" Hela facepalmed... Sometimes she forgot that the majority of men in her culture were all idiots. "Then take some WOMEN as apprentices!" Hela ordered them. "But our guild has always been run by men..." "That''s right!" "Women shouldn''t be learning such a complicated craft!" And now Hela was finding out that the engineers were also sexist... She really wanted to stab them all right now! "Let me be very clear with you three..." Hela said menacingly as she stood from her throne. Her dark armor formed around her. "You will take three women as apprentices, and you will treat them right! Because if you don''t.... I WILL KILL YOU ALL!" Hela screamed loudly. The three men all paled in fear before they turned around and sprinted out of the throne room... Hela sighed as her armor once again disappeared, and she sat back down. Ruling was a lot more tedious than she imagined it to be. Hela hoped that Layla was alright wherever she ended up. Azazel had told her this wasn''t the first time Layla had been randomly teleported away in an accident. Hela hoped this did not become a pattern. ... ¨CPenemue¨C Penemue sat at the kitchen table and waited for the man she had come to visit. Her younger sister Layla had apparently become close friends with this human. They were also going into business together. That was nice. Penemue always felt like Layla needed more friends. When her sister was in Heaven and then later the Grigori, she had exactly... zero. Penemue admits that she and all of Layla''s other siblings might have been a tad bit overprotective... Penemue hadn''t been waiting long before she heard the man come down the stairs and head towards the kitchen. She noticed he was mumbling to himself groggily with signs of an obvious hangover. Layla had mentioned to her that this was a man who liked to party. Especially after Layla healed him after he supposedly put a palladium powered reactor in his chest. Was this human completely insane!? Maybe he was, but he was also really smart, and they were going to need his help. Tony Stark walked into the kitchen and immediately headed to the coffee pot she''d put on without sparing her a glance. "Nice! Pepper must have come over earlier and made coffee." Tony poured himself a cup and took a big gulp without even bothering to add cream or sugar. "Hello, Mr. Stark," Penemue slyly called out to the man. "Jesus Christ!" Tony jumped in the air in fright. His coffee pot went flying but a quick bit of telekinesis kept it from smashing on the floor. Penemue levitated the pot back to the counter while Tony caught his breath. "Shit, Layla! Don''t scare me like that! You could have texted that you were coming over. How''d you even sneak past Jarvis?" Tony said while pointing to the security camera in the room''s corner. She scoffed. "Any skilled enough supernatural being can easily make themselves invisible to modern cameras. If they couldn''t, the supernatural world would have been exposed years ago." She explained. "Also, you have me mistaken for my youngest sister. I am not Layla; I am Penemue," she said. She knew she and Layla looked very alike at a quick glance. Tony eyed her warily when he realized she wasn''t her sister. They had never met, after all, and she did just randomly show up at his house. "Ok, Layla''s big sister. What do you want from me?" Tony asked. "Layla will be a bit...indisposed for a while, and hence I will be filling in for her in the meantime. Layla was supposed to show up in court in a week, but that won''t be happening. As you can tell, we look so much alike that it shouldn''t be too noticeable if I took her place. We''ll also be working together on the other venture that you and Layla started. I have to admit, space travel intrigues me." Penemue said. She''d been managing the Grigori''s various businesses for hundreds of years now. Impersonating her sister and running a multi-billion-dollar corporation should be no problem for her. Tony gave Penemue a scrutinizing look as he inspected her up and down. "Hmmm, you might have to work on your disguise a bit. Layla has bigger boobs than you..." Penemue glared at the man for his audacity. She could tell this was going to be an annoying venture. She hoped Layla returned soon... XXX We had made it back to the Grigori HQ in the Underworld safely. Raynare didn''t screw up the teleportation¡ªsurprisingly¡ªand the circle managed to send us here safely. A few of my siblings who usually stood guard in the teleportation room smiled at my arrival and welcomed me back. As for Raynare, they just gave her some dismissive looks. [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 40] The pain slowly faded away as I looked at my new stats in shock! Every stat just doubled! That was a huge power-up I just got! On top of that, I still had 40 extra points from leveling up four times. I figured I might as well use those to top off [Intelligence] to 200 and [Luck] to 100. [Congratulations! For reaching 100 ''Intelligence'' you''ve gained the perk Mana Replenisher! Mana Replenisher has replaced Mana Siphoner!] [Mana Replenisher - Defeating enemies now restores 10x their level as MP] Woah! Now that was useful. Basically, if I fought a level 10 enemy, I''d get 100 MP back after beating them. If I was fighting a large group of weak enemies, I could now essentially keep fighting forever as I''d never run out of MP! [Congratulations! For reaching 200 ''Intelligence'' you''ve gained the perk Mana Burst!] [Mana Burst - You can temporarily raise all of your stats by sacrificing 10x the amount of Mana!] Damn, that was another good one. If I sacrificed 1000 MP, I could raise any of my stats temporarily by 100! That would allow me to punch above my current weight class by a lot! [Congratulations! For reaching 100 ''Luck'' you''ve gained the perk Lucky Shot!] [Every attack now has a 10% chance of doing double damage. This perk can be toggled on or off.] [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 14] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 8200] [MP: 2000] [Vigor: 220] [Strength: 70] [Intelligence: 200] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 5, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] That was the last new skill I got. This one sounded great for someone like me who likes to occasionally rain down hordes of [Lightspears]. If some of those hit for double damage, then my DPS just went up by a lot. It''s also good I can turn it off because I wouldn''t want to accidentally kill someone while sparring. "Hmph... you''re insane for actually taking in a second Sacred Gear. It''s a miracle that you didn''t end up exploding." Raynare commented from the side. I could see the envy in her eyes. She was extremely jealous right now. "Layla!" Sif scolded me. "You could have died from that!? Why didn''t you let someone else take the Sacred Gear!?" "It was my Sling Ring that fixed the thing and got it working. Therefore, the gear should have been mine as well." I said. "Also, I was fairly certain that I would survive. And obviously, I did." "This must be a blessing from the Lord! The Heavenly Father must truly love you to allow you to wield two of his creations!" Asia exclaimed. "Whatever..." Raynare said bitterly. "Who cares about some dumb Sacred Gear anyway! If you''ve got the thing working again, go and rescue Azazel now!" I supposed I could do that now. I could feel the new gear inside me. It was called the [Orb of Anywhere]. It was supposed to be able to travel anywhere. Azazel obviously created it to travel anywhere in the world, but even he never expected it to be able to punch through the dimensional gap itself. There was only one problem... I didn''t actually know where Earth Marvel was! As in, I didnt know its dimensional coordinates. Luckily for me Azazel kept a list of all of the dimensions he accessed so far and their coordinates when he was trying to find me. Unluckily for me, the list did not appear to be in any particular order. There looked to be about 30 dimensions listed on the paper. Out of those 30, the people/creatures in 15 of those worlds managed to kill the stray devils Azazel forcefully sent through as guinea pigs. That was both good and bad. It was good, in that I had fewer dimensions to check. But it was bad in that those dimensions had people strong enough to kill low/mid ranked stray devils. I guess I was going to have to try them out one by one to find my way back to Earth Marvel. XXX I decided that rushing off to alternate dimensions, in a 1 in 15 shot I made it back to Earth Marvel, was probably a bad idea. As a gamer, I wasn''t even tired from going all day, but my companions were all tired. Sif''s armor was also borderline destroyed after taking a thrashing from Grayfia. She wouldn''t be fighting in it again anytime soon, not until we could get back to Asgard and have it repaired at least. Good thing for her, I knew Penemue had a few sets of armor tucked away from the Great War. She probably wouldn''t mind if I lent one of them to Sif. The pitch-black wartime armor of the Fallen Angels would look hot when matched with Sif''s beautiful blond hair and golden eyes. We were all taking a breather and were in the cafeteria getting a quick meal. I say cafeteria, but it was more like a never ending all you can eat buffet with 5 star chefs. The Grigori had money to spare and didn''t skimp on luxuries. "This is really tasty! What is it called?" Asia asked. "That''s pizza, Asia," I said. "Aren''t you from Italy?" I asked with concern. "Oh! So this is pizza! The priests who managed my life never allowed me to eat anything like this. They called it an extravagant indulgence." Asia explained. I could understand her never having a cheeseburger since that''s more of an American thing. But she never had pizza? She''s Italian! That''s practically blasphemy! The more Asia talked about her life, the more I felt bad for her. She was pretty much a slave from my interpretation. Her church''s head priests were raking in millions in "donation money" off her healing while giving her nothing in return. She lived in a very tiny room with no TV, internet or any real entertainment to speak of. All she was given was the Bible and orders to pray all day long when she wasn''t healing people... Her getting excommunicated as a witch was probably a good thing given the circumstances. I also marveled at the stupidity of the priests who kicked her out. How exactly were they planning on making any more money once their cash cow was gone? If they were smart, then they would have covered up her healing the devil and never spoken of it to anyone... Sif placed her hand on Asia''s shoulder comfortingly. "While slavery is still technically allowed on Asgard, it is only reserved for the most heinous of criminals as a punishment!" Sif said. "Make no mistake, young Asia. You are now under our protection, and we shall not let you be treated that way ever again." Asia started tearing up. "Really? Is that like¨Cis that like being family?" She asked with a hopeful look. "Of course it is, Asia. I would love for us to be family," I said. Raynare was sitting across the table sulking. "Tsk, what family!" She said angrily as she glared at me. "There were a dozen real Sacred Gears down there in the workshop, and you wouldn''t let me have a single one!" She was still upset over me getting a second Sacred Gear when I had prevented her from taking Asia''s... "First of all, those are all Azazel''s Gears that he uses for research. Secondly, they''re all trash. The best Gear he had in his workshop was a fragment of Vitra, and without the complete set, those Sacred Gears are pretty much useless." I explained to her. "I don''t care about that! All I care about is getting stronger so Azazel notices me!" Raynare shouted loudly. Ugh... Fangirls. "Raynare... you and Azazel are never happening. You know he''s currently with Penemue. They''re even trying to have a child together." I said. A look of shock overcame her as she stood up and slammed her arms on the table. "What!? No, that can''t be!" She slumped back down and looked crushed. My words did not go unnoticed by the other Fallen in the cafeteria, mostly because of how loud and cringy Raynare was currently being. "Azazel and Penemue are having a child!" "This is wondrous news!" "We gotta tell everyone!" A bunch of my eavesdropping siblings started cheering and frantically ran out of the cafeteria, presumably to go and spread the gossip. Raynare''s outburst had not seemed to bother Asia at all as she was still on cloud nine and giggling to herself about finally having a family. I figured I''d have to take her back to Earth Marvel with me anyway so none of the other Fallen got any ideas about her Sacred Gear either. Most of them wouldn''t stoop low enough to steal a human''s Sacred Gear, but not all of them, unfortunately. I wouldn''t be able to protect her from a whole dimension away. "You know, Asia, Michael and Gabriel are apparently very close to being able to turn humans into Angels. And unlike the Evil Pieces, the new Angels won''t be slaves to their ''kings.'' I think you''d make an excellent angel." I said. "Then we''d be a real family as well." Asia looked ecstatic at the prospect as she started shaking giddily. "Really!? Oh, that would be so lovely!" Then she paused her excitement and frowned. "But wasn''t I kicked out of the church for being a witch?" "You were," I said. "But the church and Heaven are not the same thing. Does the human-led church speak for Heaven, Asia?" I asked her. I still didn''t mention anything about Father... that was a can of worms that we could open later. Asia shook her head. "Of course not! The Bible teaches humans are flawed and that we make mistakes. Are you saying it was a mistake that I was kicked out of the church?" "No, it was done on purpose. It was all planned out." I said bluntly. ''Better to rip the band-aid off.'' I supposed. "What do you mean, Layla?" Sif asked. "Was Asia''s fate some form of trickery? Oh, how I loathe trickery!" Sif declared as she pounded the table. Her eyes were burning with fury as she was probably reminiscing about all the pranks Loki had probably pulled on her over the millennia. Asia looked saddened as well. "The priests betrayed me?" I nodded to her sadly. I then explained to her my theory. How could Diodora Astaroth get into the heart of the Vatican itself otherwise? "And then he just happened to end up at the one church you lived in, Asia? Why didn''t he just go to a hospital?" I explained to her. "No, he must have paid off your priests, and they let him inside. Once you healed him and were excommunicated, he would be able to take you into his peerage as ''thanks'' for saving him," I finished explaining the "plot" to her. Asia looked sick and horrified that such a thing had happened to her. "Those bastards!" Sif exclaimed. "We must reclaim vengeance and justice for Asia! Our newest sister!" Sif''s sword materialized, and she brandished it into the air. And we would. Starting with a certain letter I had sent out earlier to my favorite sister who lived in the clouds. XXX Chapters 96-100 Chapters 96-100 It was the next day, and we had visitors in the Underworld. Baraqiel and I were meeting them in a private meeting room. "I''m so glad you''re okay, Layla! If that dummy Azazel had gotten you hurt, then I don''t know what I would have done!" Gabriel said as she wrapped me in a tight hug. She didn''t let me go for almost a minute straight. At least until Michael politely coughed and she begrudgingly let me go. Gabriel really was as described. She was argued by many to be the most beautiful woman in the entire world, and I could definitely see it. She was definitely a beauty that could topple nations. Thankfully, I had no weird feelings for her. To me, she was just my older sister. One that was very overprotective of her family. To most people, she was a sweet and kind being, but that''s the front she puts on. In wartime, Gabriel was one of the most devoted and ruthless Angels. She probably has a higher body count than any other Angel as she would routinely burn down entire Devil villages in the underworld! "Yes, I am also glad you''re okay, Layla." Michael¨Cthe leader of Heaven¨Csaid in a much more calm tone. If someone described Michael as one of the most chill and nicest guys in existence, they wouldn''t be wrong. He also is one of the strongest. Those gold wings he inherited aren''t just for show. Sirzechs Lucifer might think he''s the top dog of our pantheon, but he''s dead wrong. Michael''s gold wings allow him to draw upon the power of Heaven to drastically enhance his own already crazy power. I have no doubt that the calm guy in front could destroy the entire planet. "Our leader isn''t so irresponsible. It didn''t take him long to get her back." Baraqiel replied to Gabriel. I could tell he was a bit nervous at having the number 1 and 2 of Heaven in the Grigori HQ, especially with Azazel and Penemue gone. Baraqiel would have no chance against Michael and Gabriel if they attacked. Not that they ever would. The butterfly effect was a real thing, and it might be arrogant to say, but my existence has definitely chilled Heaven and the Grigori out from constantly being at each other''s throats. Instead, we all chose to hate the devils together! [Hurray for collective racism!] ''I hate the way you phrased that...but yeah.'' [I know...] "Uh huh... sure." Gabriel replied back to Baraqiel noncommittally. "I''m sure Layla being spirited away to who knows where for a month had nothing to do with him..." She said sarcastically. "Sister, I''m sure it was an accident. If anything, it worked out for Layla. I can feel she is much stronger now. And she has 2 Sacred Gears! I didn''t think that was even possible!" Michael said happily before frowning slightly. "Although one of them feels... off." "That''s probably Azazel''s artificial gear. I''m not sure what he made it out of, and I had to add a focus piece from Earth Marvel to get it working right." I explained. "Earth Marvel?" Michael asked. So then I explained to them what I had gone through since I disappeared. I told them of ending up back in our true home universe and living on the half of the world that was left behind. At the mention of so many people being left behind, Michael and Gabriel looked guilty. "Remarkable. The people of that Earth haven''t seen a single angel for over 1000 years, and they still hold their faith!" Gabriel said while clapping. "I can''t wait for the world to unite again. An influx of billions of more believers would be so hopeful to Heaven." Michael, however, didn''t look too sure. "The system is already struggling with the current number of humans. 1000 years ago, the human population wasn''t even 1 billion. Now it''s at 8. If it suddenly jumped to 16... I have no doubt it would collapse." Michael lamented. That didn''t sound good. "And what would that entail?" Baraqiel asked. "How bad could a crash of Heaven''s system be?" Michael shuddered. "Well, for one, prayers will no longer be heard or answered. Secondly, the Sacred Gear reincarnation system would also end. And third... We Angels require faith to sustain ourselves. Without it..." Michael trailed off. "We''ll figure something out, Michael. This isn''t the first crisis we''ve faced," Gabriel said. "I''m more worried about the reaction the other pantheons will have. Sure, they''ll be happy to have double the territories, but there will also be inevitable conflict that arises when the people from two different Earths are forced to live together. It''s a good thing Layla is already getting on top of the gravity issue. You have a really smart human friend for him to have thought of that. That could have been devastating." Gabriel explained as she paced the room. She gave Michael a reassuring smile that seemed to calm him down. "I suppose it''s time we got to the real reason we''re here today." Gabriel said as she looked at me seriously. "Hmm? Wasn''t it because of the letter I sent you about Asia? How Diodora Astaroth has been bribing higher-ups in the church?" I asked. Gabriel grimaced but shook her head. "No. That will be dealt with... but it''s not the reason. Although I will personally apologize to Asia myself later. And when the Brave Saints system is complete, I would be more than happy to allow her to become an angel." I smiled. "That''s good. She deserves it." Michael nodded. "Indeed. But the reason we''re here is because of the bounty the devils have placed on your group." He said seriously. I have a bounty? I couldn''t help but laugh. All I needed now was a straw hat and a ship! "This is serious, Layla," Gabriel said in a no-nonsense tone. "The bounty was issued by Sirzechs himself. $50 billion for you to be brought to him alive. $10 billion for Akeno''s return..." "Over my dead body!" Baraqiel stood up angrily and shouted. Michael nodded to the man. "Quite so. Your friend who claims to be the goddess Sif has a bounty of $15 billion, and finally, a Fallen Angel named Raynare has a bounty of $1 billion. Thankfully, Asia wasn''t issued a bounty as well at least. Sirzechs had, however, privately contacted me and asked about her potentially joining his sister''s peerage." Michael finished. "Of course, we told him that she was no longer part of our faction and was with the Grigori." Gabriel added slyly. I gave her a thumbs up for that one. Ha! I must have really pissed the devil''s off! Serves them right. Although, even for supernaturals, those bounties were an absolute shit ton of liquid capital to throw around. The second I stepped outside the HQ, I''d probably have every kind of supernatural coming for me. All except the youkai who hate the devils for wiping out the Nekoshou at least. That was if I was planning to stick around Earth DxD... I was not. I had too much to do back on Earth Marvel, and I was heading back there anyway. Let them search for me all they wanted! They''d never find me across the dimensional gap! I voiced these thoughts to my siblings. "That''s a good idea. Obviously, you''ll be taking Sif back with you, but would you consider taking Asia and Akeno as well?" Michael suggested. Baraqiel grimaced. "As loath as I am to separate from my daughter so soon after reuniting with her... that might be for the best. No doubt the spoiled Gremory Princess is causing a huge ruckus after losing my daughter as her queen." Baraqiel said. "As for Asia... I heard about Raynare trying to steal her sacred gear. For shame. What can I expect from a sister who fell due to envy though..." Gabriel said with a sad sigh. Well, at least they didn''t ask me to take Raynare with me as well... "Ok... it''s decided then." I said. "I''ll take Asia and Akeno with me when I go back." They nodded. "Now then..." Gabriel looked at me with stars in her eyes and an excited grin. "What''s this news I heard about my baby sister developing a harem!?" "..." XXX -A few hours later- "So, it''s time then? Time to return?" Sif asked me. We were back in Azazel''s lab where I double checked the sheet with all of the coordinates. "In a manner of speaking. We still have to correctly find the correct dimension coordinates. We have a 1 in 15 chance." With my high luck stat, it shouldn''t take too many tries. Hopefully, at least. I reached deep inside of me to my Orb of Anywhere Sacred Gear and activated it. - 1500 MP! A large chunk of my MP left me as a swirling black and golden portal appeared in front of me. It was incredibly hazy, and I couldn''t see through it at all. That unfortunately meant I''d have to go through. "Be wary," I said as I approached the portal. "We have no idea what kind of place is awaiting us." "Of course," Sif confidently replied. In a flash of light, a set of pitch-black armor appeared around her body. It was a set I had borrowed from Penemue''s room. Because it was Fallen Angel armor, it was much more form-fitting and sexy than her Asgardian armor ever was. I was starting to find it harder to take my eyes off of her the longer we were together. I wasn''t big on metallurgy, though, so I didn''t know how its defenses stacked up. I went through the portal first, and Sif followed close behind me. "It appears to be a city of some kind." Sif commented as she took in our surroundings. "It''s more than that. We''re in Times Square." I said while also taking in the sights... except. Something with this Times Square was very wrong. Weeds were growing all along the sidewalks and streets. There wasn''t a single person in sight. In fact, I couldn''t hear anyone nearby at all. It was as if New York City had been completely abandoned. That was not a good sign. On top of that, I was getting some bad vibes. This clearly wasn''t Earth Marvel. I spun around back towards the portal to tell Sif we should leave when, to my horror, the portal had faded away. "SHIT!" I cursed loudly. We were stuck here until I recovered 1500 MP to send us back to try again. My MP recovery rate is comparable to my Intelligence per hour. That meant with 200 Intelligence, I''d only recover 200 MP an hour... "We''re stuck here for a few hours," I said to Sif''s inquisitive look. "I don''t have enough mana to send us back right now." Sif nodded before once again looking around. "This is Midgard, yes. A version of it at least? I wonder what has befallen it for it to be abandoned so?" She commented. That was a good question. We might as well search for some clues while we were stuck here. Did Thanos snap away the entire population in this reality? I looked into the sky and saw a few birds flying around, though. Animals were still here in the abandoned city, so that shouldn''t have been the case. "Layla, over here!" Sif called out towards me from behind an abandoned car that was covered in weeds and vines. I walked behind it and almost gagged at what I saw on the ground. It was a corpse... A human corpse. It looked like it had been eaten... recently. The bite marks also didn''t look like they came from an animal. [Oh, that''s not good...] ''What is it, system? I''m getting some serious bad vibes now.'' [Quest Issued! Survive! ¡ú You have ended up in the Marvel Zombies Universe! Survive and escape!] "Marvel Zombies! Oh fuck! Sif, we gotta get out of here!" I exclaimed before grabbing her arm. "Uh, Layla. I think Midgard has a bit of a Draugr problem..." Sif said, and I heard groaning. They were coming from everywhere. From every single building nearby, I started to hear the shuffling of feet. Why the hell couldn''t I sense them before!? In fact, I still can''t sense them. [They''re nothing but animated corpses moving because of a virus. There''s no magic in them to sense.] A huge horde of walking corpses slowly started to emerge from all around us. We were completely surrounded! I ran over to Sif and scooped her up in my arms before deploying my wings and taking to the air. Being able to fly was the best. Fuck you, zombies! I''ll just stay in the air and wait for my magic to refill from up here safely! CRACK! "WHAT!? Is this live, Jarvis?" Andrea''s eyes widened at what she was looking at. The most beautiful woman she''d ever seen with four sets of Black Wings on her back was fighting the Zombie Hulk and actually putting up a decent fight. She could fly and conjure dark purple laser spears that could actually injure him! Even Andrea''s strongest repulsor blasts failed to ever so much as scratch his skin! "It is live, ma''am. And there''s more. Look here!" Jarvis switched the camera feed, and Andrea saw another beautiful woman with golden hair and pitch-black armor smashing her way through a large horde of zombies with nothing but her bare fists! A few zombies tried to occasionally bite her, but their teeth always ended up shattering against her armor! Andrea wondered what metal that was made of! "Do we know anything about these two? The blond one is tall and could be an Asgardian. As for the one with wings... are Angels real?" Andrea asked Jarvis. "There''s never been any concrete proof of their existence, but it was speculated that they could have been another space-faring race similar to the Asgardians." Jarvis said as she continued watching the fight. The black-winged angel took a heavy blow to her side from the Hulk but managed to stab a spear directly downward on top of his foot. The Hulk was pinned to the ground as she rapidly flew around him and started hammering him with stabs from all directions. Unfortunately, none of them would be fatal unless the angel could hit his brain. Andrea cursed as the Hulk was smart enough to shield his own head with his giant arms. "Jarvis, open the bunker doors. I''m flying out," Andrea said as she walked over to her armor. It was a bit scuffed up and lacking a paint job, but it still worked. "Are you sure, ma''am?" Jarvis asked her with concern. Andrea nodded. Those two were never-before-seen beings on this world. That meant they had to have come from space. Could they have a way off this hellish planet!? Andrea could only hope they did. She had to go help them if that was the case! XXX "This not-jolly green giant just wont freaking die!" I shouted angrily as I stabbed the Hulk for the tenth time! He wouldn''t go down! ''Status'' [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 12] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 3000/8200] [MP: 200/2000] [Vigor: 220] [Strength: 70] [Intelligence: 200] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 5, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] Shit! my HP and MP were both getting close to dangerously low levels. I used [observe] on the Zombie Hulk but it didn''t work. It was like something was blocking me from seeing anything except his name. Knowing I was in an apocalyptic marvel universe, it was probably some evil or insane god. [The Zombie Hulk - $ ( 4 0/''&(& /!(&] The Hulk charged forward again, attempting to grab me. I had painfully learned not to let that happen before. I spread my wings out and launched myself backward, escaping his grasp. Throughout our entire fight so far, the Hulk had been protecting his head above all else. Everywhere else I stabbed him, he didn''t seem to care. That obviously told me that he had the same weak point as any other zombie, yet I just couldn''t land the blow on him that I needed to put him down. I had wasted over a dozen supercharged [Lightspears] and burned through a lot of precious MP... "Die, you monster!" I heard Sif shout before a rusty bicycle flew towards the Hulk and harmlessly bounced off him. To my shock, the Hulk was actually puzzled about such a pathetic attack and just took a moment to stare at the bicycle in confusion. I raised an eyebrow at her for her choice of an improvised weapon. [Sif used confusing Rusty Bicycle! It was super effective!] Sif blushed at me in embarrassment. "That was all I could find!" She pouted. I laughed. "I didn''t say anything..." "You were thinking something rude..." Sif said as she stumbled up next to me, covered in the blood and guts of hundreds of other zombies. She looked winded and took a few deep breaths. "I''ve¡ªnever had to fight off so many Draugr at once! Not with my bare hands! And I can''t believe the beast destroyed my sword! It was a gift from Queen Frigga! A relic of the Valkyrie themselves..." Sif lamented as she held up the handle of her ruined sword for inspection. It might not have been just the Hulk who destroyed her blade. It could have also been damaged when fighting Grayfia. Either way, she needed a replacement. She wouldn''t be doing any significant damage against him with just her bare hands. I conjured a sword made of light and held it up to her. "Here, this is the best I can do. We gotta take the Hulk''s head off to stop him." Sif took the [Lightsword] from my hand and held it up to her face. Her frown turned into a smile. "It''s warm and feels like you, Layla..." Sif said as she started caressing the [Lightsword] in a way that I might describe as lewd... I blushed at the sight. ''No! Bad horny thoughts! Now is not the time!'' We had a Zombie Hulk to kill! The Hulk snapped out of his confusion before grabbing the bicycle and throwing it at us. I laughed as I casually blocked it with a [Lightshield]. [Layla used Protect! It was super effect¨C] ''Shut up, System!'' "Let''s finish this monster now!" Sif cheered as she brandished her energy blade and ran forward. She went right, and I went left. "Grrrrrrr!" Zombie Hulk grunted and threw a devastating punch at Sif. The air around his fist vibrated from the friction! This time she didn''t try to block and slid underneath his fist. She swung her light blade upwards and left a deep burning gash trailing up his arm. At the same time, I flew forward and went for his legs. If we could stop him from moving, then we could finally finish him! With a spear in each hand, I stabbed forward towards his knees. The Hulk shifted out of the way of one, but his right knee ended up skewered. Sif circled back and slashed the tendons on his other legs. The undead green giant dropped to his knees. He was down both his legs and an arm! "Graaaaaaaarrr!" "Die, monster!" Sif took advantage of him stumbling and leapt up high to finally cleave off his head! This was it! We finally got the bastard¨C FWISH! "Aargh!" Sif screamed in pain as an arrow, of all things, slammed into her neck, and she dropped to the ground, clutching her throat! "Sif!" I screamed her name in panic as I rushed over to her. The Hulk tried to swipe for me, but it was still crippled. The Zombie Hulk had a much slower healing factor than the normal Hulk did thankfully. I told Sif to clench her teeth as I summoned my [Purger of Darkness] Sacred Gear. I quickly yanked the arrow from her neck and immediately started to heal her. Paired with the Extremis inside her, her neck healed quickly. Sif sat up with a cough while I examined the arrow in my hand. It was tipped with vibranium...on top of that, the archer had managed to hit her exposed neck with perfect accuracy while we were fighting at super speeds. The list of archers who could pull that off wasn''t long. FWISH! I heard the sound of another arrow sailing towards us. I threw up another [Lightshield] to block it. To my shock, my shield had a crack immediately from where the arrow had struck it! Vibranium was OP! That was when I saw it¡ªthem. The hordes of zombies in the streets that had been surrounding us parted, and a new group marched their way forward. "What the hell, did hard mode just get turned on!" I complained when I saw who had shown up. [You should probably run away for now...] Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor. All of them looked very dead, of course. Above us, I could hear the sound of thunder rumble out as the clouds started to darken, courtesy of Zombie Thor. He was gripping Mjolnir tightly, which was still working for him for some reason... Sif froze up upon seeing the undead Thor. "How the hell is he still worthy of his hammer after becoming a flesh-eating zombie!?" I complained out loud. "Also, I think it''s time we make a retreat from here." I said to Sif. The Hulk looked like he was already starting to heal, and we were struggling when it was just him. "That''s a great idea, Angel!" A robotic voice boomed out loudly from the sky. I looked up and saw a suit of armor flying over us¡ªalthough it looked like it had seen better days. "Tony!? Is that you?" The Iron Man¡ªWHO HAD TITS!?¡ªswooped down next to Sif and me. Without giving us any room to argue, the Iron Woman wrapped an arm around each of us before I felt a bit of whiplash as we blasted off into the sky not a second later. "ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!" Behind us, I could hear the angry roars of the Hulk. CRACK! "Woah!" Iron Woman dove to the side right before a bolt of thunder fell from the sky, narrowly avoiding us. Hanging over the woman''s shoulder, I could see Zombie Thor was flying in the sky after us. He raised Mjolnir towards us, and it started arcing with electricity. Not on my watch! Using the last of my MP, I summoned dozens of [Lightspears] in the air all around us. I willed every single one of them to fly towards Thor and explode. A massive explosion of thunder and light ripped through the sky and covered our escape... [You have leveled up!] I was kind of bummed we couldn''t kill the Hulk and lost out on that formula reward, but I was more glad that we''d gotten away for now. What I really wanted to know though, was who was the woman in the armor who pulled us out of there? XXX chapters 101-105 chapters 101-105 "I am so incredibly stupid..." I lamented as I smacked my head lightly against the concrete wall in front of me over and over. I could have gotten Sif and I out of there easily! I had the perfect skill to refill my MP easily and there were thousands of zombie mooks in Times Square too! The skill I was talking about was [Mana Replenisher]. It restored 10x the mana for each level of enemy I defeated. There were thousands of level 1 or 2 zombies surrounding us in that last fight. Each of them would have given me 10 to 20 MP! I could have carpet bombed Times Square with exploding [Lightspears] and instantly refilled my MP. Then I could have grabbed Sif and warped us back to Earth DxD. "Is the Angel girl alright over there?" I heard the new woman whisper to Sif. "I think she is just upset that we didn''t emerge victorious. As an Asgardian, I am ashamed we had to flee. Especially upon seeing what had become of Thor. I should have stayed and put him out of his misery..." Sif trailed off "Oh, so you are an Asgardian. I wasn''t quite sure. My name is Andrea Stark. People used to call me the Iron Woman. Nice to meet you. And you as well, Angel." Andrea called out to me. I spun around and faced her. "Sorry about that display there. I just realized I fought that last battle stupidly." Andrea nodded. "Hey you were up against the Hulk. Not many ever face him and walk away. Let alone walk away perfectly unscathed." Andrea said, looking me up and down. "Do you have a healing factor? I was watching the nearby camera feeds as I flew towards the fight and the Hulk hit you pretty hard a few times." "Layla was blessed by her father with a powerful healing sacred gear! None of the other Angels got one from him." Sif bragged for me excitedly. Well, that was the story going around at least. I suppose from an outsider''s perspective I would look like I had a healing factor since I never take actual physical damage. Gamer''s Body for the win! Andrea coughed before looking at me in shock. "You''re father? You''re an actual Angel? God''s real?" She asked with some sadness. "Then why would he allow all this to happen..." She trailed off. She was obviously talking about the zombie apocalypse. I pat her on the shoulder. "I''m not sure if he''s in this dimension, but we''re not actually from your dimension, Andrea. We''re from one that''s sort of similar but..." "Another dimension... That''s a thing? And everybody is still alive?" Andrea asked hopefully. "Yeah. There''s a bunch of them. Some people think the number of them is infinite." I explained. "That''s crazy. Well, welcome to our shitty dimension then! Once again I''m Andrea Stark. I''d offer you some cookies, but unfortunately I ran out recently and all the factories are full of zombies." I laughed. "Nice to meet you. I''m Layla of the Fallen and my friend is the Goddess Sif of Asgard. Also you''re a dude in our dimension. Everybody knows Tony Stark aka Iron Man." I added with another laugh. Andrea bit her lip before looking at me pleadingly. "Please take me with you when you leave! I can''t take it here anymore! I lost the Avengers... I lost my best friend Pepper...I lost Bruce..." Andrea looked defeated as she listed everything off. I felt bad for her. She was basically Will Smith from ''I Am Legend'' at this point. Except her zombies had super powers... "I would like to leave as well if Miss Stark is leaving." A robotic voice echoed out inside the bunker we were in. "Is that you Jarvis?" I asked. "Indeed. I assume there''s no gender bent AI version of myself in your home dimension." "No. Just another Jarvis as far as I''m aware." I said. I don''t think Tony even bothered making Friday until the original Jarvis became Vision. "I''ve never met another AI, let alone another me. It will be interesting to meet him." "Did you guys not have Ultron here?" I asked. "You know about Ultron! I never got to finish him before the outbreak. I was so close too!" Andrea said. "Probably for the best then. In most realities he turns evil and tries to destroy the world. In some he even succeeds." I said. Andrea blanched. "Oh... Well that''s unfortunate." I was kind of glad I panicked when seeing the zombie Hulk and forgot that skill now. Otherwise, Andrea would have been left to die in this world. I looked around her bunker. She barely had any supplies left. Her Iron Woman armor was also very scuffed and banged up. I''m surprised it was even flying anymore as it looked like it''d gone through a bunch of patch jobs. [Yeah, had you remembered the gender-bent Tony Stark of this world would have been left for dead. It was a good thing you forgot. Imagine Tony''s reaction when he meets the girl version of himself.] That will be absolutely priceless... "So when are you two leaving this dimension?" Andrea asked. That was a good question. I checked on my MP and found that I was at about 400 MP so far. That was only the second time my MP had ever completely dropped to zero. I didn''t want to have to rely on HP to MP Conversion either because each of the Hulk hits hurt like hell. Towards the end of that fight I only had around 2000 HP left. A couple more hits and I would have been suffering another Game Over. I only had 3 revives left after saving Raynare and I wanted to save them for absolute emergencies. [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 15] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 8200] [MP: 413/2100] [Vigor: 220] [Strength: 70] [Intelligence: 210] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 5, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] I''d figured out that my MP recharged the same amount as my [Intelligence] Stat per hour. That meant I''d gain back 210 MP every hour. Unless I took down a whole bunch of mooks and refilled it that way. "We can go in about 8 hours, Andrea." I said to the woman. "8 hours..." she said with a faraway look. "Then I can finally escape this hell." Andrea ran up to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you so much for coming here!" She cried out with tears in her eyes. I could hear her sniffling over my shoulder. I patted her back and reassured her that everything would be okay. She released the hug after a minute and wiped away her tears. Her look of sadness turned to panic. "I only have 8 hours to completely pack up all my stuff and download all my data! I have multiple petabyte hard drives worth of designs here!" "Ma''am, I''ve already started the process so we can leave." Jarvis said calmly. "Everything should be uploaded to your portable storage drives within a few hours." "Whoo! You''re the best, Jarvis." she said as she took a seat to calm down. I giggled at her antics. Looking around her bunker, she really didn''t have that much stuff. It was mostly supplies we could leave behind and scrapped machine parts she could replace easily enough. I noticed Sif was staring off into the corner with a frown on her face. "Are you alright over there, Sif? You look upset." Sif turned to me with a determined look on her face. "I don''t want to leave yet. Not when this dimension''s Thor still walks the earth as a Draugr. As an Asgardian, it would be incredibly shameful to leave my crown prince in that state!" Sif declared. "WHAT!?" Andrea shrieked. "You want to go fight him!? He''s not going to be alone. You two could barely take on the Hulk, and you want to take on all the Avengers now!?" She exclaimed. "Yes." Sif replied bluntly. "I guess that''s that then." I said. If Sif is staying, then I wouldn''t mind taking on the Hulk again. It should be a different fight when I come at him with full MP. I could actually try out Mana Burst and immediately refill my MP reserves from all the nearby zombies. I wonder if I could then stack another Mana Burst on top of that one? I could be like Goku using Kaioken! [Mana Burst isn''t Kaioken...it doesn''t stack.] ''Lame!'' "Fine!" Andrea pouted reluctantly. "I''ll go with you two and help fight them as best as I can. Just don''t expect much though. My suit hasn''t had any really proper repairs in months, and my arc reactor is also running low," she said, pointing to her chest. "I can''t let this thing run out of juice or else I''ll die." She had a reactor in the same spot that Tony did before I healed him. That just wouldn''t do! My [Purger of Darkness] appeared on my wrists... A moment later, Andrea marveled at her exposed chest, the arc reactor now resting on the floor beside her. Healing even faster than Tony, thanks to my potent Sacred Gear, I struggled not to ogle as she examined herself, having completely removed her shirt. "This is amazing! Layla, you''re incredible! Thank you so much!" Andrea embraced me once again, giving a grateful, shirtless hug. "Ufufu. No problem." I welcomed this kind of gratitude. Having a pair of naked breasts thrust up against me was some appreciation I could get behind! "Get off, Layla, you harlot! What kind of woman undresses so readily among strangers?" Sif exclaimed in clear jealousy. She was glaring at Andrea. Andrea blushed at me before breaking the hug. She turned towards Sif with a red face. "What are you even talking about!? I I don''t even like girls like that!" She retorted, glaring right back at Sif. "Then don''t jump into the arms of the woman I love when you''re half-naked! "I couldn''t help it! I was so happy to finally be healed!" "Liar, I know your kind. You''re just trying to seduce Layla!" "No I''m not!" The two of them continued to bicker as I walked toward a nearby monitor. "So, Jarvis, any entertainment in this bunker? We''ll be stuck here for a while after all while my mana recharges." "We have all of the entertainment, Miss Layla." Jarvis explained that, to preserve culture, he had downloaded every movie and song ever created and uploaded to the internet. I whistled. That was quite the collection. I wondered what Star Wars in another dimension looked like. Time for an interdimensional pirated movie marathon! XXX In other places... ¨CFrank Castle¨C "Please Frank! Don''t do this!" The Colonel pleaded as he scooted backwards with his hands. A small trail of blood followed him on the hard cement floor. Frank Castle had double kneecapped the man to prevent him from running. "You lied to us. You told us our missions were sanctioned by the government! And then when I found out they weren''t and chose to leave peacefully and not report you all, you tried to kill me and my family! You killed my wife!" Frank yelled angrily as he leveled his assault rifle at the Colonels head. "That wasn''t my decision. I swear! This goes so much higher than you or me Frank! You can''t kill me you. You don''t know the organization you''re messing with!" Frank scoffed. "And what is this mystery agency? Hydra? The people who ran away scared from Layla?" Frank asked. He noticed the look of fear in the Colonel''s eyes when he mentioned them. Frank put his finger on the trigger and snarled. "Absolutely disgusting. To think the man I respected and followed all this time was a disgusting Nazi..." "Frank! Wait no!" BANG! Frank lowered his rifle with a tired sigh of relief. He''d finally avenged his wife and made sure his children would be safe. If Hydra ever reared their ugly heads to come after he and his, then he''d put them down too. ... Frank limped his way out of the secret safehouse/bunker that the Colonel and the other members of his former squad had been hiding in. Once they had heard he survived and was on a warpath aiming for their heads, they had all turtle up and hid from him here in the middle of nowhere. He made his way up the stairs and emerged to fresh air and sunlight. This place was in the middle of woods bordering Canada. The perfect place to hide if they needed to quickly flee the country. That was why Frank was surprised when he saw an obvious suit waiting for him just outside. There were a couple other agents behind him sweeping the area. None of them had their weapons drawn on him though so he figured he might as well hear them out. "Frank Castle I presume. Are you alright. Your limping and covered in blood." The Agent asked. Frank glanced down at his left leg. A bullet was stuck in their alright, but he had had worse. "I''m fine. Most of the blood is not mine." Frank said. The agent nodded. "If you''re sure. I''ve read your file and I suppose you''ve had worse. Anyway I came with an offer for you. I''m Agent Coulson of Shield." "SHIELD?" Frank asked. He''d heard whispers of them in the military. They became a bit more known when Hydra was exposed to the world recently in the "Race Track Incident" that happened overseas. "What do you all want from me? I ain''t joining you guys to be an agent. I have two kids to raise now." Frank said dismissively. Coulson waved him off before presenting him with a folder. "You''re not exactly subtle enough to be an agent. We''d like to offer you a spot in an upcoming initiative we have. We call it the Avengers." ... ¨CYasaka¨C "Mom! Check out this awesome move Sif taught me!" Yasaka was sitting under the kotatsu watching her daughter swing her practice sword in the yard. Her daughter had rarely been so enthusiastic about anything, but she was really liking swordsmanship. Yasaka would see about getting her a proper full time teacher. Sif gave Kunou a decent foundation, but Yasaka knew she couldn''t be her daughter''s teacher now. Not until Kunou was older at least and could travel. Layla and Sif both struck Yasaka as women who were constantly on the move. Yasaka envied them a bit. She wasn''t able to leave Kyoto for long because she was linked to the Leylines. If she did, she would lose a massive amount of her power and wouldn''t be able to protect her daughter. Nine tailed fox Yokai like them were incredibly rare after all. Yasaka had no doubt some evil devils had their eyes on her young daughter! Yasaka continued to watch her daughter practice sword moves for a few more minutes while she enjoyed a calming cup of tea. That was until someone knocked on her door and interrupted her relaxation. "Lady Yasaka! The Fallen who poisoned Lady Kunou have returned. They are claiming to have the antidote to her poison and are acting very arrogant. They clearly do not know that she has already been healed." One of Yasaka''s servants spoke to her through the door. Yasaka''s eyes narrowed into slits and a wicked grin formed on her face. The ones who had dared poison her daughter had finally come. Just like layla had predicted they would. The air vibrated around Yasaka as natural energy laced with her killing intent started to leak out of her. She stood up and headed out to go visit her guests/future prisoners. She had promised Layla that she wouldn''t kill them, but she never said anything about some casual torture. She''d find out who gave those Fallen the poison and who sent them after her daughter. Once she found out she''d send them back to the Grigori where Layla had promised her they''d be further punished. ... And then I did so. Below me I rained death from above. Every single [Lightspear] crashed down towards the zombie filled streets below me...and exploded. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM! I think I may have overdid it a bit... A large chunk of the City...simply vanished from existence. The explosive purple Light Energy was so hot and bright that the concrete, steel, and zombies below all simply turned to ash. The resulting shockwave was so strong I was flung back hundreds of yards before I could properly stop myself. It looked like I honestly just dropped a nuke on the city... ...I''m glad I aimed that attack away from where Sif and Iron Woman were fighting. [You have defeated the Hulk! You have gained the Hulk Serum! You have slain 1583 level 1 and 2 zombies!] +22560 MP! "Ugh!" I grunted as a massive wave of power suddenly entered me. This was insane! ''Over 22000 MP!'' That was a number I couldn''t even fathom before today! This much power felt like I had liquid fire coursing through me. I felt like I was going to EXPLODE! This was not good. I was in so much pain that I could barely stay in the air. I was forced to descend to the now ashen ground. As soon my feet touched the ground I doubled over in pain. Painful shudders ran through me! [Warning! Mana Burst has been forcefully halted due to an influx of too much power! The host''s body has taken on far more Mana than it can safely handle! Host must undergo emergency evolution! The Host will be forcefully leveled up so they don''t explode!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] ... [Level: 15¡ú40] [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 15] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 8200] [MP: 2100] [Vigor: 220] [Strength: 70] [Intelligence: 210] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 6, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 250!] [Skill Up Point: 0] ... [The host is in too much pain to properly distribute stat points. All 250 points will be allocated to Intelligence.] I let out a scream as another pair of wings burst out from my back! XXX [Host has reached Ultimate Class. Congratulations!] [Name: Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Angel of Hope] [Level: 40] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 13000] [MP: 23000/9200] [Vigor: (400 X 2 Ultimate Class Bonus) = 800] [Strength: (70 X 2 Ultimate Class Bonus) = 140] [Intelligence: (460 X 2 Ultimate Class Bonus) = 920] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 6, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst, Perfect Muscle Control] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] [For reaching 100 Strength you have gained the perk Perfect Muscle Control! You can perfectly regulate how much force you use in combat or daily life.] I took a deep breath to steady myself as I took everything in. I felt...stronger. A lot stronger. Physically and magically. And Holy Crap look at my freaking stats! They all almost double once again. That fifth pair of wings came with a X2 multiplier! No wonder my Ultimate Class siblings were able to throw down with Gods! Why was my Vigor so high though? [Your Vigor has been properly adjusted to match your HP after the doubling of your stats from taking on your second Sacred Gear. Your 800 Vigor matches your 8000 HP and paired with the 5000 extra HP you received for each set of your wings, you now have 13000 HP total.] That made more sense. I could hear intense fighting a few blocks away, but I took a moment to stretch out and adjust to once again having such an influx of power. That was also when I realized I was currently stark naked... The influx of all that power I gained had completely destroyed the outfit I had on... Iron woman flew down and landed next to me. "Layla! Are you ok! I just took care of Clint and Natasha when the whole city shook! What the hell was that explosion¨CWHY ARE YOU NAKED!?" Iron Woman''s robotic voice called out in panic. "I won." I said while gesturing to all the destruction around me. Iron Woman stared directly at me and I felt like Andrea was deadpanning at me underneath her armor. "Oh? You won did you? OF COURSE YOU DID! YOU BLEW UP NEW YORK!" I pouted. "I didn''t blow all of it up. Only like one third..." I said as I gestured to the rest of the city that was mostly intact. What did it matter anyway? The city was abandoned and filled with death. "There is beauty in Death you know..." I heard a voice whisper in my ear. I jumped and spun around in a panic. "Andrea, did you hear that!? Andrea?" I turned to Iron Woman and saw that she wasn''t moving. That was also when I noticed something strange. Everything else wasn''t moving either. The wind blowing the remnant ashes of the destroyed city had completely stopped. Sif''s background battle against the zombie Thor had also gone completely silent. "It''s like the whole world is just frozen." I muttered. "That''s because it has." The voice of a woman whispered again. And then an inky black void materialized in front of me. I immediately put my guard up, but gulped when I saw the figure that emerged from the dark void. It was a woman with hair even darker than me and pitch black eyes. She was obviously supernatural and she was sinfully beautiful as well. Her body was free of any imperfections at all. I would have started flirting with her immediately if she didn''t feel like... "...Lady Death." I said her name almost instinctively. "Layla, of the Fallen. The lover of one of my champions. You are a long way from your home." Lady Death said. She then casually waved her hand and a pitch black dress materialized over my body. It hugged all my curves perfectly and felt like I was wearing nothing at all. As a Fallen I loved the dichotomy of that. I also blushed when I realized that I had been standing completely naked in front of one of Marvel''s strongest beings... But what was she doing here? [Heh, heh... about that...] ''System! What the hell did you do!?'' "Consider that garment another gift from me. It has the ability to hide you from the gaze of higher level beings when you enter a new dimension." Death explained. That almost sounded like a dress version of the Deathly Hallow cloak. "Another gift?" I asked. Death smirked. "Yes, your body had taken in too much power and you were on the verge of something not good... I offered the entity within you a small token of my power to aid you in your ascension." death explained casually. [Yeah...As a system, I have built in rules and can''t just hand you 25 levels of power in one go...but her?] I shifted uncomfortably at that. She obviously wouldn''t do this out of the goodness of her heart. She''d want something in return. She spoke again. "As I said earlier, there is beauty in Death. But not in undeath. I do not like undeath..." She said as she glanced around with a sneer on her perfect face. The action caused me to shudder. It was not good when a being of her near limitless power was upset. "So you want me to? Save the world or something?" I asked. "I think it''s a little late for that. How many people are even left alive?" "1354." Death answered casually. "They are beyond saving though. The virus has gone airborne. They will soon all turn as well. The only non-infected human left in this world is standing right next to you. She was infected as well, but when you healed her earlier, you also cured her." Death gestured to Iron Woman. Woah! That was a lucky coincidence! Good thing I did that or I would have brought a plague back to my world... "So what do you want me to do? Cure them all? I don''t think I can get to that many people scattered across the world quick enough." I said. Maybe I could save a few dozen at most, but that was it if they were all truly infected already. She shook her head. "This world is dead. There is no saving it. I want this world gone. Destroy it! That is the payment I ask. For granting you my boon when you needed it." Destroy the world!? How in the hell am I supposed to do that? I just reached Ultimate Class, not Super Class! I wasn''t even sure if a Super Class could destroy a whole planet either. At my full power with 9000 MP I''d struggle to destroy this whole city! How much MP would it take to blow up a planet!? Death noticed my frown before giving me a coy smile. "I care not how you do it. Just that it gets done. I cannot stop you from leaving this reality as I''ve already bent the cosmic rules enough by aiding you. But know this. If you leave this dimension without completing this task for me...I will be displeased." She said as she stepped back through her inky black portal and vanished. "OK! OK! I''ll do it! I''ll destroy this planet!" I exclaimed. I did not need to be on her bad side. I wasn''t a supreme masochist. I wasn''t Thanos! Now I just had to figure out how to do it. "Any ideas system?" [You could use an Infinity Stone I guess.] "That could work! Where do you think the Power Stone is?" [With...Thanos?] Fuck. "We''re gonna need another idea." ... The world unfroze as I was talking to the system and discussing how to destroy the world. "Woah! Thank you for putting on some clothes. Where''d that dress come from though? It''s like I blinked and it was suddenly on you." Iron Woman''s voice called out next to me. Whoops. I almost forgot she was there. I turned towards her. "Andrea? Do you have any ideas on how to blow up a planet? Cause we''re gonna have to do that before we leave..." I said to her. Her face plate lifted up and she gave me an incredulous look. "WHAT!?" XXX chapters 106-110 chapters 106-110 Andrea continued to give me a deadpan stare. I just gave her a smile like I didn''t just ask her something completely ridiculous. "You want to do what!?" Andrea exclaimed. "Blow up the planet? Why?" "Death asked me to. And it was kind of an ''offer you can''t refuse'' situation." "Who the fuck is Lady Death!? ...You know what? I don''t even care anymore. Do whatever you want." Andrea said with a sigh. The rumbling thunder from nearby told me that we could table this discussion for now. I wanted to go see how Sif was doing in her fight against the undead Thor. "We''ll talk about this later," I said. "Let''s hope Sif is almost done with her battle. I think destroying a large chunk of the city might end up drawing more attention than we would like." "You think?" Andrea said sarcastically. "Did you really have to go this far just to take care of the Hulk?" She gestured once again to the completely ruined section of the city. Did I have to go that far? No, no, I did not. Was dropping what amounted to a magical nuke on top of his head awesome? Yes, yes, it was. "I''m sorry, but the Hulk was really strong. It was the only way to beat him," I lied. Andrea sighed. "Thank you for finally letting Bruce rest at least. I''m sure now he''s in a better place." "I didn''t know you were religious," I commented. "I wasn''t until yesterday. Then I found out angels were apparently a real thing. At least in another dimension..." Andrea replied. I didn''t give her another response as I spread my now five pairs of black wings and started flying towards the rumbling thunder a few blocks away. When I approached, I could see arcing lightning bolts flying in every single direction. Down on the ground, surrounded by hundreds of charred zombies, were Sif and Thor. I wasn''t sure why Mjolnir was still working even though Thor was dead, but it was pumping out a tremendous amount of electricity. Every single swing of his hammer must have come with a couple of million volts. Sif seemed to be holding her own, however. With the [Lightsword] I had given her, she was deflecting all of his powerful hammer attacks as fast as they came. She almost made it look easy to fight like that, but I knew it was anything but for her. Even though the [Lightsword] I had given her wasn''t conductive to electricity, she was still getting zapped by the aftershocks of each blow. I could see that she was visibly shaking. The Extremis inside her must have been working overtime to keep her muscles from constantly seizing up on her. Andrea caught up finally and hovered next to me as we observed the battle from the air. "Huh? She''s still going pretty strong. I didn''t expect your dimensions Sif to be so strong. The way Thor talked about his old companions, they kind of sounded like useless tag-a-longs in all of his quests." Yeah, from an MCU standpoint, that sounded about right. From the strength of the Hulk and what I was seeing from the zombie Thor down there, I figured we were in a dimension similar to the MCU powerwise. At least when it came to the Avengers. I know there exist many Marvel universes where the Hulk would have shrugged off my final attack and kept coming. Thankfully we weren''t in one of those. The powers that be also seemed to have kept the infection to Earth alone here. Death wouldn''t have asked me to destroy the planet if the disease had already spread throughout the stars. I watched as Thor released a devastating punch to Sif''s cheek that had her head whip backward. He followed that with a powerful swing of his hammer that sent her flying back dozens of feet before crashing into the ground. Thankfully, the hammer hit her armored chest, and Penemue''s war armor from the Great War was strong enough to tank the blow. Sif let out a cough as she shakily stood up. I don''t know if it was her pride, but I''d noticed she was once again fighting Thor head on. Why!? She was faster than him and more agile. She should be dancing around him and wearing him down instead of tanking his powerful lighting blows over and over. Her pride to best a version of Thor by matching him at his best was costing her what should have been a relatively easy victory. My Light Manipulation Level 6 should have made that [Lightsword] in her hand a deadly weapon against any undead. Sif''s cheek momentarily glowed orange. The large bruise forming there faded away. She was still moving much slower though. "She''s completely exhausted her stamina it seems." I said. There was also the possibility of Lady Death''s words to be taken into account. if the zombie virus had gone airborne, was the Extremis formula inside her fighting it off this entire time and tiring her out quicker? "I won''t lose to you, Thor! This time I''ll win for Layla! I swear it!" Sif roared out as she took another shaky step forward before she started charging head on towards Thor again. Mjolnir in his hands started discharging more electricity. He raised his hammer high and a lighting bolt descended to connect with the hammer. He was about to blast Sif with a massive amount of lighting. Well he would have. If his head was still in existence. Too bad it was not. Zombie Thor''s headless body dropped to the ground. He had died without even knowing what happened. Mjolnir landed next to him with a loud clunk onto the mostly destroyed asphalt. I lowered my hand and let out a sigh. Yeah, I had thrown a [Lightspear] at the back of his head while he was completely distracted powering up his next big attack... "Really, Layla?" Andrea commented next to me. "Can''t you see that was going to be Sif''s big moment where she turned the fight completely around and emerged victorious?" "Um...no?" I said while scratching my cheek. "Yeah me neither." Andrea said and we both laughed. Upon seeing her opponent defeated, Sif finally lost all of her adrenaline¨Cor the Asgardian equivalent¨Cand passed out. She landed face first on the ground, which thankfully wouldn''t injure a being like her. I flew down and picked her up gently. I then went over to this dimension''s Mjolnir and stashed it in my inventory. It wasn''t emitting any more electricity and seemed to have shut down after Thor''s re-death. We''d deal with it later. "We should go, Layla. Jarvis just told me that a whole bunch of powered zombies are converging on our location." Andrea said. I opened a portal back to her bunker and walked through while carrying Sif. XXX "Welcome back, everyone! I watched the battle from the remaining camera feeds in the city. Although it does seem that hundreds of cameras all stopped working at once for some reason at one point." Jarvis commented. "Layla Angel-Nuked the city." Andrea said bluntly as she plopped down on a couch. She didn''t even bother removing her armor first. All she did was take off her helmet. She looked tired but relieved at the same time. I''ve inferred that in this dimension, she was in some kind of relationship with Bruce Banner. There also might be some survivor''s guilt thrown in there now that we''ve dealt with the Avengers. Well, most of them anyway. "How come Captain America wasn''t there?" I asked Andrea. Andrea grimaced. "I don''t know. Steve landed at that airport and attacked a bunch of people to spread the virus. After that, I''ve never seen him since," she said. "Maybe someone put him down, or he''s still out there somewhere just wandering around?" Well, that wasn''t ominous at all. I set Sif down on a chair and took a seat myself. Now that we''d taken care of Thor, we were supposed to immediately leave. Unfortunately, Lady Death gave me an annoying task first. "So what now?" Andrea asked with a sigh. "I was kind of hoping you had some ideas? I don''t suppose you could build a bomb big enough to take out the world. Maybe find a way to knock the moon out of orbit and crash it into the planet?" I asked with a laugh. Andrea rubbed her forehead. "Destroying the planet? That''s a lot harder than it sounds. Could I make some bombs that wipe away most of the surface life? Sure. But they''re not going to actually scratch the planet''s crust at the end of the day. You really have to ''Death Star'' the whole world!?" Andrea asked. I nodded. That''s what Death asked for, so that''s what she would get. Andrea took a second to ponder. She then glanced over at Sif sleeping in her chair. "Hmmm. There might be a way. It was something Thor mentioned about the Bifrost. Loki, at one point, turned it into a weapon supposedly and fired it at his home world. If Thor didn''t stop it, then Jotunheim would have been destroyed." Andrea said. My eyes widened. That could work! If Asgard was in the same spot here, then I could also just portal us there too! That was an easier plan than trying to find Thanos and stealing the power stone from him... "What do you think Asgard''s stance on this will be?" I asked. "Did they ever even send help down here after Thor was¨Cyou know?" Andrea shook her head. "That''s the weird thing! Asgard never sent any aid at all! Nobody came to help evacuate people or anything! Isn''t that strange?" Andrea asked with a look of concern. That was strange. "Their immortal-ish Crown Prince dies on another world and they do nothing to investigate? Now that just doesn''t make sense." I commented. "Something must have happened in Asgard at the same time as here. We''ll have to be careful when we go there. We can''t be sure what to expect." "You think a zombie outbreak happened there too!?" Andrea asked fearfully. I shrugged. Something must have happened there. "We won''t know until we go there. For now though, you and Sif need to rest. After that, we''ll fill her in on our plan and head to Asgard. "Mam, might I make a suggestion?" Jarvis cut in. "What is it Jarvis?" Andrea replied. "Once we''re on Asgard, you should upload me into one of their consoles. I can figure out how to operate the Bifrost and fire it." Jarvis said. "That''s good, Jarvis." Andrea said. "It could take a while to try and figure out how to operate the bifrost on our own." Yeah, the movies just showed Heimdall controlling it with a sword. A Sword! How does that work? Its a comic book universe¨Cfuck you that''s how. "Will Jarvis be able to interact with Asgardian tech?" I asked. Andrea smirked and gave me the ''what do you think'' look. I suppose we were taking him with us then. We couldn''t really leave him anyway considering the world was about to get destroyed by a space laser. Huh? I really was about to ''Death Star'' the world wasn''t I? ... After our plans were set, Andrea decided to go get some rest. A few hours later, Sif had awoken and immediately looked upset. She had tears in her eyes as she looked at me. "Are you alright Sif?" I asked her with concern. "I''m sorry I lost and you had to save me..." Sif said somberly. "The whole fight was my idea in the first place. We could have just left. This isn''t even our world after all." Sif then started crying. "Hey Sif, it''s ok. You can''t win every fight. That''s why we went in as a group in the first place." I said gently. ¨CAndrea Stark¨C "OK Jarvis. Here we go." Andre said as she inserted the drive holding his AI into the Asgardian console. Layla had asked Sif to take Andrea to Asgard''s archive room. Sif had commented that the layout of this palace was relatively the same as her own dimension''s. "It will take me a few moments to download all of the data here. Luckily there doesn''t seem to be any firewalls whatsoever." Jarvis replied. Andrea turned towards Sif who was looking around soberly. "So what''s your dimension like?" Andrea asked. Sif sighed. "To be honest, I don''t entirely know. I thought I did, but I''m not sure how many of my memories are actually trustworthy. I haven''t even stepped outside of the nine realms more than a handful of times in the past thousand years." Andrea raised her eyebrow at that. Sif was apparently a very sheltered Goddess. "Is there a reason for that? Didn''t you go on adventures with Thor?" Andrea asked. Sif shuffled a bit. I didn''t go on as many adventures as people would think. There''s a reason we were referred to as the Warrior''s three AND the Lady Sif. I spent quite a bit of my time actually with Queen Frigga learning from her on how to rule. Everybody expected Thor and I to be we''d. It was never to be though." Sif said. Andrea nodded before smiling slyly. "But you''re happy with Layla now aren''t you? After all, Jarvis told me that he had to stop you two from getting it on last night." Andrea said with a smirk. Sif blushed. "Yes... I am happy with Layla. Although I am not her only paramour. There is also the new Queen of Asgard Hela and another woman known as Natasha. I have yet to meet her. "Natasha!?" Andrea exclaimed in shock. "As in the black Widow?" Sif nodded. "Layla said something along those lines when she mentioned her. She had some longing in her voice. Apparently Natasha has been away on numerous secret missions searching for a Hydra. Tis a noble hunt! Hydra''s are fearsome beasts after all!" Sif said. Andrea didn''t correct Sif on the fact that she completely misunderstood what Hydra was. She was too blown away by finding out that Layla had actually hooked up with Natasha Romanoff! "Wow, I guess Layla gets around huh?" Sif nodded with a sigh. "My love is just too beautiful to resist..." Andrea laughed. She wasn''t wrong. Andrea wasn''t into girls but even she could admit the Fallen Angel had her questioning herself when she laid eyes on her. "Is there anything you want to take with you while we''re here?" Andrea asked. "Maybe check out the other Sif''s quarters. She could have a spare sword lying around." Andrea suggested. Sif seemed to ponder that before she sighed. "I suppose I could use a new blade and set of armor. I''m not a fan of having to borrow either. Hopefully her quarters are in the same location as my own were." Sif said. A few minutes of small talk later Jarvis finished plundering all the technical knowledge of Asgard and the pair headed towards the alternate Sif''s room. Luckily, Sif was able to immediately tell by the spare weapons and armor sets adorning the walls that they were in the right place. Andrea waited outside while Sif changed. After that, they were supposed to meet Layla in the treasury. ... Is that what I think it is? And it''s just sitting out in the open?" I muttered while using [Observe.] [The Tesseract¡úAn Asgardian relic designed to control and contain the Space Stone.] Well, there it was. Not even a few steps into Asgard''s treasury¨Cwhich was unlocked by the way¨Cand I''d already majorly scored. My first infinity stone! XXX "Yoink!" I exclaimed once again as I grabbed the Tesseract. [Did you just say ''Yoink'' again...] I ignored the system attempting to shame me; I was in too good a mood. This was my first Infinity Stone, after all. Also, the System didn''t say anything when I said ''Yoink'' and grabbed Gungnir! [There''s a difference between a gaudy golden spear that shoots lasers and the physical form of one of the six fundamental forces of the universe...] I ignored the sarcasm because I was literally holding an Infinity Stone. I couldn''t wait to play with this thing back home! I wonder how it stacks up compared to my Sacred Gear? I mean, it''s an Infinity Stone, it has to be able to do more than just open portals. The MCU just made it seem like a less cool sling ring after all. When it was not being used as a battery... [Well, I hate to ruin your mood, but that stone will only work in this dimension. Taking it with you will be pointless...unless.] I frowned upon hearing that. Well, that sucked. All my plans immediately went down the drain. ''Unless what?'' I asked. [Unless you feed it to your Second Sacred Gear. Even I''m not quite sure what that will do, but it should allow the stone to somewhat function in another dimension not linked to it.] I glanced down at the Tesseract in my hand and shrugged. What was the worst that could happen? I moved the blue cube towards my chest. It started to sink into my soul, and I could feel my Orb of Anywhere growing¡ªexcited? That was the best way to describe it. [The worst that could have happened was that your artificial Sacred Gear rejected the Infinity Stone, and you exploded...] ''That''s something you''re supposed to mention beforehand, System!'' I lamented. What was with this dimension and trying to make me explode!? I felt the Orb inside me swallow the Tesseract, and then...nothing. I stood in the treasury and waited with baited breath for a few moments more and still nothing happened. "Well...that was a letdown." I said out loud. "It had to have done something right?" [It should have...It was an Infinity Stone after all. Unless...] ''You''ve been saying -unless- a lot.'' I noted. ''Unless what?'' [What exactly did Azazel make the Orb of Anywhere out of?] "Huh?" I pondered that for a moment. I never asked. It didn''t really seem that important. [I''d wager it was pretty important considering whatever it was just gobbled up an Infinity Stone with no issues at all.] I shrugged. There''s no way to no unless I ask him. I''m sure whatever he used as a base for the sacred gear wasn''t too dangerous. Or at least I''m hoping it''s not considering the thing is now permanently fused to my soul... A few moments later as I was making myself familiar with the objects in the treasury, I heard a pair of footsteps coming down the stairs. Sif and Andrea had arrived. I smiled at the pair of them and spread my arms wide. "Welcome!" I said with a laugh. "Welcome to the royal treasury of Asgard! Would you like the tour?" Andrea laughed back. "Sure thing, Layla. What are these things?" "Well," I started off pointing towards a blue casket. "Over there is the casket of ancient winters which can call forth terrifying blizzards." I pointed to another object. "Overthere is the Warlock''s eye. No idea what that one does but it looks fancy." I noticed Sif facepalming at my antics. "Layla, the Warlock''s eye can mind control almost any being in existence. It''s only surpassed by the Mind Stone in power." She explained. I nodded. That sounded interesting. I wasn''t exactly a fan of mind control though so that would be staying here. "And what''s that one?" I said pointing at another weird eye-looking object. "THAT..." A new, yet very familiar, voice called out. "...Is the Tuning Fork. It can call forth an Eldritch creature from outside our Universe Known as the Lurking Unknown. I recommend NOT touching it." I turned and gulped as I saw Hela stride into the room. In her hand she held the crown of Sutur which she casually tossed to the floor. "I leave for only a few hours to go and put down a rebellious fire Demon and I already have rats breaking into my palace and treasury!" Hela seethed out. She was looking at us with pure hatred. "Hello Hela." I said to the angry goddess. A flash appeared around Sif nearby. She was immediately donned in a new set of silver armor and had a new sword strapped to her waist. I feel like she was jumping the gun a bit. We didn''t have to fight Hela here. We could talk this out. [She literally caught you robbing her...] ''Yeah, but she killed everyone in Asgard...'' It''s not like I was robbing a Saint here... Andrea once again ran over and took cover behind me. "So you know the identity of Asgard''s new Queen and you still dared to steal from me?" Hela asked coldy. I shrugged. "Are you really the Queen though after killing all your people? The whole palace was covered in bloodstains." I pointed out. Hela glared at me with hatred in her eyes. Her own armor and helmet materialized over her. "Those traitorous beings refused to bow down to me. Of course I killed them all. I also killed my foolish step mother and younger brother as well when they did the same. I am Hela of Asgard and this kingdom is my right!" She exclaimed as she conjured a pair of black swords in her hands. [Talking really worked out great there huh?] I used observe on Hela to see what I was up against here. Her level was about what I figured it to be. As someone who had single handedly wiped out Asgard, it made sense that she''d be a decently high level. I figured the 50''s was where most Ultimate Class beings started. [The Goddess of Death Hela. Level 55: Years of isolation on Helheim have left this Hela deranged. She will kill anyone who stands against her.] Before yesterday, that level would have made me nervous. But now? I could take her. XXX Chapters 111-115 Chapters 111-115 Hela kicked hard on the floor and rocketed towards me at a surprisingly fast speed. When she got close, she swung both of her conjured swords at me from different directions. I threw my hands to my own sides and blocked her swings with two [Lightshields]. Her swords bounced off the shields, and she had a look of shock on her face. She was clearly not expecting me to block her so easily. I pulled my fist back before rocketing it forward and nailing her in the face. A shockwave reverberated throughout the chamber. Hela''s head snapped backward from the blow. I went to hit her again with my other hand, but she recovered quickly and kicked me right in the diaphragm! -50 HP I grunted in pain and felt the air leave me. She kicked like a mule! I stumbled backward and took a moment to reassess my opponent. Hela seemingly did the same as she wiped her slightly bruised cheek. The bruise vanished slowly before my eyes. It looked like she had a minor healing factor on top of her other abilities. "I admit," Hela spoke, "that I underestimated you thieves. It''s been a while since someone landed a blow on me." She glanced to the floor where Surtur''s charred crown lay. "Even the Mighty Surtur couldn''t harm me. Who are you?" Hela asked me angrily. "Holy crap! Those two moved so fast I could even see them. How is that even fair?" I heard Andrea whine to Sif from behind me. "Even in another dimension, Hela is still fearsome. Although, this one seems to be mentally unstable," Sif commented. "I''m Layla of the Fallen. And I guess you could state that you and I are courting...in another dimension," I explained to her while keeping my guard up. Her swords had disappeared, but I knew she could summon more blades near instantly. Hela''s eyes simmered as I spoke to her. "Courting? Let me see if I have this correct? You claim to be from another dimension and are courting that dimension''s version of me?" Hela asked in disbelief. "That''s right." I confirmed. Hela bit her lip and clenched her fists tightly. "Hoh? Is that right? Well then...there''s only one thing I can do now, isn''t there?" She grinned at me madly in a way that made me uncomfortable. [Crazy chicks...Am I right?] Hela summoned another sword to her right hand and pointed it towards me. "I admit you are incredibly beautiful, and the other me obviously has good taste. But I can''t lose to another version of myself! I will capture you and make you this Queen''s bed slave for all time! You''ll never need to see that other Hela again!" She said with a mad grin. That logic was absolutely wild, but at the same time I knew that it was pretty spot on for her personality. She wants to steal me away from...herself. [Kinky...] I could tell that this Hela was being completely serious. Part of me found her dominance kind of hot, but I certainly wasn''t staying another moment in this dimension that I didn''t have to. I was going to beat, steal all her treasures, and leave. [Not going to kill her?] I grimaced at the system''s question. I felt bad for her. My [Observe] had told me that Hela being isolated for so long had driven her crazy. I didn''t think I could kill her in good conscience. [She literally murdered every Asgardian...] Yeah...she did do that... I don''t really have an excuse for that because it was pretty messed up. [Alright then?] [Quest Issued! Defeat Hela without killing her!] A [Lightspear] materialized in my hand. I flapped my ten wings hard and launched myself forward at Hela. I went for a stab in her torso that wouldn''t be immediately fatal. Hela parried my stab with her blade. I knew she was better than me in fighting skills, though, so I immediately let go of the spear and tried to tackle. Her empty hand suddenly wasn''t empty anymore. When I put my hand on her, a black dagger snarked forward and tried to stab me in the same place I aimed for her! CLANG! "WHAT!?" Hela exclaimed in shock when her dagger bounced off the seemingly ordinary black dress I was wearing. I was also surprised Death''s gift was so sturdy, but I took advantage of it. I wrapped my arms around her and spun her around. With a heave, I hurled her body with all my strength towards the stairway! Considering I was approaching a non-enraged Hulk in power, she hit the stone hard. CRASH! Across from me, Hela slowly extracted herself from the rubble. She looked around with a frown on her face. "Why don''t we take our fight out of the treasury? There are some things in here I would rather not have broken." Hela suggested with a frown. I smirked at her before turning back towards Andrea and Sif. "That''s a good idea! While I''m busy fighting Hela, you two can finish looting this place!" I said. Andrea gave me a shaky thumbs up while Sif just nodded. Hela was glaring at me. "It matters not. I''ll simply take back all of the trinkets they''ve stolen from their corpses after I deal with you!" I followed Hela out of the Treasury and back up towards the palace interior. Throughout the entire journey, she never once tried to land a sneak attack on me. "Here, this shall be the proper spot for our duel." Hela said once we reached the throne room. I noticed her eyes trailed towards Odin''s Empty throne And a smirk appeared on her face. Her eyes then drifted towards a familiar spot on the ground And she frowned before turning towards me in indignation. "You''ve even taken Gungnir!? I wasn''t even gone that long. How did you manage to already raid so much of the palace!?" I laughed and pulled the golden spear from my inventory temporarily to show it off. I gave it a twirl in my hand. "Well if you didn''t want anyone to take it, you shouldn''t have left it lying around." I said. The golden spear disappeared back into my inventory as I created my own. I wasn''t going to use an untested weapon in a battle against a strong opponent. Especially Gungir, as it''s not really even that impressive. All it does is shoot incredibly telegraphed lasers out of its tip. I pointed my [Lightspear] towards Hela. "Round two then. Shall we dance?" XXX "I''ll show you the dance of death!" Hela said coldly. The air around her shimmered, and dozens¡ªno, hundreds¡ªof black swords materialized. All of the conjured black swords were pointing towards me. She grinned as she raised her hand in the air. [Damn, Hela''s trying to pull a Gilgamesh on you...] ''Fine then, I''ll be a copycat and pull a Shirou!'' I thought with a smirk. -1000 MP The air shimmered around me next as dozens and then hundreds of [Lightspears] were conjured into existence. 1000 MP might have seemed like a lot for a single attack, and it was, but I still had plenty of MP to spare now. On top of that, I was still sitting around 21000/9000 MP from wiping out all those zombies in New York. I''d walked into this fight with enough power to level Asgard twice over. And I''m sure the palace was about to take a hit once our two barrages collided. Hela frowned when she saw that I could match her weapon output. It didn''t deter her, though. She swung her hand downward. Hundreds of black swords were launched towards me. I willed my horde of [Lightspears] to do the same. What followed next could only be described as pure chaos. ... ¡ªAndrea and Sif¡ª "Do you think Layla will be okay? Because I''m pretty sure the tall gothic chick will murder us if Layla loses," Andrea asked Sif after the two other women left the treasury. "Layla won''t lose," Sif responded confidently. "I can tell that she is stronger than this Hela is." Andrea scratched her cheek and sighed. "That''s good I guess, but strength doesn''t always mean victory. Intelligence and tactics can matter just as much!" Andrea said. Sif scoffed. "Says the woman who built a nigh-indestructible suit of armor for herself. If that isn''t an example of strength, then I don''t know what is." Andrea laughed. "I suppose you got me there..." She then looked around the treasury. She was glad that the tall scary woman suggested she and Layla fight elsewhere. Some of the stuff in the room looked pretty sketchy. "So what should we take? And how will we carry anything out?" Andrea asked. Sif pulled a small bag off of her hip and opened it up. Andrea frowned when she couldn''t see the bottom of it. All she saw was darkness. "Is that an actual bag of holding?" Andrea asked with some excitement. "I know not what that is. ''Tis a bag that can hold far more on the inside than one would expect, though." Sif said as she walked towards a large pile of golden coins. Andrea thought it was interesting that Asgard was still on the gold currency system. Sif opened the bag towards the pile. The air inside the treasury whipped up as a powerful sucking force came out of the bag and swallowed the entire pile of coins. "Woah..." Andrea remarked. That was around a billion dollars worth of gold that Sif had just casually stored in her bag. She looked around the room for anything else worth taking. Andrea stayed clear of the mind-controlling eye and the stature that summoned a supposed eldritch abomination. What did draw her gaze, however, was a small stand-off in the corner. On top of the stand were five golden apples. "Hey Sif, what are those?" Andrea asked. Sif gasped when she saw the golden apples. "Apples of Idun! They were supposed to be extinct! Eating a single apple will add 5000 years onto your lifespan and can even transform a mortal into an Asgardian!" Andrea''s eyes had metaphorical stars in them. "I can be as strong as you guys just by eating one of these things?" She asked as she picked one of the apples up and examined it. "I''m tired of being the squishy human girl who is useless without her armor." "Yes, there should be no problem if you eat one." Sif started to say. "Just don''t do it now because the process is supposed to be incredibly painful and it will take time to¡ª" I walked over towards the Bifrost activation pedestal I''d recognized from the movies and my own Asgard. "And now, ladies and gentle-AI. I present to you the end of the world!" I picked up Heimdall''s sword/key where it lay nearby and slotted it into the keyhole. Nothing happened.... Sif laughed at me lightly. "It''s a key, You have to turn it. "I knew that..." I twisted the sword counterclockwise hard until I heard a satisfying click. THRUM! I could feel it all around me. Magical energy started to build up. "Starting up the Bifrost at full power." Jarvis called out as it started to activate. "...Firing now." The Bifrost fired... ...Presumably at Earth. It was literally thousands of light years away so we unfortunately couldn''t see it. The first Thor movie made the scene a lot more dramatic by showing Jotunheim get hit by the Bifrost when in reality neither Thor or Loki would have actually seen anything... I didn''t have all sight and I wasn''t teleporting myself back to Earth to check. "Hmmm. I thought it would be more dramatic." Sif commented as we watched the Bifrost''s giant beam continue to pour out into space. It was very anticlimactic to witness first hand. Especially after the grudge match I just had with Hela that left half of Asgard and its palace destroyed. "I can confirm the beam has reached earth, but am unaware as to how long the process will take to complete." Jarvis stated. With a shrug, I sat down on one of the steps so we could wait. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a bag of chips. I ripped it open and took a handful before passing the bag to Sif who''d sat down next to me. "How long can it take for our knock-off death star to destroy a planet?" 4 hours later... ...It takes a long freaking time apparently. I forgot that in the movie, Loki had the Bifrost firing at Jotunheim for around 15 minutes before Thor showed up and it didn''t do that much damage in that time. I imagine we had to wait til the Bifrost laser tunneled its way down to the planet''s core and then caused some kind of chain reaction explosion that only makes sense because this is a comic book universe. Otherwise firing a giant laser at a planet would in no way cause it to explode... It would just make a giant hole. Comically scattered around nearby were numerous empty bags and boxes of chips and cookies. Sif and I had just been snacking and chatting the whole time. Jarvis had been relatively quiet and was apparently copying schematics of the Bifrost. He was also a bit sad because he was essentially doing what humanity always feared what an AI would do...destroying the world. Sif and I had told him that we would all never speak of this to anybody so they don''t judge him in the future. Andrea had yet to wake up and thankfully neither had Hela. I''d been periodically checking on the Goddess of Death and she still seemed completely magically drained. I wondered if us having the Bifrost firing for four hours straight had something to do with that. She presumably drew her power in this dimension from Asgard¨Cwhich was never a real planet here¨Cand so does the Bifrost I''m assuming. The Bifrost had been taking all of the ambient magic so far and stopping Hela from recharging herself. I counted that as a lucky coincidence. She''d probably destroy the rainbow bridge just to spite us at this point if she could. [And to think just a few hours ago she wanted you to be her sex slave...] I wasn''t sure why my Hela was so much more sane than this typical ''canon-like'' Hela. I believed it was because my Hela decided to directly draw her power from Lady Death instead of Asgard at some point. Maybe Death''s power flowing through her restored her sanity? [Eh, it''s as good a guess as any.] "It is done." Jarvis finally said. "I can confirm that the Earth is no more. The Bifrost is no longer hitting anything." [Quest Completed! You have destroyed the zombie infested Earth as repayment to Lady Death!] "Alright then!" I said as I stood up and brushed some of the crumbs off of me. Let''s get the hell out of this dimension and never come back!" I walked over to the console and yanked out Jarvis''s drive. Following that I walked over towards the pedestal and turned the sword clockwise disabling the Bifrost. Hela should wake up in a few hours and maybe she would rethink her life...Who am I kidding! She absolutely wouldn''t, and would probably still be an evil tyrant. But she wouldn''t be my problem anymore at least! Sif shoved a few oreos into her mouth as she walked over and scooped up Andrea. "Agreed. I had no idea that alternate dimensions could be so dangerous and sad." I called upon my Orb of Anywhere to take us home. A dark purple portal to Earth DxD opened and we stepped through. XXX C 115 ¨CInterlude¨C "We are approaching Asgard now, Father. News of the Allfathers death has spread far and wide. Without him, they should be easy to defeat." Ebony Maw, one of the children of Thanos, said to his father. Thanos sat back on his throne and grinned at the sight before him. Asgard... The only realm to have ever truly defeated him. Thanos would admit that even now, he still had some trepidation to attack them. The mighty Odin had completely devastated his armies over 1000 years ago and it took Thanos hundreds of years to rebuild. That''s why Thanos was leading the current invasion himself and he had recalled all of his children to assist him. He was expecting a tough battle even if Odin was dead. He knew the golden realm would never willingly hand over the Tesseract. "Bring up Asgard on screen." Thanos commanded. "Right away, Father." Ebony Maw replied as he hit a few buttons on a nearby console. A large holographic screen appeared in front of Thanos and he took a proper look at Asgard. "What..." Thanos said speechlessly. "What the hell happened there? Is that a...giant sword?" Thanos''s favorite daughter¨CGamora¨Casked nearby. Thanos wanted to know what had occurred on Asgard as well. His capital ship drew closer to the realm, and as it did so, he could see that the once mighty Asgard looked absolutely devastated. The golden city was in ruins and the upper half of the famous palace was missing. It looked like it had been blown off from the inside! "I don''t think we''re going to be getting the tough fight we were expecting." Gamora said with a shrug. "What a shame." She said with some sarcasm. "What about the stone?" Thanos said. "Ebony, scan the city! Is the Tesseract on Asgard or did whoever did all this damage take it?" Ebony started pressing more buttons and their ship began to scan all of Asgard for the signature of the Tesseract. If it was here, they would find it. The readings came up empty... "It''s not just the Tesseract, Father. All of Asgard is lifeless as well. Only a single being is alive in the entire city down there" Ebony said as he pointed towards Asgard. "The life sign is coming from the end of the rainbow bridge." Thanos gripped his throne in anger. His stronger-than-vibranium armrests warped under his angry grip. "Someone beat us here and took what should have been rightfully mine!" Thanos said angrily. Thanos raged inside! Someone had stolen his infinity stone! "What do you want us to do now?" Ebony asked. Gamora was looking at him curiously as well. "We will retrieve the lone survivor and question them. For now though, we shall head towards Terra. Two of my infinity stones are there, and without Asgard to defend them, they should be easy enough to retrieve. ... "Raaaaaaagghhhh! Damn them! They ruined everything! Thousands of years of planning is all for nothing now!" A shout filled with rage and hatred awoke Hela from her slumber. She jumped to her feet combat ready with two swords immediately in her hands. She scanned the strange room she''d found herself in. She wasn''t alone. The angry shout had come from a large purple giant that sat upon a dark metallic throne. There were various other races different from the purple giant as well in the room. Hela could recognize that she was in a ship of some kind. The others in the room noticed that she was awake. A woman with green skin drew a sword and pointed it at Hela. "Lower your weapons Asgardian. We have questions for you." "And who are you to question me? Hela asked haughtily. "I am Hela the Goddess of Death and Queen of Asgard!" "And our glorious father is the Great Thanos. Conqueror and Savior of thousands of worlds!" Another alien spoke to Hela. She considered him to be one of the ugliest creatures she had ever laid eyes on. "And what does the glorious Thanos want with me?" Hela asked sarcastically as she turned towards the purple giant who was now eyeing her as well. "I want to know what happened to the Infinity Stones. And where is Planet Terra? It''s supposed to be at these coordinates, but the entire planet is gone!" Thanos said angrily. Hela was confused at the current situation she found herself in, but still responded. "I know not of why you seek the infinity stones, nor where they are. I only knew of the Tesseract and that was recently stolen from me by...Layla of the Fallen." Hela said bitterly. Thanos''s eyes narrowed. "And who exactly is Layla of the Fallen?" Hela scowled. "She''s an invader from another dimension that came to Asgard and ruined everything for me! She destroyed my glorious city and massacred my undead legion!" "Another dimension?" Thanos asked. "Tell me more..." XXX Chapters 116-120 Chapters 116-120 "And we are back!" I exclaimed thankfully as I stepped out of my portal back into Azazel''s lab. I was not expecting a multiple day long adventure when I was supposed to be popping in and out of other dimensions to find Earth Marvel. [It was the fact that the portals cost so much of your MP that screwed you over. Now though, that''s no longer the case.] ''Yeah I''ve got plenty of MP to spare now don''t I?'' That was a nice change. Being able to spam endless [Lightspear] attacks was pretty awesome! The expression on Hela''s face when I matched her hundreds of conjured weapons was priceless! [You didn''t notice? That portal you just made didn''t cost you any MP at all.] ''It didn''t!?'' I asked the System in surprise. I checked my stats real quick and saw that my MP remained unchanged. That was cool! I guess I now know at least one effect feeding the Space Stone to my Sacred Gear had. I could spare portals now as much as I wanted! I wonder if I could even use them in fights? I''d have to practice that a bit. I''ve only ever used portals for long range transportation before. Sif popped out a second later behind me carrying Andrea over her shoulder. Andrea was still passed out with a pained expression on her face. The process of becoming a higher level being was not supposed to be pleasant. All of her organs and muscles literally had to destroy themselves and then be rebuilt by the power of the apple. I had the other apples tucked away in my inventory for now. "What should we do with Andrea?" Sif asked me. I turned and gave the unconscious human/ soon-to-be-Asgardian a once over. She was going to be out for the next couple of days at minimum. I also didn''t want to risk trying to ease her pain with my Sacred Gear lest I accidentally screw up her transformation. "We can take her to my room." I said. " Cmon, it''s this way." I led Sif out of Azazel''s lab and into the hallways. I noticed that there weren''t that many other Fallen Angels meandering about. Glancing at a clock on the wall, I noticed that it was currently the middle of the night. "Why don''t we call it a night as well? I''m pretty mentally tired from all that fighting we''ve done the last few days." I suggested. Sif looked like she endorsed the idea. "I would like to bathe first please. I am covered in Draugr guts..." Yeah...We both could use a bath to be honest. Andrea''s bunker didn''t have a shower and magical cleaning spells don''t exactly work that well. ...Findd new stories at novelhall.com I awoke the next morning well rested in my own bed. I let out a yawn as I opened my eyes. Right across from me still passed out was Sif. Her beautiful blond hair was messily draped all around her. Last night she had been so exhausted that she pretty much passed out right after she rinsed herself off. She''d had quite a few life and death battles lately and had been under a lot of stress so I decided to let her sleep in more. I didn''t think I''d need her with me if I decided to search for Earth Marvel again later anyway. Now that I could spam portals with no MP requirement, I could just pop in and out of each dimension until I found the one I was looking for. I got dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a white t-shirt and quietly made my way out of my room. The grigori HQ was set up like a commune with hundreds of rooms on the upper floors while the lower floors contained recreational areas and meeting rooms for the various businesses that our race ran. I passed by Asia and Akeno''s room and could sense that they weren''t inside. They must be having breakfast right about now. When I reached the cafeteria I saw it was almost completely packed with my Fallen brothers and sisters. There were hundreds of them inside. I wouldn''t expect it to be so full this early in the morning. That was odd, because we were an entire race of immortal lazy beings that love to sleep in... The reason for why it was so full became clear when I saw Gabriel. She usually spent the majority of her time holed up in Heaven. It was a rare opportunity to lay eyes upon her, especially down here in the Underworld. Gabriel was sitting down casually at a table next to Asia and Akeno. It looked like all three of them had just had breakfast. She was chatting with the younger blond exuberant. Whatever they were talking about was halted though when I noticed Gabriel stiffening. Behind her, her twelve white wings ruffled. She spun around and looked directly at me with wide eyes. I walked over to the group with a smile on my face. It was so nice to see people who weren''t zombies and trying to eat me. "Layla?" Gabriel looked at me questioningly. She stood up, walked over to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Gabriel stared me right in the eyes. "What happened to you!?" She asked in concern. "You were gone for days and now your power...you''ve become a 10 winged Angel!" She exclaimed with her eyes glowing gold. I could feel her magical sight wash over my being and inspect me for injuries. Thankfully, I couldn''t even get those anymore as a Gamer. Even if my wings were not currently exposed, nothing could escape a Seraph''s sight it seemed. I let my wings spill out behind me and I could hear dozens and maybe hundreds of gasps from everyone in the room. "Ah, I can explain..." I said. "But first, I want some pancakes." XXX I was sitting at the table, enjoying some delicious blueberry pancakes. Even if I didn''t need to eat, that still didn''t mean I would ever give it up! I was also doing my best to ignore the hundreds of eyes staring at me as I ate. Apparently, my transformation into a 10-winged Angel was a bigger deal than I thought. While Ultimate Class wasn''t the pinnacle of strength in this world, it still put me on the same level of power as the majority of Gods and Goddesses. For most supernatural beings, the gap between High and Ultimate class was so vast that they would never cross it, even in thousands of years. "So, Layla? What exactly happened? You weren''t supposed to be gone for days. And when did you even get back?" Gabriel asked me as I took another bite. She was looking at me with a lot of concern. "Well, Azazel''s Artificial Sacred Gear worked. It effortlessly breached the dimensional gap and took me to an alternate dimension as planned¨C" I started explaining. "What!? Lord Azazel actually made a working Sacred Gear!?" "That''s amazing!" "Lord Azazel is the best! This is a sign that our time has come!" I had to pause my explanation as all of my eavesdropping siblings in the cafeteria started to cheer at Azazel''s accomplishment. A flare of magical energy originated from Gabriel and burst through the room. "Our youngest sister was speaking; show some decorum and don''t interrupt her again," Gabriel said, and all of the Fallen in the room fell silent at her command. Asia, who was sitting next to her, was looking at Gabriel with stars in her eyes. I noticed that even Akeno was looking at her oldest aunt with respect. I wondered when that had happened? I''d have to ask later. Hundreds of eyes were still on me, but the room had gone completely quiet. They were all waiting for me to continue my story. "Right... So I was trying to find Earth Marvel, or the missing half of our world as most people refer to it." Gabriel nodded. "That''s where our Aho brother Azazel trapped himself, right? Did you find it?" She asked. I shook my head. "No, but I should be able to by the end of the day or tomorrow at the latest. Anyway, Sif and I ended up on an alternative Earth where everyone was dead... a zombie apocalypse had completely overrun the entire planet," I explained. Asia gasped in shock while Akeno just gave me a deadpan look. "You''re full of it..." She said dismissively. "Zombies aren''t a real thing." Gabriel took a second to scold Akeno. "Akeno, this is a serious discussion, and there''s no way Layla would lie. If she says she ended up in a dimension with zombies, then that''s where she ended up," Gabriel said with a small shiver. Akeno put her head down and apologized to me. From there, I gave a short summary of everything that went on up until I ended up meeting Lady Death. "Lady D-death..." Gabriel voiced her name with trepidation. "A being that even our Lord Father feared above all others..." I almost wanted to scold Gabriel at the moment as she accidentally used "feared" in the past tense. Thankfully, it seems that Asia was still scared of hearing about zombies and missed Gabriel''s slip-up. I noticed that Akeno did not, though, and she narrowed her eyes. Gabriel continued. "Truly, your life has become complicated ever since you left Heaven, sister." She said while shaking her head with a faint smile. I could tell she was still concerned for me but knew I was strong enough to protect myself now. Maybe not quite as strong as her, though. My life definitely was complicated, but I wouldn''t trade it for anything. The Gamer System, the adventures, meeting unbelievably beautiful women, and all the excitement! I wouldn''t trade any of that for anything. [Damn right you wouldn''t!] I then told Gabriel how "I" had made a deal with Death, and in return, she granted me a massive powerup. I kept the contents of the deal private, along with the fact that Sif and I ended up destroying the planet. We''d promised Jarvis not to say anything about it, and I didn''t need any rumors spreading across the supernatural community that I was capable of destroying worlds. There was a big difference between being able to travel through the dimensional gap vs. being a planet killer... The former was something the majority of the world would come to know I was capable of in a few years anyway once we started implementing our plan to save humanity once our worlds recombined. Getting the information out there early will just add to my credibility with the fact that I wasn''t hiding this information. And with that, my tale came to an end. I glanced around the room, and a blush formed on my cheeks when I saw everyone looking at me like I was their new idol. I''d long since finished my pancakes, and all the staring was getting to me, so I decided to head back out for now. My crowd of siblings parted before me as I excused myself and headed towards the cafeteria doors. I exited without looking where I was going and ended up bumping into someone. "Woah now, there''s no need for such hurtful words," I said as I got between them. "Both of you killed our brothers and sisters during the Great War. It happened and it was horrible, but we have to get past it in the end." "Thank you for your kind words, Layla. But I still know I deserve Kokabiel''s hatred. Along with the hundreds of other Fallen Angels that still follow him and I know hate me as well," Gabriel said. Kokabiel said, "So you know it''s not just. You are correct, Sister. I do have an entire legion under my command currently just waiting for me to give the order to restart the Great War at any time." He bragged, and Gabriel looked horrified at the thought. "But," He continued and turned towards me, "If Layla''s words hold true, then I will order them to stand by for now once we return. They will save their strength for the real battles we''ll need to face in the future." Gabriel gave me a grateful look. "Alright then. Enough of the guilt trips and mushy crap!" I said as a purple portal manifested in front of me. I pointed towards it. "I still need to find Earth Marvel, and I don''t want to spend another 3 days in whatever world we land in if it''s not that." I explained. I also took this moment to swap out my current clothing for the black dress that Lady Death had granted me. It was supposed to shield me from the eyes of "higher beings" when I opened portals into their realms. "While I am curious about alternate dimensions, I agree. If it''s not the correct world, we should just return immediately and try again until Layla gets the correct one," Gabriel said. "I''ve kind of treated these last few days as a vacation, and I know Michael is slowly being drowned in paperwork in Heaven without me there to lighten the load..." Even in Heaven, you can never escape paperwork... I stepped through my portal, and my two very different siblings followed behind me. I was hoping I wouldn''t end up anywhere too weird this time. ... SPLASH! And I hoped to soon... SPLASH! SPLASH! My portal apparently manifested above the ocean. Possibly the Arctic Ocean judging by how cold it was. As a 10-winged Fallen, I could survive in almost any environment, but that didn''t mean that being dunked in freezing cold water was particularly pleasant. Under the water next to me, I could see that Gabriel and Kokabiel were just as annoyed. I kicked my feet and swam towards the surface. All of our heads breached the surface at the same time. I could see ice caps surrounding us as we treaded water. My wings sprang out behind me, and I started floating above the ocean. The freezing saltwater clinging to my skin and hair felt unpleasant. At least until a wave of warm light washed over me. Gabriel had cast a useful spell that immediately dried us all off. "Thank you, Gabriel." "Anytime, Layla." "Tch..." Kokabiel didn''t thank her... "Where are we, besides the Arctic obviously? Is this ''Earth Marvel'' or whatever you call it?" He asked me. "I don''t know. We''ll have to find some people first, I suppose." I said. "There''s ordinary humans about a mile away that way," Gabriel said, pointing off into the distance. Her senses were pretty amazing to sense them. I still had trouble sensing non-magical beings. "Let''s go then." I said as I started flying to where she pointed. When we got there and hovered over the ice caps, I saw a bunch of men standing around a giant excavator that was digging into the ice. This scene oddly looked familiar, but I couldn''t quite place it. What¡ªor who¡ªI could place though was Agent Coulson of SHIELD standing below on the ice watching other people dig. I flew down towards him until I was about 10 feet over his head. It was so cold and windy here that he didn''t notice me. "Agent Coulson!" I called out to him. He startled and jumped in place before looking up. When his eyes met mine, I could see that they were filled with shock. Damn, I don''t think this was my Coulson. He didn''t recognize me at all. "Hello there? You seem to recognize me? I''m afraid I don''t know any of you though." This dimension''s Coulson said as he eyed the three of us wearily. Maybe his human instincts were warning him that he was completely outclassed against beings of our caliber... "Tch... We''re in the wrong dimension. Let''s try another one, Layla. No point wasting our time with boring ordinary humans. I''d like to speak to Azazel sooner rather than later," Kokabiel said as he floated towards me. He didn''t even bother looking at Coulson. He outright dismissed him. "Wrong dimension?" Coulson asked in obvious spy intelligence gathering mode. "You all don''t have to leave immediately? Why don''t you stay and we can all talk? Are you here to find the Captain''s body as well?" I snapped my fingers. That''s why this scene looked familiar. "This was where they uncovered Steve Rogers alive after 70 years in the ice!" I said out loud in excitement. "He''s alive!?" Coulson asked in shock. "Yeah, he is and¡ª" "Coulson, Sir. We''ve found something and what the fuck!" Another agent ran up to Coulson to report something but freaked out when he saw the three of us floating in the air nearby. He immediately pulled out a pistol and pointed it at us. "All of you land right now! You''re all under arrest!" The guy who was looking more familiar by the second shouted at us. I couldn''t help it. I started laughing. BANG! He fired a warning shot off to the side. "I mean it!" The agent ordered all of us again. He then pointed his pistol at Gabriel, who probably looked like the most innocent out of the three of us. Ironically, she was the one with the highest body count by far... "Hahaha! A human pointing a gun at the Archangel Gabriel herself. Now I''ve seen everything!" Kokabiel started laughing at the situation. "Now I''m glad I came just to see this!" I saw Coulson pale when he heard Kokabiel''s words. "A-Archangel...!? Agent! Lower your weapon immediately!" "But Sir!" "Lower your weapon!" Coulson ordered. Now I got it! "I finally recognized this guy!" I said while pointing to the other agent. "Yeah, you''re the guy who shot me in my dimension! You''re a double agent for Hydra!" ""What!"" The two humans exclaimed at the same time. One in shock and betrayal, and the other in anger that I just outed him. He tried to raise his gun towards us again. A quick flick of my hand and his own hand holding the gun fell to the icy ground... "AAAaaaahhhh! You bitch!" He fell to his knees and held his already cauterized stump to his chest in pain. That felt good. Cathartic even. I didn''t get to take revenge on that guy in my dimension because he got popped as soon as he attacked me at the racetrack. "Good luck with Captain America and Hydra, Coulson. FYI, half of SHIELD are Hydra spies at this point. See ya!" I gave him a wave before opening a portal and hopping through it. We were off to the next dimension. XXX Chapters 121-125 Chapters 121-125 "Well this brings back unpleasant memories..." I said as I led Gabriel and Kokabiel through a very familiar graveyard. Just like the last time I was here, it was very foggy and an eerie sense of dread hung in the air. "Have you been here before Layla?" Gabriel asked me as she looked around. "This graveyard feels tainted..." Kokabiel scoffed. "I can sense someone is performing a necromancy ritual nearby." He looked towards the same direction I''d recalled from my first memories of my new life. "This is the same place where I arrived when my Orb of Anywhere first transported me to Earth Marvel." I explained. Gabriel nodded. "That''s a good sign then. Maybe we''ve finally arrived at the right Earth." "It only took 10 tries... Your luck must be terrible, little sister." Kokabiel said bluntly. I felt like crying at that comment! My Luck Stat was at 100! I was supposed to be 20 times luckier than the average person! [Maybe you''re just thinking about this wrong. You thought you were unlucky when you ended up in the Zombie dimension but then you met Andrea, got a power up courtesy of Lady Death, and then you got a bunch of treasures from Asgard including an Infinity Stone. People would kill for that kind of Luck.] Well...when the system put it that way I couldn''t exactly argue. The three of us walked down the graveyard towards the necromancy ritual nearby that Kokabiel was sensing. As we got closer, I could also sense it as well. It felt foul. There were echoes of black magic permeating the air. "Hahaha! I have returned!" Some familiar sounding maniacal laughter rang out through the graveyard and I pretty much immediately knew what''s going on... Next to me, Kokabiel nodded his head as we all heard the echoes of the crazy laughter. "Hmm, that''s a solid evil laugh. I''ll rate it 7/10. He''ll need more practice if he wants to reach my level though." Kokabiel nodded to himself while looking smug. I suddenly had the urge to punch him... Gabriel had a frown on her face as she looked around our surroundings. "Whatever ritual they did is complete. I can feel evil radiating everywhere. This graveyard is now unholy. It''s a tainted ground." Gabriel said as she started floating a few feet off the dirt. [So she can''t walk on tainted ground, but she can float a few feet above it? That kind of seems like a loophole there.] I agreed with the system on that. Gabriel was probably just being dramatic anyway. Walking on tainted ground might make an Angel uncomfortable, but it wouldn''t outright hurt them. It was basically the same as a Devil entering church territory. As the three of us finally made it towards the sound of the laughter. Lo and behold it was exactly what I was expecting. I was once again somehow crashing Voldemort''s resurrection ritual. This time in another dimension. I could see a male Harry Potter sitting on the dirt in pain watching the revival of his greatest enemy with a look of horror on his face. Lady Death had to have been messing with me! What are the odds I end up in this graveyard at the exact right time in two separate dimensions!? "Wormtail! Give me your arm!" "Thank you my lord!" "Your other arm you fool!" The scene was playing out pretty much exactly to canon from what I could tell. I could also sense that this Voldemort was much weaker magically than my own was. A quick use of [Observe] put this Voldemort one at only Level 10 as well. He wanted to use Wormtail''s dark mark to summon more of his Death Eaters to the graveyard, but that would have just been more of a hassle for me to deal with. "There''s no need for that." I called out and interrupted them. Voldemort startled when he realized that our group had managed to ''sneak'' up on him. He let go of Wormtail''s arm and spun around. His wand was out and a green spell was already glowing on its tip. And then his red eyes widened in shock when he took in our group. They especially lingered on Gabriel who had all of her wings on display and was hovering off of the ground. This dimension''s Harry Potter also did a double take at seeing us. "Angels are real!?" He blurted out in shock. "Blimey...Aunt Petunia''s insane religion was right..." He sounded dejected as he spoke and looked down. He looked thin and clearly suffered from years of malnourishment. The same as Heather did. These realistic Harry Potter''s were hard to see in real life. I wasn''t sticking around here long, but I could at least give the kid some reassurance. "You''re Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are going to hell, Harry. Whether they believe or not makes no difference." I said to the teenager. My two siblings were probably wondering how I knew about him, but they decided to play along. "You know my name!?" Harry exclaimed. Gabriel smiled warmly and floated towards him. "Of course we do, child. We are always watching. You have had a hard life, but a Heavenly Law has been broken this night. We are here to rectify that." Gabriel said as she turned her gentle gaze away from Harry and glared at Voldemort. I don''t think I''d ever seen her beautiful face have so much loathing on it. "YOU! How dare you defile your immortal soul in such a disgusting manner!" Voldemort actually took a step back as a golden aura of Light Energy started to waft off of Gabriel. A second later though, he steeled himself and glared back at her. "Who do you think you are!? I am Lord Voldemort! I am immortal. I will be the one to conquer Britain and then the world! I have beaten Death itself and I will not cower to a fake Angel." [Quest Issued! Kill him!] ''Well, that''s a pretty straightforward quest...'' I thought with a laugh. [Yeah, it''s another request from Lady Death... She really hates this guy in every dimension he pops up in.] I might as well get to it then. I was about to conjure a [Lightspear] to deal with him when¨C BOOM! [Quest Complete... You have gained the title: Death''s Favored!] Lady Death''s Favored ¡ú Any ''immortal'' being you kill will not be able to resurrect itself and will stay dead...Findd new stories at novelhall.com I glanced to the side and saw a smug looking Gabriel. I followed her gaze and looked at where Voldemort...used to be. Now all that remained was a smoking crater. Gabriel had just obliterated him from existence. There was no coming back for him after being purged by an Archangel''s Light. That was pretty much it for this story... Except for one thing. I conjured my own [Lightspear] and casually tossed it towards the sniveling Wormatail. He was still clutching his missing arm in pain and had no chance of dodging. The spear struck true right into his torso. He couldn''t even scream as he also died. "What? What just happened?" Harry Potter turned to us and asked. He couldn''t believe what just happened in front of him and I didnt blame him. "Well, that takes care of that. We have to go now, Harry. Don''t worry about Voldemort anymore. He''s dead forever. Bye." I opened up a portal to our next destination on the list. "Bye?" He said in confusion as we all stepped through the portal. My last glance was of him just looking around the graveyard with a gobsmacked expression on his face. XXX "I think... I think we''re back!" I cheered in relief when our portal deposited us in a place I actually recognized! We were in my apartment back in New York! "Whoever lives here sure is a slob..." Kokabiel said as he looked at the fungus covered pizza crust that had been left sitting out for weeks now. It was just as messy as I''d left it too! And the moldy food and scattered clothing everywhere wasn''t my fault. I was expecting to only be gone for a day or two to investigate the stray devil. That ended up becoming a multi week long adventure. I was glad to be home for now though. I had a bunch of things I needed to do here. I explained to them that this was the correct dimension and that we''d finally made it. I ignored the ''disappointed big sister stare'' Gabriel gave me when she saw the state of the room. A quick burst of magic from her a second later, and the place was once again spotless. I needed to learn that spell... "So this is Earth Marvel?" Kokabiel asked. "Hmm, it feels just as I remember. There''s a lot less supernatural beings wandering about though. I can barely sense any in this entire city." "So do you two want to look around a bit? Or do you want to speak to Azazel immediately, Kokabiel?" I asked. "I would love to look around and explore a bit. I feel bad. I can sense that there''s so many Believers in this city alone, and yet none of them realize that they and their ancestors had been cut off from the Heavenly system for over a thousand years..." Gabriel said as she walked over to a nearby window and gazed out into the city. Yeah, that''s a whole can of worms I do not look forward to touching anytime soon. It''ll probably be better for Michael to just lie and claim there was a separate heaven for both worlds or something. [It''s not like the dead people will be coming back to life to prove otherwise.] "Are you going to go out incognito or will you be... revealing yourself?" I asked Gabriel. "Just so you remember...everyone in this world pretty much knows about me." Gabriel told me that she''d be going out incognito at first so she did not get swarmed by people immediately looking for pictures, autographs, or just to ask questions to her. And then she was gone. Gabriel faded away into motes of golden light and teleported away. "..." I turned to Kokabiel. "I guess we''re off to Asgard then. That''s where Azazel was last anyway." I explained. Kokabiel nodded and I opened a portal towards Asgards throne room. When I stepped out, it wasn''t empty like I''d remembered. In fact, it was packed to the brim with guards, along with other noble looking Asgardians. All of them were now staring at Kokabiel and I who had just stepped out of a random portal in the middle of Asgard''s throne room. "Awkward..." I muttered as I avoided all the gazes on me. Kokabiel didn''t care and just scoffed. He glared at everyone around us challengingly. Azazel actually looked shocked as he watched himself heal a bit. "Well, damn. I''d resigned myself to an unfortunately slow and agonizing death as my flesh rotted away. That''s part of the reason I''ve been trying with Penemue to have a kid and all. To leave something behind when I was gone..." I glared at him. "Even if you died, I''d just bring you back. You''re too important to our faction to kick the bucket. Baraqiel would be a horrible replacement. The guy can''t even manage his own relationship with his daughter." I said. Azazel probably thought I was joking but I still had 3 revives left. I''m sure I''ll be able to get more later as well. I was still kind of irritated that I had to waste one on Raynare of all people though... "Ha! Ain''t that the truth. Baraqiel spends too much of his free time alone and has terrible social issues because of it. I honestly have no idea how he seduced Shuri in the first place." Azazel said as he inspected his skin again. He gave me a genuine smile. "You really are an amazing little sister. I think a couple more Healing sessions and I might be fully healed. Penemue will be ecstatic!" He said and genuinely looked relieved. I smirked. "Of course, I''m amazing! We''ll set up a schedule later. So what did the being look like? And is part of it inside my Gear?" I asked. "Yeah, it is. It looked like an indescribable blob the size of a moon with millions upon millions of tentacles. And it was covered absolutely everywhere in eyeballs. One of its tentacles lashed out at me. It was far too fast for me to dodge or block. A single hit! From a single tentacle out of MILLIONS and I was almost dead..." Azazel said as he held his hands up and an illusionary image appeared in the air. I felt my head ache as I gazed upon the image and I had to look away! Azazel continued, "When I canceled the ritual and slammed the portal shut, part of the tentacle that had breached into our dimension was cut off from the whole. I managed to destroy it much later, but I saved a single one of its eyes." I got the picture from there. That Eldritch horror of an eyeball was now fused with my very soul. ''Awesome...'' I thought sarcastically. [It could be worse.] ''How''s that?'' [Azazel could have used the whole tentacle for the Gear?] "..." XXX Well, I guess I now know why my Orb of Anywhere was so powerful. And was able to absorb an Infinity Stone no problem. I also know why Azazel never bothered fusing it to himself... Oh well, what''s done is done. So I''ve got the eyeball of an Eldritch monstrosity fused to my soul... For a Gamer like myself, that''s just another Tuesday! [That''s the spirit!] I left Azazel''s makeshift lab with the assurance that we would have some healing sessions every few days until he was fine again. Kokabiel also came back from his ''walk'' and I decided to give the two of them some room to talk on their own. Hopefully, Kokabiel hearing about the peace treaty only being temporary when it came to the Devils would bring him and the few hundred Fallen Angels that followed him back into the fold. I was walking down the Asgardian palace hallways and heading back towards the throne room. I was hoping Hela was finished with her meeting and we could spend some time together. My hopes came true when I turned a corner and saw Hela herself, along with a retinue of her guards coming towards me. "Layla! There you are. I was just coming to look for you. I was hoping we could catch up." Hela said. The way she phrased ''catch up'' along with the glint in her eyes told me that we would be doing more than just talking. "You all are dismissed for now. Layla and I will be heading towards my chambers for the rest of the evening." Hela dismissed the guards that were following me as she took my hand in her own. "For the evening?" I asked her mischievously. Hela smirked down at me. "Yes. A very long evening if I have anything to say about it. ... ¨CHeaven''s Most Beautiful Angel¨C Gabriel walked down the streets of New York city taking in the sights. Even back on Earth DxD, she didn''t get to leave Heaven often to visit Earth. Michael always had too much work for her to do. That''s why she enjoyed opportunities like these. Her wings were obviously hidden away as she toured the streets in some magically created human clothing. She usually preferred to just wear her toga, but the recent human inventions known as jeans and t-shirts were surprisingly comfortable as well. "Hey there gorgeous! Do you want a hotdog? Half off, just for you!" Gabriel realized someone was talking to her and she turned to address them as was proper courtesy. It was a local food vendor and the sign on his cart said that he sold Hotdogs. Gabriel had never had one of those before. She had heard that New York was famous for these and would have liked to try one herself¨Cbut. "I apologize. I do not have any human money on me currently." The vendor looked at her strangely for some reason after she said that. "Is something wrong?" she asked him. The vendor shook his head. "Nothin. Jus'' the way you phrased that is all." He said with a typical New York accent that Gabriel found fun to listen to. "You look kinda familiar. Have I seen you before?" The vendor asked her. Gabriel shook her head. "I''m afraid not. I don''t get to come down here that often. Michael has me stuck doing endless paperwork in Heaven all day long!" Gabriel pouted. "I really envy my youngest sister Layla for being able to live among you all and have so much free time. And I know envy is technically a sin and all, but I find it''s the lightest of all of them really." Gabriel continued to babble off. She missed the expression of dawning realization on the vendor''s face when he started to suspect he may not be talking to a human. "Is that so? Everybodies overworked these days, aren''t they? Here, why don''t you have this Hotdog on the House." He said and he handed her the food free of charge. Gabriel graciously accepted his generosity and thanked him. "Mmm. This is good." She said as she took a bite. "Of course it is!" The vendor bragged. "I made it myself after all...um, what was your name miss?" "Oh! How rude of me. I am Gabriel. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Hotdog Vendor." Gabriel said enthusiastically. "Right...Gabriel...right..." The Vendor mumbled quietly. Gabriel finished eating her Hotdog right there on the spot. She''d heard the people in this city could be rude, but she''d already found a nice person! Gabriel winced suddenly. She felt a pure soul was in terrible pain nearby. She turned her head and felt that the source of the pain was coming from a nearby large building. She asked the Vendor what the building was and he told her it was the Maria Stark Children''s Hospital. Apparently, a kind man known as Tony Stark had them built all over the country in honor of his mother who passed away. "I feel that I am needed over there. Thank you for the Hotdog." Gabriel said. An instant later, her twelve white wings manifested and she flew over the crowds of people and traffic to land in front of the children''s hospital. "I gotta call my brother Vinny! He''s never going to believe this!" Gabriel heard the vendor exclaim as she took off. "Oh my god! Another Angel!" "Someone take a picture!" Later that night, newscasts all over the world displayed pictures and testimonies of the Archangel Gabriel herself descending to New York and healing every terminally sick child at Maria Starks Children''s hospital. The next day, New York was once again flooded with tourists hoping to get a glimpse of an actual Archangel mentioned in the bible. XXX [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death''s Favored] [Level: 40] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 13000] [MP: 9200] [Vigor: 800] [Strength: 140] [Intelligence: 920] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 7, HP to MP conversion] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Replenisher, Lucky Shot, Mana Burst] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] Chapters 126-130 Chapters 126-130 A/N: Second half of this has R-18 and can be skipped. You''ll see the warning first. I woke up hours later in Hela''s bed. I could hear her softly breathing next to me. I smiled at the sight of my sleeping Goddess of Death. She looked a lot more peaceful when she was sleeping and not constantly threatening to stab someone for being incompetent. I decided not to wake her and let her sleep a bit longer after the vigorous night we just spent together. While I was lying back in bed, I checked my inventory and looked at what we had scored from the alternate Asgard. Sif had passed all of the loot to me for safekeeping. According to her, she also had a pocket space spell, but it took her effort to keep it up consistently, especially with all the treasure we had scored. We had really raided the other Hela well. I had a gigantic pile of gold Asgardian coins sitting in my inventory. Enough to easily break this Asgard''s economy if I wanted to. On top of that, I had the four apples of Idun. Each of those was unbelievably valuable as well. Five thousand extra years of lifespan would be worth a fortune to many beings out there. I had no doubt I could sell these for billions of dollars if I wanted back on Earth. Not that I would. I''d be saving these apples for my friends and lovers who weren''t immortal. I gave the Extremis formula to Sif when I was originally saving it for Natasha. I figured one of these apples would be a good way to make it up to her. Not that she ever knew I even had the perfect Extremis formula since it was a reward from the system, but still. I missed Natasha... I know it''s rude to think that when I literally just spent the night with another woman, but it was simply in my nature as a Fallen Angel to be greedy. Natasha was my first lover, and I wanted to see her again. I was mad at Fury for sending her on such a long mission. I''m hoping her mission was completed by now. I''d make sure to check with Fury on that after I popped back to Earth DxD to pick up Akeno and Asia. As I was looking at the other Asgardian treasures Sif had snagged, something else in my inventory caught my attention. It was something I didn''t recognize. ''Hey, System, what is this? It looks like some kind of Black Vial?'' [Oh...that. Right, I forgot to tell you about that. It was your reward for escaping the Marvel Zombies universe. You had so much going on at the time that I just slipped the reward into your inventory. I was going to tell you about it later...but I forgot.] I facepalmed at the System''s bluntness... I reached into my inventory and pulled out the black vial to inspect it. [The Cure ¡ú Can cure any disease, sickness, plague, curse, or bacterial infection. Can only be used once.] It was neat, but not overly amazing if it could only be used once. My Sacred Gear should also be able to cure any of that anyway... [Your Sacred Gear isn''t all-powerful like this is. This could immediately heal Azazel if you gave it to him!] "Hmm." That made it more useful, I suppose. I decided to save it for now, though. Even if it will take a few sessions, I already know I can heal Azazel. I''ll save this for emergencies. Who knows when I''ll come across an eldritch monstrosity in the future myself after all... Hela started to stir next to me. She opened her eyes and gave me a small smile followed by a yawn. "Good morning, Layla. I found sleeping with my future consort most pleasant. We should do this more often." Hela said. I could help but agree. I didn''t physically need sleep, but going without it would not be good for my mental health. Hela yawned as she sat up. Her large bare breasts became visible as the sheets slid off her form. I had trouble keeping my eyes away from the sight. Hela smirked at me. "We could spend the entire day in bed together if you so desire, my love. I am queen after all and no one will judge us. In fact the nobles will probably be happy if I tell them we''re trying to make a little heiress to Asgard." That idea was really tempting... minus the future kid... but I couldn''t. I had things to do, sadly. Galavanting across the dimensions had taken up a lot of my time already. Hela noticed my pained expression so she just shrugged and conjured clothing for herself. "I suppose I''ll be busy today too. I have a meeting with the former Queen. I want to know how her ''son'' ended up escaping from his holding cell. Especially considering no one has reportedly escaped in over 1000 years. Loki might be a God, but his powers had been severely diminished with the destruction of planet Asgard." Hela explained. "Being able to turn invisible and conjure illusions should not have been enough to fool the anti-magic cameras and security measures we have installed in the dungeons." "You think Frigga helped him escape?" I asked her. Hela looked to be on the fence with my question. "I''m honestly not sure. I''d like to believe my stepmother did not, but I''ll have to be sure. Maybe she thought I was planning on killing Loki after all." Hela said with a scoff. "I wouldn''t have done that. I still remember him being a firm, if slightly mischievous, ally back before Odin ruined everything." I didn''t know how he was supposed to be in this dimension so I couldn''t comment back. If Hela said he used to be very different though then I would believe her. Especially considering everyone apparently used to KNOW that Loki was an adopted Frost Giant and yet no one seemed to care. I finished up my conversation with Hela before getting dressed myself. I wanted to know what had occurred on Midgard in my absence so I decided to pay a visit to the universe''s biggest peeping Tom. XXX "Hello, Heimdall. How fare the nine realms?" I asked Heimdall as I stepped out of my portal at the edge of the Bifrost. He was where he always was, on the edge of the world, staring off into the abyss of space. "The realms fare poorly. Jotunheim prepares for war. Muspelheim might end up joining them. Alfheim and Vanaheim have been having discussions on independence and breaking free from Asgard''s rule now that Odin is dead. And Midgard is chaotic as usual. More so actually because of your sister." So everything was going wrong, about as I would expect it to in this kind of situation. "What did Gabriel do?" I asked him. "She went into a place of healing for dying children and healed all of them," Heimdall said. My eyebrow rose at that. That didn''t take long. One of the Angels'' biggest regrets was how they weren''t able to help people on Earth more. Blatantly exposing myself to help people was what triggered my fall, after all. Now that she''s currently out of the reach of Heaven''s System, it seemed like Gabriel didn''t hesitate to start helping and healing. "Good for her," I said. "Is she fine other than that?" I asked him. Heimdall took a second to presumably peer at Earth before nodding to me. "Yes, she is fine. In fact, the city of New York is considering throwing her a parade for what she did." I then asked Heimdall if he could inform me of everything else going on. I was specifically interested in learning more about the Death Eaters and the Hand. To my surprise, Heimdall had trouble seeing the Death Eaters when they were hidden behind their wards and Fidelius Charm. Wizarding World magic might not be exactly powerful combat-wise, but it sure was versatile. The Hand, on the other hand, he could see. Apparently, Madam Gao had clashed with the Iron Fist several times in New York so far. Wasn''t that guy supposed to call me when he found them? [You were in another dimension with no cell service obviously...] Oh right. Danny Rand probably won''t even bother calling me now that I never answered and probably came off as a flake. I guess I''d have to track down the Hand on my own again. That or I could ask Matt to put me in contact with Stick. The old blind man came off as shifty in the Netflix series, but at the end of the day, he wanted all of the Hand dead. I figured we could find common ground there. If the Chaste knew where the Beast was located specifically, then I could easily take care of it with my current strength. There was no way the Demon was at Ultimate Class. High Class? Maybe, but even then I doubted he was at the peak of it. "Is that all the information you require of me, Layla?" Heimdall asked me. I told him "yes" and thanked him for his assistance. Not that he had anything better to do. The guy just stood here all day and spied on people. This had to be one of the most boring and lonely jobs in the universe. [He can peep on all the girls he wants though.] That he can, System. That he can... After that, I made my way back towards Azazel''s lab here on Asgard. Gabriel was busy enjoying being able to finally interact with humanity while not incognito, so I figured I''d retrieve her later. There was no need to end her time amongst the people so soon. I''m sure Michael was handling all of Heaven''s workload just fine without her. ... ¡ªHeaven-Earth DxD¡ª Michael was not handling all of the paperwork just fine. He was currently buried under thousands of backup files and requests. He was on the verge of tears. He was praying to his late father for Gabriel to return soon to help lighten his workload! ... When I stepped into Azazel''s lab, I found him and Kokabiel casually lounging on some chairs and sipping on some Asgardian mead. They were laughing and joking together as if they hadn''t spent the past few hundred years at odds with each other. "Damn, this is some powerful mead!" Azazel commented as he slammed his tankard backward and downed the whole thing. "This is one of the things I missed most about this place! The booze that humans produce isn''t strong enough to even give me a buzz, and I''d never drink any of that swill that Devils produce!" "Sister! Come and drink with us. We are in the middle of planning the downfalls of our enemies. The plans we have made! They are nefarious and perfect¡ªburp!" Kokabiel was also red-faced and very clearly drunk. I didn''t even know we could get drunk. I raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "Do neither of you care that you''re both plastered, and it''s not even midday yet?" I asked them. I don''t know why I bothered because they obviously didn''t care. "Nope. We''re celebrating being loving brothers again!" "Hah! Of course not! I am Kokabiel and I care not for the opinions of others!" I figured. At least they seemed to be getting along better. That was a plus. "I was planning on returning to the Grigori HQ and wanted to know if you two wanted to come?" I asked. I didn''t think Azazel had a reason to stay in Asgard now that I could freely move between dimensions. "Thash good. I needsh to speak with all my subordinates. Ifsh I''m gone too long, they were supposed to assume I''m deadsh. And then they were to attack the Vatican and restart the great war!" Kokabiel slurred out. "Tssk." I looked to the side and Sif was scowling at Yasaka. There was the Goddess''s jealousy reeling up again. Yasaka had arrived at our headquarters around the same time I returned with my three siblings. She dropped off her prisoners and had requested a private meeting with me. Azazel looked incredibly jealous of me but he allowed it. "Ara? Got something to say, Lady Sif?" Yasaka teasingly asked her. "I want to know why you requested a meeting with Layla herself and not with her older brother Azazel. You know he''s back now right?" "But it''s not Azazel or the Grigori to whomst I am thankful to. Tis Layla herself." Yasaka said as she sent me a wink while licking her lips in a blatant manner. "I wanted to give my... thanks... to Layla in person." Sif scowled again in clear jealousy of Yasaka''s flirtatious behavior. It was hard to tell with this fox woman if she was teasing or not. "So what did you have in mind to repay me for saving the Princess of Kyoto?" I decided to try and tease Yasaka back. I slowly raised one of my legs up over the other as I crossed them and gave both women a teasing view of what lay under the short black dress I was currently wearing. I noticed that Yasaka''s slitted pupils narrowed on me further. "Well, I was hoping for it to be a bit more personal..." She trailed off before looking at Sif who was grinding her teeth. The message was clear. She wanted Sif to leave the room so she could "reward me." Yasaka was quite the vixen it seemed... "Absolutely not! Layla is mine, you nine-tailed harpy!" Sif exclaimed as she stood up suddenly. She gave Yasaka a challenging look. "Ara? Then why do I smell the scent of another woman all over Layla?" Yasaka asked mischievously. "What? Is that why you were gone so long, Layla?" Sif asked me suddenly. "Was it that annoying Hela again!?" I looked to the side awkwardly. "Yeah...I was with Hela last night." Sif muttered a few choice Asgardian expletives before staring at me. "I''m not going to lose!" She declared. "I won''t let Hela or this fox-woman have you to themselves!" She said to me almost fanatically. The way she was staring at me hungrily, I felt like she was going to try and jump me right here. "You certainly have quite an interesting Harem member here..." Yasaka laughed at Sif''s behavior. "And I was never planning on stealing Layla for myself. I''m well aware of Fallen Angels and their... proclivities for having many partners." Yasaka said to the blond Goddess. Yasaka then clapped her bands together and grinned and Sif and I lewdly. "So let''s share!" "What!" Sif squeaked out! "I''m OK with that!" I immediately answered. I''d never had a threesome before! No way I was turning that down! ... ¨CYasaka¨C Layla opened a portal to her bedroom and all three women stepped through it. Yasaka looked around the place and found it to be clean and tidy. She approved. Layla sat down on her bed and grinned at the other two women. "I''ve never had a threesome before! Let alone with two incredibly beautiful blondes." Layla then snapped her fingers dramatically and her short dress vanished from her form. Her naked body was immediately exposed. Layla boldy spread her legs apart and gave the other two women a perfect view of herself. Yasaka felt herself heating up at the sight. She had been in a long dry spell ever since her partner sadly passed. A lot of people assumed Kunou''s mysterious ''father'' was a human, but SHE was not. Yasaka''s partner was a fellow female kitsune who passed away from an incredibly rare disease only Youkai can get... Yasaka never corrected people on their assumptions. She wanted people to think she preferred men. It worked better for all of her trade deals if the men she dealt with thought they had a chance with her. Yasaka noticed Sif standing next to her and gaping at Layla like a deer in headlights. Yasaka took advantage while Sif was distracted and strutted forward towards Layla. As she did so, her own kimono vanished into motes of light. Her incredibly large breasts bounced free and she smirked when Layla''s eyes immediately locked onto them. Yasaka also had a well trimmed patch of blonde hair between her luscious thighs. It sat right above her already dripping lower lips. Yasaka hadn''t found herself going into heat in a long time, and didn''t think she would ever again. While she could have flings, Kitsune truly tended to mate for life. Yasaka thought she would be alone forever after she lost her partner. She was thus naturally surprised when she found her own instincts pushing her towards Layla of the Fallen from the first day they met and Layla saved her precious daughter. Yasaka''s nine tails swayed behind her as she stood over Layla. Their eyes locked and Yasaka leaned down. She met Layla in a sensual kiss that had her nine tails wriggling behind her in anticipation for what was to come! XXX Sif grit her teeth when she noticed Yasaka steal ahead of her with Layla! Sif was so stunned at seeing Layla''s naked form that the Goddess temporarily froze. Layla''s breasts were large and perky with magnificent cherry colored nipples. Her body was sinfully curved in all of the right places. And then Sif saw Layla''s lower lips! They were hairless and dripping with the Fallen Angel''s arousal. How could Sif not have frozen at such a sight!? Sif shook her head! That damned fox had already passed her and was now passionately kissing Sif''s darling, Layla. Sif quickly removed her own armor and clothing before walking up to the other two women. Layla and Yasaka were locked in a deep sensual kiss. Layla''s eyes were closed as she and Yasaka''s tongues danced against each other back and forth between both of their mouths. Layla was currently dominating the kiss and she could hear Yasaka purring as she did so! "My turn!" Sif said with a pout as she cut in. Layla laughed when Sif literally pushed Yasaka off of her. The fox woman huffed in annoyance when Sif took her place. Layla took in Sif''s nude form for the first time. She was absolutely breathtaking. Her body was incredibly toned and Layla could finally see how well toned Sif''s legs and stomach were without all of her heavy armor. Sif''s breasts looked firm and they were topped off with light pink nipples. Sif leaned down and hungrily gave Layla her own passionate kiss. Layla giggled into the kiss at how enthusiastic Sif was being. Yasaka sighed as she watched the two gorgeous women make out in front of her. "Ara, normally I''d be more upset at being shoved, but I can''t help but admit this is a beautiful sight in front of me." Yasaka purred out. She then had a mischievous grin on her face. The fox woman strutted behind Sif who was busy kissing Layla. She wrapped her hands around Sif''s torso and started laying gentle kisses on the other blond woman''s collar and neck. Even if Yasaka''s instincts wanted to choose Layla, Yasaka had no problems unleashing her carnal desires on both women tonight! Sif let out a squeak at the sudden new sensation. She broke her kiss with Layla and turned her head towards Yasaka incredulously. Her eyes widened when Yasaka layed a quick kiss on Sif herself. Layla stood up from the bed and wrapped Sif in a hug. "I know you''ve been lonely, Sif. How about we take care of you first?" Layla voiced huskily. ... "Oh! That feels so so good!" Sif moaned out. She was laying back on Layla''s bed. Her golden locks of hair were spread out all around her. Between Sif''s legs, Layla was running her tongue up and down the Goddess''s folds. Layla''s tongue had Sif writhing in pleasure. And then there was Yasaka. She was sitting just to Sif''s left and gently massaging her breasts. Yasaka seemed to know exactly what she was doing as Sif had never felt such pleasure from her chest! Yasaka grinned to herself and picked both of Sif''s nipples at the same and Sif sized up! The combined pleasure of her two lovers pushed her over the edge and a powerful orgasm washed through Sif! She let out a loud moan as her whole body rippled with pleasure! Layla lifted her face from between Sif''s long toned legs. She stuck out her tongue and licked away some of the lingering juices that were on her face. She locked eyes with Yasaka who was grinning lewdly at her. ... Yasaka mewled in pleasure at the amazing sensation between her legs. She was lying on her side with her legs spread wide. Layla had positioned herself directly between Yasaka''s legs. Layla''s lower lips rested directly on top of Yasaka''s own as Layla rocked her hips back and forth. The friction felt amazing as the two women tribbed. Yasaka shook with pleasure as she stared up at Layla who was rocking back and forth. Yasaka thought Layla looked absolutely perfect at the moment. Covered in sweat and other juices and sensually swaying her hips to bring them both towards their peaks! "Yasaka, Im¨CI''m gonna cum!" Layla panted out! Layla felt so good that she was visibly shaking. A second later a loud moan left her mouth as she exploded with an orgasm! Yasaka joined her. The sight of Layla cumming on top of her triggered her own orgasm! Yasaka let out a loud noise that sounded like a mix between moaning and purring. Her tails behind her all quivered and curled up as she came. ... "Layla, this position is embarrassing... What are you doing?" Sif asked. She was resting on her hands and knees on the bed. Layla had insisted that she take this embarrassing position so she would not spoil the "surprise!" Layla rested on her knees behind Sif and admired the Goddess''s beautiful backside. Layla noticed Yasaka was looking on curiously from the side. Layla gave Yasaka a wink before she quietly whispered a certain spell she had learned from Hela, but never put into practice. Layla felt something grow from just above her clitoris and she was suddenly experiencing entirely new sensations! Yasaka gaped at the sight of Layla giving herself a magical penis. Yasaka thought that was a talent exclusive to Yokai only! Apparently it was not... Layla didn''t waste anymore time and lined her new appendage up with Sif''s core. Layla then slammed her hips forward! Her hips met Sif''s backside in one powerful thrust! A ripple ran across Sif''s flesh as a clap echoed out through the room. Sif''s eyes widened and she let out a scream of shock and pleasure! Layla had just filled her with something large and...fleshy!? "Layla!? What is that!?" Sif squeaked out in surprise! Layla shivered at the brand new sensations she was feeling on her magical appendage. Holy crap! It felt amazing! No wonder Hela always liked to use this with her! "Y¨Cyou like it, Sif? It''s my magical c-cock! I learned the spell from Hela. It feels so good!" Layla grunted out as she shook with pleasure from the sensations Sif''s tight pussy was giving her! Layla couldn''t hold back anymore and started moving her hips back and forth! "Mmmmm." Sif moaned out as Layla started rutting her hips. She hadn''t experienced this in hundreds of years. Not since she tried dating random men to try and make Thor jealous. None of that mattered though! Layla felt 1000 times better than any of them ever had! Her magical cock was stuffing Sif''s core to the brim and sending ripples of pleasure through the Goddess with every movement. Yasaka watched the two having genuine sex from the side with envy. Had she known Layla could do that spell, Yasaka wouldn''t have hesitated to volunteer herself first! Oh, well. She''d make sure to make Layla take her next after the Fallen Angel was finished with Sif. Yasaka slipped a few fingers inside herself as she watched the two other women. Layla continued pounding into Sif''s wet hole for another few minutes before she couldn''t hold herself back anymore! "Sif! You feel too good! I''m cumming! I''M CUMMING!" Layla''s thrusting halted and she bottomed out deep inside of Sif''s core. Sif arched her back and moaned as she felt Layla spill herself deep inside her! It was warm and came from the woman she loved. It felt so good that Sif had her own orgasm a few seconds later. Her voice joined Layla''s as both women moaned in sync. Layla let out a pleasant sigh as she extracted her tool out of Sif''s hole. She then let out a small yelp as she found herself forced onto her back. Yasaka had pushed her down with a crazed look in her eye. "My turn!" Yasaka said with a lewd grin. She grabbed hold of Layla''s tool and positioned her own dripping folds right above it. Yasaka then sank herself down completely until her hips met Layla''s... "Yes!" Yasaka screamed loudly as she felt Layla fill her to the brim... XXX chapters 131-135 chapters 131-135 "Welcome home girls. Or at least where I live currently..." I said as I spread my arms wide gesturing all around. This penthouse was still pretty great. Too bad I hadn''t gotten to spend a lot of time actually living here yet. I''d been traveling around more than a Xianxia protagonist! Asia and Akeno looked around my Penthouse curiously. Asia had stars in her eyes and had probably never seen such luxury before. Akeno looked mildly disinterested. She grew up in the Gremory mansion which was probably a lot more ritzy than my multi million dollar penthouse. Maybe I needed to get some servants? I easily had enough gold to pay for them now. In fact, I think I had more gold than Fort Knox. I wonder if the government would be interested in buying some of it off of me? It''s pretty hard to spend gold coins on Earth after all... "Ok. Asia, your room is on the left and Akeno''s is on the right. Well talk about enrolling the both of you in school soon as well. Just because you''re in a new world, doesn''t mean you can skip your education." I explained to the pair of them. "I can go to school!?" Asia asked excitedly. "I''ve always dreamed of being able to go to one!" "I suppose I wouldn''t mind going to school myself. As long as it''s anywhere but in Japan..." Akeno said with a far off look. I decided not to ask. The two girls settled into their rooms and I checked back in on Andrea Stark. She was still unconscious for now. That apple of Idun was talking a long time to fully change her body. I had tried contacting Tony so I could tell him about ''his sister,'' but he wasn''t answering currently. Jarvis had told me that Tony was back home in his lab and had asked to not be disturbed. He had been hit with some crazy bout of inspiration apparently. Figuring the two girls would be fine on their own for a while, I decided to pop over to see someone I hadn''t visited in a while. I opened up a portal to the Kamar Taj. ... "Halt, Abomination! You will not step foot on our sacred grounds!" I stepped out of my purple portal and was immediately yelled at. I glanced around and saw over a dozen sorcerers, all armed with glowing orange weapons, glaring at me hatefully. There was some kind of loud alarm blaring all around as well. "What the hell, guys!? It''s me, Layla. I studied here for over a month, not even that long ago!" I said to everyone. Some of the sorcerers in the courtyard finally seemed to recognize me and lowered their weapons. Around half of them did not, though. "Is that truly you, Layla? You feel...different." The voice of the Supreme echoed out through the courtyard. Everyone''s attention shifted towards the Ancient One as she stepped out of a nearby wooden building. I saw Heather Potter trailing after her. Heather''s eyes lit up when she saw me! The girl was looking a lot better. Gone were her gaunt eyes and thin frame due to years of abuse and malnutrition. Now, Heather looked like any other teenage girl her age. Just one that was wearing monk''s robes... "Layla! I missed you! You''ve been gone for so long! I thought you forgot about me?" Heather said as she walked up to me and gave me a big hug. I hugged her back and apologized. "I''m sorry, Heather. So much crazy stuff happened all at once! I had Voldemort, then the Hand, then Voldemort again, and then Voldemort a third time! Then I had to deal with Asgard, where I got engaged. Then there was the zombie apocalypse in an alternate dimension, and the woman I''m engaged to in this dimension tried to kill me in that one!" I listed off with a huff! I really need to kill this dimension''s Voldemort. He should not have made the list three times! The Ancient One just raised an amused eyebrow at me. Heather was looking completely lost, of course, by my terrible explanation. "You''re engaged!?" She exclaimed! "To who!?" "Hela, the Goddess of Death and new Queen of Asgard." I said. "The Asgardians are real too!? Are all the gods real?" Heather asked me. "Yes." the Ancient one answered for me. "That is why we sorcerers are so important. Most of the supernatural world thinks of us humans as lesser beings that deserve to be ruled by them. We, the sorcerers, exist to protect those people from threats like that." She explained to Heather. "So, can you do anything about all of them?" I asked the Ancient One while gesturing to all the sorcerers still pointing their eldritch weapons at me. "All of you go back to what you are doing. She feels far different than when she left us, but I can say that this is Layla." All of the sorcerers lowered their glowing weapons at the Ancient once words. ... I was sitting alone with the Ancient One in her office while she gave me a scrutinizing gaze. "You''ve certainly changed quite a bit from the last time I saw you, Layla." "I have, yeah. As mentioned before I''ve definitely gone through quite a few trials to get stronger." I said. "Hmmm, and I''m sure that entity fused to your soul has nothing to do with your unprecedented growth..." She trailed off while giving me a knowing grin. I sighed. "Maybe a little..." "Although, that''s not the only entity fused to your soul anymore. I sense another...something more foreign to our dimension." The Ancient One said again. She was staring at me, and her eyes were almost glowing. She was sensing the eye inside my Orb of Anywhere. That might have also been what triggered the mystic alarm when I arrived here. The arrival of an Eldritch being ¨C even just a small part of one ¨C wouldn''t go unnoticed in the heart of the Sanctum, after all. Two could play in that game. With my higher levels and [Observe] skill, I wondered if I could see her level now? [The Ancient One - Level ?] The woman sent me a smirk. "Trying to pry into my secrets so soon, Layla? You might have grown significantly in power, but your knowledge over the mystic arts is still abysmal. You could barely make portals when you left after all." She said as she took a sip of her tea. "And now I can open up portals all over the universe and to alternate ones even whenever I want!" I bragged. The Ancient One looked at me with pity. "So can every single other sorcerer who leaves here with their training complete... We simply choose not to open portals to alternate dimensions or universes. Lest we accidentally find one that is filled with the kind of creature now fused to your soul." She said to me with a deadpan. "Awe...that makes sense. Azazel said that thing was the size of a moon and had millions of tentacles. A single one of those tentacles almost killed him in one hit too." I saw the ancient one pale at my words. "That moron discovered THAT abomination!? He''s lucky our entire universe still exists! And somehow a piece of it is now fused to you and it actually seems to like you!? I have no words..." She trailed off and shook her head. [Well, that''s some encouraging information. That being even terrifies this madwoman!] I could feel the System''s sarcasm flowing through me... "Other than that, Layla. I can sense the dimensional energies all over you. You recently came from a universe that reeks of death. Was that the Zombie Apocalypse you mentioned earlier?" She asked me. "Yeah, the world was pretty messed up. There was a terrible virus that popped up in..." I started to explain. XXX "So how''s Heather been overall since you''ve taken her in?" I asked the Ancient One. She took another sip of her tea. "Hmmm. She has been good. I''ve repaired the damage she had from that leech in her forehead. Some healing rituals have brought her physically back up to where a 15-year-old girl should be. She''s also been taking to her magical studies fervently. She''s a prodigy, actually." I smiled at hearing all that. "That''s great!" She continued. "The only issue is that she seems lonely right now. She''s the only child we have studying here. We don''t take students under 18 usually. Her circumstances were special, of course." I nodded at that. I told the Ancient One that I''d recently sort of taken in two teenage girls as well and that I was planning to enroll them in a high school. The Ancient One seemed intrigued. "That''s a good idea. Hogwarts as an institution...is terrible. It doesn''t prepare its students for anything useful in life at all. I mean, what kind of careers can you make from transforming animals into goblets or levitating feathers?" I always wondered that as well. Other than potions, none of the magic in Harry Potter ever actually seemed useful in job settings. "I could get all three of the girls American identities if you would like?" She suggested. I gave her a deadpan stare. "Your identity for me, last time, didn''t work for a minor background check..." The Ancient one had the gall to look embarrassed at least. "I apologize for that. It seems we sorcerers are behind the times when it comes to technology." "You guys at least have wifi. That''s a start!" I said jokingly. I''d be asking Tony to make them all identities though. Or Andrea I supposed. Both of them had Jarvis''s that could easily create a few SSNs. ... I made sure to properly say goodbye to Heather before I left the sanctum. I told her I was heading back over to magical Britain to see if I could scrounge up any leads on the Death Eaters. Heather wanted me to check in on her friends to see if they were alright. She was worried that the Death Eater''s might go after them out of spite. Which was a justifiable worry. She gave me the general location for The Burrow. When I asked her what Hermione''s address was, Heather looked embarrassed and told me she didn''t actually know. She always just asked her owl to send her letters directly to Hermione... Although she did tell me that Hermione spent most of her time at the Burrow anyway. Apparently the girl and her parents didn''t get along. I opened up a portal towards Diagon Alley. When I emerged, I drew some attention from people nearby, but they soon lost interest. A woman stepping out of a dark purple portal wasn''t that impressive for a Magical society, I suppose. Although, not quite everyone. I saw a young teenage girl who was clearly muggle-born, judging by the way she was dressed. When she saw me her eyes lit up and she rushed over towards me. She practically begged me for a picture and autograph. The group of friends she was with were looking at the girl strangely. They did not appear to know who I was. They all looked like they had been raised solely in the magical world. It was odd, just how uninformed of world news the people who solely lived in the magical world were. "Here you go." I said as I handed the girl back her parchment that I had signed. She held it close to her chest and squealed in excitement before she ran back to her friends. I laughed when I heard them talking about me as I walked away. "Who was that, Josephine?" "What? That was the Angel Layla! A real Angel! The one who drove away Voldemort in Monaco!" "You''re weird, Josephine... Angels aren''t real. And the Dark Lord was beaten by all these muggles in the Alley. The dumb muggles then made all the Goblins leave and take all of our money with them!" It seemed that news of my fight with Voldemort at Gringotts had been suppressed or just edited. I didn''t particularly mind. It also seemed like SHIELD was being blamed for the Goblin''s leaving the British Wizarding World as well. Even though it was the wizard''s who pushed them too far. The Wizarding World always had a big fake news problem.Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com I took a proper look around the Alley. One of the first things I noticed was all the people. The alley was filled with witches and wizards, unlike the last time I was here. All of the graffiti disparaging Muggleborns had also been cleaned up. There were also armed soldiers who could only be SHIELD agents keeping guard scattered around. A few of them noticed me and approached. "Layla of the Fallen, MAM! I am Agent Ryles! I''m in charge of keeping the Alley secure and out of the terrorists'' hands!" The man exclaimed while giving me a salute. The two other agents behind him saluted me as well. They were all clearly ex-military from how professionally they were acting. "Huh? What are you talking about? You said you were Heather''s friend. Heather doesn''t have any ''friends'' unless Dumbledore assigns them to her. Obviously, he sent you." Ron Weasley said. Everyone else nodded along with him in agreement. I scoffed at his words. I knew the Dumbledore of this world was probably a piece of work, but this one really was a complete control freak when it came to Heather Potter. I''m actually glad she''s not here right now. Hearing those words would probably break her. I decided I would wait a while to tell her the truth about all these people. "I came here to check on you all because Heather was worried about you all. Clearly, she needn''t have been. When I tell her what you all are really like...she''ll never be seeing any of you again." I explained as I turned and started walking toward the door. "Stupefy!" I heard Ron Weasley shout out the stunning spell. The small red beam washed across my back and did absolutely nothing. "We can''t let her tell Heather anything! Stop her!" This time it was Molly Weasley who shouted next. That seemed to be all the incentive everyone else in this ''house'' needed. They all pulled their wands on me. Even Bill¨Cwho the system thought could be my new best friend too... [I misjudged the guy...it happens...] Red stunning spells came at me from all directions and I ignored all of them. They all hit me and did absolutely nothing. All of these wizards and witches were incredibly weak. Even Hermione, who started casting a dozen different stunning spells at me, was magically weak. They all splashed harmlessly against me. "Dammit! What is she!? An Arch Mage like Dumbledore!?" Bill Weasley yelled out. [An Archmage? That''s not even a real thing in this universe...] ''Who even knows, system...'' Dumbledore probably just thought it sounded cool and started calling himself that. All of his blind followers then would as well... "That''s impossible! She got hit by over a hundred stunning spells! Why won''t she go down!?" Hermione screamed. "Screw it! Let''s just kill her! Reducto!" Ginny Weasley fired a blasting curse at me. I could have let it hit me, but I didn''t want it wrecking my clothes... They were all designer brands. I casually raised my hand and batted her spell to the side. It went sailing into a nearby wall and caused it to explode. Their home now had a hole in the side. They all stopped casting at me for a moment as they looked at the destruction of their home. I walked over to the pile of gold coins I''d left on the floor and sucked them all up back into my inventory. These assholes didn''t deserve them. "Hey! Those were mine!" Arthur Weasley spat out angrily. I raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you didn''t want any handouts?" "Obviously I was just putting on a humble act before I accepted them!" He retorted. I shook my head at the audacity of the people in this family. I had to hand it to him though, they had me fooled at first. No wonder they were also able to trick Heather all this time. I stepped through the exit Ginny had recently made and prepared to leave. XXX POP! POP! POP! POP! My disappointment with meeting this universe''s Weasley family was immeasurable. Just as I was about to open a portal to leave, four people apparated in. Appearing in front of me was a mangy looking Remus Lupin, a haggard Sirius Black, a peg-legged Alastor Moody and the big man himself Albus Dumbledore. All four of them quickly looked around before locking on to me. "Hello, my dear girl. Who might you be?" Dumbledore asked me with eyes that were twinkling. [Fuck off!] He then flinched backwards and grabbed his head in pain! [Asshole thought he could read your mind while I was here!? Not happening!] "Dumbledore are you alright?" Moody asked when he saw the old man stagger. He then turned and glared at me with his giant eyeball. "What the hell did you do to him, Lassie!?" He pointed his staff at me and it started to glow. Remus and Sirius both pointed their wands at me as well. "I''m alright." Dumbledore said as he recollected himself. "First of all. I''m not ''your dear girl!''" I spat out. "Second of all, try and read my mind again and I''ll rip your eyeballs out of your face." I said to him. I usually don''t resort to such graphic measures, but for this guy I would make an exception. All four of the men flinched at my words. I guess they didn''t expect such a pretty face to be capable of saying something like that. Dumbledore collected himself. "My apologies. I just wanted to know why you were here at the Weasley''s home. I received an alert that their ward scheme crashed." Just then, Molly Weasley came running out of the hole in the side of her house. "Albus! Thank Goodness, you''re here! That harlot over there claims to be a friend of Heater''s! We thought you sent her. She knows everything and is going to tell Heather! All of our plans will be ruined!" Molly rambled out while frantically pointing at me. I didn''t miss the look of panic that went across Dumbledore''s face as she spoke. I could see him reaching for his wand. A wand that felt very familiar now that I thought about it. [Instant Quest Started! Retrieve the Elder Wand for Lady Death] ¡úReward: She''ll give you a kiss of appreciation for getting it out of mortal hands finally... ''I ACCEPT!'' I thought immediately. "What was that about Heather, Molly? Did we finally find her? Is she safe?" Sirius Black asked before turning towards me. "Please if you know where she is you have to tell us. It''s for her own good! She needs to be protected!" I looked Sirius up and down. "You look like you haven''t eaten in years and are about to keel over. You''re not protecting anyone." I said bluntly. "Heather could not be safer than where she currently is." Sirius and Remus glared at me for my words. "And where would that be?" Dumbledore asked me. His wand casually slipped into his hand as he spoke. "I am the girl''s magical guardian after all and it is my right to know." Dubledore started to release his magic aura around himself. The air started to vibrate at the power he was flaunting. Molly Werasley paled and backed away. I scoffed. [Albus Dumbledore - Level 25] He was barely stronger than Voldemort was... "I''m not telling you anything. What I will be doing though is taking that wand from you. You''ve lost the privilege of using it. Its original creator wants it back." I said. Dumbledore''s eyes widened before he raised the Elder Wand and cast a sickly red spell towards me. He didn''t say an incantation, so I had no idea what spell it was. Not that it mattered. Just like I did for Ginny''s, I simply swatted his spell to the side with my bare hand. It flew to the left and ended up striking Alastor Moody before he could properly react in time! His eyes widened in absolute fright when the spell struck his chest. "Oh, God no!" He shouted in desperation! [So much for constant vigilance...] And then Alastor Moody... ...Exploded! He swelled up like a balloon in a near instant before bursting apart in a shower of gore! His staff and magical eye dropped to the grass amount his...remains. [That was fucked up...] "Wow... So much for the Leader of the Light. That was a really vile spell you just used there." I said to Dumbledore who was staring in shock at the remains of his dead friend. The system was right again today. That was one seriously fucked up spell he just used. Me mentioning Death must have really scared him. "Mooooooooodddddyyyyy!" Sirius Black screamed before turning his wrath to me. "You bitch! I''ll kill you!" He started casting a barrage of dark spells towards me. I would have easily sent them all flying back towards him, but I chose not to and smacked them all to the side. I wasn''t sure if he was also evil or just really stupid to still be following Dumbledore at this point. Remus Lupin joined in and started firing spells at me as well. His spells felt a lot less lethal than Sirius''s did, so I did the same with him. "Protego Diabolica!" I heard Dubledore cast a spell that Voldemort used against me back in Monaco. Of course Dumbledore also knew it. It was Grindelwald''s signature spell and he and Grindelwald were lovers. A familiar torrent of blue flames, that burn away everyone who wanted to harm the caster, sped towards me! This spell, cast by the Elder Wand itself, actually felt like it could harm me. Not a lot, but still... Ever since voldemort had ever used this large AOE spell before, I had wondered how to counter it in case I ever had to face it again. I came up with a relatively simple solution. I was quite proud of it! I opened a very large purple portal in front of myself facing towards the flames. And then from my portal came a tidal wave of ocean water! Enough ocean water to easily snuff out the Protego Diabolica and then some! I had opened up the other end of my portal under the ocean... I could basically conjure forth all the water I ever wanted because my portals now cost me nothing to open. The massive tidal wave smashed through Dumbledore''s spell before hitting the man himself along with everyone else nearby. And then it crashed into the Weasleys house and I watched the terribly built structure start to collapse. I was sure the people inside were fine...probably. I didn''t really care either way. I had just violently flooded their entire property after all. As the salt water cleared and seeped into the ground, I could see that the force of the wave had knocked everyone unconscious... That was convenient. I walked over to the knocked out ''Arch Wizard''¨CI snickered at that¨Cand picked up the wand next to him. As soon as I touched it, it disintegrated and turned to ash! [Quest Completed! You have a ''free pass'' to travel to Death''s realm and claim your reward anytime. You have also leveled up! The Order of the Phoenix were the ones attacking the SHIELD agents...] "Of course they were..." I muttered as I kicked the unconscious Dumbledore out of pure spite. Now I had to call in SHIELD as well because I caught their perps. I pulled out my phone to make the call. XXX chapters 136-140 chapters 136-140 ... ¨CNatasha Romanoff¨C "ETA, 30 seconds!" The voice of the pilot called out over the intercom. Natasha was sitting in the back of a Quinjet, with a lot on her mind. With only half of his Agents proving to be loyal, Fury had been deploying all of them around the clock. Natasha had led the raid against multiple Hydra bases so far with the intel they had gleaned from Sergeant Bucky Barnes. Needless to say, Steve was not happy when he found out the fate of his friend, who supposedly died back in World War 2. Natasha also wasn''t exactly in Steve''s good graces, at the moment, because interrogating Sergeant Barnes had been her job. He hadn''t wanted Bucky to be interrogated at all, but the Winter Soldier had too much blood on his hands and too much potential information for SHIELD not to. That''s why Natasha was glad to get this emergency assignment. It was a way to get out of the current HQ Helicarrier¨Cand therefore away from a pissed off Steve Rogers. Natasha could also finally see Layla again! Natasha had felt bad about how their ''relationship'' had gone so far. They danced around each other and hooked up once, and then Natasha basically ghosted Layla. It wasn''t on purpose, but that''s what happened. "We''re touching down now. Friendly contact in sight. On the ground!" The pilot called out again. Natasha and a few other SHIELD Agents stepped out of the plane as soon as the hatch opened. And there she was. Layla of the Fallen was standing in the middle of a damp field. She looked just as perfect and beautiful to Natasha as always. The way Layla''s eyes lit up upon seeing her made Natasha flinch a bit. She felt even more guilty now... Around Layla, Natasha noticed a few scattered unconscious people. These must have been some of the wizards and witches that Layla reported. They were the ones kidnapping SHIELD Agents and memory wiping them. There was also the remains of what looked to be a wooden shack. It had been destroyed by whatever flood had hit this area recently. Natasha wasn''t sure where all the water came from though. Could Layla conjure water now? She''d have to ask. "Natasha!" Before Natasha could realize what was happening, she found herself swept up in a tight hug. "Hi, Natasha! I missed you," Layla said as she held her tight. Natasha was caught off guard! Layla had gotten faster. Much faster! SHIELD originally had Layla''s top speed clocked out just a bit above The Captain, but Layla had moved so fast there that Natasha''s eyes couldn''t even follow her! Natasha hugged Layla back. She ignored the snickering the other agents gave her as they started checking over all the bodies around them. "Sorry I basically ended up ghosting you. The discovery of Hydra and just how entrenched they were in SHIELD and the government was really shocking. It was all hands on deck." Natasha said to Layla. "It''s alright." Layla replied. The Fallen Angel finally let her go. Natasha was also surprised at how strong Layla was too. She couldn''t have broken that hug if she tried with all her might! "I do want you to know, though, that I didn''t consider that night to be just a fling." Natasha added. "I''m glad! I didn''t either!" Layla replied while avoiding Natasha''s eyes. " I admit I was a bit lonely... at first..." Natasha''s eyes narrowed at hearing Layla say "at first." She also noticed the way Layla was suddenly trying to act so innocent. "And what do you mean by that?" Natasha asked. "Was there another woman?" Natasha honestly didn''t mind if there was. She knew that she and Layla were not currently in an explicitly stated relationship. Natasha had also done a bit of reading up on Fallen Angels¨Cwith whatever lore she could find at least. One thing that always stuck out in her research was that Fallen Angels were pretty much all horndogs... With Layla''s supernatural beauty, Natasha wasn''t surprised if there was another woman out there. Layla shifted in place. "There might have been one or two... or three." "THREE!?" Natasha blurted out! Did Layla have no self-control!? It had only been two months! Natasha immediately changed her mind about not caring! "With who!?" Layla listed them off, and Natasha didn''t know what to think. "There''s Hela, the Goddess of Death and Queen of Asgard. Then there''s Sif, the Goddess of War and Fertility. And then there''s Yasaka. She''s a nine-tailed fox and basically the Yokai Queen of Kyoto on Earth DxD." Natasha grimaced. Two of Layla''s other lovers were literal goddesses, and the third one might as well be. She''d read some lore on nine-tailed foxes and if any of that were true, then they were really powerful! Natasha could admit to herself that she was feeling inadequate compared to three other women like that. She was just a slightly enhanced human after all. At least, that was the case until Layla leaned forward and kissed Natasha passionately. The redhead spy was taken off guard momentarily before she kissed Layla back! "Whooo! That''s hot!" "Damn! I guess Romanoff is off the market!" "Huh? I thought she and Barton were a secret item. Guess I lost the betting pool..." Natasha broke the kiss to glare at all the male Agents staring and hollering at her and Layla. One of her patented glares was all it took for them to immediately shut up! "Get back to work! Tie up all the unconscious magicals out here and search through the remains of that wooden shack for the others!" Natasha ordered them and they all immediately got to it. Layla laughed at all the other agents scurrying off at her orders. "Who would have thought SHIELD Agents were such gossip queens?" XXX I was standing off to the side with Natasha, watching the other SHIELD Agents load up Dumbledore''s group and the Weasley family onto the Quinjet. It was pretty funny seeing a bunch of magicals wearing Muggle handcuffs. "Be careful with him." I told the Agents as I pointed to the unconscious Dumbledore. "He might be able to do some magic without his wand, but I don''t know how much. Also, that one can turn himself into a black dog without a wand, and that one is a werewolf that will transform into a man-eating monster on the full moon." I pointed to Sirius and Remus next. The Agents nodded and told me they''d put those three in special containment rooms until they could be sorted out. "We heard about werewolves when we took the Alley, but I''ve yet to see one in action." Natasha said as she watched them load Remus on the jet. "I haven''t seen the transformation in person either. It''s supposed to be pretty gross." I explained. I imagine it must be, considering muscles and bones have to snap in order to re-contort themselves. "So other than the...women, what have you been up to?" Natasha asked me. "You''re a lot faster than you were before. Unless you were holding back then?" In response, I let my ten wings show behind me. Natasha stared at them in surprise. "Ten!? I thought you had four?" She asked me while inspecting them closely. "I did have four wings. But then I ran into numerous fortuitous encounters and managed to ascend to the higher realms." I said jokingly. "My Dao is as deep as the sea and vast as the sky." Natasha cracked a rare smile. "Nice try, Layla. I know cultivators aren''t real. Ki isn''t a real thing..." "Well, actually¨C" "Agent Romanoff! Miss Layla!" A SHIELD Agent ran up to us and interrupted me before I could once again break her worldview. "All prisoners have been secured for transport. The remains of the shack have been fully searched, and all the people buried in the debris have been rounded up as well. A few of them were injured, but none fatally." "That''s good," Natasha said. "I suppose we''re done here then?" "Also, ma''am, there is a little girl wanting to talk to you and Miss Layla. She says that she''s Weasley''s neighbor and has some important information to share." the guy said before he pointed off towards the front of the Weasley property. I looked over, and standing over there was a younger blonde girl. I could tell by her iconic radish earrings that it was Luna Lovegood. She gave us a small wave before her eyes started to wander all over as if she was seeing things that no one else could. I walked over towards her with Natasha right behind me. Natasha was the first to address her. "Hello. I''m Agent Monroe. And who are you?" Natasha asked her while lying about her real name like the spy she was. Luna snapped her gaze away from whatever she was looking at and back to us. "Hello Natasha Romanoff and Layla of the Fallen. I''m Luna Lovegood. I live right down the road." Luna said while pointing to the right. There were some hills there, so I couldn''t see her house, but it wouldn''t be hard to confirm. Natasha blanched when Luna said her real name out of nowhere. She looked like she was ready to start interrogating the girl, but I put my hand on her shoulder and held her back. "So, Luna. The Agent you talked to told us you have some important information for us?" I asked her while using [observe]. [Luna Lovegood: The Girl Who Knows Things¡ú Level 6] That was interesting. She had an actual title at only level 6. That meant her Seer abilities had to be for real. "Yes. Something very bad is going to happen soon in Scotland unless you stop them." Luna said while looking off to the side again. Natasha narrowed her eyes. "What bad thing?" Luna turned to me. "The Dark Lord is scared of you, you know. He''s really scared. You survived his strongest spells twice and then thoroughly trounced him the third time you all met. He correctly assumes that you have gotten even stronger still since then. He knows he can''t beat you." I smirked proudly. "That''s good then!" Although I don''t want him hiding away like a coward forever. He''s worth 5 levels on top of being an evil asshole that I would happily purge for free anyway. [Guys like him don''t hide forever. They go crazy and choose to go out while taking as many people with them as possible.] Shit, the system was right about that one. Voldemort knew he couldn''t beat me, so his only option was to become a full terrorist at this point. But how would he go about doing that? "What is he planning?" Natasha asked Luna. She didn''t even bother asking how a barely 14-year-old girl knew all of this in the first place. "He wants to fight Light with Fire." Luna said cryptically. "It''s going to happen here." Luna then reached into a small pouch before pulling out a picture book that was way too big to fit in there. It was a book about the Scottish Highlands. She pointed towards a specific location in the book. Heather''s eyes widened when she heard me mention Voldemort. The Ancient One let out a tired sigh. "Why do these foolish dark mages always end up summoning demons..." She lamented as she stood up. "Stay here apprentice, I shall return." Heather looked like she wanted to protest about not coming with me but I stopped her. "Heather, remember what we talked about. You''re 15, you don''t have to go around fighting dark wizards. Let me handle Voldemort. This time he won''t get away." I reassured her before pulling my head back. Natasha was staring at me weirdly. "Your portals are overpowered if they let you just go anywhere at any time..." "They sure are." Voldemort, to my surprise, was just glaring hatefully and hadn''t made a move to attack while I was distracted. Not that anything he could do could even work on me anymore. At my current level, I now realized that his supposed ''Ultimate Class'' level of power was a lot more inflated than I first thought. He had the ability to cast a single Ultimate Level spell at most, but the mana cost would probably kill him. To be honest, I don''t think he even knows any spells of that level anyways. Fiendfyre was pretty much the Wizarding world''s most destructive spell. A second later the Ancient One stepped out of my portal and I closed it behind her. She glanced around quickly. "Interesting. They are trying to summon Belial. And it appears they have succeeded." "Belial?" That name sounded vaguely familiar. "He was an Angel that fell from heaven. Instead of going to the underworld or joining the Grigori, he fled into the Hells. There he bathed in Hellfire and turned himself into a true demon. He currently rules over Gehenna." The Ancient One explained. "The ritual they are performing is already complete. It basically uses the souls of all the mortals participating in it to call Belial forth." "Why are they still chanting then?" Natasha asked. The Ancient One shrugged. "I''m not sure. Maybe they were tricked by whoever gave them the ritual?" That could be. I wouldn''t expect any of the stuck up purebloods to ever be willing to hand over their very souls to a demon. Even if Voldemort himself commanded them to do it. My thoughts were cut off when I felt a burst of powerful dark magic emulate from the ritual circle! "Prepare yourself. He is coming." The Ancient One said. XXX I could see Voldemort smiling before he started cackling! "Hahaha! Your arrogance has truly cost you, Layla of the Fallen! I have no idea why you made no move to stop the ritual, but now it is complete! Prepare yourself to be slain by a True Demon! The natural enemy of your kind!" I looked over to the Ancient One, and she didn''t seem to be that worried. Then again, this woman was always hard to read in general. Natasha was putting on a cool face as well, but I could see her gripping her pistol tightly. This was her first time facing a demon. The summoning circle glowed bright red as the pentagram lit up! "Arise Belial! Arise!" All of the Death Eaters chanted in unison. They had looks of excitement and reverence on all of their faces. They probably thought they were about to bring about my downfall. Seeing the smile on Voldemort''s gross face was honestly disturbing. ...And then all of them slumped to the ground...dead. Lucius Mlafoy, Peter Pettigrew, and all the other members of Voldemort''s inner circle died just like that. Their souls were pulled from their bodies and flew towards the being that had just appeared between them all. He opened his mouth and swallowed all of their souls. "Mmmmm. Quite a few magical souls there! Not a bad offering." Belial muttered as he looked towards the gaping Voldemort. "A fine offering mortal! Now then, why have you summoned me?" Belial''s appearance was incredibly stereotypical for a demon. He was tall and his skin was bright red. He had two large horns on his forehead and instead of human legs, he had the legs of a goat. "You...You...My followers. They''re all dead..." Voldemort trailed off. A look of realization dawned upon him. "DAMN YOU HAND! I WILL HAVE MY REV¨C" He was cut off when a [Lightspear] erupted out of his chest, courtesy of myself. "Graaaaaagghh!" Voldemort let out a willful shriek before he collapsed to his knees. He tried to pull the [Lightspear] out but it was too late. Voldemort burst apart and turned into a pile of ashes. I wasn''t letting that guy escape again and I was frankly tired of fighting him. Since he died to an Angel''s light, his soul will also not be able to stay in the mortal world. He''ll be going straight to Lady Death''s domain. I''m sure he''ll enjoy her hospitality... [You have leveled up x5!] [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death''s Favored] [Level: 46] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 13000] [MP: 9200] [Vigor: 800] [Strength: 140] [Intelligence: 920] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 7, HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Lucky Shot, Mana Replenisher] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 60] [Skill Up Point: 0] I dumped all of my free stat points into Intelligence to bring it to 980. I was expecting a fight here soon. Demon''s didn''t like to leave Earth once they managed to arrive. Especially one like Belial that had been summoned at his full power. It was very hard for them to get here with their full powers considering they had to be properly summoned for that to happen. If a demon came to Earth on their own, they could only use an avatar which would weaken themselves by forcing them to split their powers. If their weak avatar is killed, then they lose that fragment of themselves forever. "Really, Layla? Resorting to sneak attacks are we?" The Ancient One said with mock disappointment as she watched Voldemort turn to ash. "Well that happened..." Natasha muttered as she lowered her gun. Then she remembered the demon was still here and pointed it at Belial. Belia didn''t seem upset that the one who summoned him died. He shrugged and turned towards the three of us. "Well well well. If it isn''t the Ancient One herself! And who is that I spy next to you!? Why, it''s one of my long lost siblings! Where have you all been? Haven''t seen any of you feathery bastards in over 1000 years!" Belial''s blood red eyes met my violet ones. He grinned menacingly, displaying rows of razor sharp teeth. "Father transported us all to an alternate dimension, but now we''ve found a way back. I''d be a lot more careful of your actions from now on, Belial. Turn around and fuck back off to hell or else." I said as I scanned him. [Belial: The Demon King of Gehenna¡ú Level 69] Fuck... I wasn''t winning against that without going all out from the start. Twelve demented wings made of infernal fire manifested behind Belial. "Hoh? I should be careful of a mere Cadre? You dare order me to return when I just got here?" He asked menacingly. "No! I don''t think I will!" Power surged around him and I could tell the time for talking was over. Natasha fired her weapon next to me. To my surprise, the bullet she fired was glowing dark purple. It had been infused with some of the Light I''d blessed her with! It wasn''t enough power to be dangerous for the likes of Belial though. Belial raised his hand and caught the bullet out of the air. He scoffed. "Pathetic mortal weapons!" He flicked his finger and the bullet went sailing back at Natasha at twice the speed of sound! I quickly threw my body in front of her to save her! [-30 HP] "Hahaha! To so willingly throw yourself in front of a mortal who you even blessed yourself. She must be your lover, sister! I will enjoy breaking her in after I break you!" Belial taunted. He raised his hand and a large fireball the size of a car manifested above him. Natasha looked frightened and I felt genuine anger! "You won''t touch her! MANA BURST!" [- 4000 MP!] [Vigor: 800¡ú1200!] [Strength: 140¡ú540!] [Intelligence: 980¡ú1380!] "What the fuck!?" Belial screamed out as I felt my power absolutely skyrocket! XXX chapters 141-145 chapters 141-145 ¡ªIn the Underworld¡ª Azazel was sitting on a luxurious couch in the office of the Maous. His number two, Penemue, was standing behind him, looking as professional as always. Sitting across from him on another luxurious couch were two of the four Maous. Neither of them looked happy with him. That usually meant he would be forced to acquiesce to whatever demands they made, lest they threaten the Great War to start again. Now, though, Azazel couldn''t care less. He''d gotten some high quality materials from Asgard that had allowed him to complete his second ever Sacred Gear. Having a family member engaged to the place''s Queen did have its perks. He had already fused this new Gear to himself, and it drastically upgraded his combat capabilities. No one except Penemue or Kokabiel knew just how strong he was now after they sparred with him. Azazel didn''t know if he could win directly against Sirzechs Lucifer now, but he knew it would be very close. "You two look mad. Did something happen?" Azazel asked, playing dumb. He obviously knew what they were mad about. It involved a certain dimension-hopping little sister of his. Sirzechs''s usual fake smile was nowhere to be seen as he spoke. "My little sister, Rias, was attacked in the territory that she owns. She and her peerage were injured, and she lost her Queen. Akeno''s evil piece was found at the scene! It had been removed from her! This cannot be allowed to stand." Sirzechs was pissed off but also a bit afraid. If their other slaves... er... reincarnated servants found out that the evil pieces could be safely removed, then many would jump ship from the Devil Faction. It could destabilize the underworld! "Yeah, and you put a bounty on the perpetrators for all that. So what''s the problem?" Azazel asked casually. Serafall frowned harder at Azazel. "A bounty that we know will not be enforced anywhere outside of Devil territory! We know you''re sheltering this ''Layla'' along with her companion and Akeno. We want all three of them turned over to us immediately!" Serafall demanded. Her cute magical girl act was nowhere to be seen currently. Azazel''s casual smile disappeared. "No," he said bluntly. Sirzechs and Serafall''s eyes widened. "No?" Serafall questioned. "You''re refusing to hand them over to us for punishment?" She elaborated. "That''s the gist of it. Not only am I not currently sheltering Layla, but even if I was, I wouldn''t be handing her over to you." Azazel boldly declared. He felt both of the Maous'' magic power start to seep out of them as they glared. "Oh? Is this ''Layla'' really worth restarting the Great War for?" Serafall asked. This was the trump card she always pulled to get Azazel to cave to their demands. It was sure to work this time as well¨C "Yes," Azazel spoke again, and Serafall''s thoughts halted. Serafall was stupefied. "What?" "Yes." Azazel said again. "If you go after Layla outside of Devil territory, then the Great War is back on." Serafall and Sirzechs both looked at him in disbelief! They couldn''t believe what they were hearing. It was madness! Azazel would really restart the great war just to protect a single Fallen Angel!? Penemue spoke up. "This isn''t just Lord Azazel''s whims either. All Fallen Angels will stand behind his decision here. No longer will we allow your faction to do as it pleases with regards to our own. If you want a fight, we will give it to you!" Penemue declared as she allowed her wings to spill out behind her. No longer did she have the ten that she had been stuck with for millennia. She now had twelve black wings behind her! Sparring against Azazel, who was now as powerful as the Red-Haired Destroyer in front of them, had finally allowed her to break her own limits and ascend! Both Maou''s eyes widened when they saw that the Fallen Angels had gained another terrifyingly strong being. This closed the gap between their two factions by a huge amount. Sirzechs grit his teeth. "Very good. You two can leave now. Just know that if Layla shows up again in Devil territory, her life is forfeit. The peace treaty will also not be set back because of this..." He added with another grimace. The peace treaty was far too important for his faction to let go of. Acquiring evil pieces was becoming harder and harder as more races were becoming more wary of the Devils. The peace treaty was a way to ensure that Devils could freely roam the human world above and acquire all the pieces they wanted without repercussion! "That''s fine." Azazel said as he went back to his casual smile. "Come on, Penemue." He said before he vanished into motes of black light. Penemue vanished right after him. "Fuck!" Serafall shouted as she watched them go. "Another Super Angel! That''s just what we needed! You know that now makes us even more outnumbered if our spies'' reports turn out to be true!" Serafall said to Sirzechs. Sirzechs nodded somberly. "To think the Angels and Fallen Angels have truly put aside their differences and formed their own peace treaty before us... This could be troublesome. "Troublesome!? Let''s do the math. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Metatron, Azazel, Baraqiel, and now Penemue! That''s basically 7 Super Angels to our 4 Super Devils! Plus, we don''t know if she was the only secret 12 winged Angel they''ve been hiding. If the Great War restarts... we''re going to lose! It will be extremely close, but we will lose!" She added again. Sirzechs and Ajuka were strong enough to take on two 12 winged angels at the same time. Now, even with that advantage, they would be outnumbered! "It''s worse than that." Sirzechs said. "Azazel... he''s gotten stronger. Far stronger than he was the last time we met. My instincts were warning me against fighting him. That''s never happened before. Usually, I only feel that way around Michael." "What are we going to do?" Serafall asked. She refused to let their race be beaten back down after they had finally climbed their way to the top! "I''m not sure yet..." Sirzechs said. "I can feel something coming. A big change that will shake the foundations of our world." He had been feeling this way for a while. He wasn''t sure what it was, but he had learned from centuries of battle to never ignore these feelings. "Then whatever it is, we''ll take advantage of that change and get ourselves back to the top! No matter what!" Serafall declared, and Sirzechs agreed. XXX "Mana Burst!" I shouted and all of my stats skyrocketed! [Quest Initiated: Kill Belial or Drive him back to Hell!] Rewards: +5 Level ups for killing him / +2 Levels for driving him back to Hell. "What the hell!?" Belial exclaimed after I powered myself up. He grit his razor-sharp teeth. "Burn!" He hurled his gigantic fireball towards our group. Natasha gazed at the approaching fire with fear in her eyes and froze up. I realized that this wasn''t a fight she was ready for yet. This was going to be a battle between Gods and monsters. I opened a portal to my penthouse in New York right next to her. I shoved her directly inside before closing it. It happened so fast, that she couldn''t even react before she was gone. The car sized ball of hellfire was still approaching us! The Ancient One made some hand gestures and chanted in a language I didn''t understand. The massive fireball slowed to a crawl before it transformed into a large swarm of colorful butterflies that flew away in every direction. The Ancient One was standing proud and acting cool as a cucumber. "You''ll have to do better than that Demon. What was your name again? It must not be important if I can''t seem to remember it..." She taunted just to make him mad. "I am Belial! The King of Gehenna!" hehe declared proudly. Demon''s couldn''t resist bragging about their identities and titles. They had more pride than most Devils. "Hmm? Doesn''t seem to ring a bell. Have you heard of him, Layla?" She turned to me and asked casually. "Nope. Never heard of him before in my life." I lied perfectly. [Acting has reached Level 4!] "Liars!" He screamed and threw another giant fireball at us. This one felt even hotter than the first one. Just like the first fireball, the Ancient One dissipated this one as well. I could see a bead of sweat dripping down the back of her neck. I feel like that took more effort out of her than she would have liked to admit. This was a Super Level being we were facing after all. That fireball was merely his opening move but it could have leveled a small town. I noticed Belial paused to grimace at the Ancient One. I took advantage of his distraction and charged forward. The sound barrier shattered immediately from the sheer speed I currently had access to. A [Lightspear] was instantly in my hand and it radiated with power. I was on him in a nano-second! "Fuck!" Belial cursed as I thrust it forward towards his head. He managed to tilt his head to the side at the last second. He didn''t completely avoid my attack. My spear left a strong burn on his cheek. He retaliated quickly by slamming a powerful fist right into my stomach! I felt the air leave my lungs as I took a few steps backwards. His fist was even coated in flames and I felt an added burn! -200 HP I was going to be feeling that one later. Well, I would if I didn''t have my Gamer''s Body... He obviously wasn''t expecting me to recover so quickly because my next attack skewered into his upper torso. Another one of my [Lightspears] was sticking into his left shoulder and poking out the other side! "Graaah!" He shouted in pain before his entire form erupted in flames. They covered his entire being and blocked my view of him. I hopped backwards to avoid the searing temperatures. The dirt beneath Belial''s feet turned to ash and molten lava started to seep from the ground. He flared even more of his Hellish Power and the lava spread quickly. It didn''t take long for the beautiful Scottish Hills to be overrun by a molten Hellscape. The Ancient One floated next to me and grimaced. "And this is why our order exists. So Demon''s like him cannot come to Earth and wreak havoc. I''ll be right back..." The Ancient One quickly opened her own orange portal and hopped through. for new novels "What!? You''re just leaving me to solo him!?" I exclaimed to the air! [She ditched you...] Fuck she did, didn''t she? Awesome, now I was fighting a Super Class on my own... A moment later, the flames around Belial died down. He was done throwing his little tantrum or whatever he was doing. I noticed that my [Lightspear] stuck inside his shoulder had vanished. The wound also looked to have completely healed. The area around us had become a molten wasteland. The two of us floated above the wasteland and stared each other down. "To think I had grown complacent enough to allow a mere ten wings to injure me. That won''t happen again!" He declared as a sword of Hellfire appeared in his right hand. "It will. In fact, I plan on killing you." I said as I magically switched out the outfit I was wearing to the black dress death gave me. It was borderline indestructible and I doubted even Belial was strong enough to pierce it. I was almost disappointed Belial didn''t comment on my change of wardrobe. I saw his eyes narrow on me with the slightest amounts of trepidation on his face. I wondered if he could sense the essence of Death herself on my outfit? Belial shook his head and let out a loud scream. His flaming wings flapped hard behind him. He launched himself forward just as fast as I had before! His flaming sword came crashing down towards me. Another [Lightspear] was in my hand immediately to intercept the blow. My Tainted Light met his Hellflames in an explosion of power! A shockwave rang out around us that probably extended for miles. It was accompanied by a boom that sounded like a massive bomb went off. Belial wasn''t deterred that I blocked his full powered strike. He swung at me a second time and I parried him again. While he was flying backwards and off balance, I pointed my off-hand at him. In front of my palm, I opened a small portal about the size of a penny. It was linked to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. The water pressure down there, paired with the tiny size of my portal, produced the most lethal blast of natural water ever created! The terrifying stream of pressurized deep sea water blasted forward and slammed into his stomach. Belial screamed when it easily punched through his stomach and out the other side! [Ok, now that''s a bullshit attack! Your portals and the deep sea pressure pretty much give you a spammable hydro attack that can cut through almost anything!] ''Yeah, I thought of it after I flooded the Weasley house!'' The only downside was that the lethal water pressure quickly drops off and so it''s only useful at close range. Belial''s body burst into flames once again and temporarily vanished. I turned to the side and saw him reappear in another burst of fire a few dozen meters away. His stomach wound was closing up before my eyes. That was another problem with my hydro attack. It wasn''t magical, and therefore wasn''t that effective against beings with healing factors. Healing factors were so annoying to fight against! Almost all the Upper Level Marvel Villains had them too! A quick check of my stats also told me I was sitting at around half my MP. If I absolutely had to, I could use HP to MP Conversion. I''d just have to be careful about getting hit at that point. [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death''s Favored] [Level: 46] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 12790/13000] [MP: 5000/9800] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 3000/13000] [MP: 0/9800] [Vigor: 800+500] [Strength: 140+500] [Intelligence: 980+500] [Luck: 100] [Skills: Observe 3, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 4, Light Manipulation 7, HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Lucky Shot, Mana Replenisher] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] I grimaced when I saw my remaining HP. I was running on fumes. The only good thing I could see was that Belial''s neck wasn''t healing. His large frame actually staggered as he held the back of his neck howling in pain. "I SWEAR TO ALL THAT IS UNHOLY THAT I WILL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" Belial screamed before looking down at me with a hateful glare. PUCHI! And then a massive Spear of Golden Light, almost as tall as he was, erupted out of his chest! XXX I could immediately recognize the signature of the Golden Light that had just dealt heavy damage to Belial. "You won''t touch my Sister!" Gabriel said as she descended from the sky. Her twelve white wings were glowing with power. She was visibly scowling, which was an incredibly rare thing to witness. "I will destroy you first Demon!" Gabriel declared. Belial looked upon Gabriel and I could see genuine fear in his gigantic eyes. The amount of power I felt her putting out was mind boggling. I had no idea, every magical being on the planet was feeling her power output right now and probably shitting their pants too... Gabriel: Messenger of Heaven¡ú Level 88 [Oh, he''s fucked...] I agreed with the system. Belial was pretty much screwed. The only thing I was worried about was could she destroy Belial without causing any more insane damage to the area around us. Even the gigantic [Lightspear] she''d just hit him with hadn''t been enough to put him down. Gabriel floated down towards me. "I''m glad you''re okay, Layla. I felt your and his power clashing from across the planet. I flew here as fast as I could." Gabriel said as she looked me over. She sighed in relief when she saw I was fine. I wasn''t, I only had 3000 HP left, but there was no way for her to know that. "I almost managed to cut his head off, but he still survived." I lamented. Gabriel smiled at me. "Demons are different from the Devil''s. They are much harder to kill. You mentioned you killed a baby demon before. Did you have to stab it over and over for it to die?" She asked. I nodded. The ''young master'' of The Hand did not die until I absolutely covered it in [Lightspears] if I recall correctly. That thing had insane staying power. "For us to properly kill a Demon, their body must be flooded with Light Energy so that they cannot recover. That, or you just obliterate them entirely." Gabriel explained. "I can''t do the second option here though. You are correct in that I would essentially be nuking this country. The damage Belial has done here is already heavy enough." Gabriel said as she observed the flowing lava all around us. Belial grabbed hold of Gabriel''s massive [Lightspear] and started to pull it out of his own chest. He let out a loud scream as he did so. Just like his half-chopped neck, his new chest wound wasn''t immediately healing. The Light was preventing that. Other than that though, the massive hole in his chest didn''t seem to slow him down at all. "Gabriel! It''s been over 1000 years! Still Heaven''s must beautiful bitch I see! I will enjoy breaking you!" Belial spat out with hatred. "Can you beat him by just impaling him with tons of [Lightspears]?" I asked her. Gabriel grimaced. "It will be difficult. Belial is something of a stain on Heaven''s reputation. He is slippery and always manages to escape being killed. He''s so intertwined with Gehenna that he could vanish back there in an instant. Even now, he could leave at any time. If I stab him a few more times, I''m sure he''ll just flee before he takes too much damage." He can leave anytime he wants by just instantly teleporting. That''s annoying. [The irony of that statement...] ''Shut it, System!'' "I think I can help you there." The voice of the Ancient One rang out next to us. An orange portal opened next to us and she floated out. She looked around the scenery and grimaced. I noticed that she was wearing the Eye of Agamotto around her neck. She had come prepared to go all out if she had to. Suddenly, all around us in the sky dozens of similar orange portals opened up. Dozens of sorcerers followed after the Ancient One. They couldn''t levitate like she could, so they were all standing on floating Eldritch constructs. Belial sneered when he noticed that he was suddenly surrounded from all sides. "Pathetic mortal sorcerers! You have tried to kill me with numbers before and you always failed!" "That is correct, King of Gehenna. But this time will be different. Since you''ve chosen to come to Earth in your real body. Why don''t you stay?" The Ancient One asked cooly before she raised her hand. The dozens of sorcerers around us all started chanting in unison. A towering barrier of Eldritch energy began to form all around the area! The Ancient One turned to me and Gabriel. "We can lock down space for only a few minutes, but he will not be able to leave the area in that time. Finish him quickly. The Ancient One then put her hand on my shoulder and the Eye of Agamotto opened. I found myself staring directly at the Time Stone. Green energy washed over me and I felt myself being...recharged. No, I was being rewound. My HP and MP were fully restored! On top of that, my Mana Burst was still ongoing! I looked up towards Belial and saw that he looked genuinely afraid. I was going to kill him now! "Let''s do this, Gabriel!" I shouted with a grin on my face. I flapped my wings hard and rocketed towards the giant demon. I could feel Gavriel follow right behind me. "You might have trapped me for a moment, but I won''t die here!" Belial yelled. He summoned his towering flame sword and swung it downwards towards me. This was the blow I had to dodge before because it would have killed me. I sensed Gabriel speed up and she flew in front of me. She spread her arms wide and a Shield of Golden Light the size of a small mountain appeared. Belial''s towering sword of flames crashed against her shield and bounced off. -2000 MP I summoned another towering [Lightspear] and hurled it forward. He was caught off balance and my giant spear pierced through his upper leg! His towering form staggered as he let out a wail of agony. -50 HP I smirked even through the pain of having my eardrums burst. -2000 MP Another giant spear appeared before me and I hurled it towards his other leg this time. I was hoping to completely immobilize him. "I don''t think so!" Belial conjured a Hellfire Ball the size of a house and threw it at my spear. The two projectiles collided in a massive explosion. -1000 MP I threw up a powerful [Lightshield] in front of myself to avoid the blast. When the dust cleared, I could see Belial grinning at me. I smirked in return. "Notice one of us missing?" I gestured around myself with a laugh. Belial''s eyes widened as he realized that Gabriel was no longer next to me. PUCHI! "Graaaaaaaahhhh!" He let out another shriek of pain. -50 HP Another massive golden spear pierced him from behind. Now he had a giant hole in his upper chest and stomach. Gabriel flew in behind him and she was already in the process of going for another blow. She was relentless. Belial swung his sword around to intercept her second spear. That was when I chose to strike a second time. -2000 MP I didn''t even care that I''d spent 7000 MP so far. A second gigantic purple spear slammed into his other leg. Belial''s legs were completely crippled at this point. His towering form fell to his knees. Tons of ash and lava splashed everywhere as he did so. I could also tell the Light poisoning was starting to get to him. He placed his hands on Gabriel''s spear impaling his stomach, but he didn''t seem to have the strength to pull it out. Gabriel and I both floated directly in front of his face. His blood red eyes were the size of both our bodies, and they were both looking at us with pure hatred. "I¡ªI c¡ªcan''t die here. Im B¡ªBelial! The King of G¡ªGehenna!" He huffed out. "Go ahead and do the honors, Layla." Gabriel said coldly. I poured all of my remaining MP into a spear that was even bigger than the previous ones I''d hit him with. "You should have just stayed in Hell." I hurled the massive spear forward and it directly hit him in the face. He didn''t have the ability to dodge at this point. As soon as his head was destroyed, his body began to break down as well. His towering form the size of a skyscraper slowly crumbled away until it became nothing but ash. [You have leveled up x5!] XXX chapters 146-150 chapters 146-150 C 146 I let out a sigh of relief once Belial completely disintegrated. That fight was closer than I would have liked. If Gabriel hadn''t felt me across the Atlantic and come to my rescue, then I knew things would have gotten real bad. ...Unless the Ancient One pulled some kind of crazy magic out of nowhere to banish Belial back to Gehenna. [She probably would have.] Gabriel noticed my sour look. "You''ve made amazing progress so far, Layla. Don''t be sad that you couldn''t beat Belial on your own. No Angel has ever been able to manage that either! He was always far too slippery. If your sorcerer friends weren''t here, then I have no doubt he would have gotten away again." Gabriel explained. "I''m incredibly proud of you! Michael would be amazed when I give him the news that Belial has finally been dealt with. As a former Angel turned true Demon, Belial truly was a blight upon Heaven itself!" Gabriel''s words did make me feel a bit better. Those five levels I just got would also put me one step closer towards becoming a Super Level being myself. I wanted the kind of power to slap around Demon Kings whenever I wanted. Just like Gabriel could! I knew I would get there soon enough though and shouldn''t blindly rush towards power. Even if my life was a game, games were meant to be enjoyed. [You delivered the killing blow to Belial. You have acquired a hidden reward!] ''A hidden reward? What is it?'' I asked the System. [You have earned the Title: Queen of Gehenna! The realm of Gehenna and all the souls within are yours to do with as you please...] That sounded like the route that an Evil Overlord Gamer would hop on... That wasn''t for me. I grimaced as I felt something far away trying to reach out to my very being. It felt completely foul. I suspected it was Gehenna itself trying to connect with its new ''Queen.'' Of course I rejected it! I was a proud Fallen Angel! I had no interest in being a Queen of one of the Hells. ''I reject the Title! All the souls trapped within are free to leave.'' As I thought those words, I felt the tether that was trying to bond me with Gehenna slip away. [That''s your choice as the Gamer. The Title has been discarded and all souls within the realm have been released!] "Are you alright Layla? You were shivering just now." Gabriel asked in concern. "I''m okay. By killing Belial, I almost became the new Queen of Gehenna. Of course, I immediately rejected the notion though and blocked the tether the realm tried to tie to me." I explained. Gabriel frowned. "I was not aware that was even a possibility. I apologize... Had I known, I would have dealt the final blow myself." I shrugged. "It''s fine. Nothing came of it in the end." Gabriel decided to hesitantly accept the answer. Her senses were telling her I was completely fine anyway. Gabriel glanced around as she too felt fluctuations of magic all around. "Your sorcerer friends seem to be leaving now. Why don''t we get out of here as well." I looked around and could see the majority of Sorcerers, who had come to help trap Belial, were now portaling home. The Ancient One herself was flying towards the two of us. "This has been the most high-profile fight we Sorcerers have ever been in! I have no doubts that the majority of the world''s government bodies now know about our existence..." The Ancient One said to us with a tired sigh. When I came to her claiming I found Voldemort performing a ritual, I doubt the Ancient One suspected he was in the middle of summoning such a powerful Demon... "The Hand has truly gone too far with this move. I now declare them official enemies of our realm and enemies of mankind itself! Belial would have caused incalculable damage had we not immediately been here to confront him." She explained. I was also disturbed that The Hand even had such a ritual available and was willing to give it away. They would have to be dealt with soon. The Ancient One knew that I had a grudge against them, so she told me that she would give me the location of some of their outposts later as thanks. "Soooo... Do we just leave?" I asked as I gestured all around the area awkwardly. ... ¨CThe Ancient One¨C The Ancient One looked around herself. "I too feel saddened that such a beautiful landscape was destroyed by the Demon." She knew she had just the item that could repair all the damage, but...she lacked the power needed to use it on such a large scale. Hundreds of square miles were destroyed after all. The Ancient One reached towards her neck. The Eye of Agamotto was hanging around her neck. She knew that she didn''t have enough power to utilize it to fix the landscape. One of the beings in front of her did though... "Archangel Gabriel..." The Ancient One addressed the golden Angel with some trepidation. "Yes?" Gabriel responded with a gentle smile. Before she could change her mind, the Ancient One unlocked the Eye of Agamotto. The infinity stone inside began to float out until it hovered above the Ancient One''s palm. She was putting a tremendous amount of trust in Layla and Gabriel here. "I don''t have enough power to use this stone to repair the damaged landscape around us. So I can only ask you to do so in my stead." She laughed as Gabriel and Layla widened their eyes. "You would trust me with an Infinity Stone so casually?" Gabriel asked in genuine surprise. ... I was blown away by the amount of trust she was showing here towards us.Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com "I am not so cavalier. I trust Layla, and I know neither you nor her would ever try and take the stone for yourselves." The Ancient One responded. "Of course, we wouldn''t. I know that the Time Stone is humanity''s greatest weapon at the moment." I said. I could understand the Ancient One''s trepidation in literally handing it over to a being of Gabriel''s caliber though. I figured that must have been the reason all the other Sorcerers were immediately sent home after the fight. So they couldn''t see the Ancient One doing that. "I''ve never actually held one of these Stones before." Gabriel took the stone in her hand. "It''s amazing..." She trailed off while looking down at it in awe. When it touched Gabriel''s bare skin, I and the Ancient One were forced to take a step back! If Gabriel felt powerful before, now she felt like an invincible force! Her golden aura was tinted green as the power rolled off her fork. Gabriel focused her concentration on the Time Stone and commanded it to rewind the ruined landscape all around us... XXX C 147 "What the fuck..." Nick Fury said as he and the President watched Layla and her sister literally kill the Devil. He knew it wasn''t the actual Devil, of course, but it might as well have been! Red skin, horns, goat legs...it had all of the stereotypes down to a T! Next to him, the President was recalling the DEFCON 2 status. The President let out a long sigh. "Of course, the Devil rises up from Hell during my Presidency! I''m sure the other party will just love to use this against me in the next election if news of this ever gets out...which it will." Fury agreed while grimacing. Those temperature fluctuations were so extreme, he had no doubt every advanced country on the planet with satellites in space had seen something of that fight. Not to mention that a fifth of Scotland was now a hellish wasteland... "Wait, something''s happening!" The President said, and Fury looked back at the screen. A massive surge of some kind of green energy started rolling across the landscape! Everywhere it touched, the landscape returned back to how it should have been!\ Fury was stunned at what he was witnessing. That was some Deus Ex Machina shit right there! "Did they just fucking turn back time!?" He exclaimed! ... "Did you see that, Brother? That was amazing!" The overzealous genius princess of a certain hidden kingdom exclaimed. They had been watching their hidden satellite feeds of that entire battle from start to finish. "I saw, Shuri..." Prince T''challa said with some trepidation in his voice. He was down in his sister''s lab getting his new Black Panther suit refitted when the Wakandan Satellites picked up a disturbance. At first, T''Challa assumed that a nuclear blast had finally been detonated, and the rest of the world was about to kill each other. What he wasn''t expecting was for the most famous supernatural being on the planet¡ªand her sister¡ªto be fighting what he assumed was the Devil himself. The battle that took place was one of titanic proportions. T''Challa once assumed the nation he would one day inherit was the most powerful force on the planet. Today, he was proven wrong. Whether it was the Fallen Angel Layla, the Devil, or the Archangel Gabriel, T''challa knew that it would have only taken a single one of those beings to completely level his beloved kingdom.... "It''s too bad even our satellites couldn''t pick up any audio from that fight. I would have loved to know what they were saying." Shuri lamented as she spun in her chair. "I really want to go and meet the Angel. Now more than ever! Too bad mother and father won''t let me." She finished with a pout. "It is better this way, Shuri. Wakanda has never exposed itself and father doesn''t want our kingdom exposed to the outside world." T''Challa said. Shuri shrugged. "Eh, it probably already has been. You forget brother, there are a few christians in our kingdom. Not many, but some. And the number of believers has actually been growing since the Angel exposed herself to the world. If it''s true that the Angels or the Christian God can hear prayers...then they would definitely know about the true Wakanda..." Shuri elaborated. Shuri herself wondered if Wakanda''s own god, Bast, was even real at this point... Generations of Black Panther''s claimed she was, but then again they were all pretty doped up on the purple flower whenever they claimed to see her in the spirit world. ... In the spiritual world connected to Wakanda, a giant Black Panther goddess was shaking in anger and fear. She was angry that she was losing followers to a pantheon that had left their world over a millenia ago¨Cand was now back. She was afraid because that pantheon was terrifyingly strong. The panther goddess knew that had it been her fighting Belial...she would have been instantly killed by the Demon. The power that the two Angel''s displayed when facing him was mind boggling towards her. What was worse was that Bast knew that accursed Pantheon had numerous other beings with just as much power! Bast knew that a meeting of the Godheads Council was going to have to be convened soon after a public battle such as that! The other Gods on Earth were already unhappy that an Angel had returned and so carelessly outed the supernatural world to the humans en masse. ... "LOVERS!?" Asia asked in shock with a bright red face. "Ufufu!" I reached into my inventory and pulled out my phone. I handed it to Akeno. "Go ahead and order a bunch of food. Let''s have a celebratory feast! Get whatever you want." I told her. I stood back up and with a sigh, I walked back over towards Sif and Natasha. "This might take a while..." I muttered. ¨CAn hour and a half later¨C "Food''s here!" Akeno called out from the kitchen and I actually thanked my dead father for the timely intervention! These two had been bickering longer than I had thought possible! Thankfully, they both seemed to be wearing down as time went on and I could hear both of their stomachs growling at this point. I made my way towards the kitchen. Akeno certainly didn''t order frugally. I saw a whole spread of pizzas, wings, ribs, and... "Did you also order Filet Mignon, Akeno?" I asked in surprise. "Ufufu! You bet I did!" Akeno grinned as she cut into her $200 steak. "The food at the Grigori HQ was alright, but nothing quite beats a Wagyu steak!" Akeno took another bite and moaned. "Thank you, God, for this incredible feast before us." Asia prayed quickly before she started digging in as well with no hesitation. "I''ve never been part of a feast before!" Her plate was piled half a foot high with all kinds of food. I''d have to remind Akeno later that Asia was still a human and could still get fat if she ate too much. I wouldn''t say anything during Asia''s first feast though. Now that both Natasha and Sif had some food in them, they had calmed down. I was very thankful for that. "So you''re Natasha..." Sif asked as she not so subtly inspected my redheaded lover across the table. "And you''re Sif..." Natasha did the same. "...You''ve got some fire in you." Sif complemented her. "...I could say the same about you." Natasha replied. "I can see why Layla likes you." "I could say the same as well." Sif grinned back. The two of them locked eyes with each other and came to some kind of non verbal agreement that i wasn''t a part of. I let out a sigh of relief now that they were at least being cordial with each other. "So what are we celebrating with all this food, Miss Layla?" Asia asked me in between bites. "Is today some holiday that I don''t know about?" Akeno looked inquisitive as well. "Nothing too special," I said with a sly grin. "I just killed the King of Gehenna today. He was a Super Level Demon." ""EEEEEEEeeeeehhhhhh!"" Asia and Akeno exclaimed at the same time! Natasha stopped her conversation with Sif to speak to me. "Oh right. Fury really wants to know everything about that fight. He''s especially interested in whatever that green magic was that completely repaired all the damage afterwards." "You can tell him to give me a call tomorrow. Tonight we''re just going to celebrate!" "Wonderful! Now where do you keep your mead, Layla?" Sif said excitedly while standing up. "I shall fetch us all a mug to make a toast!" "Um, Sif... Mead isn''t really popular on midgard anymore. Hardly anyone actually drinks it anymore." I replied. Sif slumped back down and looked devastated to hear that. "TELL ME IT ISN''T SO!" XXX C 150 After eating tons of delicious food and marathoning a few movies, with everyone, the fun night ended. I headed back towards my own room alone. I was too mentally drained for any other ''activities'' tonight, so Sif and Natasha were staying in the guest rooms. I reflected on that recent battle and realized that I needed more abilities for versatility. I wasn''t sure how to go about that though. "System? Is there any way I can get stronger? Or maybe just get new abilities? Maybe a System Shop or something." I asked as I flopped down onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. [I''m not the type of Gamer System that comes with a shop... but there is a way for you to gain new abilities quickly.] I sat back up in excitement. "And what would that be!?" [Trading for them with other gamers.] Other Gamers? I know they existed, but I''ve never actually interacted with another one. "And how would I do that?" Was there some kind of Gamer hub that I was unaware of til this point. [There''s no hub. Well...There used to be, but it got destroyed too many times and people got tired of rebuilding it. You wouldn''t actually have to do the trade personally. I can interact with other Systems on my own and facilitate any trades you and another Gamer agree on.] "That sounds pretty cool. You just contact another System and it tells their Gamer that I want to make a trade?" [Yes. You''d have to know what you want though. Ideally most Gamer''s would only trade for something not available in their own universe.] "Like what?" [Things like iconic weapons, powerful magic relics, or the occasional Waifu...] "Wait!? What was that last one!?" I asked with a frown. [Waifus... Those tend to be pretty popular to trade.] "So slavery then." I confirmed. Why was I not really surprised? Give some Gamers their own multiverses and unlimited power and of course they start a slave trade of their favorite Waifu''s with each other. [Yeah... A lot of Gamer''s don''t see other people as anything but NPCs.] "I''ll just trade with another female gamer then." I decided out loud. [Statistically, the Waifu trade is made up of about 97% of male Gamers.] "Great, then." Now I just needed to think about what ability I could get that would quickly grant me a huge power up? Seeing Belial turn into a massive giant actually had me getting slightly jealous. "Hmmm, I''ve got it! System, are there any female gamers in a Naruto multiverse?" I asked. I wanted a Rinnegan! Chakra existed here as well, so I''d be able to use all of its abilities. [There is exactly one female Gamer currently in her own Naruto multiverse. She''s pretty strong, but she hasn''t yet reached the peak. She might be willing to trade. It can''t hurt to ask at least. I''ll let you know when they respond.] I thanked the System and slumped back down on my bed. I was going to close my eyes and go to sleep when I felt something strange echo above me. BOOM! CRACK! "That''s weird..." I said as I looked out the window. A thunderstorm had manifested in the skies completely out of nowhere. I left my bedroom and headed back towards my living room to get a better look. To my surprise, Akeno was already there and was looking out the large windows as well. Her back was towards me. "You alright Akeno?" I called out to her in concern. Akeno turned to me and grimaced. "This is divine thunder. It''s not natural. For a moment I thought it was my father causing it. It''s not." "Do you miss him?" I asked teasingly. I hadn''t realized the father daughter combo had reconciled that much yet. Akeno blushed a bit and then scoffed. "As if. Who would miss that wet blanket? I was just curious about the sudden thunderstorm." CRACK! A massive bolt of thunder shot across the sky. My glass windows vibrated from the shockwave. I had no doubt that people who lived closer to that one probably just had all their windows blown out. Was this Thor? No, I still had a copy of Mjolnir in my inventory and it wasn''t reacting to any of this lighting at all. It wasn''t Thor. Akeno also said this was divine lighting which meant it probably wasn''t Storm from the X-men either. Not that I had even met any of the mutants yet. "This lighting feels angry. But it doesn''t feel like proper rage." Akeno said as she looked up. She called forth a small amount of her own divine lighting into her hand. "This is what hatred feels like." When I focused my senses on the lighting in her hand, I could almost feel Akeno''s emotions in it. Her own lighting felt furious! "This is the hatred I feel towards my mothers clan!" She explained with loathing. She clenched her fist and her lightning dispersed. "Whoever is causing this storm doesn''t feel actual hatred. What they are doing is currently throwing a tantrum..." She finished with a scoff. Akeno turned around and headed back towards her bedroom. The display of power going on outside was impressive, but the reason for it was apparently pathetic. ''A God of Thunder who is fond of throwing tantrums?'' I wondered as I too headed back towards my room. Something was telling me that this event wouldn''t be a one time thing. XXX chapters 151-155 chapters 151-155 (A/N: This first part has R-18) Layla decided to ignore the supernatural thunderstorm for the night and go to sleep. Her head hit the pillow and she clocked out. Or at least, she thought she did... "Welcome, Layla." A familiar voice called out to her. "What the hell?" Layla opened her eyes and looked around. She wasn''t in my bedroom anymore. She wasn''t in any place she recognized. "This place is kind of edgy..." She commented upon seeing all of the decor. There were thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of skulls scattered around off to the sides of her. In front of Layla was a clear path, however. A path leading to a black throne... that was also decorated in skulls. "Hmph! Just because you don''t like my decor doesn''t mean you have to call it edgy!" Lady Death said from atop her throne in front of Layla. She happened to enjoy the aesthetic quite a bit, herself! Layla saw that Lady Death was still as absolutely stunning as always. Layla could absolutely understand why Thanos simped so hard for this beautiful entity. Layla called out to her. "Lady Death! What a pleasant surprise. I take it this is the realm of Death?" "Indeed. Here I sit above the multiverse and observe its flow of souls." Lady Death said as she pointed upwards. Layla looked up and gasped. Instead of seeing stars in pitch black sky above them, Layla saw entire galaxies! Thousands of them scattered everywhere across the sky. "It''s beautiful." She said with awe. "Indeed it is." Lady Death said as she drew Layla''s attention back to herself. "But that''s not why I brought you here...You never came to claim your kiss from me." Lady Death said with an actual pout on her face. "Sorry about that..." Layla replied to her nervously. "A lot of things happened all at once." She also didn''t know how serious Lady Death''s offer was... Evidently, since the beautiful entity hag dragged Layla to her realm, it was completely serious. "And then you went and did me another great service." Lady Death added with a faint smile. "I did?" Layla asked in surprise. "Was it killing Voldemort again?" Lady Death actually giggled as she approached Layla. "I''m always happy when a version of him dies in the multiverse, but no. I''m talking about you releasing all of the souls from Gehenna! Billions upon billions of souls had been trapped there out of my reach for so long! And you casually freed them and delivered them right to me." She was now standing right in front of the Fallen Angel. "I wasn''t interested in being a Queen of one of the Hells and¨C" Layla was cut off when Lady Death leaned forward and kissed her! It wasn''t a quick peck on the lips either! It was a genuine, passionate kiss! (R-18 Start) Layla let out a squeak as she felt Lady Death'' tongue enter her mouth. Lady Death''s kiss felt absolutely amazing. It was extremely hot and passionate! As she kissed Layla, one of Lady Death''s hands reached around and started to fondle the Fallen Angels ass. Her other hand started to rub Layla''s lower back. "Mmmmmm." Layla moaned at the sensations. She realized Lady Death must have been using some kind of pleasure magic. Her touches felt absolutely amazing even through Layla''s clothing! Layla''s legs were quivering and she was starting to have trouble standing up right. Lady Death''s tongue started flicking against Layla''s own rapidly. The hand on her lower back moved up and was now groping Layla''s breasts. Lady Death pinched on one of her nipples just right causing Layla to squeak. At this point, Death''s groping had Layla on the edge of a powerful orgasm! Lady Death never stopped hungrily kissing Layla as the latter felt herself come undone! Layla seized up and a powerful orgasm shuddered across her body. She felt her legs grow moist and knew she was leaking love juices everywhere. "Fwaaahhh..." Layla sighed in pleasure when Lady Death finally broke their kiss. Lady Death smirked at Layla and licked her own lips. "You''re my champion now, Layla of the Fallen. I want you..." She declared huskily. Lady Death then pushed Layla backwards! Layla expected to stumble and fall because there was nothing behind her! At least there wasn''t the last time she checked. Layla was surprised when she ended up landing backwards on a silky soft bed that had materialized behind her. It was incredibly soft and, just like the rest of the abode, the sheets were pitch black. Layla also noticed that all of her clothing had all been removed without her even realizing it. Lady Death then leaned over her and Layla gasped. Lady Death was also completely naked and she was so beautiful! Absolutely flawless everywhere. Her pale breasts were magnificent and sat atop a similarly magnificent figure. Lady Death was perfectly shaped in all of the right places! Lady Death leaned forward and kissed Layla once again. Her tongue deftly made its way back inside Layla''s mouth. Layla let her take control as she fell back down onto the bed. Lady Death was directly on top of her. Their large breasts pressed together as they fiercely made out for a few moments. As they kissed, Layla felt Lady Death''s hands reach down and push her supple legs apart. She moaned when she felt something press up against her already dripping core. She thought it was one of Lady Death''s fingers until it pushed it''s way deeply inside her in one go! It definitely wasn''t a finger! It was too big and hot! Layla quivered and mewled as she felt herself getting filled up. ''Of course, Lady Death knows this spell as well...'' Layla thought with a pleasant shudder. Lady Death never stopped kissing Layla even as she pushed her way inside the sinfully perfect Fallen Angel. Layla suspected that Lady Death seemed to really like kissing! Layla then I moaned deeply into the other woman''s mouth once Lady Death thrust her hips forward. Layla saw stars with that single thrust as all of her inner nerves were set off at once! Another orgasmic wave of pleasure tore through Layla and my pussy clamped down on the appendage inside her! Lady Death finally broke their sloppy kiss and grinned at Layla who was cumming beneath her. "You''re just as perfect as I thought you were when I first saw you. Only you are worthy of being my lover and Champion!" Lady Death said before she started moving her hips at a steady pace. Lady Death shuddered and groaned in pleasure. Layla was even tighter after her second orgasm! Layla''s legs wrapped around her hips and all she could do was continuously moan with every thrust. Whatever magic Lady Death was using on Layla made sex with her feel amazing! "Hhhhhhnnnn. you are sinfully tight." Lady Death huffed out as she continued her pace. She leaned down and started laying kisses along Layla''s neck as she continued thrusting deep inside Layla. Layla didn''t think Lady Death would be able to leave a mark on her skin, but that didn''t stop her current lover from trying. Lady Death continued licking and suckling on Layla''s neck and breasts when Layla felt Lady Death''s pace inside her start to increase. Death started hammering her hips faster and her breathing picked up! She raised her head and her black eyes looked directly into Layla''s purple ones. Lady Death smiled down at Layla with a flushed expression that soon tightened up. "MMMMmmmm. Oh yeeeeesssss!" Lady Death moaned and finally came herself! Layla''s eyes widened and she felt Lady Death''s warmth spill out deep inside of her. Lady Death was shuddering on top of Layla with a look of ecstasy on her perfect face! The feeling of being filled by Lady Death had Layla orgasming one more time herself! The Fallen Angels mouth opened wide and she let out a long moan! XXX A few hours later, I was laying down in the bed with Lady Death snuggled up next to me. I felt deliciously sore all over even if my [Gamer''s Body] was already going to work on healing all that. I turned to my side to address my partner. "So...was the mind-blowing sex the only reason you called me to your realm?" I asked her. "Not that I minded it at all." I added. I noticed that Lady Death had seemed to be very pent up and almost starved for affection. Lady Death really liked laying kisses all over me and had done so many times throughout our multi-hour long session together. Lady Death smiled at me. She affectionately reached forward and brushed a strand of hair off of my face. "I deeply enjoyed it as well, but you are correct. That wasn''t the only reason I called you to my domain. I decided to make you my champion and give you some information." "Your champion?" I asked. [Your Title: Death''s Favored has now been upgraded to Death''s Champion!] ¡ú Death''s Champion: You are immune to all Death Magic. You cannot permanently die in any universe that falls under Lady Death''s domain. You can revive one person from death every single day! ''Woah!'' I exclaimed in my head when I quickly read over the upgraded title. This one really came with some amazing benefits. I''d gone from three remaining spare lives to practically an infinite amount! ''What places don''t fall under her domain?'' I asked the System. [Places such as the Hells or Dormamu''s dark domain will fall outside her area of influence. If you die in one of those places, then you''ll still only have three revives.] Those were dangerous places that I would be hesitant to go with my current level anyway. Going into places like those meant facing their evil rulers at their maximum powers, and those rulers were able to call upon all of the souls trapped in those dimensions for even more power as well! I was steering clear of those places for sure until I knew she could handle them. "You are my champion now, Layla of the Fallen. That''s more than just an empty title as the entity fused to your soul probably already told you." Lady Death said. "It also means that you are my chosen lover. I shall take no other for all of time. In the whole multiverse it shall only be you." She declared...and wow. What a declaration that was. "Woah..." Layla I said quietly. "Thanos is going to be pissed..." I added with a small laugh. Death scoffed. "Him? I could care less about him. He is undoubtedly the being who annoys me the most. Every single iteration of him." I figured that might be the case. I couldn''t imagine the workload Lady Death would be under normally. Then add on top all the planets full of life Thanos sacrificed "in her name" and that workload vastly increases. "All those Thanos'' always think that sacrificing trillions of souls to me will win my favor. They are all fools! He always ends up killing so many mortals unnecessarily! All those souls would have ended up in my realm upon their natural deaths anyway. I had no need for them before their times! It just makes more paperwork for me!" Death complained next to me. Lady Death explained to me that there was an avatar of herself in every single Universe. She had basically branched her consciousness out a million times over to lighten the workload, but even then, the amount of souls they all had to deal with everyday sounds daunting to me. She told me that I had never interacted with one of her avatars, though. From the moment Lady Death noticed me, she had been interacting with me using her main consciousness. "I''m glad you brought up Thanos, because he was the one, or rather two, that I wanted to warn you about." Lady Death said to Layla. "Two?" I asked in confusion. "Yes, Two. The Thanos you left in that cursed universe was very upset that you destroyed some of the Infinity Stones there. Those can take hundreds of years to reform and that universe''s Thanos does not want to wait anymore to fulfill his ambition. Even now, he is searching for a way to enter your home universe." Lady Death explained. She explained to me that while I was able to freely travel between universes, that didn''t mean my sacred Gear didn''t leave a faint dimensional signature when I did so. If someone found the exact spot I traveled from, which Thanos had, then they could record the correct dimensional coordinates. [I wonder if they''ll team up to kill you? Who am I kidding? You''re the Gamer! Of course they will!] I was obviously planning on dealing with Thanos in the future anyway. What was one more!? That just meant double the rewards! [That''s the spirit, Host! I have good news for you as well! The Gamer from the Narutoverse responded. You were ''busy'' so I didn''t interrupt you then.] ''That''s great! What do they want to trade for a pair of Rinnegan?'' "So what? You want me to babysit your niece and the church girl?" Natasha asked. "Mostly just Asia. She has the power to heal anything and she''s way too nice and naive! I don''t want to trap her in my apartment, but someone has to monitor her because people will try to take advantage of her." I explained. I wasn''t going to be like the church and not let Asia outside. The Hand was still around though, and so were the remnants of Hydra. I was just worried about the girl''s safety. It also wasn''t fair for Akeno to have to keep watching Asia all the time either. I know that Akeno is almost 18, or was she already 18? [You''re a bad aunt...] ...And she should be able to live her own life at that age without having to constantly guard the other girl. ''Also I''m a great Aunt! I saved her from an eternity of slavery!'' "Any injury huh?" Natasha asked in surprise. You know that''s an amazingly valuable ability. Many organizations WILL try to kidnap the girl the second they hear about it." I unfortunately know that. Asia also has zero combat capabilities so she would be pretty much helpless. "Alright, I''ll keep an eye out for her. I''ll also have Fury assign her a full time detail. As long as she promises to occasionally heal some of our agents I''m sure he''ll agree." Natasha said. I thanked her. I know Asia would be fine with those terms as well. The girl goes out of her way to heal everyone she can anyway. Following my short conversation with Natasha, I went to speak with Sif next. It was funny that I also had to cure my other lover''s hangover too. It turns out that drinks on Earth were far more developed than they were on Asgard. It''s no surprise considering their culture has pretty much stagnated for 1000 years under Odin''s rule. Sif wasn''t used to drinking Mead that had so much alcohol added to it. I could have talked with Sif longer, but she told me that she also had to get going. She had been assigned a mission by Hela while she was on Midgard. Thor had yet to return back home. He had apparently been spending most of his ''private'' time with a certain Jane Foster...according to Heimdall. He really is the universe''s biggest voyeur... Before Sif left, I pulled out an Apple of Idun, from my inventory, and handed it to her. "Here, this is for Jane. It would suck, for Thor, if he meets his soulmate, only for her to die of old age in a few decades." I said. What I didn''t say was that I knew it would actually be much sooner for Jane because of cancer... That woman couldn''t catch a break. "What if she refuses?" Sif asked. "Shove the apple down her throat if she refuses to eat it." I replied with a smile. Sif grinned at my crazy response. "I''ll make sure that she does. Thor is one of our best warriors and it will be hard to convince him to return to Asgard if he has to leave her behind. Especially since his father isn''t around to bully him anymore." I decided not to wake up Akeno or Asia before my departure. Natasha would tell them about my urgent business and that I had to leave. Before I left, though, I decided to check up on the two new siblings. I found Tony and Andrea in her living room. They were sitting on her couch and seemed to be getting along. Good for them. "I can''t believe you got together with Pepper. That''s so weird. She''s like a sister to me!" Andrea said. "Well, now she''s going to be your actual sister because we''re engaged." Tony replied. Andrea made a playful gagging sound. "I hope you didn''t knock her up unexpectedly. She was instrumental in running the company." "Mine too! I don''t know what I''d do without her!" "Yeah..." Andrea trailed off with a far off look. Tony caught her look and sighed. He realized he accidentally hit a landmine with that comment. It was hard for him to believe there actually existed other universes. Let alone one that got overrun by actual zombies. He was proud of his alternate female self for surviving the whole thing though. Tony could admit he was a narcissist and now he had proof that he really would be able to survive in a zombie apocalypse at least! "Hey, Tony. Would you mind setting up some US identities for three girls." I cut in between their conversation and asked him. Tony glanced at me and casually waved. "That''s easy. All I need are the girls'' basic info and a few pictures of each of them. Text it all to my phone and I''ll take care of it all no problem." He then went back to talking with his sister. "Thanks Tony!" I called out before and let them get back to their conversation. I''d need to stop by the Sanctum, to get some pictures of Heather, before I leave to hunt down a Boosted Gear. XXX Heather Potter didn''t know whether to be angry or grateful towards me. She had been flip flopping back and forth since I''d shown up here at the sanctum. "You killed Voldemort and then you went off to hold a victory party and you didn''t invite me!" Heather declared with a pout! I did feel bad about that. "I''m sorry Heather. And it wasn''t really a victory party over killing the Dark Lord. The party was for killing a really powerful demon that he and his idiot followers summoned." I explained. "Voldemort was an afterthought at that point." "So the man who was after me and has been hunting me since I was born was nothing more than a casual after thought!?" Heather asked. "Kind of..." I admitted. I instantly killed him when his back was turned after all. The guy had no idea how he even died... Heather''s pout turned into a smile! "Good! That asshole doesn''t deserve to even be remembered! He was nothing more than another failed pathetic dark lord after all. I''ve been reading lots of history from the Sanctums Library. Dark Lords like him pop up every few decades and they always fail." I was glad that Heather seemed to be taking it so well. "So anything interesting been happening in the Sanctum?" I changed the subject. Nothing appeared to be out of place. Just like every other time I come here, there are groups of students practicing all types of magic in the courtyard while older teachers give them judgmental stares. I''m glad that I never ventured too deeply into this type of magic. It would have been a huge time killer. Heather scoffed at my question. She looked annoyed. "This place? The most interesting thing that happened, in the past two weeks, was one guy accidentally stabbed himself in the foot! It''s been really boring for a super-secret magic organization. I miss talking to kids my own age sometimes..." She trailed off. Heather needed friends her own age. The youngest person here was still in their 20''s. "I have some good news for you then. In a week or two, you''ll have an American identity and be able to attend school here." I said. "I just need to get some pictures of you to send to Tony." Heather''s eyes lit up! "I can go to an actual school with real teachers who aren''t going to try and murder me!? Sign me up immediately!" She said while practically bouncing in excitement! I got a few photos of Heather and forwarded them to Stark''s phone. I spent another half hour talking to Heather before deciding it was time for me to head out on my next adventure. "You''re leaving already?" Heather whined. "I don''t want to be stuck here practicing magic with the old farts for another two weeks!" Heather exclaimed loudly. "HEY!" One of the old farts practicing magic in the courtyard yelled at her in indignation. "I''m not exactly going on a cake walk here Heather. I''m going to another universe to track down an evil Red Dragon Emperor and steal his Sacred Gear." I said. Heather smiled mischievously. "I understood almost none of that except for another universe and stealing! That sounds fun and I want to come with!" Heather demanded. I sighed. I supposed that it wouldn''t hurt to take Heather with me. The girl needed to know the risks though. "Listen Heather, I don''t know what to expect. If you get hurt, I can heal you and if you die, I can revive you. Those things can still happen though." "You can revive the dead!?" She exclaimed loudly. Some of the sorcerers nearby turned to me and gave me incredulous looks. Others were starting to look at me fearfully... "You can revive the dead?" "How is that possible!?" "She is delving into magic far darker than any has before! She should be banished from here!" I gave that last guy the stink eye. I figured this information would get out sooner or later. To be honest, I didn''t really even care if it did. "YES, YES... I CAN REVIVE THE DEAD, OK!? I''M SLEEPING WITH LADY DEATH AND AM THEREFORE HER CHAMPION NOW! That''s one of the perks that comes with it." I declared loudly. Every sorcerer had fear in their eyes when I mentioned Lady Death... Heather ws gazing up at me with stars in her eyes. Wow, Layla! You really are the coolest woman I''ve ever known! Sleeping with Lady Death...Wow..." "Really...Layla." The Ancient One called out to me as she stepped out of her private meditation room and into the courtyard. "I was in the middle of meditating and I had to hear you shouting that!? And you''re planning on taking Heather with you, on a potentially dangerous adventure, to another universe? To fight some Red Dragon something?" She asked. I nodded. "Yep. We''re leaving in like five minutes. You want to come?" The Ancient One shook her head ''no.'' She''d apparently had enough of MY crazy adventures for a while... "Just make sure she makes it back safely." the Ancient One pointed to Heather. Heather cheered. "Yay! Let''s go rob an evil dragon guy!" XXX chapters 156-160 chapters 156-160 "So this is another universe? It must be, because everything is in Japanese." Heather commented as we walked down the streets of Tokyo. "Did Japan win World War 2 in this dimension or something?" I laughed. "Heather, we''re in Japan. That''s why all the signs are in Japanese." Heather blushed. "Oh...I knew that. I also don''t speak Japanese, just so you know." "Did the Ancient One not give you any spells to understand other languages?" I asked. Heather shook her head. "Now that I think about it, everyone in Kamar Taj always spoke perfect English to me. That was strange considering we were in Tibet." "Hmm, let me try something." I said and held up one of my hands towards Heather. "I grant you the blessings of Light and Language." A small amount of Light Energy left me and I blessed Heather the same as I had done for Natasha before. Heather should be able to speak any language now and her attack spells should carry traces of my Light Energy as well. The same way Natasha''s bullets did. "That felt weird." Heather commented. "I feel lighter and all warm and fuzzy." "That means it worked." "If you say so. Where are we going anyway?" Heather said as she gestured around us. "I need to find a Grigori broker." I replied as the two of us continued walking down the streets of Tokyo. "We''re in another universe, but not that much appears to be different physically at least. I can sense another Fallen Angel nearby. He feels a bit weird, but similar enough that I recognize the magical signature of one of my own." I explained and Heather nodded. I led Heather down a few more streets. The streets became less and less crowded as the two of us continued onwards. Eventually, we noticed that there were no regular humans around at all anymore. A subtle barrier had been placed on the small backstreet, we were on, to ward away any non-supernatural beings. I walked up to a nondescript wooden door and rapped on it with a code known only to our faction. The door swung open and a Fallen Angel I didn''t recognize stood there. "What do you want?" The man asked bluntly. He eyed me and Heather warily. "I don''t recognize either of you, but you feel like a Fallen." He said while pointing at me. "I obviously am. I came to do business. Will you let us in?" I asked. I noticed something strange about this Fallen. He felt really weak, and for an Angel...he was not very good looking. I wondered if he was using some kind of illusion magic to mask his true features. If so, then it was very impressive because even I couldn''t see through it. [Or maybe he''s just naturally ugly like Kokabiel.] That could be true, but it wouldn''t explain his low level. I knew what I was seeing with [Observe] had to be fake information because even a two winged Fallen Angel was at least Level 10. [The Fallen Angel Giarmo: Level 8] He peaked out the door and quickly scanned the alley around them. When he sensed no one else was lurking nearby he moved out of the way. "Yeah, yeah. Come in...Sister..." He said the word ''sister'' sarcastically. Heather and I walked inside and the door automatically slammed shut behind us. A bunch of runes lit up on the door sealing us all inside with some powerful defense magic. Not powerful enough to detain me, though, should I choose to break out. I glanced around the shop and was impressed with its inventory. Brokers were members of the Grigori that set up secret shops like these all around the world. They engaged in under the table trading with other factions and occasionally brought in some very interesting finds. I could see a couple of nameless Holy Swords sitting in one corner and piles of exorcist guns in another. What I was really after though, was the giant cross-like device at the far end of the shop! "How much for the Sacred Gear extractor?" I asked, doing my best to only seem vaguely interested in it. If I acted like I desperately needed it, he would jack up the price. "That old piece of junk? It''s pretty risky to use one of those you know...the church will get really mad." The broker warned. "That doesn''t matter. I merely want it to add to my collection." I lied. As for the church getting mad. I didn''t care. I was planning on leaving as soon as I got what I came for. The Broker grinned at me. "Collection, huh?" He chuckled darkly and I internally cursed. Now he was probably assuming that I had a lot of money on me. "Well it just so happens that another ''Sister'' of ours is in need of it. She promised me half a million for it. But then again, you''re here and she''s not. Can you match that?" "Who else wanted to buy it?" Heather asked. She was off to the side examining a couple of the Holy Swords. "None of these are as good as the Sword of Gryfinndor..." She muttered before setting a nameless sword back down. Maybe I could go and collect that sword from Hogwarts for her next birthday. "A Fallen named Raynare wanted it. She told me she''d have the money, but would pay me in a week after using it on some poor sucker. I didn''t see the harm in it considering it''s just sitting here collecting dust. Any Sacred Gear she steals could be worth millions." He said. "If she doesn''t get caught and executed that is..." I remembered why she didn''t like Brokers very much. They represented some of the worst of our kind. They were all Fallen Angels who fell due to extreme greed. They didn''t care about anything except for their own wallets. "Here." I waved my hand and a few hundred Asgardian golden coins fell to the floor. Another wave and the Sacred Gear extractor was swept into my inventory. "Pleasure doing business with you!" The broker said as he eyed the pile of gold with greed. "Anything else you want to buy?" "Can I have a gun!?" Heather asked as she pointed to the pile in the corner. I raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you know how to shoot a gun?" Heather turned her head to the side and avoided my stare. "No...I just thought it would look cool." Teenagers... "Then no..." I told her. The last thing I needed was Heather accidentally shooting herself. The Ancient One would give me a very disappointed look when we made it back regardless of whether I immediately healed Heather or not. "Lame!" Heather whined as we left the small, very illegal shop. XXX "So the guy we are looking for is supposed to be evil right?" Heather asked. "That''s right," I replied as we made our way towards the church in Kuoh. I could sense the alternate versions of my four most disappointing siblings inside. "Are you sure? Because this town isn''t on fire or anything like that. Does an evil guy really live here?" Heather commented. "Like, how do we know he''s evil?" "Because Lady Death said so..." I said as we reached Kuoh church''s front door. I was getting a sense of deja vu. I realized I probably should have gotten some more details from Lady Death about my target. That''s why I was here. The broker had sold me Raynare''s location with almost no hesitation for only a few extra coins. I wanted to interrogate her to find out more about this world''s Issei. With a grin that I got to do this a second time, I raised my foot and kicked forwards. The rotten double doors blasted off their hinges and flew! There was a loud crash as they collided with the far wall and fell apart. [I rate that door kick a solid 8/10] Unlike the previous time I was here, the church was mostly empty except for four individuals who were all gaping at my entrance. I frowned when I saw the four people. They didn''t look anything like I thought they would. The four ''Fallen Angels'' in front of me didn''t look very Angelic at all actually... They looked like three regular human Japanese women and one man. All of them had the unmistakable aura of a Fallen Angel though... "Weird..." I muttered as I walked in. Were these four not the same group I was looking for? Or maybe they were just created to look different here? "Who the hell are you!? Why are you kicking in our door you moron!? You could have just walked in! It wasn''t even locked!" One of the shorter women yelled at Heather and me. Both of us were taken aback by the language. Heather recovered first and grinned cheekily! "Yeah, but then we wouldn''t have had such a cool entrance." I could recognize that foul-mouthed tone anywhere. "Mittelt?" I asked in confusion. The only Fallen I remembered that had a mouth like that was the blonde loli... "Yeah, I''m Mittelt! Who the hell are you!? And where did you get such a beautiful vessel?" She asked. The other Fallen were all nodding along at her words. "I must admit that I am jealous that you found such a perfect-looking human host." The man added. His eyes were raking up and down my form, and I was doing my best to not immediately stab him for it. "...I''m Layla. And this is my own body..." I said. "What are you talking about?" [Host, I think you''re in a universe where Angels don''t have physical forms. They can only walk around the Earth if they possess a human vessel. That''s why that Fallen Angel Broker was ugly earlier.] ''What kind of ''Supernatural'' knock-off crap is that!?'' I exclaimed internally. "You''re body? But you feel like a Fallen like us?" The man asked. "Hold on!" One of the other two Fallen women interrupted. "You''re Layla!? You stole my Sacred Gear extractor from me! I had a great plan and everything to make us all some serious money!" I suspected this one was Raynare. It was really weird looking at some random woman''s face and visualizing Raynare in my head. I shrugged at the accusation. "I paid for it with my own money fair and square. It''s not my fault your broke ass tried to buy it on credit!" "Didn''t you steal that gold you used earlier?" Heather whispered. I did not respond to that question... "Whatever..." Raynare scowled and crossed her arms. "What are you doing here anyway?" "I want any information you have on Issei Hyoudou, the Red Dragon Emperor." I stated. The four Fallen Angels all blanched, and their faces all turned pale. I raised a curious eyebrow. I wasn''t expecting that kind of reaction. "Ok! Now that''s the kind of reaction I was waiting for. This guy must be pretty evil to have four Fallen Angels looking so scared." Heather said. "You don''t know the half of it, kid!" Mittelt said to Heather. "What!? Why do you want to know about that lunatic? Why would you think we know anything about him!?" Raynare spat out. I nodded. "If you''re sure..." ... "Hahahaha! Filthy Yokai scum! You''re the last one left!" A young man''s voice shouted out. He was Japanese but wearing an exorcist uniform. He had a red gauntlet over his left arm. It was drenched in blood. "Damn you, Red Dragon! I will have revenge! Even if I die! I will curse you for the atrocities you''ve committed!" The fox girl, currently facing Issei Hyoudou, spat out angrily. She had tears in her eyes as she lobbed balls of blue fire towards Issei. He was able to dodge all of them before they exploded with the force of grenades. I noticed that this version of Kunou wasn''t a child. She looked older. She looked to be around the same age as Heather, give or take a year. I could see that Kunou was heavily wounded. She had gash marks raked across her form that matched the bloody gauntlet Issei had. Kunou seemed to be on her last legs and was swaying back and forth¨Cprobably from blood loss. "Die!" Issei screamed and charged forwards. His left hand reared back, preparing to deliver the final blow. I quickly conjured a Lightspear and hurled it directly in front of his path. He was so distracted with Kunou that I could have taken his head off, but unfortunately, I needed him alive for now. Heather also claimed she wanted to face him. Issei saw the purple spear slam into the ground in front of him, and his eyes widened in shock! He quickly jumped backward and looked around. His eyes landed on me, who was hovering in the air nearby with Heather in my arms. I descended towards the ground. "Angel-sama! Why are you stopping me from killing this beast!?" Issei asked when he saw my wings. "We''ve almost completely cleaned my homeland of them! She''s the last one!" I cringed at hearing that. Kunou was the last living Yokai? Heather hopped out of my arms and glared at Issei. "How could you do this!? How could you murder a whole race!?" Issei looked Heather over. "I can tell that you''re a human and have even had the blessings of the Angels like me! Why do you care about these pagan abominations? The only beings who should inhabit this Earth are God, his Angels, and we humans! Everyone else should be eradicated! With this, I''m one step closer to cleansing this barbaric country!" Issei said as he spread his arms wide and smiled at all the Yokai bodies scattered around. "Isn''t this your home country?" Heather asked. Issei scowled at the reminder. "I was born here, but thankfully my friend Irina and her family rescued me from my wicked pagan parents! They took me in so I could be properly raised by the church!" [So basically, the church found out about his Sacred Gear and abducted him as a child to turn into their killing machine...] ''That sounds about right.'' I agreed with the system. This Issei had been brainwashed since a young age and had probably committed uncountable atrocities. I didn''t know if Heather came to the same conclusion, but the girl pulled out her wand and started casting spells at Issei. He ducked out of the way of some of them, and others splashed harmlessly against his gauntlet. "Fine then, traitor to humanity! You can die too!" {BOOST!} XXX The gem on his gauntlet flashed green, and he kicked off the ground hard. Issei charged forward towards Heather around three times faster than an ordinary person could move. Heather wasn''t ordinary, though. She had been training with Earth''s greatest magic user for months, and she had been blessed by me recently. Heather summoned a glowing orange Eldritch Sword in her left hand as she continued casting spells at Issei with her right. "Fillependo! Stupefy! Bombarda! Incarcerous! Incendio!" Issei blocked the first four spells, but the torrent of flames that shot from her wand caught him off guard! He let out a loud scream as the flames washed over him! {BOOST!} I watched as Issei continued pressing on and ran through Heather''s flames. By the time he got close to Heather, his skin was red and blistered. He had a snarl on his face as he swung his claws at her head. Heather brought her own sword up and deflected his strike! "What!?" Issei exclaimed when he failed to kill the girl. "Reducto!" Heather took advantage of him being caught off guard. She pointed her wand right towards his torso and released a blasting curse! Issei''s torso caved inwards! The spell exploded against him, and he rocketed backward. Spit and blood flew out of his mouth as he crashed into the ground. I grinned. Heather was doing great so far. The people of this universe really were weaker. Issei''s abilities were barely even at the level of Captain America after multiple boosts. Even if he used his Balance Breaker, I was sure I could casually slap him down. Kunou was watching in shock nearby. I made my way over to the kitsune girl. Kunou eyed me warily but wasn''t outright hostile towards me. "Hi there. I''m sorry about everything that''s happened here. I''m Layla of the Fallen." "Kunou... The last Yokai." She replied. "Can I heal you?" I asked her. Kunou nodded her head. She was covered in cuts and on the verge of bleeding out. She''d take any help she could get. I manifested my Purger of Darkness and began healing Kunou. Her scrapes and gashes magically closed up in only a few seconds, and all of her missing blood was replaced. When I was done, Kunou looked herself over in shock. "You have a Sacred Gear!? I thought only humans could have those? And I thought all the Fallen lost their wings after they rebelled?" Kunou started rapidly asking questions. "Gaaaaahhh!" My responses were cut off by Issei''s scream of pain. He was barely standing at this point and looking at Heather with hatred in his eyes. "I see now... You''re not a human at all! You''re an evil Witch! I underestimated you. But now you''re going to die! WELSH DRAGON: BALANCE BREAKER!" Issei''s vocal tones shifted as he activated his trump card. Red Draconic Armor surrounded his whole body. He started to go through a transformation sequence where armored segments manifested on one part of his body at a time. I sighed at Heather''s inaction during his sequence. She was simply standing there and watching him power up while doing nothing. I''d have to lecture Heather about that later. "Heather, come back! I''ll handle him from here." I said as I walked forward. Heather looked reluctant to do so, but she acquiesced. She stowed her wand away and ran back towards me and Kunou. "You''ll handle me!? Don''t make me laugh!? My Balance Breaker has never been beaten!" The Red Dragon emperor yelled out! Issei''s voice was overlapping with the dragon inside him. {BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!} "Die!" He rocketed forward towards me faster than a bullet! He reeled back his arm and focused all of his magic power into one strike. He would kill all three of us with this one blow! I raised my hand casually. Right when Issei reached me, I swung my arm. SLAP! I slapped him right across his armored face. His powerful draconic armor, that could easily withstand even rockets, shattered as if it was made of glass. My hand connected to his cheek and sent his head whipping to the side. Spit, blood, and teeth flew out of Issei''s mouth as he immediately lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground. I made sure he was unconscious before turning to the two girls behind me. Kunou was looking at me in shock while Heather once again had stars in her eyes. Heather cheered. "That was so cool! Why am I even bothering to learn magic!? I should just be hitting the gym so I can do that! All it took was one slap to beat him!" [So much for her claims to love magic earlier...] I sweatdropped. My current strength required a bit more effort than just hitting the gym... ... ¨CKunou¨C "Y-You beat him just like that?" Kunou asked, stupefied. "I sure did." Layla replied with a casual shrug. "Yeah. Layla''s awesome like that! She takes down guys like this all the time!" The human girl added. Kunou was almost speechless. She glanced down at the unconscious japanese teen on the ground. That was the monster that had plagued her people for months now... His balance breaker was so strong, not even the strongest Senjutsu masters of her faction could harm him! ...And he lost to a single slap from this woman in front of her... Kunou wondered if she was looking upon a Goddess? Not those false Goddesses in Takamagahara who refused to help the Yokai either! But a genuinely powerful and righteous Goddess! Kunou thought that Layla of the Fallen looked absolutely beautiful and majestic! And the power she radiated could only come from the true divine! Kunou was raised to be a Shrine Princess, and she decided that Layla would be the being she prays to from now on! ... [You have received Faith Energy +1] ''...What?'' XXX A/N: The red dragon caught Layla''s hands... chapters 161-165 chapters 161-165 ¨CKyoto, Earth DxD¨C "Very good, Isane. You''re up to three consecutive boosts!" Yasaka complimented her faction''s newest recruit and her current disciple. Isane Hyoudou turned out to be a very diligent girl...Of course, all her training was because of the girl''s dream. She was currently training with the girl in her private courtyard. Her daughter was just inside watching some TV. "Three boosts is just the start! I won''t stop until I become the strongest in the world and have a huge harem full of beautiful women!" Isane declared with a large grin on her face! Half of the grin was because she was blatantly staring at Yasaka''s large chest as she said that! {I apologize for my partner of this generation...} The Red Dragon inside of her gauntlet said. He''d had some lustful hosts throughout the centuries, but none even close to this girl. While Draig could admit she had the motivation and determination to become very strong, he was also sure his terrifying reputation, that he''d built up over the centuries, was going to be utterly ruined by his latest host... "It''s fine, Ddraig." Yasaka was more than used to people blatantly staring at her chest. "Hmmm?" Yasaka turned to the side and felt the magical energy in the air shift. A second later, a purple portal opened up in the middle of Yasaka''s courtyard. Such a phenomenon would have typically set the fox woman on high alert. That is, if she didn''t recognize the unmistakable magical signature of Layla coming from the portal. Yasaka smiled when Layla stepped through the portal. She was followed by a teenage human girl and a teenage fox girl who looked like... "Kunou?" Yasaka asked in confusion. The fox girl looked just like her daughter, but slightly older. The fox girl''s eyes lit up upon seeing Yasaka! "Mother! You''re really alive! Tis a miracle!" She ran right up to Yasaka and gave her a big hug! Yasaka was taken aback, but just shrugged and hugged the girl back. She had accepted that being with Layla meant weirder things than this would probably happen from time to time. Yasaka could hear the girl sniffling and crying into her bosom. Yasaka looked at Layla in confusion. "What exactly is going on here? And why are you covered in foul smelling blood?" Layla rubbed the back of her head. She was covered in quite a bit of that deity''s blood...He just wouldn''t go down without a fight. Enemies that could regenerate were truly a pain to fight! His blood also wouldn''t wash away with any of the basic cleaning spells Heather knew. Layla desperately needed a bath. "So yeah...that''s Kunou...from an alternate universe. In that universe, all the Yokai besides her were wiped out by an evil Red Dragon Emperor. He turned out to be naively following an evil deity impersonating my Biblical Father of that world." Layla explained. She was very aware of how convoluted that explanation sounded. "Was that deity strong?" Yasaka asked in concern. She knew Layla was now an Ultimate Class, but she still worried. Yasaka didn''t think she could survive losing another one of her mates. If she didn''t have Kunou, she might have followed after her first one. She was eternally grateful she did however, because she ended up meeting Layla only a few years later! Layla looked to the side awkwardly. Yeah, that guy was pretty strong. "I was only fighting an avatar, but they had quite a bit of fight in them. Thankfully they weren''t ready for my new abilities!" Layla smirked. She then started her explanation of what went down on her latest excursion. "Everything happened like this..." ...Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com ¨CA Few Hours Earlier¨C ''Faith energy?'' I wondered what that was? [It''s energy granted to deities from their believers. It can be used for all sorts of things. Get enough of it, and you can even ascend to Godhood!] That sounded like a whole conversation I''d prefer to have at a later time. I shrugged and turned back to Heather and Kunou. I raised an eyebrow at the way Kunou was looking at me. I was growing used to people idolizing me, but Kunou was looking at me like I was a Goddess or something. Oh... That''s where that faith energy was coming from. "Damn... You slapped him so hard that half his teeth are gone!" Heather exclaimed. She walked over to the unconscious Red Dragon Emperor and gave him a kick for good measure. "Murderous zealot asshole! That''s what you get!" "Thank you for stopping him and healing me," Kunou said to me. "You were able to beat him so easily, are you a goddess?" Kunou asked with fervor in her voice and eyes sparkling towards me. "Well, actually¨C" I started to speak but was cut off by Heather! "She''s better than a goddess! Not only that, but Layla is dating multiple Goddesses AND she''s sleeping with Lady Death herself!" Heather proclaimed loudly! "Amazing!" Kunou exclaimed and looked at me with even more fervor! ¡ú Faith energy +1! I gaped at Heather''s proclamation, and the girl-who-lived just gave me a cheeky wink in response. I couldn''t believe that Heather was choosing now, of all times, to try and prank me! [You''re kind of a goddess at this point if you think about what you can do. You''re immortal, extremely powerful, can revive the dead, and travel between universes freely.] I facepalmed. I could already feel that this situation was going to blow out of proportion somehow! [I believe in you, Host! ...It probably will, though.] Kunou clapped her hands together. "Truly, you must be an incredibly powerful Goddess! On top of being incredibly beautiful and having 5 pairs of majestic black wings! They look so much better than the white wings of those horrible Angels!" Kunou spat out with hatred in her voice. "I''m sorry to hear that," I replied. I then pointed at Issei''s body. "If you don''t mind, Heather and I are just going to take Issei''s Sacred Gear and go¨C" Kunou wasn''t done ranting though! "The Shinto weren''t any better either! My mother prayed to them for aid when the church besieged us and they did nothing to help! They are false Gods as well! I see now that we Yokai should have been praying to you all along!" She declared passionately. ''Uh oh...I think I broke her.'' I lamented internally. [I think watching her entire race die is what broke her... Then you showed up and heroically defeated the one who did it with ease.] I couldn''t disagree. This girl was going to need therapy. All of the therapy... ¡ú Faith energy +1 XXX I made my way towards the downed Red Dragon Emperor. It was time to extract his Sacred Gear and get out of this weird reality. I reached into my inventory to grab the Sacred Gear Extractor I had purchased earlier. Except... It wasn''t there! "What the hell?" I said out loud. "Where is it?" I frantically started searching every metaphorical nook and cranny in my inventory! I couldn''t find it! "Something wrong, Layla?" Heather asked from nearby. She was sitting down, on some steps, next to Kunou and was carefully patting the fox girl on the back. Now that the fighting was over, Kunou had started sobbing quietly. "The Sacred Gear extractor is missing!" I lamented. "I don''t know how!" No one since the Ancient One had been able to mess with my inventory. And that was back when I was a low-leveled noob! It should be impossible now! [I think I know what happened to it. I think your Sacred Gear...ate it. I''m pretty sure you know which one.] ''What!?'' I exclaimed in my head. ''Why would it do that!?'' [Who knows... Try using your Gear on Issei though. See what happens.] I supposed it couldn''t hurt to try. I wasn''t quite sure what I was trying, though. I reached down and placed my hand over his torso. I called on my Orb of Anywhere. I willed it to help remove Issei''s Sacred Gear. To my surprise, a small purple portal opened up directly on top of his chest. I hesitated for a moment upon seeing it. [Go for it! Stick your hand into the weird tiny portal! I''m sure you''ll be fine...] With the system''s ''encouraging'' words, I did just that. I shoved my hand inside the small portal above his torso. My arm sunk about halfway through before my fingers brushed up against something. It wasn''t very big, about the size of a tennis ball. I grasped onto it and pulled! I felt a bit of resistance, as if the object I was holding didn''t want to go with me. I tugged harder, and it yanked free! I pulled my arm all the way out of the small portal. It quickly faded away once my arm was out. I looked at the object in my hand, and my eyes widened. It was a glowing green orb, giving off the same draconic signature that Issei had earlier. "The Boosted Gear. I took it out just like that?" I asked out loud. Issei didn''t even wake up. Not only that, but he was still alive as well! Did I now have the ability to remove people''s Sacred Gears whenever I wanted to? With no repercussions? "Is that what we came for, Layla?" Heather stepped away from Kunou and walked over. "That''s what a Sacred Gear looks like outside of someone?" Heather asked. "I expected it to be more flashy or magical. It''s just a boring glowing green rock." "Life is often full of disappointments," I said sagely while nodding my head. Heather deadpanned at me. "Uh huh... Says the incredibly beautiful immortal being blessed with her very own harem. You have a real disappointing life don''t you?" Heather added sarcastically. I had to admit, she got me there. "Are we leaving now?" Heather asked. I nodded. "Yeah, we can." Nearby, Kunou''s ears drooped when she heard that. "You''re leaving!?" She exclaimed. Her nine tails sagged behind her. "Are you going to leave me behind?" "The truth is, Kunou, Heather and I aren''t from here. We''re from another Universe. One that''s not quite as messed up as this one. Why don''t you come with us?" I offered. "Your mother is still alive in our home universe. There''s also an adorable younger version of you." Kunou''s eyes widened, and her tails twitched in excitement when she heard my offer. "A better world where all of my people are still alive and not hunted? Please let me come with you!" "Of course, you can!" I said before my eyes widened. I quickly stepped in front of both younger girls! THRUM! "No one will be going anywhere! I will not let you take my toys from me!" A spiteful voice rang out across the destroyed courtyard. There was a flash of brilliant golden light from across from us. A familiar figure materialized in front of me. One my memories told me that I hadn''t seen in hundreds of years! My eyes widened... It was my father. Although... ...Something about him felt off to me. Sure, he looked the same. He was a wise looking older man, with a long white beard and wearing a white toga. But he didn''t feel the same. I couldn''t sense him at all, actually. He didn''t come alone. There were more golden flashes from all around us. Over a dozen Angels, in their human vessels, appeared nearby as well. The two familiar signatures I was hoping to feel weren''t among them. I noticed that Gabriel and Michael weren''t here. My father looked at me with a disturbing smirk on his face. "Look at you! Layla of the Fallen! You''re a long way from home, aren''t you? I wasn''t aware that you had the ability to traverse Universes like I could... It does explain your sudden rise to power, though." Transverse Universes? I frowned. "And how exactly do you know about me?" He smiled at me and spread his arms wide. "Why? Because I''m God after all! The Alpha and the Omega! The creator of the universe!" The way he said it left some very sarcastic undertones that all the Angels around us missed. "That''s right!" "Father is the greatest!" "She''s a Fallen? Let''s kill her!" A few of the Angels circling us started shouting out. Kunou started trembling when all of the Angel''s started shouting at us and letting out bits of their Holy Auras. It wasn''t enough to harm me or Heather, but Kunou was feeling it. I placed my hand gently on her head. Her fox ears were very fluffy and soft. "It''ll be ok, Kunou. I bless you with my Light so that you might stand against its twisted counterparts." Kunou''s eyes widened when my Light Energy entered her body. The Angel''s around her could no longer affect her with their Aura''s. She looked at them all defiantly after that. "Stop!" Mephisto called out loudly! All the Angels halted in place. They glared hatefully at me, but made no further moves to attack. "Father?" One of them questioned. They were shocked at how horrible he looked all of a sudden! His skin was melting off of him! Mephisto laughed. "Yes, I am your father! Tell me, children. Do you all love me?" Mephisto asked. "Of course we do!" "We love you, Father!" "We could never love anyone more!" All of the Angels stopped to proclaim their love for Mephisto. I was disgusted at their declarations and their sheer stupidity. Mephisto must have gotten rid of all the smarter Angels and just kept around these idiots to entertain himself. He grinned at me before he spoke again. "Do you all pledge your souls to me?" Mephisto asked all of the Angels. My eyes widened at his question. I shouted loudly! "Wait you idiots! Don''t answer that!" It was too late, though! "Of course I do, father!" "My soul is yours forever!" "Mine too!" "And Mine!" "Yes. Of course!" Right after they all pledged their souls, the fake skin over Mephisto''s form finally dropped off him completely. Exposed underneath was the avatar of the evil deity. His eyes glowed fiery red, his hair was pitch black, his ears were pointed, and his skin was bright red. He was once again cackling loudly. "Father?" One of the Angels asked in confusion upon seeing Mephisto''s true form. "What has happened to you?" "I''m not your father you stupid whore! He''s been dead for a long time! I''ve loved having you as my loyal followers though! I''ll especially love torturing you all for all eternity now that your souls are mine!" The dawning horror of realization appeared on all of the Angels'' faces. I grimaced as I knew that I couldn''t save them at this point. Not without going into Mephisto''s domain and actually killing him there. Until then, their souls would belong to him. Mephisto waved his clawed hands and all of the human vessels surrounding us slumped to the ground unconscious or dead. White orbs of light started floating above the bodies. They all turned and rushed towards Mephisto. He opened his mouth wide, and over a dozen Angelic souls were sucked down into his stomach! He let out a loud belch as he licked his lips and grinned wickedly at the three witnesses. "That really hit the spot! And it gave me the boost I''m going to need for this!" A wave of power erupted out of Mephisto and started blanketing the area in a foul miasma. I countered the miasma by releasing my own Light Energy into the surroundings as well to stave it off. "He feels so much stronger!" Kunou exclaimed. I used [Observe] on him again. His level had gone up quite a bit! [Mephisto - Level 62] "This world might suppress the strength of beings like myself, in higher realms, but there''s always ways to get around that! Devouring the souls of the world''s inhabitants is the simplest method!" Mephisto bragged as he started walking towards my group. He soon became wreathed in fire, and the ground beneath him started to boil everywhere he stepped. XXX "You got this right, Layla?" Heather asked in trepidation. "I''ve never felt someone so incredibly powerful! It''s like standing in front of Voldemort times 100." I patted Heather on the shoulder reassuringly. "Yeah, I''ve got this." I started walking towards Mephisto, who was slowly walking towards me as well. I willed my eyes to shift for the first time to the Rinnegan. My vision didn''t change, but I immediately felt more powerful. I also instinctively felt multiple new abilities that I knew I could perform. "Those are some creepy looking eyes you have now. I approve! Do they do anything interesting?" Mephisto asked, curiously. He wondered if those were what I fused to myself earlier. I smirked and pointed my palm towards Mephisto. He raised an eyebrow at me in response. "They sure do! Almighty Push!" A wave of invisible force erupted from my palm and slammed into Mephisto, who was not expecting such an attack! "Gaaah!" He grunted in pain as the force ripped him from the ground and sent him crashing through the nearby shrine. The wood and tiles, already damaged from earlier battle, immediately collapsed on top of him and bruised the evil deity. "Damn, that was awesome!" I cheered as I inspected my palm. It hardly cost me any MP either. Sending Mephisto flying only cost me 50 MP. It was too bad that such a fun ability had a 5-second cooldown, though. "Bitch!" Mephisto screamed as the rubble exploded off of him in a shower of flames! He levitated in the air and rocketed forward towards me! A sword of Hellfire appeared in his hands. My Deva Path was on cooldown, but that didn''t mean I couldn''t try my other abilities out on him. "Susanoo." I stated calmly. Mephisto quickly arrived at my location and tried to cleave me in two! His flaming sword was blocked! His attack was stopped by a large rib bone. A large purple rib cage completely surrounded my entire body. I smirked at him from inside of my makeshift shield. I was finding that Susanoo was far stronger and more cost-effective than my Lightshield was. Plus, it could guard me from all sides at once! "Fine! If I can''t hit you, I''ll just kill the two little girls!" Mephisto raced around me and immediately tried to go after Heather and Kunou on the sidelines. What a cowardly tactic... "I don''t think so!" I said. My cooldown ended. "Universal Pull!" Mephisto made it halfway towards the two frightened girls before he was yanked backwards by another invisible force! He screamed in annoyance when he found he couldn''t fight the pull! He couldn''t even spin around to face me! A powerful Lightspear formed in my hand, and I rammed it right through Mephisto''s back! "And that''s why you don''t turn your back to me!" I kicked him in the back and sent him crashing into the dirt with my spear still sticking out of him. I felt like testing another ability and pointed my arm towards Mephisto once again. He was stumbling in pain and trying to pull the burning spear out of his chest! His eyes widened when my arm transformed into a genuine rocket launcher. "The fuck!?" Was all he could say before a literal missile slammed into his face! Instead of exploding with rocket fuel, it exploded in a shower of Light Energy! He let out another loud anguished scream as his red face was burned black! "Holy crap! Are you a cyborg now, Layla!?" Heather exclaimed. I willed my arm to transform back. That felt really weird. I wasn''t sure if I was a fan of that particular Path... It also didn''t seem to do that much damage compared to a general Lightspear. "You fucking, bitch!" Mephisto finally yanked the Lightspear in his chest free and hurled it to the side. The hole in his chest started to close, and his burnt face started to heal as well. "Learn your place!" Mephisto screamed loudly, and then he started to swell up. He went from being around 6 feet tall to 20 in only a few seconds. "Susanoo!" I called out again. I was glad that I finally had an ability that could counter enemies going supersize on me! I poured in far more MP this time and began to manifest the full skeleton! "What!?" Mephisto exclaimed as a towering 30-foot-tall purple skeleton manifested in front of him. My Susannoo''s eyes were glowing at him eerily, promising him further pain and embarrassment! "Do you know who the fuck I am!?" He shouted angrily. His question was met with a giant skeletal fist smashing him hard in the face. The air around us vibrated from the force of the blow! Mephisto stumbled backward as his head wrangled out like a gong! I made sure to punch him so he stumbled away from Heather and Kunou. I followed that up with another couple of devastating blows. Oddly enough, I could actually feel what my Susanoo felt, and with each punch it landed, I felt Mephisto''s bones break and shatter. His avatar was getting the beating of a lifetime! "T-this... This is fucking bullshit..." He huffed out as his large form struggled to stand upright. It was pretty hard considering both of his legs were currently broken. His regeneration was being pushed to its limits. Shapeshifting himself into his larger form also seemed to focus more of his magic on that and less towards healing. He quickly shrunk himself back down and my new eyes could see that he was about to cast some teleportation magic. [He''s trying to run away!] ''Not happening!'' Before he could, a giant skeletal arm completely wrapped around his entire body with crushing force! I squeezed hard until he screamed and his concentration broke. The teleportation spell he had been building up winked out in failure. I de-manifested most of my Susanoo and only kept up a partial torso and the giant arm holding Mephisto in place. Susanoo was a powerful ability, but it was also an MP drain at full power. That minute-long fight cost me 2000 MP. "You weren''t planning on running away now? Were you Mephisto?" I asked while grinning up at him. I willed the skeletal hand to squeeze harder, and he let out another scream. I couldn''t believe that I was toying with a Level 62 so easily! ...Although I wasn''t aware, at the time, that as an Avatar, this Mephisto didn''t have full access to most of his greater abilities... "Fuck you, Fallen Angel! I''ll get you back for this! I was so close to wiping out all the supernatural in this tiny world and taking it for myself!" I shrugged. "So close, yet so far." I then closed my fist as tight as possible! The crushing force ended up bursting the Avatar like a balloon...and soaking me in a downpour of his disgusting blood. Needless to say, he wasn''t regenerating from being turned to paste. "Eeeeewwwwuuu! Gross Layla! You''re covered in demon blood!" Heather whined out loud from the sides. "That''s disgusting! And it smells..." "You stink, Lady Layla." Even Kunou was giving me a grossed out look... I groaned as I smelled myself...Yikes. [You have leveled up x2!] ... ¨CBack in Kyoto¨C "...And that''s what happened." I finished explaining to Yasaka. "Uh huh..." Yasaka replied. "That was quite a crazy story." She''d heard tales of Mephisto, but never thought him actually real. "It sure was..." Yasaka looked to the side and could see the two Kunous sitting together talking happily. That brought a smile to Yasaka''s face. Halfway through my story, the older Kunou had stopped crying and let Yasaka go when her own daughter came out to see what all the noise was. "I could also use a bath. Maybe we could take one together?" I asked Yasaka with a grin. A grin that would have come off more sexy if I wasn''t covered in Mephisto''s blood. Yasaka shook her head. "Not happening...You need to scrub yourself thoroughly." She said and she had no doubts that I was going to require more than one bath... "I''m currently forced to use Senjutsu to block my own sense of smell." "Awe..." XXX - chapters 166-170 chapters 166-170 ¨CEarth Marvel, Layla''s Penthouse¨C "Is something wrong, Akeno?" Asia asked. Asia just got back from having a fun day exploring the city with her newest bodyguard. She was happy because she got to explore all she wanted and she also got to heal quite a few people who desperately needed it. She always enjoyed doing that! Their looks of thanks were reward enough for her. Natasha had kept her word to Layla and put a small detail of trusted SHIELD agents on Asia to keep the girl safe. She was currently being shadowed by Sharon Carter. Sharon thought Asia was a very sweet girl. She was blown away by Asia''s healing powers¨Cas was anyone else the girl healed. Sharon wasn''t quite sure how she felt about the Nephilim, Akeno, though. Sometimes Akeno would be mischievous and teasing, and other times she would be sitting around wallowing in depression... So pretty much a standard teenage girl. "There''s that feeling again." Akeno said. She was currently staring out the window, off into the city. She felt something calling out to her. It was very close. "I sense the same lighting from before. It''s close by." The only thing that was strange was that she didn''t sense any emotions in the lighting this time. There was no God throwing a tantrum. "The random lightning storm from a few days ago? Is it going to happen again?" Sharon asked in concern. That had caused a lot of property damage and even a few civilian deaths! Whole sections of the city lost power, including hospitals where people were on life support. At first, SHIELD had thought that it was the Mutant Storm, battling some of the villainous Mutants again. They had later confirmed that to not be the case though. If something similar was going to happen again, then she would have to contact her superiors at SHIELD. They couldn''t afford for the city to be hit with another unexpected black out after all. It made them all look incompetent! CRACK! "Eeeeeeep!" Asia ducked down to hide from the thunder. "What the hell!?" Sharon exclaimed. A lighting bolt just flew by their penthouse window. It didn''t come from the sky though! It came in sideways! That absolutely wasn''t natural. The lighting bolt had slammed into a nearby building and left deep scorch marks in its steel exterior! The call she was feeling was becoming more intense for Akeno. She didn''t think she could sit back and wait anymore. She turned towards Asia and the SHIELD Agent. "I''m going to go check out what that was." Akeno''s four black wings appeared behind her as she opened the window. She hopped out and took to the New York skies. "Wait!" Sharon tried to stop the teenage Nephilim but it was too late. Akeno had already left. "Damn it..." Sharon muttered. This whole situation screamed ''supernatural'' all over. She pulled out her communicator and decided to at least call in some backup for Akeno in case the girl needed it. Sharon turned back towards Asia who was hiding under a table away from the lighting. She sighed gently and went over to comfort her. Sharon was glad that at least she had the easy baby sitting assignment here. ... Akeno flew over a dozen blocks before she found herself approaching the area of the empire state building. Nearby, on another building''s rooftop, she saw a strange sight. A teenage boy looked to be having a deathmatch with a much younger boy. The little boy was carrying a golden sword and appeared to be able to control water. A nearby water tower had been destroyed and the kid was hurling large amounts of water at the teenage boy. Unfortunately for him, the teenager was able to fly and he was carrying some kind of artifact made of Divine Lighting! Akeno could feel it. It was this artifact that had been calling for her! She flew closer to get a closer look at what was going on. "Luke! You can stop this! It doesn''t have to be this way!" The boy said as he conjured a shield of water for himself. It was just in time too. Another bolt of thunder was sent from Luke''s lighting artifact at the boy. The water shield managed to disperse most of the charge, but the boy still screamed in pain when he was partially shocked. "Of course it has to be this way, Percy! Can''t you see! The Gods are evil! They don''t care about us! All they care about is their dwindling power! But now I know the truth! Other beings exist! Beings that are truly worth serving!" Luke said fervently. He caressed the Lighting bolt in his hands. This was his ticket to power and revenge! He wouldn''t bow his head to their uncaring Olympian overlords any longer. Akeno wondered what Gods these two were talking about but figured it didn''t matter much. She wasn''t going to watch a child get murdered in front of her. She knew that she might have been acting mopey lately, but she wasn''t that angsty... Luke was hovering in the air with a cruel smirk on his face. Down on the rooftop, Percy could barely stand himself up. His muscles were still spasming from the electricity he''d just been hit with. Luke pointed Zeus''s Master Bolt at Percy and willed it to fire. He grinned when the lighting shot out towards percy. What should have been the final attack though, ended up being thwarted! Luke wasn''t expecting a girl with four black wings to swoop down, right in front of Percy, and block his lighting blast! Akeno grimaced as the divine lighting hit her. It wasn''t powerful enough to do significant damage, thanks to her Heavenly Lighting Bloodline, but it still stung. She was used to shocking others, not getting shocked herself! With a wave of her hand, the foreign lighting was dispersed from her body. Akeno was surprised. That lightning...felt almost reluctant to leave her. "Ara, don''t you know that killing children is generally frowned upon?" Akeno asked Luke hovering in the air. Luke frowned. Unlike the rest of the sheep at camp half blood, he actually kept up with world events. He knew he was floating in front of a genuine Angel¨CA genuine Fallen Angel just like the now world famous Layla! This girl even bore a heavy resemblance to Layla herself. ''Was this her sister or something!?'' Luke wondered. Luke eyed the four winged Fallen Angel warily. She was standing directly in front of the young Percy Jackson. Luke knew that killing Percy was now going to be almost impossible. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Luke shouted at Akeno demandingly. "Do you know who you''re messing with? I''m a Demigod! The son of Hermes himself and the chosen of the mighty Chronos!" Akeno giggled. This guy was name dropping his whole family as if he was some kind of Young Master... "Ara, what a rude way to introduce oneself. You might need a bit of punishment..." Akeno said as she licked her lips. Electricity danced across her fingertips. "I am Akeno Himejima by the way." She introduced herself without saying anything but her name. She had no interest in discussing life stories with a guy that was trying to kill a child. xxx The only reason Akeno was even here in the first place was for that artifact in Luke''s hands. Even now it was calling out to her. She could almost feel it crying every time Luke used it. It did not find him worthy, hence why his Lightning Blasts barely had any power behind them. Percy Jackson behind her was wondering if he just got saved by another weirdo... Ever since discovering the world of gods and monsters his life had been completely crazy. He just wanted to go to school and have friends like normal kids. Not fight for his life against monsters! Luke gripped the Master Bolt tightly and planned out what to do next. Did he risk fighting the Angel...or should he flee. Luke chuckled to himself. He supposed the answer to that question was obvious. Above all else, he was a survivor! The wings on Luke''s shoes flapped hard as he spun around and raced away as fast as he could fly! Akeno gaped when she watched him turn around and run before they even fought! She wasn''t used to that. She was used to fighting Stray Devils who would fight till the bitter end no matter what. "Seriously! He''s running away!?" Percy exclaimed behind her. "He won''t get far!" Akeno said as her wings spread out. She wasn''t letting that artifact go! She flapped her wings and rocketed back into the air. She followed the direction that Luke had left in. She could sense that he was weaving between dozens of buildings to try and lose her. It was a pity that that would never work. As long as he was holding that Lightning Bolt, Akeno would be able to sense his location anywhere in the city! She started to rapidly gain on him as she flew through the skies of New York. As he was fleeing through the air, Luke glanced behind himself and paled! "How!?" He shouted in fear. ''How did she find me already!'' Akeno was almost right on top of him already and he had a head start! He grimaced and flew 90 degrees downward. They were directly over central park and Luke was hoping to lose Akeno in the trees. CRACK! That wasn''t to be, though! Another bolt of lightning surged through the air and blasted Luke in his back. He let out a wail of pain as he lost control of his flying. He ended up crashing into the treetops. Akeno flapped her wings hard and paused in mid air. She was perplexed. That lighting didn''t come from her. She looked around and saw two figures descending from the sky into the trees where Luke had crashed. If they were also after that artifact, Akeno wasn''t going to let them have it! It was calling out to her and she didn''t feel like sharing. She flew down between the trees and landed onto the dirt with a heavy thump. Her arrival did not go unnoticed. Luke was lying on the ground unconscious and two women were standing over him. Both of them turned to her. Akeno was momentarily taken aback. Both of these women were incredibly beautiful. ...Both of them were also wearing tight Black and Yellow leather outfits that left little to the imagination. Akeno approved. These two women were definitely in her strike zone. One of the women had caramel colored skin and silver hair. She was incredibly beautiful and Akeno thought that she could mistake the woman for a goddess. She might actually be, considering Akeno could sense a hint of divinity emanating from the woman. The other was a bit younger and Akeno figured closer to her own age. Akeno had to do a double take upon seeing her because, for a second, she was looking at an almost perfect copy of Rias. The only differences were this girl had slightly lighter red hair and her eyes were a striking green. Akeno licked her lips before she spoke. "Ara, hello you two. Might I ask what you''re doing out here. And why did one of you attack poor Luke there? That was mean, you know. I was in the middle of chasing him down to punish him!" Akeno said with a fake pout on her lips. The older of the two beautiful women held her hands up calmly and spoke. "Hello. I am Storm of the X-men. We were in New York investigating the strange weather lately." She said while eyeing the black wings behind Akeno. She almost didn''t believe the news, but it seemed that Angels really had been popping up all over New York lately. He scoffed and casually swung his sword to bat the mortal''s attack away. What he wasn''t expecting was for it to be so powerful! When the red blast connected with his blade, he almost felt his arm go numb! "Since when have mortals become so powerful!?" He hissed angrily. "Holy shit! That''s Ares!" Percy exclaimed. Was the God of War here to kill him for failing his quest? "Language, young man!" Steve said almost instinctively. He unstrapped his vibranium shield from his back and started rushing over to help Akeno. "You know, in my hometown, men don''t try to attack ladies with swords!" Steve yelled as he moved at superhuman speeds towards Ares! He punched forward with his shield. "Another impudent mortal!" Ares growled out. He swung his sword towards Steve''s shield. Ares was expecting his Olympian blade to easily cleave through the human''s flimsy shield and kill the man. That did not happen. His celestial bronze sword, forged by Hephestaus himself, harmlessly bounced off of Steve''s vibranium shield. Ares''s eyes widened in shock and he was thrown off balance. Steve''s blow continued unimpeded and his shield smashed right into the god''s face. It connected right with his nose! A loud crack wrang out! Ares''s head whipped backwards with the blow. He stumbled back a few steps. He felt something warm dripping down his chin. He reached his free hand up and wiped his face. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw! A trail of golden blood was flowing from his broken nose. Ares quickly reached up and snapped his nose back into place with a hiss of pain. "Blood!? My own blood? How can a mortal instrument hurt me? A shield no less!" He spat out hatefully! Captain Rogers smirked and then said something he might end up regretting. "God? You''re no God. You bleed gold, but at the end of the day you still bleed like the rest of us. You''ll go down just the same!" "Graahhh!" Ares was done playing around! He had originally been sent down here to retrieve Zeus''s Master Bolt, after Poseidon''s spawn failed in his mission to bring it back to Olympus. When he had arrived, he was surprised to find the mortal woman Zeus had been constantly complaining about. She was some kind of evolved human. She had the ability to manipulate the weather. Even better than his illustrious father could! That had naturally made Zeus furious and the God of the Sky demanded the woman''s death! Ares tried to kill her in a moment of opportunity to win some points with his father. Divine power flared around Ares. His trench coat disappeared and was replaced by golden armor. The sword in his right hand was now accompanied by a shield in his left. He would now take this fight seriously as the true God of War! xxx Ares pointed his sword at Akeno! "You, winged woman, return my Father''s Master Bolt immediately and I might grant you a quick death!" Akeno scowled. This ''God'' was just as haughty as some of the Devils she''d had to deal with in her past. "I''m afraid the Bolt has chosen me as its new mistress. It has completely fused to my being. We will never be separated." Ares scowled. "Then I''ll just cut it out of your corpse!" "Ares please stop!" Percy exclaimed as he ran forward. He was gripping his celestial bronze sword, his father gifted him, tightly. "I went easy on you the last time we fought, kid. If you weren''t Poseidon''s brat I would have cut you down already. Back off!" Percy was deciding on whether to fight Ares again, but Captain Rogers held out his hand in front of the boy. "A kid your age should never have to fight, no matter who your father is. Sit this one out, sport. We''ve got this." He said reassuringly. Percy nodded and moved off to the side. He still didn''t know if even Captain America could beat a god though... Storm''s eyes were glowing white and she started levitating off the ground. Thunder rumbled in the sky above everyone. The clear night sky quickly turned cloudy. Thunder clouds manifested all over the city, all controlled by Storm. "I had no quarrel with you. Just remember you started this fight!" A bolt of lighting fell from the heavens towards Ares. Only his millenia of fighting instincts allowed him to raise his shield above his head to block the thunder. Electricity rippled across his shield but he held firm. While Ares was distracted, Steve rushed forwards to try and hit him again. At the same time, Marvel Girl threw another telekinetic blast at Ares''s back. The God growled when his shield clashed against Steve''s. Steve''s charge was halted before Ares kicked him in the stomach. The air left Steve''s lungs from the blow. He flew backwards and smashed into a nearby tree. Ares whipped around and stabbed Marvel Girl''s blast with his sword. This time he was prepared for her power. He cut through her blast and charged towards Marvel Girl to cut her down. He thought her to be the most dangerous person here. He was wrong. Akeno rushed in front of him. Her Thunderous Lightspear stabbed forward! She wasn''t holding back either! Ares threw up his shield but screamed in pain when Akeno''s spear made contact with it. The Heavenly Thunder, wrapped around her Lightspear, traveled through his celestial bronze shield and delivered a powerful shock to him! Ares''s whole left arm went numb. He couldn''t defend anymore! Akeno discarded her spear and pointed both hands at him. A powerful Lightning Blast impacted Ares''s armored torso at point blank range. He let out a loud scream of pain as he was blasted backwards, smashing through multiple park trees. Storm and Marvel Girl both flew towards Akeno and landed next to her. "Great hit!" Marvel Girl complimented her. "You think you got him?" Unfortunately, Akeno shook her head. "It''ll take more than that to bring down a god." She said. Even if the God was weaker than she had been expecting. Akeno was expecting someone like Ares to be an Ultimate Class being. Thankfully he wasn''t. Akeno would estimate his physique to be around the peak of High Class though. That was the only way he could have been fast enough to block Storm''s earlier lighting strike. Storm''s eyes were still glowing white. She was glaring at where Ares had been blasted off too. "It matters not. He tried to kill us, we will put him down!" She declared. The wind started to fiercely pick up and whip around them. She was gathering the winds to launch a powerful attack on Ares. She needed a bit of time though. "You think the Captain is ok?" Marvel Girl asked in worry. "Ares''s kick sounded like it broke something and he''s not moving." Percy was hovering over the Captain and crying as he tried to wake the man up. Akeno grimaced at the sight. "He''s still breathing, so he''ll be ok." Akeno said sadly. She unfortunately couldn''t focus on the man right now. He''d have to be healed by Asia later. ... Ares grunted as he sat himself up. That last attack really hurt! "Zeus''s Master Bolt seems to have really given that winged girl a powerup..." He muttered to himself. A viscous grin formed on his face. The ichor in his veins was pumping excitedly. This was battle! This was war! He existed for this! How long had it been since the mortals had truly challenged the Gods!? Too long, he decided! Ares picked up his sword and shield he had momentarily dropped from the pain. He started walking back towards the three girl''s location. As his anger built up, his walking turned into a sprint! He rushed back faster than a speedy bullet! The three girl''s eyes widened when Ares''s snarling form blasted towards them! In an unexpected move, he viciously threw his own sword towards Akeno! The sound barrier shattered as it hurled right at her. She threw up a shield of Light Energy to block the projectile. While she was momentarily distracted, Ares rushed forward towards Storm. He could feel her building up a tremendous attack and needed to stop her! The winds were already raging fiercely! Marvel Girl scowled again when she saw Ares try to once again attack Storm! She threw up a red wall of energy directly in front of his path. Ares threw his shield in front of himself and directly smashed into the red energy wall blocking his path to the ''weather witch!'' The red energy barrier shattered like glass but managed to slow him slightly. A dagger quickly manifested in his hands and he plunged it towards Storm''s heart! Marvel''s Girl''s barrier managed to slow Ares down just enough for Storm to finish gathering all the nearby winds. Before his blade could reach her hurt. Ares was assaulted by a torrential force of air pressure from all sides! The winds blowing from Storm were so strong that the god was completely halted in place! He cursed in his head! He couldn''t move at all! "Now! Jean!" Storm shouted out! "Eat this asshole!" Marvel Girl raised her hands above her head. A giant orb of energy formed above her. It would be her final attack! Her limbs were shaking and sweat trickled down her brow. She was facing a god, so she channeled more power than she ever had before. Ares panicked when he felt the power behind the redheaded girl''s next attack. If he was hit by that, he knew he would be in deep trouble. On top of that, he could sense powerful Lighting manifesting around the black haired girl as well. If both attacks hit him at once he might die! "HELP ME OUT, YOU BITCH!" Ares shouted begrudgingly! A woman''s sigh rang out across the park forest. "Too think you''ve been bested by four mortals...that''s pathetic brother." Akeno''s eyes widened. She hadn''t sensed anyone else nearby. A silver energy arrow flew out of the woods directly towards her head. Akeno had to stop channeling her Lighting to duck out of the way. Another arrow flew directly towards Marvel Girl and she had to do the same. As she moved, the powerful orb manifesting above her dissipated into the air harmlessly. Marvel Girl scowled. She had used up almost all of her strength just conjuring that attack, and now she was almost exhausted! "You owe me, Ares." A woman with long silver hair and silver eyes said as she emerged from the forest. She was also holding a silver bow that allowed her to channel moonlight directly into energy arrows. Ares scoffed at his sister. The winds died down and he was released from Storm''s hold. "Whatever, Artemis. Just help me kill these three already." THRUM! "Oh? You''re going to kill my niece are you? I''d like to see you try!" An oppressive magical force came crashing down and blanketed the area! It only affected the two gods though. Ares''s and Artemis''s eyes both widened in shock at the amount of power they felt. Whoever this being was, they were as strong as their father! Akeno smiled and looked up. Hovering directly above her was Layla! She was back from wherever she went! Layla quickly assessed the situation. For some reason, two of the X-men were here and both looked exhausted. They''d clearly been fighting on Akeno''s side though. Layla noticed that Steve was critically wounded, and needed immediate healing. She didn''t know why Ares and Artemis were attacking Akeno, but Layla wasn''t going to let that stand! XXX chapters 171-175 chapters 171-175 ¨CA bit Earlier¨C Heather and I were sitting on Yasaka''s porch while the three Fox Women were inside preparing a meal for everyone. "You smell a lot better, Layla. How many baths did you need?" "Five." I answered begrudgingly. "Maybe next time don''t stand directly under the demon when you pop him like a balloon," Heather said cheekily. "I''ll keep that in mind." "So what did you want to talk about that was so important?" Heather asked me. I was dreading having this conversation with her, but I figured it was about time. "It''s about your friends, Heather. Hermione, Ron, and pretty much the entire Weasley family," I said. "What about them?" Heather asked. "Are they all right? You told me that they were doing fine the last time we talked." I let out a sigh. "That''s not exactly the case. The truth is, the majority of the Weasleys are actually in prison right now." "What!?" Heather exclaimed. "Why are they in jail?" "They were conspiring against you, Heather. All of them were. I''m sorry, but they weren''t your friends," Layla said. She then began to explain what exactly happened when she went to visit them on Heather''s request. She mentioned how Hermione was only after Heather''s library, and the Weasley family was only after her properties and bank vaults. Heather broke down into tears when she heard the truth. I reached over and gave her a big hug as she cried into my shoulder. She sat there and cried for a long while as I held her and rubbed her back soothingly. "You know, part of me always knew. I always knew that they weren''t really my friends. Real friends wouldn''t have cared whenever I tried to hang out with anyone else, but Ron and Hermione would always go out of their way to stop other people from talking to me. Now I know why," Heather trailed off. "I''m really sorry, Heather," I responded. "But pretty soon, you''ll have a new life, and you''ll be able to go to a school and make real friends who really will care about you." I gently rubbed her back. "That sounds amazing. I''m really looking forward to it," Heather said as she let go of me. She had a small smile on her face, and she was wiping the tears out of her eyes. "What''s it like being older? What''s it like having boobs? Do I grow up to like boys, or will I like girls like mama does?" The younger Kunou rambled off. I snickered when Yasaka did a spit-take at her daughter''s inappropriate questions. "That is not a polite conversation topic, young lady!" She scolded her. Dinner with everyone was a very strange experience. The younger Kunou was doing her best to keep a conversation going with her older counterpart who was going to be very traumatized for a while. She did respond to each one of little Kunou''s questions though with a smile I could tell was a bit forced. Heather was sitting quietly next to me eating slowly. I could tell that finding out the truth about her friends, who she''d been worrying over for months, had hurt her. I know that she''s strong enough to get past it though. ... The next morning I slipped the tight black dress Lady Death gave me over my head as I prepared to transverse dimensions again. I conjured some basic sandals under my feet before stepping out of the guest room and heading towards Yasaka''s courtyard. Heather was waiting for me there. She looked like she was also ready to go. After a night of self reflection, I could already tell that she was doing much better. She greeted me with a smile. "This was definitely the weirdest adventure I''ve ever been on, and I killed a 60 foot long snake with a sword!" "Ready to head back then?" I asked and she nodded. "Are you sure you have to go so soon, Lady Layla?" Kunou Alter asked me. She was standing next to Yasaka and her younger counterpart. They were all there to see us off. "I''m sorry, Kunou. But I really do have to get Heather back." I said to the teenage fox girl. Her ears drooped down and she looked to be on the verge of tears. Kunou Alter¨Cas I had taken to calling her¨Chad understandably become a bit clingy with me after I saved her life. Thankfully, Yasaka was here and she was kind enough to adopt the older Kunou as a second daughter of sorts. That was good. Kunou Alter got to be in Kyoto around other Yokai and I wasn''t stuck with her on top of Asia and Akeno. Not that either of those girls were much of a burden anyway. An emotionally damaged fox girl that needs tons of therapy would be, though... ''Damn Mephisto!'' I cursed him in my mind. I wasn''t even sure what his plan was after he wiped out all the supernatural from that world. Did he somehow think all the humans would suddenly start worshiping him next? I shook my head. I couldn''t understand his plans at all... [That''s probably for the better, anyway. Evil deities like him are almost always insane. Trying to understand his plans wouldn''t be healthy.] The system''s words held some truth to them. "Come on, Heather." I said as a portal to Earth Marvel opened up in Yasaka''s courtyard. "Bye Miss Yasaka! Bye Kunou and Kunou Alter!" Heather called out. "Take care, Layla. Next time you visit, I''ll be sure to make some time for us to be alone together." Yasaka said as she gave me a final small wave while licking her lips suggestively. I gulped as I stepped through the portal. ...If only I didn''t stink so badly last night! XXX "Welcome back, Heather. And how was your little adventure?" The Ancient One asked while preparing some tea for all three of us. "It was boring at first, but then it picked up. I got to fight an evil dragon guy, and I was winning until he summoned this crazy magic armor." Heather said, and the Ancient One nodded. I found it funny that Heather didn''t even bother remembering Issei''s name. The Ancient One nodded to Heather. She turned to me and gave me a scrutinizing look as she sipped her tea. She set her cup back down. "I trust you kept Heather out of danger other than that?" She asked the Fallen Angel who was doing her best to not look nervous. She went to take another sip. My eyes did their best to avoid her own so she couldn''t see my expression. I didn''t think Acting Level 4 was enough to work on her yet. She''d dealt with hundreds of years of bullshit. "Of course I did. I promised I would!" The Ancient One nodded, glad that I acted responsibly and didn''t put Heather into much danger. "That''s good, then¡ª" I sighed in relief when she bought my lie. "Layla fought Mephisto and killed his avatar!" Heather blurted out! "I got to watch the whole fight UP CLOSE! It was wicked!" "Pfffffff!" The Ancient One spat out her tea all over and started coughing! She quickly wiped her face and gave me one of the most judgmental glares I''d ever received before! "MEPHISTO!?" She shouted indignantly! Heather then started to recount the entire experience in very accurate detail. She gave me a mischievous grin as she did so. I looked at my wrist, where I currently wasn''t wearing a watch. "Oh, would you look at the time? I''m afraid I''m late...for a thing. Bye, Heather!" Before the Ancient One could stop me for what would surely be a long interrogation session, I opened a portal directly underneath myself and fell through. ... "Ooof!" I landed directly on my butt in the middle of my living room. A quick glance outside told me that it was nighttime. That was very cathartic. Ares was also correct. I couldn''t keep my aura out indefinitely. Keeping two high class beings pinned down, with seemingly no effort, did drain my MP quite a bit. But it was worth it because it looked really cool... "Holy shit..." Percy mumbled nearby. "She just instantly took out Ares!" "Language." Steve instinctively responded. If he was a sad sight to look at before, now the God of War looked downright pathetic. He was curled up inside the crater feebly whimpering in pain. I had broken so many of his bones there that he probably couldn''t even move. "That''s twice now that you''ve threatened my niece in front of me. There will not be a third time." I said domineeringly. "I shhry..." Ares did his best to apologize with his broken jaw. Even with divine healing, it would take him hours to heal from all the damage I just inflicted upon him. With Ares sorted for the time being, my gaze turned towards Artemis next. The beautiful Silver Goddess of the Moon who had supposedly sworn off all relationships until the end of time. I scoffed at that. That was a mindset I could not understand. What was even the point of living? [Believe it or not, most people are not deviants like you.] ''You''re the one who stuck me with the Sin of Lust in the first place!'' I retorted in my head before focusing back on the Moon Goddess. ... "So, Artemis, I take it you''re here to retrieve Zeus''s master bolt? I''m afraid you''re going to have to leave empty-handed. Since it chose to fuse with my niece, Akeno, then that''s the end of that." I said. Artemis gulped. She slowly stood up and started dusting herself off. "Zeus isn''t going to be happy about that. He had that weapon crafted over a thousand years ago, and it drastically amplifies his powers over lightning. He''ll do almost anything to get it back." She explained with a grimace. "He crafted it?" I asked. From what? My Rinnegan was still active, and I turned towards Akeno and inspected her more closely. I could see a new type of energy swirling inside of her, but it looked and actually felt familiar. I could recognize it. "Baraquiel..." I muttered. It was his power that I now felt fused with my niece. I must have been a hefty part of it too, because it directly jumped her from Mid class to High class. Akeno''s eyes widened before she grimaced. "Great, now I have even more of my father''s power flowing through me." She touched her chest and judging by her expression I knew that I was correct. "How did Zeus even get a hold of the power of heavenly lightning in the first place?" I asked Artemis. "I''m not sure what Heavenly lightning is." Artemis responded. "What I do know is that Zeus had his master bolt crafted from a large wing from some mysterious creature he found over a thousand years ago." I think I know what happened now. It looked like Zeus was a little rat in the past. While it was rare for angels or fallen angels to have their wings cut off mid-battle, it did happen occasionally, thankfully growing back. Zeus must have arrived at one of those battlefields long after the fight had occurred and scurried around collecting what he could. He must have just happened to have stumbled upon one of Baraqiel''s severed wings before any angels or fallen angels could return to clear away the battlefield themselves. XXX I explained my thoughts out loud and took pleasure in Artemis''s grimace when I called her father Zeus ''a little rat.'' "My father is not like that. He is The Honorable King of all the gods!" Artemis bellowed out. Her eyes looked at me fiercely, and I have a feeling that she might have even tried to attack me if I wasn''t so much more powerful. The Greek gods were very quick to jump to violence, it seemed. "Really?" Jean hesitantly asked Artemis. "You know we all have history textbooks, and in them, they don''t depict Zeus as a very good guy. In fact, most of the time, he''s causing trouble for humans, women especially..." "I admit that he has done wrong, by some women in the past¡ª" Artemis started to say, but I cut her off. "If by some, you mean thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, then sure." I said sarcastically. Since these were the Greek gods of Percy Jackson, then I knew for sure that the Zeus here could absolutely not keep it in his pants and did not take no for an answer. "Disgusting." I commented and all the women, besides Artemis, agreed with me. Artemis frowned. "It seems that we''re not at an impasse then." I shook my head at her. "An impasse implies that both of us are standing on equal ground." I pointed towards Ares'' pathetic form sitting in the crater I left him in. "As you can see, we are not in an impasse. Isn''t that right, Steve?" Captain America walked over after retrieving his shield. I snickered as he scowled at Ares as well before he turned and spoke to Artemis. "That''s right, ma''am. You and he tried to commit murder on American soil. I''m afraid that you''re going to have to be going away for a while. You can be rest assured that you will receive a fair trial." He said with confidence. Artemis looked absolutely gobsmacked at what Steve just said. The two X-Men looked surprised as well. "A trial?" Jean questioned. "You''re going to give a Goddess an actual trial?" She asked while looking at Ororo as if to confirm what she''d just heard. The other woman just shrugged. He nodded. "Of course we are. This is America." He said proudly. "You, Ares, and Luke over there will all be taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, and afterwards, you''ll receive a fair trial." Steve said to Artemis while holding his finger to his ear. I suspected that Fury had been listening in this entire time. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was probably getting a real kick out of this situation... I know I was! "Hoh?" Artemis gave Steve a challenging look and conjured her silver bow. She seemed to temporarily forget that I was here. "You think I will allow a man to challenge me. TO ARREST ME!? I am the goddess of the moon and the hunt!" Her silver hair and eyes started to glow with power. Next to me, Akeno, Jean, and Ororo all readied themselves for a fight. I held my hand up and tried out another one of my Rinnegan''s abilities. A chunk of black metal materialized in my palm. I warped the black metal with my power until it took on the shape I desired... "If you''re not going to come quietly, then I''ll have to take you in!" Steve declared while holding his shield in front of himself. He looked ready to block and arrows she''d soon be firing. If i wasn''t here that is... "Universal Pull!" "Eeeep!" Artemis let out a cute squeak and dropped her bow as she flew towards me quickly. When she got close, I grabbed hold of her and clamped the object I had just created around her neck. It was a black collar¨Cmade of chakra, or magic, disrupting metal. Her abilities would be much more limited with it on. As proof of that, her silver glow faded away and she slumped back to the ground with an expression of shock. "The Moon...I can''t feel the Moon anymore." She muttered to herself. I crafted another two sets of black collars and handed them two Steve. "Here, these are for Ares and Luke. They won''t be able to easily access their powers with these on them." I said. "Ufufu. Layla is collaring yet another beautiful woman." Akeno commented. "Another girl for your harem, dear Aunt?" "Harem!?" Jean squeaked and Ororo raised an eyebrow at me. Steve and Percy were both looking at me with blushing faces. "That was not why I collared her!" I responded indignantly. Artemis stopped her panic and looked at me in shock. "You wish to court me and add me to a Harem, even!? Try as you might! I will not be seduced so easily!" She declared proudly. I facepalmed. XXX chapters 176-180 chapters 176-180 A Lightspear, wreathed in lightning, came hurtling towards my face! I shifted my head to the side and dodged it with inches to spare. It stabbed into the wall behind me and easily pierced through the thick steel. I retaliated by waving my hand and conjuring a dozen purple Lightspears in the air all around me. My opponent''s eyes widened in shock. I smirked at her and waved my hand again. All 12 spears locked onto her and moved incredibly fast. "Dammit!" Akeno cursed as she threw both of her hands in front of herself. A circular shield made of Heavenly Lighting manifested in front of her. All of my spears hit it at the same time and exploded. Akeno let out a small scream as she was blasted backwards. She crashed onto the ground and skidded towards the other side of the room. She was covered in burns marks and bruises, but still conscious. "That hurt, Layla..." Akeno whined as I walked over towards her. My Purger of Darkness manifested and I started to heal her. 50 MP and she was as good as new. "It''ll hurt a lot worse in a real fight. You need better strategies, Akeno." I said. She was too used to sitting back and attacking her opponents with overwhelming power. When she faces someone stronger than her¨Clike me¨Cshe doesn''t know what to do. "Akeno sighed as she stood up. There was a flash of light and her ruined wardrobe was switched out for a Kuoh School uniform. I raised an eyebrow at that. "I have like 10 of these uniforms in my storage space..." She said. "They always got destroyed whenever we had to hunt down strays, so I bought them in bulk..." "Whatever makes you comfortable." I said. "I think we can wrap up our training for today." SHIELD had been nice enough to let us use their training facilities these past few days. I''m sure they were also secretly recording Akeno and my abilities, but we weren''t exactly showing them anything new. "That''s good then. I don''t want to miss my date. I still have to get ready." Akeno said while smiling to herself happily. "And which one is it with?" I asked. Somehow, Akeno had managed to get both Ororo and Jean''s numbers before they headed back home after the whole Percy Jackson fiasco. She''d been giggling like a schoolgirl¨Cshe still was one technically¨Con and off the past couple days while she texted both of them repeatedly. I was pretty blown away that she was able to pull off two girls at once, but then again, she probably learned everything from me. I''m just an awesome role model like that! [Wow...Just wow...] "Ufufu! It''s with Ororo first." Akeno said. "My date with Jean will be a few later!" "Dating two girls at once and they both know?" I asked and she grinned in confirmation. "Good for you!" I told her. "Ufufu. I know. I am quite lucky." Akeno replied smugly. The only thing I was a bit worried about was Zeus trying to attack her in revenge, but I wasn''t so worried about that anymore. There were two reasons for that. The first is that after these past few days his Bolt has completely merged with her. I can''t detect a difference between her powers and it''s anymore with my new eyes. There was no way he would be able to either. The second reason was that this was the Percy Jackson universe. Zeus here was a genuine imbecile. Instead of solving anything himself, he sends his Demigod children and grandchildren to go out and do everything for him. Most of the time, they end up dying in the process. I seriously doubted if he even knew Akeno had fused with his Master Bolt in the first place. I doubt he even knows two of his children are currently in the custody of ''mortals.'' Akeno asked me to portal her back to the penthouse so she could get herself ready. She hopped in excitedly. Once she left, I turned around to talk to the man who had been watching us spar. "So what did you think, Steve?" He looked nervous. "It seems that sparring nowadays is a lot different than back when I was enlisted. It used to be just two men throwing punches at each other. Now there''s flying, and magic, and everybody seems to have super powers." He finished. He looked a bit down. "Are you upset that you lost the fight to Ares?" I asked him. "It''s not just him," Steve said. "I feel like most of the people we''ve been up against lately I wouldn''t have been able to beat. I sparred with Natasha the other day and I was even thoroughly beaten by her. The times we fought before that, I usually came out on top." I used [Observe] to check his level and he was now at Level 14. He had clearly been doing some training, but he was correct that it wasn''t enough to match the real threats of this world. "Well, the truth is, you''re not going to be able to beat a lot of these enemies without some kind of boost. I could give you a blessing like I gave Natasha." I said to him. "It will allow you to grow stronger and you''ll be able to use some of my Light in combat." XXX Steve grit his teeth and looked hesitant to accept my offer. "Am I worthy of such a thing, though? I feel like everything I did ended up in failure. I sacrificed my life hoping that I was ending the war. That didn''t happen. It went on for almost another year afterwards! Then I thought I had destroyed Hydra, but they''re still around and ended up almost taking over the organization that Peggy dedicated her life to creating! My best friend ended up becoming the most feared Assassin of all time and even killed one of our presidents..." He slumped to the ground and took a seat on the floor. I sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder. Things have not exactly been going his way. "Life might be rough right now that''s true but I think you''re only focusing on the bad. You also might be spending too much time here at SHIELD where all they do is focus on the bad all day. That''s their job after all." Steve let out a sigh. "I''ve heard that all too, and I''ve tried getting out there but the City is just so much different than it was when I grew up."Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com "Well there''s more places in America than New York City, you know. Back during the war, you used to tour the country all the time promoting War Bonds. Maybe you should get back out there and see the rest of the country again." I suggested. New York was definitely one of the craziest cities in existence and it definitely would freak someone out who grew up in the 1930''s. There are still plenty of places in Rural America that I think Steve would enjoy. He looked like he had come to a decision. "You know, I think I might do that for a few weeks. Just get out and tour the country. Clear my head a little bit. And once Hydra comes out of the woodwork I''ll be ready to smack him down again!" He declared with a renewed passion. I smiled at him and stood back up. I held out my hand for him And he took it. As I pulled him up I said, "After you''ve had your break and you''re ready to fight again you can know that My Light will be with you to grant you strength when you need it." I gave him my blessing, and some of my Light Energy slipped inside of him. Over time it would enhance his body and allow him to grow stronger. He''d stand a better chance against the future opponents that I knew were coming. ... I had been hanging around SHIELD''s HQ, on and off, to make sure the magic disrupting collars I had created kept functioning. So far they had been. Ares had tried to escape 16 times, but he had failed every time. Artemis hadn''t made any escape attempts, but she hadn''t exactly been a model prisoner either. She refused to answer any questions and mostly just sat in her cell in silence. As for Luke, I wasn''t sure what was going on with him. Fury had some kind of plan for all of the Greek Demigods at camp Half-Blood. I was heading to a meeting for us to discuss that very thing. I entered the command room and saw that Natasha, Fury and Agent Coulson were all inside. I ignored the two men in the room as I made my way straight towards Natasha. She smiled at my approach. "Hello Layla, you''re looking quite¨C" Natasha was cut off when I immediately kissed her. She was startled at first, before she wrapped her arms around my back and started reciprocating the kiss. We were momentarily lost in our own little world. Someone in the room loudly cleared their throat and Natasha and I separated. Fury was glaring at the two of us with his one eye. I''d offered to heal it, and so had Asia but he''d refused both times. Coulson looked embarrassed, by our personal display of affection, but he didn''t actually say anything. "Sorry, I''ve hardly gotten to spend any time with Natasha in so long." I said. Despite the two men''s reactions, my sexy spy girlfriend went back to her usual calm self and acted like nothing happened. I reached down and placed her hand in my own. "Now that you''re here, Layla, we can get started." Fury said with a sigh. He pulled out a remote and pointed it to a nearby large TV screen. It turned on and I saw an overhead view of a few log cabins on the screen. "Camp Half-Blood," Fury started. "Home of the Greek Demigod child soldiers." Natasha clenched my hand tightly. She was a child soldier herself... Fury continued. "According to Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, the Demigods are only safe at this camp. When they go into the outside world, they are hunted by immortal monsters constantly. The more powerful the Demigod, the more the monsters hunt them. Hardly any Demigod ever lives into their 30s because of this." He explained. Fury then clicked the remote a few times and a sideshow went by of mutilated corpses of children and young adults. I grimaced at the sight. Coulson spoke up. "For years, bodies like these have been popping up on the East Coast sporadically. The government kept quiet about it to not cause a massive panic. We had been under the impression that a brutal and uncatchable group of serial killers had been plaguing our nation for decades." He said with a sad look. " We now know that was not the case." XXX "How many bodies have there been?" Natasha asked with her eyes narrowed at the screen. Maybe I needed to start taking notes from my niece... She was pulling out all the stops here. Although, I''m pretty sure she was using my money to pay for that limo. [Your looted money...] Akeno made her way to the elevator and headed down. We all watched her go. I turned to Asia and she looked jealous. Not of the fact that Akeno was going out with someone per se, probably just the fact that she was going out to a fancy restaurant. After being exposed to good food in her life, Asia was becoming a bit gluttonous. We made sure to keep her portion sizes down though... I didn''t need Gabriel judging me for being a bad guardian and getting Asia fat while she stayed here. "Why don''t we all go out to dinner too?" I suggested. Asia''s eyes lit up. "Yay! I''ll go get changed." She said as she ran up to her room. "Where do you want to go?" Natasha asked me. "Anyplace we can get in should be fine." Natasha stared at me dryly. "You''re Layla of the Fallen. You can get a table anywhere you want just by showing up." She stated. That''s fair. "Let''s go to a swanky steakhouse then!" I declared. XXX "Here is your order, Mademoiselle." I was already salivating as our waiter placed my Filet in front of me. It was $150 a cut and I didn''t care. I could tell that Natasha and Asia were equally excited. I don''t know how much Natasha makes, but government agents typically don''t make enough to come to places like this whenever they want. Natasha was also right of course. The second I walked into the restaurant, people all stopped and stared at me. The three of us were immediately ushered to a private table and the manager himself came out and promised us their very best service. Being famous came with some pretty nice perks sometimes. Of course, I also took us to a different place than the one Akeno was going to. I wasn''t going to creepily spy on the girl. "Oh Lord, even though you are dead, I thank you for this bountiful meal." Asia placed her hands together and said a pretty morbid prayer. She then started digging into her own food with a gusto. "Well that was disturbing," Natasha laughed at Asia''s quick prayer. "Where do dead God''s even go? Super Heaven?" I snorted. "I''m not even sure that they can actually permanently die. Not as long as they have believers anyway. It honestly wouldn''t surprise me if the Old Man ended up resurrecting himself one day." I said. All that faith energy had to be going somewhere after all... All things considered, the Angels didn''t actually need that much to sustain themselves. Only a little bit. The Fallen Angels, of course, didn''t need any. That being said, I don''t know if it would actually be him or just a new being created by his follower''s perception of him. Or maybe nothing would happen at all! Natasha shrugged as she started eating herself. This place really was giving us their best service because the food was amazing. "That was so good." Asia said happily. "Mmm, it really was." Natasha added. "Do you two want to get dessert?" I asked. Of course both of them immediately nodded. ...We never got to order dessert sadly. A loud and angry voice echoed across the restaurant. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WERE NOT ON THE LIST!?" A man shouted out loudly. I turned my head towards the source. Standing at the entrance of the restaurant was an obvious mutant couple. The man had silver skin and black eyes while the woman had very pretty butterfly wings. I could easily tell what was happening here and it disappointed me. I stood up from my table and started walking over. Because this was a higher-end establishment, the people dining here had been respectful during my group''s meal and had not been recording us. That was obviously no longer the case as I could see almost everyone had their phones out and were recording the altercation going on at the front. They also started recording me as I walked over. "I called this reservation months ago for our anniversary. I even called your host Jake this morning to confirm our reservation!" The mutant man said angrily. "I''m sorry...Sir...but you''re simply not on the list. You probably called the wrong establishment." The manager, who had been very kind to my group earlier, said disparagingly towards the mutant couple. He obviously didn''t want them in his restaurant and was lying. Purely because they were mutants. "What seems to be the problem here?" I said once I made it over. The mutant couple''s eyes widened upon seeing me standing in front of them. The manager looked at me nervously. "It''s nothing you need to worry about¨C" He was cut off by the gushing woman with wings. "Oh wow...it''s Layla the Angel! It''s an honor to meet you! Your wings are really pretty! I''m Kate by the way." She said. "It''s great to meet you as well, Kate. Your wings are incredibly beautiful as well. I love butterfly wings. They make you look like a beautiful fairy." I complimented her. She had been nervous of me until I said that. Afterwards, a large smile bloomed on her face! Mutants mostly remained in hiding right now, and this was the first open pair of them I had seen roaming blatantly in public. Good for them. "You don''t hate mutants?" She asked me with tears in her eyes. "Of course I don''t." I replied immediately. "...God... doesn''t hate mutants?" The whole room had gone quiet at her question. "Who told you that? I would never hate someone for their appearance and God loves everybody." I told her. I didn''t know if that last part was true, but he wasn''t exactly here to argue it. "Did you need a table? My group has just finished eating and I would be happy to give it to you and your fiance." I said to her. I turned towards the manager and stared him right in the eyes. "That wouldn''t be a problem would it?" Natasha and Asia had both made their way over towards me as well and stood at my side. Natasha was glaring intimidatingly at the manager. Even Asia was doing her best to scowl at him but the best she could do was an adorable pout. He caved under all of our stares. "No... It won''t be a problem. Of course they can have your table..." He almost whimpered and trailed off weakly. All the people filming started cheering about mutant equality and all that like they themselves participated and didn''t just stand around watching... [If this couple got kicked out, none of them would have said a thing.] I nodded my head to the manager. "Good. I suppose we should be going now." I said to my two girls. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a couple hundred dollar bills. I placed them all in the manager''s hand nonchalantly as we walked out. "Thank you so much!" Kate called out behind us as we walked out. "That was a very nice thing you did, Layla." Asia said. "That girl had pretty wings and the man had cool silver skin. He looked like a cool robot! Why would anyone hate them?" She asked me. I told her that was just the way people were. I hadn''t realized quite how much hatred mutants faced in this world because I hadn''t run into any besides Jean and Ororo yet. "You know your deed is going to be posted all over the internet by tomorrow right?" Natasha said. "You might have just lost a whole bunch of your loving followers...all the ones who hate mutants at least. Or maybe you ended up changing some people''s minds about them. Who''s to say?" She finished. I shrugged. That would be something we could only wait to find out. For now though... "We didn''t get dessert yet. Let''s go get some ice cream!" I said cheerfully. XXX Ice cream makes everything better XD! chapters 181-185 chapters 181-185 I had a week before I needed to deal with the Olympians and I had few other things to handle first. To start, it had been a couple of days and I needed to visit Azazel and check on his healing progress. With my drastically improved MP reserves, I was able to heal him a lot more in one session than I could before. "That''s the stuff. I feel relief already," Azazel said while surrounded by my healing energy. "You might not know this, but dying a slow withering death is surprisingly painful!" He said with a chuckle. "You''re healing up quite well, Azazel." I said while looking over his torso. The deadened black skin that almost littered his entire chest had receded almost completely. That was a big relief. I used around 5000 MP to heal him this time and I figured I would only need one more session after this for him to be fully restored. Azazel slipped his shirt back on and smiled proudly at me. "You''re a lifesaver, littlest sister. Literally in my case!" He said with another laugh. "You''re welcome!" "I heard you''ve been up to some pretty crazy things back on Earth, Marvel." Azazel said. "Something about you and Gabriel taking down Belial permanently?" "Yes, I was in trouble there for a second. I was chasing down a lead I had on an evil wizard, only to end up coming face-to-face with that bright red asshole." I explained. "Was he strong?" Azazel asked me? "I never got to see him in action. Before or after he fell." I pondered for a moment and recalled some of the details of the Battle I had against Belial. "He definitely had a lot of power, and he was pretty decent at controlling Hellfire. Besides that, the most annoying ability that he had was that he could make himself gigantic. I was still landing some pretty good shots on him. I just didn''t have the Light Energy reserves at the time to keep up with him." I said. "Is that why you learned Senjutsu? Even now, I can slightly feel the energy in this room. Passively flowing into you." He asked. He could sense that? Senjutsu wasn''t really something Fallen Angels messed with. I should have also been much harder to detect because I''m not absorbing any emotions from the environment. Just pure Mana as my MP was refilling itself passively. I could refill the 5000 MP I used in under 20 minutes automatically now. "It''s not that I went out of my way to learn Senjutsu. It kind of just ended up happening that way." I said casually. "It''s a side benefit of a new ability I gained. Maybe I''ll show you in the future, maybe I won''t..." He could tell that I was being cryptic on purpose. just to mess with him. "Fine then, keep your secrets. It''s still amazing that you and Gabriel managed to take that guy down at the end of the day, though." I put my hands on my hips and grinned cheekily. "I know, I''m pretty amazing. So amazing in fact, that I''ve recently done something that will absolutely shock you and make you eternal jealous of me! Something far more amazing than taking out some boring king Of one of the hells." I boasted proudly. Azazel raised an eyebrow. I could see he was intrigued. "Hoh? Those are some bold words, sis. Too bold in fact..." He smirked. "You might have given me some surprises, but there''s no way you''ve done anything that great yet!" He said smugly. "Are you sure about that?" I asked teasingly "Very sure." He replied while nodding to himself with his eyes closed. "You underestimate my power." I said smuggling while crossing my arms over my chest. His eyes opened and he smirked at me playfully. "And now you''re quoting Star Wars just a stall. All right, tell me what you did," He said. [Tell him! It''ll be funny. I want to see his reaction.] Alright then. I decided to tell him. There''s no way he was going to be ready to hear this... "I slept with Lady Death!" I declared proudly while placing my hands on my hips. "What...?" Azazel stared at me blankly for a moment. It took a while for my words to register in his mind. That''s pretty crazy considering his mind can operate many times faster than the average human''s. In the end, the information was too much for him to process. His eyes rolled backwards and he fainted... He fell backwards and hit the floor with a solid thunk. [Ooof. I think you broke him.] I looked down at my unconscious older brother and shrugged to myself. "Told you it would shock you..." I held up my hand above Azazel and a purple portal manifested directly above his head, facing towards him. A small waterfall of ocean water poured out of the hole and slammed directly into Azazel''s face! I was cackling at the sight below me! "GLurrrrblllughhh!" Azazel waved his arms frantically in panic as he startled awake! A couple fish ended up flowing out next and smacking him in the face! [That sure woke him up.] His floor was partially flooded and there were even a few fish flopping around the place. I closed the portal to cut off the flow of water. The whole time I couldn''t stop laughing. "Hehehehehe!" Azazel sat up and started coughing out mouthfuls of sea water. "Ugh...what the hell happened, Layla!?" He said while looking around. "Why is my whole lab flooded all of a sudden? And why does it smell like fish in here?" He glanced to the side and noticed a few sea bass gasping for air on the wet ground. "Oh...That explains the smell." "You passed out after I told you I slept with Lady Death." I said bluntly again. Azazel paused for a moment as he contemplated my words for the second time. He didn''t pass out this time. "What the fuck!? How!? When!? Why!? And most importantly!...Was she any good and is she up for a potential threesome!?" "As if!" I picked up one of the fish on the ground and threw it at his face! "Hahaha!" Azazel cackled even as he got smacked in the face again. "You were right, Layla! Truly I had underestimated you. Truly you are a woman of culture! I''m so proud as your big brother!" There was a knock on the Lab door before it immediately opened. [For the supposed most secure place in the Grigori, it''s amazing how many people can just walk in.] Penemue walked in wearing her typical secretary attire. She gave the solving wet Azazel a casual glance before shrugging dismissively and turning to me. "Layla, here you are. I''m glad that you remembered. I was worrying that you might have forgotten about today" Penemue said with a sigh of relief. She walked forward and gave me a quick hugged. I hugged her back in mild confusion. ''Forgotten what...?'' [Forgotten what?] "Of course I didn''t forget, Penemue." I lied. She sighed in relief before looking at me up and down. "You''re going to have to get changed into more appropriate attire. You can''t go meeting the board dressed like that. I''ll let you get changed." Penemue said before she walked out of Azazel''s lab. As she walked by him, Azazel slapped her hard on her ass. I expected her to turn around and smack him, but she just blushed and kept walking. I gawked at him for that. "So you two are getting serious then?" "About as serious as our kind can get. It''s not for lack of trying, but I''m honestly surprised she doesn''t have a little bun in her oven yet. We''ve been trying quite a bit. But you know...Supernatural fertility and all." I nodded. It wasn''t as hard for us to have kids as it was for devils, but it was still hard. It was much easier if one of the parents was a human. That''s how Akeno was born so quickly. As for Azazel and Penemue, close meant that they might even be getting married. That was a big deal. Marriage for Fallen didn''t end in divorce. It was a true life partnership. Death does us part and all that. They''d still have other partners, of course, but they''d always stick together in the end. That was why I was still hesitant to marry Hela. I liked her...a lot. I think I might even love her. I wasn''t ready for a huge commitment like forever quite yet... "Good for you two." I said before changing the subject. "So...board meeting?" I asked my brother in confusion. He was grinning at me. "You have no idea what she''s even talking about do you?" He asked with a snicker. "Not a freaking clue!" I exclaimed. "And what''s wrong with what I''m wearing?" I gestured to myself. I was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans that made my ass look fantastic along with a black T-Shirt that said "Sinfully Sexy." Azazel gave me a deadpan stare. "You''re attending the annual shareholders meeting for Fallcorp. Formerly that human company, Oscorp, that you took over. Penemue has been waiting for you so you could take her back to Earth Marvel. It''s been a while since I''ve seen her so enthusiastic about something." Azazel explained. Penemue might be a twelve winged Angel now, but she was a businesswoman at heart and always would be. Being able to openly run our company without having to hide was a completely new experience. No one in the supernatural had done this before obviously. We''d either have to pretend to be human or have humans working for us while we ran things secretly. "So don''t upset your sister and get ready to go. You can''t go dressed like...that." He waved his hand and a fashionable women''s business suit was conjured on a nearby table. "Thanks," I said as I picked up the small pile of clothes. [Oh yeah! That was today, wasn''t it? How could you have forgotten something so important? For shame, Host! For shame!] ''You''re so full of shit, System. You didn''t remember either.'' [I did not.] Using the System I was able to immediately swap the clothes I was wearing with the business suit. Azazel gave me a pout of disappointment. "Tch, you changed so fast I couldn''t even see anything..." I laughed. "I''m not like Akeno who intentionally slows down her outfit changes to look cool and intentionally flash people at the same time." "Speaking of Akeno, how''s she doing? Baraqiel has been up my but about finding out I''d she''s doing alright. Has she fallen into your clutches and ended up in your harem?" He inquired. "Of course not! I''m a decent Fallen Angel unlike all you perves." I said. Azazel walked me over to the door. "If you say so..." He said in a tone that implied he didn''t believe me. XXX Penemue was looking excited as we stepped out of my portal directly outside of Fallcorp. A supernatural portal opening in the middle of the sidewalk wasn''t hard for anyone nearby to miss. It didn''t take more than a few seconds for the humans to all notice us. "Look! It''s Layla! It''s the Angel!" It took only one person to shout, before everyone else joined in. "Oh my god! It is her!" "Another Angel is next to her! She was there when Layla met the Aliens!" Cars driving by on the road all slammed on their brakes as people started gawking at us! Penemue sighed. "Next time teleport us directly into the building." Doctor Connors looked ecstatic that Tony Stark was interested in his research. "Of course, Doctor Stark! I''ll be happy to show you! Maybe you could even look over my current research?" Tony shrugged. "I''m not as well versed in Genetics as I am robotics but I can take a look." Shuri pouted when Doctor Connors didn''t respond to her. To everyone else here but me, she was a spoiled Princess who was only here because of her family''s money. Everyone, except Harry, voted to keep funding Doctor Connors. I told the doctor that his research no longer had a deadline. He had a massive look of relief on his face when he left the room. Apparently, Norman Osborn had demanded the guy complete his research as soon as possible. Doctor Connors had been spending 20 hours a day in his lab with barely any sleep or freedom. He could have sued the shit out of us for that... [Or he just doesn''t know that''s an option...] ... The next person to walk into the room was a short man wearing round black sunglasses...indoors. "Hello, everyone. I am Doctor Octavius, and I have a groundbreaking idea that will change the world and give us all unlimited energy!" He declared proudly. "And what would that be?" Victor asked him. He looked interested and leaned forward. "What if we could harness the power of the SUN!" Doctor Octavius declared while raising his fist in the air. Victor frowned and leaned back again. Tony started snickering. "We already can do that...it''s called Solar Power Octavius. Are you still trying to go on about this artificial Sun crap? I rejected your idea at Stark Industries and you came crawling over to Norman Osborn?" Doctor Octavius took off his sunglasses and glared at Tony. There was clearly some past drama between the two of them. "Stark!" Doctor Octavius spat the name out. "You were always jealous of me and my vision! You''re scared that my artificial sun will bring about a new age of clean energy! One much better than your Arc Reactor that you refuse to share with the world!" "I feel like we shouldn''t be sharing an artificial sun with the world either..." I muttered. It was loud enough for everyone to hear however. Penemue agreed with me. "Your idea is...interesting Doctor Octavius, but unfortunately our company is choosing to move in another direction. Thank you for your time here and you will be issued a generous severance package. Good day." "You''ll all regret this! When I make my breakthrough, you''ll all be wishing you had seen my vision with me!" Doctor Octavius said before storming out of the room. I had no doubts that he wouldn''t give up, but without our funding it would take him much longer to almost kill himself with his idiotic idea. [An artificial sun? That''s just fusion energy with a lot of extra steps! Why not just create a fusion reactor first?] ''This is the Marvel universe, System. Scientists here are all insane.'' XXX Finally, it came time for the weapons division to give their pitch. Three men walked in with their heads held high. Clearly they had not gotten the memo that they were on the chopping block. Behind them, they were dragging in a large cart that was covered with a tarp. "Gentlemen of the board, I am Doctor Michaels. Head of weapons and development here at Oscorp." The lead man said. He gave off an arrogant air as he spoke. "It''s Fallcorp now," Penemue corrected him. "Yeah, sure, whatever." He said while looking at Tony and Victor. "Women, am I right? Sometimes they just need to zip it and learn to not interrupt when the men are talking." [Damn right! I like this guy!] ''I will find a way to stab you, System!'' [I''m in your soul. You''d have to stab yourself first!] I took a deep breath and centered myself so that I wouldn''t actually stab this sexist man. I had already decided that he was getting fired without any form of severance package. He could present me with a weapon that could one-shot Thanos today and I would still fire him! I could detect killing intent from all around the room. Penemue, Emma and Shuri were all glaring daggers at Doctor Michaels. Some of that killing intent was also coming from me of course. Too bad this sexist idiot was an ordinary human and couldn''t sense it. Otherwise he would have been running for his life! "Uhhhhh..." Tony glanced around nervously at all the angry women in the room. Victor had a blank expression on his face and I couldn''t tell what he was thinking. Mister Lee wisely chose to not say anything either. Doctor Michaels grabbed hold of the tarp and yanked it away dramatically. On top of the cart was a very familiar glider. "Gentlemen, I present you with one of our greatest creations yet! The glider!" "Er¨CWhat can it do?" Tony asked awkwardly. "I''m glad you asked Mister Stark! Clearly a MAN of your caliber can see how amazing this weapon is! It can fly at speeds upwards of 150 miles per hour! It can shoot up to 10 compact missiles before needing to reload itself! AND, it can stab people with the incredibly sharp deployable blades in its front. Check these bad boys out!" Doctor Michaels pressed a button on his watch and two very long blades protruded out of the front of the glider! His two lackeys behind him started clapping! "Amazing!" The first lackey exclaimed. "Super lethal and effective!" The other one added. "We can sell these to the military for 100 million dollars each! They will revolutionize warfare!" Dr Michaels exclaimed. "So, what do you think? Amazing right?" He asked us all. "Woah! This glider is amazing! Isn''t it great everyone?" Harry said. "I want one! I''d love to fly around the city on it." "No." Shuri said bluntly. "Hell no!" I added. "You''re all fired." Penemue declared to the three men. "Kill yourselves." Emma spat out at them. The three men left the room devastated and I was going to toss that Glider into storage permanently along with any other insane stuff that came out of Oscorp in the last few years. "Well, now...that last presentation was...interesting." Penemue said. "I''d like to once again thank everyone for coming today, and this officially ends the first annual shareholders meeting of Fallcorp. All of you will of course be kept up to date with our latest plans and research in the next coming months." "It was an honor to meet you, Layla of the Fallen. I will be in the city a few days more. Perhaps we can meet up and talk later?" Shuri asked me before she left. "I''d be fine with that, Princess Shuri." I told her as she left. Mister Lee bowed to everyone before taking his leave next. He promised that his ''Master'' would be in touch. Victor followed behind him after curtly saying goodbye to all of us. I''m sure the only reason Victor Von Doom bought stock in our company was to try and steal some of our inventions once we got off the ground. We''d have to keep an eye on him. Tony asked me to create a portal for him back to Malibu where Pepper was currently. Harry stormed out immediately and the only one left in the room with Penemue and I was Emma Frost. "Is there something you needed, Miss Frost?" My sister asked her. Emma smiled warmly at me. "I would like a bit of Layla''s time if that''s okay?" "That''s fine. I will be checking in on a few things in the building in the meantime, Layla." Penemue said to me before she headed out. Before she left, Penemue gave me a look that said "be wary." Of course I would be. Emma and I watched her go. "You and she really look quite similar." Emma commented. I shrugged. "You should see our niece then." "I have." Emma said. "She went on a date recently with Ororo of the X-men." I glared at her. "Have you been spying on Akeno?" I said with a threatening undertone. Emma immediately shook her head. "NO! Of course not! My...organization was keeping tabs on the X-men, but they have been warned off doing so in the future. We''d rather not get involved with you and your family." Emma said as she took a seat on the edge of the table. With just the two of us in the room, she acted much more freely. "And yet you bought 5% of my company''s stock?" I asked her. Emma smiled at me. "That was more of a...spur of the moment kind of thing. I saw the video trending online. You were sticking up for two mutants in that restaurant. You got a lot of hate from some people who used to love you because of what you did." I scoffed. "Let them hate me. At the end of the day, that''s all they can do." There was a glint in Emma''s eyes when I said that. "Indeed, at the end of the day, you have become too powerful for the masses to even be able to bother you. The world can rise up against you and you can break the world." That makes me sound kind of tyrannical, but I guess so? "I suppose I could if it came to that. I doubt it would though." I replied to her. "The organization I''m a part of...I joined them to feel like that. To be powerful. It did not turn out the way I wanted it to." Emma said. She looked saddened and vulnerable. Some tears came to her eyes. I knew she was probably acting to get me to feel bad for her, but damned if she wasn''t a really great actress! Nobody wanted to see a gorgeous girl like her sad in front of them. "Then just leave your organization." I said. Emma scoffed and dabbed at her eyes. "One does not simply leave the Hellfire Club...not without consequences at least. Unless...I join a group that''s far too powerful and one that the Club is afraid to mess with." She said somberly. I understood what she was hinting at. The reason she had bought stock in Fallcorp, in the first palace, was to come and meet me. I have no idea what her current circumstances are though... [A super hot blond with super powers wants to work for you...what''s the problem here? Whatever problems she has, you can smash them...and then you can smash her!] ''Wow...System, just wow...'' "So you want to join me?" I asked Emma. Her sadness immediately disappeared and she smiled brilliantly at me. Her glistening blue eyes met mine. "Yes." She said while stepping forward. She reached forward and delicately placed a hand on my cheek. "You''ll find that I am a woman of many talents... I can be very useful and my company can be very pleasant." She said while giving me a wink and licking her lips. I gulped. First she tried to make me feel sad for her, and now she was blatantly trying to seduce me... [She''s clearly studied you thoroughly. She knows you can''t refuse a damsel in distress or resist a beautiful woman. She''s hitting you with both at once.] It''s time I hit her with the uno reverse. "You''ve convinced me." I said and she grinned. "But can you convince Penemue?" I asked her. Penemue was a much better judge of character and had dealt with 1000 years of bullshit. Emma knew that now as well... I didn''t need to invite a snake into my growing group after all. For all I knew, this was all an act and she was spying for the Hellfire club by acting like she was defecting. Emma''s smile slipped away and she pouted. "Hmph! You''re more clever than I thought. I can convince her that I''m not lying just the same." "We''ll see." XXX chapters 186-190 chapters 186-190 A/N: There''s a pretty long R-18 scene in the second half. Penemue and I were sitting on her couch in Penemue''s office. Emma Frost was sitting across from us looking nervous. She was under Penemue''s scrutinizing gaze after all. "So, you wish to come under my sister''s banner? To escape from your current organization?" Penemue asked her. Emma nodded. "Yes...the Hellfire club is a powerful organization. But at the end of the day, they were just a good old boys club. Even if I hold the rank of Queen there, I barely have any power. On top of that, the current leader of the Club, Sebastian Shaw, keeps trying to make me his woman." Emma said with disgust in her voice. "I would like to join Layla. She seems like she''s actually going to make a difference in this world....And she''s strong." Emma added on. "Tell me about him?" My sister asked. "He''s a mutant like me. With a strange power that makes him hard to hurt. Somehow he''s figured out how to stop aging. He was a Nazi scientist back in World War 2 and yet he still looks like he''s only in his 40s." Emma explained. I scoffed when I realized who she was talking about. Sebastian Shaw. The Nazi scientist who set magneto down the path of becoming a villain. "So he might be a member of Hydra?" I asked Emma. Shaw could be a lead that I needed to find them. Hydra had completely gone to ground and we had no idea what they were planning. Fury would be happy to know I''d found a potential lead. Emma looked thoughtful. "I suppose that could be the case." "Let''s get to it now. What are your powers as a mutant and why should I let you work under my Younger sister?" Penemue asked Emma. "I consider myself to be a pretty powerful telepath and I can shift my body''s molecules to a diamond like structure. In that form I become much tougher and stronger." Emma demonstrated this form a second later. Her pale skin quickly morphed into a crystalline diamond. It was strange to see in real life and not in a movie. Even her hair and eyeballs turned to diamond! How did she even see? She still looked amazing though. "You look stunning in that form." I said to Emma. She shifted out of her diamond form and had a small blush on her cheeks. "Thank you. The truth is, I get nervous about displaying that form openly. I''ve read many minds over the years. Most people don''t like mutants at the moment. If it got out in public that I was one, I could lose control of the company." "Aren''t you the majority shareholder and CEO of Frost Industries?" Penemue asked. I knew that Penemue was impressed with Emma over that. Hardly any women ever reached positions like that in most major companies. Emma shook her head. "Yes, but it wouldn''t matter. The other majority shareholders are all my fathers old friends. They all expected him to hand the company off to my older brother. Too bad for them that he and my father are currently behind bars. Someone exposed their darkest scandals to the media." Emma said and she actually smiled there. [That someone was obviously her.] No doubt your telepathy helped you out there. I said. "Did it help you out today?" I asked. I wondered how many people she could even have read the minds of in that meeting. Emma shifted uncomfortably. "I''m not used to working with people whose minds I can''t read. The only person''s mind I could read in the shareholder''s meeting was Harry Osborn." She scoffed. "Everyone else was shielded, like you two, or just too difficult to read. Stark''s mind was almost operating completely in code. Same with the Wakandan Princess actually..." Emma noted with a look of intrigue. If she did come to my side, I could inform her about Wakanda later. At this point in time, most people in the world thought it was another poor country where the royal family stole all the people''s money. "I''d be careful about reading the minds of Supernatural beings if I were you." I warned Emma. "Penemue is over 1000 years old and you''re what, 25?" I asked her. "I''m 24." Emma stated, with an inquisitive look. I nodded. "Just the sheer scale of her memories could destroy your mind." I warned her. Emma''s eyes widened at the warning. "I hadn''t considered that but I''ll keep it in mind for the future. I usually just listen to people''s surface thoughts though. Delving into people''s memories can be unpleasant. Especially the minds of terrible people like my father." We spent the next 30 minutes talking to Emma. My sister wanted to be thorough in assessing Emma''s character. I caught Penemue smiling at a few of Emma''s stories which was a good sign. That meant that she liked her. Our short meeting came to an end and the 3 of us stood up. Penemue and I walked Emma to the door. "Alright then, Emma. I feel like you''re trustworthy enough. Or you won''t immediately backstab my sister, at least." Penemue said while shaking Emma''s hand. Emma pouted and let go of her hand. "I won''t backstab Layla ever!" I laughed. "She''ll be too busy practicing her poor seduction attempts." Emma blushed and sputtered. "My seduction wasn''t ''poor!'' I''ll have you know that I''m amazing at it!" She said while stamping her foot. She pointed her finger at my face. "Just you wait, next time we meet I''ll show you!" Emma swung open the office door and walked out. She was blatantly swaying her hips as she walked down the Hallway. Penemue was going to be staying on Earth Marvel for a few days to manage the company. With my work there done for the day, I decided to portal back home. XXX I stepped out of a portal into my living room. Akeno and Asia were sitting on the couch watching TV. They weren''t alone though. Cuddling up against Akeno, was Jean Grey. "Hello Ladies." I said to the three of them. "Hello aunt Layla." "Hi Layla!" "Hello, Miss Layla. You have a lovely home here." Jean said. "I know right. The crime boss I took it from had really good tastes. Or he just hired a really good interior designer." I said. "C-crime Lord!?" Jean blanched at my explanation and Akeno giggled. "Ufufu, Jean dear. Don''t bother trying to understand my Aunt''s insane life. It will just give you a headache. I''ve learned to just go with everything that happens. It seemed to work out well for me so far. I got to meet Ororo and you." Akeno said as she hugged Jean closer to herself. Jean blushed. "That''s about right." I nodded sagely. "No Ororo today?" I asked them. "She''s stuck in boring parent teacher meetings for all the kids at the X-Mansion." Jean said. "She won''t be able to come until later." [It''s still pretty amazing that your niece is dating two girls at once and both of those girls even live together.] I was going to invite Akeno and Asia with me to see Asgard, but I now knew that Akeno would probably just want to spend time with both her girlfriends. "Asia, I''m going to Asgard. Do you want to come with me?" I asked her. Asia perked up and looked excited. "Really!? I want to go! Is the whole place really made of gold?" She asked inquisitively. "You''ll just have to see for yourself." I replied. "Let me go get changed!" Asia ran off to her room. Once she left the room, I turned to Akeno and Jean on the couch. I gave the two of them a mischievous stare. Akeno raised an eyebrow at me. "What is it?" "We''ll be gone for a while, so you all will have the place to yourselves for the whole day..." I trailed off. Instead of constantly living in my Penthouse, the SHIELD agents in charge of guarding Asia had moved to the floors below mine. They''d only come up here when she was alone. It took a second for what I just said to register in Akeno and Jeans minds. Akeno grinned widely and Jean blushed. "Ara...the whole penthouse to ourselves? I wonder what kind of fun activities we can do together? I''ll have to call Ororo and tell her to come over sooner~" Akeno said teasingly. Asia came back into the room wearing one of her nicest sun dresses. "I''m ready to go!" She said excitedly. "Bye, Aunt Layla." Akeno said. "Feel free to be gone the entire day..." ... "It''s so pretty!" Asia said as she gazed upon the golden city. We were standing at the end of the rainbow bridge. This spot had the best view and I knew that Asia would love it. "Indeed it is. Asgard is beautiful and the city is a sight that never gets old." Heimdall said as he walked towards us. "Welcome to Asgard, Princess Layla." Heimdall greeted me with a formal bow. [Princess?] "Princess?" I asked. Heimdall nodded. "As the betrothed of Queen Hela, naturally the nobles of Asgard argued over the proper title to refer to you by. Hence, you have been deemed a Princess of Asgard by them until the day you marry the Queen." He explained. [New Title Unlocked: Princess of Asgard - MP regenerates 10x as fast when fighting on Asgard.] I shrugged. That title wasn''t bad, but it was pretty situational. I don''t know how often, if ever, I would actually be fighting on Asgard. "Oh! You''re a real Princess!? That''s so amazing, Miss Layla!" Asia exclaimed in excitement. "I guess, I am now." I replied. "Come on, do you want to teleport to the palace, or fly there?" I asked Asia. "Can we fly there? I want to see the city from the sky!" Asia said. I turned to Heimdall and gave him a nod. "We''ll be heading off to the palace then." Heimdall bowed one last time. "The Queen has already been notified of your arrival. Farewell Princess." Asia was giddy when I scooped her into my arms. My 10 black wings came out behind me and I flew into the skies of Asgard. I surrounded Asia with a small amount of my Light Energy as I flew high in the air to keep her warm. I learned after almost freezing Natasha last time I flew with someone in my arms. As I was flying over Asgard, I could sense quite a few powerful auras all clustered together in one spot. Hela''s aura was amongst them. On the western outskirts of the city there was a large congregation of people. "What are they all doing down there?" Asia asked as I flew us towards the large group of people. "Training for war." I said as we got closer. Below us was an army of thousands of Asgardians. There were hundreds of professional soldiers scattered around and instructing people not wearing any armor at all. I wondered if those were newly conscripted soldiers. People started to notice me flying above and I waved at them as I made my why towards Hela''s location. Hela''s aura was coming from a large tent in the middle of the camp. Two Asgardian guards bowed to me as I landed in front of them and set Asia down. They looked at her curiously but didn''t ask any questions. I asked if I could enter and they stepped aside. XXX "The quality of Asgards young men has truly fallen." I could hear Hela complain as I entered the tent. "Aye, they have. Too many men want to be warriors but are too lazy to go through the proper training to become one." A man responded to her. Inside the tent, Hela was talking to a large Asgardian, who I recognized as General Tyr, along with Queen Frigga. I''d seen the General a few times in my visits to Asgard but never spoken with him. A teenage boy, who looked like him, was standing next to Tyr. It was possibly his son. All eyes turned towards me and Asia as we entered. "Layla, my love! I''m glad you are here." Hela said sincerely. "And who is this with you?" "Hello everyone, I hope we''re not interrupting." I said. "And this is Asia Argento. I''m currently looking after her." "H¨Chello everyone." Asia said. She was nervous under all the Asgardians'' curious gazes. "So this is the girl you''ve told me about? It''s nice to finally put a face to a name. As the current ward of Layla, you are welcome in Asgard, Asia." Hela told her. "Thank you." Asia replied with a quick bow. "So what''s going on with all the troops outside? There must be thousands of them." I asked. "We are having all eligible men in Asgard trained for war." General Tyr said. I suspected that the Frost Giants had succeeded in making an alliance with the inhabitants of Muspelheim then. No doubt, Surtur would jump at the chance to destroy Asgard. It doesn''t mean that they have to join the army." Frigga said with a sigh, "but we hope that many do after they become true warriors." "I''d like for these men to have a few decades of training before they go off to battle, but we''re going to have to be rushing everything down to only a few years." "A few years?" I asked. "I didn''t think the Frost Giants would wait that long." "Our intelligence says that they want to attack during the convergence when all the realms will be connected for a day. They could both march their armies onto Asgard from dozens of locations at the same time." General Tyr spat out. "Those arrogant monsters! We''ll crush them all and destroy their realms while we''re at it!" Asia gasped. "But what about all the people who don''t want war who live there?" Asia had some tears forming in her eyes. Looking at an innocent girl like her cry could bring even the most tyrannical of men to pause. Asia''s innocent demeanor seemed to work on General Tyr as well. "W¨Cwell...I suppose we can spare the women and the children. Once we overthrow Laufey and Surtur along with their armies, the rest should surrender." He said to her. "It''s polite to ask first if you want to watch." Ororo said nonchalantly. Ororo''s arms wrapped around both girl''s shoulders and drew them closer to her. Akeno and Jean both leaned into her happily. Layla now suspected that the relationship between these three was more polyamorous with Ororo actually being the most dominant one. She was surprised that it wasn''t just Akeno''s harem, but Akeno seemed very fine with Ororo''s arm wrapped around her and Jean. Ororo''s hands started to fondle Akeno and Jean''s bare breasts. Akeno''s breasts were sinfully large and yet still incredibly perky. Jeans breasts were smaller but she had a beautiful set of pink nipples that were rock hard. Both girl''s let out small moans as Ororo''s hands went to work. Ororo didn''t seem to mind the two voyeurs and continued fondling both of the younger girls in her arms in front of them. She placed a tender kiss on Akeno''s cheek before turning her head and doing the same with Jean. "Thank you, both. Your tongues felt amazing." Hela planted a delicate kiss on Layla''s neck as she extracted her very wet finger from Layla''s hole. Hela raised it to her lips and licked it clean sensually for everyone to see. Akeno and Jean both gulped at the sight. Ororo saw plenty of things like this back in her homeland so she simply raised an eyebrow at the display. "Hello, ladies. I am Hela. Goddess of Death and Layla''s betrothed." Layla had trouble standing. Her legs were currently weak. Hela noticed this and scooped Layla up in her arms. She proceeded to walk towards the other couch in the room, opposite of the three girls. Hela placed Layla down so that she was in full view to all of them. "As repayment, how about you all watch as Layla and I put on a small show ourselves? It''s only fair." Hela suggested with a grin. She snapped her fingers. Layla''s and her own clothing vanished off of their forms. Akeno and Jean''s eyes widened upon hearing that. Ororo simply smirked as her fingers pinched both girls'' nipples causing them to moan. "A-ara? G¨Cgo right ahead." Akeno said. "I¨Cuh¨CI guess I''ll watch." Jean added. Hela smirked. She snapped her fingers. Layla and her own clothing vanished in an instant. Both of their naked bodies were completely exposed to the younger girls. Layla''s body was a sinful hourglass, while Hela''s was fit and toned. Layla would have been more embarrassed at her niece and Jean seeing her completely naked, but her Sin of Lust was acting up and she was too horny to care. "Watch closely girls as I make my woman scream my name." Hela declared proudly. She took a seat on the couch and spread her legs to give the three a full view. Her hairless pussy was dripping wet, but that''s not what she would be having fun with just yet. A quick bit of magic and her magical tool was out and standing at attention. Akeno and Jean gaped at the sight of Hela suddenly growing a large cock! Even Ororo, who had been calm before, leaned forward with a look of intrigue, "Ufufu!" Akeno heard Layla mentioning this to her, but it was her first time seeing it. Hela grabbed hold of Layla''s hips and lifted the Fallen Angel directly over her lag. Layla''s legs were spread wide giving the three girls a full view of her pink pussy. Hela slowly lowered Layla directly down over her cock. The three girl''s got a perfect view of Layla sinking down on Hela''s large cock. Once Layla''s ass met Hela''s hips, Hela threw her head back and let out a pleasant sigh. Layla always felt amazing to her! Layla''s mouth opened and she let out a loud moan. "Oh fuck! Helaaaaa!" Akeno bit her lip at the sight of her Aunt''s dripping pussy completely taking that large cock. "Ara...She took that big thing so easily. My Aunt is quite the slut." "You feel so amazing as always, my love!" Hela moaned in delight. Layla''s pussy was incredibly tight and silky at the same time. Hela could never last long whenever she fucked Layla. She grabbed hold of Layla''s hips and started bouncing her up and down on her lap. Layla''s legs quivered as Hela continued thrusting into her core. A particularly powerful thrust hit her G-spot and Layla opened her eyes widely and gasped. "Yeeeeeess!" She mewled out. Layla''s eyes looked in front of her and she could see her niece and her two lovers watching her fervently. Hela''s thrusting sped up! "I''m cumming, my love!" Hela moaned before she slammed Layla down one last time and pushed up as deep as possible. A pleasant sigh left Hela''s lips as she started spilling herself as deep as she could inside of Layla. Layla let out a loud moan and came at the same time! Hela lifted Layla up and slowly extracted her cock from Layla''s hole. With nothing keeping it inside, her white seed started to spill out between Layla''s legs in a steady steam. "She came so much inside of Layla..." Jean muttered. "I wonder how it felt?" Akeno asked. Her Aunt Layla was still trembling in pleasure and had a look of pure bliss on her face. Hela placed her lover back on the couch so Layla could regain her breath. Hela grinned at Akeno''s question. "Perhaps I could help you find out. Would you mind standing up for a moment." Hela asked Ororo... Ororo let go of Akeno and Jean and stood up. She was intrigued with whatever Hela had planned. She smirked when both Akeno and Jean whined when she let go of them. Her two new lovers were quite needy. The truth was that Ororo had actually been attracted to Jean for a while now. She held herself back though. Even though Jean was 18, Ororo was still a teacher at the institute...even if she barely did any real teaching and it was more of a front for the X-men. It was only when Akeno came along and blatantly started flirting with both the mutants that Ororo worked up the courage to do the same. After her date with Akeno, Ororo found herself liking both girls. Both girls also ended up liking her and so they''re 3 way relationship came about. Being the oldest of the three, and the only one with any actual sexual experience, Ororo had no problems taking charge. Ororo stood up and took a second to sensually stretch her body. Ororo''s body was a work of art. Her caramel breasts were large and perky. They were topped with a pair of beautiful dark nipples. Her lower lips looked beautiful and had a small patch of elegant silver hairs sitting above them. You are a work of art. I''m almost jealous that these two lovely girls already snatched you up for themselves." Hela said to Ororo. "Thank you." Ororo said. Her large breasts bounced as she stepped towards Hela. "You three all looked so lustful when you were watching me and Layla. I have a small gift for the three of you." Hela said. She pointed a finger between Ororo''s legs and chanted a spell in a language the latter didn''t recognize. Ororo gasped at what happened next. She felt a tingle between her legs. Directly above her clit, a caramel colored cock sprang forth! "Wha¨C" on the couch next to Jean, Akeno was speechless at the turn of events. She could only stare at the new object between Ororo''s legs in shock. Jean felt the same way. She audibly gulped and reached over to squeeze Akeno''s hand. Hela pat Ororo on the shoulder. "Make sure you satisfy them both. Beautiful maidens like them deserve a wonderful first experience." Hela said as she walked sauntered back over towards Layla. Layla squealed in excitement when Hela hungrily pounced back on top of them. Akeno was staring at Ororo with pure lust in her eyes. "Ororo..." Akeno called out to her. "I want it." Ororo snapped out of her confusion and saw the look of want Akeno was giving her. She felt her new cock get even harder from the desire in Akeno''s eyes. Akeno leaned back on the couch and spread her legs invitingly for her. Ororo placed her hand on her own cock and marveled at how sensitive it was. She walked towards Akeno and brought her new tool forwards towards Akeno''s dripping lower lips. Ororo''s cock touched Akeno''s folds and both girls startled at the sensation. "Be gentle please, it''s my first time..." Akeno whispered. Her hand was still gripping Jean''s tightly. The redhead was watching in excitement and hoped she wouldn''t have to wait to long for her own turn. Ororo placed a gentle hand on Akeno''s cheek. "You are so lovely. I have never done this before, obviously. But I will try to be gentle." Ororo replied and she experimentally pushed her hips forward a bit. Her tip slipped inside. Ororo and Akeno gasped at the same time! Akeno had never had something so large inside of her before. Ororo was shaking from the entirely new sensations she was feeling. "No wonder men always want to stick it in. You feel so amazing, Akeno." Akeno took a deep breath as she felt Ororo''s large member push into her deeper. "A-ara...thank you." Jean could see the full view of her Akeno''s pussy being filled by Ororo''s caramel cock. She gulped at the sight. "How does it feel to have her inside you?" Jean asked Akeno. "She''s big...but it feels nice." Akeno admitted. She turned her head and gave Jean a reassuring smile. Ororo started to push her hips forward more. She let out a purr of delight when she did so. Akeno''s insides felt so nice. They completely wrapped around her new cock with sensations of tightness and wetness that Ororo was coming to greatly enjoy. "So big..." Akeno whispered as she felt herself get filled more and more. Ororo''s hips paused when she felt her cock stop against something inside of Akeno, though. She looked down at the girl who was blushing up at her in embarrassment. "That''s my..." Akeno trailed off. Both her girlfriend''s new what she was implying. Hela''s words, from before, finally registered to Ororo as she stared at Akeno below her on the couch. Akeno was so incredibly beautiful and the sight of Akeno gazing up at her while her new appendage was inside of the girl was incredibly erotic. Ororo smiled warmly at Akeno as she pulled her hips back slightly. Ororo would give her the best possible first time that she could. Akeno bit her lip nervously. She knew what was about to happen. Ororo thrust forward. She pushed her new cock all the way inside in one go! Akeno gasped when Ororo bottomed out inside of her. "Oh Goddess!" Ororo gasped, herself. Her cock plowed right through Akeno''s barrier and was now fully sheathed inside of Akeno. It felt wonderful. Akeno mewled when Ororo pulled her hips backwards. She thrust forward into her again! A ripple of pleasure went through Akeno''s body when Ororo bottomed out a second time inside Akeno''s depths. Ororo started to get into a rhythm and started thrusting back and forth into Akeno''s tight pussy. "Ororo! It feels so good!" Akeno cried out as they truly started having sex. Jean smiled at the sight next to her. Akeno and Ororo were really getting into it. Ororo''s face was flushed as she worked her hips and Akeno was panting in delight. Ororo leaned down and started placing kisses all over Akeno''s perfect chest as her hips kept up their pace. Akeno''s arms wrapped around Ororo''s back and held her close as the older woman made love to her! "Oh my God! I''m going to cum! I''m going to cum so hard!" Akeno yelled loudly. Ororo''s cock was battering her insides wonderfully and she couldn''t hold back anymore! The strongest orgasm of Akeno''s life went through her! She came explosively around Ororo''s cock. As the pleasure surged through her, Akeno watched Ororo stop her thrusting as a look of ecstasy appeared on the mutant''s face. "I''m cumming, too! Akeno, I love you!" Ororo moaned loudly. Akeno''s eyes widened as she felt warmth start to spill out deep inside of her. Akeno held Ororo tight and their large breasts squished together as she came inside! They held each other close for the next minute as they both came. Akeno was laying back on the couch flushed and panting. "Hah...So that was sex? It was amazing." Akeno said while trying to catch her breath. She grunted when she felt her partner pull backwards. Akeno suddenly had a feeling of emptiness as Ororo pulled out of her and stepped back. She felt something flow out of her. Akeno looked down and could see Ororo''s semen along with bits of blood spill out of her love tunnel and onto the couch. Ororo took a deep breath to steady herself. She was a bit tired, but she wasn''t done yet. "Lie down, Jean." Ororo said to Jean who was looking eager to have her own turn. Luckily, the couch was big enough for Jean to do so. She laid down on the couch and Ororo positioned herself above her. Jean looked up at Ororo with her bright green eyes. Ororo took in the sight of the beautiful redhead. Just like Akeno, Jean was perfect in Ororo''s eyes. Ororo placed both of her hands on Jean''s thighs and pushed the redhead''s legs apart. Her beautiful little pussy was exposed in front of Ororo''s face. She grinned at the sight of it. Ororo took hold of her cock, still slick with Akeno''s juices, and brought it forward. She pressed it upon Jean''s lower lips. Jean shifted in place uneasily at the contact. She looked to the side and saw that Akeno was watching them with a smile on her face. Akeno watched the redhead''s mouth open and her eyes widened as Ororo''s cock started to spread her lower lips. "Oooohhhh..." Ororo sighed pleasantly at the feeling of Jean''s pussy. "You are so hot inside!" Jean''s pussy was much hotter than Akeno''s. It wasn''t unpleasant though. Jean''s tight warmth felt amazing wrapped around her. Jean gasped when Ororo pushed just a bit deeper. Ororo placed her hands on Jean''s toned stomach tenderly. "You are so perfect, Jean." "So are you and Akeno." Jean replied as she took a deep breath. "...I''m ready." Ororo grinned and strongly thrust her hips forward. Ororo''s felt some resistance, the same that she did with Akeno, before she pushed through. Jean gasped when she felt something pop deep inside her. Her legs spasmed as her pussy clenched up tightly around Ororo''s thick cock that bottomed out inside of her. Ororo smiled at the expression on Jean''s face. Jean was sloppily moaning and her eyes were stained with small tears. Ororo placed her hands on Jean''s hips and started thrusting into her core repeatedly. "Oh my God!" Jean gasped out as Ororo''s cock battered her insides. It felt so incredible! She''d never felt so much pleasure so deep inside herself before! "Please don''t stop!" Ororo grunted in pleasure. "Hnnnn. I don''t intend to! Not until I cum deep inside your hot little virgin pussy, Jean!" Ororo groaned out. Jean mewled at how dirty that sounded. Her hands clenched into tight fists as pleasure assaulted her depths with every one of Ororo''s thrusts. "It feels so good!" Jean moaned as Ororo continued to steadily thrust into her. Ororo moaned and buried herself deep inside Jean! "Jean, I love you! I''m cumming!" Jean''s pussy clamped down on the cock inside her as she came almost immediately at the same time. "I''m cumming too!" Jean wailed loudly. A sloppy smile spread across her face and she shook all over. She grabbed Ororo''s head and pulled her down into a kiss as she felt Ororo start to spurt inside of her. Ororo closed her eyes as she waited out her second orgasm and continued to spurt inside Jean. Once she was done, she sighed pleasantly and extracted her cock out of Jean''s pussy. Semen and blood once again poured out between another one of her lover''s legs. Akeno scooted closer and hugged both Ororo and Jean. "That was absolutely perfect. I loved it!" "Mhmm. Indeed it was." Ororo said with a tired sigh. She felt another tingle between her legs and saw that her tool had disappeared. She laughed when Jean and Akeno looked saddened at that. "I need to learn that spell from my Aunt as soon as possible!" Akeno whined. "And then you have to teach it to us!" Jean exclaimed with a giggle. XXX chapters 191-195 chapters 191-195 ¨CA week later¨C [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death''s Favored] [Level: 56] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 13000] [MP: 10000] [Faith Energy: 23] [Vigor: 800] [Strength: 170] [Intelligence: 1000] [Luck: 150] [Skills: Observe 4, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 4, Light Manipulation 7, HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst, Senjutsu 2, Six Paths, Susanoo 1] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Lucky Shot, Mana Replenisher, ] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] I was looking over my stats as we rode the elevator down. It had been a while since I''d made any gains, but I was sure I would be making quite a bit later today. The elevator reached the lowest level and our group stepped out. "Right this way. This is where we''ve been keeping Artemis. She''s been a lot more docile compared to Ares. He''s now at over 40 escape attempts. Artemis gave up after only three." Agent Coulson said as he led Hela and I through the halls of SHIELDs current HQ. We were currently in the deepest level where they kept their most dangerous prisoners. The only ones that they currently even had down here were Ares and Artemis though. We arrived in front of a clear cell that was very similar to the one that SHIELD held Loki in during the first Avengers movie. Except this one wasn''t thousands of feet in the air. Artemis was inside the cage. [She looks like she''s seen better days...] Artemis was sitting on the floor clutching her knees to her chest. Her formerly beautiful silver hair looked disheveled and was full of split ends. Her eyes were rapidly darting in every direction as she muttered to herself while rocking back and forth. She looked utterly deranged... "We''re not sure why she turned out like this. We haven''t even tried to interrogate her yet and we''ve been giving her plenty of food and water." Agent Coulson said. "Frankly, we''re at a loss." Artemis finally noticed there were people outside of her cell. She sat up rapidly and stared at us! "It''s you! The one who placed this collar on me! Please, I can''t feel my Moon! Let me feel my Moon!" She begged while staring directly at me. "I''ll do anything! You wanted to collar me? Make me your woman!? I''ll be your woman! Let me feel my Moon again!" Artemis begged before she slumped back down and started sobbing to herself. [Wow...I think you broke her.] "Did I do that to her?" I asked out loud. All I did was seal away her powers. I didn''t think she would end up going crazy because of that. Hela scoffed. She stepped forward to get a better look at Artemis in her cell. "She''s only been cut off from her divinity for a mere week and she''s already fallen to such a pathetic state? And she thinks she''s worthy of being with Layla on top of that? Ridiculous!" Hela spat out. "She is not worthy. I was cut off from Asgard for hundreds of years and never turned out like this sad excuse for a goddess." "Gods can turn out like this when they are cut off from their domains?" I asked Hela. I wondered what Ares currently looked like then? "Weak Gods can." Hela explained, "This Olympian Goddess has clearly never struggled with anything in her entire existence. She has never known hardship and anything she has ever wanted has been handed to her by her father." "That would make sense. She''s supposed to be one of Zeus''s favorites isn''t she?" Coulson asked. "At least, according to mythology." "She''s supposed to be. From what I know about Artemis, she spends most of her time playing with her immortal followers. They spend all day and night hunting animals over and over again." [You would think that would get boring after hundreds of years...] "That''s more than I know about her. I never paid much attention to any other Pantheons that Asgard wasn''t at war with." Hela responded. She then turned to me. "You''re not going to get any information out of her in this state. Don''t even bother. We will send her to Asgard and have the mind healers there fix her first. You can remove her collar as well. She shouldn''t have much power on Asgard, so far away from Midgard''s moon." Coulson seemed a bit hesitant to allow Hela to take away Artemis. In the end, he relented because an insane Goddess wasn''t useful to anybody. He opened the cell and Hela and I stepped inside. I removed the black chakra sealing collar around her neck. Artemis immediately had a look of relief on her face. "Thank you! So mu¨Cgah!" Artemis was cut off instantly. Hela smacked Artemis on the back of her head and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Hela then nonchalantly reached down and picked Artemis up with one hand. I opened a portal to Asgard and Hela nonchalantly tossed Artemis''s body through it. On the other side of the portal, Heimdall was staring at us incredulously. "Uh...2hat would you like me to do with this foreign Goddess, my Queen?" Hela waved her hand dismissively. "This woman dared to claim that she was worthy of being with my beloved. Hand her over to my stepmother and see if we can make a proper Lady out of her. A woman who plays around in the woods all day with a bunch of her servants isn''t worthy." "Ok...?" Heimdall said again and bowed. I could tell that he was very confused but dared not go against his new Queen''s orders. I closed the portal between our realms and turned back to Coulson. "Well, that was a bit of a bust. Looks like we couldn''t get any last minute information about Olympus." I said. That was the whole reason we were currently down in this prison in the first place. Luke had decided to flip on Kronos and started telling SHIELD about Camp Half Blood, but he didn''t really know anything about Olympus itself. He only snuck in one time and that was with Ares helping him. Coulson shrugged. "It is what it is. In this job, you find more failure than success. Are you two ready to start your part of the plan?" He asked. "And is it just going to be the two of you?" "Hmph! Just us will be more than enough!" Hela said proudly. "I have no doubt in my mind that I can suppress Zeus on my own. Especially considering he has lost his divine weapon to Layla''s niece." Coulson nodded. "Alright then. It''ll be all hands on deck in a few hours. Ten minutes after you two enter Olympus, Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton will lead our forces to storm Camp Half Blood and rescue all of the kids trapped there." We had been over this plan multiple times now. All of the Agents were pretty nervous. SHIELD was created to combat the Alien and Supernatural. This was the first time they were ever doing it so openly though. Fury was also using this as an opportunity to build back SHIELD''s lost reputation after being so heavily infiltrated by Hydra. XXX ¨CCouncil of the Godheads, Olympus¨C "We will now convene this meeting of the Council of the Godheads! Thank you to everyone who could make it. And thank you to our friends in Olympus for volunteering to host the council meeting here." Bast spoke loudly for all to hear. While she preferred to be in her panther form. The other Godheads took her less seriously when she was in animal form. She hated being referred to as some "Minor African Goddess". "We usually only meet every few hundred years? What is the reason that you and Olympus have pushed this meeting forward?" Nuwa, the mother Goddess of China asked. She was an incredibly beautiful Goddess dressed in silken robes. "Especially since there''s not many of us left." The Council of Godheads used to have many more members, but many Gods disappeared along with the Biblical factions when the world was cut in half. Whether all of those Gods and Goddesses chose to leave or not, none of the remaining members of the council knew. They all suspected that at least a few of the more powerful Gods had to have helped the Biblical God perform his ritual though. CRACKLE! BOOM! Thunder echoed over the skies of Olympus. Zeus sat angrily on his throne clenching his teeth. "I don''t know about the Kitty, but my Master Bolt has disappeared! Poseidon''s brat stole it and must have turned traitor against your Pantheon! Only another God could be hiding the boy from our sight!" He looked around the amphitheater wearily. He believed that one of the Gods or Goddesses in this room was against him. ''Maybe they all were!?'' He thought in paranoia! "My son did no such thing! He was clearly kidnapped by whoever stole your weapon, brother!" Poseidon bellowed back angrily. Rain clouds formed overhead with his fury at being falsely accused. "Those aren''t monsters! They''re people! And they have guns!" A young girl cried out and pointed at Steve''s group as he approached. There were many kids of various ages in front of him. Off to the sides, he could see Clint and Natasha''s team heading towards the center of the camp as well. The large group of kids in front of his group pointed swords, spears, and bows at him. "Don''t come any closer!" A twelve year old girl stepped forward holding a sword. "I am Annabeth! The daughter of Athena and I''m not afraid to fight you!" She said but Steve could see she was trembling. There were men with guns all around them after all. "What are you all doing here?" She asked. Steve held his hands up. "It''s OK, kids. I am Captain America. I''m here to save you all. You''ve all been kept prisoner in this camp. Forced to fight monsters or die! That''s wrong and your parents are cruel to have done that to you! None of you have to fight anymore." Steve said. The girl in front of him stared at Steve in shock. "What? We don''t have to fight anymore?" The sword in her hand fell to the ground. She had tears forming in her eyes. "You''re here to save us?" She asked in disbelief. Steve walked over to her and gave her a hug. She started sobbing softly. "It''s the real Captain America!" "We can go home!?" "I can see my mom again!?" Other kids behind her started exclaiming. "It''s ok," Steve said. "Everything will be fine now!" At this point, the dozens of other kids had all lowered their weapons and many more of them had started crying. Natasha and Clint''s groups arrived next to Steve''s. All of the agents started preparing to get all of the kids out. "There''s gotta be at least 100 kids here..." Clint muttered. He had children himself and was outraged that all of these kids would have ended up eaten by monsters by the time they were 16 if SHIELD didn''t step in here. "Let''s start moving them to the Quinjets. We don''t know how long Layla will be able to distract all of the Olympians." Natasha said while looking around. She was getting a feeling that they were being watched. "..." "Distract the Olympians? To think that the mortals have grown bold enough to openly challenge the Gods once again!? Perhaps we need to once again annihilate a few cities to show who is truly in charge of this world!" A voice echoed around the camp. It was laced with fury. Annabeth let go of Steve and wiped her eyes. "It''s Lord Dionysus! He sounds mad!" There was a flash of golden light and a scrappy man wearing a Hawaiian shirt appeared next to Steve and Annabeth. He was glaring at Steve with hatred. "Of course I''m mad you stupid girl! I''m mad that mortals have become so daring!" Steve pushed Annabeth behind him. All of the kids nearby also started backing away. Their demigod senses were telling them that a fight was inevitable. "Dionysus, the god of wine, parties, and madness?" Steve asked. He had done a bit of reading up on all the Greek Gods before this mission. Dionysus smiled menacingly. "So you know who I am and you still came here?" Steve reached behind his back and grabbed his vibranium shield. His other hand settled on the black sword on his waist. That was his trump card that he wouldn''t draw just yet. "I know that you and the other Greek Gods have killed countless people. I won''t let that stand." He started walking forward. This was his second time fighting a god, but he felt that this time things would go differently. For one thing, he wasn''t alone! Natasha shot forward, far faster than a normal human should be able to move, and tried to punch the God in the face! He casually leaned his head backwards and dodged her blow. He raised his hand to strike back when an arrow flew towards his chest. "Petty tricks!" Dionysus easily caught the arrow out of the air. To his confusion, it started beeping. Natasha jumped backwards and smirked. BOOM! The arrow exploded with the force of a grenade and sent Dionysus stumbling backwards. XXX "Get all the children to the Quinjets!" Steve ordered all the soldiers nearby before he decided to join the fight! He started charging towards the disoriented God. "Get him, Captain America!" "You can do it!" The kids were all cheering for him as he gripped his shield tightly and swung it forward. It collided with Dionysus''s face with a loud CLANG! The God''s head whipped backwards and he let out a curse of pain. Steve followed up with his other hand and punched Dionysus hard in his stomach! "GAH!" Dionysus felt that blow! "How is a mortal so strong!?" Steve didn''t answer him, though. He kept up his relentless assault and started laying blows into the god with both his fist and shield! Dionysus wasn''t exactly a god of combat, and it had been eons since he had last been in a real fight. He couldn''t believe that he was currently getting worked over by a mortal! "ENOUGH!" Dionysus yelled in fury. A golden aura burst around him. He wasn''t going to lose to a mortal! He refused! He brought forth all of his power around himself. Steve could feel an oppressive force emanating from the God. Steve hopped backwards and regrouped with Natasha and Clint. "Looks like he''s finally getting serious." Steve said. "When Ares did this, I couldn''t fight back anymore." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "And now?" She reached down and gripped the two black daggers that Layla had given her. Next to her, Clint reached into his quiver and grabbed one of his black arrows. Steve smiled. He grabbed the black sword on his hip and unsheathed it. He had the blessing of Layla and a weapon that could seal away magic and divinity. "Now... Now I think I''m going to win." He said. Dionysus laughed in rage. "You''re going to win? I don''t think so! This is the last straw! I''m tired of managing all the shitty little brats in this camp! After this, I''m going to hunt all of those kids down and kill them all! Then, we Olympians are going to destroy a couple of your human cities. We''ll see how you all rise up against us after we kill a few tens of millions of you!" "Not going to happen!" Steve rushed forwards and swung his black sword at Dionysus. Dionysus held up his own hand and a bronze blade appeared in his hand. He might not be a god of war, but he still had a weapon at least. He swung it forward and connected it with the human weapon. He expected the mortal''s black blade to shatter like glass against his Celestial Bronze. That did not happen! CLANG! To Dionysus''s shock, the black blade slammed into his celestial bronze sword. What''s more, his Celestial Bronze sword actually cracked where the two weapons made contact! "What!?" He exclaimed in shock. FWISH! A black arrow flew through the air and slammed into Dionysus''s left shoulder. He let out a scream of pain! He lost feeling in his left arm and felt like his Godly power was suddenly being disrupted! Natasha zipped forward with a black dagger in each hand. She went in to stab his now defenseless left side. She stabbed one dagger directly into his torso and swung the other for his neck. He had talked about casually murdering tens of millions. She wasn''t risking taking him alive! Fury had been listening the whole time and had been screaming at them, in their earpieces, to just kill this God! Dionysus managed to keep his head and ducked backwards right before Natasha''s blade hit his neck. He stumbled backwards a few steps. He had a black arrow in his shoulder and a dagger stuck in his side. He coughed in pain and a bit of golden blood spilled from his lips. "What are these black weapons!? How can they hurt me!?" Dionysus tried to teleport away but found that he couldn''t! The two weapons stabbing him were disrupting his divine power! "That''s none of your business." Steve said as he strode forward. He was gripping his sword tightly. "Fine! I''ll just rip these things out and find out for myself!" With his right hand he tried to grab the arrow disabling his left shoulder. FWISH! "GRAW!" Dionysus screamed again and fell to his knees. A second black arrow, fired by Clint, was stuck in his right shoulder. Now he couldn''t move either of his arms and he felt himself grow severely weakened. He glared up hatefully at the human standing over him. Steve looked down at the God on his knees. "Thousands of kids have been to this camp. You''ve always been in charge here. All those kids died. Don''t you feel anything about that?" Steve asked him. "Those demigod brats? They were lucky to even be in my divine presence in the first place. So what if they all died. That was their destiny!" Dionysus spat out. Steve sighed in resignation. "I don''t believe in Destiny, but if it is real, yours ends here." Steve swung his black sword sideways! Dionysus''s head fell to the ground. He was slain by a human blessed with an Angel''s Light, who was wielding an anti-magic blade. There would be no resurrecting in Tartarus for Dionysus... For the first time in history, a god had truly been slain by a mortal. XXX chapter 196-200 chapter 196-200 I certainly wasn''t expecting this kind of reception. I looked around the amphitheater that I had just portaled inside. There were a lot more gods here than just the Olympian ones. "See! Do you see! I was right! I told you she would come!" A dark skinned woman dressed in an African tribal outfit shouted excitedly from the stands. I could feel a small spark of divinity from her. Although, she felt like one of the weakest Goddesses I''d ever laid eyes on. "Ara, we do see..." A beautiful woman dressed in Chinese robes said from the upper stands. She was looking down at Hela and I curiously. "Sorry about interrupting...whatever this is, but I''m only here for the Olympians." I said. CRACK! A bolt of Divine Lightning streamed down from the top of the amphitheater. It zipped directly towards my head and was laced with anger! "I don''t think so." Before it could hit me, Hela raised her hand and slapped the lighting to the side. "Oh shit!" "Eeeeep!" A couple of other gods I didn''t recognize dove out of the way to avoid the ricochet lightning. Hela glared at the man who attacked me. "Those are some bold words! You come here, to the heart of Olympus and claim that you are going to take US into custody!?" An older man wearing a white toga spat at us angrily. He was also the one who just tried to kill me so I''m assuming that this was Zeus. [Zues: The King of Olympus - Level 62] My assumptions were correct. I decided to take a look at the other most powerful Gods and Goddess in the room. I''m not sure what kind of meeting I just interrupted. [Poseidon: Ruler of the Seas - Level 57] [Hades: King of the Underworld - Level 60] [Nuwa: Mother of the Immortals - Level 67] [Lugh: Celtic God of the Sun - Level 63] [Quetzalcoatl: Queen of Serpents - Level 53] Finally, I checked on the African woman who was shouting at me as soon as I arrived here. I wanted to know who she was and why she didn''t like me. [Bast: Panther Goddess of Wakanda - Level 40] Bast? What did I do to offend her? I don''t think I ever acted against Wakanda. I''d only spoken a few words to their princess so far. I hadn''t even taken her offer to meet up with her in private. I had simply been too busy and told her that we''d have to meet up another time in the future. [Their princess has clearly fallen for your nefarious charms. Bast must have been in love with her and is jealous!] I could tell that the system was just kidding. Shuri seemed more like a fangirl than anyone romantically interested in me. [I was just joking. I''m stumped as well. Usually when people hate you, there''s a much more obvious reason.] "You say you''ve come to take the Olympians in custody?" Nuwa asked me. "Under whose authority? The Christian God?" She asked hesitantly. I shook my head. "I''m here under the authority of the US government. They''ve hired me to take the entire pantheon into custody for numerous crimes against humanity!" I waved my hand and a stack of warrants a foot high appeared on the floor next to me. I read through some of these warrants. They''re pretty messed up. The Gods and Goddesses in the room blanched at me. "Pfff...You''re here on behalf of the mortals!? Oh, that''s priceless!" Lugh laughed loudly. He pulled out a flask and started knocking it back. When he was done, he casually tossed it aside and wiped his lips. "Who knew the mortals had reached a point where they think they can challenge us?" "That''s right!" "How dare they!" "Those stupid humans think they''re on our level now?" Numerous weaker Gods and Goddesses started booing me from around the amphitheater. I just ignored them. A bunch of them were so weak I could kill them with a slap. Most of them weren''t even out of the 30s level-wise. They were barely stronger than Voldemort was and here they were talking shit... "Ara, how amusing. Numerous powerful cultivators in my Palace were once regular mortals themselves. I''ve never looked down on them." Nuwa said. "That being said...I believe they are overstepping their capabilities here¨Ceven if they sent you." "*Hic* If you''re just here for the Greeks then take them! Those assholes deserve what''s coming to them! *Hic*!" A drunken woman wearing Arabian clothing yelled out. [Tenenet: Egyptian Goddess of Alcohol - Level 39] Her title explained why she was drunk... "What!? That''s absolute bullshit! I''ve been peacefully living in the Underworld for thousands of years now! What crimes have I committed?" Hades spoke up and tried to defend himself. "Your son was Hitler..." I deadpanned and crossed my arms. "...Fuck." Hades muttered. "Hahaha! Not so smug now are you?" Poseidon laughed at Hades. He turned to me. "You want to arrest me as well? I don''t think so! Compared to Hades, I''m a Saint! I''ve never committed wanton murder like he and his children!" He said proudly. "Hundreds of ships have gone missing in the bermuda triangle over the centuries. We know that was done by you trying to hide Atlantis. Not to mention, how many Tsunamis that hit coastal towns are natural and how many are caused by you." I said to him. "...Fuck." Poseidon muttered. XXX Luke had been more than happy to unload all of his knowledge onto SHIELD. The list of crimes for most Olympian gods was pretty extensive. Surprisingly, there was one Goddess who had never committed a single crime at all. That was Hestia, the Goddess of Home and the Hearth. She wasn''t currently in the amphitheater though. From my understanding of Hestia, she usually just stays at home and tends to her hearth. Zeus stood up from his throne and glared at me. "Even if you could capture us with your meager powers. The mortals could never hold us in their prisons! Mortals will never be able to contend against Gods!" He declared. "That''s right!" "Get out of here Fallen Angel!" "Fuck off bitch!" Hela turned and glared hatefully at that last guy who yelled at me. "Call my beloved that again and I will rip out your tongue!" Helas aura radiated off of her and everyone in the amphitheater was taken aback. She had grown much stronger and was on the verge of becoming a Super Class being again. [Hela: Queen of Asgard - Level 74] "Sorry..." He muttered and slumped down to make himself look as small as possible. Nuwa eyed Hela warily. "The point still stands. With the new Queen of Asgard behind you, it seems that you do possess the strength to challenge Olympus. How will the mortals be able to hold them though? Only after hundreds of years of cultivating can mortals achieve any decent level of power." She said. I scoffed. "You''re clearly out of touch with modern society. Technology has reached the point where humans are on the verge of space travel. On top of that, I know that Sorceress Supreme could probably take down everyone in this room by herself!" Nuwa nodded. "Old Yao? She is indeed impressive. But you are misinformed. She couldn''t beat even the weakest of us." What? I''m calling bullshit on that! "The sorcerers draw their powers from us and the Gods of other dimensions. They cannot use their powers against us." Quetzalcoatl said. "No god would ever allow it." [That''s some interesting information.] I wasn''t aware that was the case. That explained why she never took down the Olympians herself despite the amount of damage they were doing. I''d have to ask her about that later. There was a flash of thunder and Zeus was standing directly in front of Hela and I. He was now wearing a full set of Olympian armor. He spoke to Hela. "I wasn''t aware that Odin kicked the bucket. We always had an understanding, he and I. I don''t meddle in his affairs and he stays out of mine. As his daughter, shouldn''t you respect his wishes? Otherwise, you''ll be spitting on his memory!" I knew that was the exact wrong thing to say to Hela! She absolutely hated Odin and would like nothing more than to spit on his memory. Hela glared at Zeus. "I made a promise to myself that I would tear down Odins''s legacy! That includes any useless alliances that he forged." She said coldly. A black sword appeared in her hand and she pointed it at Zeus''s throat. "You will come one way or another. If the mortals of midgard can''t hold you prisoner, then you will find that Asgard''s cells can hold you just fine!" I immediately gained back all the MP I''d just used for my Burst and then some! I was overflowing with power! "Susanoo!" The familiar giant purple skeleton manifested around me. This time though, I wanted to go even further. I fed even more power into the construct surrounding me. -5000MP I didn''t care about the massive amounts of MP I was using. There were still a few thousands zombies left that were nothing more than batteries for me at this point. My Susanoo started to form translucent purple muscles, then flesh and finally armor. 10 purple wings appeared on her back. My construct took the form of a beautiful Angel of War. Another wave of zombies reached my Susanoo''s feet and tried to stab them. They were wasting their time though. They weren''t even close to strong enough to damage a fully manifested Perfect Susanoo. A giant purple foot was raised up before I slammed it downwards. Massive shockwave was released and the entire amphitheater started to crumble around us as cracks appeared in the stone foundations everywhere. +6467 MP Safely within my ultimate defense, I smirked at Poseidon and Hades. They were looking at me with shock and fear in their giant eyes. "Are we going to stand around all day, or are we going to fight?" I asked. The first to make a move was Poseidon. When he had grown bigger, so had his Trident. He pointed the towering weapon at me and a tsunami of ocean water burst forth! "Drown, you bitch!" The wave swept forward and it was at least twice as tall as my Susanoo was. The air around me exploded as my Susanoo''s ten gigantic wings flapped hard. I rocketed into the sky right over the massive torrent of water. It smashed through what was left of the amphitheater and proceeded to wash its way through the streets of Olympus. With a single attack, Poseidon had just destroyed around a quarter of the divine city. I could feel divine lives being snuffed out all around us. A bunch of lower Gods and Goddesses died from that attack. I could even hear the screams of the survivors from all around. Not that either Poseidon or Hades seemed to care. [Those gods will all just reform in Tartarus, anyway.] I raised my arm high and my Susanoo mirrored my actions perfectly. A giant purple spear started to form in her hand. It was dozens of meters long. -1000 MP I hurled it with all of my strength towards Poseidon. The air around us ignited from the force of my throw! Poseidon held up his giant trident to block my attack and meet it head on! BOOM! Posiedon grit his teeth as he tried to hold off my attack. I could see his watery muscles actually bursting from the strain as he held onto his trident for his life! I grinned. It was too much for him. His Trident was ripped out of his hands and went flying across Olympus. It ended up crashing on the other side of the city and demolishing a few more buildings. That wasn''t the only thing the God of the Seas lost though. Both of his hands had been ripped off as well from the force of my spear. The wound was also caused by my Light Energy, he wouldn''t be able to immediately heal it. "AAAAArrrrrgghh!" He screamed in pain while holding up his two arm stumps. "Hades, help me!" The shadowy form of Hades glanced at me momentarily and then glanced at his brother''s miserable condition. "I''m sorry brother. Our triumvirate ends here!" Hades quickly grabbed Poseidon. My eyes widened when he heaved his own brother upwards and threw him directly at me! XXX The flailing giant form of Poseidon came hurtling upwards directly at me! "Damn you, Hades!" Poseidon shouted angrily! My Susanoo punched downwards and slammed Poseidon back towards the ground. Another massive crater was added to the scenery when he hit the ground. Hades had used Poseidon as a distraction and chose that moment to escape. I couldn''t sense him anywhere nearby. He was gone... "Fuck..." I cursed out loud. I let one of the Big Three escape! I just knew that he was going to cause all kinds of problems for me later if he wasn''t caught quickly! I didn''t want another one to get away so I rapidly dove downwards towards where Poseidon crashed. He was in the middle of groggily standing up when my Susanoo crashed on top of him, feet first! Both feet landed on his giant head and slammed him back into the ground! "You stay down!" I yelled and proceeded to violently stomp on his head a few more times for good measure. What was left of the city trembled with every impact. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A few more hits to his head and Poseidon completely stilled. His Divine Form¨Cwhich wasn''t that impressive all things considered¨Cended up disappearing and he was reduced back to regular human size. I let out a giggle and my Susanoo faded away. Who knew curb stomping a God into unconsciousness could be so fun? Maybe some of Hela''s sadistic tendencies were rubbing off on me... I quickly conjured a black metal collar and placed it around his neck. I then opened a portal towards one of SHIELD''s holding cells and tossed the unconscious god directly inside. With Hades in the wind and Poseidon taken care of, I headed towards Hela. I could feel her clashing with Zeus off in the distance. They were fighting outside the city itself. I saw a battlefield covered in scorch marks and thousands upon thousands of black swords. A giant wreathed in Golden Lighting was currently facing off against a woman that he dwarfed comparatively. Despite that, it was the giant that was grievously wounded. Zeus''s Divine Form was covered in cuts and gouges while Hela only looked winded. "You push me too far, Hela! Do you want to invoke a war between our Pantheons!?" Zeus bellowed loudly. He was holding his side which was bleeding golden blood profusely. Hela scoffed and held her hand high in the air. A black sword the size of a skyscraper manifested above the ruined battlefield. "You are a fool of a king. This was the war, you oaf! Your side just lost!" The towering blade crashed directly on top of Zues. Thunder blasted off of his form as he held up his arms and tried to hold back her attack. He was far too wounded to stop it though. The gigantic black sword smashed into Zeus and crushed him into the ground! THRUM! Another wave of power swept across the skies of olympus. The skies overhead dimmed much more than when the first God was slain earlier. Quest Failed! Wait...What!? I failed the quest!? ''What do you mean Quest failed!'' [You were supposed to capture the Big Three. Hades escaped and Hela just killed Zues. You only captured Poseidon. For that, you can have one Level Up... Out of pity.] You have Leveled Up! I pouted... I had never failed a quest before. Losing out on two levels wasn''t a massive deal though. I flew down towards Hela and landed next to her. She was breathing heavily from all the power she just used putting down Zues. "You look hot covered in all that sweat." I said. Hela grinned at me. "Do I?" "You do." I said. "Too bad we can''t have our after battle celebration just yet." I whined. We still had the rest of Olympus to clean up... Although... The majority of the city was destroyed and I would bet that most of the Gods probably fled as soon as they felt Zues die. I hadn''t seen any Gods like Apollo, Athena or even Hera since we had gotten here. I wondered where they were? There were suddenly two flashes of golden light in front of Hela and I. Two women appeared before us. One of them was a very beautiful regal woman and the other was a very cute shorter girl. Hela stiffened up next to me when they appeared. She casually put herself in front of me as if to protect me. [Hera: Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth - Level 55] [Hestia: Goddess of Home and Hearth - Level 83] What. The. Fuck!? Hestia is level 83!? That means her Divine Form would be Level 93! She would wipe the floor with us! "There is no need to be alarmed." Hestia said with a small smile. "I don''t like fighting. In my whole existence, the amount of times I had to fight can be counted on a single hand. I only came to speak with our two conquerors." I breathed a sigh of relief. Hera turned her head towards the towering sword that had taken Zeus''s life. "Is my husband truly dead? Am I truly free of him at last..." She muttered. "He is very dead." I said. "Hela is the Queen of Asgard and its Goddess of Death. Zues''s soul is already with Lady Death herself no doubt." I answered. "I see..." Hera trailed off. "And what is to become of us now?" She said while looking off towards the ruined city. "Well, nothing is going to happen to Hestia. As for you...um...you''re under arrest." I held out a black collar towards her. Hera''s eyes widened at my statement. XXX chapters 201-205 chapters 201-205 A/N:There is a short r-18 near the beginning. ... Another week later... I woke up in my own bed after a good night''s sleep. The last few days had been tedious and I needed to get some sleep for my mental health. After I had arrested a shocked Hera, we had to go around Olympus collecting any stragglers. Surprisingly, most of the Greek Gods had chosen not to flee like Hades had. Hela and I were able to round up most of the big names. Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena, Haepestus, Hermes and Demeter. With the black collars placed firmly around each of their necks, they were powerless to escape. SHIELD would be in charge of setting up trials for each of them. Whether those trials went out to the general public or not was still up for debate. The world knew about the Supernatural, but I didn''t know if the people of the world were ready to know how they had been preyed upon for eons now by Higher Beings. [There will be riots if they find out.] On that point, I agreed. I didn''t wake up alone this morning. Two women that I adored were snuggled up next to me. On my left was Natasha and on my right was Sif. Being the trained spy that she was, Natasha was awake and alert as soon as I started moving around. Her eyes locked with mine and a small smile adorned her face. "Good morning, gorgeous." I said to her. "I love waking up next to you." "Good morning, Layla. I love waking up next to you too." She leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on my lips. Natasha had officially moved in now. Whenever she wasn''t away on missions, she would be here. Needless to say, my other lovers who couldn''t live with me currently were jealous. Sif wanted to live with me full time as well, but she was loyal to Asgard and spent a lot of time there helping train the troops for the impending war. Sif was still asleep. She had had a hard week. The aforementioned troops of Asgard needed a lot of work. Charging things head on with a big sword was pretty much the only tactic any of the new recruits knew. According to Sif, the men of Asgard were very stubborn and prideful. They didn''t want to learn other "cowardly tactics." I now understood why Loki thought he ruled over a kingdom of idiots. He kind of did... I sat up and the sheets slid off my body. I gave Natasha a wink when I saw her eyes lock onto my bare chest. "I''m going to take a shower. Want to join me?" I asked her. Natasha scoffed as she sat up. "Will this shower of yours take over an hour and require me to take a second shower?" "It might..." I said with a grin. She hopped out of the bed and stretched a bit. Since I only slept naked, naturally my two partners wanted to do the same. My eyes immediately raked over her own beautiful form as she stretched in front of me. I loved being a Fallen Angel. No matter how many times I saw a beautiful woman naked, it was always amazing. Natasha rolled her eyes but she followed me into the shower anyway. (R-18) "Oh my god, Layla! That feels so good!" Natasha gasped in pleasure. She was leaning back against the shower wall with warm water trailing down her supple body. Layla was kneeling between her spread legs licking at her folds. Layla thought that Natasha tasted absolutely amazing. In fact, all the women did for her. It was one of the Perks of being a Fallen Angel with the Sin of Lust. Layla flicked her tongue back and forth across Natasha''s pussy lips. Natasha gasped again. Her hands settled on the back of Layla''s head as her lover ate her out with glee. Layla loved the sounds that her lover was making. Natasha was writhing and moaning and it was all because of her! Layla moved her hand up and settled her thumb directly over Natasha''s clit. She slowly started to rub circles around it with her digit. Natasha''s hips bucked and she let out a loud gasp. Layla giggled and started rubbing a bit faster. She stuck out her tongue and decided to directly attack Natasha''s core at the same time. Layla found Natasha''s hole and stuck her tongue directly inside. "Fuck, Layla!" Natasha moaned loudly. She could feel Layla''s tongue push directly inside her. When it started to wriggle around and directly lick her inner folds, Natasha started to lose it. "Oh my god! That feels so good!" Natasha gasped loudly. Layla continued to lick directly inside of her redhead lover while her thumb started to furiously rub Natasha''s clit. Natasha''s legs were violently shaking around Layla''s head at this point. "Laaaaaayla!" Natasha moaned her name in ecstasy. "I''m going to cum! I''m cumming!" Layla felt Natasha gril the back of her head tightly before the other woman started to moan very loudly! A massive orgasm ripped through Natasha''s body. Layla even prolonged it by not stopping her licking the whole time Natasha climaxed! Natasha wasn''t sure how long she came for, but it was one of the longest and orgasms she''d ever had. When she started to come down from her high, she glanced down with flushed cheeks. Layla was still kneeling between her legs and smiling up at her. Natasha figured that Layla''s face would be soaked from her orgasm if they weren''t already in the shower. "That was fantastic..." Natasha said with a sigh. Layla stood up and kissed Natasha on the cheek. "I''m glad you liked it. We''re not done yet though! We''re only 10 minutes into our hour-long shower so far!" (R-18 End) XXX Natasha was taking a few more minutes to freshen up after our shower. She wouldn''t be joining me today anyway. She had spy stuff to do later. I checked up on Sif and she was still out cold as well. I slipped on a simple Jean/T-shirt combo and headed into the kitchen. My penthouse has changed a whole lot over the past few days. It was completely unrecognizable from how it had been. My newest roommates were the cause of that. For one thing, the walk to the kitchen was now twice as long... My penthouse''s interior size had been magically expanded five times over. "Good morning, everyone!" I said as I stepped into the kitchen. This room was now three as big and had almost every appliance necessary for the ultimate kitchen. "Morning, Layla!" Asia called out to me. She was sitting at the counter eating some pancakes. Heather Potter was sitting next to her. She had moved in as well now that all the girls were officially in school. They were going to Bayville High, which was Jean Grey''s school. "G''mornin..." Heather mumbled with some food in her mouth and a tired expression. She probably stayed up too late watching TV or something. I''d have to tell her to cut back on that. Thankfully, I was no longer in charge of watching all these teens on my own¨Cwith the occasional SHIELD Agent helping. Someone else was here to help! "Good morning." The Olympian Goddess Hestia said from behind the stove. "Come and sit. I am making breakfast today." "You''ve made breakfast every day since you came." I replied. Hestia blushed a bit. "I like doing it. It''s nice...not being alone anymore." After I had destroyed Olympus, Hestia showed up at my doorstep and demanded to move in with me. She claimed that I had destroyed her home and I owed her a new one. It''s not like anyone was able to say no to her considering her absurdly OP level. She turned out to be pretty great to live with anyway. She was a great cook and the house felt warmer with her here. After she moved in, and with my permission, Hestia started using magic to expand my Penthouse. We now had over a dozen extra rooms along with a lot more entertainment rooms. We had a full size Olympic swimming pool on the top floor now! I also really enjoyed having Hestia here because she could watch over the girls whenever I went off on one of my crazy escapades for days on end. Very few threats would be getting by her as one of the strongest beings in the world. "Good morning, niece." Hestia called out without turning around. I turned and saw another one of my newest housemates. Artemis was now living here as well. And she was now my maid... No, I was not kidding. Artemis was currently wearing a very real black and white french maid outfit with silver highlights. I personally loved seeing the former haughty Goddess in it. It was like I had my own Grayfia! I had acquired my own Tsundere Silver haired maid...life was good. Artemis had been released into my custody. SHIELD didn''t even want her back considering how many other Gods they currently had in lock up. Also, Artemis''s supposed crimes were some of the hardest to prove anyway. It wasn''t worth SHIELD''s time. She''d never harmed a Demigod either. She had allegedly killed quite a few men over the years. All those men were women abusers though... I couldn''t exactly point a finger of judgment at her over that considering I dumped two wannabee rapists in Antarctica to freeze to death just last week. "Hi, Artemis. Are you doing better?" I asked her. Being cut off from her powers had been rough on her. She was looking much better than her deranged state last week. Those Agardian healers knew what they were doing. Artemis didn''t meet my eyes. "Hmph. I''m doing fine, thank you." She walked over to Hestia''s station and quickly grabbed a plate of food. She brought it over and set it down right in front of me. "Here''s your food!" She said with a cute bit of attitude. "Thank you, Artemis. You look lovely in that outfit." I said while smiling at her. A small blush formed on her cheeks before she scoffed and walked back over to Hestia. She helped her wash the dishes with cleaning magic. "Can you take us to school, Layla? Akeno already left with her girlfriend." Asia asked when she finished eating. Akeno was supposed to be in charge of teleporting the girls there. Heather didn''t have her ring because she wasn''t a full sorceress yet. "Sure I can take you, but you''re still going to have your guards around the campus." The SHIELD agents were still routinely watching over Asia. She''d healed hundreds of their agents so far and cured a few dozen of them that had life changing injuries even. She was basically the agency''s little idol at this point. Both of the girls had gone upstairs to get ready while I waited in the kitchen. Artemis poured me a cup of coffee while I waited. The caffeine didn''t really do anything for my biology but I enjoyed the ambiance of drinking it in the morning. I heard someone coming down the hall and saw that it was the final new roommate. Yes, there was one final person who had decided to move in to my surprise. "Good morning, Frigga." XXX Frigga, the former Queen of Asgard had also moved in. There were a couple reasons for that. One, was so that she could be closer to Asia who had become her magical apprentice. We had decided that having Asia travel back and forth to Asgard during potential wartime was too dangerous. Another reason was that she wanted to be closer to her own son Thor who was currently living on Earth...and her future grandchild. A purple skeleton wrapped itself around all three of us. The car impacted directly against the giant ribcage and promptly exploded in a ball of flames. The interior of the restaurant was ripped to shreds. Pretty much everything was busted or on fire. "Are you OK, Frigga?" I asked her. "I''m fine. Thank you for the save. That would have hurt." Frigga said while looking at the burning wreckage around us. She was only Level 42 after all. Her level had slowly been rising ever since Odin fell. It seemed like he was suppressing her powers for some reason when I first met her. Possibly so she didn''t overthrow him? "I''m fine too, thanks for asking." Hestia pouted. I laughed. I wasn''t worried about Hestia. She could probably tank a nuke to the face. She currently looked cool as a cucumber and was munching on her biscuit. My Susanoo disappeared and the three of us stepped out of the remains of the Cafe. I was surprised that we didn''t hear any screaming from people nearby. An explosion like that should have drawn quite a bit of attention. Everyone nearby really was gone. I was also wondering who was strong enough to throw an entire car at us? A group of four people walked up to us. I only recognized one of them, and even then, I had only met him once briefly. As for the other three, they vaguely resembled their actors from my previous life. Jessica Jones - Level 26 Danny Rand - Level 20 Luke Cage - Level 33 Matt Murdock - Level 19 "You have got to be shitting me..." I mumbled in disappointment. I thought we were about to get attacked by somebody cool. "Do you recognize these four?" Frigga asked me. "It''s the Marvel B-team..." I said in disappointment. "B-team?" Frigga repeated. "What is that?" "Imagine the world''s mightiest heroes. Me, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, The Hulk, and a few other awesome heroes. Imagine we''re off on an awesome mission saving the world. These are the guys that are left behind holding down the fort..." I said with a deadpan while gesturing forward. Frigga snorted. "So these are basically the Midgardian version of the Warrior''s Three then? Why are they attacking us?" She asked. I had no idea. I tried calling out to them to find out. "Why are you all attacking us? And Danny, you never gave me a call about The Hand!" I added. None of them responded to me. They just stared blankly forwards. They weren''t even really looking at us. Clap, Clap, Clap... A man emerged from a nearby alley behind the four of them. He was walking slowly while clapping. [What a drama queen...] Whoever this guy was, he was just waiting in that dirty alley for me to ask that question so he could come out dramatically... Zebediah Killgrave - Level 15 The man finished his slow clapping and smiled at us. "Exquisite! You are truly exquisite, Layla of the Fallen! The moment I saw you one TV for the first time, I knew I had to have you! I knew that you were strong though, so I assembled a small team to face you. They are quite the resilient force I assure you." He said while gesturing to the group of four in front of him. First of all, did this guy not just here me call them the B-Team? Second of all, he was here for me!? In this D-list villain''s dreams! "You have all of them under mind control?" Frigga asked him. Killgrave grinned wickedly. He snapped his fingers dramatically. "You got it in one, beautiful! I have no idea who you are, but you''re a perfect specimen too. I''ll be adding you to my collection as well. Along with that short cute girl behind you!" He said and finally pointed to Hestia. [How is this idiot even alive!?] Hestia was just standing behind us munching on some more biscuits. His Level was so far under her radar that she probably placed him on the same level as an amoeba. He mistakenly took our silence as fear and grinned at us wickedly. He spread his arms wide. "The name''s Killgrave! I''m the man that gets whatever he wants in this world! No one can resist my charms!" "..." The awkward silence was palpable after that introduction. "Damn, I wish we took Artemis with us now. She could have permanently turned this loser into a goat or something." I said. Hestia giggled. "Artemis stopped turning people into goats a few hundred years ago. Zeus kept having sex with them." "...What?" [...What?] That''s a horrifying picture I''ll never get out of my mind! Killgrave glared at us when we started ignoring him. He pointed to the three of us with a scowl. "Get them slaves! I will have these women!" "Do you want to fight or should I?" I asked Frigga. Frigga blushed. "I''ll admit that I''m currently a bit out of shape. I''ll let you do the fighting..." I shrugged and stepped forwards to see what the B-team could offer. It wasn''t much... The first one to run towards us was Daredevil. He ran up to me and tried to punch me in the face. I didn''t even bother dodging his punch. His fist struck my cheek and I heard a crunching noise. He broke his hand on my face. That''s about what I expected to happen. He has super senses, but he doesn''t have super strength. Daredevil stumbled backwards while clutching his broken hand in pain. Killgrave scowled. "Ironfist! Show her the power on K''un Lun! Aren''t you the greatest warrior!?" Danny Rand ran forward and his right hand glowed golden. He threw out what I suspected was his strongest punch. I raised my hand to catch the blow. A loud bang echoed across the small street we were in. -1 HP Daredevil clutched his ears in pain and fell to the floor from the loud noise. "The power of the Iron Fist...is lacking." I said honestly. My hand stung a tiny bit, bit that was all. That 1 HP replenished instantly. I swung my own hand and lightly slapped Danny across the head. He collapsed to the floor unconscious... Or he was dead... I didn''t really care either way. I could just revive him if I accidentally killed him. Killgrave was now scowling at me furiously. "Attack her together!" He commanded. Luke Cage and Jessica charged forwards at the same time. They had the highest levels and I was hoping they''d put up a slightly better struggle than the first two guys did. The street cracked under Luke Cage as the large man rushed at me. His large fist swung downwards and I raised my arm to block it. -5 HP The ground cracked under my feet from the force of his hit. I''d put his strength somewhere in the 100s. He wasn''t bad honestly. He tried to punch me again, but I struck my leg forwards and kicked him hard in the stomach. His body folded inwards and he went flying backwards into the building in front of me. His body slammed into the bricks and left a cartoonish indent into the wall. Jessica tried to kick me in the side but I caught her foot mid kick. Her strength was higher than Iron Fist, but lower than Luke''s was. I was more gentle when I knocked her unconscious. I pointed my finger at her temple and knocked her out with a small pulse of Light Energy. [I''m sure that has nothing to do with here being a pretty girl...] I will shamelessly admit that it absolutely did. Killgrave was now the last guy standing. He was looking around in shock that his elite team got bodied in under 30 seconds. He stomped his foot on the ground like a child. "NO! NO, NO, NO! You can''t be this strong!" He yelled pitifully. "And why haven''t my pheromones worked on you yet! We''re close enough that you should be under my control by now!" He spat out. That was his whole gimmick if I recalled. He could mind control anyone who breathed in his pheromones. That was a gross ability and I had actually been holding my breath this whole time. Even though I knew it couldn''t work on me, I still didn''t want to breathe in anything that came from this creep... I raised my hand and prepared to summon a Lightspear to finish this guy off. Before I could though, Hestia passed by me and walked forwards towards Killgrave. "I thought you didn''t like fighting, Hestia?" I called out behind her. "This isn''t fighting." Hestia replied without turning around. Instead of running away, Killgrave actually stood there in confusion as Hestia placed her hand on him. There was a flash of golden light and I had to momentarily shut my eyes. "Baaaaaaaaah!" [No way! She didn''t...] When I opened my eyes, Killgrave was no longer in front of Hestia. In his place was a very confused goat that was screaming loudly. Hestia turned back to us and smiled. "Too bad my little brother is dead now..." She said with a shrug before she started giggling. I rolled my eyes at her dark humor while looking around. I now had four unconscious sort-of superheros to deal with. I couldn''t exactly leave them here all battered and bruised. I let out a sigh... XXX chapters 206-210 chapters 206-210 "Hello my former lawyer, fancy seeing you here." I said as Matt Murdock groggily sat up with his eyes closed. He clutched his head. "Layla? What am I doing out here?" He asked without looking around. "You got mind controlled by a B-Rate supervillain rapist who wanted to use you to capture me." I said. When I mentioned the R-word Matt had a look of panic on his face. He reached down towards his own butt... I laughed at his expression. "Relax. He only went after women." I told him. I think... Matt sighed out in relief. "Thank you for freeing me...What happened to the villain?" I shrugged. "No idea. Hestia and Frigga took him away with them." I said honestly. Those two had taken off, after the scuffle, and headed back home. I asked Frigga to pick up the girls after school so I was free for the rest of the day! [Weren''t you going to talk to Heather about the whole ''mom'' thing? You''re just having Frigga pick them up to put off that conversation aren''t you?] ''...No...'' How could the System think I would do something like that? I''m a powerful Fallen Angel who has faced down zombie armies and even killed a Demon King! How could I be nervous about motherhood!? [Uh huh.] ''Whatever! We''ll talk about this later! Matt''s looking at me weird because I''m talking to you in my head!'' I thought and ended the conversation with the System. "Frigga and Hestia? OK then..." Matt said in confusion. He had no idea who Frigga or Hestia were obviously. "What''s with the other three people?" He asked while pointing to Jessica, Danny and Luke still passed out on the ground nearby. I told him that I know he wants to keep his secret identity so I woke him up separately from the rest of them. He thanked me for that. "I think I''ll be heading back home now." Matt said while standing up. "Thanks for not going too hard on me when I was mind controlled." I waved him off. "Oh no, I did. You had a solid concussion and a broken hand. I had to heal you before I woke you up. You should be good as new! Good as new everywhere in fact!" I bragged while placing my hands on my hips. All of his aches and pains from fighting and training over the years should be healed as well. My Purger of Darkness was awesome like that! Matt chuckled. "Good as knew huh?" He flexed his hand. "I feel pretty good actually. I''ll see you around, Layla." He said. "Was that a blind joke?" I asked with a giggle. Matt laughed as well. "I suppose it was." For the first time so far he opened his eyes. I''d never actually seen his eyes before since he always wore sunglasses over them. They didn''t look clouded at all. In fact, they looked perfectly fine. [Uh, oh...] Matt paused for a second. He was looking directly at my face for some reason... A look of shock overcame him! "I¨CI can see!" "WHAT!?" [Well, you certainly made him ''good as new'' everywhere...] I accidentally cured his blindness, didn''t I... "I can see!" He repeated in shock! Matt started to rapidly hyperventilate. His now working eyes became a flurry of movement as they rapidly moved everywhere, taking in every single sight around him. His panicked breathing picked up before his eyes finally settled back on my face. "...You''re beautiful..." He mumbled before his eyes rolled backwards and he collapsed. I ran forwards and caught him before his head smacked against the hard concrete under us. "Thanks for the compliment, but I''m not into guys." I sighed as I set him back down on the ground. [He''s unconscious again. Back to square one.] I was not expecting that to happen. When I was healing his concussion, I had honestly completely forgotten about the possibility of my Sacred Gear being able to heal his blindness. [He didn''t seem to lose his other powers though. He was still able to recognize you with his eyes closed at first.] That was a good thing at least. I''d hate for him to have to stab his new eyes out again just to have his powers back. That would have been a morbid sight... With Matt once again passed out, I decided to just portal him back to his home. Where was that again? [Do you even know where he lives?] ''Why would I know where he lives?'' [Just send him back to his Law Office then. Foggy will take care of him.] ''Good idea, System.'' I thought. I opened a portal to Nelson and Murdock and nonchalantly tossed Matt inside before closing the portal. No doubt, Foggy will be incredibly confused when he finds his friend passed out with his blindness cure. That wasn''t my problem though. I looked back down at the three remaining people. Now I had to deal with the other three B-Team heroes... Honestly, I did not want to... Jessica was a raging alcoholic with tons of issues. Danny was some weird cultural appropriation fake monk. And Luke...actually he was pretty chill. I remember liking his show a lot in my past life. I would be fine talking with him¨Cif the other two weren''t here too. [No one said you have to deal with them personally. You already did your part and saved them. You can always dump the clean up on someone else now!] I smiled connivingly. The system was right! I could dump the problem on someone else. A certain one eyed man¨Cwho''s blindness I could also cure now that I thought about it. I''d bring it up to him later in the future. I opened a portal to SHIELD''S HQ! More specifically, Fury''s office. One by one, I dumped the three people through my portal before closing it again. I dusted off my hands. "That was a job well done if I do say so myself! Now then, what should I do with the rest of my free day?" I wondered out loud. XXX "Hey, Penemue! How''s our company going?" I asked as I stepped out of a portal into her private office. "Our company is doing fine. Our stock is high and our margins look good this term." Penemue was sitting behind her desk and a familiar hot blond woman was standing in front of her holding a stack of papers. She set them down and turned around. "Hi, Emma? Have you upped your flirting game yet?" I asked her teasingly. She had tried to seduce me to help her when we first met, but I was far too experienced to fall for that. Emma scoffed. "Hmph, I''ll have you know that my flirting skills are amazing! Maybe one day your skills might even match mine if you practice." She said confidently. "Layla already has her own harem..." Penemue said bluntly to her. Emma spun around and gaped at my sister before turning back to me. "A¨Ca harem!? For real?" She asked in genuine surprise. I smirked at her while nodding. "Yep! I have two Goddesses, A Youkai Queen, the world''s sexiest and deadliest spy, and one other perfect woman I won''t mention." I listed off with my fingers. I only used one hand to count...I would have to up my game! ''What kind of respectable harem only has five women in it?'' [You are a degenerate...] ''I''m just kidding. I care about all of my harem members.'' I won''t say that I love them all equally just yet, because I haven''t been able to spend enough time with all of them. I''d only met Lady Death twice after all in person. "Five women!? And two of them are Goddesses?" She asked in surprise. "Other Gods are real?" I was going to answer her but my sister interrupted first. "Speaking of Gods? How did your little scuffle with Olympus go?" Penemue asked me. "It went pretty good. Zeus is now very dead. Hestia is now the den mother of my home, and Artemis is my maid." I replied nonchalantly. Penemue nodded calmly to my statement. I guessed that she was completely used to the craziness that was my life at this point. Me announcing the death of a God like Zeus would usually draw a bigger reaction from someone. "W¨Cwait!? You killed Zeus! Like¨CThe Zeus!?" Emma asked in shock. "Isn''t that like a big deal!?" Like that. Once again I was going to answer her but Penemue cut me off again. This time it was with a sly little grin. She absolutely knew what she was doing. "So what brings you here today, little sister? Are you here to actually manage your own company?" Penemue asked me. "There''s quite a bit of paperwork I could use your help with if you''re interested?" She waved her hand over her desk and a pile of papers two feet tall manifested in front of her! "This is all the paperwork that needs to be looked over by the end of the day." Emma stopped her foot and pouted cutely at being ignored. I blanched at all the papers on Penemue''s desk. I didn''t know if those were real or not and I didn''t want to stick around long enough to find out! I started backing away slowly. "I actually came to tell you that I was planning on visiting Earth DxD and seeing Azazel. I wanted to know if you wanted to go back there for a while?" I asked her. This was going to be his final healing session and then he''d be good as new! Penemue pondered for a second before she sadly shook her head. "I''d love to go see Azazel, but things here are just too hectic right now. We just let go of a bunch of our useless divisions and I''m in the process of replacing them with actual competent scientists." "Azazel!?" Emma asked out loud again. "He works for Shaw! Why would you want to see him?" Penemue waved her hand flippantly. "Different Azazel. My Azazel is obviously more handsome and cool than some poser fake devil who''s only power is teleporting." She said dismissively. "Teleporting is a really dangerous power..." Emma muttered to herself mostly. "Not really for us. Every single Angel learns to teleport at some point." I said to her before turning to Penemue. I started backing away slowly while eyeing all that horrible paperwork warily. "...I''ll just leave the paperwork to you. You look like you''ve got it all covered. Is everything good with the other major shareholders?" Penemue told me that everything was fine on that front. Apparently, we had been invited to Wakanda and Latveria as special guests. We had an open invitation to go whenever we wanted. We hadn''t heard back from whoever Mr Li''s employer was yet though. "Before you go, why don''t you take Emma with you. She''s supposed to be YOUR new secretary after all." Penemue pointed out to me. Emma looked excited. "I''ve heard about the other Earth from Penemue. I''d love to see it!" She said. I shrugged and told her it was fine if she wanted to come. She should get to know Grigori if she has decided to work for me. I didn''t expect this trip to be anywhere near as exciting as she was thinking it would be though. "Oh no, the handsome one here is clearly you!" Azazel Alter responded. "I think we''re both amazingly handsome now that I think about it!" "You know, I can''t help but agree with you there!" "Naruhodo! You''re a true man of culture..." "As are you..." [Oh god! There''s literally two of them! Make them stop!] I snapped my finger and a small sized portal appeared over both of their heads. Water from the Arctic Ocean spilled out and completely soaked both of them before they gave me a migraine. The freezing waters shut them both up real quickly. Emma sighed in relief next to me. "You know, I was almost wishing the evil mutant Azazel was the one we were talking to there. He would have somehow been less annoying." Both Azazels were sputtering in indignation and were shivering for a second until their Supernatural bodies naturally adjusted to the freezing temperatures. "Rude, Littlest Sister. Very rude..." Azazel muttered as he used some magic to dry himself off. "Anyway, where were we? Oh right!" Azazel explained how he was in his lab a few days ago when a portal, similar to my own, manifested. At first, he thought it was me coming through. He was surprised when he saw it was another version of himself. The two of them naturally hit it off because they were literally the same person. "So, are there any differences between our two universes?" I asked curiously? Azazel and Alter turned and looked at each other sheepishly. "Uh... We didn''t really talk about any of that." Azazel said. "We''ve just been doing science and Sacred Gear experiments these past few days." I facepalmed. My brother meets an alternate version of himself and instead of asking each other any important questions, they just decided to play together for days on end... "Well, now that your Littlest Sister has brought it up, I am a bit curious." Azazel Alter said. "Tell me something interesting about your world." He said to me. "Father was scared of the Celestials, after they destroyed planet Asgard, so he ripped the world in two. With the help of a few other Gods, he sealed half of the world away beyond the dimensional gap. We''re currently in the Underworld of that sealed world." I said. Azazel Alter was gaping at me in shock. "Father did what!? Ripped the world in two!? How? Why? How!?" "You asked how twice." Emma said. "Because it deserves to be asked twice! How the hell does he rip the planet in two without killing everyone on it!? And then he sealed it beyond the dimensional gap? What about Great Red or Ophis? Wouldn''t they have a problem with that?" He asked again. "Them?" Azazel said. "I don''t know what happened to them. No one''s seen hide nor hair of either of those two for...1000 years now that I think about it. Huh? Isn''t that a coincidence?" He asked himself out loud. Now that I thought about it, I''d never heard about those two Super Dragons either. Their existence just never came up. Clearly they existed in my Universe though according to Azazel. Did the ritual Father used end up doing something to the two of them? I suppose we would only be able to find out once the world''s were merged again. Azazel Alter rubbed his head. "Wow... that''s certainly something. I guess our two worlds might be a bit more different than I would have thought. I have no idea what a Celestial even is. Anything else?" He asked. "Do your Universe''s Devil''s eat human souls routinely?" I asked. I was starting to wonder if he was from a Universe close to canon. His eyes widened in shock! "What!? Of course not! D¨Cdo they do that here?" He asked with a bit of trepidation. Me and Azazel''s collective grimaces were enough to answer that question. "Wow, your Universe is a lot more dangerous apparently. We''re actually in the process of forming a peace treaty with the Devil''s. I don''t think we could do that if they still did that though..." Azazel Alter trailed off. Azazel nodded. "Yeah, we''re drafting a peace treaty with them as well. In reality, we''re just building up our strength to the point where we can crush them! We''re already allied with Heaven, thanks to Layla''s existence here, but a battle between us all would still be too close for comfort at this time." Azazel Alter looked at me in surprise when my brother mentioned how we were allied with Heaven already. We spent the next few minutes discussing the differences between our two Universes. And while Azazel Alter was growing increasingly horrified by all the Marvel things I mentioned, I was growing more excited. He was describing a DxD world that sounded incredibly similar to Canon. I really wanted to see it! "Can we go to your Universe?" I asked him. "What!?" Emma turned to me. "We just traveled to an alternate dimension and now you want to run off to another Universe? I thought you were going to show me around this dimension?" I waved her off. "We can do that anytime. How often does an opportunity like this come up?" I asked her. "Pretty often for you because your Orb of Anywhere can let you travel across Universes whenever you want. You''re welcome for that by the way..." Azazel muttered. He was still a bit miffed that he hadn''t been able to recreate the Orb without the Eye of that Eldritch Being. "Cmon. Let''s go! It sounds fun!" I said excitedly. I could finally meet sexy Devil''s that weren''t pure evil! [And there''s the real reason you want to go...] ''I have other reasons!'' I thought defensively! [Do any of them involve avoiding Heather?] ''I''m not avoiding her!'' [Sure you''re not...] I wasn''t going to take that from my own System. I''d prove it wrong. ''You know what, it''s the weekend anyway, I''ll pull her and Asia out of school and they can come with us!'' I came to a decision. Heather seemed to like my last adventure and I knew that Asia was feeling left out since she hadn''t been on one yet. Now that I thought about it, I was liking this idea more and more. I''ll bring them over right now! [Wait Host! They''re still in class!] I opened up two portals in the air nearby. Two teenage girls ended up falling through them and landing on their butts nearby. "Eeeeep!" "What the hell!" Asia and Heather exclaimed at the same time. Heather immediately stood up and had her wand out¨Cready to fight. "Alright you bastards! You want to kidnap me, in the middle of class! I won''t go down without a fight¨Coh it''s you..." Heather trailed off when she saw me smiling at her awkwardly. "Miss Layla? Why are we back in the Grigori?" Asia asked while taking in the familiar sights. She turned to Azazel and gave him a polite bow. She then bowed to the second Azazel without missing a beat or even questioning his existence. [She''s too nice and accepting for this world.] Is that the church''s Holy Maiden?" Azazel Alter asked us. "Why is she with you?" He asked me. I shrugged. "It''s a long story that ends in the Devils are bastards." He nodded in acceptance of that answer. "That tells me nothing and everything at the same time. You want to bring them with us?" He asked. "Bring us where?" Heather asked demandingly. "Do you realize that you just teleported us out of the middle of class. You probably just caused a panic!" [I tried to warn you, Host.] "It''s fine. I''ll leave Natasha a note and she can explain it to your teachers. SHIELD pretty much runs Baxter High anyway." I said casually. "What!?" Heather squeaked in surprise. "The school is run by a secret spy agency!?" "It''s the only public High School in the country that openly accepts mutant students. Of course it''s secretly run by SHIELD. All of your teachers are probably trained agents." I said. Heather scrunched her face. "You know...Our math teacher is in really good shape now that I think about it." "Our English teacher knows Kung Fu!" Asia said excitedly! "He does? How did you find that out?" Heather asked her. "I asked him." Asia replied. "Why would you just randomly ask her¨Cyou know what, nevermind." Heather sighed. The girls I turned back to Azazel Alter with a grin. "OK, the girls are on board¨C" "We still don''t know where we''re going!" Heather cut in! "¨CWhen can we go?" I finished asking him. He scratched his cheek. "Um... We can go whenever. I suppose that I have been away for a few days and Penemue is probably going to throw a fit if I stay away any longer." He reached into a pocket space and pulled out a small round object. It resembled the original form of my Orb, but I could feel that it was much weaker. I didn''t know what he used as the Gear''s core, but it definitely wasn''t the same as my own. I''d ask him about it later. "So who is coming with?" He asked everyone. "Hmmm. I''m afraid I''ll pass for now. His Gear has given me some inspiration to finally finish recreating Layla''s Orb. It''d be nice to be able to travel without having to rely on her all the time." My Azazel said. "I''d rather not run off to a new Universe either. I don''t even have any supplies..." Emma said. "I''m technically supposed to be meeting members of the Grigori anyway, since I''m going to be your secretary, Layla. I''ll be staying here, if that''s alright?" She asked Azazel. "It''s fine with me. I''ve wanted to check out a mutant anyway. I wonder what makes the X-Gene tick?" Azazel said while checking out Emma. Not in the sexual way though. I smacked Azazel on the shoulder. "No dangerous experimenting on my super hot blond secretary!" I told him. Emma blushed at my outburst. Azazel laughed at my defensiveness. "Relax, all I need''s a small blood sample. And only if she''s fine with it?" Emma shrugged and said that she didn''t mind either way. So it was just me, Heather and Asia going to check out DxD canon. Asia was incredibly excited that I remembered to take her with me this time. Heather was trying to be a typical teenage girl and act indifferent, but I could tell she was also excited by her small grin. XXX chapters 211-215 chapters 211-215 "Welcome to my world, girls!" Azazel Alter said while spreading his arms wide. There wasn''t much of his world to see. We were back in another lab... "Everything looks pretty much the same as before." Heather said blandly while looking around. Azazel Alter slumped down hearing that and I snickered. His lab pretty much did look exactly the same as my brothers did. [If you''ve seen one mad scientist''s lab, you''ve seen them all apparently.] Except this one was messier. Penemue wouldn''t let our Azazel work in such a pigsty. She had standards after all. "Do you need any help cleaning?" Asia asked him kindly. This place was a mess and there was trash pretty much everywhere just the same. Azazel looked mortified hearing that. "No! I know where everything is right now! If it gets cleaned up then I''ll lose track of everything. Every item in my lab is strategically placed exactly where you see it." He said while nodding his head up and down sagely. "What''s the purpose of that old rotten banana peel?" Heather asked. "Or that half eaten meatball sandwich?" She then started pointing out all the other garbage scattered around as well and asking about them with a smirk on her face to rile him up. He coughed awkwardly. "Well...Almost everything." He quickly changed the subject. "You three are in a whole new world! You don''t want to stay in my boring lab do you? Go out and explore!" He said as he started pushing us towards the door. I thought it was weird he was just letting us go with no supervision, but then again it was Azazel... The layout of the building was different from my own Grigori Headquarters, but there were still signs to let people know where to go. It wasn''t hard to find our way to the cafeteria. Asia and Heather were hungry and wanted lunch because I had snatched the two of them before lunch time earlier. "It''s kind of weird that the cafeteria for an organization of Fallen Angels looks so much like a typical High School. Except the food is way better here." Heather said while munching on some chips. "Fallen Angels are the most tight knit of the three factions because we have the smallest population. Eating out in the open like this allows us to socialize more." I explained while looking around the place. There were a few dozen Fallen Angels eating in the cafeteria at the same time. Some of them were giving the three of us odd looks because they didn''t recognize us. At least they were nice enough to let us almost finish eating before a group of them decided to approach us. It was a group of three Fallen Angels that I vaguely recognized from my own Universe. I didn''t know their names though. There were still tens of thousands of us and I couldn''t remember everyone''s names after all. "Hello, beautiful. Did you just recently fall from Heaven? Because you can''t be anything other than an Angel." [Oh my God! He just said that!?] The man standing in the middle of the trio just delivered the most overused pickup line any female Fallen has ever heard. "Back off, you''re not good enough to date my mom¨CI mean Layla!" Heather said defensively for me. "She doesn''t like ugly guys like you anyway!" She hit him where it hurts. I wouldn''t say he was bad looking, but there were definitely many more handsome Fallen men than him. Also, I wanted to coo at how defensive Heather was being of me! It was adorable. "Ooooooohhh snap! Razuel just got rejected again!" "Heh, get wrecked loser!" "What kind of corny line was that anyway!?" for new novels A bunch of the other Fallen in the Cafeteria had started watching our interaction because they all had nothing better to do. They started shouting out rude or funny remarks towards the guy that Heather had just shut down for me. Some of their remarks had me giggling. It was just simple hazing, but the guy seemed to have a lot of pride and was taking it personally. Angels who fell because of pride were pretty rare, but they were also usually the most annoying to deal with... Everything always offended them. Razuel''s face was ashen. He glared at Heather. "And who are you to decide things for a Fallen Angel, human girl!?" He spat at her with a threatening tone. "Yeah! This woman would be lucky to date Razuel! He has six wings! He''s amazing!" One of his two lackeys egged Heather on. "He''s one of the Grigori''s top dogs!" The other added. [Pfft! Only six wings and he''s acting like some arrogant young master...] ''I''ve got to give him credit. He has a fantastic hype crew though.'' I thought. While they were distracted bragging about the guy, Heather slowly reached into her back pocket. She was probably going for her wand. She wasn''t the kind of girl to take anyone harassing her lying down. Curses were going to start flying soon unless I intervened. I noticed Asia shrink back a bit at the hint of a confrontation. I stood up and placed myself between the girls and the three Fallen Angels. Heather pouted, but slipped her wand back in her pocket. I turned to Razuel and took a deep breath... ...A very large and excited smile formed on my face. "Like oh my gosh! You''re the famous Razuel!? That''s like, sooooo amazing!" I cheered loudly while channeling the energy of fangirls everywhere! Nailed it! Damn, I''m a great actress! I heard Heather start choking behind me while Asia giggled. "..." "What the fuck!?" "This new girl is into him?" "Does she have no taste!?" Complaints echoed all around from the spectators. Raquel was scowling initially, but he immediately grinned like a peacock after I started praising him. If anything, he looked a bit taken aback by my enthusiasm but he decided to roll with it. "Y¨Cyes! I am the great Razuel! Six Winged Fallen Angel extraordinaire at your service, my lady~." He said in a manner he probably thought came off as suave. "Might I have your name?" "Me?" I pointed to myself while still smiling at him. Ten black wings popped out behind me and I let a hint of my power spill out. The smile on Razuel''s face vanished and a look of fear replaced it! "I''m Layla... And you will not speak to my adopted daughter like that ever again!" My smile switched to a glare as I took a threatening step towards him. Power rolling off me in waves. Gasps could be heard all around the cafeteria from all the spectators. "Holy fuck!" "Ten wings! Ha! She got us good!" "Razuel is a dead man!" He immediately took three steps back himself. "T¨CTen wings!? Y-you''re a new C-cadre?" He started backing away even more. "Are you going to apologize?" I asked him as my wings bristled. He quickly glanced at Heather behind me. "I am so sorry, young lady, for talking to you like that! I just remembered that I actually have somewhere else to be right now...Bye!" He turned around and immediately started running out of the cafeteria as fast as his legs could take him. His two lackys weren''t far behind him. Once the arrogant idiot left, my wings receded and I turned back to Heather and Asia. Heather had some small happy tears in her eyes! "You called me your daughter?" Heather ran up to me and hugged me tightly! "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I hugged her back. I don''t know what I was freaking out over earlier. This was nice. "Of course, Heather." "I''m happy for you two!" Asia said while Heather and I hugged. Heather didn''t let go of me for a few minutes. When she did though, I figured it was time for us to leave because we were all receiving a bunch of weird stares. And by "we," it was mostly just me. I did bust out my 10 wings right in the heart of this other world''s Grigori HQ after all. I probably freaked a lot of people out around here! No doubt, Azazel Alter was probably just sitting in his lab laughing his ass off as other Fallen freak out while trying to figure out where I came from. "So? Where should we explore first?" I asked the two girls. "We''re in a whole new world after all." I of course wanted to check out Kuoh at some point, but it seemed like we weren''t quite a canon yet so it might be pretty boring. "I want to see if this world has a Hogwarts!" Heather declared before pausing for a second. "...Maybe...my old friends are here?" I didn''t think this world would have one, but it wouldn''t hurt to take a look real quick. It would make my daughter happy at least. "I''d like to meet the other me...if that''s OK?" Asia asked. "The other Azazel said that she was still the church''s Holy Maiden." Asia told us that she wanted to meet the other girl and possibly warn her about the Devil plot before it was too late for that girl. I thought that was a very kind and amazing idea from her. [It also takes "looking out for yourself" to a whole new level...] "Let''s go to Hogwarts first and then we can go and check out the Vatican!" I said loudly. Nearby Fallen Angels blanched at my declaration. "What!?" "You can''t just check out the Vatican!" "You''ll restart the Great War!" A bunch of them started complaining at me! Shit...I forgot this was possibly canon DxD. Fallen Angels and Angels hated each other here...for some reason that was never fully explained beyond "Fallen Angels are dicks." Asia was frowning when she heard all of the complaints around us. She looked at me in concern for what we would do. I pat her head comfortingly. "Don''t worry Asia. We can just sneak in. And if we get caught? We''ll smash our way out!" I declared proudly. The only two who could really stop me were Gabriel and Michael anyway. The other twelve winged Angels such as Metatron and Rafael weren''t nearly as strong as those two were. "Let''s go see if your twin sister lives here then." I told her and approached the small worn down church. I had heard the description from her before, but the building they had her staying in really was hardly anything more than a shack. The rundown church in Kuoh was almost better...and that building had holes in it! "...You should be all healed now." We heard a very familiar voice say as we approached the door. "Thank you so much, my lady! I feel as good as new. Wait, I think I hear someone coming." A man''s voice called out from inside. It seemed we had been noticed. I shrugged and pushed open the doors. The squeaked and groaned loudly as Asia and I stepped inside. There were two people in the church. One was the spitting image of the girl next to me¨Cexcept she was still wearing her classic nun attire. ...The other was a man who looked to be around 20 years old¨Cwith green hair. The man''s eyes narrowed as Asia and I walked up to the pair of them. Asia Alter smiled at us warmly. "Hello, are you here for healing?" She asked us. I shook my head. "No, we were just here to stop by and chat if that''s alright." I told her while eyeing the green haired man wearily. Diodora Astaroth - Heir of the Astaroth Clan - Level 23 It seemed that we were too late to deliver a warning in time about him. [That''s just this girl''s fate. The church was never meant to hold her down apparently.] Asia Alter looked taken aback that we were just here to talk to her. "You came here just to talk with me?" She asked with a tinge of happiness. I could tell that she was suffering from the same type of loneliness that my Asia had been before moving in with me. "I have someone here who would like to meet you." I pushed my Asia forward. She took off the thick square fake glasses she had on her face and the baseball cap she was wearing to hide her hair. Asia Alter gasped when she saw an exact copy of herself standing next to me. I could even see a look of shock appear on Diodora''s face as well. "Hi Asia...I''m Asia too." "What the hell is going on here!?" Diodora questioned. "That''s not for you to know." I told him. "Why don''t you and I go and have a little chat outside. I can feel some other people approaching this church rapidly." I said. "If it''s all the same...I think I''ll just take my leave now." Diodora said warily. A green magic circle lit up underneath his feat. He was trying to teleport away. That shouldn''t have been possible here unless some traitor had keyed him into the wards! I cracked my knuckles. "Sorry. It''s not all the same." I blurred forward faster than he could react to and punched Diodora in the face! His head snapped backwards and a couple of teeth popped loose as he flew backwards and smashed into the dilapidated pews. Asia Alter squeaked in fright at the sudden violence. She was looking between me and the man she had just healed rapidly with concern. "Why did you do that?" "Sorry about that, Asia. I was just taking care of this Devil who was trying to trick you." I told her. "He was a Devil!?" She exclaimed in fright! "His name is Diodora Astaroth...I can tell you all about him." My Asia said. She took the other girl''s hand and led them to the other side of the church so they could sit down together and talk. I walked over to Diodora and picked up his unconscious body. I conjured a black metal collar and slapped it around his neck as well so he couldn''t escape if he suddenly woke up. With him slung over my shoulder, I walked outside to greet the group of people who were conveniently arriving just after Asia Alter had healed a Devil in the heart of the Vatican. [What an amazing coincidence!] There were about 20 people gathered in front of the church. Most of them were just generic priests and exorcists, but a few of the people gathered here I actually recognized. Vasco Strada - The Violence of Heaven - Level 57 Xenovia Quarta - Wielder of Durandal - Level 30 Griselda Quarta - The Strongest Sister - Level 52 "Who are you, woman! Who is that you''re carrying!" The priest in front of everyone shouted at me. He wasn''t anyone important. In fact, he actually gave me a greasy feeling. "Me?" I pointed at myself. "I was just passing through and thought I would take out the trash." I said while glancing at the Devil slung over my shoulder. "This church is managed by me and you don''t have permission to be here!" He retorted. "And is that man you''re carrying a Devil! Did Asia betray the church and heal a Devil!?" He spat accusingly. The others behind him gasped in shock when he said that. "So it''s true!? Asia Argento really is a witch!" Xenovia said while stepping forward. "Step aside! I will go inside and drag her out at once for judgment." I held up my hand and stopped her. Xenovia glared at me. "Not so fast. My ward and future niece is having a pleasant chat with Miss Argento inside. No one will interrupt them." I told them and my eyes shifted to the Rinnegan. "You can try of course...if you think you''re strong enough." Ten Black wings manifested behind me. Xenovia jumped backwards with a look of alarm on her face. She quickly unsheathed the sword on her hip that was not Durandal. "Fallen Angel!" She spat with venom in her voice! "What are you doing here?" "I just told you, my ward wanted to come and have a pleasant chat with Asia. I came here to look out for her." Vasco Strada and Griselda Quarta stepped forward. "Move back, Xenovia. You cannot handle a Cadre yet. You''re not strong enough." Griselda said. Xenovia sheathed her sword and glared at me as she moved back towards the other priests and exorcists who were all looking at me with fear in their eyes. The priest who had spoken first shouted at me again. "You filth! I bet the girl inside is an evil Fallen Angel just like you. Are you trying to corrupt the witch even further?" He accused me. "The lord will not stand for it. "The girl inside is perfectly human and I can promise that she has more of the lord''s favor than you...if he was you know..." I trailed it off. Vasco and Griselda both frowned. They could obviously tell that I was implying I knew about Big G not being around here anymore. "How dare you accuse me of having less favor with the lord than a witch!" The priest spat back at me. I ignored him and turned to Vasco and Griselda. Neither had made a move to attack me yet. They were being cautious. "Isn''t it strange that a Devil breaks into the heart of the Vatican, which is severely lacking in security right now for some reason, and just happens to stumble upon the church''s Holy Maiden. Out of anywhere he could have gone, he ended up here? And then you all show up conveniently a few minutes later." I pointed out to them. Griselda frowned at me. "What are you implying?" I pointed to the annoyingly loud priest. "Obviously, you all have a traitor who let the Devil in." I then casually tossed Diodora on the ground in front of me. He hit the floor with a loud thud and I shrugged. "Diodora has an entire peerage that just so happens to be full of beautiful former nuns. I wonder how he got access to all those girls and never got caught?" I asked sarcastically. Veins bulged on Vasco Strada''s forehead as he spun around and glared at the priest in rage. The man was trembling in fear at my accusation. "It''s not true! I would never betray the church! Not to some Devil!" "You were the one who told us Asia was colluding with a Devil in secret and led us here. How did you know that in the first place? The timing was far too coincidental." Griselda said to the man. "In fact, now that I think about it...you have accused a few sisters of doing the same in the past. All of those accusations turned out to be true...or were they?" She asked with a look of horror dawning on her face. "Father Grisaine...what have you done?" He started backing up slowly. "No..." He was sweating profusely. "I did nothing wrong! Those whores all ended up with Lord Astaroth anyway! I was right about them!" He tried defending himself. "You treacherous pig!" Xenovia ran up behind the man and punched him hard. He let out a grunt of pain as he collapsed to the ground. [A lot of drama is going on here today...] ''You''re not kidding...'' "Good work apprehending him, Xenovia." Vasco said to her before turning back to me. "I thank you... Fallen. For pointing out the traitor in our ranks. Who knows how many victims he has at this point?" "At least 14." I said. "Just short of a full peerage. Asia was to be his final prize." "14..." Griselda repeated. She looked greatly saddened to hear that number. "Did you truly come here today just so your human ward could talk to Asia Argento?" She asked me. "We were actually here to warn her about Diodora, but it seems that we''re too late." I said. "Are you going to kick Asia out now? She did end up healing a Devil." Griselda frowned. "I don''t know...The laws of Heaven are absolute." Vasco Strada stepped forward and picked up the unconscious devil with ease. Vasco was a huge man rippling with more muscle than anyone I''d ever seen before. His Strength was probably higher than even my own. "We will take custody of this trespassing Devil. As for you... A fight between a Cadre and myself could level the Vatican. You can go once your ward is done talking." Xenovia spoke up. "But sir! She''s a..." "I have made my decision!" Xenovia''s argument against me was cut off by Vasco shushing her. [Wow...I can''t believe he''s just letting a Fallen Angel go right in the Vatican.] "Can I make a suggestion?" I asked him. "What is it?" "You should trade Diodora for his peerage." I suggested. He frowned. "What good would that do? They are already Devils." He said with a tired sigh. "Their souls are corrupted..." I shrugged. "If an Evil Piece can be put into someone, who''s to say that it can''t be taken out of them?" I posed the question. His eyes widened in surprise. He turned to Griselda who was also surprised by the question I posed to them. "Are you saying that the Fallen Angels have found a way too¨C" He started to ask. "I''m not saying anything." I cut him off. "I''m just saying, that if you get those girls back and leave them in a room with me, they might leave that room as humans again and not Devils." I told him. To be fair, I wouldn''t want to be a measly human again if I was an immortal devil that could do magic at will. Those girls have suffered tremendously under Diodora though and would probably want nothing more than to be human again though. "We will see what we can do. We have many things to discuss here after what has occurred." Griselda said. "Might we have your name? It''s rude to just keep referring to you as Fallen." XXX chapters 216-220 chapters 216-220 216-220. -Earth Marvel, Atlantic Ocean, SHIELD''s New HQ- "Any other noticeable changes this past week?" Nick Fury asked Steve Rogers. The two of them were taking a tour of the brand new Helicarrier. They were currently on the upper deck. Steve flexed his hand tightly. He felt much stronger than he was before. "No sir. Nothing, new at least..." "That''s good at least." Fury muttered. He couldn''t quite believe what had happened to Steve Rogers shortly after taking down Dionysus. When did his life become so strange? He missed the days when SHIELD''s biggest threats were run of the mill terrorists... "So this thing can really fly in the sky? How is that possible?" Steve asked as he looked down to the moving ocean below. This carrier was bigger than the largest battleship he had ever set foot on during world war two and somehow it could fly? Steve marveled at how far technology had come. "Not only can it take to the skies, but it can move very fast as well. Faster than the average commercial airliner. This is meant to be Earth''s greatest Sword in the event of an alien incursion. We currently have three more of these being built." Fury said proudly. He was glad that Hydra had been exposed prior to the other three Helicarriers being completed. Had Hydra gotten control of them...it would have been very bad. Steve wasn''t sure how to feel about weapons of war like these. On one hand, he would have preferred they not be built at all, because he was afraid they could be abused. On the other, he saw the footage of the Demon Belial burning down half of Scotland. He knew that humanity needed more firepower to stand up to threats like that. Even with his new...abilities, Steve couldn''t be everywhere at once. There was a beep on both of their communicators that put an end to their tour. "Sorry to interrupt, but your guests are waiting for you on the 3rd floor." Coulson''s voice echoed in both of their ears. Fury led the Captain back inside and into the room where the rest of the future team were waiting for him. The Avengers initiative was finally coming together...Too bad Layla had run off to the other Earth and was going to miss the first mission. Inside the room, Steve saw Tony Stark, along with his new sister Andrea Stark, and Natasha Romanoff. "Is this everyone?" Steve asked Fury. He was hoping for a few more. He knew that Clint Barton was currently busy with other matters, but Fury should at least have assembled a few more people. "We have two more members who are a bit delayed." Fury explained. "Thor is supposed to arrive any minute now, our satellites have him flying towards us quickly across the ocean. As for Daredevil... he might not make it. He was attacked by a mind controlling mutant earlier this morning and saved by Layla. He might need some time to mentally recover." Tony let out a whistle. "Mind controlling mutants? Man this world is getting weird isn''t it." He commented out loud while pouring himself a small glass of whisky from the counter. He ignored the glare his new sister was giving him. She had quit drinking during her zombie apocalypse and wanted him to do the same. ''The horror!'' Natasha scowled at SHIELD missing someone so dangerous. "His name was Killgrave, apparently, and he was completely off of our radar. He had the ability to perfectly control anyone who smelled his pheromones. He has thankfully been neutralized." "Gross..." Andrea commented. "Good riddance." She walked over to Steve to shake his hand since they had not met yet, in this universe at least. "Nice to meet you, Captain. I''m Andrea Stark." They shook hands and Andrea grimaced for a moment when they did so. She pulled her aching hand back. He was incredibly strong! "I''m sorry. I forgot how much stronger I am now!" Steve apologized to her. She waved him off. "It''s ok. You are a lot stronger than my old Captain America, that''s for sure." Andrea was shocked that he was still so much stronger than her after she became an Asgardian. "That happened recently." Steve replied. Fury put his finger to his ear before interrupting them all. "I''ll let the Captain here give you all the details. Thor has just landed on the upper deck and I need to go and greet him. He is technically foreign royalty after all..." Tony gave Steve a curious look. "So you got even stronger? Did you take another dose of the Super Soldier Serum or something? "That''s not what happened." Natasha said. "He got this way after he killed a God." Tony whistled again. "Hot damn, I need to hear this story!" Steve let out a sigh before he started to tell them what happened to him. They all listened attentively. Even Natasha because she hadn''t heard the full story yet. Fury had kept it above classified after he heard it himself. "This is what happened..." ...Shortly after Steve had killed the God residing over camp Half-blood, Dionysus, Steve had randomly collapsed to the ground. He then woke up in a very strange place where everything seemed like a dream. A young girl with purple hair and green eyes was there to greet him. She was shocked that he was even there in the first place because, "she could sense that he wasn''t even from her universe." She told Steve that some powerful being must have sent his soul here, after he ended up slaying a God, to meet her. Since Steve was a human and he had killed a God, Pandora, the life giving mother was able to perform the ritual. Steve was transformed into a Campione, a God Slayer, and Pandora named him as her child. Shortly after that, his soul was flung back into his body and he woke up much stronger than before. He also had a few other powerful abilities that he instinctively knew how to use. "So Pandora is a real person huh?" Tony said while rubbing his chin. "And you didn''t think to ask her what was in her famous box? Talk about a missed opportunity..." He lamented while shaking his head in pity. Andrea glared at Tony for being insensitive. "He was probably too busy freaking out. Who cares what was in Pandora''s box anyway?" "It was probably porn," Tony muttered. "Maybe the greatest porn ever recorded!? I bet that was what corrupted humanity!" He said with a grin. Natasha and Andrea both scoffed at him while Steve just sighed. Their conversation was interrupted when the doors opened up and a very large man with blond hair walked in. Thor smiled heartily at everyone in the room. "Hello, everyone. I am Thor of Asgard. I am glad to have been invited to this team of Midgard''s mightiest heroes... It is also nice to have a bit of time away from my betrothed. She is currently VERY mad at me..." Thor mumbled out as his smile shrunk. He had trouble figuring out what the problem was though. "I''m sorry to hear that, Thor. But welcome to the team!" Steve said sincerely. "What''s the problem between you and your girl? Is it cold feet before the wedding?" Steve asked. "Nay, tis not that. Lady Jane is more than happy to get married. She is upset about being pregnant currently." Thor explained. "Awwwe." Andrea cooed. Natasha was listening in and couldn''t help but be a tad bit jealous of Jane Foster. Natasha was a SHIELD agent, she obviously knew who a famous alien prince was currently dating on their planet. One thing that Natasha had always wanted was children. Specifically now, Layla''s children. The red room took away Natasha''s ability to ever have children when she was younger. Layla of course, being the amazing woman she was, had completely healed Natasha. Layla had asked her to wait on having any children though until Earth''s bigger threats were cleared up first. Natasha was glad that they were clearing up one of those threats shortly. "Congratulations, man!" Tony walked up to Thor and patted him on the shoulder. "My fiance Pepper and I have been thinking about making mini versions of ourselves as well." "I can''t wait to be an auntie!" Andrea said with a smile. Tony and Pepper, in this world, had taken her in and treated her like true family. Everyone in the room was enthusiastic to hear about Thor''s future kid. Thor nodded. "Thank you for the encouragement everyone, I''m excited to be spending the next few hundred years raising our child!" He declared. "..." The happy atmosphere in the room immediately vanished. "Wait? What?" Tony asked. "Hundred years?" Andrea asked with a sense of foreboding. "Thor? How long do Asgardian children take to grow up?" She asked him. Thor didn''t notice the mood shift in the room. He was still smiling proudly at the thought of being a father. "How long? Not that long. Only a few hundred years. The average Asgardian child should be finished potty training usually before they''re 60 in Earth years." Natasha''s eyes widened in shock at that number. She was now very glad that she held off on becoming an Asgardian when Layla offered her one of those apples! Natasha now knew why Jane was so upset as well. For a woman who started out as a human, that amount of time raising a child would seem horrifying. "60 years of diapers..." Andrea muttered to herself in horror. She was starting to regret eating that apple impulsively... "..." The doors opened again and Fury walked back in. He wasn''t alone, a teenage boy with blond hair and blue eyes was following behind him. The current roster of gathered Avengers were looking at the kid curiously. Fury sighed before introducing him to them. "Everyone...this is Danny Rand. Otherwise known as the Iron Fist." Danny bowed to everyone in the room. "Greetings everyone. I hope this day brings you good fortunes. I am the Immortal Iron Fist. I have been told that you brave warriors have been assembled to help me do battle against the Hand! With my help, I assure you we will be victorious. The sun shines down and smiles upon us this day." "Why doest this child talk comically?" Thor asked ironically. "I''m glad he said it, because I was also thinking it." Tony added. Fury sighed again and explained. "He was raised by a secret sect of monks who are sworn enemies of the Hand. Iron Fist here knows where the Hand''s main base of operations is. On top of that, the base is typically surrounded by a powerful barrier which Danny should be able to break...with his Iron Fist?" Fury said questioningly. Fury wasn''t sure how it all worked to be honest. All Fury knew was that the Hand had operated in this world long enough and it was time for them to go. After the Scotland incident, they had become public enemy number one for giving Voldemort the ritual to summon a King of Hell into their world. Other nations were rightfully afraid that the same thing could happen to them. Layla might not be around to save them in time and reverse the damage done either. Natasha was looking at Danny Rand, she was very unimpressed. "What is his power exactly? He can break barriers? The black weapons that Layla gave us can do that." Danny frowned at being so underestimated. "I assure you all that the power of the Iron fist is unrivaled. With its awesome power I can smash boulders and dent even the strongest of metals in a single blow!" He said proudly while expecting everyone to be awed. "...Wait...? Is that it? I can do that too now that I''m an Asgardian!" Andrea said. And with her suit''s firepower, she could blow up entire mountain ranges... "Shameless boasting." Danny scoffed at her. "I will escort you out of our territory so you can teleport away." Vasco said. I waved him off. "That''s fine. I''m just going to leave from here." "There''s a powerful barrier around the Vatican. You can''t teleport here without being keyed into the ward¨CHuh!?" He was cut off when I casually waved my hand and a purple portal manifested next to Asia and I. "I can travel between Universes, your church''s barriers are nothing to bypass compared to that." I told him. He did not look happy that I could apparently freely come and go undetected into their territory. That wasn''t my problem though. Asia and I hopped through the portal and went to pick up Heather and Vali. It had been a few hours and I wondered if Heather managed to learn any new magic? XXX "Check this out, mom! FIREBALL!" Heather shouted loudly as soon as we arrived back outside of Mephisto Pheles''s tower. She held up her hand towards me and a fireball the size of a basketball came hurtling towards my face! She didn''t use her wand and I didn''t sense the use of any Eldritch magic either. "Eeeep!" Asia yelped in panic and ducked behind me. I casually swatted the fireball away with my hand when it reached me. I rubbed my forehead. Heather, please be mindful about throwing fireballs around when other people are nearby." I scolded her. "Sorry about that." She said while rubbing the back of her head. She grinned at me. "That was cool though, right!? I used magic without a wand or Eldritch energy!" "That was cool." I told her before turning towards Mephisto. "I take it you taught her a bit of human magic? Thank you for that." I said to him. "It was nothing but a simple trade. She let me study some of her wand spells and I taught her some basic human magic spells. Ones that require the least amount of calculations." He replied casually. Heather''s face scrunched up. "Human magic here relies so heavily on math! What kind of heartless monster came up with that idea?" "That would be Merlin." Mephisto responded with a shrug. "He was a fun guy, pretty strong too. His biggest flaw though was that he couldn''t keep it in his pants. The guy gives Genghis Khan a run for his money with how many descendants he has in Britain." "Eeew, gross! TMI, Mephisto!" Heather exclaimed. "I''m planning on heading back with Heather if you''re both done trading magic." I told them. "Where''s Vali by the way?" He was supposed to be sticking around and guarding Heather but the guy wasn''t here. "He ran off to go and try to find some dead dragon''s hoard." Heather replied with a shrug. "What?" I turned to Mephisto hoping he could give a better explanation than that. Mephisto explained that the Welsh Dragon, Albion''s enemy, was from a nearby land, and his treasure hoard had never actually been discovered. Vali was bored and wanted to go exploring to try and find it. "He''s wasting his time if you ask me." Mephisto said casually. "I''ve lived in this land for over a hundred years now and I even tried to find it myself a few times. It''s probably already been looted. What a shame. Before his death, Ddraig was rumored to have robbed Tiamat of most of her treasures." That was more than a rumor from what I know. Why else would she keep killing all of his hosts off? "I guess we''ll have to wait for him to come back then..." I muttered. Azazel would be mad if I just ditched his foster son in another country. Especially one so close to Angel territory where he could be killed. Vali is a direct descendant of their sworn enemy after all. "I can practice this cool ice spell while we wait." Heather said. "Cmon, Asia! You should try to. You need to know some protection magic!" Asia came out from behind me and looked nervous. "I don''t like hurting people and I''m not very good at math, but I''ll try." "Don''t worry, it''s easy! Just watch this! ICE SPIKE!" Heather held up her hands and a small icicle formed above her palm. She aimed it forward and tried to launch it...The icicle instead fell directly onto the grass below and didn''t move. Everyone awkwardly stared at her for a second before Heather turned her head in embarrassment. "D-don''t judge me! That was my first try!" "That icicle was cute and I''ll be able to always have cold drinks in summertime if I learn it. Teach me!" Asia said excitedly. She ran over to Heather who started explaining the math behind the spell. Asia was nodding her head up and down throughout Heather''s explanation and I had no idea whether she was actually following or not. "When Vali gets back, there''s something I want to talk to you about." Mephisto said as he took a seat next to me. Right as he fell backwards, an elegant armchair manifested directly under him. My Rinnegan temporarily manifested and I used Creation of All Things to make my own chair. I took a seat next to him. "Genuine creation magic? Been a while since I''ve seen that." He commented. "Anyway, like I was saying, there is something I would like your help with as an outsider here." A table with a full tea set appeared between us. He poured himself a cup before handing me one as well. "Thank you," I said while taking a sip. "So, what is it?" "About a week before you came here, the sensors in my tower detected a massive surge of temporal magic! Someone attempted to and possibly succeeded in sending themselves, or at least their soul, to our current time." Mephisto wasn''t able to tell whether they were from the past or future, but the obvious guess was they were from the future. "Interesting..." I said. "Tell me more." Quest Started: Investigate the temporal anomaly... ... Vali came back a bit later with a look of irritation. To our surprise, he actually had found a large cave in the countryside that had lingering traces of Ddraig''s energy, according to Albion at least. Sadly, Mephisto was proven correct and the cave had long since been completely looted bare. As for the potential time traveler, Mephisto Pheles finished explaining the situation to me. He then had to leave claiming he had other urgent business to take care of. Mephisto asked me to keep the information on the time traveler on the down-low though, due to the area the temporal magics originated in. Kuoh Town, Japan... Of course it came from there of all places! "ICE SPIKE!" Asia shouted the spell and a large icicle launched forwards from her palm at high speeds. It tore right through a straw training dummy that I had created for the two girls. If that was a regular person, they would be very dead after getting hit by her Ice Spike. "I did it!" Asia cheered in excitement and started jumping up and down. "Good job, Asia!" I praised her. She had learned that spell fast! I''m glad she finally had a small way to protect herself. "Yeah...good job..." Heather muttered dejectedly. She was a bit jealous that Asia had mastered the spell even faster than she had and with a lot more ease. Asia had mastered the icicle spell in only thirty minutes. The reason for that was because Asia was NOT bad at math. Not at all! She didn''t have tv or internet, all those years locked away in the church, but she did have textbooks. Lots of textbooks! Apparently, she had read through all of them multiple times and studied them thoroughly. Her dream was to be a doctor without using magic or her Sacred Gear, and I could safely say that was a real possibility with her current education. She wasn''t bad at math...she only thought she was because the last few textbooks she had tried to learn were advanced quantum physics books and she was struggling with them trying to teach herself... "Can we go now... It''s boring here with nothing to do." Vali whined at us. "You''re the one who followed us after not being invited!" Heather snapped back at him. Vali scoffed at her. "I just wanted to fight Layla. Now I''m more interested in this time traveler though. I wonder if they''re strong. If they attack the two Devil princesses in Kuoh, will a Maou show up? I wouldn''t mind fighting Serafall Leviathan or Sirzechs Lucifer." He said the last name with clear derision. Two pairs of futuristic looking wings sprung forth from his back. "Don''t be so Gung-Ho about fighting either of those two. One of my past wielders was slain by the hand of Sirzechs. Even my Juggernaut Drive couldn''t match his True Form." The voice of Albion echoed in warning. I was intrigued to hear that. I wasn''t sure how much a True Form added to a Devil''s power. For the Greek Gods, their True Divine Forms boosted them by 10 Levels. Did the Devil''s get an even higher boost? [Too bad for you, only the DxD Archangels have true forms. You could theoretically develop your own though. You could put your Faith Energy to use developing one. You''d need a lot more followers though...] That was something to think about. It would be a cool way to power up without burning through MP at least. Mana Burst was awesome, but it was a risky gamble when I used it sometimes. With everyone ready to go, I opened a portal to Kuoh Town. "Well, the city isn''t on fire at least. That''s a good sign that whoever time traveled here is at least not insane." Heather laughed. "When have you ever even been to a city that was on fire?" She asked me. "Asgard was on fire the first time I visited." I replied to her. Heather sputtered at me. Oh right, I hadn''t told her that story because it ended with me and Hela in the sack for the first time... "I sense the presence of my rival in this town. What a coincidence." Albion''s voice echoed from the wings on Vali''s back. "Is Ddriag awake?" I asked him. Had canon already started here and Issei was a Devil? "Hmmm. I cannot tell. The power I''m feeling is too weak. Whoever his host is, they have a pitiful amount of magic inside of them." Albion said. Vali was initially looking excited to fight his fated rival, but he frowned when he heard how weak Issei was currently. "Cheh...what a let down." He spat out. First thing first, I told everyone that we needed to find a place to stay in town for the next few days before we started investigating. The sun was already setting here due to the difference in time zones. Good thing for us, Vali had been given a Black Card by Azazel that we could use to get a few hotel rooms for the next few days. I shamelessly guilt tripped him into paying for us all because he left Heather alone with Mephisto earlier. Nothing untowards happened of course, but it was the principal of the matter. Tomorrow, I will start searching the town for the potential time traveler. [And search for some cute Devil girls to flirt with while you''re at it?] Possibly that too... XXX chapters 221-225 chapters 221-225 -Layla''s Hotel Room, Kuoh Town, Earth ?- "Is this meager display the best that two proud Sayoongas can demonstrate? I am disappointed." Weerus, the destroyer of worlds, asked while shaking his head in disappointment. Son Gokuda and Vegetite were both on the ground panting in exhaustion. They were both covered in injuries after their hard fought battle against the Universe Destroyer Weerus. They were losing, but it wasn''t over yet. They weren''t going to give up! "Dammit Kakoorite! Get your shit together! Our only chance of beating Weerus is if we both transform into Super Sayoonga Green and fuse together!" Vegetite spat out with a look of determination. Gokuda slowly stood up despite his injuries. "You''re right, Vegetite! Together, with the power of love and friendship, we will both defeat Weerus and reclaim the Drag So-balls!" [This show is fucking awful...] "I know! And yet I can''t stop watching it!" I whined while clicking pause with the remote. If Drag So-ball had been released as a parody back on my Earth, it would have been an instant hit! Unfortunately, for this universe, it was not a parody. It was still funny to me though... Watching Weerus, the knock off version of Beerus, beat the crap out of discount Goku and Vegeta had me thinking though. Being a Goddess might actually be pretty cool. At the very least, I would get a pretty substantial power up. This is something I had been thinking about for a while. I''d been interacting with Gods and Goddesses for months now, and even fighting against some of them. What would it be like to become one of them? "What would I even be the Goddess of? Fallen Angels?" [You would probably be the Goddess of Angels, Hope, Gaming, and maybe...love?] "L-Love?" I sputtered out. How did I qualify as a Goddess of love? [Well...you do have insatiable lust and a harem full of stunning women that keeps growing.] "Assuming I wanted to be the Goddess of Angels, how exactly would I go about that?" I asked the System. [You would need around 10 Million Faith Energy, which is a lot considering right now you only have a paltry amount from your single follower. No matter how devoted Kunou Alter is, you''re not going to become a goddess with just her praying to you.] That wasn''t for the lack of trying on her part. My current Faith Energy pool was up to 153 with just her alone. It had been steadily rising these past few months no matter what Universe I was in. I sat back and continued watching the terrible anime as I pondered ways of acquiring Faith Energy without being so blatantly overt about it. Or maybe that was how I needed to start acting? [If you want to be the Goddess of Angels, then you need to start getting those Angels to pray towards you... and not towards your dead father. Honestly, their prayers are pretty much going to waste in these DxD universes where he''s not around anymore.] Regular white winged Angels were sustained with Faith Energy similar to how some gods and goddesses were, but they only needed a small amount. All the Angels in heaven only needed around 5% of all the Faith Energy that was being sent up there every single day. The other 95% was pretty much going to waste. In fact, I had some theories that that was the main cause of why Heaven''s system was failing. It was basically being flooded with too much power and no way to manage it all. That was just a theory though. For all I knew, Father was just a shitty programmer, and his system simply was bound to fail at some point. Sacred Gears mutating or even having Balance Breakers had never meant to be intended after all. ...A few hours of tv later. -Congratulations! A quest has been completed!- A random notification had me pausing the TV again. "Wait what!? What quest got completed?" I haven''t been doing anything! I had just been laying on a hotel bed hate-watching some very bad anime! The anime in this world was awful and the System and I were having fun trash talking it as we watched. Drag So-ball was the best thing we watched so far... [Drag-So-Ball was a monstrosity and whoever created it, in this world, deserves to be shot!] It was the middle of the night and I didn''t feel like sleeping. I had grown used to sleeping with one of my lovers next to me... Yes, I could have just portaled back to my Universe to spend the night there, but that breaks the spirit of the adventure. What had happened while I was gone? [Huh?...The¨Cuh¨CThe Hand has been destroyed... Someone apparently completed your quest for you while you were here lazing around.] I blanched at that. "Someone did what!? ...It must have been Fury! I can''t believe he left me out!" I complained out loud. I asked him to question Iron Fist about The Hands whereabouts, and contact me so that we could take them down together! Instead, he went and took them out all by himself! Now I know why I felt like I was missing out on something earlier. ...It still feels like there was more to this though. "Do I not get the Quest rewards now, System? I know I didn''t participate, but it was my Quest and that One-eyed Pirate stole it from me!" I could officially call him a pirate now since the new SHIELD Helicarrier was operational and mainly operated over the Atlantic Ocean. [Since you were not there or actively participating, I can only give you half of the rewards.] That was better than nothing. I sat up on my bed and looked at the screen in front of me. "Ok, so what did I get? ...Woah, this is only half?" -The five founding members of the Hand have been slain! The Beast has been slain! 450 Hand ninjas have been slain!- -You have leveled up x3! You have received 25 Free Stat Points!- Hell yeah! That''s what I''m talking about! What else did I get? -A bonus has been rewarded for a flawless victory and not allowing anyone to escape! One of your skills will be randomly upgraded!- -Angelic Mastery has reached the Maximum Level 5!- Level 5 was the Max for Angelic Mastery? I wondered what It would allow me to do. Level 3 allowed me to survive in all environments and level 4 allowed me to bestow blessing upon people. Level 5 should be even greater considering its the max the skill can go! -Angelic Mastery Max: You can now turn other beings into Angels or Fallen Angels by feeding them your blood! Their accumulated sins will determine the color of their wings.- "Holy...Shiiiiiiiit..." That was...that was really something. A complete game changer if I was being honest. I could turn people into Angel''s without having to rely on the Brave Saint System... Did we even need the Brave Saint System anymore? Once Heaven''s System went down, they wouldn''t be able to make any more Angel''s with it anyway... That''s why they were in a rush to finish the project and turn as many people into Angel''s as they could as quickly as possible. With me now having the highest level of Angelic Mastery, that was a moot point. [Are you going to turn Asia into an Angel now?] I shrugged to myself. "There''s no reason to rush it. It''s late and the girls are already asleep. I''ll tell them about it tomorrow." This was honestly pretty crazy. Not even a few hours ago, I was discussing ways to become the Goddess of Angels with the system. And now I had just gotten an ability that allowed me to create Angels at my whim? Was that my Luck Stat helping me out there? If so, I would need to start investing in it a lot more. "Status," I said out loud. [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death''s Favored] [Level: 60] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere, G$$ % #% %$ $%^$] [HP: 13000] [MP: 10000] [Faith Energy: 153] [Vigor: 800] [Strength: 170] [Intelligence: 1000] [Luck: 160] [Skills: Observe 4, Angelic Mastery (Max), Acting (4), Light Manipulation (7), HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst, Senjutsu (2), Six Paths, Susanoo (1)] [Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Lucky Shot, Mana Replenisher, ] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 55] [Skill Up Point: 0] One thing that I immediately noticed was I had a new title and yet it was blurred out. Beyond that, I had enough Free Stat points to put my Luck at 200 if I wanted to. I put 40 points into Luck and the other 15 into Strength. I wasn''t disappointed with the results. Upon reaching 200 in Luck, I immediately got a new passive skill! -The perks ''Never Tell Me the Odds'' and ''Lucky Shot'' have been discarded! A new perk has replaced them!- At this point, we were obviously making quite a large scene. All the schoolgirls, who STILL weren''t in class for some reason, were gossiping about all of us. Quite loudly I might add. "Oh my gosh! Rias-oneesan is an otaku? That''s such an amazing gap! I love it!" "Sona-kaichou is a lesbian!? ...Do you think I have a chance with her?" "Step on me, Akeno!" ...Ok, that last one was actually a random boy. Possibly one of the perverted trio, but I didn''t bother giving them a second glance. I cleared my throat loudly to get the three Devil''s attention. "Maybe we should take this conversation somewhere else?" I suggested to them. ... "Here''s your tea. I would have spit in it, but you degenerate Fallen Angels tend to like that kind of thing." Akeno said as she harshly placed a tea cup on the table in front of me. She harrumphed and sat down next to Rias and Sona on the couch across from mine. I took a second to sip the tea while looking around the Occult Research club room. It was actually a pretty fun looking room. I could see that Rias didn''t skimp on the entertainment systems or board game collections. She had almost everything in here. The last time I was in here, on Earth DxD, I was fighting Grayfia for my life and didn''t notice most of this. "So what brings you to our territory, Fallen? And are you with those other four Fallen Angels that recently moved in?" Rias asked me. Her tone was a lot more composed than her display earlier. "Those four idiots? No, I''m not with them. I''d appreciate it if you don''t kill them, but if they start causing tons of trouble, then feel free to. They''re basically rogues here under the order of Kokabiel." I said to Rias and Sona. I could only save Raynare in so many universes before it started getting old... Sona looked intrigued. She pushed her fake glasses up to reflect the light. "Oh? Is there a power struggle in the Grigori?" Sona asked, fishing for information. "Was that a spell?" I asked her bluntly. Attempting to catch her off guard. Sona paused. "Was what a spell?" She asked me while tilting her head. "Your glasses just now. They shined brightly against the light, but the lights are all dim in this room...for the ambiance I assume?" I said to Sona and then Rias. Rias nodded while smirking at Sona. "Yep! I like keeping my club room dark and mysterious. As for Sona''s glasses thing...Yep she uses a spell to make them shine whenever she pushes them up! She practiced the pose in front of a mirror for months to make herself look cool and smart!" Rias explained and sold out her friend with no hesitation. Sona blushed at me before turning to her friend with a glare. "You promised to never tell anyone that!" She turned back to me and pointed her finger at me. "And you! Layla of the Fallen! Don''t avoid the question!" She said demandingly. Sona remembered my name! That was a good sign! I smiled at Sona while making a motion to cross my legs. I was wearing a short black skirt and decided to tease her a bit more by flashing her with a glimpse of the black lacy thong I had on underneath. [At least you remembered panties today.] All three of the girls blushed at my blatant action. They were all pretty sheltered after all when it came right down to it. It was a little strange flashing Akeno as well, but she wasn''t my universe''s Akeno. We weren''t actually related. "Right then, as I said before I am Layla of the Fallen. I was sent to Kuoh by Mephisto Pheles. I''m here with my adopted daughter, another girl and Azazel''s adopted son." I explained. I avoided mentioning Asia because she was quite famous in this world. Especially right now considering the church was currently holding Beelzebub''s son hostage because of her. "Mephisto Pheles? He actually sent you here?" Rias asked in surprise. Sona also looked very intrigued. "I didn''t know that Azazel had a son. Adopted or not." "He''s the White Dragon Emperor." I told them. "The Red Dragon is somewhere in this town, so he''s wandering around searching for his rival." I might as well have just flipped their worlds upside down judging by the gaping expressions Rias and Sona were both showing me right now. "T-they won''t destroy the town will they?" Rias asked hesitantly. "The last time the two emperors fought, an entire new lake was formed! The supernatural community had to work really hard to cover that up! So many human memories had to be erased!" Sona added. Oh right, there weren''t always five great lakes like there were in my past life. One is artificial... "They better not, or we''ll do our best to stop them!" Akeno declared. I noticed that Akeno''s glare lessened when she learned that I was technically here on the orders of a member high up in Devil society. I waved them off and told them that it should be fine. I explained how Albion had said that the current Red Dragon Host was either not awakened or had barely awakened. Either way, they weren''t worth fighting at the moment. The three girls sighed in relief hearing that. Then we finally arrived at why I was here¨Cbesides flirting with them. I explained about how Mephisto Pheles had detected temporal magic originating from Kuoh of all places and asked me to come here. "TIME MAGIC!? Are you sure?" Rias asked me in alarm. I nodded and told her that''s what I was told. "Has anyone been acting out of the ordinary? Or has anything weird occurred?" "Besides you showing up literally on our doorstep and telling us all of this...then no?" Rias replied. She told me that everything had been surprisingly calm in Kuoh Town for the most part. Besides the four Fallen Angels that had moved in and would soon be moving out. Now that both Rias and Sona knew that Raynare''s gang did not have permission from Azazel to be in Kuoh, they were going to evict them as soon as possible. Akeno looked particularly vindictive to hear that. I would try my best to curb her hatred of Fallen while I was here, but I honestly didn''t know how long I''d even be here at this point. I was hoping to stay a bit longer than Asia or Heather could at least. Asia and Heather have a three day weekend right now, but will have to go back after that. I wasn''t going to be a bad mom/guardian and let them miss out on too much school. They''d have to save the longer Adventures till summertime. "Time travel has been forbidden! Not just by the three factions, but by every single pantheon! It''s one of the worst crimes that can be committed!" Sona said. Her voice was trembling slightly. "If this is true, then I have to contact my sister and tell her about it. It''s too big to hide." I frowned when I heard that. "Is there any way you can hold off on telling Serafall?" I asked her. Sona shook her head and explained that she couldn''t do that or she could be severely punished for withholding such dangerous information from the Devil government. She told me that there was no way Serafall would try to attack me though even if I was a Fallen Angel. I was here under the orders of Mephisto currently and therefore untouchable. "Even if Serafall doesn''t like you...I won''t let her try anything." Sona said to me with a small blush. Awwwwwe, how adorable! So-tan would go against her big sister to defend me! It seems like she did have a crush on me after all if she was willing to say that. I smiled at Sona warmly. "Thank you!" "Y-you''re welcome." She stuttered in reply. "Ara, who would be brazen enough to turn the entire world against them for a do over?" Akeno asked out loud. "Clearly someone who has nothing to lose or thinks the rules don''t apply to them." I said. I could understand why time travel was forbidden. It was the ultimate cheat. Is your enemy too strong to defeat? Just travel back in time to before they were born and kill their mother! Problem solved! [Heh! Supernatural Terminator...] ...On the other hand, maybe they''d simply traveled back in time to take advantage of future world knowledge to make world events go their way. [Supernatural... Back to the Future?] "But why travel back to Kuoh? There''s nothing special about this town at all!" Rias asked. "That''s not true, there''s two very special girls currently managing this town right now along with their peerages." I told the pair of them. I had been flirting mostly with Sona at this point, so I took the opportunity to send a wink Rias''s his way as well. Rias giggled and playfully sent me one right back. "We are quite special, aren''t we?" She asked smugly. Rias decided to blatantly uncross her own legs and I caught a brief glance of red panties being flashed under her sinfully short skirt. Akeno pinched Rias for blatantly flirting with me before speaking up. "Ara, is this a ''Back to the Future'' or a ''Terminator'' situation?" Akeno asked. She and my System were apparently on the same wavelength right now. Also, it seemed like she was a bit of a movie buff in this universe. Rias and Sona blanched at Akeno''s question. "Terminator? Are they here to kill us?" Rias asked nervously. Sona was looking just as nervous as she was. "As a sister to one of the Maous, there have been assassination attempts on me before, but never something like this..." Sona said. At the moment, I couldn''t exactly refute such a possibility. I didn''t have any information on the time traveler after all. What I could do was reassure them at least. I stood up and stretched momentarily. Three sets of eyes turned to me. My 10 black wings appeared behind me. "How about this," I suggested. "Until we know the time travelers intentions and they are apprehended, I''ll stick close to you all and keep you safe." "..." Three pairs of eyes immediately widened in shock! "You''re a Cadre!?" Sona asked me. Oh right, they had sensed my aura but that didn''t exactly tell them how powerful I was unless I fully released it... XXX Thanks for reading. Rest in peace Akira Toriyama! He was a true legend and one of the greatest story tellers of our time. He will be sorely missed by all of his fans. chapters 226-230 chapters 226-230 Now that I had no longer been deemed a threat, at least as far as Rias and Sona were concerned, Akeno left the occult research club room to go and get the other peerage members to calm down. Upon sensing my presence, the members of both peerages had gathered in the gymnasium to prepare for an attack. Obviously an attack was never coming, but they didn''t know that. My arrival, at their school, had caused them all to panic and think that the Great War might be restarting, or something along those lines. I''d apologize to them all later. My ten black wings receded and I sat back down on the couch. Sona and Rias were still gaping at me in surprise. "I thought I knew the names of all the Cadre," Sona said. "I wasn''t expecting an unknown one to show up on our doorstep!" Rias took a calming breath. "Did you just reach 10 wings? Is that why we didn''t know about you? I''m surprised that the Grigori aren''t parading you around everywhere considering how strong and beautiful you are." I smiled from her compliment. "There''s a reason for that. I''m not exactly from around here. I''m a member of the Grigori, but probably not the Grigori that you''re thinking of..." I told the two of them in a way that only made them even more confused. Rias''s face scrunched up cutely as she tried to make sense of my words. "Is there a split amongst the Fallen Angels that we''re not aware of?" "Kokabiel hasn''t started his foolish little rebellion yet, so no." I replied. And maybe now, he never would. The butterfly effect was a real thing after all. No doubt, he would have also heard rumors of a brand new Cadre randomly popping up in the Grigori cafeteria this morning. He was probably very confused, and maybe even slightly nervous, about my existence. They both blanched at me. "Kokabiel is going to rebel? Why?" Sona asked in shock. "It''s kind of a whole thing, but this is the gist..." I gave them both a quick rundown on how he was dissatisfied with the current peaceful situation of the world. He was a warmonger and he didn''t feel complete unless he was soaked in the blood of his enemies on the battlefield. "Because of that, he wants to restart the Great War by killing the two of you." I informed them both. "Another person wants to kill us now...?" Rias muttered. "What is going on with today?" She gave me a cute pout. "You know, our lives here were so much simpler a few hours ago before you showed up!" She was acting like I was the current source of all of this craziness. They couldn''t blame the time traveler on me, that was just a coincidence. He would have shown up whether or not I was here, right? [Ehh... To be honest, it probably only happened because you are currently here in this world. The Gamer always attracts crazy events like this. Why do you think you hardly ever have a normal day?] Now that I thought back on my life so far, the System had a point. Ok, so maybe the time traveler showing up was my fault! That didn''t mean I was ever going to admit it to anyone though. I plead the fifth! [You''re not in America currently, you''re in Japan, that''s not a thing here.] Sona chastised Rias. "Rias! Stop acting so spoiled! Layla of the Fallen was kind enough to warn us at Mephisto''s behest AND she offered us her protection!" Sona smiled at me warmly. "I, for one, am grateful for the services she has rendered upon us." Sona said formally. It was cute. Rias snorted. "Uh huh, sure Sona... I''m sure those aren''t the only services you''re interested in from Layla here." Rias said sarcastically. I snorted and Sona sputtered with a red face. I noticed that Sona did not deny Rias''s accusation. I sent a smirk at the embarrassed Devil Princess causing her to blush further. "If there''s any services I can provide to either of you, just feel free to ask." I said to Sona first and then I smirked at Rias next. "Wow, you aren''t holding anything back with the blatant flirting are you?" Rias commented with a sigh. She put her head down and let out a somber sigh. "I wouldn''t bother with me though." She said. "And why is that? Are you not interested?" I asked her. She was blushing at my flirting earlier, so that shouldn''t have been the case. "I''m very interested!" Rias exclaimed and then gestured to herself. "Look at me! I''m a gorgeous 18 year old Devil that''s been prevented from dating anyone for my entire life! I''m unbelievably pent up!" She huffed out with a red face! Well, wasn''t that something? "Who prevented you?" I asked while already knowing the answer. "Your parents?" Rias nodded begrudgingly. "They said that since im already engaged, im not allowed to date anyone. It would set a bad example..." Bad example? She''s a Devil though. That was never going to work out. They''re trying to get her to act like a noble human girl when she was not one. Her sins must be driving her crazy at this point! I don''t think she has a major Sin of Lust like I do, but with that body of hers she at least has to have a minor one. "You''re engaged to Riser Phenex?" I asked Rias for confirmation. Rias slumped down further on her couch and stared at the ceiling. "Yes, his family is very wealthy and politically powerful in the Underworld right now. My parents will not allow me to refuse the engagement and my peerage isn''t even close to strong enough to beat his." "Rias has tried asking everyone she knows for help, but no one wants to help her." Sona added on. Sona explained that she had even tried to ask her own sister to help on Rias''s behalf, but Sirzechs stepped in and forbade Serafall from breaking off the engagement either. The solution here was obvious then. I stood up and walked over to the two of them. Both sets of eyes were on me as I casually seated myself directly between Rias and Sona. I stretched my arms out and wrapped them around both girls'' shoulders. Both of them blushed adorably when I did so. "You''ve forgotten one person, you never asked me for help." I told Rias. "What''s a mere Phenex family in front of me anyway. I could probably solo their entire clan if I wanted to." The Phenex regeneration was useful against other Devil''s, but it was useless in front of my Light Energy attacks. On top of that, the Phenex clan members had a habit of tanking attacks when they could instead dodge them. They loved to flaunt their supposed immortality. Immortality that doesn''t even work against the Devil''s natural enemies... There''s a reason that the Gremory family is ranked higher on the Devil''s totem pole as Duke House, compared to the Phenex who are only a Marquis house. Back during the Great War, their clan dropped like flies whenever they ran into Angels and Fallen Angels. Eventually they were forbidden from even going on the Frontline because Lucifer was afraid that Hell would lose its only clan of healers. At least, that''s what happened according to the history in my world. I''m assuming it''s very similar here though. Rias''s eyes widened. "You would do that? Go up against the entire Phenex clan for a girl you just met?" She asked me hesitantly. "I''d do that for either of you two if you both asked. It should be fairly obvious, but I''m quite interested in you both." I smiled at them. My arms were still around them both and I scooted them even closer to me. Rias and Sona were both pressed up against my sides at this point. They both blushed again and neither of the Devil princesses made a move to leave my embrace. Both of these girls must be very pent up. Sona, even more so than Rias apparently. Sona was taking advantage of this situation and leaning into me further. Sona''s situation was similar to Rias, but less obvious. I imagined a jealous Serafall has probably been keeping any potential suitors away from Sona. Sona''s last fiance broke off their engagement after losing a simple chess match to her? No chance that was what actually happened. Serafall probably secretly threatened to kill his entire family if he didn''t back off. Rias didn''t look entirely convinced yet but she was close. "...What if my brother decides to intervene? Can you fight him too?" "Then I''ll just fly into space, grab an asteroid and throw it at him!" I replied immediately. There was no way I was fighting that guy straight up at my current level. I''ll bombard his ass from space! Devils needed to breathe, I did not. "Wait!? Can angels survive in a vacuum?" Sona interrupted and asked me in surprise. "They could have rained down meteors on the Underworld during the Great War?" She asked in surprise and wanted clarification. I nodded at her. "I guess they could have, but the Angel''s would have been far too prideful to do that. Not to put down my former race, but they''re all one trick ponies that refuse to fight with anything besides Light Energy." I told Sona, who looked more relieved to hear that. Rias came to a decision. "Layla...Will you help me?" Rias asked hopefully. "...If you do, I''ll be your girlfriend! I''ll even make it a 2 for 1 offer and throw in Sona! I''d offer Akeno too, but she hates Fallen Angels with a vengeance..." She cutely babbled on a little bit. "Y¨Cyou can''t just offer me up without my permission, Rias!" Sona leaned over me and scolded her. She sat back and looked at me hesitantly. "I suppose I w¨Cwouldn''t mind going on a few dates though..." "That means yes in Tsundere Sona language." Rias confirmed for me. "She''s your girlfriend now too, so you have to help me!" She said while grinning and nodding her head up and down! [Two for the price of one... You work fast, Host.] I couldn''t believe how well this had worked out myself. I thought the beautiful Devil Princesses of the underworld would be a lot harder to flirt with to be honest. I wondered if my new perk, Daughter of Heaven''s Will, was helping me out. [It undoubtedly was... You also forget that neither of these two girls are humans. They think differently. Devils are creatures that are attracted to power, and you exude a lot of it! You also swooped in at the perfect opportunity to help them and are very beautiful to boot!] ''Awe, thanks for the compliments, System!'' Rias looked like a large weight had been lifted off of her and she let out a small giggle. "I can''t believe we''re both dating a Fallen Angel now. If the underworld found out, it would be a major scandal!" When Vali arrived at the church grounds, he was surprised to find a bunch of corpses surrounding the dilapidated church. "Stray exorcists?" He muttered to himself as he inspected the bodies. "Did my rival kill them all?" Vali approached the church itself where he heard voices and movement inside. "Why are you doing this!? We''ve never even met before, you Psycho!" A woman''s voice called out in panic. "We have met before... in a long distant dream. A dream that I will reclaim at all costs! Now die, Raynare!" A spiteful voice replied in fluent Japanese. SNAP! Vali flinched slightly when he heard the snapping of bones. He was pretty sure that the woman called ''Raynare'' just got killed. Her name sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn''t quite remember from where. Vali pushed the doors and they opened inwards. He walked inside to find a lone figure standing in the empty church. He was surrounded by black feathers and the corpses of four recently slain Fallen Angels. Vali grimaced. The Fallen Angels had been kind to him, and he was always thankful that Azazel took him in and basically adopted him as a son. Vali would make sure to report these four Fallen Angel''s deaths to his father later. Before that though... "You were quite annoying to track down. Are you my Rival? Are you the Red Dragon Emperor?" Vali asked. His rival had just murdered four Fallen in cold blood and would probably be hunted down for it. Vali knew that his only chance to have a fight with him was now before that happened! His rival was a young man with brown hair and eyes. He looked to be around 17 years old and was wearing a school uniform of some kind. His rival looked at Vali condescendingly as he spoke. "...Vali Lucifer. I sensed you running around the town trying to find me all morning. It was almost comical really. The only reason you even found me here was because I let out that small strand of my aura on purpose for you to follow." Vali grinned. His rival was not a disappointment after all! "So you have awakened your Sacred Gear then!? And you have been suppressing your power?" Vali asked in excitement for the fight to come. "I''m glad! It looks like I actually have a competent rival! I would have your name before we face each other." His rival sighed. "Do we have to fight?" "Of course we do, you just murdered for Fallen Angels! This will be our only chance to fight before you end up getting hunted down for this!" Vali told him. His rival frowned. "Is that so?" A red gauntlet appeared on his arm. "It''s too early for my vengeance. My plans aren''t ready. I guess I''ll just have to eliminate the witness... As for my name, you can die knowing that Hyoudou Issei was the one to kill you!" BOOST! "A fight to the death it is!" Vali grinned as his White Dragon Wings appeared on his back! ... ¨CSirzechs Lucifer¨C "Master, I''ve been a very naughty maid. I need to be punished~." Sirzechs smirked at the sight in front of him. His beautiful wife/maid Grayfia was bent over his work desk presenting her panty clad ass to him. He had a long day of work, with a never ending stream of papers to sign, and he felt like he deserved this reward! "You have been quite naughty, Grayfia. I know just the way to punish you~." Sirzechs said as he started taking off his shirt. Before he could though¨C BANG! "Zexxy-Chan! Big news! Major news!" The doors to his office¨Cwhich were magically locked¨Cwere blown wide open and Serafall Leviathan burst in the room! She was dressed in her over the top magical girl outfit that she could usually be found in. Sirzechs sighed as this wasn''t the first time Serafall had cock blocked him. Grayfia pouted but she started putting her skirt back on. The mood had been officially killed. Serafall took in the scene in front of her with some surprise before she just shrugged. "There''s no time for sexy time with your wife, Zexxy-chan! We have a big problem! We have to call the other faction heads! A time traveler has appeared in Kuoh!" His eyes widened in shock! "Someone broke the taboo! And in Kuoh town!?" Sirzechs thoughts strayed to Rias and he hoped she wasn''t in danger. "You contact Azazel and I''ll give Michael a call!" ... It didn''t take more than ten minutes for the other two faction''s leaders to hear the news and teleport down to the underworld. Azazel, Michael and Gabriel all came as quickly as they could. Sirzechs was in one of his mansion''s meeting rooms with the three of them, Serafall, and his best friend Ajuka. "Are you sure this news is legit?" Azazel asked. "Time travel has been forbidden by every pantheon!" "According to my baby sister, the news came directly from a Fallen Angel Cadre called Layla!" Serafall said begrudgingly. "I don''t like that one of your Cadre''s just strolled directly into Devil territory, but So-Tan told me that Layla was sent by Mephisto Pheles so I''ll let it go for now. She better not touch my baby sister though!" Serafall demanded. ''An unknown Cadre was in Kuoh town?'' Sirzechs wasn''t sure how to feel about that. "Layla?" Azazel asked in surprise. "I wondered what she had been up to the past two days..." He muttered before turning back to Serafall. "You don''t have to worry about her, she won''t harm your sister, or yours." He said to Sirzechs as well. Sirzechs sighed in relief hearing that. "It''s not that kind of touching I''m worried about!" Serafall said almost hysterically¨CSirzechs was sure she was just being dramatic though. "What if this Layla tries to make a move on my So-tan or Zexxy''s Ria-tan!?" Azazel waved them off. "Don''t worry...that shouldn''t happen¨COh wait!" Azazel paused and looked sheepish. "...Um...now that I recall¨Cshe does apparently have a harem full of beautiful women." Sirzechs now felt his panic coming back for a different reason! Gabriel and Michael had been mostly silent till now, before speaking up. "I wasn''t aware that the Grigori recently gained another Cadre. Congratulations, brother! Can I meet her?" Gabriel asked hopefully. "She''s...not really a member of the Grigori... Per se..." He trailed off. Sirzechs could tell that Azazel was obviously hiding something there. "Is that so?" Gabriel asked curiously. She turned to her oldest brother Michael. "Do you remember any Angel''s named Layla?" Michael shook his head. "I remember the name of every single Angel. Those who are still in heaven, those who have Fallen, and even my brothers and sisters who passed on during the Great War. I don''t recall our father ever naming an Angel Layla though." He commented curiously. All eyes in the room turned to Azazel who was doing his best to avoid their collective gazes. Sirzechs was now sure that he was hiding something important about this new Cadre! Ajuka spoke up. "As intriguing as this mystery is, perhaps we should focus on why we are here. We need to get to Kuoh and see if we can find this temporal anomaly before the other Pantheons get wind of it." Serafall rapidly nodded. "That''s right! All those assholes are always looking for a way to make us look bad! They''ll absolutely blame us if they find out!" Azazel spoke up. "It''s settled then, we should all head to Kuoh immed¨C" Azazel abruptly stopped talking. A genuine angry expression formed on his face! He grit his teeth and clenched his fists tightly! Magic power started wafting off of him in his rage! "Azazel!? What''s wrong!?" Gabriel asked in concern. Sirzechs didn''t think he had seen the calm Azazel this angry in centuries! Azazel''s eyes were filled with hatred! "Someone just killed my son! The magical spell I placed on him to tell me his status was just broken!" XXX = chapter 231 chapter 231 A/N: So I''ve decided to change up how I''m going to do things...unless I hate it that is. We''ll see how it goes ?\_(¥Ä)_/ ? Instead of dumping Five (~1k word) chapters once a week, I''m going to start posting two (~3k word) chapters twice a week. Chapter 231: ¨CIssei Hyoudou¨C Vali was just as strong as Issei remembered him being in this time period. It was only the hundreds of years of experience in combat Issei had that let him triumph as easily as he did. Vali had put up a valiant fight, sure, but Issei had spared against him hundreds of times in the future and knew every one of Vali''s tricks at this point. This younger Vali obviously didn''t have that luxury. "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain..." Issei Hyoudou muttered to himself as he stared down at the corpse of Vali Lucifer. Issei didn''t remember where he had heard that quote from, but it seemed fitting in this situation. Issei acknowledged that he was the Villain in this situation. He had just killed someone who was a hero in his own timeline. Despite that acknowledgement, he wouldn''t stop now! Not until he reclaimed what had been lost to him! Issei was never going to give up. No matter who or what stood in his way! Issei raised his gauntleted hand and pointed it at Vali''s corpse. He was planning on destroying it along with the evidence of their battle. He didn''t think anyone would be able to stop him at this point¨C''not even HER!''¨Cbut he was still very paranoid about being exposed before he regained his full strength. He was preparing to fire his Dragon Shot and destroy Vali''s body when Ddraig stopped him. The green gem on his Boosted Gear glowed as his partner spoke to him. {Don''t do it, Partner. He''s already gone, allow him a proper burial at least. He was your rival and deserves that dignity. Don''t lose yourself, completely. Vali was never your true enemy here.} Issei lowered his gauntlet and sighed. "You''re right, Ddraig. The one I need to kill is the Goddess of Angels. She''s the one who took everything from me after all!" {What''s your plan now?} "I''m sure Azazel is going to know that I killed Vali. For now, I''m going to use his body as a decoy while I head to the underworld. I need to regain my full strength and there happens to be a sleeping beauty there who can help me do it." {Good plan. I don''t see anything wrong with you waking up Ingvild early. Her Sacred Gear should also give you the boost you need to get back to Super Class quickly. After that, you NEED to find Asia! She''s the ONLY one who can hopefully heal our damaged souls!} "I know...Ddraig. I know." Issei said with a grimace. Even now, he could feel a burning pain inside of himself. His and Ddraig''s souls were deteriorating and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Issei figured they''d be dead in a month at most. He had hoped to find Asia when he stormed the church and killed Raynare, but she wasn''t there! Issei knew he was in another timeline, and he had no idea where she was currently. "I will find MY ASIA, and I will take back my dream!" ... ¨C500 years in the future, in a different timeline¨C "Hello, you''ve reached the phone of Rias Gremory! I can''t take your call right now, but feel free to leave a message. And if this is my bastard ex-husband Issei, STOP CALLING ME! We''re through!" A mature looking Issei hung up the magical phone with a grimace. Rias wasn''t talking to him anymore. None of the girls he actually loved were talking to him anymore! "My lord, is something wrong? Is that ungrateful whore still not answering your calls?" A beautiful naked woman, sitting on the sofa in Issei''s mansion asked him. She was one of the latest harem members, although he didn''t even know her name. He had simply seen her walking down the street in his territory and decided that he had to add her to his horde. With his Draconic Aura, it was easy enough to seduce her. She was only a Low Class Devil and could hardly resist its influence. Issei glared at the naked girl. "Don''t talk about Rias like that! She''ll come around! She''s only a bit jealous because the size of my harem has grown a bit large lately!" Another naked woman came and sat down next to the other girl. "Of course she is jealous. My lord is the greatest Devil in the Underworld! It is expected of you to have a large harem! All of us sisters are grateful that you desired us and took us for yourself! It is our greatest honor!" She said almost reverently. She was also a Low Class woman that was influenced by his Draconic Aura to fall for him. Another woman that he had picked up somewhere, and couldn''t quite recall. He didn''t care, she was just a plaything. They all were! Why didn''t his wives realize that!? Issei''s harem had grown explosively over the years. As the new Dragon of Domination, his lust was insatiable after all. Right now, he was up to around 300 Harem members. His wives, the only women he truly loved, had apparently had enough. They refused to stand by him anymore. Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Kuroka, Ingvild, Xenovia, Roseweisse, Irina, Bennia, Ravel, and even his precious Asia...all of them left him! He was now alone in his gigantic mansion with only his harem members for company. None of his wives would answer his call and they refused to speak with him in person. Even the precious children he had with all of them, refused to speak with him. Issei sighed. He had everything that he dreamed of as a young boy at this point. He had power, wealth, fame, and a massive harem! None of that made him happy though. "Pour me a drink!" Issei commanded the two women as he started undressing himself. He needed to get black out drunk and throw himself into another orgy so he could forget the pain temporarily. ...A few hours later. A few tears came to his eyes. One of his biggest regrets was never turning his parents into devils. He was so focused on his harem dream, that he let them waste away and die as humans. He vowed to himself that he wouldn''t let that happen again. First though, he had to figure out what was going on. Did he accidentally send himself back further in time than he wanted to? He cringed at the thought, but resolved to himself that that wasn;t the worst thing in the world if that''s what happened. At least he''d get to beat up Riser Phenex one more time. Issei hopped out of his bead and started looking around his bedroom for his school uniform. He was surprised when it wasn''t in the drawer he remembered it used to be in. Maybe his mother had washed it. Issei tossed on some other clothes and headed downstairs. His mother and his father were sitting at the kitchen table. They looked exactly as he remembered them. He smiled at them brightly. Good morning, dad! Good morning, mom!" Instead of being happy to see him, both of his parents just sighed. "Good morning...Son." His father said tiredly. "Mom, have you seen my school uniform anywhere?" Issei asked her. His mom looked at him in confusion before giving him a judgemental look. "Why do you need your school uniform?" she asked him. "You better not be thinking of wearing it to sneak back into Kuoh and peep on underage girls!" She spat out at him. He was taken aback by the venomous tone she had with him! "Son... I think it''s time you move out. You were expelled from Kuoh two years ago, but it seems like you can''t move past your perversions. Your mother and I can''t take it anymore." His father said sadly. "...What?" It was only a couple hours later that Issei had started putting the pieces together. The jumbled memories of his two soul''s finally settled. Issei was horrified when he got access to his past memories. "This isn''t my past..." He whispered to himself in shock. He didn''t accidently send himself back farther than he thought. He was 20 years old and had ended up exactly where he expected...except he hadn''t. Issei realized that he had not heeded Ajuka''s warning and had actually sent himself to an alternate timeline! Here, he was not a Devil! He was a regular human and his Sacred Gear wasn''t even awakened yet! That''s why he couldn''t hear Ddraig. From his new memories he learned that a few years ago, Rias and Sona had decided to leave Kuoh Academy along with their peerages one day randomly. The students were sad to see them go, but the Issei of this timeline figured the school would continue on as it always had even without those two. How wrong he was... The only reason he had not been expelled, for constantly peeping on girls, was because of the Devil''s influence over the school. Without them there to run things, Issei and the other two members of the perverted trio were expelled and sent to juvenile prisons. His life was pretty much ruined from there. No college would ever accept someone with a record like his after all. For the past year, he had been working 9-5 at a convenience store that barely paid him anything. It was the best job he could get. "This is such bullshit!" Issei cursed out loud in rage. "What happened!? Where did it go wrong!? I''m the Red Dragon Emperor! Why did Rias not take me into her peerage!?" Issei spent the next week doing his best to awaken his Sacred Gear and try to at least get Ddraig back. From there, the two of them agreed that they needed more information on this timeline. The closest destination to find that information was Kyoto. Issei stole money from his mother''s purse and bought a train ticket. From there, he headed into Youkai territory to try and find any information he could about the Devils and Rias Gremory. He used his identity as the Red Dragon Emperor to intimidate any youkai he found. He didn''t care if they reported him to Yasaka, he was planning on leaving Kyoto after he got the information he came for. "Who the hell is the Goddess of Angels?" He asked in anger. {Whoever she is, she sounds powerful and very influential.} Issei found a few more Youkai and got the answers out of them...one way or another. From what Issei learned of her, she appeared years ago in Kuoh and ended up sweeping not only Rias Gremory, but also Sona Sitri off their feet. Apparently, the Goddess of Angels was a very high ranked Fallen Angel that was practically worshiped by the three factions. She was a Super Class being, she could create Angels at a whim, she could heal the Devil''s Sleeping Sickness Disease, and she could literally revive the dead! How was Issei supposed to compete with that!? "Rias is already part of someone else''s harem here, Ddraig. And in this timeline I''m nothing but a human criminal..." Issei muttered in dejection. {I warned you to be careful when messing with time. Luckily for you, none of the pantheons seemed to notice that you did it. You''re still the Red Dragon Emperor. Why not start over here and make a name for yourself again? I''m sure that plenty of Devil''s will want you in their peerages!} "No!" Issei said while clenching his fists. "The only peerage I join will be Rias''s! If I failed the first time, then I''ll just try again. I just need to collect the magical ingredients to perform the time ritual a second time! I''ll stop the Goddess of Angels from ever getting her hands on Rias! I''ll kill her first before she touches what''s mine!" {Partner... You didn''t listen to Ajuka''s first warning. The second warning specifically said that you can never time travel again! Our Souls won''t be able to handle it!} Issei grit his teeth. "It doesn''t matter. I have to! I''ll take back what''s mine and kill anyone who gets in my way! The Goddess of Angel''s won''t even see me coming!" He grinned vindictively. XXX A/N: This was a bit of a different chapter, but I had fun writing it. chapter 232 chapter 232 We left Gasper to his games and headed back to the Clubroom. My two newest girlfriends were listening with rap detention as I explained about myself and where I came from. They didn''t believe me at first, but a few demonstrations of my abilities and they were mostly convinced. "Woah..." Rias said with stars in her eyes. I could tell she definitely wanted to visit my home, maybe even move there. Rias was an interesting one. She was a girl that craved a regular life, but at the same time she also thirsted for excitement. "Aliens...Space Travel...Alien Gods!? Your Universe sounds crazy! And you''re trying to become a Goddess yourself?" I nodded at Rias. I had mentioned to them that I was trying to become the Goddess of Angels. That required the Angels of this world to acknowledge me as such. Even if they didn''t pray to me, belief would still send me Faith Energy. Rias and Sona were justifiably skeptical, until they found out that I could heal pretty much anything and even revive the dead! "Really!? Only G¨CGod...Ow...was able to revive the dead in our world. Even then, he was only able to revive Humans or half humans like J¨Cjesus...Ow." Rias said while clutching her head from the migrain saying those two names gave her. I quickly healed her headache with my Purger of Darkness and told her she could just refer to those two as Big G or Big J. That caused her to giggle. Sona had been looking contemplative for a while. "You blatantly exposed the Supernatural to the humans of your world...and they actually accepted you?" Sona asked in surprise. She was under the impression that things should not have gotten that smoothly. "Yeah, why wouldn''t they? What did you think would have happened?" "We all thought they would have started launching nukes to kill us all off! That''s one of the reasons why we try so hard to keep the Supernatural world secret. That''s why we wipe the memories of any normal humans when they discover us." Sona explained. She thought that humans would never be able to accept the Devil''s, because they used to eat their souls back during the Great War. "I nodded at that. You would think that''s the case," I told the two of them. "But you''re forgetting one important thing." I said with a sly grin. They both looked at me curiously. Rias tilted her head. "And what''s that?" "Both you and Sona are super hot." I told them. Sona sputtered at me with a red face. I laughed. "Let''s be real here, the majority of men tend to think with their little heads. If human men found out that there was an entire race, full of super hot women, that ''regularly indulged in sin,'' do you think they would try and destroy that race? Or would they instead all try and hook up with the Sexy Devil girls?" I asked them. If I was an ugly Fallen Angel, my reveal to Earth Marvel would not have gone over as well as it should have. It did though, because I was ridiculously Hot, and half the planet wanted to fuck me. I accepted that fact a while ago... Sona and Rias were both gaping at me for my question. Sona tried to argue that people were smarter than that, and that there was no way that could be the case. "War can easily be prevented just because I''m hot? There''s no way that would work." She scoffed. I pointed at Sona. "You literally chose not to attack me, a Fallen Angel in the heart of your territory, because I am Hot." I told her. "...You''re the same as them." Sona pressed her face into her hands and let out a muffled scream of embarrassment at being compared to the average horny guy. Rias giggled at Sona''s expense. She then had a pondering look on her face as she started muttering something about how millions of Otaku would probably betray their home country of Japan to defend their precious Youkai Catgirls if they found out they really existed... She got the idea at least. ... Our conversation was interrupted when I felt a massive surge of energy on the outside of the town. I couldn''t believe I didn''t sense it earlier! I opened a portal to the edge of town. Sona and Rias followed me. I recognize the two magical signatures of whoever fought here. One of them was Vali, and the other was very similar to Isane Hyoudou. Was he fighting with Issei here? Some things were starting to make sense to me now. I had subtly asked Rias about the perverted trio earlier. According to her, they were three normal humans and one of them might possess a Sacred Gear, but she didn''t know which one. They spend so much time together, that the Sacred Gear aura brushed off on all of them. Rias was desperate to get a strong peerage, but she didn''t yet know if she was desperate enough to recruit a blatant degenerate to her family. "What kind of fight happened here?" Rias asked in shock. Her eyes were wide as she took in the devastation around us. I didn''t blame her, half the forest had been completely leveled to the ground. Trees were violently torn up and thrown around everywhere. There were craters scattered around everywhere that could only have resulted from many explosions. There must have been a very powerful barrier put up here. Otherwise, there''s no way I wouldn''t have been able to sense a fight like this going on nearby. [Or maybe you were just too engrossed talking to your newest girls to notice...] ''Give it a rest system. I''m horny but I''m not that horny.'' My wings emerged behind me and I took to the sky to get an aerial view of the battlefield. It extended for a few kilometers. There was no way Canon Issei would have been able to push Vali this far in a fight. That settled it, I now figured out who the time traveler was. Sona and Rias were hovering next to me looking around. Sona suddenly cringed and looked off into the distance. "My sister is here..." She muttered quietly. I raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you know?" Rias giggled at Sona who was covered in goosebumps. "She always gets this way when Levia-tan comes to visit her precious So-tan!" she said teasingly. As she said that, I felt numerous Magical beings teleport nearby. I recognized one of them as this world''s Azazel. He was with three very powerful devils, and two very powerful Angels. I flapped my wings and started making my way over towards them. I cringed at the sight when we arrived. Azazel was standing in the middle of a crater. I could feel anger radiating off of him. Lying on the ground next to him was Vali...or his corpse that was. He was beaten black and blue and even missing his left arm. "Vali lost?" I muttered in shock as I descended. "Rias?" "So-Tan!" I didn''t want to exploit my own siblings'' faith and change the relationship between us. The fastest way to become the Goddess of Angels was to get actual Angel''s to believe me to be such. That''s why I received so much more Faith Energy from them than I did from Kunou Alter. Thankfully for Vali, he hadn''t been dead long enough to lose his Sacred Gear. His white Dragon Wings popped out of his back and Albion profusely thanked me for saving his partner. We let Vali take a few minutes to get himself acclimated to being back amongst the living before we started interrogating him on what had happened. He told us his story. It was quite a doozy. This version of Issei was even more messed up in the head than the last one I killed... Vali was about half way through his story when Serafall started acting strangely. She put her hand to her ear and a small magic circle manifested by her ear. The scowl she''d been sending me subtly this whole time vanished and her face changed to one of panic! "The Sitri territory is under attack! Low Class Devils are being slaughtered by two people calling themselves the Children of Thanos!" Serafall declared. I froze for a second upon hearing her words. ... ¨C?¨C An hour earlier... His largest and most powerful vessel drifted in orbit above another version of Midgard. He sat on his throne contemplating his next move. His target had been very skilled at eluding him so far. What annoyed him the most, was that she wasn''t even evading him on purpose. He had chased her all the way from his home Universe after she devastated Asgard and destroyed Midgard¨Calong with a few of his precious Infinity Stones! His loyal children kneeled before him in the throne room of his vessel. Sitting by his side, was his new loyal Queen. After some proper re-education, she had proven to be a competent woman to keep by his side. Despite that, the fires of vengeance still burned in her eyes. She wanted revenge against the exact same woman that he was after. "Her power to jump between Universes with such ease is quite annoying, Father." Ebony Maw said to him. "Every time she jumps, it takes us days to follow after her! And then she''s gone already before we get there!" He complained. Gamora scoffed at Ebony Maw. "That''s just because you''re too incompetent to create a better method to travel across Universes." Her sister next to her also snickered at Maw''s expense. Ebony Maw glared at his lord''s daughters in annoyance. "You two have no idea the difficulty of the task Father assigned to me! If even the slightest calculation is off, our vessel will be torn apart and lost to the eternal void forever!" "Whatever..." Gamora replied in annoyance before looking at him. "Father, this can''t go on! We''ve been chasing this Layla of the Fallen for weeks now! We''re wasting our time!" "We haven''t wasted our time, she''s on that planet below us right now!" Ebony Maw defended himself. Thanos stood up from his throne and looked at the blue world below. He grimaced in irritation. Layla of the Fallen, his target, was currently on that world somewhere below him and yet he couldn''t attack her right now. "The world directly below us is full of beings with terrifying strength. If our ship descends from orbit right now, I guarantee we won''t last more than 10 minutes before we are destroyed." Hela the former queen of Asgard explained. She stood up from her own smaller throne and walked over towards her husband. She placed her hand on his large arm. "We need to fight her on our terms. We need to lure her into a trap. Maybe we should attack her home Universe?" "We don''t know which world her home world is though, Mother." Ebony Maw addressed Hela. "She''s jumped to over a dozen Universes in the past month alone." Hela smirked. "Then we will simply attack the world that she has jumped to the most. That''s the most likely one to be her home world." Thanos nodded. "Yes, we shall do that. Maw, prepare our ship for another Universal jump. I tire of this endless chase as well. We shall attack her home world after all." Thanos declared and his loyal children all listened. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Alarms blared across Thano''s ship. "Sire, we are detecting massive power surges on the planet below us. They are all coming from a small Island Nation. Our sensors have managed to pierce through an energy barrier for us to see and hear." A holographic screen appeared in the ship''s throne room. Thanos watched, impressed, as a warrior in Red Draconic Armor battled intensely against another warrior in White Draconic Armor. The battle was very violent and close. In the end, the Red Warrior triumphed and slew the White one. Hela stood next to him as they watched. "The Red Warrior has a severely damaged soul. He has less than a month to live if nothing is done. I could probably heal him though." She said. "I see little point." He replied. Thanos found the battle entertaining, but held little interest once it was over. That was until his ship''s sensors picked up the voice of the Red Warrior speaking. Specifically, he was swearing vengeance against the same enemy that Thanos was after! "He is preparing a teleportation ritual, Father. What should we do?" Ebony Maw asked. Thanos grinned. "Lock onto his power signature so we know where he teleports to." On the screen, the red Warrior vanished from the Battleground. The ship''s computers took a couple minutes to calculate where he had teleported to. "Interesting," Ebony Maw commented. He had done as his Father asked and locked onto the Warriors power signature. "He appears to have teleported into the center of their world..." "I wasn''t aware that midgard was hollow inside." Hela commented with a shrug. "Prepare our own teleporters." Thanos said. He turned towards Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive who had been relatively quiet so far. "You two will follow after the Red Warrior and recruit him. Wherever he teleported to, I want you two to cause as much death and destruction as you can within a short time. I want Layla of the Fallen to know you were there. Make sure you spread the message that we will be coming to her home next!" Thanos said with a wicked grin. "Don''t take too long," Hela warned them. "We don''t want to alert the powerful beings guarding this world of our presence." Proxima Midnight bowed. "Your wills will be done, Father...Mother. We shall recruit this Red warrior and spread death in Father''s name. Layla of the Fallen will finally know that her days are numbered!" She and her partner immediately left. Thanos grinned to himself. He didn''t know if the Red Warrior was worthy of being one of his new children, but he would prove a useful soldier at the very least. XXX chapter 233 chapter 233 Chapter 233: Serafall looked pissed! She glared at me specifically. "Who are the Children of Thanos and why are they after you!?" She asked me accusingly. "Did you cause this? They left a message for you, Layla of the Fallen!" She spat out! "What?" I asked in surprise. They were after me? Then why are they attacking down there? How were they even here!? "Don''t play dumb! You must have done something!" She exclaimed emotionally. Some of her demonic aura started wafting off her and warping the air. I didn''t know if she was on the verge of attacking me, but I wasn''t backing down to her. Serafall held up her hand and a pink magic wand appeared in her palm. She pointed it at me. My instincts screamed at me that an attack was coming! My own magic aura sprang around me as the ground started to shake. My eyes shifted to my Rinnegan and I was preparing to send her flying with an Almighty Push. I held up my palm in her direction. "Nee-sama, stop!" Sona ran up between us in a panic! She was holding up both her hands to stop the two of us from coming to blows right here. We both immediately stopped our attacks before they went off. Serafall scowled at her younger sister. "So-tan get out of the way! Your big sister is going to punish this Crow!" Sona was currently trembling under her sister''s powerful aura, but she didn''t back down. I was very impressed by her boldness. "That Crow is my girlfriend now, Nee-Sama! You need to treat her with the respect a consort of house Sitri deserves!" Sona declared boldly to her sister. To my surprise, Serafall''s emotions did a complete 180! Her anger disappeared and tears formed in her eyes. "Noooooooo! So-tan is growing up and has a girlfriend now! What about me!? Are we not going to have sister sister yuri yuri time anymore!?" Serafall whined loudly. Magical anime tears started to spill from her eyes and formed a puddle at her feet. She was obviously being dramatic and doing that on purpose. Sona''s face turned bright red in embarrassment from her Sister''s words and actions. Sona sputtered at Serafall. "W¨Cwe never had yuri yuri time in the first place! You''re lying!" Sona glanced at me quickly. Her eyes were pleading with me to believe her. Serafall wiped her eyes. "That''s because I didn''t know that you secretly liked girls. I always suspected, of course, because your peerage is full of cute Japanese schoolgirls. But... I wasn''t 100% sure because you never took any of them into your bed, So-tan!" Serafall declared. "That''s why your sister''s peerage is all schoolgirls? I thought she simply wanted a peerage full of intellectuals like myself." Ajuka said in mild disappointment. "It turns out that I''m still the only Devil without sex constantly on my mind..." Sona covered her red face with her hands in embarrassment at being compared to every other horny young Devil by Ajuka Beelzebub himself. [Is he wrong though?] ''He is not...'' "My sister told people that she wanted a smart peerage, but it was never true." Serafall said to him. She turned back to Sona and smiled softly at her sister. "If you wanted a harem of pretty girls, So-tan, all you had to do was ask. Your sister would have immediately made you a harem and even managed it for you!" Serafall said in a tone that indicated she was completely serious. The more she spoke, the more embarrassed Sona got. Everyone nearby was just watching this interaction without interrupting. I looked over at Rias. She was covering her mouth with her hands and doing her best to hold back her laughter. "Nee-sama! I hate you!" Sona couldn''t take any more teasing! Her Devil wings popped up behind her and she flew back towards Kuoh in embarrassment. Rias wiped some tears of laughter from her eyes before speaking to me. "I suppose I should follow after her. Here, take this. I''ll message you later." Rias handed me a cell phone with the Gremory clan symbol on the back of it. Her own wings popped out behind her and she flew off in the same direction as Sona. Once they were gone, all eyes once again turned towards me. Serafall was no longer hostile, but she didn''t look happy by my presence either. "Hmph, at least you have the stones to stand up to me! Just so you know, I''ll never give up on So-tan! We Devil''s aren''t humans after all..." She trailed off. [Incest is winc¨C] ''I get it, System!'' I understood what she meant. "You know, if you really want to get into So-tan''s bed, the easiest way is to hop in ours." I told Serafall with a smirk of my own. Serafall paused in thought at my words before giving me a cute pout. "Hmph, I''m not so easy to win over as my sister is!" Serafall hugged her arms to her chest in a way that pushed up her large breasts, emphasizing them. "Magical Girl Levia-tan is someone that millions of Supernatural beings lust after, but few will ever have!" She declared proudly. Sirzechs coughed awkwardly. "Serafall, your territory is still in a crisis. Maybe you should save this conversation for another time?" Sirzechs calmly suggested. Serafall''s eyes widened in remembrance! "That''s right! We have to go, Zexxy and Aju-tan!" "Please don''t call me that." "You know I hate that name..." The two male Devil''s said at the same time. "Don''t let me keep you all here." I told them. I wanted to know what had happened as well, but I wasn''t about to run off to the Underworld with them. Ajuka created a teleportation circle for the three of them on the ground. Serafall pointed at me from inside the circle. "Don''t you dare take my sister''s innocence while I''m gone!" She yelled before she vanished. Sirzechs looked like he also had something to say, but didn''t have time to before he was gone as well. Azazel, Michael and Gabriel had been fussing over Vali this entire time off to the side. When they noticed that the three Maous had left, they decided to follow after them. Either to see if they could help out or just to present a united wasn''t my business either way. I could tell that neither Michael and Gabriel wanted to go. They both clearly wanted to stay and talk more with me. I would have preferred that as well. It would have been a good opportunity to spread some more propaganda about myself to get more Faith Energy.Findd new stories at novelhall.com [At least this Thanos didnt team up with your own Universe''s Thanos.] I shuddered at that thought. Yeah, that would have turned out badly for me. Especially since I believe the Thanos of my home Universe to be Super Class or possibly even stronger. On top of that, he definitely already has one or two Infinity Stones in his possession. [That would have been a brutal fight. On another topic, what will you do about Heather and Asia?] "I''m taking them back home with me of course." I replied. I''m not leaving two super-powered pretty teenage girls alone in ANY version of a DxD universe... Knowing Heather''s "Potter luck," some random Devil brat will definitely stumble upon her within the first few hours and try to add her to his peerage. I obviously wasn''t going to let that happen. ... ...A couple hours later. I had arrived back at Kuoh Academy. This time Asia, Heather and Vali were all accompanying me. We were all sitting in the occult club room with Rias and Sona. Vali and Asia were sitting together on the other side of the room. Vali was looking better after his nap but still not perfect. Asia was doing a good job comforting him. She cried for ten minutes straight and hugged Vali tightly when she found out that he had been killed! He didn''t push her away and actually hugged her back. I could tell he was pretty shaken up when he realized that he had truly died. Had I not been here, then that would have been it for him. He was a tough teen, and I''m sure he''d bounce back in a couple of days. He was probably itching for vengeance as well. Heather and I were sitting across from Rias and Sona. Neither of their peerages were here again. They had all been sent out to start fixing up the heavily damaged forest just outside of town. That was going to be pretty hard to explain to the mundanes unless it was fixed quickly. "So you two are dating my mom, hmm?" Heather asked while scrutinizing Rias and Sona. I told Heather about Rias and Sona before we got here. Needless to say, Heather was not exactly happy that I now had two girlfriends that were only a few years older than her. Rias gave Heather a big smile! "You must be Heather Potter! Layla told us so much about you! I heard you''re an amazing young witch! The adventures you''ve been on sound so exciting! And you''re so pretty too! Other wizards and witches must have always been so jealous of you!" Rias was blatantly putting on the flattery to get on Heather''s good side. One of the easiest ways to win someone over was to dish out compliments after all. Especially for a girl like Heather, who hadn''t received a lot of praise in her life until recently. Heather blushed at all the praise. "Now that you mention it, the other kids at Hogwarts were always jealous of me..." She mumbled cutely with pink cheeks. Sona caught on and started following Rias''s lead. "You are definitely amazing! I would have immediately offered to make you my Queen if I didn''t already have one." Sona added. "Thank you." Heather replied to her as well. My daughter then turned to me. "I still don''t like that you''re now dating two High School girls...even if they''re both 18 and not human. These two seem to be very nice though..." She paused for a moment before her eyes narrowed at me. "You better treat them both right, mom!" Heather scolded me adorably. She didn''t notice the subtle high five Rias gave Sona after the two of them won her over. "What are you going to do now, Layla?" Rias asked me. "Are you going back to your home to fight this Thanos? Who is he anyway?" I sighed. "That''s a long story... One that ends in me using an Asgardian Death Star laser to blow up the Earth." Both Rias and Sona looked at me like I was joking of course. This was one of the adventures I didn''t get to when I was talking about myself to them earlier. "She''s not joking," Heather said to them both for me. "Mom did blow up another Earth that was overrun by a zombie apocalypse." "Ok then." Sona said with a slightly pale face. "...We''ll table that story for later. What we want to know is if you''ll take us with you when you go back?" I raised an eyebrow. "What about your school life here? And your peerages. Just so you both know, I''m not taking them. I wouldn''t mind Rias''s peerage coming to visit my home, but yours, Sona..." I trailed off. Sona grimaced. "Yes... It has recently been brought to my attention that my peerage is... inadequate compared to Rias''s. Other than Tsubaki at least. I don''t really know how to fix that though. It''s not like I can undo turning them into Devils." Sona said. "My mom can do that." Heather replied. "..." I really wasn''t trying to blow Rias and Sona''s minds every time they discovered another one of my abilities, but that''s what had been happening so far at least. I made the offer to Sona to return the majority of her peerage to normal humans and she could then erase their memories of the Supernatural. She would be able to build a better peerage from the ground up in the future. She didn''t immediately dismiss my offer, so I figured she was seriously considering it. When she spoke of them all, she didn''t sound nearly as close to them as Rias did about her own peerage. As for Rias and Sona coming with me, I told them that was fine but we were leaving first thing in the morning. Both of them agreed to leave their peerages behind for now. Rias was going to let Grayfia take over managing her peerage and Sona was going to temporarily have one of Serafalls servants look after her own. One of the main reasons that Rias wanted to come with me was Riser Phenex of course. She told me that he had spies in Kuoh and he definitely knew that she was now my girlfriend. The second I left, he would probably swoop in like a vulture to try and steal Rias back. Was he really that stupid? Yes, he was. That would obviously make me furious and I would probably end up killing him and starting a war with his whole Clan when I returned. In order to avoid all that, Rias thought it was better to just come with me back to Earth Marvel for now. As for the other business I still had here, I sent a message to Azazel to get in contact with the church. I asked him to tell them to keep the members of Diodora''s peerage in their custody¨Cwhenever they got them back¨Cand I would fix them all when I returned. Everything was taken care of for now, and we were heading back home first thing in the morning. My first stop would be talking to the Ancient One to see what we could do about Thanos''s imminent arrival. [What about Emma? She''s still on Earth DxD in the Grigori.] "Huh...? Emma? ...Oh... Crap..." I muttered to myself. She''s been there for days now... [You forgot about your new secretary didn''t you...] "...I had a lot of things going on, alright!?" I''m sure she won''t be too upset with me anyway. XXX chapter 234 chapter 234 Chapter 234: ¨CEarth Marvel¨C The Ancient One: ''Fate is quite the intriguing thing...'' The Ancient One thought to herself as she sat sipping tea across from her newest guest. A guest that she shouldn''t have been meeting with for years yet, but his fate seemed to have been pushed forward. Whether it was by mere coincidence or the machinations of Higher Beings, the Ancient One didn''t know or particularly care. Her decision had already been made, and she wasn''t playing any of their games anymore. A few hours ago, a man had shown up on the Kamar Taj''s literal doorstep begging to be healed. He was a world-renowned surgeon whose hands had been recently crippled in a car accident, effectively ending his career. He wasn''t supposed to have shown up for years still... This man was originally meant to be her future successor. Now, however, the Ancient One wasn''t sure what this man''s destiny would turn out to be. Would he be a powerful sorcerer, or would he go back to being a world-renowned surgeon? Before a certain Fallen Angel stumbled into their reality, the Ancient One would have pushed for the man to pick the Arcane Path. Now, it didn''t really matter which path he chose. It was a bit cruel to say, but with the introduction of Heather Potter to the Kamar Taj, they no longer ''needed'' Doctor Stephen Strange. There were many realities where he did a great job as the Sorcerer Supreme, but there were just as many where he ended up turning bad or making monumental mistakes. With Heather as her current apprentice, there was no need to take the risk on Stephen. Before Layla arrived in this world from Earth DxD, the Ancient One had seen Heather''s future. It wasn''t anything spectacular. Heather was destined to defeat her mortal enemy Voldemort, and then she would spend the rest of her short life as an Auror, in The Wizarding World, chasing down future Dark witches and wizards. It would have been a thankless job that would have seen Heather struck down before the age of 40. Magical Britain would spend a few months mourning their hero before she would eventually be forgotten when that superstitious community ended up choosing a new Miracle Child to worship. That future had long since been changed. Now, when the Ancient One looked at Heather''s future, she saw so much more! Sometimes she saw Heather as the next Sorceress Supreme ¨C one who was immortal and reigned for over 1000 years! Protecting the world from the shadows as the pinnacle of humanity! In other futures, she saw Heather Potter transformed into a Fallen Angel. With 12 majestic black wings, Heather served under her mother keeping order across the Multiverse while also leading the Kamar Taj and its new members. In futures where Heather chose to become a Fallen Angel, the Sorcerers ended up allowing other races to join them in protecting the Earth. It was true that only humans could effectively use Eldritch magic, but that didn''t mean other branches of magic weren''t equally useful in defending their reality from all the malevolent beings that wished to invade. The Ancient One was a tad biased and could admit she wanted to see Heather stay as a human, but she couldn''t deny the benefits of introducing the powerful members of other benevolent races into their ranks as well. The Supremes of the past would probably curse her from beyond the grave for spitting on humanity''s legacy, but the Ancient One was practical. Human or Angel, she didn''t actually care. She only wanted her successor to be someone who would never fail their job and let the world down. "So, Mr. Strange? What can I do for you?" She asked the man sitting across from her. She noticed that his hands were trembling, and he looked out of sorts. "It''s Doctor Strange actually..." He replied in irritation. He clearly didn''t like people not using his title. "...And I heard this place offers healing to those who can''t be healed through other means? Is that true?" He asked skeptically. She took a sip of her tea before setting her cup back down on the small table between them. "It is true. You certainly could be healed here. Very quickly, in fact," The Ancient One said as she felt her wards fluctuate. A familiar guest was soon to arrive. She looked back at Stephen. "The question is, do you wish to cure yourself or be cured by someone else?" "I can cure myself?" Stephen asked. "How would that work exactly?" "If you study here for the next few months, then I guarantee you''ll be able to heal yourself." "Months?" He didn''t seem enthusiastic about that time frame. "And what if I let someone else heal me? Who would even be able to heal me? The best doctors and surgeons in the world, besides myself, of course, couldn''t do anything for my hands," he told her. She smiled at him cryptically. "If you wait a few more seconds, you''ll find out all that you want to know." "Ok..." He looked at her like she was crazy. She simply smirked. Unbeknownst to him, a purple portal had silently manifested directly behind. Layla of the Fallen stepped out of the portal. The Ancient One had grown used to Layla randomly showing up whenever the Fallen Angel wanted to. The Ancient One did raise an eyebrow at the entourage following behind Layla, though. Layla came back with multiple non-human tagalongs. All three of their auras felt incredibly dark. Normally, beings like this would never be allowed to set foot in Kamar Taj. The only reason the Ancient One didn''t immediately throw them out was that they had arrived with Layla. ... ¨CLayla¨C "Hello!" I greeted the Ancient One as I stepped out of my portal. "Oh, you have a guest? Sorry for interrupting." The guest, who hadn''t yet noticed me, startled in his spot! He spun around, and his eyes widened. "You''re the Angel! The one from TV!" He looked familiar to me, but I don''t think I''d ever met him. "I have been known to occasionally appear on the news," I confirmed with a shrug. I stepped out of the portal as more people entered the room from the portal behind me. "Hi, Master!" Heather greeted the Ancient One as she walked out of the portal with Asia. "Hi, Miss Ancient One!" Asia waved at her enthusiastically. "And hello new person!" Asia said to the unknown man in the room. "Hi?" He replied to her while focusing mostly on the portal next to me. He was looking at it in shock. This man was obviously not accustomed to the supernatural. Rias, Sona, and Vali exited next before my portal closed right behind them. We had made a quick stop, from what I was now calling (Earth DxD-C), to Earth DxD to pick up Emma. She was a bit peeved at being left in the underworld for a few days, but at least she had effectively used that time to make numerous connections among the Fallen Angels. According to her, she had interviewed a lot of my siblings over the past few days for various positions at Fallcorp. A lot of them actually want to work for my company, as it turns out. I sometimes tend to forget how popular I am amongst all my siblings. Emma wasn''t feeling up for any more adventures, so I directly portaled her back to Penemue''s office. That was probably for the best since I figured this was going to be a tediously long day. There was going to be a lot of planning. "Interesting company you''re keeping these days," the Ancient One commented while looking at the three demonic beings in the room. Each of them squirmed slightly under her gaze. Her eyes glowed momentarily, and I could tell she was inspecting them closely. Under her gaze, Rias and Sona shuffled closer to me, while Vali gulped before taking a brave step forward. "You''re pretty strong, Lady? You want to fight?" Vali asked her challengingly. His nervousness was discarded in the face of a potential fight. He was a true battle junkie. The Ancient One gave him a faint smile. "I''ll pass, thank you. As you can see, I''m currently in the middle of entertaining a different guest." Vali scoffed but didn''t ask again. He sat down in the corner with a huff. My attention shifted back towards the man in the room. "Hello, I''m Layla of the Fallen. And who might you be?" I asked him. He stood up and extended his hand for a shake. "My name is Dr. Stephen Strange." "First, you have to apologize to Asia for dismissing her dream, and second, you have to let her occasionally intern at your hospital. She has a busy schedule, but she can do it a couple of times a month at least." Asia smiled at me after I gave him my ultimatum. "I agree." He said. He turned to Asia and gave her an apology that sounded about as heartfelt as a narcissist like himself could give. She accepted it wholeheartedly because that''s just who she was. It didn''t take more than a couple of seconds for my Purger of Darkness to completely restore his hands back to perfect condition. "My hands! They''re back! Thank you so much!" I waved dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. Just don''t forget your promise. Go get your job back at the hospital and make sure to tell them about Asia stopping by in the future." With that said, I waved my hand, and a portal opened up directly beneath his feet. Stephen let out a funny startled yelp right before he fell through it and disappeared from the room. The Ancient One sighed. "I suppose the Surgeon won out over the Sorcerer in this timeline. Where did you send him?" The Ancient One asked me curiously. "I didn''t know where he worked or lived, so I just dropped him off right in the middle of Times Square. I''m sure he''ll figure things out from there." I told her. The Ancient One shrugged. Part of me was surprised that she didn''t want Stephen Strange to stay in the Sanctum and learn to be a sorcerer. She seemed fine letting him go back to his old life in fact. I''d ask her about that later when everyone else wasn''t around. "Why don''t we get to the heart of why you''re here, Layla? And why did you think to bring two and a half devils directly into the Sanctum¡ªa place that, I''ll remind you, has been purging their kind from this dimension for years?" Rias and Sona gulped after hearing that. Vali just scoffed again. "I''d like to see anyone try and purge me." he muttered challengingly. "Have you been looking into the future lately?" I asked the Ancient One. "I always do, but it''s harder to glimpse whenever you''re involved. Why do you want to know?" She replied. I scratched my cheek. "Because Thanos is going to arrive on our world in less than 5 days..." I told her. If looks could kill, I would be very dead right now... "T-Thanos!? He''s not supposed to show up for years! What the fuck did you do!?" She exclaimed while glaring specifically at me. That was one of the first times I''d ever heard her swear. She must be panicking for real. "Tell me everything immediately!" She demanded. I spent the next hour giving her the full rundown on all the details of my past adventures that I had failed to tell her before. Thankfully, she had calmed down, when she heard that it wasn''t our own universe''s Thanos coming after us quite yet. Apparently, that guy was pretty terrifying. And that was coming from a stoic woman like her. After my explanation, we started brainstorming responses to the coming threat. Obviously, we didn''t want Thanos''s giant alien army/ship attacking any major cities. The fight would need to take place somewhere remote, and the Ancient One needed to figure out how to make that happen. Theoretically, if she knew he was coming here, she could alter the barriers protecting our world to make his ship emerge in a place of her own choosing. That sounded like some pretty technical magic, so I''d let her work on that on her own. The task she gave me was to inform Fury of the coming threat. I wasn''t really expecting S.H.I.E.L.D. to make a difference, but the Avengers could be useful allies to have, at least. I also considered informing Hela, but I decided against it. Asgard had its own war coming up, and I didn''t want any of her needed soldiers dying in my own war. Despite that, I still had a couple of other options for groups I could ask for reinforcements. Wakanda could be one, but I honestly didn''t want to be indebted to them. The other option I was leaning towards was a certain warmongering brother of mine and his legion of bloodthirsty Fallen Angels. They''d all been itching for a fight for well over a hundred years at this point, and I happened to have one for them... ... "Welcome back, Layla. And you too, girls. We were all caught off guard when Layla decided to pull you both out of school randomly in the middle of the day." Frigga said as I stepped out of a portal into my penthouse''s kitchen. She was sitting there having tea with Hestia and Natasha. Artemis was standing nearby in her sexy maid uniform, holding a tray like this was a cafe. "Sorry about that. It was an impulsive thing to do. I know I probably caused a small panic at their high school." I replied. "You did." Natasha said, nodding her head. "Half a dozen kids called the police thinking that the new students had been abducted by evil wizards or aliens..." Whoops... Well, that happened, I guess. Heather and Asia were definitely going to get some weird questions from their classmates when they go back to school on Monday. "Hi, Frigga! Hi, Hestia! Hi, Artemis! Hi, Natasha!" Asia greeted them all one by one with a smile. "So, Layla... Who are your guests?" Natasha asked me. She glanced at Vali before quickly dismissing him. Her eyes specifically lingered on Rias and Sona for a moment before she gave me a judgmental glare. "Who might these two ladies be?" I looked away from her judgmental gaze. If I could sweat, I''m sure I would be right now. Rias and Sona smiled awkwardly at everyone who was staring at them. "This is Rias and Sona. They''re both Mom''s new girlfriends!" Heather exclaimed for me. Judging by the sly grin she just gave me, she was sowing chaos on purpose! "Yay! New family members!" Hestia said sincerely. She really liked having a big family. Frigga and Artemis looked shocked. Natasha had doubled down on her glare at me. She could be a bit jealous as my only current human lover. It hadn''t been long since Natasha had moved in with me, and I knew she would be upset with two more members of my harem living here now, especially since she knew nothing about them. "Hi there. I''m Rias Gremory. It''s nice to meet you all. Layla is currently helping me get out of an arranged marriage, and I find her quite attractive and don''t mind dating her in return." "Hello. I''m Sona Sitri. I''m also Layla''s new girlfriend. I like to spend my time learning and studying magic. I like Layla because she is incredibly beautiful and has the most amazing magic I''ve ever heard of." "You were gone for only a few days and came back with not one, but two new girls?" Natasha asked me while taking a deep breath. "Yes...?" "You''re sleeping on the couch tonight..." Natasha told me. "..." XXX chapter 235 chapter 235 Chapter 235: The next morning, I arrived aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier with my older brother, Kokabiel. We were here to discuss the upcoming invasion, of course, and how to properly counter it. I wasn''t expecting S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers to help fight the alien army off, but they could help with coordination and logistics. "H¨CHumans built this?" he asked me in shock. "And it actually flies!?" His eyes wandered all over the exterior, taking in the helicarrier''s massive size. I nodded. The Helicarrier is certainly impressive every time I see it. I honestly have no idea how it even manages to fly either. For all intents and purposes, it should not be able to according to the laws of physics. [Not that those laws even really exist in the Marvel Universe.] "It can fly, it can sail, and it can rain death at over 3 million rounds fired every minute. The Helicarrier is S.H.I.E.L.D.''s pride and joy." Nick Fury explained while walking towards us. He and Steve Rogers met the two of us on the flight deck. Kokabiel looked very intrigued. I could tell he immediately wanted one of these for his legion. "And how long can it stay in the air?" "It can fly for months at a time, but we usually stay in the air during missions or when the weather is bad. On clear sunny days like this, the crew prefers being in the water." Fury explained. I looked off the starboard side at the crystal-clear water below in envy. I would honestly love nothing more than to take a vacation at a beautiful resort with my family and all of my girls. That was definitely going to happen once summertime hit. "Good to see you, Layla." Steve Rogers said while holding out his hand to shake. He seemed a lot more confident of himself compared to the last time I saw him. Granting him my blessing was the right decision. I checked his level to see his progress and almost blanched at the number! ¨CSteve Rogers Level 50¨C He''s Level 50!? What in the actual...? [That''s certainly unexpected. He''s at the peak of high class or a mid-rank god at this point.] He sure was. The handshake he just gave me had some real strength behind it! "It''s good to see you again, Steve. You certainly got a lot stronger." I told him. "What happened?" Steve shrugged and gave me his nice guy smile. "Killing a god will apparently do that. I wanted to talk to you more about that topic actually. Do you know anything about a purple-haired woman called Pandora?" "Not really?" I said questioningly. I knew Pandora Lovegood, but she had been dead for years. I had no idea whether or not she had purple hair. Her daughter Luna certainly doesn''t. Luna has occasionally been sending letters to Heather to tell her how Hogwarts had been going. The school is now, to no one''s surprise, a much better place of education once Dumbledore was gone and S.H.I.E.L.D. fixed its curriculum. Students now learn all the Muggle topics along with only useful magic. They no longer waste years of their lives learning worthless spells. Transfiguring a beetle into a button? Why!? What is the point? Transfiguration isn''t even permanent so outside of combat it''s not even a useful magic subject to learn. The school curriculum has gone through many changes, needless to say. I told Steve about Pandora Lovegood, and he shook his head. He told me it was a different Pandora he met. This Pandora looked like a young girl and had apparently told Steve that she was now his mother... I couldn''t help but snicker at that. Something about his situation rang a bit familiar to me, but I couldn''t quite remember exactly what it was. Maybe the details didn''t even matter anyway? Whoever this Pandora was, she had given Steve a huge power boost, and if the only thing she wanted in return was for him to call her mommy... then I told him he might as well start doing that. Steve sputtered at my response. "Are you serious?" he asked me. "Did this Pandora woman seem like she was trying to trick you or that she was malicious in any way?" I asked him. He paused and thought for a moment before he shook his head. "No, she seemed pretty straightforward," he told me. "Then there you have it." A couple of minutes later, Fury stopped bragging about his ship to Kokabiel, and we headed inside to meet with the other Avengers. The Avengers were a thing now... I had missed the debut when they stormed into Japan and took down the Hand''s secret headquarters. The Beast ended up being overwhelmed almost instantly when Thor and Steve teamed up against it. From the description of the fight I had received, I would estimate its level to have only been in the 40s at best. We followed Fury to the situation room where there were a few familiar faces waiting for us. "Welcome, Sister-in-Law!" Thor boisterously ran up and wrapped me in a tight hug as soon as the door swung open. "Thank you so much for bestowing my Lady Jane with an Apple of Idun! I thought they were extinct!" I patted the large man on the back before he let go of me. "No problem, Thor. We''re going to be family after all. Is Jane doing alright with being an Asgardian now?" I asked him. Thor blanched and looked to the side awkwardly. "She''s... adjusting. I''ve been giving her some space and helping out the humans here battle their foes." Kokabiel walked up to Thor and nodded at him curtly. Thor nodded back at him. That was the extent of their interactions. From one warrior to another, I suppose. I looked at the other people in the room. Andrea Stark was not here, but Tony was. He was chatting with a nerdy-looking scientist who I vaguely recognized. "Well, regardless, he did. How are you going to make up for that, Layla?" Fury asked me. "I have no doubt that people will die in the fight to come. Can you live with that? And what about all the property damage that may occur?" "The property damage...I''ll cover all of it with my looted Asgardian gold." I told Fury with a grimace. I was praying that the Ancient One would come through with a way to make Thanos''s ship appear where we wanted it to with her magic. The middle of a barren desert with no one around preferably. The only thing she needed to guarantee that was the coordinates of where his ship would first pop up. Tony and Bruce were working on figuring that out by tracing dimensional energy fluctuations around the planet. How were they doing that? I have no idea. [More Marvel science bullshit. That''s how.] "What looted Asgardian gold!?" Thor asked me in shock. He was mumbling something about Asgard''s vaults and how they were supposed to be impenetrable. He was temporarily ignored... "And what about all the people who might die in the fight?" Fury asked me. Steve, Tony and Bruce were also looking at me disappointingly. Did they not know yet? I waved them all off. "That''s not a big deal. Anyone who dies, I''ll just bring back to life. Try to keep the casualties down though, because I can only revive one person a day. Lady Death might let me bump that number up though if I make her happy..." I trailed off with a blush. [And how are you going to make her happy?] ''I think you know exactly how, System...'' Some very lewd images flashed in my mind. "Revive the dead!?" "Are you serious!?" "How!?" "Are you serious, Sister!?" This time, everyone in the room blanched at me. Even Kokabiel surprisingly! ...Oh right, he didn''t know that I could do that now either. ... Four days later... "It''s so stupidly hot out here! My armor is struggling to keep the AC going." Tony complained while staring off into the sand dunes. "Whose bright idea was it for us to fight out here anyway?" "I''m pretty sure it was yours, Tony..." I mumbled. I didn''t want to open my mouth too wide or sand would fly in. It was everywhere out here! At least, there was a thin layer of Light Energy projecting over my skin to keep all the gross sand off of me. I now totally knew where Anakin Skywalker was coming from. We were in the middle of Death Valley California at noon. Why here? Because no one who''s sane comes out here in the middle of these swelteringly hot days! It wasn''t even summer time yet, and it was already over 100¡ãF outside! This was where we were going to have our battle with Thanos and his followers. It had been a busy four days...not really for me though. Everyone else had frantically running around preparing for the inevitable invasion, while I mostly sat around waiting. After fighting each other for a few days, with some occasional hair pulling, Tony and Bruce had learned to work together. They figured out where Thanos''s ship was going to originally pop up. Directly above New York City. That would have been very bad obviously. Thankfully, we had the Ancient One with us. She and the Sorcerers of the Kamar Taj worked their magic. When Thanos''s giant ship appears in our universe, it will be immediately teleported above this desert. That''s when our current forces will launch an immediate assault on it. I glanced behind myself at our current amassed forces and grinned. Floating in the air, led by Kokabiel, were 2000 of our most vicious Fallen Angels who had been excited for this battle for days now. On the ground was the National Guard with over 10,000 armed troops. The President insisted on sending them when he found out what was happening. Fury couldn''t say no considering most of S.H.I.E.L.D''s funding came from America. At least they came with a few hundred tanks... Iron Man and Iron Woman were nearby giving their suits their final inspections. Thor and Sif were chatting nearby as well. Thor was holding a second Mjolnir in his offhand and grinning like a loon about it. It was just sitting in my inventory wasting space, so I figured I might as well give it to him. Off in the distance, I could see the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. Captain America, Bruce Banner and Fury were onboard. They would be directing the battle from a few miles away. The Helicarrier would move in after we knocked Thanos''s ship from the sky. Then they would join the fight. We were ready. "All units, hold fast. Something is coming!" Captain America''s voice rang out from the receiver in my ear. In front of us, a massive section of the sky started to warp and shimmer. A giant pitch black spaceship started to push its way into existence... XXX chapter 236 chapter 236 How''s it going everyone! Here¡¯s the latest chapter!! Chapter 236: ¨CTony Stark¨C Tony gulped inside his armor when he saw the absolutely gigantic spaceship materialize in the air only a few miles in front of them. He had been expecting a ship to show up, obviously. That was why they were all here in the sweltering desert in the first place. He just wasn''t expecting it to be so damn big! It was the size of an entire city at the least. He was wondering how they would even go about fighting something like that? Let alone knocking it out of the sky!? His mind immediately flashed to scenes from the movie Independence Day. Giant ships like the one in front of him could level entire cities in mere minutes. Tony hoped that Thanos¡¯s ship didn''t have any nuclear death lasers like in that movie or this fight would be over long before it started. Then again... Tony glanced over towards Layla. She looked cool as a cucumber while staring at the giant ship. She was simply standing there holding hands with one of her Asgardian lovers¨Cas if victory was already a foregone conclusion. Tony had to admit, just standing next to Layla did make him feel much safer. He was amazed at how far she had come. Especially from where she started. ...Layla trying to sneak past his company''s background checks and get hired by his company will still always be funny to him. Especially since she got caught by Pepper immediately. When Tony first found out about Layla and the existence of Fallen Angels, of course he was shocked. He was a borderline atheist who just had religion proven to his face! If his religious mother was still alive, he could only imagine all the ¡°I told you so¡¯s¡± she would have said to him at the time... Most men would have been terrified finding out the Supernatural was real, but not Tony. He had his Ironman armor after all. Layla was impressive, but he was sure he could still beat her or any other Angel with his armor. At least, that was the case until Layla started gaining more black wings. The increase in her power was exponential. Layla went from barely being able to hold off a wizard like Voldemort, to probably being able to kill over 1000 of him in one move. Tony had rewatched her battle against the demon Belial numerous times. The attacks thrown around in that fight were all incredibly powerful. Attacks that would devastate entire cities easily... He knew he couldn''t do anything in fights like that. Tony could admit that his pride was stung over that. He could only upgrade his suits so much with the technology at his disposal. He''d just barely finished synthesizing his new element, Badassium, a few weeks ago. His suit now had borderline infinite energy output. The problem was that the amount of energy he could output at once, still wasn''t even close to the amount of power that Layla could toss out with one hand. He wouldn''t give up though. It was almost every day that he was making some kind scientific breakthrough. He might not be able to match the peak of this world right now, but he knew that one day he would build a suit that could fight off the gods themselves. That was a promise he made to himself! ¡°Are you ok, Tony?¡± The voice of his new sister snapped him out of his thoughts. Andrea''s armored hand reached over and grabbed his own. ¡°Yeah, Sis. I''m alright.¡± Tony said. ¡°I didn''t think we''d be going through a real life Independence Day so soon, but here we are.¡± His sister giggled. Her armored helmet¨Cwhich was almost identical to his own, just more feminine¡ªnodded to him. ¡°We''ll be ok! We have Layla with us after all!¡± Andrea said. She was, of course, a huge fan of the Fallen Angel for rescuing her from her own ruined Earth. ¡°And a bunch of her siblings are here too! It''s kind of mind boggling that Layla has over a million siblings...¡± She added in awe. Tony gazed at the 2000 Fallen Angels floating in the air above the US National Reserves. His optics zoomed in on the Fallen. Not a single one of them looked afraid of the fight to come. They all looked incredibly excited actually. These were all the Fallen Angels who fell from Heaven because they loved war and violence. He was glad that they were all on his side. Tony could admit that Kokabiel gave him the creeps. He had to hand it to the ¡®dracula looking¡¯ Angel though. The guy definitely knew his war tactics. A lot of the battle planning had been done by him alone. With thousands of years of experience as a general, no one bothered to argue against him. ¡°Sir, something is happening with the spaceship.¡± Tony turned back around when Jarvis notified him that there was activity along the spaceship. A single beam of light fell down from the spaceship and struck the sand a mile in front of them. With it, came the big bad alien himself. He looked exactly as Layla had described him. Like the actor Josh Brolin¨Cif he was a giant purple alien warlord. There were three other beings flanking both sides of Thanos. Andrea¡¯s armored hand patted him on the shoulder. ¡°This is going to get crazy, Tony. just make sure that you stay safe.¡± She told him. ¡°That¡¯s my line.¡± He told her. ¡°I¡¯m the big brother here.¡± Tony knew that this wasn''t going to be the type of battle that was going to be decided solely because of him. His objective for today was to make sure he and his sister survived at all costs. His optics zoomed in on Thanos, and Tony was surprised that the purple alien was waving them over. He wanted to talk... ¡°It looks like he wants to talk.¡± Tony called out to Layla in front of him. Thanos was waving them over and his ship hadn''t opened fire on anyone yet. ¡°What¡¯s the play here, Layla?¡± Tony asked. ¨CLayla¨C ¨CQuest Started: Defeat Thanos and his army!¨C ¨CRewards: Level Up X5!, ???¨C Sif and Thor were standing next to me as we watched the ship appear above us. I was holding Sif¡¯s hand and had been distracting the two of us from the upcoming battle by whispering sweet nothings into her ear for the past hour. Her cute embarrassed reactions to praise and compliments were always worth it. ¡°Tis a mighty ship.¡± Thor commented in awe as we looked up. ¡°Even Asgard has never built such a behemoth. I now understand why my late father warned me to never cross the Mad Titan¨Ceven if this is technically a different Mad Titan.¡± We watched as a beam of light touched down and Thanos appeared in the middle of the desert along with a few of his followers. ¡°Mother Fucker!¡± I heard Fury yell in my earpiece. I glanced off into the distance and could see why. Hundreds¨Cno thousands of teleportation beams touched down on the ground. Each once carried down legions of chitauri soldiers! It only took a few seconds for around 100,000 of them to descend. They weren''t alone either. Hundreds of rolling tanks and dozens of Leviathans emerged from the mothership with them. Thanos had clearly brought his whole army with him. ... ¨CNick Fury¨C Nick Fury was standing in the control room of the Helicarrier a few miles away. Kokabiel had come up with the general strategy for the upcoming battle, but it was Fury¡¯s and Captain America''s jobs to actually direct the troops when everything inevitably went to shit! ¡°Mother Fucker!¡± Fury cursed when he saw the number of aliens that had just appeared! His forces were suddenly outnumbered almost 10 to 1! He''d be absolutely panicking if he wasn''t aware that the Chitauri soldiers were basically untrained suicide troops. They didn''t have any tactics besides charge with overwhelming force. ¡°That''s a lot of aliens...¡± Natasha Romanoff commented next to him. She was officially up here as his guard. Her eyes were mostly focused on the screen that was currently displaying Layla though. Her knuckles were white as she watched the battle with worry. ¡°Will Layla be alright?¡± The new red haired woman asked next to Natasha. Fury was told that her name was Rias Gremory and she was one of Layla¡¯s newest harem members. ¡°When Layla told us her Universe had evil aliens... I honestly wasn''t sure what to expect. Those definitely look like typical Hollywood aliens though...¡± The other woman added. Her name was Sona Sitri. Fury usually wouldn''t allow non-vetted personnel aboard his Helicarrier¨Cespecially not in the command room. Layla and Natasha both vouched for the two of them though. He was also told both of these girls were decently powerful. He wasn''t going to turn down any offered aid during an actual alien invasion. He allowed both unknown girls in the command room provided they don''t touch anything and stay near Natasha the entire time. Fury¡¯s eyes went back to the battlefield. This was now a full scale war! ¡°The mothership''s guns are locking onto our ground troops!¡± Steve warned next to him. ¡°Shit!¡± Fury cursed. ¡°Incoming energy barrage from the mothership! All Fallen Angels, deploy Lightshields! All ground forces, open fire!¡± Fury commanded. His message went out to every single person on the battlefield. ... ¨CLayla¨C I saw all of the turrets on the mothership aim towards the National Guard forces and start to open fire! Thousands of blue energy blasts sailed towards them in an unending barrage! Thankfully, my 2000 siblings weren¡¯t going to allow their allies to die so easily. Every single one of them flew forwards and deployed Lightshields in sync! When all of their Lightshields combined, I bore witness to the single biggest shield I''d ever seen. It spanned a mile high and at least a few miles wide! The blue energy blasts started pummeling into the combined shield, but it held steady. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡± I turned my head when I heard Andrea scream loudly. She was hovering in the air facing Thanos. Her shoulder armor shifted and two small missile launchers sprang up and locked onto Thanos. A second later over a dozen homing missiles blasted towards him. He threw his arms in front of himself and tanked the blast. A series of explosions that would level a city block rang out where he stood. I knew he probably wasn¡¯t hurt though. I could understand Andrea¡¯s rage, but that wasn¡¯t going to be enough firepower to put someone like him down. Ironman flew over and hovered next to his sister. The smoke cleared and sure enough, Thanos was standing in the crater unharmed. ¡°If that was the best you could do, then clearly that prophecy was wrong all along. I suppose I should focus back on the one I came here for.¡± Thanos¡¯s gaze brushed past Ironman and Ironwoman and instead locked onto me. ¡°My children will handle you two.¡± More teleportation beams touched down around Thanos and the rest of his children appeared. Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus, Cull, and Nebula all appeared behind their father. They made their way towards Gamora and all six of his children turned to face Tony and Andrea. ¡°This metal woman was the one prophesied to kill our great father? How pathetic.¡± Ebony Maw said as he started to float off the sand with his psychic powers. ¡°Who cares. Let''s just kill them both already.¡± Nebula added. Thanos smiled at all of his children before he started walking towards me. As much as I wanted to help Tony and Andrea, I knew I would be busy with him for a while. ¡°Ready to die, Thanos?¡± I asked him. He chuckled. ¡°Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing, little Angel.¡± We both paused at a sudden interruption. ¡°Not so fast!¡± The Red Dragon Emperor blasted out of the sand dunes I''d buried him in. His normally green eyes were glowing an angry red. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill her myself!¡± The thrusters on his back ignited as he blasted his way towards me in rage. [He mad.] I chuckled. ¡°Sorry, Issei. But I¡¯m not your opponent. Someone else wants a round two with you.¡± I said and snapped my fingers. A purple portal manifested next to me and a white blur shot forwards towards Issei! They crashed into each other violently. Vali, the White Dragon Emperor, was here for some payback. He wasn''t alone either. Thunder crackled in the skies as Thor, holding two Mjollnirs, rapidly descended from the sky and landed next to Vali. ¡°Tis a glorious day for battle! Songs will be sung of this day in Asgard for centuries!¡± Thor cheered as lightning arced around his form. Vali begrudgingly had admitted in the war room briefing a few days ago that he would need help taking down his rival. They were going to fight the red dragon together. Sif had been tasked to stay with the troops and protect any soldiers from the Chitauri if they got too close. In the distance, I could see the Chitauri army advancing towards the legion of my Fallen Angel siblings and the National Guard troops. Bullets, mortars, tank shells, and Lightspears all hurtled towards the advancing army. Hundreds of Chitauri were being cut down every second. In order to not hit their own troops, the mothership had stopped firing on the battlefield...for now. Thanos and I once again locked eyes. With no other distractions, the Mad Titan and I advance towards each other... XXX Chapter 237 Chapter 237 Chapter 237: ¨CVali Lucifer¨C Clad in his White Dragon Armor, Vali blitzed forward and intercepted another attack from Issei. He was miffed that Issei kept trying to get around him and Thor to attack Layla in the back. The Red Dragon Emperor really seemed to hate her. ¡°Give it up, time traveler! I don¡¯t know why you hate Layla so much, but your fight isn''t with her. It''s round 2, and we have a score to settle.¡± Vali said. A mixture of draconic and demonic power was wafting off of him. This time he wouldn''t underestimate his opponent and would hit him with everything he had...well almost everything. Vali was hesitant to activate Juggernaut Drive in the middle of the battlefield. He didn''t want his newest allies to get swept up in it. A bolt of lighting shimmered through the air and slammed into Issei. He let out a scream of pain as he was once again blasted into a nearby sand dune. Thor grinned at the second Mjolnir he was holding. He was quickly discovering that having two of them had almost doubled the amount of lighting he could discharge at once. He had become a lot more dangerous. Thor was contemplating how to thank Layla for such a gift. Perhaps he would name his firstborn daughter after her? He threw some more lighting at the warrior clad in red armor as his young comrade swooped in from the side and tried to skewer their enemy with his claws. Issei shaking managed to avoid the lighting and Vali¡¯s claws this time. Inside his armor, Issei was seething. His eyes glanced over towards The Goddess of Angels who was facing off against Thanos nearby. The target of his revenge was so close, and yet he couldn''t reach her because a ghost was blocking him! He couldn''t understand how it was possible. He KNOWS that he killed Vali! ¡°How!?¡± Issei screamed in rage. ¡°How are you alive? I killed you!¡± Draconic power erupted off of Issei and he charged forward towards Vali. He was moving so fast that the air ignited from the friction. ¡°Dragon Punch!¡± He yelled as he tried to punch Vali¡¯s head off and kill him again. In his rage, Issei had forgotten the number one rule of fighting the White Dragon. Never fight the user of Divine Dividing at close range! Vali reached his hand up and caught Issei¡¯s punch. The power behind it immediately weakened. "Divide! Divide! Divide!" Albion¡¯s voice echoed out as Issei¡¯s power was ruthlessly divided over and over. Vali grinned as he clenched his own fist. ¡°Fuck you, that¡¯s how!¡± He lashed out and landed a devastating body blow that knocked the wind out of his opponent and left deep cracks in the red green armor... ... ¨CRias Gremory¨C ¡°This is absolutely crazy.¡± She said as she watched the battle unfold on the screens in front of her. ¡°I wonder if this is what the Great War was like?¡± Sona asked next to her. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen so many beings fighting at once.¡± ¡°I know right?¡± Rias said. ¡°This alien Army is massive and terrifying, and yet they''re not winning.¡± She had a newfound appreciation for human weapons as she watched the alien army get shredded under never ending tank shells and machine gun fire. The Fallen Angel¡¯s were also proving remarkably efficient at switching between skewering Aliens with Lightspears and protecting their human allies at the same time from laser fire. Before this, Rias had never understood why the Fallen Angel¡¯s were considered such a threat when her brother was so much more powerful than Azazel was. Now she could see that they had flawless coordination and tactics in battle. She knew that the majority of Devils were too arrogant to follow orders and fight as a group. Younger devils, especially, had an almost physical need to stand out and show off their powers. A weaker army that had much better coordination would be more than a match for a strong army with practically no coordination. And then there were the outliers of course. ¡°It looks like Layla is going to start getting serious now.¡± Natasha, one of Layla¡¯s current lovers, pointed at the screen. Rias watched as Layla rushed forward and tried to stab the purple alien with a Lightspear. To her surprise, the large purple alien actually deflected Layla¡¯s attack with a gigantic double bladed sword. The air physically shook around them as they traded blows too fast for the cameras to actually record. ¡°This guy''s strength must be insane to keep blocking full powered strikes from Layla.¡± Steve Rogers commented. ¡°That''s not her full strength.¡± Natasha said to everyone''s surprise. ¡°She¡¯s conserving her magic in case she needs it.¡± ¡°It''s not?¡± Sona asked. ¡°I know she''s amazing and can do things like resurrecting the dead. How powerful is Layla?¡± Rias asked Natasha. ¡°You''ll see.¡± Natasha playfully smirked at Rias, which made her pout back at the human redheaded spy. Natasha had sort of taken Rias and Sona ¡®under her wing¡¯ these past few days and explained everything about this world to Rias and Sona. I grunted, but the pain quickly faded. I scoffed at him as I wiped his boot marks off my outfit. ¡°You¡¯re annoyed? I¡¯m the one who¡¯s dealing with this dumb alien invasion!¡± I yelled at him. Thanos glanced off into the distance and grinned at the war going on between his army and our own. ¡°I admit, I didn¡¯t expect the people of Terra to put up such valiant resistance. The Chitauri will fight to the end regardless. Your army will fall before the endless horde!¡± He declared. I took a second to inspect the battle going on myself. It was chaos at this point. The Chitauri had crossed the desert and the long range war had become a close range slugfest between which armies had the most firepower. Tanks on both sides were blasting each other. American soldiers and Chitauri grunts were unloading their weapons like ammo was going out of style. The casualties were devastating for the Chitauri, but at least 1000 National Guard and a few hundred of my Fallen Angel siblings had perished so far as well. I could only revive one person a day, so it would take me years for me to revive everyone. That is, if I wasn¡¯t sure I could persuade Lady Death to let me resurrect more people at once. ¡°Don''t be so sure about victory just yet, Mad Titan! You haven''t seen everything that I can do yet. Besides, I don¡¯t think your army is doing as hot as you think it is.¡± I could see Sif fighting amongst the human army. She was glowing like the sun and every swing of her sword was slaughtering over a hundred Chitauri. Considering how fast she could attack, she was dealing devastating damage. Her power had come a long way. Thanos frowned at me before he sighed. The tension in his body disappeared and he shrugged at me. ¡°Maybe you are right. I severely underestimated you and your allies. Once again I thank you, Layla of the Fallen. You¡¯ve shown me that the people of this world won''t surrender without an extreme show of force.¡± He said while smiling at me. His eyes were shining with cruelty. I furrowed my brows. His tone made it seem like he still had some way to win this war. He was clearly outclassed by me in close combat. He was covered in cuts and burns while I was still in perfect health¨Conly a bit low on MP from constantly healing myself. His forces were losing on all fronts. Issei was getting owned by Vali and Thor. Hela was currently struggling against Kokabiel¡¯s onslaught. And Thanos¡¯s Children were getting blasted and tossed around by an enraged Ironwoman with her brother supporting her. What did he have left? Thanos placed his hand to his ear. ¡°Destroy this entire continent. We¡¯re done playing around!¡± My eyes widened at his words! I looked in the sky towards his ship and saw that it started shifting before my eyes. Large sections folded and shifted out of the way as a massive barrel slowly started to emerge from the ship. Thanos chuckled. ¡°I am strong, and my army is powerful. However, we aren¡¯t invincible. Sometimes we come across civilizations that put up valiant struggles against us. In those situations, we use this weapon to soften up the planets that resist us. In the end, everyone will bow to me. If I have to destroy a continent or two first, that¡¯s of no concern to me.¡± He explained with a malicious grin on his face. The massive gunbarrel started to glow an ominous blue and I could sense a tremendous amount of power being concentrated into one area! I could hear Tony and the others shouting in my ear about the weapon as well. [How are you going to block that?] I didn¡¯t think I could, to be honest. I could try opening a portal to absorb the attack and transfer it somewhere else, but I wasn¡¯t sure I could open a portal big enough to absorb what was essentially a Death Star Laser! I had another plan though! I quickly summoned two more Lightspears to my hands. Thanos chuckled at me. ¡°Still want to fight?¡± He sheathed his sword back over his shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t bother, it¡¯s pointless. In a moment I¡¯ll be teleported back onto my ship to watch the fireworks.¡± He said. I shook my head. ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure. Our fight is not over yet, I just need to take care of your ship first.¡± ¡°And how will you do that?¡± He asked me with a grin. ¡°I just need to get my MP back up a bit first.¡± I replied. ¡°Then you¡¯ll see.¡± He looked curious. ¡°MP?¡± I smirked at him before I spun and threw my Lightspears one after another. They tore through the air faster than the speed of sound as they homed in on their targets who were nearby fighting Ironwoman. Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, the weakest of his children. Both of my Lightspears caught them both by surprise and put larger holes through both of their torsos. They both died before they knew what hit them. {+6500 MP!} ¡°Noooo!!¡± Thanos raged at the sudden loss of two of his children. He glared at me in fury! ¡°You whore! You¡¯ll pay for that!¡± I felt my MP reserves fully restored and then some. I turned back to Thanos and smirked as I focused all of my power into my Rinnegan! {-12000MP!} ¡°Tengai Shinsei!¡± I called loudly. A split second later, the sky itself parted as a giant meteor, even bigger than the mothership, appeared in the sky directly above it! XXX Chapter 238 Chapter 238 Chapter 238: ¨CLayla¨C Watching a giant meteor appear in the sky over the top of the mothership was awesome...and terrifying. I would not want to be directly underneath that thing when it hit the ground! What made it even better was Thanos''s expression of shock and panic. A moment ago he was looking so smug and assured of his victory. His ship''s doomsday canon was seconds away from vaporizing North America. Now that canon was rapidly aiming towards the sky to try and stop my meteor. It wouldn''t make it in time... ¡°NO! NOOOOO!!!¡± Thanos screamed in rage. Maybe a weapon capable of destroying a continent could have destroyed Tengai Shinsei, but now we''ll never know. Before the canon could fire, my meteor already made contact with his ship. ¡°HOLY SHIT!¡± Tony exclaimed in her ear piece! ¡°WHAT THE FUCK, LAYLA!?¡± Natasha yelled. ¡°MOTHERFUCKER!¡± Fury added. The mothership, which was the size of a city and made of metal on probably par with vibranium, immediately crumpled like tin foil under the force of the meteor colliding with it. With a titanic boom, the ship was ripped apart into molten pieces that started raining down on the desert below. The meteor barely stalled in its descent as it quickly sped up and hurtled towards the ground! This was going to be a big boom. {+1,100,234 MP!} Holy shit! That number was insane! And that was only from the aliens still on board the ship. I didn¡¯t have time to focus on it right now though. ¡°Everybody! Brace for impact!¡± I screamed in my earpiece. The meteor hit the ground a few seconds later and officially became a meteorite. BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!! I spread my wings and quickly flew up into the air. The force of the impact sent out a shockwave that was going to span for miles around. A wave of molten hot sand at least 50 feet high originated from the crater and started spreading out in all directions! At least half of Thanos¡¯s armies had still been relatively close to the crater. The giant wave of sand swept them all up and violently tossed them around as they were buried alive under the Tsunami of molten hot sand. Thankfully, the wave seemed to lose its momentum before reaching our own forces. The devastation was still absolutely enormous. {+2,456,780 MP!} I¡¯d gained over 3.5 million MP in seconds! The amount of power I had flowing through me right now was mind boggling. [You¡¯re lucky you''re the Champion of Death or you would be exploding from all of that power!] I flew back towards the sandy ground, which was now at least 30 feet higher, and searched for my opponent. Thanos was nowhere to be seen. He couldn''t fly. I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s currently buried under dozens of feet of molten hot sand. I laughed while wondering how long it would take him to dig himself out. With Thanos being indisposed temporarily, I looked around to see who was left fighting. Thanos¡¯s six¨Cer¨Cfour children were nowhere to be seen. They had all been buried under the sand as well. With their opponents taken care of, Ironman and Ironwoman were currently flying back towards our main army to help finish the fight. Half of Thanos¡¯s army was devastated, but the remaining half were picking themselves off the ground and the fight was quickly starting back up again. Plasma and bullets began to fly free once more. Fury was ordering the Helicarrier to move in and open fire. With the mothership gone, the Helicarrier could start raining death at 3 million rounds a minute. As for the others, I could see Kokabiel hovering in the air, in the distance, holding an unconscious Hela. He looked pretty roughed up, but nothing some magic healing couldn''t fix in a jiffy. Only Issei looked to have come out unscathed from the sand tsunami I had kicked up. Issei, Vali, and Thor were all hovering in the air. The Red Dragon Emperor¡¯s attention was no longer on them though. ¡°INGVILD!!! NOOOOOO!!! I¡¯LL KILL YOU, GODDESS OF ANGELS!!¡± I heard a roar of outrage from the direction of Vali and Thor¡¯s battle. Issei Hyoudou, currently clad in half destroyed armor, was glowing green and screaming in fury. His voice seemed to be blending together with Ddraigs as his rage overtook him. [Woops. We forgot about Ingvild Leviathan... Remember she had been kidnapped by Issei Hyoudou before he ran off with Thanos? She was most likely still on the mothership. The one that you just completely annihilated and turned to molten scrap. Molten scrap that¡¯s now buried underneath a giant meteorite as well...]Chee?ck out latest novels at novelhall.com Well, shit... She¡¯s dead for sure. There¡¯s very few things that could have survived all that and I don¡¯t think she is one of them. Satan Class magical reserves or not. I don''t even know if I''d be able to revive her at this point. Issei was hovering in the air, furiously mumbling to himself. I was too far to make out the exact words he was saying but his tone was very hostile. Vali suddenly looked panicked. He flew over to Thor and grabbed hold of the confused Asgardian before bolting towards me as fast as his white wings could fly! ¡°Layla! You have to stop him! Before he finishes his¨C¡± Vali¡¯s words were cut off just as he reached me. ¡°JUGGERNAUT DRIVEEEEEE!!!!¡± Issei/Ddraigs voice roared loudly and echoed for miles. An aura of power blasted out from his location. It was so potent that the air around him started to boil. A second later there was a blinding flash of light and Issei Hyoudou vanished. In his place was a pretty cool looking red mechanical dragon. {Dragon of Domination: Level 89} I whistled at that. Juggernaut Drive was feared by the Supernatural world for a reason. At the cost of the users lifespan/actual life, it immediately catapulted them to the peak of the world. Under any other circumstances, I would be nervous about fighting a being 29 levels above me. However, right now was different. Right now I have over 3.5 million MP... [Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death¡¯s Favored] [Level: 60] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 13000] [MP: 3563014] [Faith Energy: 525,267] [Vigor: 800] [Strength: 185] [Intelligence: 1000] [Luck: 200] [Skills: Observe 4, Angelic Mastery (Max), Acting (4), Light Manipulation (7), HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst, Senjutsu (2), Six Paths, Susanoo (1)] [Perks: Daughter of Heaven¡¯s Will, Mana Replenisher] [Drawbacks: Sin of Lust] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Skill Up Point: 0] I wondered what would happen if I used Mana Burst with all of that power? ¨CLayla¨C ¡°What the fuck...¡± Vali said when I appeared next to him. Yeah... Having over 100,000 Strength and Intelligence was pretty insane. I wondered if this was what Dragon Ball Z characters felt like all the time. I had just slain a Heavenly Dragon with a forehead flick of all things! ¡°God damn, Layla! That was cool!¡± Tony exclaimed over the open channel. ¡°That was some OP anime shit right there! I recorded the entire fight and it¡¯s going to get so many views online!¡± I cracked a smile at Tony¡¯s enthusiasm. I guessed that the battle was over now and it was time to wrap things up. It was strange though, I felt like I was forgetting something. A large purple hand burst out of a sand dune below. I glanced down and saw a ragged Thanos begrudgingly lifting himself up. He definitely looked like he had seen better days. In an instant, I was on the ground standing in front of him. Damn, I was really fast right now! I felt like I could circle the entire planet multiple times with only a single flap of my wings. I glanced behind myself...My FOURTEEN black wings. I currently had more wings than any other Angel ever had. I wondered if they would stay or not once Mana Burst wore off? I¡¯d have to wait and see. Thanos coughed out a mouthful of sand and scowled at me. ¡°Damn you! You ruined everything!¡± He ran a few steps forward and punched me square in the face with everything he had! A few minutes ago, that would have done a few hundred HP in damage. Right now, I didn''t even flinch. {-10 HP} ¡°What!? How?¡± He reeled back his other arm and punched me again! When that didn¡¯t work he started adding kicks before hitting me with everything he had in all of my vital spots. My current Vigor was 100,800. My HP was literally over a million. He could attack me all day and wouldn''t bring me down before he exhausted himself. I let him vent for about a minute because I felt a bit bad for him at the moment. He was gasping for breath and slumped to his knees after hitting me with everything he had. ¡°How?¡± He asked me one last time. His eyes were resigned when he realized he had been beaten. I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d explain, but what would be the point?¡± He chuckled. ¡°I suppose that your¨C¡± RIP! I swung my hand forward and tore his head from his shoulders. The expression on his face was unchanged, he hadn''t even realized he had died. ¡°Eww, you''re not planning on taking that as a trophy are you?¡± Vali asked as he landed next to me. I scoffed. ¡°Of course not. I just wanted to make sure to go for the head!¡± ¡°Ok...?¡± He obviously didn¡¯t understand my reference. This uncultured swine... With a giggle, I tossed the head in my hands directly at Vali. He instinctively reached out and caught it. ¡°Gross, Layla!¡± He quickly tossed it away while I started laughing. {You have Leveled Up x5!} Awesome! ... I was standing aboard the bridge in the Helicarrier. Rias and Sona were quite literally hanging off both of my arms at the moment. Devils were creatures that were naturally attracted to power and I was exuding a lot of it with my sheer presence right now. The looks that both of them were currently giving me were very clear. They wanted me badly. Very badly. I just had to take care of a bit of clean-up first before I would take them back home so we could celebrate our victory. I wondered if any of my other girls would want to join us? Fury was actually smiling as he spoke to everyone. ¡°Good job, everyone. We have proven that we have the power to fight off threats from outer space! This is a monumental victory, not just for us, but for the world!¡± ¡°Hell yes!¡± ¡°We did it!¡± ¡°We¡¯re the greatest!¡± There were quite a lot of congratulations and pats on the back all around. Quite a few people were probably getting lucky tonight judging by all the victory champagne bottles I was seeing uncorked on the bridge. With his speech over, Fury pulled me aside privately. He gave me the final tally for all the dead soldiers and I grimaced at the number. Over 2000 National Guard and 200 Fallen Angels had perished in the fighting. Fury asked me if and when I could revive everyone that had died. If I had to stick to my single person a day, it would take years obviously. ¡®You can revive them all now as a one time reward. I will allow it as repayment for defeating Thanos.¡¯ Lady Death¡¯s voice whispered directly into my ear. I felt an invisible kiss on my cheek before her presence faded away. I was definitely going to pay her another visit soon. I ended up using the King of Hell to bring everyone on our side back to life. Fury wanted all camera¡¯s off when I revived people from the dead, but I¡¯m sure Tony was recording anyway. Once I had brought everyone back, I decided to call it a day and wanted to head home to celebrate the victory with my two horny Devil girls. I tried to invite Sif and Natasha but they both declined. Sif and Thor were temporarily returning to Asgard to present Hela...to Hela. Natasha wanted to stick around and make sure no soldiers secretly made off with any alien technology. The mothership might have been obliterated, but there were still plenty of alien guns and broken down tanks lying all over the desert. ... ¨CHela¨C Hela, The Queen of Asgard, sat on her throne with a look of amusement on her face. Sif and her younger brother Thor had brought her quite the interesting prisoner when they returned from a very exciting battle on Midgard. Hela was honestly upset that she missed it... ¡°Unhand me you blond slut! I am Hela, the true Queen of Asgard!¡± The prisoner who looked nearly identical to her screamed in fury. The woman was wrapped in Layla¡¯s black chains that prevented her from using any magical abilities to escape. ¡°I think you¡¯re quite mistaken.¡± Hela declared. ¡°I am the Queen of Asgard. You¡¯re nothing but a failure from a different reality who couldn''t hack it. If I recall from Layla¡¯s tales, your Asgard is nothing more than a barren wasteland.¡± The imposter, currently in chains, glared at Hela. She started filling the throne room with some very colorful language as she cursed everybody and everything she could think of. Hela found the threats to be amusing, but ultimately disruptive. The imposter was promptly gagged before being carted off to the prison cells. Hela would figure out what to do with her at a later date. Hela¡¯s attention turned back to Thor and Sif. ¡°Excellent work. So how did the battle go, and what is Layla doing now?¡± Hela asked. Thor and Sif took turns explaining the events of the battle to Hela while she listened. She thought they both did a good job, minus Thor getting bitch slapped by a dragon, and they had both made Asgard proud. ...And then Sif explained to Hela that Layla had gotten two beautiful new ¡®girlfriends¡¯ from an alternate dimension. Layla was probably in the process of celebrating her victory with those two new girls right then. Hela was quite jealous but didn¡¯t show it. ¡°I wanted to celebrate with Layla as well, but knew I had a duty to turn over the imposter queen to your custody.¡± Sif told her. Hela nodded at Sif. ¡°You did well. I would love to go and celebrate Layla¡¯s victory with her as well, but with Asgard on the brink of war, it would be irresponsible for me to leave.¡± Hela requested that Sif temporarily stick around Asgard as well for a few days. She told Sif that there had been reports of Frost Giant scouts along Asgard¡¯s borders. Sif and Thor both promised to stay a few days in case the Frost Giants suddenly attacked and Hela thanked them both. Once the two had left for their respective quarters, Hela immediately bolted towards the Bifrost! There were no Frost Giant scouts... Hela had simply made up a reason to get Sif to stay on Asgard while she rushed down to Midgard to celebrate with Layla! Sif had described both of Layla¡¯s newest girls as unbelievably beautiful and Hela wanted in on that! Was that devious and unfair to Sif? Absolutely. Did Hela care? Not at all. She was the Queen after all... XXX Thanks for reading! Leave some comments. Or don''t, its up to you. Chapter 239 Chapter 239 This whole chapter is R-18. Chapter 239: After a hard fought battle, I was laying back on my bed in my own room. Two very beautiful girls were cuddled up on each side of me. Rias was snuggled up on my right, while Sona was on my left. Both of my arms were snaked around Rias and Sona as they leaned into me. We were all aware of what was going to happen tonight. ¡°That battle was crazy.¡± Rias said. ¡°I can''t believe how powerful you are, Layla! You actually called down a giant meteor!¡± ¡°It was very impressive.¡± Sona added. ¡°Especially when you crushed the infamous Juggernaut Drive at the end. I don''t think even my sister could do that.¡± ¡°Thank you, girls.¡± I practically purred at their praise. My lust for fighting had been sated for a while, and now I wanted to sate my regular lust. My hands started to explore their bodies. Rias¡¯s breasts were massive and just as soft as I imagined them to be. My hand sunk directly into her pillowy chest over her clothing. Sona''s breasts were obviously smaller, but they made up for it in perkiness! There was nothing wrong with being able to easily grab an entire breast with one hand. ¡°Mmmm. That feels nice, Layla.¡± Rias sighed in pleasure as I fondled her chest over her clothes. Sona didn¡¯t say anything, but she didn''t need to. I could tell she was enjoying my hand on her chest. Sona''s face was flushed and her breathing picked up. I leaned over and placed a tender kiss on Sona''s soft cheek. ¡°You''re so beautiful, Sona.¡± I said to her before turning my head and kissing Rias as well. ¡°You''re so gorgeous, Rias.¡± ¡°I know I am.¡± Rias said shamelessly. ¡°Y¨Cyou''re incredibly beautiful too, L¨CLayla.¡± Sona complimented me. She was a bit nervous. ¡°Mmmm. You know it just sank in for me.¡± Rias admitted as I continued rubbing her chest. ¡°We really are in a different world. There''s no one here to order me around or tell me what to do. Grayfia isn''t going to pop up if my virginity seal starts to go off.¡± Rias said as I continued to grope her chest. My hand slipped under her shirt. She wasn¡¯t wearing a bra. Her bare breasts were just as pillowy soft as I imagined. ¡°A virginity seal?¡± I asked Rias. She let out a cute moan when I pinched her nipple. ¡°Hnnn! Y¨Cyes. There''s a seal on my body that alerts my family whenever my purity is endangered! I''ve never even been able to hold a dildo without it going off.¡± Rias told me. On my other side Sona was starting to pant cutely. ¡°I¨CI have the same thing.¡± She mewled once I started to grope her naked chest as well. She was wearing a bra, but it was easy enough for my hands to unhook it. I''d had plenty of practice. ¡°Wow. Both of your families are crazy. You''re both Devils, not Saints.¡± I told them. Sona let out her first cute and loud moan when I started rubbing her nipples sensually. She seemed to be closest to an orgasm. I turned over and focused solely on her for a moment. Rias didn''t seem to mind. ¡°Tell me about it...¡± Rias said as she sat up to watch me work on Sona. She reached down and pulled her shirt over her head. Her large bountiful breasts bounced freely. She winked at me cutely. I''d get back to those beauties in a moment! Sona looked up at me with flushed cheeks as I leaned over her. I slowly leaned my face down and placed my lips directly against her own. Our kiss started out as chaste but was very tender. That didn''t last as I pried her mouth open with my tongue. She squeaked into the kiss adorably when my tongue started to explore her mouth and dominate her own tongue. Sona was clearly an amateur when it came to kissing but that had its own charms. ¡°Watching you two make out is so hot!¡± Rias said from the side. My hands crept back underneath Sona¡¯s top as we continued to make out. My fingers were focused on her hardening nipples and areola as I tried to make her orgasm with only her breasts. It was a very fun challenge and Sona was proving to be very sensitive. My tongue continued to flick back and forth against her own as I gently pinched her nipples. A moment later, I felt Sona¡¯s body seize up under me! I smiled into our kiss as she moaned into my mouth. She was cumming! ¡°Mmmmmmmmm~¡± ¡°Wow, Sona! That was so hot~¡± Rias commented. She was slowly groping her own large breasts as she watched us. I finally broke the kiss with a very flushed post orgasmic Sona. ¡°That felt nice...¡± Sona said as she tried to catch her breath. I slowly started to strip out of my own black dress. I made a show of it for both of them. Neither of their eyes left my form. I was down to only a pair of lacy black panties. Rias actually gulped at the sight of me. ¡°Feel free to touch wherever you like~¡± I told her. ¡°Wow.¡± She scooted forwards and placed her hand on my bare breasts. Rias''s soft hands started to fondle my chest. She wasn¡¯t an expert, but it still felt very nice. I could feel my sensitive body heating up. Rias looked a bit hesitant before she leaned her head down and took one of my nipples into her mouth. ¡°Oh, yes~¡± I purred. She started sucking on my nipple while her tongue danced around the areola. Sona sat up quickly and joined Rias. Her face dove into my other breast and her beautiful mouth latched on. I let out a moan now that I had two gorgeous Devils pleasuring my breasts. I quickly felt a tingling pleasure form in my chest that traveled down to my core! ¡°Ahhhhn. I''m cumming, girls!¡± I gasped and closed my eyes as my body shook in pleasure. I came down from my high a moment later. Sona and Rias were both smiling at me. ¡°Did that feel good?¡± Rias asked cockily. ¡°It felt very good, thank you.¡± I reached down to my soaking wet panties and started pulling them down my leg. ¡°Why don''t you two get rid of all these clothes you''re wearing? I can return the favor.¡± I handed my wet panties to Sona who gazed at them in her hand as if they were divine treasure. Sona and Rias started undressing as well. The sight before me was glorious. Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri were very different, but both of their bodies were perfect. Both of them had been ready for this night and were shaved bare between their legs. Sona''s pale thighs were soaking wet with her arousal. Rias''s weren''t quite as wet because she hadn''t gotten off yet. ¡°...¡± ¡°Well, isn''t this beautiful?¡± A voice called out from nearby. ¡°The love of my immortal life with two other gorgeous girls is a glorious sight.¡± I let out a squeak and quickly spun around! ¡°Hela!? Hi...? What are you doing here?¡± I didn''t sense her coming in! I was too focused on my lust. Hela raised an eyebrow at me and chuckled. Her black armor completely vanished and she suddenly stood completely naked at the foot of the bed. ¡°Am I not welcome in the bed of my future wife? I heard about you defeating an Alternate Mad Titan and wanted to come celebrate with you.¡± She said before glancing at Rias and Sona. She grinned at both of them and licked her lips. ¡°It seems you''re already celebrating. These two concubines you''ve chosen are quite beautiful~¡± Hela said as she crawled onto the bed. Sona looked stunned that a naked Hela had just hopped on the bed with us. I think her lesbian brain had just temporarily froze from all the thoughts racing through her head. ¡°C¨Cconcubine?¡± Rias asked indignantly. ¡°I''m nobody''s concubine. I''m obviously the head wife!¡± She declared while pouting at Hela, who simply snickered at her. Hela reached over towards Rias and placed a hand on her cheek. She smiled sinfully at my redheaded girlfriend. ¡°Oh no, my dear. The only official wife of Layla will be me. You don¡¯t have to be upset though. By the end of tonight, you''ll be begging to be our concubine.¡± Hela told her. ¡°Both of you will.¡± She told Sona as well. Hela grinned and thrust forward powerfully! The seal on Rias¡¯s stomach broke and winked out of existence as Hela¡¯s cock deflowered the Heiress of the Gremory Clan. Rias¡¯s mouth opened wide and she gasped loudly. ¡°Fuuuuuck! It''s so big!¡± Hela moaned lewdly as she bottomed out deep inside Rias. She turned to me with a flushed smile. ¡°She feels amazing, my love. You''re going to love her!¡± Hela slowly withdrew her hips before pushing forward again. She let out another pleasant moan after her second thrust. ¡°So big!¡± Rias gasped again. Rias¡¯s large breasts began to bounce back and forth as Hela picked up the pace. The redhead gasped everytime Hela completed a thrust and filled her to the brim. ¡°So this is sex?¡± Sona muttered in my arms. Her eyes were laser focused on the form of Rias getting fucked. I placed more kisses on the back of Sona¡¯s neck and whispered in her ear. ¡°Yes, I''ll be taking your virginity next in just a moment.¡± My hand between her thighs grew even wetter as Sona squirmed in anticipation. ¡°Oh my Maou! It feels so good!¡± Rias moaned loudly. Her back arched on the bed and her legs started to tremble wildly. ¡°Fuck me more! Fuck, I''m a bad girl! I wish my parents could see me right now!¡± Rias screamed as Hela continued to thrust in and out of her. ¡°You are a naughty girl! A naughty girl that now knows her place!¡± Hela groaned out. ¡°Underneath me and Layla as our concubine! Isn''t that right!?¡± Hela asked with a moan. ¡°Yeeeeeees!¡± Rias moaned out. ¡°I''ll be your concubine. I''ll be whatever you want! Just don''t stop!¡± Hela grinned. She threw her head back and closed her eyes to focus on the pleasure. For a moment there was nothing but both of their moans and pants as Hela fucked Rias. ¡°Layla has the most amazing pussy in existence, but you''re definitely a close second.¡± Hela''s hands gripped Rias''s hips tighter as she sped up her thrusting. Rias cried out even louder! I recognized the telltale signs that Hela was going to cum soon. Her eyes were narrowed in pleasure and she was tenderly biting her own lip. Her thrusting started to speed up as she leaned forward more, placing her hands on both sides of Rias¡¯s head. ¡°Im cumming~¡± Hela purred out as she started to shake. She buried herself fully inside Rias before she started to spill her seed as deep as possible. Rias¡¯s legs and arms wrapped around Hela as she moaned loudly. Rias¡¯s body started to spasm all over as she had a powerful orgasm at the same time. The two of them were both locked in their orgasms with blissful expressions on their faces for the next minute. Hela extracted herself from Rias who was still twitching. Rias¡¯s limbs had gone limp from the pleasure and let go of Hela. A copious amount of Hela¡¯s seed spilled out of Rias¡¯s lower lips and onto the bed. Small flecks of blood were mixed in. In my arms, I heard Sona audibly gulp at the sight. Her body was trembling in my arms and I could tell she desperately wanted what Rias had just gotten. ¡°Fuck, that felt good. I really needed that. Being a Queen is much more stressful than I thought it would be.¡± Hela said. As she turned towards me and Sona. I could see that the magic cock between her legs was still hard and slick with her and Rias¡¯s love juices. I supposed that it was my turn next. I grinned as I grabbed Sona and pushed her forwards. She let out a cute squeak as she fell on her hands and knees on the bed. Her beautiful backside and pink pussy were presented directly in front of me. Sona turned her head and looked back at me nervously. ¡°It''s your turn, So-tan~¡± I told her. My voice was doing my best Serafall impression. Sona shuddered and her breathing picked up. Her beautiful backside started to sway back and forth before my eyes. ¡°...Please fuck me, Layla.¡± ¡°You''re going to get fucked alright, Sona. I''m going to make you scream my name!¡± I declared as I sat up on my knees and scooted behind her. I placed my hands on her cheeks and fondled them Causing her to let out a soft moan. Sona''s breasts might be a bit lacking, but her ass certainly was not! My own breathing started to pick up from how excited I was. I whispered the spell to myself and felt my own new magic appendage spring forth between my legs. It pushed up directly against Sona¡¯s outer lips. She was dripping wet and Hela was correct, Devil girls were incredibly soft. They were definitely designed by Lucifer with sex on his mind. My breath hitched and I gasped when I pushed the tip inside of Sona. ¡°Ooooohhh... This feels nice.¡± I moaned out my words. Sona gasped. ¡°I d¨Cdidn''t think it would be so b¨Cbig.¡± She panted out as I pushed my hips forward slowly. I was savoring the feeling of her silky walls around me. Finally, my cock reached a small obstruction. A small blue seal appeared on Sona''s stomach and started flashing. Very similar to the one Rias had. Hela snickered nearby as she watched. ¡°Another magic seal? You two girls must have been very sheltered.¡± ¡°W¨Cw were.¡± Sona grunted as my hands ran up and down her backside. The view in front of me was glorious. Sona took a deep breath before she turned her head and smiled at me lovingly. I smiled back at her as well and settled my hands firmly on her hips. I had a grin on my face reminiscent of the one Hela just had with Rias. I thrust forward. My cock pushed through Sona¡¯s barrier and reached her deepest parts in a single thrust. ¡°Fuck!¡± Sona threw her head back and moaned loudly. I felt her inner walls clamp around my cock tightly before she started to spasm. ¡°She''s cumming from a single thrust. She was really pent up.¡± Hela said. ¡°So am I!¡± I practically hissed from how tight Sona''s pussy wrapped around me. Despite Sona still cumming around my magical cock, I grabbed back onto her soft hips and started thrusting into her. Sona let out a loud squeal when I did so! ¡°Fuck, Layla! I''m still cumming~¡± Sona let out a long drawn out moan. Her arms holding her upright gave out and she collapsed face first and ass up on the soft bed. I was still steadily thrusting in and out of her. Devil pussy felt amazing! No wonder they guarded it so vehemently. There was a repeated squelching noise as my thrusting started to pick up in pace. I was breathing heavily as I chased my own high. ¡°You feel so good, Sona! I''m gonna cum!¡± I gasped. Hela giggled nearby. She had been watching me and Sona while slowly stroking herself. ¡°Make sure you finish deep inside her~¡± I was feeling too amazing not to! Besides, when had I ever pulled out with any of my partners before? With one final thrust, I buried my cock as deep as it could go in Sona¡¯s pussy before I started to cum! I threw my head back and moaned loudly as I painted her inner walls white! Sona bit down on the bedsheets and let out a silent scream of pleasure as I collapsed forwards on top of her back. I placed gentle kisses on the back of her neck while we both continued our orgasms. ¡°That was quite the show.¡± Hela commented when I pulled out of Sona. Her pussy had been filled to the brim and fluids immediately started leaking out of her as I did so. Sona''s legs were still trembling and she had a very pleased look on her face. ¡°Shhooo gooood.¡± Sona mumbled post orgasmically. Hela placed a quick kiss on Sona''s cheek before she scooted over towards me. ¡°Let''s let our two concubines recover for a moment while we have our own fun for a bit. There''s no need to rush them, we have all night after all.¡± Rias and Sona were both lying on my large bed at this point, basking in the afterglow, so I figured that was a good idea. Once they recovered, I''d definitely have Rias squealing under me. Or maybe she''d want to be on top? I giggled as Hela stuck her tongue into my mouth while pushing me down. This was going to be a very long night indeed~ XXX Chapter 240 Chapter 240 A/N: Ninja Art: Time-Skip-No-Jutsu!!! Chapter: 240 ¨C1 year later¨C I was standing in an airlock with Tony and Andrea. No one else was around. Tony didn¡¯t want anyone interrupting his breakthrough when we commenced our live test. ¡°Are you sure this is a good idea, Tony?¡± I asked him skeptically. He was looking out the small glass window through the door and grinning to himself like a loon. I knew that he couldn''t wait to get out there. What was on the other side of the door? The Moon. We were literally standing in our own Moonbase. A base that had actually been pretty easy to build all things considered. All it took was me creating a portal to the Moon followed by Tony and Andrea sending a whole lot of drones though. The entire process was fully automated. The drones were able to build a decent sized Moonbase in the span of a month. ¡°Nope! I''m not sure at all! That¡¯s what makes it so interesting!¡± He said while grinning. I sighed at his recklessness. Even though I was here to revive him if this goes wrong, this is still a dumb idea. He has to know that dying hurts, right? ¡°And the reason you didn¡¯t think about testing this out before is because...?¡± I trailed off. ¡°Don''t bother. I tried to talk him out of this, but he didn''t listen.¡± Andrea said while folding her arms. Tony held a syringe in his hand. It was filled with a liquid that glowed a mixture of green and orange. ¡°It¡¯s more exciting this way!¡± He stuck the syringe in his arm. He hit the plunger and grit his teeth as the serum was injected into him. Tony had insisted that he be the first person to use the new serum, completely forgoing the typical volunteer testing phase. He didn¡¯t even bother testing this on animals yet because he didn''t want to accidentally create some super powered rodents. The science of what went into the serum was well over my head, but I at least know it was a combination of Extremis, Hulk Serum and a few other special additions that Andrea had added. She had dated Bruce Banner back in her home universe and learned quite a bit from him there. They both wanted this serum to be the next stage of Human evolution. If it worked, it certainly could be. Andrea and I took a step back in case Tony ended up suddenly combusting or anything. Tony¡¯s skin turned orange and started steaming! The veins under his skin started glowing bright green as well! ¡°Is that supposed to happen?¡± I whispered to Andrea. She glanced at Tony nervously. ¡°He¡¯s the first ever test subject, so I have no idea!¡± ¡°Didn''t you help design like half the serum!?¡± I asked her. ¡°Yeah, and I wanted to test it on animals first. Not people!¡± Andrea told me. ¡°Ok, this fucking burns!¡± Tony groaned in pain as he hunched over. ¡°We might need to tweak the serum a bit more to add some painkillers!¡± Despite the pain of having his entire body in the process of fundamentally evolving, he was still completely cognizant. Tony¡¯s willpower was always impressive. He leaned against the reinforced steel wall and took deep breaths in and out. I could see and hear the muscles underneath his boiling skin bulging and tearing as they rebuilt themselves. There were some pretty disgusting cracking noises as all of his bones fractured and put themselves back together stronger next. This wasn''t a pleasant process to watch. My Purger of Darkness was already on both my wrists and on standby in case something went wrong. Thankfully, nothing did. After a few minutes Tony¡¯s orange skin stopped steaming and his veins became invisible again. He was still taking some ragged breaths, but he didn¡¯t look like he was in a lot of pain anymore. I couldn''t use my Sacred Gear to lessen his pain. That would ruin this whole dumb experiment. ¡°I would like to put it on the record that my brother is an idiot.¡± Andrea said as Tony straightened himself up. His clothing was soaked in sweat, but he otherwise looked alright. Tony ignored her comment and instead was grinning to himself in excitement. ¡°Holy shit! It worked. It actually worked! I feel amazing!¡± He started hopping up and down excitedly. THUNK! ¡°OW!¡± He must have temporarily forgotten we were still on the Moon in his excitement. He hopped too high and just smacked his head on the ceiling. That thunk sounded painful. The fact that he''s still conscious after smacking his head against a solid steel ceiling is a good sign. His bone density must have been greatly increased! Tony didn¡¯t look any different than he did before, but all the changes were supposed to be internal. ¡°Alright, Jarvis! Start venting the atmosphere in here! Daddy wants to walk on the Moon!¡± Tony said cheerfully. ¡°I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s wise, Sir...¡± Jarvis advised us over the intercom. ¡°There are other ways to test out if your serum lets you survive in a vacuum for prolonged periods of time.¡± ¡°I agree with Jarvis.¡± Andrea added. ¡°This is a dumb idea and you''re making yourself look like Reed Richards right now.¡± Andrea said to Tony. Oof, that was a low blow! Reed Richards wasn¡¯t exactly well spoken of in the scientific community right now. Tony pouted at his sister. ¡°Hey! I resent that! I actually triple checked MY formula before injecting myself with it!¡± Tony said. ¡°It''s OUR formula, and I quadruple checked it!¡± Andrea snarked back. Tony calmed down a bit. ¡°Ok, sorry. Yes, it''s OUR formula.¡± He said while she nodded her head. ¡°But please don''t compare me to Reed Richards. I¡¯m way smarter than that guy...¡± He muttered. ¡°Of course you are, Tony. Your technology actually works the way you intend it to.¡± I told him. That wasn''t even a question for me at this point. In only a year he had created his own Moonbase and a Spaceship that could travel back and forth to it in only a few hours! ¡°You two are definitely going to win a Nobel prize when we officially announce the serum.¡± I said while sipping on my own beer. This was a celebration so I did my best not to grimace. I was not a beer girl... ¡°Hell yeah we are! We obviously don¡¯t need the money, but I¡¯d love to rub the prize into some faces.¡± Tony said with a grin. The important thing was that the serum worked. Now we just needed to start mass producing it and distributing it to the people of both Earths. When the two world¡¯s recombined in a few more years, no one would die! Except, probably a lot of animals, we were still working on a solution for that. {Quest Complete! You have Leveled up x5!} There it is! My oldest quest was officially completed! I set my bottle down and leaned back on the couch. I sighed in relief. That was one of the biggest tasks that had been hanging over my head all this time. Now I was free to focus on other things again. Such as¨C ¡°So, Layla... How are the girls?¡± Tony asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts. ¡°Which ones?¡± I asked him. There were many girls in my life now. ¡°The newest ones.¡± Tony said with a laugh. ¡°My girls are amazing! They are so beautiful and perfect!¡± I said fondly. Tony and Andrea both smiled, they were truly happy for me. ¡°Miss Layla, you¡¯ve received a message from Earth. Miss Romanoff would like to know if you will be returning for dinner?¡± Jarvis spoke up over the speakers in the room. ¡°Yeah, you can tell her I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes after I drop off Tony and Andrea.¡± I turned to them. ¡°Unless you two want to come over for dinner too! Are we done celebrating?¡± Tony stood up and playfully scoffed. ¡°Of course we¡¯re not done celebrating! Pepper and I will fly over. Let''s have a party!¡± ¡°That sounds great! I¡¯ll come over too. Would you mind if I brought Bruce?¡± Andrea asked hesitantly. Yes, they were now a thing. A few months ago she had sought him out and explained that she was his lover from a parallel world. I imagined that it was weird for both of them at first, but Bruce Banner and Andrea were currently a thing. If the Hulk was also involved, then I didn''t want to know... ¡°As long as Bruce takes his meds beforehand then it¡¯s fine.¡± We had specially designed meds that could keep him calm no matter what. While he was under them, he could not change into the Hulk unless he took heavy damage. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t trust him, I just didn¡¯t want to risk the Hulk around any of my girls. Bruce completely understood, he was actually a pretty chill guy. I opened two separate portals. Tony and Andrea stepped through and they headed home for now to regroup before the party later tonight. I opened a third portal to my own penthouse and stepped through. The living room was currently empty, but I expected that. Most of everyone¡¯s time was spent in a different section of our home these days. I walked down the hall to where I sensed everyone. At the end of the hallway was an important room that had more wards and protections placed on it than pretty much anywhere else on the planet. I opened the door and smiled at everyone inside. Rias and Sona were sitting at a small table in the corner having a fierce chess match. They both gave me a small smile when I walked in. Hestia was tending to a nearby fireplace while chatting with Frigga who was sitting in a comfy chair. Artemis was hovering nearby, still dressed in her french maid outfit. I¡¯m pretty sure she actually enjoyed wearing it at this point. My eyes finally traveled to the end of the room. Natasha was sitting with Heather and Asia. Each of them were in their own rocking chairs. In their arms, were the three newest members of our household and family. All three of them were born only a few months ago. ¡°How are the three little Angels?¡± I asked Natasha while walking over. Natasha was cooing at the tiny baby in her arms who giggled back at her. ¡°They are all perfect. It¡¯s almost time for their naps though.¡± ¡°Lets tuck them in then for a nap. Thanks for watching over them.¡± I said to the three of them. ¡°They¡¯re all my baby sisters! Of course I''ll watch over them.¡± Heather said. She gently placed the baby in her arms down in the nearest crib. ¡°It was no problem, Layla. They¡¯re my nieces and I love them all.¡± Asia added. I have three baby daughters now... After a certain night with Hela, Rias, and Sona a year ago, a few of us woke up in the morning with some surprises growing inside of us... Well, they weren''t actually surprises considering that had been the intention of the night. It was only a surprise because Supernatural beings were supposed to have much lower fertility rates than mortals. The youngest of my children was Lia Gremory. She was the daughter of Rias and I. Born from Rias. She was adorable with her big purple eyes and her little toughs of red hair that were starting to grow in. The second youngest was Sia Sitri. Sona and Rias actually gave birth on the same day, and decided to give the ¡®twin girls¡¯ similar names. She was the daughter of Sona and I. Sona had given birth to her of course. The final little girl was the oldest and her ¡®mother¡¯ was me. Hela had gotten pretty frisky that night and she ended up actually knocking me up. A year later, I gave birth to Hilga Heladottir. Our daughter, the Crown Princess and Heiress to the throne of Asgard. Hela dropped by almost every single day to check up on her. She didn¡¯t want Hilga anywhere near Asgard with the war about to kick off any day now. The three of them were all very well behaved little Angels. It didn''t take them long to close their eyes and fall asleep after we tucked them all in. I waved my hand and a soundproof barrier manifested over all three cribs so that the babies can sleep without being woken up. I kissed Natasha on the cheek and held her hand as we walked over and sat down on a nearby couch. I leaned my head on her shoulder. ¡°Today was an amazing day, we did it! The Stark Serum works!¡± I told her. Natasha kissed the top of my head. ¡°That¡¯s amazing! When¡¯s the celebration party?¡± ¡°Um, it''s here...tonight.¡± I said. Natasha sighed and bopped the top of my head. ¡°That¡¯s something you''re supposed to tell us as soon as you walk in! We only have a few hours to prepare now.¡± She stood up and walked over towards Hestia and Artemis so they could start putting tonight together. Both goddesses turned and gave me the stink eye for making them prepare a party so quickly. XXX What are Layla¡¯s stats post time skip? Find out next time on Dragonball ¨C er ¨C I mean next time on The Fallen Gamer! Chapter 241 Chapter 241 Chapter 241: The world has changed quite a bit in the last year... [That tends to happen when a giant interdimensional alien spaceship attacks the planet.] The kids were currently napping and the majority of women in the house were preparing for tonight''s party. I was currently sitting on my couch glancing at the news. The news in this world is a lot more exciting and interesting than my last life. Apparently, ever since I''d arrived in this world, the news hardly ever spoke about boring politics anymore. Why should they bother talking about old men who only make false promises, when there are actual superheroes running around the world making a difference and doing cool shit? ¡°Hi, Layla. Watching the news? Anything interesting?¡± Rias asked me. She had walked in the room with Natasha. The two redheads were truly a beautiful pair when standing side by side. I patted the two spots next to me inviting them to join. ¡°Nothing yet. Just a lot of speculation about what Stark Industries and Fallcorp have planned now that we have a successful Moonbase. Can you believe some experts are actually speculating we''re going to stripmine the Moon!?¡± I asked. ¡°Well... Are you planning on stripmining the moon?¡± Natasha asked as she sat down. I shook my head vehemently. ¡°No, of course not! The moon''s too beautiful to exploit it for resources. There''s plenty of other celestial bodies to exploit instead. Maybe Mars, or even Venus. As long as there''s secretly no life on either of those planets...¡± I trailed off. Rias laughed as she sat down on my other side. ¡°I think we would know if there were aliens living in our own solar system.¡± She said. And yet, we''re in Marvel. It wouldn''t surprise me even a little bit at this point if there was secretly life there. ¡°I''ve portaled to Mars and even walked around, but I never did an in depth exploration. I haven''t been to Venus yet at all.¡± I told them. It was something for future Layla to investigate. As we were talking, I noticed the story on the TV changed. I turned up the volume when I saw what it was about. ¡°In other news: Last night, the new Vigilante, known as Spiderman, discovered a warehouse filled with over $10 million in heroin. The vigilante subdued all of the armed men inside before calling the police to come arrest them. As always, there were no fatalities or heavy injuries to any of the criminals. J Jonah Jameson, with the Daily Bugle, has been referring to the new hero as a ¡®menace¡¯ ever since Spiderman first appeared in our fine city, but this reporter thinks Spiderman has been doing a great job so far! Keep up the good work Spidey!¡± Good for Peter Parker. His reputation was rock solid right now. He definitely has a much better reputation than the Punisher or Daredevil did when they started out. Daredevil didn''t kill people either, but he did put plenty of thugs in the hospital with some pretty heavy injuries. As for the Punisher... I tried to turn Frank away from his path, but the death of his wife proved too much for him to completely let go of his hatred. He''s not as bloodthirsty as he would be in Canon, since I saved his kids, but he still goes out on patrol at least once a week and racks up multiple bodies. I''m pretty sure SHIELD lets him get away with it because the guys he takes down are the real scum of the Earth. Or they just don''t want to arrest him because they think he''s friends (sort of) with me. [You just wanted Frank on the Avengers because you thought he was cooler than Hawkeye!] ¡®He totally is, though! Bows in real life are lame! If Hawkeye at least had a magic bow, that would be a different story.¡¯ I replied. [You could easily get him one.] ¡®Nah, too much effort for a guy I barely know. He also doesn''t like me that much because Natasha is his best friend and she''s a member of my harem...¡¯ [...And because you took away her humanity. Don''t forget that part.] I wasn''t going to let Natasha stay human and die of old age. She was either going to become an Asgardian or a Fallen Angel. She chose the latter because she thought being able to fly sounded fun. It absolutely is! I can''t wait till she gets her sixth pair of wings so we can fly in space together! She''s actually pretty close. She was already enhanced when I turned her and she immediately became a four winged Fallen. ¡°...For our main topic today, we will be discussing the growing religious movement that started a year ago and has taken the world by storm! Over 30 million people around the world have already officially converted and now directly worship¨C¡± I pointed the remote at the TV and turned it off... I had no interest in that second story... [You were the one who wanted to officially become a Goddess...] ¡®I know... I just didn''t think I''d have any actual worshippers outside of the people from Earth DxD-C.¡¯ I replied. My whole objective was to use that world to farm Faith Energy, not this one. [ ?\_(¥Ä)_/ ? ] I was drawn out of my thoughts when I felt Rias cuddling closer up to me. ¡°Spiderman... Hmmm? What do you think his powers are?¡± Rias knew the topic on the TV upset me and tried to take my mind off of it. She really was a very caring young woman, and a lot smarter than people made her out to be. She even regularly beats grandmaster Sona at chess! ¡°If his name is anything to go by, he probably has all the abilities of a spider, but scaled up to human size. He should be incredibly fast and strong. There''s also footage of him also being able to walk on walls. We suspect he is using the Van der Waals effect. The eggheads at SHIELD have absolutely no idea how, though. It shouldn''t be possible with masses that large.¡± Natasha explained. ¡°Do you think he shoots webs out of his butt?¡± Rias asked with a small laugh. ¡°That would be hilarious if he can.¡± I started giggling at the image in my mind of Spiderman swinging around New York upside down, holding his webs with his butt cheeks. ¡°Do you know who Spiderman is, Layla?¡± Natasha asked me. At this point, she had come to accept that I somehow knew every single person''s secret identity. To be fair, I pretty much did. ¡°I do, why?¡± Natasha gave me an exasperated look that pretty much said ¡®of course you do!¡¯ ¡°SHIELD is interested in his identity and his powers. He has such a diverse power range that we don''t suspect that he''s a mutant. He must have gotten his abilities from somewhere else.¡± Natasha said. ¡°You''re right, he''s not a mutant. I do know who he is, but I''m not going to tell SHIELD. Spider-Man is just a 14-year-old boy. There''s no need to throw him off the deep end when he''s perfectly fine handling street-level crime for now.¡± I explained. Natasha was surprised to hear that, but let it drop once she did. ¡°Never mind then. I''ll tell Fury not to bother.¡± On principle, SHIELD did not bother recruiting anyone under the age of 16, and even then they were never allowed to see combat until they were 18. They were still a government organization, and they could be sued to oblivion if they were caught utilizing child soldiers. ¡°We were under the impression he was some kind of martial arts expert with years of infiltration training under his belt...¡± ¡°Nope, it''s just his powers at work along with a lot of luck that¡¯s made him this effective so far.¡± I told her. ¡°It''s pretty impressive when you think about it.¡± ...Seriously, how does Spiderman always stumble upon crimes at the perfect times? Most muggings or break-ins only last 30 seconds to a minute tops. Most murders in this world are committed as acts of passion ¨C they happen within seconds! And yet, somehow, Peter is always in the right place at the right time to save people. He has some serious divine intervention looking over his shoulder! Spiderman wasn''t someone I wanted to approach right now because of that. I''m not sure how I stack up against Madam Web currently, and until I am, it was safer to just leave Peter to his own devices. Spiderman was focusing on street crime mostly anyway. Nothing he did was actually making a big splash in the world. Outside of New York, he was hardly ever even mentioned in the news. ¡°It''s¨C¡± THRUM! Yasaka was cut off as a golden Japanese doorway materialed in the corner of the room. I had a feeling I knew who was coming now. The doors parted to the sides and out stepped a young looking girl who radiated divinity. On a head of long black hair, sat a Golden Japanese crown that shined like the sun itself. She was dressed in an ornate gold and red kimono that trailed the floor in front and behind her. It was very elegant looking, but honestly seemed impractical to me. {The Japanese Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu: Level 70} She spoke up as she walked towards us. ¡°Behold, my loyal priestess! Your Goddess has arrived¨Ceep!¡± Amaterasu accidentally stepped on her long robes and ended up tripping. She fell forwards and smacked her face directly on the floor. Everyone in the room awkwardly stared at her... She quickly stood back up, disheveled, and glared at us cutely. ¡°You all saw nothing!¡± She said while collecting herself. I know that she was thousands of years old, but she hardly looked older than Kunou and that tumble was frankly adorable... ¡°Of course, Lady Amaterasu.¡± Yasaka said with a strained smile. ¡°Would you care for some tea?¡± Amaterasu nodded. ¡°I always appreciate your tea, my priestess. Who are your guests?¡± She said while looking at me and Rias. ¡°One of them looks very familiar...¡± She said while eyeing Rias specifically. ¡°Nice to meet you. I am Layla, and this is¨C¡± Amaterasu suddenly glared and an aura of power surrounded her! ¡°Rias Gremory! The evil Devil bride of that disgusting Phenex brat! I told all Devils that if they set foot back in my territory their lives were forfeit! Die!¡± Amaterasu raised her palm towards Rias. In an instant, a Golden fireball formed and launched itself forward at her! Rias let out a squeak of fright at suddenly being attacked by a Goddess. I quickly stepped in front of Rias and held up my palm. I caught the golden fireball and smothered it with my bare hand. That stung a bit... {-100 HP} Amaterasu glared at me for interfering. ¡°How dare you! Who are you to stand in my way!?¡± I wasn''t happy that this Goddess just tried to kill the mother of my child¨Ceven if she was mistaking her for someone else. I was going to have to give this brat a spanking as punishment. ¡°My name is Layla of the Fallen, and you shouldn''t have done that.¡± I introduced myself as 14 Black Angel Wings sprung up behind me. My aura began to leak out and the room around us shook with my power. I smirked at the shocked expression on the Sun Goddesses face! It was at this moment that she realized... That she fucked up... [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 80] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere] [HP: 113900/114,000] [MP: 120,000] [Faith Energy: 128,548,853] [Vigor: 10,000] [Strength: 5,000] [Intelligence: 12,000] [Luck: 2300] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) XXX Chapter 242 Chapter 242 Chapter 242: ¨CRias Gremory¨C Rias could admit that she might have underestimated just how much hatred other Supernatural beings have for this Universe¡¯s Devils. Layla had warned Rias before they came here, but Rias didn''t quite understand until Amaterasu had tried to murder her on sight. Rias was justifiably angry about that. She was also very glad that Layla was so powerful. That divine fireball Amaterasu tossed out casually would have killed Rias instantly. Rias had gotten a bit stronger after meeting Layla, but she hadn''t exactly had the opportunity to get a lot of training in while she was pregnant this past year. She didn''t regret it of course. She wouldn''t trade her beautiful daughter for anything in the world. ¡°Oh dear...¡± Yasaka sighed next to her. ¡°It looks like a fight is inevitable at this point.¡± ¡°Layla is going to win of course!¡± Rias declared. Rias had no doubts that Layla was about to stomp on Amaterasu. Layla and Amaterasu were facing off. Layla¡¯s beautiful 14 wings were spread out behind her. They were an intimidating sight that Layla didn''t like to display as often nowadays. Rias knew that Layla wanted to be a Goddess, but Layla never actually wanted any humans to worship her for some reason. When asked why, Layla always told her that it was just ¡°awkward.¡± The fact that Layla had a growing religion back on Earth Marvel was a bit of a sour topic in their house. Rias, though, thought it was pretty amazing. Most Gods nowadays were struggling to retain followers, and Layla was struggling to get rid of them. ¡°Fourteen wings?¡± Amaterasu asked Layla. ¡°I thought Angels only went up to twelve? And weren''t all you Fallen Angels wiped out!? You all disappeared from the Underworld! How are you here!?¡± The Sun Goddess exclaimed in confusion. She also looked incredibly nervous upon sending the power Layla was emitting. Rias¡¯s lover chuckled. ¡°Who said we were wiped out? All we did was move our home. What''s the big deal? People move houses all the time.¡± Layla asked the other Goddess. Rias giggled at Layla¡¯s tone. Her lover was being difficult and vague on purpose for no other reason than to mess with Amaterasu. ¡°Humans might move all the time, but who would believe that an entire faction would just up and move on a whim!? That''s impossible!¡± Amaterasu said with a pout. Her young looking face made it more adorable than intimidating. Rias had no idea why the thousand year old leader of the Japanese Pantheon made herself look like a 13 year old girl. Was Amaterasu a fan of harem anime? Did she want to be a real life Loli Baba? There was a gasp from next to Rias. Yasaka was looking at Rias in shock. ¡°She hates being called that...¡± Yasaka trailed off. ¡°Woops, I guess I said that last part out loud.¡± Rias chuckled. Gods and Goddesses tended to be incredibly prideful beings and Rias just called the leader of a Pantheon a ¡°Loli Baba¡± to her face. She was glad that Layla was here protecting her otherwise she would be in serious trouble. Since Layla was here though, Rias knew that she could say pretty much whatever she wanted. Amaterasu scowled again and stomped her foot. The tatami floor splintered underneath her. ¡°I''m not a Loli Baba! When I gained a physical form, this appearance was the height of beauty at the time! Men and Gods fawned over me in droves. I had thousands of suitors!¡± Amaterasu proclaimed. In Rias¡¯s opinion, that only made it creepier. ¡°Gross... You really need to get with the time. Only creeps would be attracted to such a young looking washboard Goddess.¡± Rias said while folding her arms under her chest. She intentionally pushed her large breasts up to make a point. ¡°Guuurrrgh!¡± Amaterasu screamed incomprehensibly and hurled another fireball at Rias! ¡°Almighty Push!¡± Layla held her hand out and the fireball was sent directly back where it came from. ... ¨CLayla¨C ¡°Eeep!¡± Amaterasu ducked rapidly to avoid getting smacked in the face by her own divine fire. ¡°I already told you that you''re not allowed to attack her.¡± I said irritation. ¡°Why are you protecting a Devil? You''re supposed to be sworn enemies.¡± Amaterasu said in annoyance. She then turned to Yasaka and glared at the leader of the Yokai. ¡°Have you betrayed me, Yasaka!? Are you siding with these foreigners?¡± Amaterasu immediately started jumping to the wrong conclusions. Yasaka looked panicked upon hearing Amaterasu¡¯s words. ¡°That''s not it at all, my lady! This isn''t the Rias Gremory you''re thinking she is either.¡± ¡°Save it! You think I''m too stupid to recognize the sister of Sirzechs Lucifer? Your punishment will come after I''ve dealt with this strange seven winged Fallen Angel!¡± Amaterasu warned Yasaka next. I grit my teeth in irritation. ¡°Now you threaten another woman I care about? You think I''ll let you hurt either of them while I''m here.¡± I asked while taking a step forward. My aura seeped off me and infused into the air. The room around us started to shake from my power. Thankfully Yasaka''s home had been reinforced heavily with strengthening and defensive wards, so it was in no danger of collapsing. Amaterasu gulped and took a step back. ¡°Y¨CYou wouldn''t actually hurt me...¡± She said nervously. ¡°I k¨Cknow you''re just bluffing. You could start a war...¡± I smirked at the Sun Goddess. ¡°Start a war? You don¡¯t even know where the rest of the Fallen Angels are located. Who exactly do you plan on fighting in this war?¡± ¡°T¨CThat''s...¡± Amaterasu took a second to think of an answer, but she came up with nothing. ¡°...Crap.¡± Amaterasu was known to be powerful, but she was not a Goddess known for her prowess in combat. I shot forwards and grabbed hold of her faster than she could react. She let out a hilarious shriek of fright as I spun her body around and hurled her back through the golden doorway that led to Takamagahara. Even though this was going to be more of a spanking instead of a true fight, I still didn¡¯t want to potentially destroy Yasaka¡¯s home. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a couple minutes, my loves.¡± I said to Rias and Yasaka before I stepped through the golden doorway and closed it behind me. As it closed, I could hear Rias complaining about not being able to see me beat up a Goddess. Amaterasu was picking herself off the floor as I walked in. We appeared in the middle of her throne room. It was absolutely massive. I could easily fit my Perfect Susanoo inside and still have plenty of room to move around. The throne room wasn¡¯t empty. It was filled with numerous other Gods and Goddesses who were looking on in confusion. ¡°Are you ok, sister? And who is this?¡± A handsome Japanese God wearing white and gold robes with black hair down to his lower back asked. I wasn''t very familiar with Japanese gods and wasn''t able to recognize him on sight. It¡¯s a good thing I had Observe. {The Japanese God of Storms, Susanoo: Level 65} ¡°Susanoo! Help me! This winged meany is bullying your beautiful sister! Teach this Fallen Angel a lesson for me!¡± Amaterasu complained while pointing at me and grimacing. [I don''t know how he''s going to help when he''s 5 levels weaker than his sister that you just manhandled...] I shook my head. ¡°I am Layla of the Fallen. I was a Fallen Angel who has recently ascended to become the Goddess of Angels.¡± I informed him and Amaterasu. Both of their eyes widened. ¡°Your Godless Pantheon finally has an actual leader again? It¡¯s about time.¡± Amaterasu complained. ¡°Do you know how much damage those damned Devils have caused to our world? How are you planning on dealing with them? They need to be straightened out. They frequently kidnap other supernatural beings and force them to be their slaves with absolutely zero repercussions.¡± ¡°Sister, she said that she has only recently ascended.¡± Susanoo chastised her. ¡°We don¡¯t even know if she has any plans for them at all.¡± That wasn¡¯t true. ¡°I do have plans for them,¡± I told them. ¡°But not quite yet. There¡¯s a lot of information that your pantheon and the rest of the world are not aware of. It¡¯s a world changing secret that¡¯s been kept quiet and only a select few outside of the Fallen Angels know.¡± I explained vaguely while glancing around the room. There was always the possibility that some of the Gods in this throne room were traitors or spies for other pantheons. The serum had been completed, but until it was ready for mass production, I didn¡¯t want the information about the split world merging together again getting out. ¡°You have me intrigued.¡± Susanoo said. ¡°Is Yasaka in on this secret? Is that why you were with her?¡± Amaterasu asked curiously. ¡°Well, yes. But I was also at her home because she¡¯s a member of my Harem.¡± I said plainly. She gaped at me. ¡°You can¡¯t just take my top priestess as your harem member without my permission!¡± I shrugged at her. ¡°I already did. We¡¯ve been together for over a year already.¡± Amaterasu pouted at me. Her brother chastised her again. ¡°Sister, maybe if you didn¡¯t spend so much time in your room playing video games, you would actually know what is going on in the world.¡± He turned and bowed to me again. ¡°Forgive us, my sister hasn¡¯t gotten out much in a few years. To quote the humans of today, she is what is known as a neet.¡± He informed me. Amaterasu blushed in embarrassment. ¡°I''m not a neet. I only play games a few hours everyday...¡± ¡°If by a few, you mean at least 14, then yes...¡± He said. She conjured another golden fireball and tossed it at his head. Even at this range, he seemed like he was used to it and was easily able to dodge out of the way with another sigh... The Japanese Pantheon was honestly a lot different than I expected them to be. Since Amaterasu and Yasaka were close, I decided to bring them on board with our plans for the future. I invited Amaterasu and Susanoo to the celebration party tonight. Theirs would be the first Pantheon to find out about the future of our two worlds. With their help, we could also start setting up production facilities in Japan so we couldn''t start mass producing the serum. I opened a portal back to Yasaka¡¯s manor and they followed me through. When I made it back, Rias surged forward and started asking me a bunch of questions about the ¡°fight.¡± She almost seemed disappointed when I told her that it ended pretty anticlimactically. Amaterasu stepped forward and bowed to Rias. She apologized for trying to burn her before she bowed to Yasaka next and told the fox woman that there would be no ¡°punishment.¡± With the unexpected Interruption taken care of, we all started preparing for the party tonight. ... ¨CCanon Omake, The Party¨C POP! ¡°We did it! Let¡¯s fucking go!¡± Tony cheered while popping a bottle of champagne. ¡°Hell yeah we did!¡± Andrea cheered and popped her own bottle. ¡°Language you two, there are children present.¡± Steve said while pointing to the corner of the room. Rias, Sona and Layla were each holding their daughters while chatting with Natasha and a few of the Goddesses. He didn¡¯t want the Stark siblings'' vulgarity rubbing off on innocent ears. ¡°It¡¯s fine. The babies aren¡¯t old enough to understand what we''re saying yet.¡± Tony said while pouring himself a very large glass of champagne. If he wasn¡¯t buzzed, then it wasn¡¯t a party yet! ¡°Aren¡¯t those three kids demigods though? We don¡¯t know how fast they will develop mentally.¡± Steve said. He had a soft spot for demigod children ever since he had rescued so many of them. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Layla set up a barrier in the corner of the room so the sounds from the party will be muted.¡± Andrea pointed out. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s ok then.¡± Steven said. He still wasn¡¯t a fan of vulgar language, but it was a big celebration for the amazing achievement that Tony and Andrea had made. He was proud of them for putting their collective genius into creating things that weren¡¯t purely for war lately. An Asian man walked over towards the three of them while they were chatting. He was wearing a gold and white kimono. A younger Asian girl, who looked like the man¡¯s daughter, was walking next to them. ¡°Hello there.¡± Steve said while holding out his hand. ¡°I¡¯m Steve Rogers. I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ve met.¡± They shook hands. ¡°We have not. I am Susanoo. This is Amaterasu. Neither of us are familiar with anybody here and we wanted to introduce ourselves.¡± ¡°Interesting names.¡± Steve commented. Despite recently taking on the Greek Pantheon, he was not familiar with the names of other Gods and Goddesses. Andrea and Tony, of course, both were. They both nearly choked on their champagne when Susanoo introduced himself... Steve noticed that Amaterasu was holding her own wine glass. ¡°I know this is a party, but should a child really be drinking alcohol?¡± He asked in concern. The glass in Amaterasu¡¯s hand shattered at his comment. ¡°Dammit! I¡¯m not a child! You¡¯re lucky you''re hot or I¡¯d kick you for that comment!¡± She told Steve. Steve grimaced. ¡°I¨Cuh¨Cappreciate the compliment, but you should stick to boys your own age, sweety.¡± He told her honestly. Susanoo did his best to not burst out laughing at the look of indignation on his sister¡¯s face. Tony and Andrea both blanched at Steve¡¯s audacity. ¡°Grrrr.¡± Amaterasu lashed her foot forward and kicked Steve in the shin. ¡°Ow!¡± She clutched her foot and hopped in pain a second later. ¡°What are you made of!?¡± Amaterasu was not a physically strong Goddess and Steve was incredibly durable as a campione. Steve sighed and patted her head gently while looking at Susanoo. ¡°This is why you shouldn''t give kids alcohol...¡± XXX Chapter 243 Chapter 243 Chapter 243: I let out a yawn as I woke up to the morning light. I sat up in my bed and stretched out. I was glad I couldn''t get hangovers, because I would definitely be suffering from one otherwise. Last night was a little wilder than I was expecting it to be. ¡°Valhalla take me now! Someone turn off the sun!¡± One of my harem members whined on my left. I smiled at Sif who was doing her best to shield her eyes from the morning light pouring into the room. She was definitely suffering from a hangover. After we had put the kids to bed last night, Hestia was more than happy to watch them, things had gotten a little crazy at the party. Susanoo had shown up with some incredibly powerful sake, and Sif had beamed down from Asgard with a barrel of mead on each shoulder. I was finding that my recall was a bit fuzzy at what happened next. I didn¡¯t hold back in my own celebrations. That quest turned out to not be very difficult, considering I dumped it on Tony and Andrea, but it was still incredibly stressful. I had the lives of 16 billion humans hanging over my head for a year. I may or may not have irresponsibly blacked out in the celebrations. There were only a couple highlights I was sure happened though. At some point in the night, Tony showed off that his Iron Man suit could transform into a karaoke machine. Or maybe he was just trolling us and had snuck in an actual karaoke machine... Either way, everyone started singing, and I don¡¯t recall anyone at the party being particularly good at it. Not that it really mattered, it was still fun. I made sure to sing duets with all of my harem members and most of my friends. We weren¡¯t the only duets of the night though. I vaguely recall Amaterasu doing a song or two with Steve. The two of them sang an anime song I was unfamiliar with before Amaterasu drunkenly asked Steve out on a date. He declined her telling her he wasn¡¯t going to date a little girl. I¡¯m not sure what happened after all that though. [After that, you guys tried to have a contest to see if you could scare Bruce Banner enough that the Hulk would come out.] ¡®...What?¡¯ We didn¡¯t actually do that... Did we? I smacked myself on the head when I remembered that we did. ¡®System, did I... Open a portal to the Zoo and kidnap an actual tiger to try and scare Bruce?¡¯ [Hehe! You sure did. Sir Stripes was one cool cat! Very well behaved for a wild animal actually. Bruce was also so drunk at that point that he just pet the ¡°pretty kitty¡± before he passed out on the sofa. The Hulk never came out.] I sighed in relief. Drunk Layla was apparently a menace. At least she remembered to put the tiger back when the party ended... I placed my hand over Sif¡¯s forehead and started to heal her hangover. ¡°Thank the Norns! You¡¯re an Angel, Layla!¡± Sif thanked me with a smile. She sat up with a yawn and the sheets slid down her toned naked body. ¡°I know.¡± I said as I finished healing her. My eyes were unashamedly trailing up and down her perfect body. Out of all my harem members, Sif and Hela were by far the most toned. Natasha was a close third. And speaking of her... ¡°Can I get some hangover healing over here please?¡± Natasha was currently lying on my other side. She was also naked and she was covering her own face with a pillow to block out the light. I placed my hand under the pillow and onto her forehead. A few seconds later and she was good to start her day as well. ¡°Waking up with two naked beauties in my bed is always an amazing experience. Did we all have sex last night?¡± I asked in genuine curiosity. ¡°I can''t remember.¡± Natasha thought about it for a moment while scrunching her face. ¡°...I can¡¯t remember either. Tony talked me into making him an authentic Hawaiian Mai Tai. I learned how on an infiltration assignment a few years back. I made myself one as well...and then I might have made two or three more after that.¡± ¡°I think we all passed out as soon as we got in the bed.¡± Sif told us. ¡°My memory of the festivities is also foggy, but I don¡¯t think I would have forgotten such a fun after party.¡± ¡°Wanna have a threesome now?¡± I suggested while wiggling my eyebrows at the two of them. ¡°I don¡¯t have any other plans for today.¡± Natasha turned down my offer, claiming she had to go check on the kids. I couldn''t exactly be a bad mom, so of course I offered to go with her. Well, a version of me would be going with her at least. My fingers performed an iconic hand sign. ¡°Shadow Clone Jutsu!¡± An identical version of myself appeared inside a poof of smoke! The Rinnegan technically granted access to all Ninjutsu from Naruto, but I never saw a need to use most of them. This was obviously the exception. Before gaining seven pairs of wings though, I never had enough MP to use thai ability. {-20,000 MP} ¡°Mother''s everywhere would be so jealous of this technique.¡± Natasha said while glancing between me and my clone. ¡°To not have to change diapers themselves...¡± ¡°She¡¯s still going to get all of my memories.¡± My clone replied to her. Even supernatural babies poop... It cost me 20,000 MP to create a single shadow clone of myself. Despite that cost, it was absolutely worth it. Being able to be in two places at once and retain the memories was amazing. I could be a good mother and properly raise my children while still continuing my crazy Gamer lifestyle. Natasha and my shadow clone left my bedroom a moment later to go and take care of the kids. Once they had left, I turned to Sif with a hopeful grin on my face. Sif grinned back at me lustfully. ¡°I¡¯ve been stuck on Asgard for months training up the new recruits for war. You have no idea how pent up I am!¡± She said before jumping on top of me and smashing her lips into my own. ... It was past noon by the time I showered and left the bedroom. There wasn''t a better way to start the day than some steamy sex with a beautiful woman like Sif. I walked down the hallway towards the living room where the party was held last night. I expected the room to be a complete mess, but it wasn''t. Hestia or Artemis had already cleaned the place up from what I could tell. I smiled at Rias and Sona who were sitting on a nearby couch. They were holding their daughters Sia and Lia in their laps. Neither of my Devil girls looked hungover so I figured Asia must have healed them before she left for school with Heather. Across from the two Devil milfs was Akeno and her two girlfriends Ororo Monroe and Jean Grey. I wondered what they were doing here? Akeno usually doesn''t bring them along when she visits. I think that Jean is also a bit embarrassed about...that night. ¡°Morning girls.¡± I said while placing a quick kiss on Rias and Sona''s cheeks. Lia and Sia giggled up at me when I gave them both a quick tickle. ¡°Morning? It''s already afternoon. Did you just wake up, Layla?¡± Rias asked me. ¡°EVERYTIME!?¡± Rias interrupted her. ¡°It happened more than once!?¡± ¡°We experimented again this morning, and when Akeno made Jean climax with her tongue, Jean burst into flames again.¡± Ororo said. ¡°Ororo!¡± Jean whined. ¡°You don¡¯t have to give the full details of our sex life to everyone!¡± Ororo shrugged. ¡°I can never understand why Americans get so embarrassed when talking about sex. Back on the Serengeti, half the people walked around naked most of the time....¡± ¡°That¡¯s a weird medical condition.¡± Sona commented while pushing her fake glasses up. They flashed with perfect timing of course. Sona still frequently did her signature move make herself look smarter and I still found it adorable. ¡°My family runs a supernatural hospital but I''ve never heard of that happening. You¡¯re not getting burned yourself, are you?¡± Sona asked Jean. Jean shook her head. ¡°The flames don¡¯t feel hot to me. They feel warm, actually. Maybe even comforting?¡± ¡°Besides that, has anything else weird been happening to you? Have your powers been getting stronger or have you been having trouble controlling your emotions?¡± I asked Jean. I supposed that it could be the Phoenix Force inside of her acting up. Jean had never given off any Dark Phoenix vibes though. Even now, she seemed like a perfectly normal young woman. ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Jean said before looking at Akeno and Ororo. They both said that she had been acting the same as always. That was strange to me. If it was the Phoenix Force, it wasn¡¯t affecting her emotions. ¡°Have you been hearing any voices in your head that aren¡¯t your own?¡± I asked Jean. ¡°I always hear voices in my head that aren¡¯t my own. I read minds.¡± ¡°Right... Nevermind then.¡± I muttered. That was a dumb question to ask a mind reading mutant. ¡°I can have someone I know take a look at you. If the problem is what I think it is, she¡¯s the only one who could actually help out here.¡± I said. Jean smiled in relief. ¡°That¡¯s great! Can we go see them now!?¡± She asked excitedly. ¡°Ara, Jean wants to get cured as soon as possible so we can get back to our fun bedroom activities...¡± Akeno teased her girlfriend causing everyone to giggle. A couple more pillows telekinetically lifted themselves off the couch and started chasing a laughing Akeno around the room. ¡°I don¡¯t have much else to do today.¡± I said to Jean. I asked Rias and Sona if they were fine with me leaving for a bit. Neither of them minded. I don¡¯t know where my Shadow Clone went with Natasha, but I figured it should be back soon anyway in case they needed anything from me. ¡°Great! Let¡¯s go! Before Jean bursts into flames again!¡± Akeno said while dodging a few more pillows. Ororo stood up and said she was ready to go as well. I hated to rain on their parade, but I told Akeno and Ororo that they couldn''t come with us. The place I was going to take Jean wasn¡¯t exactly compatible with most life forms. The only reason I suspected Jean would be ok there was if she really was the Host of the Phoenix Force. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go and see Lady Death.¡± I said cheerfully while opening a portal to Death¡¯s realm. The eyes of everyone else in the room widened in shock. ¡°Did you just say Lady D¨CDeath!?¡± Jean squeaked in fright before I pushed her through the portal. ¡°Wait, Layla!¡± She whined my name as I pushed her through. Akeno and Ororo were both looking at me and the portal I''d just forced their lover through nervously. I waved the two of them off. ¡°We¡¯ll be fine, I promise. See you all in a bit.¡± I said while the portal closed behind me. ... Lady Death¡¯s realm was breathtaking as always. The endless skies above our heads filled with galaxies was a true sight to behold. Across from my portal, Lady Death sat on her throne of black skulls. She was still the most beautiful woman I¡¯d ever seen. She smiled at me as I approached. ¡°Layla, my champion and lover, what brings you to visit?¡± She asked me. I gestured to the terrified mutant girl next to me. ¡°This is Jean Grey. I suspect she¡¯s the avatar of the Phoenix. And it¡¯s been acting...weird?¡± I said questioningly. Lady Death raised a curious eyebrow. ¡°Is that so? Let me take a look at you, girl.¡± She stood up from her throne and approached Jean. Jean became even more nervous when one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse started inspecting her up close. ¡°Yes, I can see that she is indeed the current avatar of the Phoenix Force.¡± Lady Death confirmed. ¡°What¡¯s the Phoenix Force?¡± Jean asked us. ¡°It¡¯s a giant planet sized flaming bird that flies around the multiverse seeding it with life. It¡¯s like the opposite of Lady Death. One of the most powerful beings you¡¯ll ever meet.¡± I told her. ¡°Why the hell am I the avatar of something like that!?¡± Jean squeaked out. I shrugged at her and told her that was something for her and the ¡®Giant Flaming Chicken¡¯ to work out amongst themselves. ¡°Flaming chicken?¡± Lady Death cracked a wry smile at me. ¡°You should call her that to her face. I¡¯m sure she¡¯d get a kick out of it.¡± ¡°Maybe I will if I ever meet her.¡± I replied with a shrug. Lady Death smirked at me and pointed directly up. ¡°That shouldn''t be a problem. I called her over so we could figure out the problem. She¡¯s already here...¡± Jean and I stared up at the sky above us. ¡°Wow, that is one big ass bird...¡± When I had called the Phoenix ¡®planet sized¡¯ earlier, I might have been undervaluing her size. The entire sky above us had been replaced with an endless sky of glowing fire. XXX Chapter 244 Chapter 244 Chapter 244: I stared up at the giant flaming bird that blanketed the entire sky. I didn''t think a creature of such size could even exist until now. I didn''t even know how to go about fighting something that big. Any world-ending meteors I threw at it would probably feel like nothing but mosquito bites. Just when I thought I was approaching the top of this universe, I ran into a being like this. {The Phoenix Force: Level 305} With my max level Observe, I was able to see just how powerful the Phoenix force was. Level 305 officially made her the second most powerful entity I''d ever gazed upon. She was a close second to Lady Death at Level 310. I didn''t think there was anything stronger than these two in the Marvel universe, other than the One Above All himself. ¡°How big is she?¡± Jean asked Lady Death while also staring up at the giant flaming space bird. ¡°The Phoenix Force is about the same size as the planet Jupiter in your Earth''s solar system. She has the ability to take different forms like myself, but this is the one she usually prefers when roaming the infinite cosmos.¡± Lady Death explained. ¡°Wow...¡± Jean said in wonder. ¡°That''s amazing.¡± Lady Death shrugged while glancing upwards. ¡°Eh, I think she''s just overcompensating. The ¡®Flaming Chicken¡¯ is trying to come off as more impressive than she actually is.¡± Lady Death said teasingly while winking at me. ¡°SCREEEEEE!¡± Lady Death''s realm shook as the Phoenix above our heads let out a very loud cry of indignation. It clearly heard her words just now and wasn''t pleased with them. One second I was gazing upon a sky of pure orange and yellow, the next second it was gone. I could see the infinite galaxies above me again. The giant Phoenix vanished in an instant! ¡°Overcompensating!? And who are you to say that!? You literally sit on a throne made of black skulls! It can''t get more edgy than that!¡± An ethereal voice declared. I spun around when I noticed there was another person here with the three of us. I was caught completely off guard! Standing next to Lady Death was another woman who had appeared out of nowhere! The newcomer¡¯s beauty was impossibly hard to describe. Her figure and face were sheer perfection. Her skin was flawless and pale, but not as pale as Lady Death. Her long red hair extended down to her lower back and glowed like cosmic fire. Her eyes shined with a golden light and radiated pure power. She was a true vision of beauty, a cosmic goddess. ...She was also completely naked, but didn''t seem to mind at all. ¡°Hello, everyone.¡± The woman said again with her ethereal voice. It was almost musical in a way. ¡°Why are you all looking at me strangely?¡± She asked while tilting her head. ¡°You forgot to give yourself clothes again, Phoenix.¡± Lady Death said with a sigh. ¡°Please cover yourself, I can feel my champion getting hornier by the second just looking at you.¡± Lady Death said while pouting at me. I blushed and did my best to avert my gaze from the incredible naked woman standing only a few feet away. It was hard, especially because I didn''t want to. The woman, who was obviously the Phoenix Force in a beautiful human form, looked down and realized her mistake. ¡°I never understood why the mortal races even bothered with covering themselves...at least until my latest Avatar. She taught me how amazing clothes can be.¡± The Phoenix Force said while smiling at Jean. ¡°Me?¡± Jean asked while pointing at herself. ¡°L¨CLady Death said I was your Avatar, what does that mean? And I don''t remember teaching you anything.¡± Jean added nervously. The Phoenix in human form smiled mischievously. ¡°Oh no, my dear, you taught me quite a bit. You and your amazing lovers! For over a year now, I''ve been watching and feeling through our bond as you three made love almost every single night! I admit that I''ve been deeply enjoying having you as my avatar. I had no idea that sex, when not trying to make offspring, could be so amazing and enjoyable! I''ve learned so many new things from you. I never knew how amazing clothing was! Not until I observed all the beautiful lingerie your lovers would wear during these passionate trysts!¡± She explained to Jean, who was sputtering in embarrassment at this point. ¡°Why are you watching all of that!?¡± Jean demanded to know. ¡°That was supposed to be private!¡± Jean got a shrug in response. ¡°I saw it all because we are bonded. You are my Avatar. Of course I can see through your eyes and experience your senses if I choose too. In return, you have access to my powers. It¡¯s a fair trade.¡± The Phoenix explained. ¡°I¡¯ve certainly never had access to your powers! And I would think I would know if I was bonded to some kind of Jupiter sized Alien God Bird!¡± Jean replied in irritation. ¡°You wouldn''t know because the annoying ¡®Bald One¡¯ sealed away our connection when you were a young girl. The seal he placed over your mind weakens whenever your emotions are high. In the moments where your emotions hit their peak, I have been attempting to break the seal on your mind completely.¡± The Phoenix explained to Jean. ¡°That explains why you¡¯ve been bursting into flames during the middle of sex, Jean.¡± I said to her and the Phoenix nodded at me. Jean raised an eyebrow. ¡°Seriously?¡± The Phoenix nodded again and confirmed that I was correct. Jean ¡®bursting into flames¡¯ was the Phoenix¡¯s power leaking out as it tried to break the seal on Jean¡¯s mind. The seal was placed by Charles Xavier when Jean was a child because he feared her Omega level mutant powers and her connection to the Cosmic Entity. With the seal broken, Jean would have access to her true power and she could assume the mantle of the Avatar of the Phoenix Force in this Universe. ¡°It would have only taken a few more ¡®sessions¡¯ for me to completely break the seal. Now that we¡¯re truly here together, that¡¯s no longer necessary. I can break the seal myself.¡± The Phoenix explained to Jean. The Phoenix couldn¡¯t visit Earth herself to remove the block for certain reasons. Since Jean was currently in Lady Death¡¯s realm though, the Phoenix was free to do so in person. She strutted towards the mutant girl and placed her hands on both sides of Jean¡¯s head. Jean shifted in place and looked nervous as the entity did so. ¡°Do not worry. This shouldn¡¯t hurt. Accept the mantle and take up your destiny!¡± The Phoenix said as she started to easily remove the mental block Professor X left in Jean¡¯s mind. A second later, an aura of cosmic fire erupted around the mutant girl. Her power started to rapidly rise along with it! Wisps of the flames kicked off of her and I had to take a few steps backwards. The flames coming off of Jean felt as dangerous as my own Amaterasu flames. {The Avatar of the Phoenix, Jean Gray: Level 105} Seriously!? That was unfair! I worked so hard to level up and Jean Grey managed to jump from the peak of Mid Class to above Super Class in an instant! [Don¡¯t be jealous, Host. You¡¯d still probably be able to beat her in a fight since she won¡¯t immediately know how to use her newly gained power.] ¡°Thank you for the amazing gift.¡± I said sincerely while reaching down and unbuttoning my pants in front of her. ¡°How can I ever repay you~?¡± Lady Death licked her lips while she watched me start to undress. ¡°I can think of a few ways...¡± She said before she punched on me and smashed her lips into my own! I smirked into her kiss. It looked like I would be a few hours late getting back home. I''m sure my clone could handle things back home anyway while I was busy. ... ¨COmake: Shadow Clone Layla¨C Clone Layla was holding Hilga in her arms as they followed Natasha down the grocery store aisle. She was doing her best to avoid all the shocked looks the other patrons were giving her. It was not every day that the most famous Angel in the world¨Cthe woman who helped drive off an Alien incursion and then revived thousands of dead soldiers afterwards¨Cwent diaper shopping... ¡°Natasha, did we really have to come to the store ourselves to buy diapers?¡± Clone Layla asked while staring at a wall with dozens of different diaper options. ¡°Can''t we just order them online? Hell, I could create diapers with my Rinnegan if I really wanted to.¡± She said. Natasha booped Layla on the nose causing the baby in her arms to giggle. ¡°No swearing around your daughter. And no! And these diapers are just fine. Using Creation Magic like that will just make you lazy.¡± Natasha replied while looking between a few of the better brands. Layla sighed. She honestly had no problem using the legendary Creation of All Things to make a few sets of diapers, but Natasha seemed to think it was wasteful. ¡°Oh, this brand has a buy one get one going on. That¡¯s a great deal.¡± Natasha commented. Natasha sometimes forgot how much wealth they had access to¨Cunlimited basically. As a ¡®Government employee¡¯ for years, Natasha never actually got paid that much. By the time Natasha finally decided on a brand, Layla was considering just buying out everything in the entire aisle. Of course, she wouldn''t actually do that because it would leave a bunch of families without access to diapers. ¡°Ok, that¡¯s taken care of. Now we just need to pick out some baby food.¡± Natasha said while pushing the cart. ¡°What do you think, Hilga?¡± Layla asked her baby daughter in her arms. ¡°Would you and your siblings prefer peas and carrots, or apples and bananas?¡± ¡°Bawawaba!¡± Hilga replied enthusiastically. ¡°That sounded like Banana to me.¡± Layla said with a laugh. She grabbed a bunch and put them in the cart. ¡°That¡¯s everything. Let¡¯s check out before the paparazzi show up.¡± Natasha said as they made their way to the front of the store. More and more people were starting to gather nearby and record them or take pictures. Thankfully, no one directly approached them and ruined the small family moment. They made it to the checkout counter when there was a disturbance from the front of the store! ¡°Everybody on the ground now! This is a robbery!¡± A man wearing a ski mask and holding a shotgun yelled loudly. ¡°That¡¯s right! Empty the registers now!¡± Another masked man yelled as he pointed a pistol at a nearby cashier. They quickly started doing as they were told! Hilga shifted uncomfortably in Layla¡¯s arms before she started to cry. She didn¡¯t like the loud yelling. Layla glared at the two robbers for upsetting her daughter. ¡°Hey, shut that annoying baby up!¡± The man with the shotgun shouted threateningly. When he pointed the gun towards them, Layla saw red! ¡°Shut it up or I¡¯ll shut it up.¡± [What an idiot...] The man with the pistol glanced at who his partner was yelling at. He thought she looked very familiar. He definitely recognized her from somewhere. And then 14 black wings, he¡¯d only seen on TV, burst forth from the back of the woman holding the crying baby. ¡°Uh oh...¡± He said before he started shaking in fright. ...30 seconds later, both robbers were on the ground, crying to themselves in agony. They both had dozens of broken bones and the man with the shotgun was probably never going to walk again. They got off lucky in Layla and Natasha¡¯s opinions. Had so many camera¡¯s not been on Layla, those men would have never been seen again. ¡°Next time you can just create the diapers with your Rinnegan.¡± Natasha said with a sigh. ¡°This city has been becoming more and more dangerous lately.¡± ¡°I''m honestly surprised Spider-Man didn''t show up.¡± Layla commented. ¡°He''s usually right on top of things like this.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t expect one guy to be everywhere at once.¡± Natasha shrugged as she started putting her groceries on the conveyor belt. The cashier was looking at their group with worship in her eyes. ¡°D¨CDid you find everything ok?¡± She asked shakily as she started wringing up their groceries. Layla smiled at the woman. ¡°We did, thank you. Sorry about the mess.¡± She gestured at the two twitching thugs on the ground. ¡°Oh God, I can''t feel my legs!¡± The cashier barely spared them a glance before smiling back at Layla and her daughter. ¡°It¡¯s no trouble. The police are already on their way. Thanks for stopping them for us!¡± After paying for their groceries, Layla waved to all the onlookers and opened a portal back to their Penthouse. Unbeknownst to her, 10 seconds later, New York¡¯s newest vigilante burst onto the scene! Spiderman came swinging into the grocery store by bursting through the front windows! ¡°Don¡¯t worry everyone! I''m here to save¨Coh.¡± He cut himself off when he noticed the two beaten robbers on the floor. A bunch of shoppers were staring between him and the window he just broke awkwardly. ¡°You¡¯re a little late. Are you gonna pay for that window?¡± One of the cashiers asked him. XXX Chapter 245 Chapter 245 Chapter 245: I met up with Jean the next day. The two of us hovered in the air, a few miles above New York City, while they had our conversation. I asked Jean what happened after the Phoenix Force took her away the day before. ¡°It was crazy! She took us into space! Actual space! There was no air, and we were in a total vacuum, and yet I was completely fine. The Phoenix Force told me a little about my powers. Apparently, I can fly faster than the speed of light now! I can cross the entire galaxy in only a few hours! I¡¯m a little hesitant to actually try it because I''m afraid I''ll end up getting lost,¡± Jean explained what had happened to her. I nodded in understanding. ¡°I can fly into space as well, but I''ve never gone much farther than Mars. If I wasn''t able to open portals anywhere I want, then I would also be afraid of getting lost in space. I''m sure the Phoenix has some kind of method to figure out where she¡¯s traveling in the void. You should try reaching out to her in the future and asking her about it.¡± I told her. Maybe Jean had some kind of instinctual way to read the stars that she just hadn''t realized yet? I changed the topic back to yesterday. It was time to find out what planet the Phoenix wanted us to purge. I wanted to get this done quickly so I could gain access to cosmic energy! I had a feeling it could dramatically increase my offensive and defensive capabilities. My Susanoo enhanced with cosmic energy would be incredibly powerful, at the very least. [You could probably make it a lot bigger too with all that power!] ¡°The Phoenix told me that she wants us to purge a planet called Ego. It''s kind of a weird name for a planet. She also told me that it can be hard to locate because it''s always on the move.¡± Jean said while scratching her cheek. ¡°I''m not exactly sure how that works since planets are supposed to circle stars and all...¡± She explained to me. ¡°Fuck...¡± And just like that, my excitement came to a halt. Of course the Phoenix Force wasn''t going to give us an easy assignment! ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Jean asked in concern. ¡°Ego isn''t a planet, it''s a Celestial!¡± I told her. Jean tilted her head curiously. ¡°What''s a Celestial?¡± I let out a sigh. I decided to give her the explanation of what we were getting into on the way to our first destination. I had no idea where Ego was, and neither did Jean. I figured if anyone knew, it would be the Universe''s biggest Voyeur. We were off to Asgard first. ... Jean and I traveled to Asgard while I explained to her what a Celestial is. Needless to say, she was not happy that we were hunting one of the strongest beings in the Marvel Universe. Something told me that Ego was not going to go down without a fight. In the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Rocket managed to kill the Celestial by planting a bomb in Ego¡¯s core, but something told me it was not going to be that easy for us. We were currently in Asgard¡¯s war room. The top figures of Asgard and the Grigori were here. Hela was quite pleased to get her full necromancy powers back before the war kicked off for real. ¡°This is quite the gift you''ve brought me, my love.¡± Hela said as she took hold of the black orb containing Hades¡¯s divine power. ¡°I thank Lady Death for taking vengeance on that foolish god who stood against us as well.¡± She added vindictively. ¡°I''m glad that Hades has been greatly reduced, but until he¡¯s dead I won¡¯t let my guard down. For now though, I¡¯ve got a much bigger fish to fry.¡± I told her. Hela nodded in understanding. ¡°Yes, you¡¯ve certainly stepped up your game. Hunting a celestial? How I wish I could go with you...¡± She lamented. She obviously couldn¡¯t and neither could any of my siblings. I¡¯d brought them the news that the war was about to kick off as well. King Laufey and Surtur were finished amassing their forces and ready to attack Asgard. ¡°Are you sure you don''t want to stay and participate in the glorious battles to come, Sister?¡± Kokabiel asked me with a vicious grin. The news that the Fire Demons and Frost Giants were planning to attack in a few days had really gotten my more bloodthirsty siblings excited. ¡°She can''t stay.¡± Azazel said. ¡°She received a mission from the Phoenix Force. It wouldn''t be a good idea to delay something like that. Just be careful out there, Sis.¡± He stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug. ¡°Indeed, Celestials are very tough opponents. Even my Father only managed to kill them with the power of the Infinity Stones. That being said, I believe in you far more than I ever did him.¡± Hela told me with an encouraging smile. I smiled back at her. ¡°Thanks, Hela.¡± I turned to Heimdall and asked him if he was able to see where Ego currently was located in the galaxy? Heimdall shook his head. ¡°I''m deeply sorry, my Lady. Celestials all have their own methods of shielding themselves from my gaze.¡± He looked dejected that he couldn''t be of any help to me. ¡°How are we supposed to find him then?¡± Jean asked with a pout. ¡°He can''t be that hard to find! He''s an entire freaking planet after all!¡± I pondered that for a moment. I was hoping that Heimdall would know where Ego was, but if that wasn''t the case, I would need a new plan. Neither Jean, nor I, wanted to spend years searching a massive galaxy for him. There had to be a way to find him quicker. [Maybe you could lure him to you? What did Ego want desperately in the second movie?] A smirk crossed my face at the System¡¯s words. That could work! ¡°Did you think of something, Layla?¡± Jean asked after noticing my expression. I grinned at her before turning to everyone else and explaining. ¡°Ego has a half-human son. His name is Peter Quill. Sometimes he goes by Starlord. Ego has been searching for his missing son for decades. If I can get to Peter, then I can make Ego come to me. Maybe lure him into a trap even.¡± ¡°Starlord?¡± Heimdall asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°That''s a pretty arrogant name, but if he is Half-Celestial, then he must be a fairly impressive being. I''m surprised we''ve never heard tales of such a fierce being.¡± Hela said. I snorted. Well, he was impressively lucky if nothing else. He didn''t even know he was Half-Celestial, so he never bothered learning any of his powers. Without them, he was basically Tony Stark in Space, but with way less cool tech at his disposal. ¨CLayla¨C ¡°Ok then...¡± I muttered as Jean and I made our way out of the alien grocery store. Since Asgardians have such long lives, they tend to forget other species aren''t as long lived. Because of that, no Asgardian visited the embassy for over 200 years. The Nova Empire obviously took that to mean the Asgardians no longer had an interest in them. So the Nova Empire got rid of the embassy all together... [200 years is a long time. Odin was also extremely isolationist towards the end of his reign.] ¡°They tore down the Asgardian Embassy and built a grocery store on top of it!? That''s so disrespectful!¡± Jean huffed out. ¡°What do we do now!?¡± She asked me in concern. ¡°We try to find Peter Quill ourselves. We then have to find a way to let Ego know that we have his son.¡± I explained the formations of my plan. Ego can''t start his plan of purging all life from the galaxy without Peter. He would have to come to us when the word got out. Especially if we got some kind of video proof that Peter actually had the Celestial powers that Ego desperately needed. ¡°How are we going to find this Starlord?¡± Jean asked. ¡°Do we just start asking around? There¡¯s literally billions of people on this planet. Just this city alone has tens of millions.¡± She said with a grimace. ¡°What if he leaves the planet before we find him?¡± I pat Jean on the shoulder while strolling forward towards a nearby group of people. ¡°Relax, everything will work out.¡± I said over my shoulder to her. I approached a group of teenagers who were huddling around a guy holding a tablet. They were all watching whatever was on the screen with enthusiasm. ¡°Is this video real? Was that really him!?¡± A girl asked. ¡°Almost half of Xandar has seen it at this point! It¡¯s 100% confirmed to be real!¡± The boy holding the tablet said. ¡°Hah! Take that you purple bastard! That¡¯s what you get!¡± Another guy said while pumping his fist. ¡°This is absolutely stellar! And this woman is so beautiful. What I wouldn¡¯t give for her to appear in front of me!¡± A third guy exclaimed. ¡°Hello everyone.¡± I said to get their attention. The group of four teens glanced up at me and their mouths all fell open almost simultaneously. ¡°Am I dreaming right now!? Did my wish just come true!?¡± The third guy spoke while looking at me. ¡°If this is a dream, then I''m going to make the most of it!¡± He reached his hand forward...towards my chest. I smacked it away in annoyance. This was not the first time some horny guy had tried to grope me, but usually they didn¡¯t attempt it when other people were looking. ¡°Ow!¡± He cried in pain while clutching his hand. I didn¡¯t break it, but there would definitely be a bruise! A shocked expression then appeared on his face as he gazed up at me while rubbing his hand. ¡°...It really is you! You¡¯re actually here!¡± He exclaimed excitedly. He was looking at me in reverence! ¡°Holy shit! It really is her!¡± The boy holding the tablet exclaimed. He started looking between me and the tablet he was holding rapidly in disbelief. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it! It¡¯s Layla of the Fallen!¡± The only girl of the group pushed her friends out of the way and ran up to me. ¡°You are amazing and I¡¯m such a big fan! My name is Xenu! Can I get a picture with you?¡± She was asked while holding up some kind of recording device. ¡°Sure?¡± I said questioningly. I had no idea what was going on right now. How did teenagers from an alien planet I¡¯d never been to recognize me? She made a happy ¡°squee¡± noise before she hopped next to me and took a few selfies. ¡°Thank you so much!¡± She said happily while skipping back to her gaping friends. ¡°Sure...¡± I said again. I still had no idea what was going on. What I did notice, though, was that I was starting to draw a crowd. And by a crowd, I meant pretty much everyone nearby. Jean walked over towards me as more and more people nearby started pointing at me with looks of shock or excitement! ¡°Uh, Layla? I don¡¯t know how, but somehow the video of you fighting Thanos a year ago has spread all over the galaxy. You¡¯ve become a really big deal. Not only that, but this Universe''s Thanos has apparently completely stopped committing atrocities for the past few months since the video spread everywhere. Everyone thinks he¡¯s in hiding because he¡¯s afraid you''ll kill him next.¡± Jean explained to me as she read the minds of the people around us. [Wow...] Ok, then. Did I just go from the most famous woman on Earth to the most famous being in the galaxy? It kind of felt like it with all the reverential looks and cheers these people were giving me. [I wonder how they got a copy of the video? Do aliens have access to Earth¡¯s internet?] Clearly some aliens had been to Earth in the past year without us knowing, and they did have access to the internet. That would have to be rectified in the future. More and more crowds of people started to surround Jean and me. They were starting to get pushy and grabby as Xandarians and other aliens all rushed forward to get a look at me. I didn¡¯t want to get mobbed, so I signaled to Jean that we should head up. My black wings manifested behind me as I took to the air. A red aura appeared around me as Jean kept pace and flew next to me. That seemed to only excite the alien crowd even more as they started cheering for us loudly! I heard weird sounding sirens off in the distance before a handful of flying vehicles sped towards the two of us. The writing on the side of the vehicles identified them as the Nova Corps. One of the flying cruisers hovered over to us. A window rolled down. ¡°Layla of the Fallen? I¡¯m Corpsman Dey. The Nova Prime wants to see you. Hop in!¡± He said as the doors slid open. I glanced at Jean to make sure he was who he said he was. She nodded at me. ¡°Alright then.¡± I said while scooting in the back seat. ¡°Take me to your leader.¡± XXX Chapter 246 Chapter 246 Chapter 246: He took us to his leader... Jean and I stood in front of the current Nova Prime of the Nova Corps. She was a stern looking older woman named Irani Rael, but asked to be referred to by her title. Also, despite her people seeming to love me, she didn''t exactly look happy that I was here standing in front of her. She looked more annoyed than anything else. ¡°On behalf of the Nova Corps and the Nova Empire, we welcome you to Xandar.¡± She said begrudgingly. ¡°Why are you here? ...And how did you even get here without our sensors picking up your ship?¡± ¡°Normally it¡¯s a crime to set foot on Xandar without registering your ship, but we¡¯ll obviously let someone of your good standing off with just a warning.¡± Corpsman Dey added next to her with a grin. ¡°I don''t think our prison could hold you anyway.¡± He added with a slightly nervous laugh. Jean leaned in and whispered in my ear. ¡°Does he look like the actor John C Reilly to you?¡± I smirked at her and nodded. He really did. ¡°We didn¡¯t come here on a ship.¡± I said to them. ¡°We came with the Bifrost.¡± ¡°Bifrost?¡± Nova Prime asked. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve heard that term somewhere before.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the primary mode of transportation for Asgard. We used it to come here faster than flying through space.¡± I explained. ¡°Oh, right. Asgard... They have an Embassy here, correct?¡± Nova Prime reminded herself out loud. She didn''t actually seem too sure about that. ¡°I''ve never actually been to the embassy myself but I hear it''s nice.¡± ¡°Nice? You guys knocked it down and turned it into a freaking grocery store.¡± Jean chastised the woman. I''m pretty sure Jean was an anthropology major and therefore extra offended by the blatant cultural disrespect. I personally found it to be pretty funny myself. [Me too.] ¡°We ended up landing in the janitor¡¯s office of the grocery store. Also, he was drinking on the job.¡± Jean decided to nark on the guy out of sheer pettiness. [Now that''s taking it a step too far! That poor man is just trying to get through his day...] Both Nova Prime and the Corpsman blanched at Jean¡¯s words. ¡°A grocery store...?¡± The Nova Prime questioned while turning to Corpsman Dey in askenstance. He simply shrugged at her. It seemed that neither of them were aware of that. They explained that must have happened before both of their times. ¡°We deeply apologize to you and Asgard. We¡¯ll be sure to rebuild the embassy right away! You can relay that to King Odin.¡± She assured us. ¡°Odin is dead, but we¡¯ll tell Queen Hela.¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯m engaged to be married to her.¡± Neither of them seemed to know that tidbit, despite the popularity of my video circulating around. ¡°Oh, is that so?¡± The Nova Prime asked curiously. ¡°Congratulations, your Highness! And our condolences to Queen Hela for the death of her father...¡± She added with mock sincerity. ¡°Don¡¯t feel sad for Hela. Odin was a dickhead.¡± I said plainly. ¡°She¡¯s never been happier.¡± ¡°From everything I¡¯ve heard about him, he really was!¡± Jean added while nodding in agreement with me. She wasn''t a fan of mind control or anyone who employed it. Corpsman Dey cracked a smile. ¡°Yeah, I feel you. My dad was a dickhead too. He never thought I¡¯d amount to anything just because I got arrested a few times as a teenager for smoking¨C.¡± ¡°Corpsman Dey!¡± Nova Prime interrupted him. ¡°There¡¯s no need to inform our guests about any of that.¡± She turned to me. ¡°The Allfather was allied tentatively with the Nova Empire for over an Eon. We have a treaty. Can we expect the same with Queen Hela? Also, might I ask how Odin passed away. He was known to be quite a powerful being.¡±CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m ¡°He was murdered in his sleep by King Laufey of the Frost Giants. Asgard is currently at war with them and the Fire Demons of Muspelheim.¡± I said casually. In my mind, it was a foregone conclusion that Asgard and the Grigori would win. Nova Prime cringed when I casually mentioned murder and war, but she seemed relieved that I told her the treaty was still in effect. ¡°That¡¯s good to know. I wish Asgard a swift victory.¡± ¡°Sucks to be that dude.¡± Corpsman Dey said awkwardly. ¡°Why don¡¯t we get to the reason why you¡¯re here on Xandar? Are you here for sightseeing, or business, or anything else?¡± He asked us. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been informed by my superiors to aid a... hero, of your standing, in anything you need.¡± The Nova Prime added begrudgingly. I had a feeling she wasn¡¯t exactly happy to lend her forces aid to someone she didn''t know. [The Nova Empire really must want to get on your good side in case Thanos ever attacks them.] I agreed with the System. The people earlier claimed that Thanos is in ¡°hiding¡± but I didn''t buy that. I had no doubts he saw me kill a version of himself and is simply being cautious while he plots about how to kill me. ¡°I¡¯d love to check out the Nova Empire sometime in the future, but I''m here on business for now. I¡¯m currently hunting down an evil Celestial and require the proper bait to lure him to me.¡± I explained why I was here. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°Dear Gods!¡± Both of them did a spit take at my words! I had to properly assure them that I was completely serious. ¡°A Celestial!? Wow...you certainly don¡¯t go after small fish. Everyone has been wondering who you would go after next after you killed an interdimensional Thanos!¡± Corpsman Dey said enthusiastically. ¡°You want a third to come with you? I¡¯ve been trying to get a promotion and ¡®Celestial Slayer¡¯ would look real good on my resume!¡± Nova Prime gave him the stink eye before turning back to me nervously. ¡°A¨CAre you quite sure that you can actually kill a Celestial?¡± She asked me faintly. ¡°If you fail and we assist you, the repercussions for the Nova Empire would be... dire.¡± I assured them that I could handle it, and that was without mentioning Jean was here with me. We decided not to inform them she was the Phoenix Avatar though. Earth didn''t need that kind of heat circulating around the galaxy as well. I vaguely recall the Kree Empire swearing vengeance against the Phoenix Force as well for some reason. ¡°What about other Celestials? Are they just going to sit back and watch one of their own die?¡± They were both worried that the other Celestials would retaliate for the death of one of their own, but I knew that wasn¡¯t the case. Ego was planning on wiping out most life in the galaxy and replacing it with himself. No other Celestial would support that or ever allow it to happen had they known about his plans. I didn¡¯t know a lot about the giant space gods, but I knew that they were all paranoid. Paranoid enough to not allow one of their own to ever become that powerful if nothing else. They¡¯d happily see Ego die for what he was attempting. I explained some of this to the two of them so they could forward it to the rest of the Nova Empire. ¡°Trying to wipe out all life in the galaxy and replace it with himself...¡± Nova Prime whispered in horror. ¡°You have to stop him! Not even Thanos would stoop to such a thing!¡± She exclaimed in panic. ¡°You will have the Nova Corps full support! Whatever you need to kill him, you¡¯ll have it.¡± She assured me. ¡°Freedom!¡± ¡°I want fresh meat!¡± There was a full blown riot currently occurring inside the prison. It was about what I¡¯d expected from the movie, except a lot worse. This was a prison for the galaxy''s worst criminals after all. Corpses of guards and inmates littered the corridor we found ourselves in. Further down, we could hear the sounds of further violence. ¡°Well, shit...¡± I said while glancing around. We had obviously arrived during or after the prison escape. I doubted that Peter or the Infinity Stone were still here on the Kyln. [They could already be on their way to Knowhere to sell the Infinity Stone to the collector.] ¡°This is horrible!¡± Jean exclaimed while glancing at all the bodies. She turned to me. ¡°Some of the guards are still alive! They¡¯re making a last stand just up ahead! We have to help them!¡± Her aura surrounded her and she sped off down the hall without waiting for me. She was still a hero after all. ¡°Try not to get shot.¡± I told Corpsman Dey as I flew off down the hall after Jean. ¡°Die, you fuckers! Die!¡± ¡°Death to the Corps!¡± We arrived just in time to find 5 Nova Corps prison guards making their final stand against overwhelming numbers. Dozens of inmates had somehow acquired guns and had the Corps members pinned down under heavy fire. ¡°All of you are under arrest!¡± Jean yelled out as she charged in. She started blasting all the armed prisoners with fire and telekinesis. ¡°Who the hell is this bitch!?¡± ¡°Fuck you, fire girl! I''m not going back to my cell!¡± Jean started battling against numerous different alien races, and I didn''t recognize most of them by name. She was easily thrashing them all though. Their weapons weren''t doing any damage to her. A Lightspear formed in my hand and I charged into the fight as well. A large alien that looked like a yellow gorilla charged at me with a spiked club. I easily parried his giant weapon to the side. ¡°That''s impossible! You''re so small!¡± He cried out while trying to take another swing at me. ¡°Size isn''t everything.¡± I smirked while I blocked another attack. I knocked the large weapon out of his hands and stabbed forward with my spear. He collapsed to the ground dead after I put a burning hole in his torso. Unlike Jean, I wasn''t really interested in sparring most of the prisoners here. These were some of the worst beings the galaxy had to offer and they had already killed most of the guards. A few other aliens took some shots at me from up in the rafters. I flapped my wings and easily reached their level. ¡°Oh shit! She won''t die!¡± The lasers bounced off my skin harmless as I swung my spear and decapitated three more criminals. I flew around for the next 30 seconds putting down everyone who chose to attack me or Jean. A bug looking alien flew in the air behind Jean. Its alien mind was to foreign for her to sense the sneak attack. It raised its acidic pincers towards the back of her neck. I hurled my spear and sniped it out of the air. It let out a disgusting gurgling noise as it died. ¡°Thanks...¡± Jean said with a forced smile. I could tell she wasn''t used to this level of violence yet. When the prison block was all clear, Corpsman Dey tentatively came out of hiding. ¡°Holy crap! That was crazy! Dozens of the most dangerous dudes I''ve ever heard of were nothing for you two! Good work!¡± ¡°Thank you for saving the Kyln and preventing a mass escape.¡± One of the 5 surviving guards tentatively approached us. He seemed to recognize Dey and breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°What the fuck happened here?¡± Dey asked crassly. ¡°There''s only 5 of you left? There were hundreds of guards here!¡± The guard cringed. ¡°That stupid raccoon started a riot and escaped with some other prisoners! In the process, every single inmate tried to escape and they started killing everyone in sight. All my friends are dead.¡± He said while on the verge of tears. [Rocket is kind of an asshole...] ¡°I''m sorry to hear about that. Did the Raccoon or his friends mention where they were going?¡± I asked. I didn''t make the offer to revive anyone. I might need it later and was saving it exclusively for Jean...just in case. She was family after all. ¡°I think they mentioned something about Knowhere?¡± He confirmed what I already knew. That meant we were one step behind the ¡®Guardians of the Galaxy.¡¯ They were already on the way to sell the power stone to the collectors. I knew it wouldn''t work out for them, but I couldn''t 100% trust canon. If Peter ended up dead or he lost the stone to someone I don''t know, then Jean and I would be screwed. ¡°Knowhere?¡± Dey asked the guard for confirmation and grimaced. He turned to me and apologized. ¡°Sorry. My shuttle can''t go that far. I would have taken us on another ship if I knew this could happen.¡± I told him that it was fine. Part of this was my fault. I hadn''t expected them to escape the prison so quickly. It was only a few hours ago that Heimdall told me Peter was on Xandar. They escaped much faster than they did in the movie. ¡°Dang it. Where are we going to get another ship?¡± As Jean asked that, I felt a shadow fall over us. I looked up and my eyes widened. Through the prison windows, I could see that a giant Kree battleship had just pulled up next to the station. ¡°Well, that''s convenient...¡± I said with a smirk. XXX Chapter 247 Chapter 247 Chapter 247: ¡°Curse you, vile women! Return control of my vessel to me. You interfere with my destiny! Under my leadership, the Kree shall dominate the cosmos and slaughter all who oppose us!¡± Ronan the Accuser spat out angrily. ¡°Yeah, you''re definitely not getting your ship back after saying all that.¡± I told him. Ronan thrashed and howled at me. He was tied up in the corner of his own warship''s bridge room. The black metal shackles on all of his limbs ensured us he wasn''t going anywhere. Even if he did, it wouldn''t exactly be hard to capture him a second time. The Giant warship that showed up at the prison belonged to him. Ronan had come to the Kyln trying to track down the Power Stone. It was unfortunate timing for him that Jean and I were also there. We had just finished putting down the prison riot when his voice blared over the intercoms and demanded we hand over the Power Stone. We could have told him it was already gone, but he wouldn''t have listened. His army of fanatic Kree soldiers stormed the prison expecting an easy fight. That''s not what they got. Jean and I took them all down easily before we stormed out into space towards his ship. Ronan was on the bridge stewing in fury at the defeat of his soldiers when we took the ship. Nebula, the daughter of this universe¡¯s Thanos, was standing by his side armed to the teeth. The two of them tried their best to fight us, but it was a futile resistance. I easily smacked aside Ronan¡¯s warhammer and Jean ripped away Nebula''s guns with her telekinesis. The two of them were then shackled and left on the bridge with us. Since getting captured, Nebula had been oddly quiet. She kept sneaking glances at me when she thought I wasn¡¯t looking. I think she was well aware of the video currently making its way around the Galaxy. When the alternate Thanos attacked Earth last year, his Nebula had been fighting by his side proudly. She was loyal to a fault. I didn¡¯t think this Nebula was the same. She wasn¡¯t looking at me with any true hatred.CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m ¡°Wow, I can''t believe the infamous Ronan the Accuser was taken down so easily! He¡¯s been a pain in the ass for so long. On behalf of the Nova Empire, I thank you.¡± Corpsman Dey said to me and Jean. ¡°It was no problem. I''m honestly surprised an alien warlord was so easy to defeat.¡± Jean remarked while grinning at Ronan. Ronan started uttering some derogatory curses at us from the corner. Corpsman Dey walked around the bridge and started inspecting everything. ¡°This ship is wicked dangerous. Even for a Kree Warship, I''ve never seen a single vessel with this much firepower. If he attacked Xandar with this, we would have been in serious trouble! Anti-starship plasma cannons, homing photon.torpedos, ionic pulse emitters, incendiary ballistic machine gun turrets... Damn, this puppy came equipped with everything.¡± Dey said with a whistle of appreciation as he went over all the weapons. ¡°Of course it did, you Nova trash! With this ship, I will conquer your sniveling empire and prove the Kree Empire is the greatest force in the Universe!¡± Ronan declared while thrashing against his shackles. [This is one badass warship.] I nodded my head in silent agreement. I decided to call out the first word that came to me in this situation. ¡°Dibs!¡± I declared loudly while raising my hand. ¡°What?¡± ¡°What?¡± The two men in the room asked at the same time. ¡°I call dibs. This ship is mine now...I called it.¡± I said smugly. This was the alien warship that pretty much slapped around the entire Nova fleet in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. There was no way I was letting such a prize go! Jean looked at me gobsmacked before she started snickering in disbelief. ¡°You can''t just call dibs on an alien Warship...can you?¡± She pondered out loud. ¡°I just did.¡± I said while crossing my arms smugly. It took a few seconds for my declaration to register with Ronan. When it sank in, he scowled at me furiously. ¡°Over my dead body! I''ll kill you for even daring to have those thoughts!¡± He thrashed around harder and pulled against the black chains holding him down with everything he had. ¡°You will not be taking MY ship from me! I will not have it!¡± He bellowed furiously. ¡°I already did take it from you. This is just me saying it out loud.¡± I said smugly to him. I turned to Corpsman Dey next. ¡°Will the Nova Empire have a problem with me taking the ship?¡± I asked him. Regardless of his answer, I was still taking the ship though. Dey scratched his cheek and thought about it. ¡°Hm...not really. At the end of the day, it''s a Kree vessel. You and Miss Grey took its crew down by yourselves. The ship is rightfully yours. The Kree Empire might throw a fit if they find out though.¡± He warned me. ¡°Although Ronan has supposedly gone rogue from the Kree Empire. Although, we all know that''s a load of crap.¡± Dey explained. The Kree Empire treated Ronan the Accuser like Earth governments treat their black ops teams in spy movies. Anytime they get caught doing something they shouldn''t be politically, the government just rights them off as having gone rogue. ¡°How dare you! Our glorious empire will come to Terra and glass your entire planet with endless¨C¡± ¡°That''s enough out of you!¡± Jean harrumphed. She waved her hand and a telekinetic blast smacked Ronan in the head, knocking him unconscious. With Ronan finally shut up, I decided it was time we were on our way. We were still hours behind the Guardians after all. Thankfully, this warship should be able to catch up with them. It was lucky that we were already at a prison of all places. It was easy enough to simply unload all of his crew members and dump them directly into prison cells. The only two Kree she kept onboard were Ronan and ¡°Ok then, time to set off. Let''s take this ship to Knowhere. We need to catch up.¡± I said as I plopped myself down in the Captain¡¯s chair shamelessly. ¡°I''ve never piloted a Warship before, but I should be able to figure it out.¡± Dey said. ¡°I can help you. I have a pretty good idea on how to fly this thing. I read the minds of some of the Kree on the bridge just in case they set the ship to self-destruct or something.¡± Jean said as she stepped up behind an alien console. She started pressing some buttons and the ship started to pull away from the Kyln. ... As my new warship was traveling through the void of space faster than the speed of light, I gazed outwards at the view. It really was amazing. Sometimes, I¡¯d forget just how far I had come in such a relatively short amount of time. I was a literal Goddess now with my own space traveling warship! [You still have a ways to go though. Your list of enemies has shrunk, but there¡¯s still quite a few names on it] ¡®You¡¯re right. I can¡¯t get complacent.¡¯ I replied. I wasn¡¯t going to stop my grind until I reached the top of this Universe. I would start by acquiring the Powerstone. Ronan obviously wasn¡¯t going to get it anymore now that he was my prisoner, but I definitely wasn¡¯t going to let the Collector have it either. [That¡¯s a good mindset. What are your thoughts on the Collector?] ¡®Hm...¡¯ I leaned back in the chair and placed my hands behind my head. ¡®The Collector is a tricky figure. On one hand, he captures beings and enslaves them for his amusement. On the other hand, I¡¯m pretty sure that he¡¯s a mortal enemy of Galactus and a few of the nastier Celestials. Like the Grandmaster, he¡¯s supposed to be a being that¡¯s been around almost since the dawn of this Universe.¡¯ ¡°The Collector, that¡¯s who. I don¡¯t know much about the guy, but I¡¯ve heard from plenty of Ravager¡¯s that he¡¯s loaded.¡± Peter told them as they exited his ship. Rocket and Gamora both knew more about the Collector than the others. Both of them were nervous that they were selling to such an infamous man. ¡°Damn, I don¡¯t like this. The Collector is known to abduct any being who is rare or exotic.¡± Rocket said as the group made their way through the giant space station. ¡°So what?¡± Drax asked. ¡°I am Groot.¡± Rocket nodded nervously. ¡°What Groot said! His species hardly ever leaves their home planet, and I¡¯ve never even met another member of my own race. We¡¯re incredibly rare.¡± Rocket said. ¡°We¡¯re just the type of beings the sicko would love to get his hands on.¡± Peter scoffed. ¡°You¡¯re not rare. I grew up in the South and your asshole cousins used to get into our garbage cans all the time. Racoons are anything but endangered or rare...¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a raccoon and I don¡¯t eat garbage!¡± Rocket scowled at the annoying human. ¡°I am Groot.¡± ¡°Dammit Groot, that was one time! One time I ate garbage!¡± ¡°Called it. I knew he was a trash Panda.¡± Peter said smugly and Rocket¡¯s tiny fingers went for his gun. ¡°I don¡¯t know what a trash Panda is, but it makes me want to put a couple holes in you!¡± ¡°He already has a couple holes in him. How do you think he goes to the bathroom?¡± Drax said before pausing. ¡°Wait, do humans poop?¡± ¡°Maybe I should give him a couple more just to be sure.¡± Rocket suggested. ¡°Enough!¡± Gamora said as she stood in between everyone to stop them from shooting each other. ¡°We don¡¯t have to like each other. We just have to sell this Orb to the Collector so we can get our money and go our separate ways.¡± The ragtag group made it to their destination unhindered. ¡°Welcome, everyone!¡± The Collector greeted them enthusiastically after they entered his home/museum. ¡°I sensed what you brought me the moment you stepped foot onto Knowhere. It¡¯s an amazing find. I haven''t seen the like in... a long long time.¡± His eyes were locked on the Orb in Peter¡¯s hand. ¡°Whatever, old man. Do you have our money?¡± Peter said while handing over the Orb. He had no idea what was inside, nor did he really care. The Collector took it carefully from Peter¡¯s hands. ¡°Oh, yes. I have your payment... However...¡± He trailed off while looking into the distance. A large smile broke out onto his face as he sensed a prize unlike any other drawing near! ¡°However, what?¡± Rocket asked in annoyance. ¡°What do you want now?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think about not paying us. I will stab you.¡± Drax threatened while reaching for his daggers. ¡°I am Groot!¡± The Collector waved them and their concerns off. ¡°I promised 3 billion credits for the Orb, and I am a man of my word. However, someone draws near to this station. Two someone¡¯s actually! I will gladly pay 100 billion credits for each of them!¡± ¡°T-Two hundred!?¡± Peter almost choked on that number. That was enough money for a person to buy their own space station and live a life of luxury for a thousand years! ¡®Who the hell did the collector want them to capture!?¡¯ He thought in shock. ¡°Who do we have to kill!?¡± Rocket asked immediately. Greed was very evident in his rodent eyes. ¡°I am Groot!¡± Groot nodded his head enthusiastically up and down. ¡°I tend to care not for money...but even I shall agree to assist for that much.¡± Drax added as well. Gamor bit her lip in indecision. Eventually, she agreed as well. She had done worse things in her life than capture two random people and sell them into slavery. She figured she could put the money to good use against her father and make up for it. What was two lives compared to trillions? The only one who didn¡¯t agree was Peter Quill. The money was incredibly tempting, but he wasn¡¯t going to betray his morals. His dead mother would be incredibly disappointed in him if he did. ¡°Thanks but no thanks. I¡¯m not a slaver, and I''m not interested. I¡¯ll just take my money and go.¡± The others looked at him in disappointment but didn¡¯t say anything after. In another life, maybe they would have all chosen a different path, one where they would have stuck together and become heroes of the galaxy. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t look like that was meant to be in this one. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ve got your money right this way.¡± The Collector led Peter to a nearby exchange terminal. Peter pulled out his credit chip and approached the terminal. He sent one last look over to everyone else. ¡°Sorry guys, but I just can''t¨CWhat the hell!?¡± He exclaimed in shock. Four glass windows emerged from the floor and surrounded him on all sides! ¡°Fuck!¡± Peter cursed when he realized he had been tricked. He was trapped in a glass cage! He drew one of his pistols and started blasting the glass. His plasma shots splashed against it harmlessly. The Collector laughed at Peter¡¯s futile struggles. ¡°Don¡¯t bother. Much more powerful beings have tried to escape from me before, and none ever have. You¡¯re quite the interesting specimen Peter Quill. Welcome to my collection.¡± He had never had a Half-Celestial among his collection before. Peter Quill was a rare prize indeed. ¡°Fuck you!¡± Peter spat out and banged on the glass cage. ¡°Guys, help me! Get me out of here!¡± ¡°Why should we help you? You were just calling me a dumb trash panda earlier after all.¡± Rocket spoke up with a sneer. ¡°If you¡¯re trapped in there, that means we get a bigger cut of the money. Also, you have a pretty nice ship. I think I¡¯ll take it once we''re done here.¡± The others looked momentarily hesitant, but none made a move to save him. Peter slumped down in his cage in disappointment. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes. They hadn¡¯t been together long, but he still couldn''t believe they would betray him. ¡°Come along now, everyone. I will tell you about your targets. They are some very special women. Very powerful too. Thankfully, I happen to have collected some unique objects over the millenia that will help you in your task.¡± The Collector said slyly while still clutching the Orb in his hand. If all else failed, he would use the Power Stone himself to collect his two prizes. XXX Chapter 248 Chapter 248 Chapter 248: My warship, and damn that sounded awesome, pulled into one of Knowhere¡¯s gaping eye sockets that doubled as a hangar. This warship was fast. The journey had taken only a few hours, but I knew we were still behind The Guardians. Next to me on the bridge, Jean couldn''t believe the sheer size of the skull we had just landed in. The nature of the task at hand finally dawned on her. ¡°We¡¯re hunting something this big!? How are we supposed to even kill it!?¡± ¡°I told you Celestials were as big as planets.¡± I said. ¡°As for killing it, there are a few ways to go about it. You can try and unleash the full might of your Phoenix Flames upon Ego, and we can see how that goes. If that fails, then we¡¯ll have to slip inside the planet and directly destroy his core.¡± Chee?ck out latest novels at novelhall.com In the second movie, Rocket had managed to kill Ego with a jury rigged bomb of all things. That was a movie though. I had a feeling it would take a bit more than that to bring down such a massive being. Also, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if Ego possessed the ability to move his core around inside himself. ¡°So we''re basically gonna wing it then.¡± Jean sighed while gazing out the window. ¡°I thought you were exaggerating about the size of celestials...¡± She muttered to herself. I waved her off. ¡°It''ll be fine. We have our plan. Not only will we have bait, but we will also hopefully have the Power Stone as well with us.¡± I figured that Jean or myself was more than powerful enough to hold the stone in our bare hands. At least, for a couple minutes before endless power overwhelmed us. ¡°If anyone else claimed they were hunting a Celestial, I would call them insane. I believe you will succeed.¡± Nebula said as she walked over towards us. She was a completely new woman. She was no longer a cyborg, she did not have any robotic parts any longer. My Purger of Darkness had completely healed her body to her natural state. Instead of being bald, it turned out that Nebula had long flowing blonde hair. It was currently halfway down her back and gave her a completely different appearance. Her blue skin still made her look alien, but she had become a very hot alien. [I think you might have a new worshiper in her as well.] After healing Nebula, the curious looks she gave me had turned into fervent ones. I had no doubts that she would now do whatever I asked of her. She was known to have a very obsessive personality. I would be careful not to take advantage of that fervor if I didn''t have to. Jean, Nebula and I walked down the ship''s ramp. Seeing a Kree warship pull into the hangar, the majority of the spacers nearby had immediately fled. Only the braver, or stupider, ones had stuck around to take a look at us. Even then, one annoyed glance from Nebula had them all scurrying off. ¡°Good luck out there, I¡¯d go with you but I don¡¯t want to get shot.¡± Corpsman Dey said shamelessly from inside the ship. Knowhere was a pretty lawless place after all. ¡°Just make sure Ronan doesn¡¯t escape, or take my new ship from me.¡± I told him before the three of us girls headed off deeper into the station. ¡°Do we know where the Collector lives?¡± Jean asked. ¡°This place is huge and there are millions of people living here. Most of the minds are also very alien to me. It could take me hours if I have to search for the information.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have hours.¡± I grimaced. ¡°The Collector might already have the Stone for all we know.¡± ¡°I will ask for directions.¡± Nebula told the two of us. She walked over to one of the gaping aliens who had chosen to stick around. It was a species I didn¡¯t recognize. It had six arms, bug eyes, and mostly green skin. Nebula drew her pistol and immediately pointed it at the alien''s head. ¡°You will tell me where the Collector lives.¡± She said demandingly. ¡°Meep...¡± The alien¡¯s bug eyes rolled back into its head and it fainted in fright. [You can add easily startled to that aliens list of traits...] We all paused at the strange scene for a moment before letting out sighs. Nebula holstered her weapon, before walking back towards us with her head hung low in embarrassment. ¡°...He didn¡¯t know anything.¡± ¡°Lets just start heading inwards towards the fancier areas. The Collector will obviously live in the most opulent and wealthy area.¡± I said as we made our way inwards towards the center of the giant skull. Knowhere was too big to traverse on foot in a short amount of time. Luckily, there were a series of alien trams that acted as public transportation and led all over the place. We picked on heading inwards and hopped aboard. ... ¨CThe Guardians (minus one member...)¨C ¡°The targets pulled up in a Kree Warship!?¡± Gamora asked in surprise. Even with the toys The Collector had lent them for this task, Gamora wasn''t enthusiastic about facing an entire Kree war battalion. For the amount of money they had been promised though, she would still do it. ¡°Not just any Kree Warship... Ronan the Accuser''s personal vessel.¡± Rocket said while looking over the camera feeds he had hacked. ¡°There¡¯s a blond haired Kree woman traveling with the two of them as well.¡± Rocket had a photographic memory, and he didn''t recognize her, so he figured she was just some nameless mook soldier. ¡°Ronan!?¡± Drax yelled the name in rage. ¡°He is here!? I will have my vengeance!¡± ¡°Good luck with that.¡± Gamora told him. ¡°Just remember why we''re here. We go after the Terran women first and foremost.¡± ¡°I am Groot.¡± ¡°Groot¡¯s right. It¡¯s better to take them out quickly since Ronan isn¡¯t with them. That¡¯s Ronan¡¯s flagship, so there¡¯s no doubt that he¡¯s on board. If he joins the fight, we could be in trouble.¡± Rocket explained with a small shudder. There were some beings in this galaxy that he knew to never tangle with. Ronan was one of them. There were terrifying stories about the Kree man¡¯s cruelty... ¡°Where are our targets now?¡± Gamora asked. They needed a proper plan of attack. ¡°They¡¯re currently riding in one of the public transit cars heading towards us. They¡¯ll be passing by us in 20 minutes.¡± Rocket said while switching through various camera feeds he¡¯d tapped into. ¡°Then we shall ambush them on their transport! They will tell me where Ronan is!¡± Drax yelled again while gripping his daggers tightly. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. We¡¯ll have the advantage in close quarters.¡± Gamora noted. Drax, Groot and herself were all up close and personal fighters. The racoon grinned at the thought of the greatest payday of his entire life being so close by. ¡°Let''s do it then! The transit will pass by us in 20 minutes. We¡¯ll hop aboard as it does!¡± Rocket grabbed all of his weapons and started strapping them to himself. The Collector had a very good weapon collection and had been kind enough to loan some to Rocket. Rocket had no plans on ever giving any of the weapons back of course. ... ¨CLayla¨C ¡°It¡¯s kind of weird that there are trains in space.¡± I noted while looking out the window. Out the window, I could see that scenery starting to shift. The further inwards we made it, the better looking buildings and infrastructure we started to see. Jean giggled. ¡°I was just thinking that. Some of the boys at the institute were obsessed with trains.¡± She said fondly in remembrance. ¡°They¡¯ll be so jealous if they find out I rode in one that ran on anti-gravity technology.¡± ¡°Do you still keep in contact with anyone from the institute?¡± I asked. We were just making small talk while we rode. Jean sighed. ¡°Not really. The Professor really didn¡¯t want Ororo or myself to leave. I think he wanted us to be X-men forever.¡± ¡°What are X-men?¡± Nebula asked. ¡°Run for it!¡± ¡°These people are crazy!¡± ¡°I AM GROOT!¡± CRASH! A section of the ceiling caved in. A very recognizable alien dropped down in front of us. It was Groot! The walking tree man himself. A few other guardians hopped into our car and landed next to him. They were all armed and looking for a fight. ¡°Die, servant of Ronan!¡± Drax charged forwards with his twin daggers. His focus was solely on Nebula, who he tried to skewer. ¡°I''m no one''s servant! Not anymore!¡± Nebula tried to shoot Drax. He was surprisingly agile and avoided most of her shots. The shots that managed to hit him only left small singe marks on his purple skin. His skin was incredibly tough. ¡°Why are you attacking us?¡± I called out to the rest of the guardians. They seemed to be down a member. I noticed that Peter Quill was not among them for some reason. ¡°Your bounty is ours! The Collector wants you for himself, and we¡¯re here to help him...um...collect.¡± Rocket explained with a small pause. ¡°I am Groot!¡± ¡°I know that sounded corny! I realized it right after I said it!¡± ¡°I am Groot...¡± ¡°Idiots...¡± Gamora sighed. ¡°You take care of that one, Groot and I will handle the redhead!¡± Gamora called out to Rocket. With her orders given, she surged towards Jean. Gamora had no idea how outclassed she was here. She ran up to Jean and tried to stab the Phoenix Avatar with her sword. Jean easily blocked the strike with her powers before she grabbed hold of Gamora telekinetically. ¡°It''s a little crowded in here. Let''s take this outside.¡± Jean reached with her other hand and grabbed Groot with her powers as well. She flew out the broken window, dragging two of the Guardians with her. ¡°Of course it''s the Collector who''s after us...¡± I said out loud. ¡°What happened to Peter Quill? Didn''t he escape the prison with you all?¡± I asked Rocket. I was hoping he wasn¡¯t dead. That would throw all of my plans for a loop. ¡°That''s none of your business!¡± Rocket spat as he pointed a large cannon/blaster at me. The gun he was holding was even bigger than himself. The little trash panda frankly looked adorable as he threatened me with it. [How is he even lifting something bigger than himself?] ¡®Wacky Marvel logic, that''s how...¡¯ Rocket pulled the trigger and a basketball sized blast of superheated plasma fired directly at me. It didn''t particularly feel dangerous, but I was never one to take careless chances. A couple translucent purple ribs quickly manifested around me. The plasma splashed against Susanoo¡¯s ribcage harmlessly. Rocket¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What the hell!? The Collector himself gave me this weapon. It''s supposed to melt through almost anything!¡± He grit his teeth and pulled the trigger again. To both of our surprise, his gun did not fire. It made a sputtering noise and a small puff of smoke came out of the barrel. ¡°It only had one shot! What a useless piece of trash!¡± Rocket cried out in indignation. ¡°I have no idea why you trusted the Collector of all people.¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°I''m afraid that I''m going to have to take you into custody now, Rocket. That missile you fired earlier could have hurt a lot of people on this train. Also, dozens of prison guards died in the riot you started back on the Kyln.¡± With that said I rushed towards him faster than he could react. I smacked the gun out of his hand and quickly started removing all the other weapons strapped to his adorable form. Once that was taken care of, I held him up by the scruff of his furry neck and looked him directly in his eyes. ¡°Aaaahh! Let me go, woman!¡± He said while trying to swipe at my face with his claws. ¡°This is animal abuse!¡± ¡°No, I don''t think I will.¡± With my free hand, I used Creation of All Things to create an animal cage made of black metal. Rocket looked at the cage I just created fearfully. I recall him having some kind of trauma about being locked up, but I was too annoyed with him to care. I tossed him inside the small cage and locked it. He was taken care of. ¡°Dammit! Let me out of here!¡± ¡°Not happening.¡± I turned my head and saw the Nebula was still struggling to take down Drax. She was more nimble than him and could avoid his daggers, but she lacked the stopping power to put him down. He was very tough. ¡°Die, servant of Ronan!¡± Drax shoulder charged at Nebula. She somersaulted over him and he ended up stumbling towards me. I cocked my fist back before smacking him directly in the face. Drax¡¯s head whipped backwards and he stumbled for a few steps before collapsing unconscious. ¡°Dammit, Drax! That was pathetic! Who goes down in one hit!¡± Rocket cried out from inside the cage. ¡°Let''s go meet up with Jean.¡± I told Nebula. She picked up Rocket''s cage. I scooped her up with one hand, and grabbed Drax''s unconscious body with the other. My wings manifested behind me as I leapt off the still moving train. I had to fly about a mile back to where she had initially jumped off. We found Jean fighting Gamora and Groot in the middle of a street. Her two opponents looked worse for wear while Jean still looked perfectly fine. Groot was missing an arm and covered in burn marks. Gamora was bruised and her sword had been snapped in half. She held it up in shock. ¡°How!? The Collector told me this sword was made of an indestructible metal called Vibranium!¡± Gamora exclaimed. [Looks like Gamora was given a faulty weapon as well...] Jean hovered a few feet off the ground while gazing down at the two of the dismissively. ¡°You two should just surrender now. Your friends have already been captured.¡± She said while pointing in my direction. Nebula hopped out of my arms and I carelessly tossed Drax onto the dirty ground. ¡°I am Groot!¡± ¡°Yes! I know I''m in a cage, Groot! The Collector lied to us! The weapons he gave us didn''t work at all!¡± He complained. ¡°Oh, they served their purpose well enough. They, along with you four, served as an excellent distraction!¡± A new voice called out smugly. My instincts screamed at me to move. I flapped my wings hard and dove out of the way at the last second. A menacing purple object slammed into the ground where I had been standing! Jean and Nebula weren''t as fast as dodging as I was. Similar objects slammed into them. An instant later, a dark purple barrier sprang up around Jean and Nebula. ¡°Shit!¡± Jean cried out. Cosmic fire wafted off her form. She lashed out and blasted the barrier keeping her trapped inside. To my surprise, her flames did nothing as the barrier trapping her held strong! ¡°Tsk... I was hoping to get both you and the Phoenix Avatar at once for my collection. Oh well, I think I can handle fighting one of you. Believe it or not, I¡¯ve been around a long time.¡± The Collector said as he stepped forwards. He was grinning at me with pure greed and desire in his eyes. Hanging from his neck was a necklace with a small glowing purple stone embedded inside of it. He had the Power Stone currently empowering him. {The Greediest of the Elders, The Collector: Level 105} XXX Chapter 249 Chapter 249 Chapter 249: I tried to remember what exact abilities the Collector had access to, but I was finding it difficult to remember. I vaguely recalled something about MCU fans being upset about the Collector losing to Thanos so easily. Especially when he had access to the Reality Stone. This wasn''t the MCU version of the Collector though. He was closer to the comics, and he had the Power Stone hanging around his neck. He didn''t seem to mind violence at all either. That meant he was going to be pretty powerful, which made sense since his level was very high. Jean and Nebula had been hit with some kind of prison spell powered by the Stone itself. I could sense why Jean couldn''t escape from the purple force field surrounding her. Every time Jean struck the barrier from the inside, the Power Stone around the Collectors neck would glow faintly and supply the cage with more power to hold her. ¡°Let me out here, you creep!¡± Jean screamed at him while pounding on the barrier trapping her. The Collector chuckled. ¡°Now, why would I do that? I''ve never had a Phoenix Avatar for my collection. No, I think I''ll be keeping you Jean Grey.¡± He laughed at her anger before turning to me. Greed was evident in my eyes as he gazed upon me. ¡°And you... you''re something completely new aren''t you!?¡± He said in delight. ¡°Something very unique! The only Biblical Angel to ever rise to Divinity. You are a rare treasure, and I will have you for myself!¡± He declared. ¡°You will try.¡± I replied while conjuring a Lightspear in my hand. He laughed again. ¡°I will succeed. After all, I have quite a bit of POWER on my side.¡± Suddenly, dozens of those purple orb prison spells manifested around his body. They all launched towards me at the same time! ¡°Almighty Push!¡± With my left hand, I temporarily sent them all hurtling away from me. With my right hand, I checked my Lightspear as hard as I could at the Collector¡¯s head. Before my Spear could reach him, he simply vanished in one spot and manifested on the other side of the street. ¡°Now now, it can''t be that easy, can it?¡± He asked tauntingly. [That¡¯s some flawless teleportation magic he just used.] I agreed in annoyance. The question was, could he do that rapidly? A dozen Lightspears manifested in the air around me. I launched a couple of them towards his new location. I was already expecting him to teleport again before they reached him. When he vanished, I kept my senses peeled for where he could teleport to. He manifested directly behind me! My remaining Lightspears were already in the process of flipping around and launched themselves at him. Before they could reach him, he had already teleported himself back to his original position. The Collector started slowly clapping. ¡°Bravo, your reaction time is certainly impressive.¡± [Not impressive enough though.] Fighting an enemy that could teleport instantaneously was going to be incredibly annoying. On top of that, a single hit from him could trap me in one of those purple barriers. I figured I could escape due to my Orb of Anywhere, but I didn''t want to risk it just in case I couldn''t. The Collector grinned at me cockily. ¡°I''ve heard you were also quite adept in teleportation, but clearly you''re not up to my level.¡± He vanished in a flash and appeared directly to my left. ¡°Hulk Smash!¡± A giant green fist smashed into my temple. {-5000 HP!} I just found out the hard way that the Collector also has the ability to shapeshift... My head whipped to the side as I was smashed by a blow that would have instantly killed most other beings. The Power Stone made that blow dramatically stronger. I don¡¯t think anyone has ever punched me that hard before. ¡°Hulk Smash pretty bird girl!¡± He tried to hit me again, but I recovered from my daze much faster than anyone else would have been able to. ¡°Almighty Push!¡± ¡°Graaaaah!¡± I finally landed a solid hit. The Collector/Hulk was blasted away from me and ended up smashing through multiple alien buildings. I hoped I didn''t just kill any innocents nearby, but they should have honestly fled by now for their own safety... ¡°Hey! Watch it over there! You almost hit us!¡± Rocket complained from inside his cage. The flying Hulk had missed them by only a few meters. Groot was trying to open the lock to Rocket¡¯s cage while I was distracted. ¡°Go away, Sister! I don''t need your help. The Goddess Layla will defeat the Collector soon enough and free us.¡± Nebula proclaimed. ¡°No! I''m not going to leave you behind!¡± Nearby, Gamora was trying to free Nebula as well. She had finally discovered she had been trying to kill her own sister just now. ¡°What are you all still doing here?¡± I yelled at them all. ¡°I am Groot!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right! The Collector screwed us over! If he gave us crappy weapons, then he''s obviously not going to pay us! We want some payback! Let me out of here!¡± Rocket yelled while rattling his cage from the inside. ¡°Sorry, but I''m afraid you''ll all just get in the way. If you want to make yourselves useful, go and rescue Peter Quill.¡± I waved my hand in their direction, four portals popped up underneath all the guardians¨Cincluding the still unconscious Drax. I teleported them a few Kilometers away so they wouldn''t interfere. ¡°Are you alright, Layla?¡± Jean asked, concerned. ¡°That green giant hit you in the head pretty hard.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. It takes a lot more than that to put me down. If the Collector wants to turn into the Hulk, that¡¯s fine with me. I¡¯ve killed a Zombie Hulk. The regular Hulk shouldn¡¯t be any harder to fight.¡± I reassured her. ¡°Look out behind you!¡± Nebula warned me too late. ¡°Hulk Mad!¡± The Hulk¡¯s voice roared directly behind me. Teleporting enemies are so annoying to fight! A teleporting Hulk is even more annoying!CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m {-10000HP} The Collector/Hulk slammed into my back and knocked the wind out of me. I ended up tumbling very ungracefully across the destroyed landscape before I righted myself. ¡°This is pretty fun. I should transform into the Hulk more often. He is quite a popular collection piece amongst the other versions of myself across the multiverse. I haven''t managed to snag him for myself yet, but I''ll have him as well one day.¡± The Collector transformed back into his normal appearance to brag again. His narcissism was on a whole other level. He truly believed everything he said. ¡°I¡¯m sure the real Hulk would bust out of any cage you try to put him in, before snapping your neck.¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯d be right.¡± The Collector said, before gesturing to the Stone hanging around his neck. ¡°Except I have this now. With it, I can make my cages indestructible. Nothing can escape before the power of Infinity.¡± ¡°And how long until someone tougher than you comes to take that Stone? How long until Thanos stops hiding and comes back?¡± I asked. [Intelligence: 12,000] [Luck: 2300] [Available Free Stat Points: 400] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) [Good work, Host!] ¡°Way to go, Layla!¡± Jean cheered as she ran over with Nebuka. The barrier around them had vanished after I took the Power Stone for myself. ¡®Congratulations...Daughter...¡¯ I temporarily froze up when I heard that last voice in my head. Something had just spoken to me, through my new Sacred Gear. It felt like it came from the ¡®Eye,¡¯ but also from much farther away at the same time... I shook my head and focused on the Collector. I had to decide what to do with him. I pointed my Lightspear at my beaten foe. Instead of being intimidated, he simply let out a pained chuckle. ¡°G-Go ahead and kill me, it won''t make much of a difference. I am an Elder, Death''s realm has no hold over me.¡± He spat out a mouthful of blood at my feet. ¡°What does that mean?¡± Jean asked. ¡°Even if I die here, I''ll be back someday...To finish what I started¡± He said while glaring at me. ¡°Maybe one of your three children will be a member of my collection in the future...¡± He chuckled to himself darkly. Jean gasped. I snarled at him. ¡°You dare threaten my daughters!?¡± It had been a long time since I felt this furious! ¡°You''re going to wish you could die when I''m finished with you!¡± He laughed at me again. ¡°Do your worst, I''m over a million years old there and have experienced every form of torture imaginable.¡± ¡®Daughter, give him to me...¡¯ A shudder went through me. Once again, that voice echoed out from my Orb of Infinity. I had a feeling that I knew who, or what, was suddenly speaking to me. The being whose Eye is powering my Orb of Infinity. I always felt that the Eye itself had a will of its own, apparently it''s able to act as a bridge to commune with its original full body as well. [That''s not good...] ¡®Give his soul to me!¡¯ [Is that the Eldritch Monster that almost one-shot Azazel?] ¡®I think it is.¡¯ [It can talk to you now!? Be careful, Host! This is a being that exists outside the sphere of your Gamer multiverse. You really should not be communicating with it...] At this point, I was too angry to care. I grabbed the collector and held him up by his throat. ¡°Let this be a warning to any other beings watching us right now! My daughters are off limits!¡± I declared before willing my Orb of Infinity to open a portal to a place it should not have been able to reach. Outside the multiverse itself! A being awaited on the other side of the portal. One that radiated never ending hunger. My Rinnegan eyes ached in pain after only gazing upon it for a few seconds. ¡®Yes! You have done well, Daughter...¡¯ The Collector let out a genuine scream of terror upon seeing the Eldritch Creature. ¡°What have you done, you fool!? Why would you be in contact with a being like this!?¡± He bellowed at me. ¡°You¡¯ll destroy us all!¡± ¡°Not us, only you. You shouldn''t have threatened my daughters!¡± I flung the Collector through the portal and slammed it closed behind him. The last thing I saw was his look of absolute terror as thousands of eyeball covered tentacles surrounded him. I had a feeling the Collector wouldn''t be coming back ever again... ¡°What the fuck was that, Layla...¡± Jean muttered in shock next to me while clutching her head in pain. Nebula was lying on the ground frothing at the mouth. The beautiful blue alien was completely out of it. They had both tried to gaze at the being on the other side of the portal. Nebula, as a mortal, obviously couldn¡¯t handle it. I reached down and started healing her head with my Purger of Darkness. ¡°Let''s just say, there are some fates worse than Death in existence.¡± I said to Jean before telling her to never mention what she saw again. If there were any other Cosmic Beings watching me face down the collector, then I¡¯m sure they would do the same as well. That being on the other side of my portal was frankly terrifying. I don¡¯t think Lady Death and the Phoenix Force combined would be able to beat it... [It called you its daughter...a bunch of times.] It sure did... I didn¡¯t know how to feel about that, or what it meant for the future. For now, we still had another Quest to complete. We¡¯d acquired the Power Stone and Peter Quill was also somewhere nearby. It was time to track down Ego and put him down next. After that, I¡¯d be able to take a break and access everything that had occurred today. XXX Chapter 250 Chapter 250 Chapter 250: ¡°Sorry your friends didn¡¯t save you...again.¡± I said to Peter Quill. ¡°I really thought they would have while I was fighting the Collector. I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d run away and try to steal your ship.¡± I told him. While I was fighting the Collector, I portaled the other Guardians away to keep them away from a fight way above their current levels. I told them to make themselves useful and save Peter...they did not do that. The four of them instead tried to run to the hangar, where Starlord¡¯s ship was parked, and steal it for themselves in order to flee Knowhere. They got pretty close as well. I had to subdue them all for a second time before they got away. Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax were all tied up on the bridge of my ship under the guard of Jean and Nebula. ¡°Thanks for getting me out of that freaky cage.¡± Peter said to me. ¡°It felt like I was going to be in there forever.¡± He added with shiver. ¡°You were barely in there for an hour! Some of us have been here for years!¡± An alien who had also been trapped by the Collector complained from inside their own cage. ¡°Thank you so much for killing the Collector!¡± They added as I broke their cage and let them out. ¡°No problem.¡± I said as they quickly made their way to escape. ¡°I was in there for an hour and a half, I''ll have you know!¡± Peter called out behind them. ¡°It was really hard on me, I had to hold in my pee!¡± He added indignantly. ¡°Why would you do that? Our cages have built in waste disposal.¡± Another recently freed alien asked him. ¡°It was that tube in the center of the floor.¡± ¡°Well, no one told me that!¡± Peter complained while throwing his arms up in the air. ¡°I pissed my pants for nothing!¡± [Gross.] Ah, so that''s what that weird smell was... ¡°...Just go loot some stuff while I free everyone else. I have a proposition for you later, Peter.¡± I said. ¡°And maybe change your clothes as well...¡± I added too. ¡°Now you''re speaking my language.¡± Peter said while greedily eyeing the Collector¡¯s treasures around the room. Most of them were worthless to me. I knew he''d be keeping all of his good stuff in a hidden vault somewhere. I''d already taken all of his money anyway and figured all the people who had been trapped here deserved some restitution. I had been going around releasing all of the Collectors slaves for the past few minutes. He had quite a few interesting specimens, some very strange aliens I''d never heard of. He also had a frankly absurd amount of galactic credits at his disposal. I was now a galactic trillionaire¨Cnot that I even had a need for that amount for wealth. It was just something I had now. ¡°Quack. Would you be a dear and let me out of this cage?¡± Howard the Duck asked me. His was the final cage I found. ¡°Of course, Howard. I''m a big fan.¡± I told him. His movie was so bad that it was good! Too bad no one else in this Universe would know what I was talking about. Would it be weird to ask for his autograph? [Yes.] The duck tilted his head in confusion at my remark. ¡°Quack. Thanks?¡± He waddled off after stealing himself some shiny trinkets laying around as well. ¡°Try not to get captured again!¡± I called out behind him. ¡°Quack! No promises!¡± I walked out of the Collector¡¯s museum/mansion with Peter Quill around 20 minutes later. We weren''t alone as we walked out of there. A four legged companion was trotting along next to us. ¡®I love going on walks! My master never takes me on enough walks. Where is my master?¡¯ Cosmo, the space dog said in my head. I usually don''t allow anyone into my head, but c''mon, he was a psychic Golden Retriever! Cosmo was adorable. He was even wearing a silly astronaut costume. Of course, I decided to keep him. I had three daughters who I''m sure would absolutely love a talking dog as a pet. Cosmo was also immortal for some reason, so they''d never have to worry about outliving their pet. I had some sad memories about such a situation from my past life and was glad they wouldn''t have to experience that... I scratched him behind the ears. ¡°I¡¯m your new master now, Cosmo. Come on, I''ve got some doggy treats on my ship.¡± ¡®Treats!?¡¯ His tail wagged furiously behind him as he followed me through a portal towards my new warship. ... ¨CPeter Quill¨C ¡°Well, well, well... Look who we have here.¡± Peter Quill said to the four aliens he''d escape space prison with. He didn''t think he''d be seeing the four of them again so soon. Not after they failed to save him...for the second time. ¡°You know, after escaping the Kyln, I bet you all have some pretty hefty bounties on your heads. I might be looking at a nice pay day if I bring you all back there.¡± Peter said to Gamora, Rocket and Groot. Drax was still unconscious. That was probably for the best, considering Ronan the Accuser was unconscious and tied up next to him as well. ¡°Wouldn''t you have a bounty on your head as well for escaping alongside them?¡± Layla, his rescuer and arguably the most beautiful woman he¡¯d ever seen, asked him skeptically. ¡°What? Me?¡± Peter said innocently. ¡°Of course not! I was a model prisoner I''ll have you know. Those four took me as a hostage. I was afraid for my life and had to go with them.¡± He said to Layla with a straight face. He couldn''t have his beautiful and powerful rescuer thinking he was some kind of common criminal after all. He was, obviously, but he didn¡¯t need her to know that! ¡°That¡¯s a damn lie! You shot a whole bunch of people on our way out of that prison too!¡± Rocket yelled from inside his tiny black cage. Peter thought Rocket being trapped inside such a tiny cage was hilarious. It was like animal control had finally had enough of the little bastard. ¡°Lies and slander.¡± Peter replied dismissively before turning back to Layla and her two gorgeous friends as well. ¡°Once again, thank you so much for saving me from the Collector¨Cmay he rot in hell. Is there any way I could repay you? Maybe take you out to dinner?¡± Peter asked her with a suave grin. Layla scoffed at him. ¡°I¡¯m not interested in men, but there certainly is a way you can repay us. We came here looking for you specifically after all.¡± She said to him. Peter was disappointed to hear that first part, but the fact that they had specifically sought him out did tickle his pride. ¡°I suppose my reputation does precede me. What can I do for you ladies?¡± He asked them while standing a bit taller. ¡°We¡¯re trying to kill a Celestial and we need your help.¡± The red haired girl told him. Peter¡¯s smile immediately vanished. ¡®A Celestial!? Are they out of their freaking minds!?¡¯ Peter regretted saying that he would help them with anything. The beautiful Layla might have saved his life, but he wasn''t going to throw it away to help her fight one of those monsters! ¡°Well, good luck with all that, but I¡¯m afraid I just remembered I had a prior commitment.¡± Peter told them. ¡°Is that so?¡± Layla asked while tilting her head. ¡°Are you sure you don''t want to help us? It really was a lot of trouble, finding you that was.¡± ¡°I would love to...but my prior commitment is really important.¡± Peter lied. ¡°I¡¯ll just be on my way back to my ship if you don¡¯t mind?¡± He said while stepping around the three suicidal women in front of him. Internally, he was lamenting at the loss. ¡®The galaxy is about to lose three beauties...it''s always the pretty ones that are craziest!¡¯ He thought with a sigh. He didn¡¯t get more than a few steps before his whole world went black. ... ¨CLayla¨C Nebula holstered her blaster after shooting Peter in the back. She had it set to stun of course. I sighed. ¡°That went about as I expected.¡± ¡°Ha! That''s what you get, you bastard!¡± Rocket laughed as Peter collapsed on his face. ¡°I am Groot.¡± ¡°Sister, are you truly hunting a Celestial? Why? Are you doing it for...him?¡± Gamora asked Nebula in concern. She was under the impression that Nebula was still working for Thanos. Nebula scowled at her sister. ¡°Of course not! Layla is my savior, I intend to help her. I care nothing for our father anymore!¡± Nebula said. ¡°What do we do now?¡± Jean asked me. ¡°We have Peter Quill...although he''s a bit more cowardly than I expected. I expected someone who calls themself Starlord to be braver.¡± Jean pointed out. She was disappointed. She told us that she expected him to be more like Han Solo, since he had his own ship and wandered the galaxy. [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 84] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 114,000] [MP: 120,000] [Faith Energy: 128,548,853] [Vigor: 10,000] [Strength: 5,000] [Intelligence: 12,000] [Luck: 2300] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) ¡°I''ll hold onto it for now and give it to you when the fight starts. You can start us off with a bang!¡± I said with a smirk. Outside of Nebula, no one else knew we were in possession of an Infinity Stone. The Guardians never actually found out what was inside the Orb they brought to the Collector. Jean and I decided to keep it that way. All of the most dangerous forces in the galaxy had sent representatives to watch us square off against a Celestial. If they found out that we had an Infinity Stone, they might stupidly try to attack us themselves ahead of time to steal it. However, if they watched us use that Stone to successfully kill a Celestial, I''m sure they''ll have second thoughts. Well, most of them at least. The desire for power will always sway some stupider beings... ¡°Ok, that sounds like a plan.¡± Jean replied. We started going over the finer details and decided that she was going to start off the fight by bathing the Celestial/Planet in a wave of Cosmic Fire. We doubted it would kill Ego, but it would certainly hurt him. Also, if Mantis was with Ego, then I would try and kidnap her, via surprise portal, before Jean nuked the planet. She was a very sweet girl and definitely didn''t deserve to die in a sea of flames. While Jean and I were talking, the ship''s alarms started to go off! Nebula, who was now mostly in charge of piloting, called out to us. ¡°Something is approaching the ship! It¡¯s small but moving incredibly fast. It¡¯s also emitting a massive amount of energy!¡± I looked out the window and saw a shooting star of golden light quickly approaching our vessel. It looked incredibly familiar to me. It was a being of some kind, flying through space without a spaceship. As they got closer, I started to recognize who was coming towards us. ¡°Huh, I think that¡¯s Captain Marvel.¡± I said. ¡°Captain Marvel? Who¡¯s that?¡± Jean asked. ¡°She feels...strong. Maybe stronger than us right now.¡± Jean said while feeling out the newcomer''s power. {Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers: Level 120} ¡°She is.¡± I said with a whistle of appreciation. ¡°If she¡¯s come to talk to us, then let her onboard.¡± I said to Nebula. ¡°Be careful, even my father is wary of this woman.¡± Nebula opened the hangar and Captain Marvel flew directly into my ship. Some drones would meet her there and escort her to the bridge. A few moments later, she entered. I immediately noticed that she was much closer to her comic book portrayal than her actress from the MCU. The most noticeable difference of course was that¨C ¡°Oh wow, she¡¯s really hot!¡± I said out loud almost reflexively while looking at the woman. I let the intrusive thoughts win and accidentally said that out loud... I blushed a bit in embarrassment. ¡°Layla! That¡¯s no way to greet someone!¡± Jean chastised me. Nebula scoffed, in what I suspected was jealousy... Captain Marvel, or Carol Danvers didn¡¯t seem to mind my strange greeting. She smiled at me. ¡°Thank you for the compliment. Most of the time people only compliment me on my powers or strength now. It¡¯s still nice to be seen as a woman sometimes...¡± She trailed off. I coughed awkwardly. ¡°Sorry about that. Welcome aboard my ship. What can I do for you, Miss Danvers?¡± I asked her while changing to a business-like tone. She raised a curious eyebrow at me. ¡°You know my true name?¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m friends with Nick Fury. He was there when we took down the alternate Thanos that tried to invade Earth.¡± ¡°Interesting... I saw the video of that. I''m surprised Nick didn¡¯t bother calling for my aid. He must really trust you. I¡¯m also surprised to find out that Angel¡¯s have actually been real all along. I¡¯ve only been away from Earth for a few decades and it¡¯s apparently changed so much.¡± Carol said with a difficult to read expression. To me, she looked a bit homesick. I didn¡¯t know that for sure just yet though. I wondered if she wanted to talk about it later perhaps? ¡°As for why I''m here...¡± She explained that she had been sent on behalf of the various Empires to find out why I was picking a fight with the Celestials. They were afraid other Celestials might start retaliating against the galaxy if I actually managed to kill one. The Celestials weren¡¯t friendly with each other, but they didn¡¯t like to be seen as weak either. Their inflated collective pride wouldn''t allow for anyone to openly challenge them... like I did. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡± I¡¯d already informed Nova Prime about Ego¡¯s plans to destroy all life in the galaxy. I decided not to have her spread that information until after Ego was dealt with though. I didn¡¯t want him realizing we were on to his plans. Carol was surprised by my revelation after I gave her a quick rundown. ¡°He truly was that close to succeeding? All he needed was his Half-Human son and all sentient life would have been purged from the galaxy? He must have been planning this for a long time...¡± She commented with a contemplative look before shaking her head. ¡°Thank you for figuring this out and attempting to put a stop to him. If you wish for my aid, you shall have it.¡± Carol told me. ¡°Che...Layla doesn¡¯t need your help.¡± Nebula clicked her tongue... ¡°Thanks, we¡¯d love help from someone as powerful as you!¡± Jean said cheerfully at almost the same time. That seemed to annoy Nebula even more... Carol glanced at Nebula curiously before shrugging. Her eyes drifted over to the Guardians who were still bickering in the corner, no closer to deciding whether they were going to stay or not. ¡°Quite an interesting group you have here. How did you all meet and how did you acquire a Kree Warship of all things?¡± She asked me curiously. ¡°Was this Ronan¡¯s ship? Where is he?¡± I smirked at her. I waved my hand and created a small sofa with Creation of All Things. It was just big enough for two people to sit on... close together of course. ¡°Why don¡¯t we chat for a bit, and I''ll tell you. I suspect we have a few hours before Ego finally shows up anyway.¡± I said while patting the couch spot next to me. I wouldn¡¯t mind having a nice chat with a beautiful super powered woman before having a fight to the death with an alien space god in a few hours. Carol eyed the spot on the couch next to me strangely before she shrugged and plopped down. ¡°This is a lot weirder than I thought our meeting was going to go.¡± She said. I laughed, my whole life was weird. ¡°I haven''t properly introduced myself yet, I¡¯m Layla of the Fallen.¡± I smiled while holding out my hand to her. Carol smiled back and took my hand. ¡°Nice to meet you, Layla. I''m Carol Danvers...¡± XXX Chapter 251 Chapter 251 Chapter 251: ¨CCarol Danvers¨CAlll latest novels at novelhall.com It was no secret that Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, preferred women over men. As all of her friends in space would tell her, she tended to give off lesbian vibes... whatever that meant. What wasn''t well known across the cosmos, was that Carol had never actually been in a relationship before. In fact, she hadn''t ever even been on a single date that she could recall. She was always busy with the next mission. That¡¯s why Carol was slightly out of her depth when Layla of the Fallen started to flirt with her while they waited for Ego to arrive... ¡°I heard stories of you smashing apart an entire Kree Fleet to protect the Earth. I have to say that I''m quite a big fan!¡± Layla said with a sincere smile that had Carol almost swooning. ¡°I didn''t expect you to be so beautiful on top of being so amazing!¡± Carol did NOT swoon. She has never swooned. If anyone told her that she did, she would forever deny it! ¡®Damn, Layla was incredibly beautiful though...¡¯ Carol thought to herself. Carol had spent literal decades protecting the Galaxy from numerous threats, she had been to thousands of worlds. Not a single one has any woman as close to as beautiful as Layla was. Had Carol known her home planet was now home to such beautiful women, she probably would have visited more than once a decade. As it was, she was already planning on taking a long sabbatical on Earth for a while after this. What was the point of protecting the Galaxy if she never got to enjoy any of it after all? ¡°Thank you, Layla.¡± Carol replied with a small blush. ¡°I''m a fan of yours as well. Particularly, I enjoyed the video of you defeating Thanos that spread across the Galaxy. Did you really revive the dead afterwards? How is that possible?¡± Carol asked, she was incredibly curious about that part. Reviving the dead wasn''t supposed to be possible. ¡°Yes, I can revive the dead, but only a certain amount every day. I did bring everyone back after that battle, but that was a gift from Lady Death for eliminating a version of Thanos. In every Universe, he is a pain in her ass.¡± Layla explained to Carol. Carol¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. ¡°Lady Death is real!?¡± She had heard the legends, but had never believed them to be true. Layla giggled. ¡°She is very real, believe me. I know Lady Death... intimately.¡± Layla said with a small teasing pause. ¡°We have a certain relationship that both of us enjoy.¡± Carol didn''t know why, but she felt very annoyed hearing that. ¡°Does that mean you''re taken?¡± Carol found herself blurting out. She hoped that wasn¡¯t the case... Layla grinned at her knowingly and Carol blushed again. ¡°I am currently in a relationship with a small handful of women, but that doesn''t mean I''m not open to further possibilities...¡± Layla trailed off and Carol¡¯s mind started to wander. ¡°Is t-that so?¡± Carol asked. She made a mental note to learn more about Fallen Angels when she could. Who would have thought not paying attention in her Sunday school classes would actually come back to bite her later? ¡°Do you want to see my family?¡± Layla asked and Carol found herself nodding. Carol was once again impressed at how far Earth had come when Layla pulled out a very advanced device that was filled with numerous pictures of the Angel-Goddess¡¯s family. ... ¨CLayla¨C A few hours later... Talking with Carol had been a very enjoyable way to pass the time. I could definitely tell that she was interested in getting to know me more. The feeling was mutual. We both had quite a bit in common. Both of us had incredible power thrust upon us and were doing our best with it to protect the people we cared for. I was mostly focused on Earth and Asgard, while she frequently traveled back and forth across the Galaxy. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end. Our foe had finally arrived from across the stars. ¡°Woah...He is big.¡± I muttered when I laid eyes on him. Ego was a chunky boy, that''s for sure. What does it mean to go to war with an entire planet? I didn''t quite understand the answer to that question until I saw him for myself. Hours after my sit down with Captain Marvel, Ego the Celestial had arrived in our section of space. Seeing an entire planet speed towards us was intimidating and exhilarating. At least he wasn¡¯t even close to as big as the Phoenix Force was when I first saw her. Compared to her glorious form, Ego the Celestial was basically an ant. [If he¡¯s an ant, what does that make you then?] ¡®I¡¯m a very sexy amoeba!¡¯ I replied in my head. ¡°Are you ready to do this, Jean?¡± I asked my younger redheaded companion. She was once again looking very nervous. I saw her crack a wry smile though. ¡°No...but we have to do this. I¡¯d rather this thing not swallow up all life in the galaxy just to fulfill his own...Ego.¡± Jean said with a slight pause and blush. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, that pun sounded better in my head.¡± ¡°I liked it.¡± I said while smiling at her. We were about to take on a Celestial, a little humor was appreciated. ¡°Are you sure you wish to fight this monster with just the two of you?¡± Captain Marvel asked while walking over to us. She had offered us her aid, but I turned her down. Likewise, I decided to turn down help from the Guardians as well after some proper thought. ¡°Yes, we''re sure.¡± Jean and I needed to make a statement here. There were tens of thousands of ships currently in this sector, all of them here to observe us. We needed to make a statement here on the Galactic Stage. A statement that it would only take two beings from Earth to take down a Celestial. The Shi¡¯ar and Kree empires literally spanned millions of worlds. Even Thanos avoided fighting with them in canon. If these behemoth empires wanted to attack Earth, then we would eventually be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers they could field in war. Unless they were too afraid of us to ever try. Unless we showed the Galaxy what we were truly capable of right here and now! ¡°Good luck, Layla. I shall remain here and await your return.¡± Nebula said to me. I could tell that she had absolute confidence in me. ¡°Thanks, Nebula. This shouldn¡¯t take long.¡± 14 wings appeared behind me as I flew out of my warship and started flying towards Ego. He had stopped a few million kilometers away from us. It only took me a few minutes of flying to enter his upper atmosphere. Jean was right next to me as we gazed upon the gigantic being. ¡°I only sense one sentient being on the entire planet.¡± Jean told me. I suspected that it was Mantis. There was a small palace hundreds of Kilometers below us that resembled Ego¡¯s home from the movie. She was most likely being kept there. {-20,000MP} I created a single shadow clone, who immediately teleported down to hide on the planet''s surface. My clone would rescue Mantis once Ego was distracted and bring her back to my Warship where the other Guardians were watching from. ... The air around me suddenly vibrated. A mighty voice echoed across the entire planet¡¯s surface. ¡°You have a lot of nerve to openly challenge me! I am Ego! I am a Celestial! A true God!¡± Ego''s attention was now solely on us. I''m sure my clone was taking the opportunity to grab Mantis. It was just in time too. The planet below us started to physically shift. Mountains, lakes and oceans crumbled away and disappeared. Two volcanic gaping holes appeared. Ego''s eyes were the size of continents as he glared hatefully at us. An even larger hole appeared underneath them and formed a mouth the size of a continent. He really was a living planet... {The Living Planet, Ego: Level 109} His level was a lot lower than I thought it would have been...I expected a Celestial to be a lot more powerful. ¡°Where is MY SON! Tell me and your deaths will be quick! If you''ve harmed him, then you will wish I killed you quickly!¡± I channeled some magic power into my voice when I replied. ¡°Your son is fine, Ego. It''s you we came here for! You will not be escaping. Today you die!¡± I declared as loudly as possible. I wasn''t even as close to as loud as he was, but I know he heard me. ¡°We''re not going to let you go through with your plans!¡± Jean added her own declaration. Cosmic Energy allowed her to project her own voice across the entire planet. I was a bit jealous. I couldn''t wait to complete this Quest and gain access to Cosmic Energy as well! Jean returned the Power Stone to me after bathing Ego in flames for five minutes straight. The damage done by her flames was massive. The living planet''s entire surface was now nothing more than molten lava. I could barely even make out his face anymore. His screaming hadn¡¯t stopped the entire time. Now it was my turn to finish him off. Honestly, I thought it would have been harder...He wasn¡¯t even putting up a fight. [Yeah, it¡¯s kind of embarrassing actually. Celestials are supposed to be a lot tougher. Then again, Rocket did manage to kill him with a jury rigged bomb. We both thought this Ego was going to be stronger than that one was, I guess we were wrong.] With the Power Stone clutched in my hand, I felt almost invincible as all of my stats soared. Even as injured as he was, there were only a handful of techniques I had that could actually damage Ego due to his sheer size. I didn¡¯t know where his core was, but I didn¡¯t think it particularly mattered. I was ending this in one shot! ¡°Tengai Shinsei!¡± {-100,000MP} My MP temporarily plummeted as I summoned the largest possible meteor that I could. Hundreds of kilometers above Ego¡¯s surface, a purple coated meteor, almost half the size of Earth¡¯s moon, suddenly appeared! It was an apocalyptic level attack! Unfortunately for Ego, he was so busy focusing on putting out his fires, that he didn¡¯t even notice the meteor until it struck him full force! BOOOOOOOOOOMMMM! A literal world ended explosion occurred at the impact point. The amount of energy released was more powerful than anything I¡¯d ever seen! Ego didn¡¯t even get to utter any other words before the force of the explosion ended up reaching his core. He went out with a literal bang, but it was honestly more of a sad whimper from my perspective... {Quest Completed! You have leveled up x3! You have gained access to Cosmic Energy!} [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 87] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 114,000] [MP: 25,000/120,000] [Faith Energy: 144,555,675] [Vigor: 10,000] [Strength: 5,200] [Intelligence: 12,200] [Luck: 2300] [Available Free Stat Points: 300] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) Jean and I flew back into space to escape the resulting planetary explosion. It was actually beautiful...in a macabre sort of way. I pulled out my phone and started filming it. I was sure my family and friends would get a kick out of seeing a Star Wars level explosion in real life. ¡°...Was that it?¡± Jean asked in almost disappointment. ¡°I expected that to be a lot harder. Everyone hyped up Celestials to be almost unbeatable. We killed Ego in less than 6 minutes. He didn¡¯t even get to fight back.¡± ¡°Yeah, I''m almost as surprised as you are. Maybe Celestials were just overhyped?¡± I said questioningly as we started flying back to my warship. I was actually able to hold a conversation with her in space now! ¡°Either way, let¡¯s head back home now. I miss my family.¡± I said and Jean agreed. I hadn¡¯t been home in days and was looking forward to seeing my family. I would have immediately portaled home, except my warship was too big to fit through my portals as well. Although, now that I had access to Cosmic Energy, I think I could make a portal big enough. ¡°Huh, why are all the ships around us suddenly leaving?¡± Jean commented curiously. I looked around and saw thousands of the ships that had been spectating our battle with Ego, warping away as fast as possible! That was very unexpected. Were they all terrified of Jean and I suddenly? What we did was impressive, certainly, but we weren¡¯t going to target them next or anything. Why was everyone running away? More and more ships continued to warp away until every single one had vanished from our sector of space! Not a single one stayed behind. Every single one vanished! ¡°That was weird...¡± The only remaining spaceship in the entire sector was my own. ¡°Uh...Layla. We might have a problem.¡± Jean said while pointing behind us suddenly. ¡°I think I know why everyone bolted away so fast...¡± Jean said. She was back to looking incredibly nervous again. I thought her confidence would have improved after we took down Ego. I turned around to see what had made her so worked up. In the place of Ego¡¯s planet, a massive Cosmic red portal had manifested. It was the biggest portal I had ever seen. Easily big enough to have swallowed Ego entirely if he hadn¡¯t just exploded. I was not expecting what floated out of that portal next. Six gigantic red eyes locked onto Jean and I as we floated in the void. {The Judge, Arishem of the Celestials: Level 234} Well, shit... I was starting to have the feeling that Ego wasn¡¯t the gold standard for Celestials, if he even was one in the first place. What the hell was with that absurd level difference here!? Arishem was Level 234!? Ego was only Level 109! XXX Chapter 252 Chapter 252 Chapter 252: Jean gulped next to me. She had already exhausted herself roasting Ego and now a drastically more powerful being had popped up in front of us. ¡°Are we going to have to fight again, Layla?¡± She whispered to me. ¡°This thing looks like the Iron Giant had a baby with the Death Star!¡± She exclaimed. ¡°That''s...not an inaccurate way to describe him.¡± I replied while gripping the Power Stone tightly in my palm. If I had to fight Arishem here, I could handle using the stone for 2 or 3 minutes at most. I grimaced, that wasn''t going to be near long enough to bring down a being over 100 levels above me. ¡°Someone''s coming.¡± Jean said. I felt something rapidly approaching the two of us from behind. I turned my head to see what it was. Captain Marvel was rapidly speeding over from my ship. I cracked a small smile at the fact that she didn''t choose to run away like everyone else. She came to a stop near where Jean and I were floating in space. Carol glanced off into the distance nervously. Arishem had been staring at us, with his six red eyes, in silence since he arrived in this sector of space. He hadn''t done anything else. His giant body didn''t move even an inch. It was a bit unnerving... I''d never dealt with a being that acted so inhuman. Even Mephisto, the Marvel Devil, has acted more normal than this Celestial so far. ¡°This is exactly what I warned you about!¡± Carol whispered aggressively at me. ¡°Killing a Celestial ended up pissing the others off! Now this freak has shown up too! I didn''t even believe he was real until now!¡± Carol complained. ¡°Arishem was supposed to be a myth, one of the boogeymen of the Cosmos!¡± ¡°Don''t put this situation on, Layla. You were offering to help us get rid of Ego not even a half hour ago.¡± Jean stuck up for me and pointed out. Carol shook her head. ¡°I wasn''t blaming Layla. I was just trying to remind her that actions have consequences.¡± Carol said back to Jean before turning back to me. ¡°It didn''t help that you both killed Ego so quickly, and in the flashiest manner possible! You made the Celestials look really weak to the wider Galaxy. They''re supposed to be incredibly prideful beings, they won''t let that go easily...¡± She trailed off. Her eyes drifted over my shoulder towards Arishem. Carol was under the impression he was here as a show of strength. I supposed that was possible, myself. Despite that, his massive form still hadn''t moved since he had arrived. He must have been deep in thought about something. ¡°Ego wasn''t even a real Celestial. That''s obvious now. He died way too easily.¡± I said. ¡°Arishem shouldn''t even care.¡± I had no idea why Arishem turned up here. He never gave a shit when the Guardians killed Ego in the movie! I made my thoughts known to the two of them. ¡°Didn''t the Phoenix tell us that Ego was a Celestial?¡± Jean asked me nervously. ¡°Although, she could have been wrong I guess.¡± I shrugged at her. ¡°Maybe he was a Celestial¡¯s inbred cousin or something.¡± I joked to try and lighten the mood. I shook my head when I noticed neither girl smiled. ¡°It doesn''t really matter anyway, since he''s dead now.¡± [Ego went out with a great bang too! I rate his death explosion a solid 9/10.] Carol let out a sigh. ¡°Regardless of whether he was one or not, his death brought Arishem here.¡± Carol said before pointing at me. ¡°You announced to the whole Galaxy that Ego WAS a Celestial. They all think you killed one now, and you did it easily.¡± She explained. ¡°Oh, I see your point.¡± I said. In hindsight, there were probably more subtle ways I could have liked Ego over. I was just too lazy to try them. I wanted to finish his Quest and return home as soon as possible. ¡°I doubt the Judge will let us escape now without an explanation.¡± Carol said. ¡°From the stories I''ve heard about him, that I thought were not even real until now, Arishem has his own weird sense of judgment. Entire planets and Empires have been wiped out by him for the pettiest of reasons.¡± She explained. Jean frowned at Carol''s words. ¡°We have an explanation, Ego was trying to absorb the whole Galaxy!¡± ¡°We''re about to find out whether that''s a good enough explanation or not.¡± Carol replied to Jean. I frowned and took her words as a challenge. ¡°I''d like to see Arishem even try to stop us from leaving.¡± I called on my Orb of Infinity. I summoned a small portal towards my Warship''s bridge. If Arishem was just going to passively float there and stare at us, then we might as well leave. I floated forwards to go through my portal. BONK! {-5HP} ¡°Ow!¡± My head ended up smacking something solid! I looked up to see what I had just collided with. ¡°That''s new...¡± Directly in front of my portal was a red energy barrier. In fact, the barrier completely surrounded my portal on all sides, completely blocking my access to it. It was pretty obvious who the barrier blocking me came from. I called on my Orb of Infinity again and tried to open another portal. Immediately, another red energy barrier sprang up around it. I glared at it in annoyance! ¡°Amaterasu!¡± {-5000MP!} Black flames impacted the barrier and started burning away at it. This barrier was proving even stronger than the Collector¡¯s Infinity Stone prison barrier had been. My flames failed to eat away at it after almost a full minute. I willed them away and turned back to Carol. ¡°Ok, we might be trapped here...¡± I relented. Arishem couldn''t stop me from creating portals, but he could stop me from going through them. I didn''t expect him to be that clever... [He''s literally millions of years old...] ¡°If we die here, I''m going to haunt you...¡± Carol¡¯s eye was twitching. ¡°If we die here, I''ll just revive myself and then you guys a few days later.¡± I replied. I''d stash the Power Stone in my inventory as well, so Arishem wouldn''t be able to take it. I would be a petty bitch like that... [What if he can reach into your inventory like the Ancient One was able to do over a year ago?] ¡®Fuck...¡¯ ¡°Oh right, I forgot you could do that.¡± Jean said, some of the tension had lightened after my statement. You can be a lot braver when you know death isn¡¯t permanent. ¡°I''m not worried about us, I''m worried about what Arishem could do to Earth in retaliation!¡± Carol hissed out worriedly. I decided not to tell her that Arishem was already planning on destroying the Earth. There was a baby Celestial growing in the center of the planet that I was going to have to kill at some point. The more humans in the world, the faster it would develop. When the Earth Marvel and DxD fuse back together, the baby Celestial will grow much faster than in MCU Canon as well. I was going to have to kill it sooner rather than later. ¡°...¡± ¡°I have come to pass judgment!¡± Arishem¡¯s voice boomed from all around us. He had finally spoken. ... ¨CArishem¨C Arishem gazed across the void of space. His vision was locked on the three very tiny beings. All of them were decently powerful, but he felt like they were no threat to him. He wasn''t even wary of the one holding the Infinity Stone. Arishem had spent the past few minutes reading the minds of the mortals onboard the only remaining spaceship in the small section of space. From them, he understood the situation...for the most part. The being known as Ego was not a Celestial, but he was still a unique existence. Arishem might even go as far as to say that Ego was interesting. Arishem pondered if, maybe one day, Ego could have evolved himself into becoming a true Celestial? And if that process involved Ego devouring countless mortal planets, well...Arishem didn¡¯t actually mind. He would consider those mortal lives as having served a more noble purpose. It was incredibly difficult for the Celestial race to spawn new members. Therefore, Arishem saw Ego¡¯s death to be a waste. What were the lives of a few trillion mortals, compared to that of a new Celestial? Unfortunately, it was not to be. Ego, the living planet, was dead. His soul forever lost to Lady Death''s realm. Arishem would not be able to bring it back. Arishem found himself...feeling irritated. It had been a long time since he had felt such a mortal emotion. ¡°I have come to pass judgment!¡± Arishem declared. ¡°I judge Ego''s death to have been a waste to the Cosmos! A detriment to the prosperity of the greater Universe! You must prove to me that your existence was more valuable than his or you will be punished!¡± Arishem declared. He did not believe that any of the three women would be able to prove their worth, but he had to at least give them a chance to defend themselves. He was a fair Judge after all... ¡°How the Hell do we do that!?¡± The one with the 14 Black Wings asked Arishem. He noted that her voice projected across space with a rudimentary use of Cosmic Energy. ¡°You will allow me access to your minds. I will judge for myself from all of your memories.¡± Arishem declared, as was his right. He had been trying to read all three of their minds since he arrived, unfortunately all of their minds were all protected by higher powers. Those powers felt familiar to Arishem, but he couldn''t recall from where or when he was familiar with them. Even for him, some memories become hard to properly recall after tens of millions of years. ¡°Absolutely not!¡± The same woman declared again. He could see that she was channeling more and more power from the Power Stone into herself. ¡°I''m never letting anyone I don''t know in my head ever again!¡± The girl who was glowing with cosmic fire declared to him. The third woman powered up as well. A bright Golden Aura surrounded her next. Arishem wondered if they were going to attempt to actually fight him? ¡®How long has it been since any beings have challenged me?¡¯ He was almost amused...almost. ¡°You will follow my judgment or be destroyed!¡± Arishem declared with finality. He wasn¡¯t planning on indulging them in pointless battle. They would submit to his judgment like any other sane sentient would. He didn¡¯t believe they would truly attempt to fight him. Arishem was wrong. ¡°COSMIC SUSANOO!¡± The woman with 14 Black Wings screamed loudly. An enormous well of Divine and Cosmic Power combined and surged around her being! ¡®Where did that come from!?¡¯ Arishem had not sensed any of that hidden power! The next thing he knew, he was getting punched in the face by an ethereal purple fist the size of a small moon... ... ¨CLayla¨C I channeled absolutely all of my remaining power and combined it with everything left I could squeeze out of the Power Stone! ¡°Fuck off, Arishem! Almighty Push!¡± [What the fuck!?] When I released all of that power in one targeted attack, something strange happened. The Space in front of me trembled...and then cracked. The wave of gravity surged forwards and crashed into Arishem with an incompressible amount of force! For a moment, the Laws of Physics shattered. Arishem was hit with so much force, that one instant he was in front of us, and the second...he vanished. That was the only way I could describe it. He was simply gone... ¡°Damn, Layla! Did you just knock him into the next Galaxy!?¡± Jean exclaimed with a shocked laugh. ¡°Where did he go?¡± ¡°What the fuck...¡± Carol finally spoke after Arishem vanished in front of us. [Wait, did you knock him into the next Galaxy!?] Wherever I just sent him, I hoped he wouldn¡¯t be coming back for a while at least. I lowered my arms and let out a tired sigh. My planet-sized Susanoo faded away around us. I was completely spent. My MP was close to zero, my Faith Energy was drained and I only had a few thousand remaining HP. Despite that, I realized there was a massive grin on my face! ¡°Ha! Get fucked Arishem! I hit him so hard he ended up recoiling away faster than the speed of light!¡± I bellowed out with a laugh. ¡°Haha! I literally broke Physics with pure force!¡± ¡°Is that what happened!?¡± Jean asked me in shock. ¡°He''s not dead is he?¡± Carol asked next. Somehow, she looked even more nervous at that prospect. I shook my head. I would have gotten a notification if he was. ¡°I honestly have no idea what happened to him. Why don''t we get out of here before he comes back?¡± I suggested as I started flying back to my Warship. I was kind of hoping Rocket had recorded my fight just now because it would be awesome to show to people! {Quest Completed! You have Leveled up x 10! You have acquired a #####!} [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 97] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 5,000 / 117,000] [MP: 4,000 / 120,000] [Faith Energy: 0] [Vigor: 10,300] [Strength: 5,200] [Intelligence: 12,200] [Luck: 2300] [Available Free Stat Points: 1000] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) XXX ¨C(Canon?) Omake, A Celestial Lost in Time¨C It took Arishem a surprising amount of time to bleed off the momentum. He had never been hit with that much force in his entire existence! He didn¡¯t think he had ever been so injured. All of his limbs were broken and bent out of place. There was a massive indent in the center of his torso, where the full power of the blow had struck him. As the mortals say...he needed a minute. Arishem would recover from the damage shortly, but that wasn¡¯t the most pressing issue! Somehow, the 14 winged woman had managed to hit him so hard that she sent him through time itself! He could sense the faint traces of Temporal Energies around him. He was not where he was supposed to be...or WHEN he was supposed to be would be the more accurate statement. He didn¡¯t know whether or not he had even been sent to the past or the future. He had absolutely no control when he was forcibly launched through time itself. Arishem took a few moments to recover from his injuries and grow back another arm. Once he was healed, he opened a portal towards Terra. The winged woman was from that small blue world. Maybe he could find her there and exact judgment on her properly. This time, he wouldn''t underestimate her. A massive portal swallowed him whole and transported him to his destination. Arishem arrived near the moon of Terra an instant later. His arrival did not go unnoticed. Numerous spaceships nearby all stopped traffic as their pilots stared at him in wonder. A few seconds later, all nearby spaceships spun around and immediately started to flee from him. ¡°I am in the future then.¡± Arishem commented to himself. He had read the memories of the Half-Terran known as Peter Quill. Terra was not even close to space travel as far as the mortal knew. And there definitely was not a colony of people openly living on the moon... Arishem¡¯s eyes drifted towards Terra. He had a feeling the woman he was after would be there. ¡°Woman with 14 wings! Come out and meet your judgment!¡± Arishem declared. His voice echoed across the entire planet! ¡°Jeez. Did you have to yell so loudly!? Also, who the hell are you, and why are you so needlessly big?¡± A woman¡¯s voice spoke from nearby. Very nearby! Arishem¡¯s eyes almost became crossed as he glanced down. Hovering directly in front of his face was the woman with 14 Black Wings! No¨Cit wasn¡¯t her. This woman looked almost identical, but her aura felt different. ¡°Who are you, mortal? Where is the woman I seek? Where is Layla of the Fallen!?¡± He demanded to know. ¡°Mom? She¡¯s out right now, probably touring another weird universe with my sisters. She¡¯s left me in charge of the planet while she is out. Nice to meet you giant dude. I¡¯m Hilga...¡± She introduced herself confidently. She wasn¡¯t gazing at him with reverence or fear, but looking at him as if they were equals. Arishem was once again annoyed at the audacity of lesser beings. ¡°Your mother hit me so hard that she sent me through time itself! That is but a single one of the crimes she must face my judgment for! Bring her to me!¡± Hilga had a pondering look on her face before she snapped her fingers in realization. ¡°Oh, I know who you are! You¡¯re Arishem! They talked about you in history class! You ended up disappearing for a few years after my mom first fought you decades ago. No one knew where you went during that period. So, she ended up hitting you so hard that she sent you through time? I didn¡¯t know that was even possible!¡± Hilga said excitedly. ¡°It is.¡± Arishem confirmed. ¡°I must now find a way back. It will be tedious, even for a Celestial.¡± Hilga tilted her head. ¡°Is that so? Why don¡¯t I help you out then?¡± She suggested. ¡°Want me to try sending you back myself? It shouldn¡¯t be too hard for me.¡± ¡°How would you do that?¡± Arishem asked. Hilga Heladottir raised her palm towards Arishem¡¯s face nonchalantly. Suddenly, all of his senses screamed at him in warning! It was only now that he truly sensed the power lurking inside the girl in front of him! She was even more powerful than himself somehow! Far mar powerful! ¡®How is that possible!?¡¯ Hilga smiled. ¡°See you later giant dude, Almighty Push!¡± Arishem once again found himself being blasted through time... XXX A/N: A fun little addition at the end there XD Chapter 253 Chapter 253 Chapter 253: ¨CLayla¨CAlll latest novels at novelhall.com Hours later... ¡°This ship is needlessly tedious to control.¡± I muttered to myself in annoyance. Every single control on the bridge was a holographic touch screen. Half the time, my finger ended up brushing across the wrong interface and my warship would start lurching in a random direction! ¡°Seriously, what''s wrong with buttons? Why does everything have to be a touch screen nowadays?¡± I complained. I was now controlling this massive warship by myself. I had to learn at some point. Jean had given me a quick rundown, but she was gone now. Jean had returned to Earth a few hours ago via portal. She was getting antsy and wanted to return to Akeno and Ororo. She had done her part well enough and I let her go back. ¡°I would help you if I could. I''ve never actually piloted a Kree warship before.¡± Carol said. She was slightly embarrassed about that fact considering she served in their military for years. She primarily flew around the galaxy using her cosmic powers. ¡°I can rewire this whole bridge for you.¡± Rocket offered with a gleam in his eyes. ¡°I could make it so you can fly this thing with your toes if you wanted to!¡± I was almost tempted to take Rocket up on his offer, but I didn''t trust Rocket enough to not install some backdoor programs that would allow him to hijack my ship from me. I wouldn''t put it past him to try it at least. [He would absolutely try to steal your ship from you...] Peter had served his purpose and I kind of wanted them all off my ship now. Of course, Carol and Nebula were free to stay as long as they liked. ¡°No thanks. I''m dropping you all off soon anyways.¡± I said to the Guardians. The only problem was that they, except for Mantis, were all still wanted by the Nova Corps. I didn¡¯t know where I could even drop them off. I definitely wasn¡¯t letting them anywhere near Earth or Asgard. I didn¡¯t need their craziness accidentally burning down any places I cared about. ¡°Aw crap...we ARE still wanted, aren''t we?¡± Rocket complained. ¡°I completely forgot about that! We won''t be able to operate in Nova space until we clear all this up. What did we even do wrong?¡± Rocket asked out loud. ¡°I am Groot.¡± ¡°Yes, I know a bunch of Nova Corps prison guards died because of us! That wasn''t my fault they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.¡± Rocket complained. He was probably the most wanted of the bunch since he organized an entire prison breakout. [They were literally just doing their jobs as prison guards. Where else were they supposed to be?] ¡°Can we have Ronan''s body?¡± Peter asked me. ¡°I know that Drax stabbed the absolute shit out of his corpse, but it should still be recognizable at least...¡± He said with a thoughtful look. ¡°Peter, why do we want a corpse?¡± Gamora asked him. ¡°Do you have some kind of plan?¡± ¡°Are we going to eat him?¡± Drax said eagerly. ¡°I like this idea! It is the ultimate form of disrespect! Good idea Quill!¡± Drax praised Peter. Gamora sent Peter a judgemental glare! ¡°I will not eat a Kree corpse, Peter! What kind of plan is that!?¡± ¡°What!? No, we''re not going to eat Ronan!¡± Peter replied with a horrified look. ¡°What''s wrong with you two.¡± ¡°My apologies, I don''t know much about Terran diets and I''ve had a long day.¡± Gamora explained sheepishly. ¡°Awwwww...¡± Drax pouted in disappointment. ¡°My wife and children would have rested easily knowing I had filled my belly with the man who took their lives.¡± ¡°For the last time, I''m not planning on eating Ronan!¡± Peter said in exasperation. ¡°Maybe just a leg?¡± Drax suggested. ¡°I am slightly hungry.¡± Mantis added. ¡°I do not know who Ronan is though. Is he tasty?¡± ¡°I might try some leg. I''m not picky, I''ll eat almost anything.¡± Rocket added thoughtfully. ¡°I am not your dinner, foul beast!¡± Sif gripped her sword tightly as gravity started to pull her back downwards. She was directly above the Dragon¡¯s head. ¡°Die!¡± She attempted to slam her blade directly into its skull. CLANG! At the last second, it swung its head to the side. Her Asgardian blade ended up bouncing off one of its strong horns. Sif cursed and grabbed onto the horn to steady herself. Her other hand was still holding her blade. She attempted to stab the foul beast again. She raised her blade and prepared to strike at the Dragon¡¯s unprotected eye. Its head started thrashing back and forth wildly to stop her! Sif had to stop her attack. She hung onto the Dragon¡¯s horn with all of her might as it thrashed wildly. It had amazing physical strength! Even a fully grown bilgesnipe wasn''t so fierce! ¡°Hope you didn¡¯t forget about me!¡± Kokabiel shot through the air towards them. His wings kept him a few meters off the ground, which was starting to bubble and boil from the sheer heat the Dragon naturally exuded. Kokabiel thrust both Lightspears directly into the Dragon¡¯s left side. ¡°Ugh! You¡¯re a tough bastard!¡± Kokabiel grunted at the impact. The Dragon¡¯s hide was so tough that Kokabiel¡¯s two Lightspears barely sank a few centimeters deep into its flesh. That didn¡¯t stop the beast from acting like a baby. It stopped thrashing, threw its head into the air, and let out the loudest roar yet! Sif felt woozy and almost released her hold. The roar was so loud that Sif¡¯s eardrums popped. ¡°Silence!¡± Sif screamed in pain. Golden blood flowed out of both her ears before the Extremis went to work and started repairing the damage to her hearing. She quickly steadied herself before slashing down with her blade. The Dragon¡¯s only unarmored spots were its eyes. Sif¡¯s blade slashed through its pupil. The beast was half blinded! Piping hot blood spurted outwards as Sif hopped off the beast''s head and backed away. ¡°Excellent strike, Sister-in-law!¡± Kokabiel cheered. He left his two Lighspears lodged in the Dragon¡¯s side and flew over to regroup with her. ¡°Don¡¯t let your guard down. A wounded beast will fight ten times harder for survival.¡± Sif reminded him. The Dragon was more dangerous than ever now. It had stopped thrashing and letting out roaring tantrums. With its remaining good eye, it was silently staring at the two of them furiously. It would now do everything in its power to try and kill them or escape. ¡°Now the real fight starts! I¡¯ve been looking forward to a battle like this!¡± Kokabiel cheered. Sif found herself smiling with his enthusiasm. As an Asgardian, especially a Goddess of War, she would never turn down a good fight! FWISH! A flash of purple Light fell down from the sky high above. The Dragon went eerily still for a split second...and then its head fell clean off of its body. A purple Lightspear had fallen down from the sky and instantly decapitated the beast. Its body collapsed to the ground dead next to the severed head. Kokabiel threw his arms up in the air in exasperation! ¡°Damn it, Layla! You ruined our glorious Dragon hunt! It was just getting good!¡± He complained while staring up in the sky. Sif could admit that she was also disappointed, but that didn¡¯t stop the smile that quickly formed on her face. Layla, her love, was hovering in the skies above Asgard! Layla looked beautiful and as majestic as always. What surprised Sif, however, was the absolutely gigantic spaceship that was now hovering in Asgard¡¯s orbit. She didn¡¯t remember such a large vessel being there a few moments ago. ... ¨CLayla¨C I flew down and landed in front of Sif and Kokabiel. The latter was scowling at me in annoyance, while the former threw herself into my arms. I didn¡¯t mind that Sif was wearing armor that was covered partially in Dragon blood. I wrapped the blonde goddess in a loving embrace. I could always wash the blood out of my clothes later anyway... ¡°Sorry I took your kill, brother.¡± I apologized to Kokabiel over Sif¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I saw you two fighting a large Dragon and got nervous. I wanted to help.¡± Kokabiel scoffed. I could tell he was annoyed, but still happy to see me. ¡°Whatever...it''s fine. I''m sure there will be other Dragons. This was only a probing attack from Muspelheim anyways. Only a few hundred Demons out of their legion of millions.¡± ¡°When I arrived, I had noticed Asgardian soldiers fighting against Flame Demons in the distance.¡± I commented. ¡°I saw our siblings helping, but they were mostly letting the Asgardians fight.¡± A lot of Fallen Angels were hovering on the edge of the battle and watching. Kokabiel nodded. He explained that this battle was a good opportunity for the inexperienced Asgardians to get a taste of war for the first time. Kokabiel and Sif were handling the Dragon themselves since the younger Asgardians would have been overwhelmed by such a beast. Hela, Thor and Azazel were on standby somewhere in case Surtur sent any of his more powerful forces to attack. ¡°Where have you been, Sister?¡± Kokabiel asked me. ¡°And what is that colossal vessel you brought back with you?¡± I grinned at him. ¡°I have a story you¡¯re absolutely not going to believe! I faced one of the most powerful beings in the Universe! I¡¯ll wait till we rejoin everyone else before I tell it though. As for the ship, it¡¯s mine now! I took it from the Kree Empire. We should be able to make pretty good use of it. It¡¯s one of their most powerful warships. It¡¯s fully stocked with a hoard of weapons.¡± Kokabiel grinned at my words. ¡°Well done, showing the rest of the galaxy what we''re capable of! I can¡¯t wait to hear the rest of the details!¡± I let go of Sif and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes, my love. I left two new companions behind when I rushed down here.¡± Carol and Nebula were still on board the ship. I rushed down when I noticed a battle was underway upon our arrival above Asgard. Now that I knew it was nothing but a small probing attack, and everyone was fine, I would go back up and retrieve the two of them. XXX Chapter 254 Chapter 254 Chapter 254: A few hours later, the celebratory parties across Asgard were all in full swing. It hadn¡¯t been a very big battle, but a victory was a victory. Asgardians loved any excuse to party after all. It also bolstered spirits that we had slain hundreds of Flame Demons without taking a single loss. A few of the less experienced Asgardians had been seriously injured, but not a single one had died. It only took me a few minutes to heal them all. After giving me a passionate kiss, Sif ended up having to depart from my side to go and celebrate the victory with her soldiers. As one of Asgard''s newest generals, it was important that she was seen in these public events. She needed to be taken seriously and didn''t want to be known as the ¡°woman who always followed Thor and his friends around¡± anymore. At least she made plans to return with me to Earth the next day. While the city was busy partying, Hela, Azazel, and Kokabiel had moved to a large room in the palace to make introductions with my guests and catch up with me. ¡°It is nice to meet you, Queen Hela. Thank you for hosting me.¡± Carol Danvers introduced herself. ¡°It is lovely to meet you as well, Lady Danvers. Or do you prefer Lady Marvel?¡± Hela responded with a genuine smile. I didn¡¯t miss the wink Hela sent me as well as she greeted Carol. Hela definitely approved of the beautiful space Superhero being in my company. Carol clearly wasn''t used to being addressed as a ¡°Lady¡± judging by her confused expression. She snapped out of her confusion though, and switched to a more political smile. ¡°Either is fine with me. I''m currently on a vacation of sorts, so feel free to call me Carol.¡± ¡°Welcome to Asgard, Carol.¡± Hela then turned to the other guest I had brought with me. ¡°And who might you be, my Lady?¡± ¡°Tsk, I¡¯m Nebula.¡± Nebula introduced herself bluntly. She chose to stand closer to me and was eyeing everyone else in the room¨Cnot warily¨Cbut with a hint of caution. It would take a while for Nebula to get over her paranoia and social awkwardness. Hela giggled, she didn¡¯t seem to mind Nebula¡¯s attitude at all. ¡°It¡¯s lovely to meet you as well, Lady Nebula.¡± Hela said before turning back to me. ¡°You certainly know how to make an entrance, Layla. That warship you brought back with you nearly gave us all a heart attack.¡± She said playfully. ¡°Where did you come across such a vessel?¡± Azazel asked. ¡°I would love to take it apart and see how it ticks.¡± ¡°You¡¯re free to do that, but I¡¯d like Tony and Andrea to join you when you do. Earth¡¯s technology could take leaps forward with everything on that ship.¡± I said. ¡°As for where I got it, I took it from a genocidal alien warlord. He was going to use it to attack the Nova Empire after he acquired the Power Stone. He was never able to acquire the Stone though.¡± ¡°The Power Stone!¡± Hela¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. ¡°That was one of the stones that used to belong to Odin! What happened to it?¡± She was eager to know. I smirked and reached into my inventory. When I pulled my hand out, a small glowing Purple Stone was held in my grasp. The Stone became much longer after I had defeated Arishem and advanced so many levels at once. I speculated that I could now hold it barehanded for around 10 minutes. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you¡¯re just holding that thing in your bare hand. No one should be able to do that...¡± Carol commented hesitantly while shifting away slightly. She was nervous around Infinity Stones after what the Space Stone had done to her. ¡°Layla is a true Goddess! Of course she can hold it! If she couldn¡¯t, then there is no one else in the cosmos who could!¡± Nebula declared with more emotion than I¡¯d ever seen her express before! She gave everyone else in the room a challenging glare to see if they would try and refute her words. No one did, of course. I did receive a couple of snickers from Azazel and Kokabiel. Nebula¡¯s blatant devotion made me blush in embarrassment. Hela also smirked at me and mouthed the word ¡°fangirl.¡± ¡°Thank you, for your...enthusiasm, Nebula.¡± I told my blue companion. Nebula nodded at me. ¡°Of course. I was only speaking the truth.¡± Azazel broke the awkwardness of the situation by letting out a whistle of appreciation. ¡°I haven''t ever seen the Power Stone in person. It¡¯s definitely the real deal. The power coming from it is amazing. It almost feels like Ophis did before she disappeared, actually.¡± He commented to himself curiously. Azazel then asked me what I was planning to do with the Stone. ¡°I''ll be hanging onto it for now. It''s a nice little power up to have on hand for emergencies. Especially after I had to burn through my entire supply of Faith to handle my most recent enemy.¡± I said. Ideally, I wanted to find some kind of method to eventually fuse with its power permanently. [Without it eventually blowing you up of course.] ¡°What!? You spent all your Faith Energy in one battle!?¡± Azazel asked in concern. ¡°Who did you fight?¡± I started explaining everything that occurred the past couple days. I started with Akeno¡¯s request to help Jean. Then I moved onto my meeting with Lady Death and the Phoenix Force. I told them how I defeated the Collector and then Ego back to back. Finally, I mentioned how Arishem had shown up afterwards. ¡°Arishem!?¡± Hela exclaimed in shock. ¡°One of the strongest Celestials!? What was he doing there!?¡± She ran over and started inspecting me for injuries. I had to reassure her multiple times that I was ok. ¡°I issued a direct challenge to the Celestials across the Galaxy when I called out Ego. That''s why Arishem showed up. I suspect that he was there to put me in my place¨Cor something like that.¡± I speculated to everyone. ¡°That''s troubling but not unexpected.¡± Azazel said with a frown. ¡°The minds of beings like that don''t operate at the same as ours do. Did you have to use all of your Faith Energy to escape him?¡± ¡°BAH! Do you have no faith in our sister!?¡± Kokabiel berated Azazel. ¡°Layla obviously defeated Arishem¨Cwhoever he is¨Cand proved the superiority of Fallen Angels across the cosmos!¡± Kokabiel declared while walking over and patting me on the shoulder. ¡°Good work, Layla!¡± I nodded to myself after observing her current level. She could even give Captain Marvel a run for her money now. ¡°100,000 is good, but not enough.¡± I speculated. ¡°You should ask for help from Alfheim or Earth. I¡¯d personally recommend asking Earth for some soldiers.¡± I suggested either calling in help from Shield or hiring mercenaries. I also suggested enlisting the help of the more powerful mutants. Mutants like Storm could be devastating if used properly in this war. I wondered if she would be able to make it actually rain on Muspelheim? I don¡¯t know if that world has ever experienced rain before. I also suspected that she could naturally counter any blizzards the Frost Giant¡¯s employed on Jotunheim. My suggestion drew mixed opinions. Azazel was all for asking for help of course. Kokabiel was opposed because it would ¡°make us look weak.¡± Hela was on the fence about what to do as Queen. She didn''t want to look like a ¡°weak¡± Queen either, but she knew that logically Asgard could use aid. Our discussion ended a few moments later. Hela said she wanted to consider her options before making a final decision. She was planning on taking a walk to think. I offered to go with her but she shook her head. Once I left the room, I inquired from a nearby servant about where Carol and Nebula had gone off too. ¡°They have both been given their own quarters for the night, Princess.¡± The maid told me. ¡°Would you like to be shown to your own quarters?¡± ¡°I have my own quarters?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course you do, Princess Layla. You are Queen Hela¡¯s betrothed and the mother of the heiress to the throne, Princess Hilga.¡± She told me as a matter of fact. Since Carol and Nebula were already in bed, I decided not to disturb either of them. I asked the maid to show me to my quarters. My room in the palace ended up being right next to the Queen¡¯s room of course. I laid my head on the incredibly soft pillow and decided to go to sleep for the night. I hadn''t slept since before I set out with Jean. That had been days ago. When I woke up tomorrow, I would finally return to Earth and the rest of my family. ... ¡°Welcome back, my Champion.¡± I opened my eyes and found myself back in Death¡¯s realm. It looked like I wouldn¡¯t be getting a peaceful sleep tonight either. The second I passed out, she was able to pull me to her realm. ¡°How is it so easy for you to keep grabbing me whenever I fall asleep?¡± I asked her. Lady Death smiled at me cryptically. ¡°Sleep is a small hint of Death.¡± She didn''t say anything else. I pouted at her. ¡°Fine then, keep your secrets. It''s nice to see you again, Lady Death. Did you call me here for business, or maybe something more personal~?¡± I asked her while fluttering my eyes. I also pulled down my dress a bit teasingly to show some extra skin. If I wasn¡¯t getting any sleep, then I deserved to have some fun~. I smirked when Lady Death actually gulped. Her eyes dilated, she clearly wanted me. ¡°Oh, how you tempt me so, my Champion...¡± Lady Death said breathily before calming herself down. She shook her head. ¡°Before any of...that...I have news for thee.¡± She said with a sigh. I pulled my dress back up and sighed as well. Business before pleasure. ¡°Of course, what news do you have for me?¡± I asked her. ¡°The Universe has been thrown slightly off balance by the machinations of an interloper.¡± Lady Death started to explain why she called me to her realm. It sounded pretty important. ¡°Thrown off balance?¡± I asked while tilting my head. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Arishem was not supposed to visit you after you defeated Ego. The Phoenix Force herself had requested the living planet''s destruction.¡± Lady Death explained. ¡°Arishem was actually manipulated into appearing before you, not that he was aware of it at the time...¡± I raised a curious eyebrow. ¡°Arishem was manipulated? Who would be able to do that?¡± Lady Death frowned. ¡°I...do not know.¡± She admitted. That surprised me. There were very few beings that could hide from her gaze. Of course, that made the list much shorter as well. ¡°I have suspects, but that is all. Whoever did it knows about your connection to me.¡± She said. ¡°As for the Universe being thrown off balance, that is exactly as it sounds. Arishem ended up being forcefully sent forwards in time by your final attack. Time and Space have ended up being damaged on a fundamental level.¡± ¡°Is that what happened!?¡± I exclaimed. I hit him so hard he was flung through time? That was actually pretty awesome! I didn¡¯t mean to damage Time and Space though. I¡¯d have to be more careful in the future. Hitting someone so hard they fly away faster than light is apparently a bad thing... ¡°For a short time, until Time and Space naturally correct themselves, you might find strange things occurring around you. What those things are, I also couldn¡¯t say.¡± Lady said with a frustrated pout. I could tell she wasn¡¯t used to feeling so useless. Her warning was appreciated, but it didn¡¯t sound like there was anything I could actually do about her warning. What I could do was comfort the beautiful upset woman in front of me. This time, my dress completely slipped off my body and pooled at my feet. I confidently strode over to her throne and plopped myself in her lap. ¡°You sound upset, Lady Death, how about I make you feel better~?¡± XXX oWo Chapter 255 Chapter 255 Chapter 255: After I had spent the night in Lady Death¡¯s realm, I met up with Carol and Nebula in the morning. My legs were a bit wobbly and I''m sure they both noticed that fact, but neither made a comment. I¡¯m pretty sure I did see them both blushing a few times when they thought I wasn¡¯t looking at them. ¡°Are you two ready to see my home?¡± I asked them both. Carol smiled at me. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see your kids. I can¡¯t believe you have 3 of them.¡± ¡°Technically I have four, but one of them is a teenager. She''s 16 now.¡± I said, mentioning Heather. ¡°I''m also currently watching my adopted niece Asia.¡± Carol looked at me in shock. ¡°Five!? That must take up a lot of free time! How do you get anything done?¡± ¡°It''s not as bad as you think. Thankfully, I have a technique that allows me to create perfect clones of myself. I even get all of the clone''s memories once I dismiss them.¡± I explained the Shadow Clone Jutsu to the two of them. ¡°That ability sounds like every mother¡¯s dream.¡± Carol said thoughtfully. ¡°When my friend had children, she always seemed like she was exhausted and never had any free time.¡± ¡°Can anyone learn these Jutsu?¡± Nebula asked, intrigued. ¡°Hmm...¡± I took a second to ponder that question. ¡°Possibly?¡± I told her. The Sage of the Six Paths was able to somehow grant people Chakra in the Naruto Universe. With the Rinnegan, I supposed I was also capable of doing that. It was something I never considered before. I¡¯d only been turning people into Angel¡¯s or granting them blessings. Before we temporarily departed from Asgard, I let a palace maid know where we were going so she could report to Hela and Azazel. Hela''s deliberation was taking longer than expected. I think she was consulting some of the other Asgardian Generals as well. I opened a portal back to my penthouse and stepped through. Two heads perked up from the nearby couch. ¡°Welcome back, Aunty Layla!¡± A blonde missile slammed into me immediately as I arrived. ¡°I¡¯m back, Asia. Sorry for being gone so long.¡± I said while hugging her back. ¡°I was still here though. My Shadow Clone is still me...just a bit more fragile.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Asia replied, ¡°I just like having the real you to talk to.¡± I could sense my Shadow Clone nearby in the nursery, but I didn''t want it to pop just yet. ¡°Welcome back, mom.¡± Heather greeted me as well. She and Asia had been sitting in the living room playing video games. I gave her a hug after Asia let me go. ¡°Who are our guests?¡± ¡°These are Carol Danvers and Nebula. I met both of them in space. Did Jean tell you all what happened out there?¡± I asked Heather. Heather nodded. ¡°She said something about you taking down an evil planet and then an actual Celestial right afterwards. It sounded completely crazy! Hestia, Artemis, and Frigga were all freaking out about it.¡± Heather said with a small laugh. She told me that none of the three Goddesses had left the children''s sides for the past day after getting the news from Jean. They were afraid that other Celestials would come for revenge. ¡°I¡¯ll apologize to our three resident Goddesses when I see them. We won¡¯t have to worry about any Celestial retaliation against us.¡± I said to Heather¡¯s relief. I didn''t think that would be the case for a while at least. Lady Death told me that Arishem had gone against the Phoenix Force¡¯s by trying to attack me and her Avatar Jean. He was in for a severe punishment...whenever he was found. I had apparently blasted him into the future, so he might not turn up for a while... [What if he encounters you in the future, and then in the ¡®future Layla¡¯ blasts him into the future...again? And then he encounters ¡®future future Layla'', and the same thing happens. Again and again after that. A never ending loop until you blast him to the end of time!] ¡®You have the weirdest thoughts sometimes, System...¡¯ I thought back to its inane question. [It could happen... Maybe one of your daughters will end up blasting him instead! You don¡¯t know how powerful they will be in the future.] ¡®Now you¡¯re just sounding crazy, System...¡¯ ¡°I like your blue skin. It''s really pretty!¡± Asia told Nebula, snapping me out of my weird internal conversation. ¡°Thanks...¡± Nebula said with a small blush. She wasn''t used to getting compliments. ¡°It''s nice to meet you, Heather and Asia. I''m Carol. I heard you''re both in High School?¡± Carol introduced herself. ¡°What is High School?¡± Nebula asked. It¡¯s a place where kids are sent to learn.¡± Heather replied. ¡°Why?¡± Nebula asked curiously. ¡°If I wanted to learn something I¡¯d just look it up. Why do Earth children need to go to a specific place to do so?¡± ¡°That¡¯s an interesting question. I can give you a basic rundown on Earth culture.¡± Heather offered Nebula. ¡°I had to do a lot of catching up with the modern world myself.¡± Carol stated that she was also interested in catching up on everything she had missed out on in the past few decades. Heather was more than happy to give both of our guests the rundown while I went and checked up on my other daughters in person. ¡°I was thinking, Layla. I wanted to possibly have my Sister come and visit soon. Serafall hasn¡¯t gotten to see Sia yet.¡± Sona said while taking her daughter out of my arms. Rias took hold of Lia as well. I was left with a babbling Hilga. ¡°Is that a good idea?¡± I asked. While bouncing Hilga on my knee. She giggled happily. Sona nodded while hugging Sia close to herself. ¡°Serafall might hate your guts, but she would never put me or my daughter in danger¨Conce she meets her.¡± Rias and Sona wanted both of their older siblings to meet their children. Of course, I couldn¡¯t keep them away from their families and tell them no. We decided to set the date for a week from today. I would open a portal to their Universe and leave a message with the Sitri and Gremory Clans. ¡°Do you think your siblings would be amenable to what we discussed a few months ago?¡± I asked them. A couple months ago, a brilliant but crazy plan had crossed my mind. What if after we got rid of all the evil Devils on Earth DxD we replaced them with some of the Devil¡¯s from Earth DxD-C? The Fallen Angels had fully moved out of the Underworld already. Once the Devils were gone, it would be completely empty. That was a lot of free real estate up for the taking. Plenty of room for them to move in. When Earth Marvel and Earth DxD merged back together, Rias and Sona¡¯s family would no longer be an entire universe away. Despite running away with me, I could tell that they both did miss their families. I also didn¡¯t want Sia and Lia to grow up without their extended families either. ¡°Hmm... I''m not sure.¡± Rias said honestly. ¡°Devil¡¯s aren¡¯t exactly known for liking change. Most of them still think fashion from the 1600¡¯s is in style. Moving to an entirely new Universe is a pretty big step up from that...¡± Sona thought differently. ¡°I actually think a lot of Devil¡¯s will be very interested. The underworld has always been overcrowded with the Fallen Angels claiming almost half of it. I think a lot of Devils would be happy to finally be able to claim territory for themselves.¡± Sona explained. Of course, she also pointed out that Serafall and Sirzechs might just reject my idea out of spite for knocking up their little sisters... I shrugged. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll find out in a week then. For now, why don¡¯t we feed the girls and then have dinner ourselves. Heather should be finished explaining the basics of Earth to Nebula and Carol by now.¡± I pulled down my top and exposed my breasts. The three little girls usually drank a formula created by Hestia, but I didn¡¯t mind occasionally feeding the babies the old fashioned way. [You¡¯ve just been away for days and wanted an excuse to see their boobs...] Rias and Sona sat down with their daughters and did the same as me. I could definitely admit that both of their breasts had become very nice to look at now that they were mothers. Sona had even grown an entire cup size! ¡°So, Layla... We heard most everything from Jean Grey. Did anything else interesting happen on your trip?" Rias asked while Lia latched onto her boob. "Hmm... We have a dog now?" I told them. I didn''t know how Cosmo would act around the girls so I left him on the ship for now though. Rias grinned and Sona sighed. "I love dogs!" "I hate dogs..." ... ¨CFallcorp, Same Time¨C ¡°It still hasn¡¯t gone away after hours...¡± Emma Frost observed, gazing at the strange anomaly that had sprung up in the top floor of Fallcorp. It had scared the hell out of her and Penemue when it had appeared. Fallcorp was heavily warded. It would take some incredibly powerful magic to breach its defenses. That¡¯s why they both thought they were under attack by something incredibly powerful when the anomaly sprang up. It was some kind of portal. A portal that looked very different from Layla¡¯s or the Sorcerers of Kamar Taj. This portal was always changing shape and it had so far taken on every color of the rainbow. It reminded Emma of an ever shifting kaleidoscope in a way. ¡°The anomaly hasn¡¯t grown or shrunk in size so far. Its shape has shifted a few times, but its overall size has remained the same.¡± Penemue observed while measuring it with a few instruments Emma didn¡¯t recognize. ¡°Whatever is powering it is clearly coming from the other side.¡± ¡°How come nothing has come through?¡± Emma asked in annoyance. All of this inactivity had been making her twitchy. Emma was considering using her new Fallen Angel abilities and simply destroying the portal. Not only did it interrupt her and Penemue when they were ¡°busy,¡± but soon it was going to interrupt their actual business as well. They had an important meeting scheduled with a few investors in the morning! Penemue stopped Emma and warned her against it. ¡°We don¡¯t know what¡¯s powering it. It could explode and take out half the city for all we know.¡± Penemue said calmly. Emma blanched. ¡°It could turn into a bomb!?¡± She did not want to be working out of a building with something that dangerous nearby! ¡°Your sister is back home now, let¡¯s get her to deal with it!¡± Emma always thought that Layla should take a more active role in the company anyway! Since the portal appeared in Penemue¡¯s office, Emma was considering this as official Fallcorp business. Penemue noticed Emma¡¯s discomfort. ¡°Relax, Emma. I know that I don¡¯t look it, but I am still a Twelve Winged Fallen Angel. You''re perfectly safe next to me. I¡¯m also not going to bother Layla after she just got home from battling a Celestial. You have no idea the magnitude of that accomplishment.¡± Emma sighed. ¡°Sorry... What should we do now?¡± ¡°We go home. I¡¯ll leave some cameras around the office to monitor the portal. For all we know, its creation was a complete accident and It might disappear on its own later. If it doesn¡¯t then we can further examine it after our meetings tomorrow.¡± Penemue explained. Emma was surprised by how nonchalant her lover was about the situation. ¡°Trust me Emma, this isn¡¯t even in the top 100 weirdest things I''ve seen in my lifetime. Now that you are unaging, you¡¯ll know where I''m coming from in the future. 100 years from now, you probably won¡¯t even remember this incident.¡± Penemue finished with a shrug before gently grasping Emma¡¯s hand. To not cause a panic, Fallcorp had been quietly evacuated after the portal appeared. Emma and Penemue were the last ones in the building. Penemue did as she suggested and left a few cameras in the office to monitor the rainbow phenomenon. Emma gripped Penemue¡¯s hand tightly as the Cadre teleported the two of them to their nearby apartment. Hours later, after the two of them had gone to bed, the rainbow portal started to rapidly shift between colors. The room surged with energy as something started to come through. An armored green arm was the first thing to appear out of the rainbow portal... XXX Chapter 256 Chapter 256 Chapter 256: ¨CPenemue¡¯s Office. The Next Morning¨CCHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m ¡°The energy in this room...it feels strange,¡± Penemue said while examining her office. What was left of her office at least... Everything inside her office had been torn up or blown to pieces... and then it was all covered in blood and guts. It reminded Penemue of the battlefields from the Great War. Corpses of demons were piled around her office. Their blood and innards were scattered all over the walls, carpet and even the ceiling! ¡°All of the camera¡¯s have been destroyed. Not just in the office either. A massive power surge fried every camera within a few blocks,¡± Emma said while examining the scorch marks that littered the walls where Penemue had placed her cameras the previous night. ¡°Interesting...Look over here,¡± Penmeue called Emma over to the other side of the room. The wall was riddled with small holes. Emma grimaced as she tried her best to avoid stepping on all the disgusting demon bodies. She was wearing a brand new pair of designer heels and was trying her best not to ruin them! ¡°Are these bullet holes?¡± Emma asked while touching the wall. ¡°Do demons even use guns?¡± Penemue shook her head. ¡°Not usually, but whoever these demons were fighting certainly did. I can also detect the faint traces of a Seraphim¡¯s energy in this room. One I have never met before...¡± Penemue added thoughtfully. ¡°So we have an Angel from another Universe running around New York now? And we don¡¯t even know what they look like because all the camera¡¯s were fried...¡± Emma sighed in annoyance. ¡°Possibly,¡± Penemue said while examining the room further. She glanced over the center of the room where the rainbow portal had been. It was no longer there, so that was a relief at least. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting a bunch of Demons to be on the other side of the portal! At least our mysterious Angel took care of them for us. A bunch of Demons spilling into the city from Fallcorp Headquarters could have destroyed our company image!¡± Emma huffed out. That would have been very bad,¡± Penemue said grimly. ¡°We¡¯ll have to thank whoever stopped them all.¡± ¡°Where do you think they ran off to?¡± Emma asked. ¡°Is this another Gabriel situation? A random Angel that just feels like taking a tour of the city?¡± Gabriel was second only to Layla in popularity, and her presence had almost caused full blown riots across the city as people scrambled from all over to come and see her in person. Penemue pondered for a moment before shaking her head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like a full Angel... I think whoever came through here only had a Seraphim¡¯s blessing,¡± Penemue explained as she spread her magical senses outwords. She could sense a faint trace of Light despite the demon bodies saturating her office in darkness. ¡°Well...Whoever they are, they are long gone. They took the elevator down to the first floor and escaped the building with no resistance. We called away all of our security last night as well,¡± Emma said before pausing. ¡°...Should we call Layla and tell her?¡± Penemue shook her head again and shrugged. ¡°Knowing my little sister''s strange divine luck, she¡¯ll probably end up stumbling upon our visitor on her own. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll handle it from here.¡± Penemue decided to wash her hands of this strange incident. It was already affecting their business. Important meetings had to be pushed back a few hours to give them time to clean the entire building up and dispose of all the Demon corpses. ¡°Do you know any good cleaning crews? Once that will clean my office and dispose of all the bodies no questions asked.¡± Emma smirked. ¡°Who do you think I am!? Of course I do!¡± The Hellfire Club didn¡¯t really exist anymore, but Emma still had a bunch of its shadier contacts on speed dial. ... ¨C???¨C This world was peaceful. ¡®Almost too peaceful...¡¯ he thought to himself as he walked down the side of the street, his heavy armored boots leaving small cracks in the pavement with each step. The normal humans going about their peaceful lives gave him a wide berth as he did so. He realized that he stood out, wearing so much heavy armor in a civilian area, but there was nothing he could do about that. At least he had made sure to wash most of the Demon blood off of his armor before he left the building he had found himself in after walking through that strange rainbow portal. He kept marching down the sidewalk, he didn''t have a particular destination in mind. He was simply exploring this peaceful human city. A few city blocks away from his location, he saw trees. Actual trees... He''d spent so much time on Mars, and then in Hell, that he almost forgot what they looked like. He decided to go and look at them up close. He was in a peaceful world with no Demons in sight so far, he figured this was a good time to take a short break while he had the chance. Knowing his luck, a portal to Hell was sure to spring up sometime soon and then he would be back to fighting... ¡°That''s an awesome costume, man!¡± a guy called out to him when he reached the entrance to the public park. ¡°Are you a new hero, like that spider-dude? Are you out on patrol?¡± The Doom Slayer paused for a moment. He was not used to speaking. He couldn¡¯t even remember the last time he held a proper conversation with another person. Most humans he had met the past few years either wanted to experiment on him or they were already possessed by monsters from Hell and he had to put them all down. ¡°Yes.¡± He gave a one word response... ¡°Good on you, man! This City¡¯s been getting extra weird lately. It¡¯s good to have another hero patrolling the streets. Layla of the Fallen and Iron Man keep the most dangerous bad guys out of the city, but they don¡¯t usually go after street level criminals,¡± The guy explained. The Doom Slayer had no idea what he was talking about. ¡°Yes...¡± He answered again underneath his helmet. ¡°I won''t take up any more of a hero¡¯s time! Good luck, man! Thanks for looking out for us!¡± The guy thanked Doom Slayer before wandering off. The Doom Slayer never considered himself a Hero, but it was nice to be thanked by someone after everything he had been through. He would like to know more about the other supposed heroes of the City as well. He wondered if they could help him figure out what was going on, and how he ended up here? ¡°Now that Asia¡¯s healed you, it¡¯s time to answer some questions! How come you¡¯re in the park? What¡¯s with the crazy armor you''re wearing? You look like you''re ready for war!¡± Heather pointed a finger at him accusingly. He was ready for war. He was always ready at this point. ¡°...I''m waiting,¡± he told Heather and Asia. Asia tilted her head. ¡°Waiting for what?¡± ¡°A portal.¡± Was his curt reply. Heather frowned. ¡°A portal? A portal to where?¡± ¡°Hell...¡± he told them. Heather and Asia both blanched at him and took a few steps back. Asia looked afraid while Heather gripped the stick in her hand tightly. They were both shocked by his answer. He figured, as real Angels, they and the forces of Hell should be sworn enemies. Judging by their reactions, he figured he was right. ¡°Why are you waiting for a portal to Hell!?¡± Heather asked in shock. ¡°Are you working for Mephisto!?¡± She pointed her stick at him accusingly. He had never heard that name before. ¡°No,¡± He said while not moving from his tree. He wasn¡¯t threatened by the teenage girl or her strange stick. He had faced far worse and come out on top. ¡°Portals to Hell are bad.¡± Asia told him. ¡°If you know about one, then you should tell us. We can tell Layla about it!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about one. That¡¯s why I''m waiting,¡± he explained the obvious to them. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of Mephisto or Layla.¡± He added. That was the most he¡¯d spoken in a long time... ¡°H¨CHuh!? What!? That doesn¡¯t make any sense!¡± Heather stamped her foot on the grass in irritation. ¡°You¡¯re just sitting in the middle of central park waiting for a random portal to Hell to open up!?¡± ¡°Yes...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think a random portal to Hell is going to spring up anytime soon...¡± Asia said to him with a short pause. ¡°The world has been pretty peaceful for the past year after the alien invasion in California failed.¡± She explained while taking a calming breath. Next to her, Heather stopped pointing her stick at him. ¡®A failed alien Invasion?¡¯ He made a mental note to learn more about that later. He didn¡¯t bother correcting Asia about a Portal to Hell not randomly popping up either. ¡®They always popped up randomly...¡¯ he thought to himself. Heather grabbed Asia¡¯s arm and started to drag her away. ¡°Come on, Asia. This guy is clearly crazy. He must be suffering from PTSD or something.¡± Asia gasped. ¡°If he is, then we should find someone else to help him! My Sacred Gear can¡¯t heal minds.¡± Asia said solemnly. ¡°We can call someone for him later.¡± Heather said. ¡°It''s a nice day outside and we were supposed to go shopping! There aren¡¯t going to be any random portals to Hell opening up and ruining our day tod¨C¡± BOOM! Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed across half of the city! A few blocks away, the top of a nearby skyscraper was blown to pieces! A few of the upper floors were blown away by a strange green energy. A strange green energy that looked oddly reminiscent of a portal... ¡°Holy shit!¡± ¡°Oh no, is it another terrorist attack!?¡± ¡°We gotta get out of here! Grab the kids and get to the car!¡± Other people in the park heard the loud explosion and saw the destruction as well. Most of the smarter people started to run away immediately. Of course, there were still plenty who stuck around and started filming with their phones. ¡°I think that was the Baxter building that just blew up,¡± Asia said. ¡°The science guy who always fails to compete with Tony and Andrea lives there...¡± ¡°...Fuck,¡± Heather said out loud as she gazed up at the destruction and the random portal that appeared at the top of the Baxter building. Doom Slayer stood up and unslung the shotgun that was strapped to his back. He started loading some shells from his ammo pack. He shook his head, of course he was right. A random portal had appeared in the middle of this city, and something told him it wouldn''t be long before demons and monsters started spilling out of it. He walked past the two stunned Angels. ¡°Wait!? Where are you going!?¡± Heather called out behind his back. ¡°Time to go to work,¡± he said as he marched towards the chaos. XXX Chapter 257 Chapter 257 Chapter 257: ¡°Here you are, Layla.¡± Artemis placed a mug of freshly brewed coffee on the table. Artemis had been acting a lot less ¡®Tsun¡¯ and a lot more ¡®dere¡¯ ever since I had agreed to go on a date with her in the future. I picked up the mug and took a sip. ¡°Mmmm, that''s good stuff. Thank you, Artemis.¡± Artemis always made the best coffee. I''m pretty sure the reason for that was because instead of adding cream she added ambrosia. The nectar of the gods. It definitely lived up to the hype. ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± she told me before heading back into the kitchen to help Hestia cook breakfast for everybody. As I was sipping on my coffee, Carol sat down next to me at the table. She let out a yawn. ¡°Good morning. The bed was so comfortable I almost didn''t want to wake up.¡± ¡°That''s probably because of Hestia. All of the furniture in our home becomes much more comfortable and homey thanks to her presence,¡± I pointed to Hestia over in the kitchen. She was in the middle of cooking breakfast for everyone. Of course, she could have simply conjured up food easily with magic, but where was the fun in that? ¡°Thank you, Hestia,¡± Carol said with a small wave. ¡°You''re welcome!¡± Hestia replied without turning around. ¡°So, what''s the plan for today?¡± Carol asked me. ¡°I thought we could have some fun. We could go shopping, and explore the city,¡± I told Carol. ¡°How long will you be able to stay for?¡± I asked her. I was interested in taking some time to get to know her more. She was definitely one of the busiest women I''d ever met though. [I think she gets into fights more often than you do. Now that''s saying something!]CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m ¡°I should be fine for a few days,¡± Carol replied while brushing a stray hair behind her ear. ¡°I don''t expect the Galaxy to fall apart that soon without me. Would it be just the two of us?¡± Carol asked me curiously. [She''s asking you whether or not you''re asking her out on a date.] ¡®I obviously know that, System!¡¯ [Alright, sheesh. Just trying to be helpful...] ¡®Thank you, but your help is not needed...¡¯ [I''m gonna give it anyway! You have a thing for blondes, tell her you love her long blonde hair. Don''t let her cut it like she did during the Avengers. That looked absolutely horrible!] ¡®I agree, but I''m not going to say that out of nowhere! It would come off as weird!¡¯ I berated the System. Sometimes, the System could be extra annoying. Like now, when it was trying to give me romantic advice. ¡°Yes, it would be just the two of us,¡± I told Carol. ¡°The rest of my family will be busy for the next few days. Rias and Sona are preparing for a visit from their families. I''m not sure what Nebula is up to, but I think she wants to explore Earth on her own for a bit. If anyone asks her, I told her to tell them that her blue skin is because she¡¯s a mutant and not an alien,¡± I explained to Carol. The people of Earth had mixed feelings about aliens at the moment. They loved the Asgardians, who have been completely peaceful with us all, but they don¡¯t trust other aliens. To be honest, that was probably for the best. Most of the other races in the galaxy sucked... ... After enjoying a delicious homemade breakfast, I took Carol out into the city on an impromptu date. It had been a long time since she¡¯d been caught up with Earth fashion, so we started there. We visited clothing store after clothing store for an hour straight. I bought her whatever she was interested in. Carol initially wasn¡¯t comfortable with me spending so much money on her, at least that was until I pointed out how I could literally create gold anytime I wanted with Creation of all Things. Following that, we went to go and look at high end sports cars. We visited the most expensive dealership in the city. The kind where the supercars they sold started in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Carol liked driving fast cars almost as much as she did flying. We took a few test drives but didn¡¯t end up purchasing anything. It wasn¡¯t like Carol could drive anything in space, and I wasn¡¯t that interested in owning a car myself. When I could run faster than even the fastest race car, driving fast wasn¡¯t enticing for me anymore. I was much more interested in my Warship sitting up in orbit. Despite us not buying anything in the end, the salesman and the dealership didn¡¯t seem to mind us wasting their time. The fact that I showed up at the dealership in person was guaranteed to boost their business for the foreseeable future. ¡°That was fun!¡± Carol said with a grin as we left the dealership. The two of us were both floating in the air, dozens of meters above the streets. ¡°Technology has come so far since I left the planet!¡± ¡°It definitely has,¡± I said. ¡°Our world is full of geniuses who¡¯ve propelled our technology forwards by a few decades. If you thought driving those super cars was fun, you should try the Iron Woman suit! Andrea let me take it for a spin once, now that was exhilarating!¡± I gave Carol a brief rundown on Andrea and Tony Stark. She hadn¡¯t heard of Iron Man or Woman and was very impressed by my descriptions of them. ¡°A suit that can turn an ordinary human into a near unstoppable force? That¡¯s amazing! Do these two live in New York?¡± Carol asked me. ¡°Sometimes,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Tony and Andrea have properties all over the world. They kind of live wherever they feel like at the moment. Most of the time they are in New York, but they also spend a lot of time at Tony¡¯s Mansion in Malibu.¡± Carol sighed wistfully when I mentioned the beach house. ¡°A mansion on the beach... Now that¡¯s the high life right there! How come you don¡¯t live like that, Layla?¡± ¡°I actually prefer city life,¡± I explained. ¡°Angels and Fallen Angels were both very social beings. We like to live around large groups. Heaven and the Grigori were both crowded, but nobody minded. We all preferred it that way actually.¡± That was also one of the reasons I probably felt so at home on Asgard as well. Their entire population lived in one mega city. Since it was approaching noon, the two of us decided to land and get some lunch. We spotted a small cafe underneath us. ¡°Oh my God...¡± The hostess trailed off and stared at me in silence. I let out a small cough to snap her out of it. ¡°I''m so sorry! W¨CWelcome L¨CLady Layla, w¨Cwhere would you like to sit?¡± The hostess sputtered when Carol and I both landed directly in front of her. Her eyes were practically locked onto the wings on my back. As soon as we¡¯d landed, we¡¯d obviously started drawing attention from people on the street as well. The woes of being internationally famous... [And worshiped...] ¡°Eeep! Ouchy!¡± Two beings ended up falling out of my portal and landing on their butts. They both quickly stood up and playfully glared at me while rubbing their behinds. ¡°What was that for, Layla? You didn¡¯t have to kidnap us from heaven if you wanted to talk to us!¡± Gabriel scolded me. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again, sister,¡± Michael said as he gave me a hug. It had been a while since I had seen my oldest brother in person. Unfortunately, we didn¡¯t have time to do any catching up. I gently pushed Michael off of me and pointed up into the sky. ¡°A portal to one of the hells opened up above New York! Demon¡¯s are invading!¡± Gabriel and Michael both gaped at where I was pointing. A second later, they both snapped out of their shock and took on looks of determination. Bright halos bloomed above their heads as they spread out their majestic white and golden wings. ¡°The forces of hell are not welcome to set foot upon fathers creation! How dare they!¡± Gabriel¡¯s innocent expression vanished. ¡°We shall drive them back together, Sisters!¡± Michael had the same look of determination. He flapped his golden wings and rocketed into the air. A golden sword of Light formed in his right hand. With a single swing, hundreds of demons were erased from existence! Gabriel rocket in the air right after him, she was dual wielding Lightspears and immediately joined the fight. ¡°W¨CWere those the Archangels Gabriel and Michael!?¡± Carol sputtered at me in shock. ¡°You can just casually call on them!?¡± ¡°I smirked at her, I sure can! Are you up for killing some demons with us?¡± I asked her. My fourteen wings appeared behind me as I summoned a purple spear in each hand. The crowds of humans nearby started to cheer for us! A Cosmic aura of power surrounded Carol as she levitated off the ground. ¡°Do you even have to ask?¡± We both rocketed into the sky and started laying waste to the hordes of imps. They picked the wrong city to invade! ... ¨CHeather Potter¨C Heather stared at the New York skyline in shock. Thousands of demonic red imps were pouring out of the portal into the air above the city! It was an invasion! It didn¡¯t take very long for pandemonium to ensue. People everywhere started screaming and running in every direction to escape. It didn¡¯t help that the Baxter building happened to be closed to central park. It didn¡¯t take long for the invading army of imps to notice all of the terrified humans below them. They dove down to start attacking everyone in sight! ¡°There was actually a portal to hell...¡± Asia pointed out. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ¡°Who the hell is this guy!?¡± Heather asked out loud in shock. In only a few seconds, dozens of imps had already been slain. The green armored man didn¡¯t even hesitate to start killing them all as they swooped down... ¡°He¡¯s r¨Creally good at killing demons...¡± Asia trailed off. She looked a bit green. She had never seen the levels of violence being displayed in front of them. ¡°John¡±, or the Doom Slayer, was tearing through hordes of demons as if they were nothing. To Heather, the man was an absolute unstoppable force of nature. Imps were blown to pieces with his shotgun, and when that ran out of ammo, he started ripping them apart with his bare hands and using their very bones as impromptu weapons to beat and stab them all to death... ¡°Graaahh!¡± Heather watched the man tear the horns off of a demon and use them to gouge the hellspawns own eyes out! ¡°W-We need to help him!¡± Asia said nervously, but with a look of determination. She wasn¡¯t a fighter, but a golden Lightspear formed in her hands regardless. Asia threw it towards a demon that was trying to attack the Doom Slayer from behind! Puchi! Her blow struck true and impaled the flying red imp from behind. The Light purged it from existence as it disappeared into a pile of ash. The Lightspear cluttered to the ground next to the Doom Slayer. To Asia and Heather¡¯s surprise, the armored man picked her Lightspear up and started using it as his next weapon! ¡°He can actually hold a Lightspear without being burned!?¡± Heather asked in shock. ¡°That must mean that he¡¯s a good guy!¡± Asia cheered. ¡°I was right about him! Cmon!¡± Asia flew down and landed next to the Doom Slayer. Another Lightspear was already in her hands. She did her best to fight off the swarm of imps attacking them as they continued to push their way towards the Baxter building. Not wanting to be outdone, Heather pulled out her wand and started raining lethal spells on the hordes of hell! ¡°Bombarda, Diffindo, Reducto, Incendio!¡± She landed next to Asia and the Doomslayer and started fighting alongside them. ¡°Never fought with other people before, much less Angels...¡± the Doomslayer said. ¡°This spear is a pretty good weapon though.¡± He grabbed an imp out of the air right before it could stab him with its black pitchfork. The Doom Slayer shoved the golden spear up the imps ass out of spite. He let out a chuckle at the demon''s horrified look before it turned to ash. ¡°The portal to hell is on the roof.¡± He told the two angels next to him. ¡°We have to get up there and stop this!¡± Heather exclaimed as they finished purging all of the imps around them. They had a momentary reprieve. The Doom Slayer nodded at her. He gripped Asia¡¯s Lightspear in his hand as they all made their way towards the Baxter building. ¡°This spear is nice, but I prefer guns...¡± ¡°There''s a hunting and fishing shop down the street,¡± Asia said helpfully. ¡°I think they have shotguns for hunting...?¡± ¡°That¡¯ll have to work for now,¡± he replied as they took a quick detour for him to load up on weapons and ammo. XXX Chapter 258 Chapter 258 Chapter 258: ¨CReed Richards¨C Reed groggily woke up with blurry vision and an aching head. ¡°What happened...?¡± ¡°You really screwed the pooch on this one, Reed,¡± Johnny Storm said next to him. Reed blinked his eyes a few times to clear his vision. They were in the ruined remains of the Baxter Building after the portal he built had randomly exploded. Above them was a glowing green portal that seemed to have self-stabilized. Hundreds of smaller red demons were spilling out of the portal and into the city. ¡°Johnny? Is everyone okay...?¡± Reed asked hesitantly. It was all starting to come back to him. ¡°I don''t know what happened. The portal to the Negative Zone worked the first time we used it! Why did it blow up this time?¡± ¡°We''re okay, Stretch. We''re all just a bit tied up at the moment,¡± Ben Grimm, The Thing, said. Reed glanced down and noticed that he, and the rest of the Fantastic Four, were tied up with some kind of black chains. Reed tried to use his powers to slip out of the chains. To his shock, his powers weren''t working! ¡°Why are we tied up? Why won''t my powers work?¡± he asked in panic. ¡°The chains somehow stop us from using our powers. We''ve all been captured,¡± Susan Storm said with a sigh. ¡°We''ve only been superheroes for a few months now and this is already the fifth time I''ve been tied up!¡± she lamented. ¡°Kinky! I love bondage myself!¡± A new voice spoke up with a laugh. A demoness with red skin, devil wings, and two large horns on her head strutted over towards them. She held herself with pure confidence and looked at the four of them like they were her new toys. ¡°Who are you? Why did you capture us? And why are you invading New York? You won''t get away with this! We''ll stop you!¡± Reed declared to her. ¡°That''s right, bitch!¡± Johnny added. ¡°If it weren''t for these chains, I would have roasted you already!¡± ¡°I''ll clobber you into next week!¡± The Thing added. The demoness chuckled at all of their bravado. ¡°You may refer to me as Jezebel. I am your new mistress, and you four are now my eternal slaves,¡± she told them with a grin. ¡°I¡¯m going to have so much fun breaking you all in!¡± ¡°You¡¯re hot, but I''m not interested in being anyone¡¯s property. Can I pass?¡± Johnny asked with a cocky grin. Jezebel gazed at Johnny teasingly. ¡°Nope.¡± She pointed her hand at him. A stream of lightning poured from her palm and slammed into Johnny¡¯s chest. The hair on his head stood up as rampant voltage poured into him. He let out a scream of agony. ¡°Fuck you, bitch!¡± ¡°Stop it! Why are you doing this?¡± Reed exclaimed. Jezebel closed her hand and the stream of lightning cut off. Johnny slumped forward and groaned in pain. ¡°Why am I doing this? Because I obviously feel like it,¡± she said with a carefree shrug, as if she didn¡¯t just torture Johnny in front of everyone. ¡°What did you think would happen? You opened a portal directly to Hell! Directly in front of my father¡¯s palace, I might add! Of course we would get curious and decide to come out and play,¡± she explained cheerfully. ¡°H¨CHell!?¡± Reed sputtered in disbelief. He had always been a man of science. He never believed Hell existed. He was one of the few ¡®rational people¡¯ left in the world who still didn¡¯t believe Layla was even a real Angel! ¡°You¡¯re lying!¡± he glared at her. ¡°Hell isn¡¯t real, you''re just some red-skinned alien!¡± Unlike him, his three friends seemed to believe her words immediately. ¡°Good going, Reed! You opened a portal to literal Hell!¡± Johnny chastised him while taking some deep breaths to recover himself. ¡°This is so much worse than when you almost killed us all with that rushed spaceship!¡± ¡°Shit, is this the apocalypse?¡± The Thing muttered dejectedly. ¡°Not your best work there, boss.¡± ¡°A portal to Hell? Reed, how could you be so irresponsible!¡± Susan berated him while wriggling against her bonds. ¡°We have to escape, we have to help!¡± ¡°Don''t worry, everyone. I''ll fix this! We''ll stop these lying aliens and I''ll close the portal! The people of New York will love us again! We''ll be real heroes!¡± Reed said while nodding to himself. He already had a few ideas on how to close that self-sustaining portal. All he had to do was escape the chains that bound them all first. ¡°Good luck with that,¡± Jezebel told them as she turned around and started walking away. ¡°I have an army of demons to give orders to and a report to make to my father. Once I''ve finished all that, I''ll be back for you all, my new pets. Watch them!¡± Jezebel commanded a few nearby imps who had been standing guard. The imps nodded at her fearfully while clutching their pitchforks. ¡°You¡¯re just going to leave us here!?¡± Johnny asked in disbelief. ¡°As if you pathetic lower lifeforms have any chance of escaping from chains forged in Hell.¡± She laughed at them while spreading her red bat-like wings. She took off into the air and passed back through the portal. Reed scowled as he watched her temporarily return to Hell. Jezebel reminded Reed of that ¡®arrogant asshole¡¯ Tony Stark! Tony always looked down on Reed, just like the demoness was doing to them. She didn¡¯t even bother killing them because they were nothing in her eyes! In fact, Reed felt like the whole world treated him that way as well! He was tired of being mocked and looked down upon. He was the smartest man in the world! ... ¨CLayla¨C ¡°Die Angel!¡± ¡°Kill the enemy!¡± ¡°Graaah!¡± A group of three flying red imps holding black pitchforks rushed me at the same time. They were the most stereotypical looking demons I''d ever laid eyes on. {Nameless Minion of Hell, Imp: Level 15} They were remarkably out of their league. They were so weak that they probably couldn¡¯t even sense how high I was above them. My Lightspear flashed out faster than the speed of sound. The three imps were vaporized without knowing what killed them. ¡°These annoying imps just keep coming,¡± I growled while reeling my arm backwards. My Lightspear flew out of my hand and slew another five imps. ¡°I can''t go all out either because we''re in the middle of a crowded city,¡± I lamented with a huff. Every single building nearby was filled with people who had quickly gotten off the streets. ¡°Begone, Hellspawn!¡± Gabriel cried out. A burst of pure Light flashed out from her being. It spread out for a few hundred meters and killed every single imp it touched. The buildings the Light touched remained completely unharmed. That was an incredibly useful AOE attack. I''d need to get Gabriel to teach me that later. Every powerful attack I had in my arsenal caused far too much collateral damage. High in the sky, my big brother Michael was dealing even more devastation to the demon army. He was currently battling tens of thousands of imps at once and easily holding his own! He was purging hundreds of the foul creatures every few seconds. With the streets mostly cleared and the majority of humans safely hiding away in buildings, I decided to go take a look at the giant green portal hovering directly above the partially destroyed Baxter building. [What are the odds the Fantastic Four are the cause of this mess?] I snorted. ¡°100 percent, obviously. The Fantastic Four are kind of morons to be honest.¡± Most of their fights in the comics are started because Reed likes to open random portals to dimensions he shouldn''t be messing with. ¡°They''ll have to answer for this invasion later... If they are still alive that is.¡± This world wasn¡¯t a movie. People were going to be pissed off once we fought off the invasion. They were going to look for someone to blame, and that was obviously going to be the Fantastic Four¨Cmainly Reed Richards. A person can¡¯t just cause a demonic invasion and walk away scot-free afterwards... I flapped my wings and took off towards the center of the city. I had to take a couple of detours to save a few strangling humans who weren''t getting safety for some reason. ¡°Get inside, you morons! These demons will kill you and eat you... And possibly not in that order!¡± I yelled at a couple of dumb teenagers who were filming the invasion with their phones. ¡°Surrender or well gut these four!¡± Another few imps had taken a small group of human hostages. Well... three humans and some kind of ¡®strange orange rock man.¡¯ The imps were holding black pitchforks up to the hostages throats. ¡°Cool armor, man! Where did you get it?¡± One of the hostages asked him as if his life wasn¡¯t in danger. ¡°Shut up, Johny! Now is not the time for your dumb questions. We don¡¯t even know if this guy is here to save us!¡± A striking blonde woman hissed at the guy who had spoken up first. ¡°Mars...¡± The Doom Slayer didn¡¯t mind answering the question. That¡¯s where he had first dawned the Praetor Suit. It wasn¡¯t exactly a secret. ¡°Woah, Mars!? That¡¯s awesome!¡± Johnny said with a grin before turning to his sister. ¡°You need to chill out, Susan. That time we got captured by Annihilus was way scarier than this!¡± ¡°Mars, huh? I always wanted to go to mars myself. I was an astronaut before I became this...¡± The orange rock man sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are, but we don¡¯t need your help! I assure you that I have everything in hand! All of this was an experiment that went slightly wrong, I assure you that I¡¯ll have everything fixed soon enough,¡± the last hostage said in a condescending tone. His tone reminded the Doom Slayer of the arrogant scientists who had caused the destruction of Mars by experimenting with portals they didn¡¯t understand¨Cthe exact same thing that had obviously happened here. ¡°SILENCE, HUMANS! No more talking or I''ll slit your throats!¡± The imp spat out as it pushed the tip of its pitchfork up against Johnsy¡¯s throat. A small trail of blood started leaking down his neck and he shut up. ¡°Drop your weapon, armored human!¡± it yelled at the Doom Slayer once again. The helmet he was wearing hid the frown on the Doom Slayer''s face. A hostage situation... He was not exactly used to dealing with these. Usually it was just him against hordes of demons. The reason he ran ahead of the two young Angel¡¯s was to avoid this kind of situation in the first place. Still, the lives of three humans, and whatever the rock guy was, were not equal to the millions that would die if the portal wasn¡¯t closed soon. With his decision made, he cocked his shotgun and pointed it at the demons. ¡°W-What are you doing, human!?¡± the first imp asked fearfully. ¡°Don''t you see we h-have hostages!?¡± another trembled. ¡°No deal,¡± the Doom Slayer said while pulling the trigger. He aimed at the imp holding the beautiful woman hostage first. As a soldier, he was trained to save women or children before everyone else. The top of the imp¡¯s head popped like a balloon as the 12 gauge slug hit with perfect accuracy. Susan let out a shriek as she was covered in demonic blood and brain matter. ¡°Fuck! This h-human is crazy!¡± ¡°R¨CRun for it!¡± Apparently, he had called their bluff. Instead of killing the hostages, the imps dropped their weapons and fled as quickly as they could. He fired a couple more slugs and picked a few of them out of the air before they could get away. ¡°Shit... That was a close one.¡± Johnny said with a laugh. ¡°Are you okay, sis?¡± ¡°Ewww, I''m covered in disgusting demon blood!¡± she said with a scowl. She glared at the Doom Slayer. ¡°How could you just open fire like that!? What if you had shot me by accident!?¡± she demanded to know. ¡°I didn¡¯t,¡± he said coolly while walking over to her. She huffed at him one last time before thanking him for saving her. He grabbed the chains around her body and easily ripped them apart. Once she was free, he moved over to her younger brother and the rock guy. ¡°How¡¯d you do that!? Even I can break out of these chains!¡± the rock guy exclaimed. ¡°Thanks for the save by the way. People call me The Thing, but the name¡¯s Ben.¡± ¡°I''m stronger than you...¡± He smirked at Ben under his helmet. ¡°Hah! I like your moxie! How about we get some payback and clobber these demons!?¡± Ben suggested. He smashed his fists together and smirked. ¡°Hell yeah! I''m going to roast these assholes! The only reason they even caught us was because the explosion knocked us all out!¡± Johnny said with a grin. The Doom Slayer noticed that some small flames and sparks appeared around Johnny¡¯s body. That was a strange ability. ¡°Excuse me, aren¡¯t you forgetting someone?¡± the scientist whined at them all. He was still tied up on the floor. The Doom Slayer had not forgotten him. ¡°Hang on, Reed. I''ll get you out¨C¡± Ben started walking over but stopped when the Doom Slayer placed his hand on the orange man¡¯s shoulder. The Doom Slayer shook his head. ¡°No. He stays tied up. He caused this mess. He will answer for it.¡± he said, completely serious. ¡°W¨CWhat!? No! You can¡¯t pin this on me! This wasn¡¯t my fault! I was just trying to advance science. Sometimes that comes with risks that can¡¯t be avoided.¡± Reed tried to defend himself. ¡°You''re just the same as them...¡± the Doom Slayer said. There were other people who worked in this building besides these four. On the way up to the roof, he had come across dozens of human corpses that had been torn apart and partially eaten... ¡°I''m not the same as anyone! I''m Reed Richards! The smartest man in the world¨C¡± WOOSH! Reed was cut off when a new woman crashed down onto the roof! The Doom Slayer pointed his shotgun at her quickly before lowering it. It wasn¡¯t a demon. It was an incredibly beautiful woman with 14 black wings. Another Angel, one clearly older and more powerful than the two he had left a few floors down. ¡°Fuck...¡± Reed muttered out loud when he noticed who had just arrived. ¡°Hello, everyone,¡± the black winged woman said while glancing around the rooftop. ¡°I expected there to be a lot more demons up here. Maybe even the leader or something? Where are they?¡± ¡°H¨CHi, Layla. N¨CNice to meet you finally,¡± Susan replied nervously as if she was meeting a celebrity. ¡°The demon bitch went back through the portal to report to her father or something!¡± Johnny explained. ¡°She said she would be back soon though,¡± he added. Layla nodded at Johnny before turning to the Doom Slayer. ¡°You look vaguely familiar to me, but I don''t believe we¡¯ve met. I am Layla of the Fallen. Who might you be?¡± she asked him while holding out her hand to shake. ¡°John,¡± he shook her hand and actually winced at her grip. She was MUCH stronger than he was expecting. He mentally upped her threat rating from dangerous to incredibly dangerous in his head. She didn¡¯t seem particularly hostile to him though. ¡°You haven''t seen my daughter Heather and my niece Asia anywhere nearby have you, John?¡± she asked him while letting go of his hand. He figured she was related to the two other Angel¡¯s in some way. ¡°They¡¯re a few floors down,¡± he told her and she let out a sigh of relief. ¡°There''s so much demonic taint around this building that it''s difficult to sense them,¡± she explained. Layla tilted her head upwards towards the portal above them. ¡°Of course it''s him!¡± Layla spat out hatefully. The Doom Slayer noticed that the hordes of imps had temporarily stopped pouring out of it. In fact, almost all of the imps around the building were starting to flee in every direction as quickly as possible! Two beings exited the portal. Both of them were bright red, but much taller than any of the imps he¡¯d fought so far. It was a man and a woman. ¡°Jezebel is back. Is that her old man with her?¡± Johnny asked out loud. ¡°He looks kind of scary...¡± he trailed off fearfully. The demonic man smiled at the Angel menacingly. ¡°...Layla! What a pleasant surprise! I never would have suspected it would be so easy to access your Earth! This portal is so convenient! The Ancient One¡¯s barriers usually kept me out of this world for hundreds of years after all...¡± he trailed off with a chuckle before noticing everyone else. ¡°Oh, where are my manors? The rest of you ants don¡¯t know who I am, do you?¡± he said with a dark chuckle. ¡°Bow down, worms! This is my father, Mephisto! The ruler of Hell, lord of all demons, and the conqueror of this world. Kneel down and pledge your eternal souls to him. Accept your status as eternal slaves!¡± Jezebel said to them all domineeringly. ¡°No,¡± the Doom Slayer said before taking aim and shooting her directly in the face. XXX chapter 259 chapter 259 Chapter 259: Bang! The female demon¡¯s head whipped backwards as she was blasted in the face with a slug round. I think the armored guy actually nailed her directly in the eye... It took me a second to remember how I even recognized the armored guy. He looked vaguely familiar to me. I know I had seen him before. [You have, on a tv screen...back in your past life...] ¡®Wait... Doom Slayer?¡¯ I asked in disbelief. [Yep. I¡¯m just as surprised as you are.] It was actually the real Doom Slayer!? What the hell was he doing in our world¨Cno, our Universe!? Was there an obvious crossover I skipped over this past year or did he just spring up out of nowhere? [Lady Death told you that you broke Space and Time. Maybe that brought him here?] ¡®I was expecting some alternate versions of some Marvel heroes to pop up, I wasn''t expecting a video game character to pop into reality!¡¯ I replied in my head. ¡°Ow, my eye! That freaking stings, you asshole!¡± the female demon shrieked at Doom Slayer in outrage. Her eye looked a bit red, but otherwise was completely fine. Regular human weapons just didn''t have enough firepower to put down higher level beings. ¡°Now now, Jezebel. No need to get so upset about getting hit by a pathetic mortal weapon.¡± Mephisto chastised his¨Cdaughter? She looked like a female version of him so I suspected they were related. She also seemed to be a chip off the old block. {Daughter of the Devil, Jezebel: Level 66} Jezebel pouted at her father. ¡°How about I shoot you in the eye and you''ll find out what it feels like!?¡± Mephisto laughed. ¡°I''ve been shot and stabbed in pretty much every single possible location over the millions of years I''ve been around. At this point, nothing can hurt me,¡± Mephisto said while glancing down at all of us. He was trying to intimidate us by mentioning his age and his made up ¡°invulnerability.¡± [What a liar! He was screaming like a baby after the last time you kicked his ass!] That wasn''t exactly a surprise. Mephisto lies about everything. That''s pretty much his thing. Doom Slayer glanced down at the gun in his hands. I couldn''t see his face with his helmet on, but I could imagine he was disappointed with its performance just now. A perfect headshot barely even scratched Jezebel. ¡°Try this instead.¡± I reached into my inventory and pulled out a few alien rifles I had swiped while I was on Knowhere. They were energy based weapons that I suspected were nuclear powered, so they never ran out of ammo. I tossed him an energy shotgun and assault rifle. ¡°Thanks.¡± Doom Slayer nodded at me. He slung the shotgun over his shoulder and aimed the assault rifle at Mephisto. ¡°Does this hurt?¡± Doom Slayer asked before squeezing the trigger. Mephisto had been talking tough only a few seconds ago, so I found it hilarious when he started letting out yelps of pain. I swiped those weapons from the Collector¡¯s collection and they packed a pretty decent punch. ¡°Fuck¨Cow!¡± Mephisto yelled while being pelted by high speed semi-nuclear laser fire. Doom Slayer held down the trigger until the gun started to overheat and had to temporarily shut itself off. Mephisto was covered in welts that were already starting to heal, but he was no longer smiling so proudly. ¡°I''m going to kill you first!¡± he exclaimed while pointing a sharp fingernail at the Doom Slayer. ¡°Heh! I told you it fucking hurts!¡± Jezebel laughed at her old man. I flapped my wings and placed myself in the air between Mephisto and the Doom Slayer. I knew the latter was powerful, but he wasn¡¯t ready for the top of this Universe quite yet. ¡°You won''t be getting the opportunity today, Mephisto. You''re going to regret showing up in my world in your real body,¡± I declared while crossing my arms over my chest. ¡°Yeah! You tell him hot stuff!¡± Johnny Storm cheered from below. ¡°Flame on!¡± he yelled and rocketed directly at Mephisto. ¡°Prepare to get wrecked¨Curgh!¡± Mephisto lazily swung his arm and smacked the Human Torch away from himself. Johnny blasted off, careening into a nearby skyscraper. He was lucky Mephisto didn''t take him seriously, or he could have been seriously hurt trying to take on someone so many levels above him. {The Human Torch, Johnny Storm: Level 56} Mephisto barely gave Johnny a second glance before he scoffed at my bravado. ¡°You were lucky you only had to face a weak avatar of mine the last time we met.¡± He spread his arms to the sides challengingly. ¡°Now you face the real me!¡± he proclaimed as malevolent energy began to surround his entire body. {The Devil of Marvel, Mephisto: Level 168 (Avatar)} I scoffed right back at him after using Observe. Of course he was too cowardly to invade Earth in his main body. Once again he was using an Avatar, although I suspected this to be one of most powerful bodies¨Cif not his most powerful Avatar. Losing it would definitely set him back quite a bit. {Emergency Quest Initiated! Repel or slay Mephisto¡¯s Avatar and save New York City before he drags it into his Hell Dimension!} {Reward: Level up x 3! & An Ultimate Skill!} ¡°Status,¡± I thought to myself. I expected this to be a big fight, and I wasn¡¯t going to hold back anything. Mephisto was going to regret thinking he could invade my home city with no consequences. [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 97] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 117,000] [MP: 120,000¡ú130,000] [Faith Energy: 5,345,678]Alll latest novels at novelhall.com [Vigor: 10,300] [Strength: 5,200] [Intelligence: 12,200¡ú13,000] [Luck: 2300¡ú2500] [Available Free Stat Points: 1000¡ú0] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) ¡°Nice one, sis! Flame on!¡± Johnny called out as he started roasting them alive. It turned out that burning demons did not smell nice... ¡°It¡¯s clobberin time!¡± Ben leapt past Johnny¡¯s flames and started smashing some demon heads as well. Their pitchforks harmlessly bounced off of his rock hard skin. ¡°Good job,¡± Susan said. ¡°We¡¯re not done yet though.¡± The smell of blood and sounds of fighting had attracted a few more squads of Imps to their location. Despite being surrounded by demons from hell and fighting for her life, Susan actually found herself smiling. She found the fighting to be cathartic in a way. She realized that this was the first battle she¡¯d ever been in where Reed wasn¡¯t barking out annoying orders to everyone mid fight. In fact, without Reed¡¯s constant yelling distracting them, Susan found that the three of them were fighting as a much more cohesive unit. They were tearing through any demons that came at them with ferocious precision. ¡®The Fantastic Four were no more, but the Fantastic Three might turn out even better than the original.¡¯ Susan thought to herself. ... ¨CLayla¨C [You¡¯re going to need to learn how to properly use a Katana at some point. You¡¯re just swinging the thing like it''s a bat.] ¡®I¡¯m doing my best, System! I¡¯m used to spears, not swords!¡¯ I thought back with some snark. Clang! Clang! Clang! My Asauchi clashed against Mephisto¡¯s flaming sword over and over in the sky. I hadn¡¯t been able to land a solid hit yet to really hurt him. I did have a few opportunities to land some light cuts on him, but I held back on all of them. As soon as my Asauchi makes contact with him, he¡¯ll be aware of just how dangerous my new weapon is against him. I didn¡¯t know if I would get more than one shot on him with it. ¡°Is this all you¡¯ve got, Layla of the Fallen? I expected more!¡± Mephisto taunted me as he blocked my overhead strike. I was begrudgingly impressed by his strength. He was matching me blow for blow. {-500HP!} Air left my lungs as he landed a solid kick directly in my diaphragm. Of course, as an edgelord supervillain/devil, Mephisto was wearing boots covered in metal spikes. Metal spikes that stabbed me when his kick landed. {You have been poisoned! -50 HP/Second!} And of course, he poisoned his freaking shoes... ¡°Not even the special poison I prepared for you seems to be working. I have to say, Layla, that you have the strangest physiology I¡¯ve ever come across. All of your injuries end up disappearing within seconds.¡± Mephisto commented while observing the puncture wounds in my stomach fade away. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to rip the secrets of your body out of your corpse. Maybe I¡¯ll even resurrect you as my zombie sex slave once I''m done with you.¡± he added with a chuckle. ¡°Almighty Push!¡± I hastily threw out my hand and blasted him off of me. ¡°Fuck!¡± he cursed, a wave of condensed gravity smashed him in the face. Mephisto flew back a dozen meters before extending his large wings to both sides. His wings caught the air around him and halted his momentum. ¡°It''s that annoying gravity attack again. Haven''t you learned anything new since our last fight?¡± he asked in irritation. My Rinnegan locked onto his form. ¡°As a matter of fact, I have learned something new. Amaterasu!¡± Black flames covered his form from head to toe! He was completely engulfed by the flames of Amaterasu. ¡°I¡± took that split second opportunity while his sight was cut off to plan out my next move... The flames burned atop his red skin, but there weren¡¯t any screams of pain coming from the Devil. ¡°Now you¡¯re just spoiling me,¡± Mephisto said from underneath the fire. ¡°Mmmm, these flames are delicious. I love devouring divinity.¡± He opened his mouth wide and started sucking in all the black fire surrounding his body. He let out a happy belch after swallowing all of them. ¡°I rule over Hell, you actually thought I would be harmed by fire?¡± he asked me in disappointment. ¡°It was worth a shot.¡± We were fighting above the populated city, so I had to stick with my attacks that caused as little destruction as possible. Mephisto shook his head at me. ¡°It seems that I have overestimated you. You obviously can¡¯t defeat me in my real form. I suppose I might as well finish you off now. Maybe your beautiful sister Gabriel will be more fun?¡± He taunted me. I grit my teeth and glared at him hatefully! ¡°I wont lose here and I won''t let you touch her!¡± I yelled loudly. ¡°I''ll stop you!¡± ¡°You will try,¡± he replied dryly. I flew directly at him again and started wildly swinging the Asauchi in my hands. I wasn¡¯t going for any subtle moves this time, every single swing of mine was aimed to take his head off! Clang Clang Clang Clang! Mephisto effortlessly parried every single one of my strikes with a grin on his face. ¡°Wow, you really are trash with a sword, aren¡¯t you? You should have stuck with spears...¡± We continued to rapidly exchange swords strikes for another 30 seconds. In that short window, I must have swung my sword thousands of times! Not a single blow managed to connect with him. He was right, I was trash with a sword. ¡°Rah!¡± I yelled again. ¡°Just die, you monster!¡± I stabbed my blade towards his non-existent heart! ¡°I don¡¯t think I will.¡± Mephisto parried my strike out of the way before spinning his blade and delivering a high speed cleaving strike. A cleaving strike that landed directly on my neck... An expression of pure shock appeared on my face as my head separated from my body! The last thing my eyes saw was Mephisto¡¯s smirk of victory. And then my body exploded into smoke... ... ¨CMephisto¨C He had done it! He had finally slain the annoying Fallen Angel and gotten his revenge. The expression of shock on her face as he separated her head from her shoulders was glorious. Mephisto was going to remember this amazing moment for eternity. He couldn¡¯t wait to present her head to her family members and witness their collective despair! He reached his hand out to snatch her severed head out of the air. Before he could grab hold of it though, it disappeared in a puff of smoke! Mephisto frowned. ¡°What the¨C¡± Puchi! A sword exploded out the front of his chest! Someone had impaled him from behind when he was distracted by his victory! ¡®How dare they!¡¯ Mephisto glanced down at the blade sticking out of his chest. He recognized it, it was the same weapon that Layla had been trying to fight him with. The strange and average looking Katana that had randomly appeared in front of her before they started fighting. He turned his head to see who had stabbed him. To his shock, it was a very familiar face. ¡°But...How...?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not the only one that can use clones, Mephisto. I knew you would let your guard down after killing me,¡± Layla told him while twisting the blade in his chest. ¡°My Shadow Clone was pretty convincing wasn¡¯t it?¡± Mephisto was starting to feel strange... He was starting to feel incredibly weak. Not just his Avatar either, he felt like something was wrong with his main body! ¡°W¨CWhat did you do to me? What is this word?¡± Mephisto coughed out a mouthful of blood. ¡°It¡¯s called a Zanpakuto,¡± Layla told him. ¡°It¡¯s a weapon that directly cuts and sever souls. A weapon that can harm you just by cutting your avatar here!¡± she explained to him with a smirk. Mephisto¡¯s eyes widened! That was¨Cthat was very bad for him. No wonder he was feeling so weak. He needed to cancel the connection with his Avatar immediately! He was in the process of doing just that when Layla ripped the blade out of him and caused him to scream in pain. ¡°You¡¯re not escaping that easily. If you survive this, I want you to know that I will finish the job some day!¡± Layla declared before quickly swinging her blade horizontally. In an ironic twist of fate, Mephisto ended up losing his head. Layla had slain another one of his Avatars. As for his main body, back in hell... It experienced more pain and agony than he had ever thought possible. Before his world went black, his last thoughts were of how he had been defeated by Layla for a second time now... XXX chapter 260 chapter 260 Chapter 260: I took a deep breath as I watched the body of Mephisto¡¯s avatar fall into the empty streets below. Taking his head off had been surprisingly cathartic. I took one last look at the Asauchi in my right hand before storing it in my inventory. I would need to get a proper sheathe for it later. [You¡¯ve really come a long way, host. You beat Mephisto with almost no effort!] I chuckled at the System¡¯s enthusiasm. ¡°That¡¯s not quite true. I put a lot of effort into my acting. From the start of that fight I had to make it seem like he was much stronger than me. I needed him to think he could beat me without going all out.¡± I explained. We were fighting in the heart of New York City after all. There were millions of people nearby that would have been caught up in the crossfire if Mephisto and I started throwing out devastatingly powerful attacks at each other. [You did good work regardless. Here¡¯s your reward!] {Congratulations! You have leveled up x3! You have reached level 100! On top of Free Stat Points, every Stat will now increase by 100 every time you level up!} {You have been rewarded with the Ultimate Skill¨CLustful Queen!} {Lustful Queen: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random Stat Point Increases after every ¡°session.¡±} By the time I finished reading, my smile had turned into a deadpan... My new Ultimate Skill was seriously called Lustful Queen? ¡°...Really, System?¡± [You have to admit that it fits you. You now have a way to quickly replace the Faith Energy you¡¯ve lost. You can also get stronger now just by...you know...doing the one thing you really enjoy and do almost every night with your Harem.] ¡°So...My Ultimate Skill is basically just a more powerful and lewder version of Vali¡¯s Divine Dividing?¡± I asked bluntly. That¡¯s kind of what it felt like to me. [Kind of... yeah. Divine Dividing isn¡¯t permanent though. Vali loses his buffs over time but you don''t!] I was still a bit skeptical, but I figured I would withhold my judgment until I could properly test out the ability. I saw a Level 14 Imp flying in the sky nearby. It must have been extra stupid to not flee immediately like the rest of the nearby demons did when Mephisto and I started our fight a few minutes ago. I flashed over towards the Imp and grabbed it by the throat. The demon¡¯s eyes widened in fear when it realized it was caught. ¡°Gaaah! M¨CMercy...¡± it begged me while trying to scratch my arms with its claws. Of course, it was too weak to even leave marks on my perfect skin. ¡°Not a chance.¡± I replied and tightened my squeeze around its throat. I activated Lustful Queen and started draining every speck of the foul creature''s Demonic Power. The demon¡¯s red skin quickly started to turn black as I literally drained the life out of him. {+1358 Faith Energy!} Huh, not bad. ¡°That¡¯s actually pretty useful.¡± I said to myself as the Imp crumbled to ash in my grip. I didn¡¯t feel a trace of its foul Demonic Energy at all. All I felt was pure Faith Energy flowing into me. If this skill was 1000 times more effective in the bedroom, then I could regain a huge portion of my reserves in only a week or so! I would obviously have to be careful not to take too much power from my lovers, but if there was one thing they all had in common it was that they all had plenty of power to spare! A lewd giggle escaped my lips... ¡°What are you laughing about?¡± a voice asked curiously from behind me. ¡°Eeep!¡± I quickly spun around. Carol was hovering right next to me. I had been a bit distracted and didn''t sense her approach. Carol was covered in Demon blood, but she still looked absolutely radiant. I loved women who were strong and beautiful. Carol turned her head to the side to hide her blush. I realized I had actually just said all of that out loud. ¡°Thank you for the compliment...I think you¡¯re quite beautiful as well. I really enjoyed our date... Up until the forces of Hell decided to show up and ruin it.¡± ¡°I''m really sorry about that. I would tell you this doesn''t happen to me often, but that would honestly be a lie. Crazy stuff like this happens to me all the time,¡± I said. Carol smiled at me and laughed. ¡°You¡¯re certainly not the only one.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s true. You¡¯ll have to tell me more stories of your adventures in space on our next date,¡± I told her with a wink. Such as reprimanding my daughter and niece who were currently hiding behind the door to our left... ¡°I know you¡¯re there, Heather and Asia. Would you mind explaining to me why the two of you happen to be at ground zero during a Demonic invasion?¡± I called out to them both. The door slowly opened. Heather and Asia both sheepishly walked out. ¡°H¨CHey mom, what a coincidence? What are you doing here?¡± Heather asked me. She was trying to be nonchalant, but I knew that she knew that she was in trouble... I appreciated the two of them trying to help, but they were both only two winged Angels. Heather might be on the verge of evolving into a four winged Fallen Angel, but she wasn¡¯t quite there yet. They both could have easily died here. If Mephisto had emerged before I¡¯d arrived, then he would have absolutely recognized Heather and taken her hostage to use against me. And then there was Asia. She was a ¡°pure¡± Angel. Mephisto wouldn¡¯t have hesitated in trying to break her just for the fun of it. She would have been powerless to stop him as well. It was harsh, but I explained all of this to both of them. Carol was next to me nodding along with my explanation. ¡°I''m sorry...¡± Asia said with tears in her eyes. ¡°I just wanted to help, John. I¡¯d never seen someone who had endured so much pain and was still so nice. He saved a bunch of people.¡± Asia told us. ¡°I only really realized I was out of my league once we reached this building,¡± Heather added as well. She understood she could have died here. ¡°It was easy taking out a handful of Imps, but the Hellhounds and larger Demons were a lot scarier. If John wasn¡¯t with us we would have been in trouble. I''m pretty sure he saved us like a bunch of times!¡± Heather finished. ¡°Is John the Doom Slayer¡¯s name?¡± I asked and they both nodded. Huh...he had the same name as the Master Chief. That was just lazy writing in my opinion, but it was what it was. ¡°Where is he now?¡± I asked while looking around the rooftop. I didn¡¯t see him or Jezebel. Also, I feel like someone else was missing as well. ¡°He beat up the evil Demon lady and then he leapt inside the portal to Hell!¡± Heather said while pointing above our heads. The green portal was still going strong, but no more demons had emerged from it for a while now. Was the Doom Slayer waging a one man war against them in their own dimension. Was that why they stopped coming through!? I thought it was because I took down Mephisto, but maybe that wasn¡¯t the case. [Fuck yeah he is!] ¡°He took Jezebel with him. He wants to shut down the portal from the other side,¡± Asia explained. They were hiding behind the door while the Doom Slayer fought Mephisto¡¯s daughter in an epic one on one battle. ¡°I don¡¯t know who this Doom Slayer is. Should we follow after him and help?¡± Carol asked me. She was justifiably concerned, but I waved her off. ¡°Nah, I''m sure he''ll be fine. Mephisto and Jezebel are both out of commission. He¡¯s probably raising all kinds of hell...in Hell,¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°Booo!¡± Heather scrunched her face and booed at my ¡°Mom joke.¡± ¡°Miss Layla...that was bad.¡± Even Asia tried to criticize me. I ignored the teenagers'' opinions though because I managed to make Carol laugh. ¡°Why don¡¯t we all head back home for now. I¡¯ll leave a Shadow Clone here to keep an eye on the portal and wait for John to return,¡± I suggested to everyone. They all thought that sounded like a good idea as well. I turned around to grab Reed Richards so we could leave. I paused... Standing next to the tied up Reed Richards...were TWO other Reed Richards. They looked slightly different in outfit and appearance, but their faces were damn near identical to the tied up man in between them both. They had both popped out of nowhere! ¡°What. The. Fuck?¡± I asked out loud. ¡°You are not worthy to pass Judgment on this man! The Council of Reeds will not allow inferior minds to ever stand above one of our own!¡± One of the Reeds said to me condescendingly. ¡°We will return in the future to pass judgment on you all!¡± the other Reed added, just as condescending as the first. Except, this one was also glaring at all of us lecherously... A split second later, a portal popped up behind them. The two of them dragged my Universes Reed through the portal with them. I probably could have stopped them, but I was completely caught off guard by the absurdity of what I had just witnessed. ¡°Did I just get talked down to by two Rick and Morty knock offs!?¡± I huffed indignantly. [Technically Rick and Morty was parodying the Council of Reeds...] ¡®I don''t care. This Council is now on my shit list.¡¯ XXX Chapter 261 Chapter 261 A/N: I¡¯ve always wanted to do one of these. It turned out to be a lot more technical than I thought going in though. Chapter 261: Interlude -Welcome to the Official Layla Fan Boards! -You are logged in, Ruin_Princess -Please read the rule board before posting! -You are currently viewing: -All Threads you have replied to -All Threads that have been recently updated -All Private Messages Topic: Layla¡¯s Newest Girlfriend! Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) Posted: 11:15 am That¡¯s right everybody, this topic is not clickbait. Our Divine Goddess Layla has been spotted out and about on a date with a new woman! I was just walking down the street and I saw the two of them land in front of a small cafe. I almost had a Fangasm on the spot! Pictures of Layla and her beautiful date can be seen here! [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] Layla4lifer (Rookie Fanboy) Posted 11:16 am This is the way! The harem must be fed! How many confirmed girls does this make now? I''ve lost count. All I know is that every single one is drop dead gorgeous. I speak for all of us when I say I wish I had Layla¡¯s life! Wings_are_life (Rookie Fanboy) Posted 11:16 am @Layla4lifer: This is the way! I think it''s been confirmed by one of Layla¡¯s lovers that she has 7 confirmed girlfriends at the moment. This beautiful blonde woman should be number 8. Or maybe number 9 in case she has another one waiting in the wings somewhere. @Stargazer83: What the hell is a fangasm!? Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 11:17 am @Wings_are_life: Idk lol, but I almost had one. I can''t believe I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her in person! She is so incredibly beautiful! She is truly Divine. I happily converted to her religion and I¡¯ve never regretted it! Automod (Verified Bot) Posted 11:17 am @Stargazer83: While it has been confirmed that Layla of the Fallen has technically ascended to Godhood, she asks you to not convert to any religions that openly worship her at this time. She has not endorsed any churches in her name at this time. Beep Boop, I am a bot. This is an automated message. Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) 11:18 am @Automod: You can¡¯t tell me what to do, bot! I do what I want! Wolf_fang_fister (Veteran Fanboy) 11:19 am @Automod: Bad bot! Also, Anyone that can blatantly revive the dead and someone literal meteors out of the sky is worthy of worship. Plus, it¡¯s not like the church has told people not to start worshiping her! Xxx_Snipe_ur_heart_xxX (Veteran Fanboy) 11:20 am @Wolf_fang_fister: Actually, they have. The pope himself put out a statement months ago condemning people for worshiping a Fallen Angel. According to the Bible, Fallen Angels are supposed to be incredibly evil, they¡¯re basically one step above demons. Edit: I''m not saying that¡¯s what I believe people! That¡¯s just what¡¯s written in the book. Please stop sending me hate messages in my DMs! I love Layla. Screw the church, they¡¯re nothing but a bunch of out of touch old dudes anyway! Layla4lifer (Rookie Fanboy) Posted 11:22 am Why did Layla even fall from Heaven? Was it for lust? I bet it was for lust... Totally worth it in my opinion. I¡¯d fall for any one of her girlfriends any day of the week. Ruin_Princess (Verified Harem Member) Posted 11:23 am Layla did not fall from Heaven due to lust. She fell because she killed a bunch of evil humans in Africa who were trying murder and enslave innocent people. She¡¯s talked about this in a few interviews before. Layla4lifer (Rookie Fanboy) (Temporary Banned) Posted 11:24 am @Ruin_Princess: Holy shit! I didn¡¯t think a member of Layla¡¯s harem would actually reply to me! This is the best day of my life! I have to know, how is Layla in bed!? Is she amazing? God, what I wouldn¡¯t give to hop into bed with her! Do you think she would be down for a potential threesome? Iron_Queen (Verified Moderator) (Verified Avenger) Posted 11:25 am @Layla4lifer: Don¡¯t ask personal questions like that. It is against the rules. Enjoy a one week ban. Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 11:25 am @Layla4lifer: How dare you try to sully Layla¡¯s name with your disgusting request! You are unworthy of even looking at her! @Iron_Queen: you should have given him a permanent ban. Ruin_Princess (Verified Harem Member) Posted 11:25 am Thanks, Andrea! That guy kept sending me a bunch of DMs after you banned him so I ended up blocking him as well. Iron_Queen (Verified Moderator) (Verified Avenger) Posted 11:26 am I¡¯ve got you, Rias. So, who''s the new blonde girl? Layla sure knows how to pick her women, is this new girl also a Goddess? I_Love_Kitty_UwU (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 11:26 am @Ruin_Princess: Yes, please tell us! Layla¡¯s fans need to know! The sooner we know the new girl''s name, the sooner the community can start pumping out the spicy fanfiction! I love all of the fics with Layla and Hela, but this new girl is something special. The way she holds herself... Yes please mommy! Ruin_Princess (Verified Harem Member) Posted 11:27 am Her name is Carol. She¡¯s a Superhero... From outer space. I don¡¯t really know a lot about her beyond that. I know that¡¯s she¡¯s really powerful though. Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) Posted: 11:28 am Yay! We have a name! Now we only need to wait an hour or two before all the steamy fics start to appear online! I can¡¯t wait to read some of them! End of Page 1,2,3...34 ... Topic: New York City Invaded by Demon Army! Manic_55 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fanboy) Posted at 11:45 am Holy shit, everybody! Is it the end of days!? Demons are invading our world! There¡¯s a giant freaking portal to Hell above Central Park! Look at these pictures! Shit is going down out here! This is not a joke people! I am in danger... [JPEG] [JPEG] [JPEG] Skyward_Slasher (Rookie Fangirl) Posted at 11:47 am Oh my god, this isn¡¯t a troll post! This is real! Demons are actually invading! I hope the people of New York are ok... Fly_me_away_ 87 (Rookie Fanboy) Posted at 11:47 am Where the hell is the army!? The sky is packed with these monsters! I can hardly see any blue at all. I''m currently hiding in a building downtown with a bunch of other people that quickly got off the streets. Some people here are wounded. The attack came out of nowhere! Spoonlicker45 (Veteran Fanboy) Posted at 11:48 am @Fly_me_away_ 87 Oh shit! I hope you¡¯re okay, man. Don¡¯t try to be a hero, just wait for our Goddess to come and save the day like she always does! I don¡¯t even have lungs, and yet... *sigh* I regret letting Mister Stark pick out my username for me... Ruin_Princess (Verified Harem Member) Posted 12:36 pm I¡¯m so glad that Layla is ok! Whatever Devil she was fighting felt almost as powerful as my older brother! I''m glad she was able to beat the bad guy so quickly. Sadi_Queen_69 (Verified Nephilim) Posted 12:37 pm Ufufufu... That¡¯s my aunt Layla for you. She¡¯s on another level. I''m upset that I missed out on all the fighting. I would have loved to hear those naughty Devil¡¯s screaming in agony from a little lightning. ;) Burning_Wings (Verified Superhero) 12:37 pm Wait what!> Did we miss out on an entire invasion!? How is that possible!? Sadi_Queen_69 (Verified Nephilim) Posted 12:37 pm @Burning_Wings: Well, we were a bit ¡°busy¡± and we had to soundproof our entire apartment after our neighbors kept complaining about all the noise we were making. Wolf_fang_fister (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:38 pm Damn, that¡¯s hot... Burning_Wings (Verified Superhero) 12:37 pm OMG! Please don¡¯t tell everyone all that, Akeno! They¡¯re going to think we¡¯re nymphos now! Sadi_Queen_69 (Verified Nephilim) Posted 12:38 pm But... we are? The_Blacksmith (Verified Avenger) (Verified Genius Astronaut) 12:38 pm Iron Woman and I have officially arrived in the city. We¡¯re a bit late to the party, but we¡¯ll help mop up any remaining Demons. The_Steel_Army (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:39 pm You¡¯re the best Iron Man! Stargazer83 (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 12:40 pm @The-Steel_Army: No he¡¯s not! Layla is! She¡¯s the one who saved the day! The_Steel_Army (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:41 pm @Stargazer83: It was just a figure of speech. Also, I know this is technically a Layla fan site, but you need to tone down the fangirling a bit. Stargazer83 (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 12:42 pm @The_Steel_Army: Never! Xxx_Snipe_ur_heart_xxX (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:43 pm Does anyone know who the leader of the invasion was? Ruin_Princess said something about them being incredibly powerful? How powerful are we talking. I just want to know how close the world was to ending. Maybe ill be able to skip work tomorrow :) Flower_PWR_44 (Rookie Fangirl) Posted 12:44 pm Holy shit, everybody! Layla killed THE freaking Devil! No, I''m not exaggerating. There¡¯s a bunch of people posting videos of the fight to Youtube and Reddit. Here are all the links. [Link] [Link] [Link] Xxx_Snipe_ur_heart_xxX (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:45 pm Was that the actual Devil!? I¡¯m definitely not going to work tomorrow... Gossip_Girl_69 (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:46 pm I''m upset that the invasion couldn''t be solved with the power of love, but I''m glad that it''s over at least. Xxx_Snipe_ur_heart_xxX (Veteran Fanboy) 12:47 pm @Gossip_Girl_69: Holy crap, you¡¯re alive? I thought for sure you would have gotten skewered when you told everyone you were going to try and sing to the Demons. Gossip_Girl_69 (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:48 pm I did try to sing to the demons. Unfortunately, they must have been deaf because my beautiful voice didn¡¯t stop them. A few of the miscreants actually tried to attack me! Thankfully, the Archangel Gabriel ended up saving me. I''m grateful to her of course...but I''m kind of bummed it wasn¡¯t Michael. Xxx_Snipe_ur_heart_xxX (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:49 pm @Gossip_Girl_69: Bruh... Spoonlicker45 (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:50 pm Hey, if the Devil is dead now... Is there any reason for us to even attend church anymore? Like, mission accomplished, am I right...? Stargazer83 (Veteran Fangirl) Posted 12:51 pm Of course there¡¯s a reason to attend church! You¡¯ve just been attending the wrong church. I recommend you immediately convert to the correct religion and join the First Church of Layla! Here''s our official website: [Link] Automod (Verified Bot) Posted 12: 51 pm @Stargazer83: While it has been confirmed that Layla of the Fallen has technically ascended to Godhood, she asks you to not convert to any religions that openly worship her at this time. She has not endorsed any churches in her name at this time. Beep Boop, I am a bot. This is an automated message. Stargazer83 (Original Poster) (Veteran Fangirl) 12:52 pm @Automod: You can¡¯t tell me what to do, bot! I do what I want! Wait...? I feel like we already did this earlier... Bad bot! Stop trying to mess with me! Wolf_fang_fister (Veteran Fanboy) Posted 12:53 pm Bad bot +1 End of page 1,2,3...657 You have been logged out, Ruin_Princess! ... Rias decided that was enough internet for the rest of the day. She still had to feed her daughter and she was expecting Layla to be home soon as well now that the battle was over. After everything that had happened, it was definitely going to be an incredibly busy week for everyone going forward. And then there was the fact that both Rias and Sona had already invited their older siblings to visit them next week as well... XXX chapter 262 chapter 262 Chapter 262: ¡°Layla, why are we out here in the middle of the Sahara Desert?¡± Rias asked me, her current displeasure was plain to see on her face. ¡°It''s really hot out here and my brand new outfit is getting all sweaty and ruined.¡± Rias was wearing a womanly business suit to try and make herself look more mature for her older brother. I didn¡¯t see much point in that considering Rias and Sona both looked 25 when they were 18¨Cone of the perks of being Pureblooded Devils. ¡°I would also like to know why,¡± Sona said while fanning herself with her hand. She was dressed more appropriately for the desert, wearing a shirt and jeans, but she still wasn¡¯t comfortable being in the desert as a Devil from the Sitri Clan¨Ca clan that specialized in water magic. ¡°We''re out here to meet your siblings,¡± I told both of them again. ¡°I thought we went over this?¡± I explained it to them last night. [You did, but neither of them were listening. Rias was in the middle of watching anime and Sona was studying.] Rias pouted at me cutely. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I wasn¡¯t listening, can you please tell us again why we are out here in the middle of an African desert?¡± she asked me again. I nodded at her. ¡°Why an African desert, you ask? I was going to do this in Death Valley again, but that desert is still packed with tourists and scientists checking out the wreckage from Thanos¡¯s invasion. It would have been a bad idea to meet Serafall and Sirzechs with so many regular humans nearby. They¡¯re both going to try and kill me after all and I''m expecting some collateral damage.¡± I explained. Hopefully, that damage should be kept to a minimum by fighting out here in the Sahara. Sona pouted at me next. ¡°Our older siblings aren''t going to attack you the second they see you!¡± she tried to explain, ¡°I think they deserve a little more credit than that,¡± Sona huffed out. She clearly didn¡¯t know her sister as well as she thought she did... ¡°Oh...¡± Rias, at least, now seemed to understand my logic of being out in the middle of nowhere now. ¡°This might have been a bad idea...¡± she trailed off. ¡°It¡¯s not going to be that bad, Rias.¡± Sona tried to reassure her. ¡°Our siblings are hundreds of years old, they can act mature when they need to.¡± ¡°Sona... my brother is kind of crazy.¡± Rias replied with a sigh as she took a couple steps back away from me. She dragged Sona with her. I smiled at Rias, glad she was already taking precautions. ¡°Let¡¯s see how this goes,¡± I said before calling on my Sacred Gear to open a portal to their home Universe. We sent a message ahead of time, a week ago, telling Serafall and Sirzechs to be ready. A moment later, the two Maous from a different Universe stepped through the portal and emerged into our world. They didn''t come alone, Grayfia was also with them along with a female Devil who looked like an older version of Sona. I suspected it was her mother. Rias¡¯s parents were strangely absent though.Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com ¡°...You!¡± Serafall gnashed her teeth and pointed at me scathingly. She and I locked eyes. She did not look even remotely happy to see me, pretty much as I suspected. ¡°Hi,¡± I said while giving her a casual wave. ¡°Welcome to Earth¨C¡± ¡°Miracle~Sparkle~Levia~Blaster!¡± Serafall interrupted and immediately pointed her Magical Girl wand at me. A beam of rainbow light blasted out of the tip of the heart shaped wand. It was heading directly at me! I didn¡¯t make a move to dodge, I felt like I probably deserved this one... [You do...] {-1000 HP!} Serafall wasn''t holding back! The rainbow beam smashed into me and sent my body hurtling a few hundred meters before I crashed into a large sand dune. It definitely said something about my mental state that I was more annoyed at all the sand getting all over me instead of the fact that Serafall just tried to immediately murder me [At this point, losing 1000 HP is more of a minor inconvenience for you than an actual detriment.] ¡°I don¡¯t like sand...¡± I grumbled while standing up and trying to brush it off of me. It was all over my body, under my clothes and in my hair. ¡°It¡¯s coarse and rough and irritating¨C¡± ¡°Hakai!¡± My monologue was interrupted when I felt a large build up of power directly above me, followed by Sirzechs yelling out the name of another attack. I glanced up just in time to see a massive torrent of the Power of Destruction hurtling down at me! ¡°Son of a¨C¡± BOOM! {-3000 HP} ... ¨CWakanda¨C Warning lights flared and emergency sirens went haywire in Princess Shuri¡¯s lab as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on! Wakanda wasn¡¯t known to get earthquakes, but Shuri certainly felt the ground shake just then. ¡°Shuri! What is happening!?¡± Her brother, T¡¯Challa, ran into her lab in a panic. He was accompanied by Okaye and a few other Dora Milaje guards women. ¡°Sirens are going off all over Wakanda and the ground is shaking! Are we under attack?¡± ¡°I''m trying to figure that out, give me a moment, brother,¡± Shuri replied while typing away furiously on her keyboard. The ground shook again harder this time and Shuri almost lost her balance. Her brother ended up catching her before she fell over. ¡°Thanks, T¡¯Challa.¡± ¡°Anytime, sister. What is happening out there?¡± ¡°I¡¯m about to find out,¡± she told him and went back to her computer. She let out a sigh of relief when she finally figured out what had set all of Wakanda¡¯s sensors off. ¡°It¡¯s okay, ¡®we¡¯ are not under attack. There are simply massive energy surges nearby¨Ccoming from the middle of the Sahara desert for some reason.¡± Shuri said as she examined the data. Something was throwing around tremendous amounts of power. Maybe a couple somethings...? T¡¯Challa and Okaye both frowned at her words. ¡°Do we know what''s causing these energy surges?¡± Okaye asked her princess. ¡°Whatever it is, it is a threat to Wakanda!¡± Sona pointed at herself. ¡°Me!?¡± Sona blanched at her sister while Rias snickered at her. ¡°You¡¯re serious, Nee-sama?¡± Cecilia looked thoughtful. ¡°I never thought your crush on your little sister was actually serious, Serafall.¡± ¡°I love So-tan and will do anything to hop into bed with her!¡± Serafall declared loudly. Everyone except Rias was gaping at her in astonishment for that bold declaration. Rias was currently rolling in the sand laughing her ass off at the expression of shock and embarrassment on Sona¡¯s face. Cecilia took a moment to collect herself after her oldest daughter spoke. ¡°I¨CIs that so? Well then, I think there is an obvious solution to our problem before us...¡± she trailed off glancing between myself, Serafall and Sona. ¡°And what¡¯s that?¡± I asked while tilting my head. ¡°I''m certainly not giving up Sona to her sister. Sona is mine, I love her!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°L¨CLayla!¡± Sona sputtered at me in further embarrassment. ¡°I l¨Clove you too...¡± she admitted in a whisper, but I still heard her. She was so cute whenever she admitted her true feelings. Cecilia nodded at us both. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it. You are incredibly powerful and any Devil house would be lucky to have you as a daughter-in-law. I propose that you take Serafall as one of your wives as well. That way Serafall can fulfill her dream of getting her sister into the same bed and we can finally put all this unpleasantness behind us,¡± she suggested to me. ¡°Hmm, that¡¯s not a horrible idea,¡± I admitted to Cecilia. I couldn¡¯t lie and say I had never fantasized about it before either. She smiled at my perceived acceptance. ¡°I can have a marriage contract drawn up within a few days. My only stipulations would be that I want at least two more grandchildren within the next 100 years.¡± ¡°W¨CWhat!? You can¡¯t be serious, mother!¡± Serafall exclaimed while pointing at me. ¡°Do you know how many Fallen Angels I killed in the Great War? Now you expect me to marry one?¡± ¡°I expect you to stop embarrassing our noble clan with that slutty TV Show of yours and actually start doing something productive,¡± her mother replied. ¡°My TV Show is productive. I spread positivity throughout the Underworld,¡± Serafall defended herself. ¡°If by positivity you mean softcore porn, then sure...¡± her mother trailed off. She wasn¡¯t far off, I had seen some of Serafall¡¯s Magical Girl show. Sona had all the episodes stored on her laptop. There were a lot of tentacles in every episode... While Serafall was arguing with her mother, a disheveled and confused Sirzechs landed on the ground next to us. ¡°What happened, how come we''re not fighting anymore?¡± he asked Rias and Grayfia. ¡°Sona¡¯s mom is trying to marry Serafall to Layla.¡± Rias said with a shrug. ¡°...¡± ¡°W¨CWhat!?¡± Sirzechs sputtered. His reaction was almost identical to Serafalls. I found it pretty funny. He turned to me flabbergasted, and I simply shrugged in response. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind getting Serafall into my bed, but only if she gets over her hatred for me first.¡± I told him. Sirzechs slumped to his knees in shock and defeat. He started muttering to himself. ¡°Now she¡¯s taking Serafall too!? What if she wants to take Grayfia next!?¡± he asked himself in horror. Grayfia and I both scoffed at him at the same time. When she noticed my similar reaction, Grayfia looked partially offended that I would so quickly reject her. ¡°You¡¯re hot Grayfia, but I already have a beautiful silver haired battle maid.¡± I told her. I was speaking of Artemis of course. ¡°You should give Artemis a couple pointers on being a maid while you¡¯re visiting, Grayfia,¡± Rias suggested to her sister-in-law. ¡°I think you and her would get along.¡± ¡°Now that the fighting is over, why don¡¯t we all head back to our home?¡± I suggested to all the Devils. ¡°Our daughters are absolutely adorable and I''m sure you all will love them!¡± ¡°No! You can¡¯t go yet!¡± a voice I recognized called out from above us. I glanced up and noticed a Wakandan stealth plane hovering in the sky with my Rinnegan¡¯s enhanced perception. Princess Shuri leapt out of the aircraft and proceeded to parachute to the ground below. When she landed, she quickly ran over to Serafall. ¡°Wow! Are you a real Magical Girl? Can I have your autograph?¡± Serafall immediately perked up from her depression. ¡°Of course you can! Miracle Levia-tan always has time for a fan~!¡± Princess Shuri proceeded to gush over Serafall and her costume. I stared at the scene in confusion before shaking my head. ¡°My life is weird...¡± ¡°You know what¡¯s really weird, Layla?¡± another voice I recognized called out behind me. I spun around and could see the Ancient One staring at me in disapproval. Where did she come from, and why was she here? Judging by her expression, I had obviously done something to upset her... ¡°Hi, Ancient One... What are you doing here? And what¡¯s weird?¡± I asked sheepishly. She stared at me in further disappointment before she pointed at the group of Devils nearby. ¡°I would like some notification in the future if you plan on bringing any more Devils into our world. Especially Devils capable of destroying entire countries single handedly,¡± she said while gesturing to the damaged landscape around us. Multiple square kilometers of the desert had been charred black by Sirzechs tossing around his Power of Destruction everywhere... I rubbed the back of my head. ¡°Sorry about that... We had a ¡®small¡¯ argument,¡± I tried to explain to her. ¡°Your small argument ended up causing 32 earthquakes across Africa...¡± Prince T¡¯Challa himself said as he hopped out of another Wakandan stealth craft that had appeared in the sky next to Shuri¡¯s. ¡°You caused the entire country of Wakanda to go into a panic, thinking we were under attack. Next time you are expecting a fight of this magnitude, might I suggest you having it in Antarctica...or maybe just outer space?¡± he spoke to me in that same disapproving tone... [Wow, that¡¯s a lot of Earthquakes.] ¡°My bad...¡± XXX Thanks for reading! Check out P.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Starwaves to read chapters two weeks ahead of standard release. chapter 263 chapter 263 Chapter 263: Now that they weren''t trying to kill me anymore, I was in the middle of giving our guests from Earth DxD-C a quick rundown on our own home Universe. I wanted to get the majority of the info dump out of the way so that they could enjoy the next week visiting with Rias and Sona. I started my explanation by giving them the rundown on how our Earth was split into two halves, with one of them containing a disproportionate amount of the world¡¯s supernatural community. I explained to them how the barriers were breaking down between the two halves and there was only a few years before the two worlds would merge again. Alll latest novels at novelhall.com ¡°Do you know how insane that all sounds? How the hell would Big G have even gotten the power to do something like that. How the hell does someone just rip a planet in half without killing every single living creature on it?¡± Serafall asked in disbelief. ¡°That is quite the interesting story,¡± Cecilia Sitri added. ¡°Your god definitely sounded more powerful than the one in our Universe.¡± ¡°I''m not saying I don¡¯t believe you about all of this, Layla, but it would be nice to have some proof other than your own words.¡± Sirzechs remained skeptical, as did his wife Grayfia. ¡°I would offer to give you all a tour of the other half of our Earth, but Devils aren¡¯t particularly well liked over there,¡± I explained to them. ¡°I could only really take you to the Underworld, and that would get pretty awkward considering there''s other versions of you all currently living there...for now.¡± ¡°For now...?¡± Serafall asked me curiously. ¡°What, are you going to kill them all or something?¡± she added jokingly. ¡°Yes, but we¡¯ll get to all of that later.¡± I waved her off. ¡°Wait, what!?¡± Serafall openly gaped at me. ¡°Why would you kill them all!?¡± ¡°They¡¯re all evil and most of them still feed on human souls.¡± I gave her the quick explanation. All of the Devils grimaced upon hearing that. ¡°Even the young Devils like Millicas have already consumed hundreds of human souls at this point,¡± I said while pointedly looking at Sirzechs and Grayfia. Grayfia finally lost her cool and sputtered loudly. ¡°This universe¡¯s M¨CMillicas has eaten over a h¨Chundred human souls...? Oh Lilith...¡± I nodded at her and gave her a quick rundown on the time I met him and took him hostage. ¡°They¡¯ve been feeding him a new soul every month pretty much since he was born. It made him very powerful for a young child, but I don¡¯t know what the repercussions will be on him. I don¡¯t know what they''ll be on any of the Devils actually,¡± I said. ¡°I can answer that,¡± Cecilia said to me. ¡°I''m old enough to remember some of the worst times. Devils are creatures that naturally desire power, but many are too lazy to properly work for it. Consuming human souls became the perfect solution for all those lazy Devils.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± I asked her. Cecilia continued, ¡°It made them stronger, but the price wasn¡¯t worth it. It became an addiction that those Devil¡¯s would never be able to get rid of. Souls are the most addictive drug there is for Supernatural beings. The withdrawal is horrible, if the addicted don¡¯t regularly consume souls then they start to go feral! When the Great War ended, consuming souls became outlawed in the Underworld. All of the Devils who regularly prayed upon humans were forced to stop cold turkey. The results were not pretty. The withdrawal symptoms they experienced got so bad that many of them tried to devour other Devils to stave off their hunger,¡± Cecilia told us with a grimace. She then went on to explain something I was not aware of. Serafall and Sona were actually half sisters. Serafall¡¯s father was one of those Devil¡¯s who used to consume human souls! ¡°That was one of the reasons for the Devil Civil war. Many Devils flocked to the Old Satan Faction because they promised to sate their hunger,¡± Sirzechs continued her explanation. ¡°When we eventually defeated them, we had to put most of those Devils down.¡± ¡°Was your first husband one of those?¡± I asked Cecilia delicately. Did she have to kill him herself? Cecilia didn¡¯t seem particularly upset about discussing her dead former husband. ¡°He was, and good riddance I say. He was a useless good-for-nothing who sat around all day and did nothing but torment our servants. He constantly tried to act like he was the Lord of the house even though the Sitri Clan is matriarchal and he married into our family. The only good thing he ever did was give me Serafall, and even then I''m not so sure he was the father. DNA tests didn¡¯t exist hundreds of years ago, and I did have a harem back then after all...¡± she trailed off fondly. Serafall and Sona both blushed when their mother mentioned she had her own harem. I gave her a thumbs and she smirked at me. ¡°That brings me to my question, did the Old Satan Faction win the Civil War in this Universe, Layla?¡± Cecelia asked me. I shook my head. ¡°No, the Underworld is still run by Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall, and Falbium. In fact, I think they hold even more power.¡± I told them. ¡°It might sound a bit cliche, but I think Devil¡¯s from my Universe are simply inclined to be more evil,¡± I said while making finger quotes. ¡°I think that works both ways though, the Angels in my Universe are much more active in their fight against evil.¡± Gabriel and Michael had practically taken the demonic invasion of New York personally. Both of them slaughtered tens of thousands of demons with great enthusiasm. The Angels in DxD Canon pretty much let the Devils run around and do whatever they wanted. ¡°So basically, the Devils here are more evil but the Angels are more good to balance it out?¡± Serafall asked me before she frowned. ¡°Ugh, I bet your Gabriel is even more annoying than mine then. I didn¡¯t think that was even possible...¡± I snickered as I recalled some of my sister¡¯s funnier stories. ¡°Yeah, she enjoys pulling vindictive pranks on our Serafall. One of her favorite things to do is sneak into Serafall¡¯s office and change things around. A few weeks ago she replaced all of the office furniture with perfect replicas made of cake. And they weren¡¯t good cakes either, they were all disgusting fruit cakes!¡± [That¡¯s so incredibly petty... I love it!] ¡°Is there anything else we should know?¡± Sirzechs asked me. ¡°We¡¯ve been talking for over an hour and I would like to see my new niece soon. That¡¯s the whole reason we decided to visit.¡± Sirzechs had a goofy smile on his face. ¡°I wonder what Lia looks like? I¡¯m sure she¡¯s perfect, just like my amazing Ria-tan!¡± ¡°There¡¯s only a few more things that you all need to know and then I''ll let you meet my children,¡± I continued with my tale and explained more about our Universe and some of the major events that had occurred in the past year. Of course, that included the recent invasion from Hell and the overall effect it had on the people of the world. ¡°Devils and Demons aren¡¯t exactly looked upon highly here.¡± Cecilia correctly pointed out what I was getting too. I nodded my head in confirmation. ¡°Rias and Sona are fine because they¡¯re considered part of my Harem but you all should refrain from openly displaying your wings outside of our home.¡± They could be randomly attacked in the streets otherwise by people thinking they were demon spies or something. Heather glanced up at me and Artemis. ¡°Hi, Mom! Are you two going out on a date? Are you planning to be out all night?¡± she asked me with a knowing smirk. ¡°Why would they be out all night?¡± Asia asked innocently while petting our new family dog in her lap. It was Cosmo of course. Without his adorable astronaut outfit, he just looked like a regular dog¨Cuntil he decided to speak that is. Cosmo perked his head up at Asia¡¯s question and started sniffing the air. ¡°I can smell Master¡¯s pheromones. She is hoping to be able to mate with the female next to her!¡± he explained while wagging his tail. [Well, he¡¯s not wrong...] Asia¡¯s face turned bright red. ¡°Oh... T-That¡¯s um...¡± she was too embarrassed to say anything else. ¡°Bad dog, Cosmo! Don¡¯t corrupt Asia like that! She¡¯s too innocent!¡± Heather scolded him and he whined. ¡°See you later, mom.¡± she waved to us as we walked out of the room. ... ¡°So, where are you taking me for our date, Artemis,¡± I asked her curiously. ¡°I¡¯m not the biggest fan of hunting...¡± I didn¡¯t mind hunting for food, but I didn¡¯t believe in hunting animals for sport or trophies. I believed it to be cruel. As the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis had been almost mortified when she found that out, but it surprisingly wasn¡¯t a dealbreaker. I think she was convinced she¡¯d be able to change my mind one day. ¡°I¡¯d love to go hunting with you, but I actually had something else planned out. As you know, I¡¯m not the biggest fan of men...¡± ¡°That¡¯s an understatement.¡± I snorted. I think the only man I¡¯ve ever seen her openly speak to is the Doom Slayer, and that¡¯s because he ¡®hunted¡¯ more demons than any other being in existence. Artemis blushed slightly. ¡°Y¨CYes...well, I didn¡¯t want any men possibly interrupting or ruining our date. I wanted to find a place we could enjoy that only had women,¡± she explained to me as she reached her hand into her own personal pocket space. ¡°That sounds easier said than done,¡± I commented as I watched Artemis pull out a device that I had seen before. ¡°Huh, where did you get that?¡± She was holding one of the devices that Azazel had created for Universal travel. ¡°Penemue gave it to me after I talked to her. When your brother was still experimenting with the creation of these, he stumbled upon a few more interesting versions of Earth. Penemue told me that he traveled to one Earth that had an entire Island full of only women,¡± Artemis said with a sigh. ¡°It sounded like a paradise...¡± I laughed at the thought of my perverted older brother ending up in such a place. ¡°It sounds like his paradise! So what happened? How come I''m just hearing about this place now?¡± Artemis smirked at me. ¡°Your brother asked Penemue to keep that Universe a secret after every single woman on that island tried to kill him the second they laid eyes on him. Penemue filmed the entire event and was planning on showing everyone at the next Christmas party!¡± she said with a laugh. ¡°An entire Island full of women and he failed to seduce a single one of them?¡± I asked in surprise. I liked to tease my older brother, but there was no denying that he was known as the Fallen Angel who had seduced more women than even Zeus. When he wasn¡¯t acting like a nerdy scientist, he could definitely turn on the charm. ¡°I wonder what he said to piss all of them off? I can¡¯t wait to see that video!¡± ¡°So, do you want to go? I¡¯d really love to take you there for our date,¡± Artemis told me while shifting nervously. [I wonder if he went to the Island I''m thinking of...? An Island full of Wonder...] It clicked for me. ¡®Is that where Artemis wants to take me?¡¯ Now, I wasn¡¯t sure whether or not this was a good idea. That Universe was full of dangerous beings on par with my own. ¡®Although, they do still openly worship the Greek Gods on that Island, so I suspect we¡¯ll be fine if we don¡¯t stay too long.¡¯ [You¡¯re right, what¡¯s the worst that could happen?] ¡®Thanks for jinxing it, system...¡¯ [Heh, who are you kidding? With your track record, you¡¯ll be lucky if the Island doesn¡¯t sink to the bottom of the ocean by the time you leave.] Artemis was still waiting for my answer. She was looking at me expectantly while fiddling with the device in her hand. I could tell that she really wanted to visit this place. An entire society run by women was her dream after all. She was practically begging me to ¡°say yes¡± with her beautiful silver eyes. I could never resist a beautiful woman giving me a look like that. ¡°...Ok, let¡¯s go, I''m sure it will be fine,¡± I said with a sigh. The System already jinxed it all anyways, so whatever happens next won¡¯t be my fault... [That¡¯s the spirit!] Artemis pressed a few buttons on the device and I felt a fluctuation in space. Azazel¡¯s creation powered on and opened a swirling black portal next to us. It was remarkable how far his own portal technology had come in such a short time. ¡°Come on, let''s go.¡± Artemis reached out and took my hand in her own as we walked through. XXX chapter 264 chapter 264 Chapter 264: The portal teleported us to the most beautiful beach I had ever seen. There wasn¡¯t a single spec of pollution or litter on the pristine white sand and the water was so crystal clear that I almost didn¡¯t believe it was an ocean at first. ¡°You had us dress for a hike, when we should have brought swimsuits instead,¡± I said to Artemis. ¡°I think I just discovered my new favorite beach, I¡¯m definitely bringing the family back here someday,¡± I added while looking around. The beach wasn¡¯t packed with people either, but there were a few dozen women who had now started to notice our arrival. Some of the women were wearing togas as they walked around, and others were completely naked as they basked in the Sun and played in the water. ¡°Yep, this is definitely my new favorite beach.¡± I did my best not to ogle, but every single one of the women around us was in amazing shape. It was no secret that I had a thing for beautiful and strong women. This beach was absolutely full of them. ¡°I didn¡¯t take into account the possible time difference between Universes. I figured we could go on a Sunset Hike before having dinner, but it''s only noon right now judging by the position of the Sun,¡± Artemis pointed out before she noticed my slightly wandering eyes. Artemis pouted at me and clicked her tongue. ¡°Maybe it was a bad idea taking Layla to an island of beautiful women for our first date...¡± she muttered to herself. ¡°Hey there, I haven''t seen you two lovely ladies around here before. That was an interesting portal you both arrived out of.¡± A bunch of the women on the beach were giving Artemis and I curious glances at this point and two of them walked over towards us. Both of them were completely naked, their bodies and chiseled muscles were on full display. The taller woman on the right with brown hair spoke first. She was the one who had called out to us earlier. ¡°Hello, I am Ariana. Welcome to Themyscira.¡± she smiled at us welcomingly, but my eyes were having trouble keeping solely on her face. {-1HP!} ¡°Ow!¡± I let out a yelp after Artemis pinched me for staring. ¡°Quit staring so blatantly, Layla. That¡¯s incredibly rude,¡± Artemis scolded me before turning to the two nude Amazonians. ¡°Hello, I am Artemis and this is Layla.¡± She introduced the two of us while only subtly glaring at the two naked women who had drawn my attention. The shorter blond woman next to Ariana laughed. ¡°Named after the Goddess of the Hunt? How lucky, you even look like her with your beautiful silver hair,¡± she complimented Artemis. Also, It¡¯s ok if your friend stares. Some Amazons might be offended, but Ariana and I find it flattering. My name is Sophia. We noticed you two arrived through a portal of some kind. Is this your first time on our beautiful island? Are you planning on escaping Man¡¯s World and moving here?¡± Artemis shook her head. ¡°We¡¯re just visiting for the day. Is that ok?¡± Artemis asked. The two women looked at each other, they both shrugged after a moment. ¡°It should be okay. Our princess brings her friends from Man¡¯s World here all the time. Our island welcomes everyone...as long as they are not a man.¡± Ariana said the obvious. ¡°If you guys are planning to stay here, you''re both very overdressed,¡± Sophia said with a grin, her eyes shamelessly running up and down Artemis and my bodies. Ariana nodded. ¡°I am not familiar with the clothing from man''s world. Do they force women to dress this heavily when coming to the beach?¡± she asked while examining our clothing. I could see where she was coming from considering most Amazons simply wore togas. Themyscira was a warm tropical island, lots of clothing wasn¡¯t necessary here. I shook my head. ¡°I wasn''t even aware that this place had such a beautiful beach. We had other plans and were going to explore the island itself, but now I figure we can save that for another day,¡± I said. I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and slowly pulled it over my head. My breasts spilled free. This time, the two Amazon women were ogling me. ¡°Wow...¡± Sophia said, her cheeks were tinted red. ¡°You can say that again,¡± Ariana added. ¡°W¨CWait!? Layla? What are you doing?¡± Artemis sputtered at me as I started pulling my jeans off next. ¡°We¡¯re at the beach, and I want to blend in.¡± I said as I finished stripping out of my clothes completely. I noticed that I had drawn the eyes of many nearby Amazons. The majority of which were all gazing at me lustfully. I wasn¡¯t surprised about that fact, there were no men on the Island for hundreds of years, so obviously every woman who lived here was going to be attracted to other women. I always thought Wonder Woman was the strange one considering she immediately threw herself at Steve Trevor despite never laying eyes on a man before in her life. ¡°You have the body of a Goddess, Layla. I¡¯ve never seen such a beautiful woman in my life. Are you with anyone? I would love the opportunity to court you.¡± Ariana said while raking her eyes up and down my form. Artemis hissed in jealousy and started stripping out of her clothes as quickly as possible. She yanked down her leather breeches and scowled at Ariana. ¡°Layla and I are currently courting!¡± she said while possessively wrapping her slender arm around my own. ¡°Aww, that¡¯s too bad,¡± Sophia pouted while gazing at Artemis. ¡°Ariana and I would have loved to show you both all the wonders and pleasures that Themyscira had to offer.¡± The blond Amazons innuendo was not missed on either of us. It had been a while since anyone had tried to pick me up. I happened to find it endearing, and might have considered their offer if I wasn¡¯t in multiple committed relationships currently. Artemis wasn¡¯t used to beautiful women coming on to her so openly and brazenly. All of her immortal life the women around her had been nothing but respectful, they always treated her like a Goddess and not like a person. She didn¡¯t know how to properly act in this situation. On top of that, She was actually growing very flustered now that she realized she was standing next to me completely naked for everyone to see. It had taken a few seconds for that reality to fully sink in for her. ¡°Let''s go swim in the water!¡± Artemis declared out of nowhere and started dragging me towards the crystal clear sea. I could tell that she wanted to hide her body from all the lustful women staring at us.Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com I giggled and let her drag us into the ocean. The water temperature was absolutely perfect. I swam around and played in the water for a few minutes while Artemis collected herself. I didn''t even bother checking her Level, my instincts were telling me she would probably die if I flicked her too hard. Despite being an island of immortal warrior women, the Amazons in general were not very strong, other than their Princess... ¡°And?¡± Artemis asked dismissively. ¡°Is there supposed to be a question somewhere...?¡± ¡°I thought all women were welcome here? We haven''t broken any of your laws, we''ve simply been enjoying a day at the beach.¡± I said, not wanting to start any unnecessary conflict and ruin our date. It had been going so well up to this point... The woman grimaced but didn''t refute my words. ¡°You are correct, you have not broken any of our laws. However, we don''t usually get... tourists. The Queen has heard about you two and wishes to meet you both.¡± ¡°We''re kind of on a date here,¡± I said, mildly annoyed. ¡°Can you tell your Queen to wait a few more hours.¡± The soldiers all gasped at me. ¡°You would ask OUR QUEEN¨Cthe ruler of our people to wait upon you...?¡± she looked stupefied as she asked that. ¡°Who do you both think you are!?¡± one of the soldiers in the back shouted at us. ¡°How disrespectful!¡± another added while scowling. I was about to answer when Artemis clicked her tongue and stood up. A flash of silver light enveloped her naked body. In the blink of an eye, she was wearing beautiful silver armor that radiated with Divine Power. Her eyes and hair also started to glow as well. ¡°I am Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon. You will tell your Queen to wait until Layla and I finish our date! Do I make myself clear!?¡± The Amazonan soldiers trembled before they dropped to their knees simultaneously. ¡°Forgive us, Goddess Artemis! We did not recognize you! Take as much time as you please! ...In fact, allow us to serve you! Do you require refreshments or sustenance of any kind? My sisters and I would be glad to get you both anything you request!¡± the leader said nervously. ¡°How rude of me, I haven''t even introduced myself, have I? I am General Antiope... Queen Hippolyta¡¯s sister...¡± Huh, she was still alive here? That was interesting to know. I could tell that Artemis was about to dismiss them all and tell them that their services weren''t necessary. I stopped her before she did so. I''d never been to a tropical resort before... ...And that''s how our beach date basically turned into a resort date. It didn''t take long for the women on the beach to find out who Artemis was. They all started waiting on us hand and foot after Artemis dismissed her intimidating armor. I could certainly say that the Amazon''s knew how to make us feel welcome. They brought us any food or drinks we asked for. They even knew the recipes for certain things I wouldn''t have expected of them. Apparently, Wonder Woman had brought back the recipe for pin?a coladas back to the island during one of her visits. Artemis and I both ordered more than a few of them as we enjoyed the rest of our day at the beach with dozens of hot Amazon servants serving our every whim. After about a dozen drinks, a few massages, and an impromptu surfing competition, Artemis and I were content. It was only after sunset that we decided to call it a day. ¡°This was one of the best dates I''ve ever had.¡± I smiled as I stood up and stretched. My body felt super relaxed after those massages. I summoned Death''s Dress and threw it on. It gave off an intimidating aura and I always like wearing it when meeting powerful people. Artemis once again dawned her armor. ¡°I suppose we might as well grace the Amazon Queen with our presence now.¡± Artemis said haughtily. I think she enjoyed getting to boss people for a few hours around after serving as our maid for the past year. Antiope had been nearby for the past few hours, mostly organizing the other women to serve us to their best abilities. She let out a sigh of relief after hearing Artemis. ¡°I shall lead you to her immediately!¡± We left the beach and headed inland to visit the royal palace. I wondered what the Queen wanted from us... [Whatever it is, it''s probably going to involve plenty of violence!] ¡°...¡± I couldn''t exactly refute that possibility... XXX chapter 265 chapter 265 Chapter 265: The Queen¡¯s sister, Antiope, gave us a quick tour of the palace when we arrived. I had to admit that it was a very beautiful place to live. It was a Greek paradise, and I could definitely see myself vacationing here with my family in the future. The only thing the place really lacked was electricity. The Amazons still used candles and torches to light their halls at night. I didn¡¯t notice before since we had been outside most of the day, but the nights here were a bit of a culture shock. [I wonder if they have working plumbing? Or do they all poop in buckets still...] ¡®You know what, I don¡¯t think I want to know the answer to that question.¡¯ ¡°...And finally, this is the throne room,¡± Antiope said as we reached a large pair of steel double doors. Guarding both sides was a pair of Amazon warriors who had clearly been informed of our arrival. They were gazing at Artemis reverently. ¡°The Queen is inside, and I have news that the Princess is also set to return soon.¡± she informed us. ¡°The Princess? You mean Wonder Woman is arriving soon?¡± I asked with a tinge of excitement. She was my favorite DC heroine. Antiope nodded. ¡°Yes, Lady Layla. My niece sent word a few days ago that she would be arriving soon. Apparently, there has been some trouble in man¡¯s world that she wishes to discuss with us.¡± Antiope shrugged indifferently and muttered something about there always being ¡°trouble in man¡¯s world.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Wonder Woman?¡± Artemis asked me quietly while Antiope was distracted talking to the guards. ¡°You¡¯re half-sister. She¡¯s the daughter of Zeus and the Amazon Queen. She¡¯s basically the top female superhero in this Universe.¡± I whispered back and Artemis nodded in understanding. ¡°We shall see if she lives up to the hype, as they say.¡± Artemis said indifferently. She was pretty used to her father pumping out demigod kids every few years. Artemis had told me that she and Apollo tried to never get too attached to their half siblings since they almost always died young. Most of the time when they were attempting some asinine quest to try and impress their father. I¡¯m glad that guy is gone, he sent far too many children to their early deaths. I never understood the point of Demigod Quests. Most Quests were very either petty or just completely unnecessary considering the gods could solve most of their own problems with the snap of their fingers. The two guards pushed open the doors and we stepped inside the throne room. At first glance, the place wasn¡¯t as large or as grandiose as the Asgardian throne room. This one was about half the size and I couldn¡¯t see a hint of gold anywhere. The Amazons didn¡¯t seem to care about showing off their wealth. [I don¡¯t think they have any wealth. It''s not like they can make a lot of money living amongst themselves on an Island for over a thousand years.] Realization dawned upon me. ¡®Le gasp! The Amazons are communist!¡¯ Not a single Amazon I had seen today had been carrying any form of currency at all. Even as we walked through the markets, it seemed like all the women could simply take whatever they wanted. [Oh snap, I think you¡¯re right! Remember when I said that your date probably wouldn¡¯t end without the island sinking. You should sink it now along with all these commies! Embrace democracy, or you will be eradicated!] I internally giggled. The System obviously wasn''t being serious. [You don¡¯t know that...] We strode inside. There were about a dozen guards to our left and right as we approached the throne. Queen Hippolyta sat atop it, but she looked more nervous than regal at the moment. To the right of the throne was a large hearth that I imagined was used to keep the place warm during winter. It was currently being tended to by a young servant girl. A girl who looked out of place considering the Island wasn¡¯t supposed to have any children on it after Diana. ¡°It¡¯s a bit chilly in here. Add more wood to the fire, girl!¡± the Queen ordered the girl before her attention snapped back to us. She stood up from her throne and greeted us properly. ¡°Greetings, Goddess Artemis...and her current consort, Lady Layla. Themyscira is always happy to host the divine,¡± she said while bowing her head. ¡°Except for Hercules...¡± Antiope whispered venomously to herself from nearby. ¡°He is never welcome here.¡± ¡°It is a very beautiful Island,¡± I said sincerely. ¡°We really enjoyed our date here today. Is there a reason you wanted to see us?¡± I asked the Queen. ¡°I don''t appreciate being summoned at the drop of a hat,¡± Artemis added, her voice laced with annoyance. The Queen bowed her head to Artemis even further. ¡°I apologize. When I asked Antiope to bring our visitors before me, I didn''t expect them to be two Goddesses. I heard you both arrived through a magical portal. I feared you were agents of Circe, or members of the group my errant daughter has been parading around with for the past few years. The Justice League...¡± She spoke the name with annoyance. ¡°You don''t like the Justice League?¡± I asked her curiously. ¡°Aren¡¯t they heroes?¡± I hope we weren¡¯t in some kind of dark DC universe. Was I going to have to deal with Ultraman? Hippolyta shook her head. ¡°The League does not stand for Justice. They only exist to inflate their own egos and morals. My daughter has forgotten what it means to be a warrior after she joined them. Warriors have to make hard decisions, they cannot show mercy to enemies who will show them none in return,¡± she said. She seemed pretty passionate about her opinion. ¡°Are you going to join us for the feast?¡± I asked her. ¡°I''m sorry I exposed you. I thought everyone knew who you were honestly. I did think the way Hippolyta addressed you wasn¡¯t very nice though...¡± I said that last part loud enough for everyone to hear. I found the Queen¡¯s reactions to be funny. ¡°Please forgive me, milady! Forgive my centuries of ignorance!¡± Hippolyta let out another sob in the background while begging Hestia for forgiveness. Were Dogezas a Greek thing? They were now. [You''re mean, host.] ¡°I suppose I will join the feast now that everyone knows about me,¡± Hestia said while waving her hand and conjuring three chairs by the fire. She gestured for us to sit next to her. Artemis and I accepted the gesture and sat down. ¡°While we wait for my niece to arrive, why don¡¯t you two tell me about your own Universe,¡± she suggested. We all started chatting while we waited for Wonder Woman to arrive. For once, I think the System was wrong and we were actually in for a pleasant evening. We would have a nice dinner, Artemis would have a small chat with Diana¨Calthough I doubted it would accomplish anything, and then we would portal back home. [Uh huh...] ... Wonder Woman ¡°Why are you doing this, Diana?¡± her aunt asked her in despair. ¡°I apologize, Aunt Hestia, but it¡¯s time for a new world order. The Olympians cannot be allowed to exist. You are a threat to his rule!¡± Diana said as she swung her sword. Hestia¡¯s head separated from her shoulders. It clattered onto the floor. Diana frowned. ¡°That¡¯s odd...¡± ¡°What¡¯s odd?¡± Kal-El asked as he walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. His black and yellow costume was drenched in Ichor¨CGod blood, but Diana didn¡¯t mind. She reached down and picked Hestia¡¯s head off of the ground. ¡°There¡¯s no blood,¡± Diana said as she examined the head in her hands. ¡°This is a puppet. The real Hestia isn¡¯t here.¡± Kal-El frowned and let go of Diana. ¡°That¡¯s disappointing, I was hoping to eliminate all of the Gods in one fell swoop,¡± he said while gesturing to their surroundings. They were standing in the most famous amphitheater on Olympus. The place where all the Gods gathered together whenever they felt like passing judgment on Mortals. On this night, the entire amphitheater was painted in a brand new shade of gold. Olympian blood was splattered almost everywhere. Every single god and goddess who dwelled on Olympus had been slain by herself and Kal-El. ¡°At least Hestia is one of the weaker Goddesses, right?¡± he asked Diana. ¡°She should be,¡± Diana said. ¡°Even so, I wouldn''t underestimate her when we find her. She is the older sister of my father after all.¡± Kal-El smirked. ¡°Don''t you mean your former father.¡± He reached down and picked up Zeus''s severed head. ¡°Are you sad that your dad''s dead?¡± Diana shook her head. She was actually glad he was dead. ¡°You know, this is the first time I''ve ever actually met him in person. My mother told me that she crafted me from clay and he gave me life, but we all know that''s not what happened. He forced himself upon her and she had to cover that fact up. If she hadn''t, the Amazons would have all rebelled. Zeus would have sent Hercules to try and conquer my people a second time,¡± she explained her thoughts to her beloved. Kal-El unceremoniously dumped Zeus''s head in a garbage bag they had brought with them. It landed right next to Hercules''s head. The man who had enslaved the Amazons, the man they hated above all else. ¡°This gift should turn your people to our cause, right?¡± he asked her. ¡°They should follow me as their only god now?¡± Diana nodded, although she wasn¡¯t absolutely certain. ¡°Delivering the head of Hercules should sway most of the older Amazons to your side. Some of the younger Amazons might resist at first, but they will eventually submit to your rule all the same.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± Kal-El said before checking the yellow ring on his finger. ¡°Ring, what¡¯s the time?¡± ¡°It is currently 8:30 PM.¡± ¡°Right on time,¡± Kal-El said. ¡°Your mother¡¯s expecting us.¡± Diana did one last sweep of all the bodies. She made sure none of the Gods were faking their deaths. She had almost been disappointed at how easy wiping out her own pantheon turned out to be. When she confirmed they were all truly dead she turned back to Kal-El and smiled widely. ¡°The Earth is now yours, Kal-El. The UN has fallen, Atlantis has fallen, Batman has been finally captured. All that¡¯s left are the Amazons and the world will be completely under your control.¡± Kal-El nodded grimly while gazing at the yellow power ring on his finger. ¡°As it should have been all along. Metropolis would still be standing if I had done this sooner. I wouldn¡¯t have lost Lois...¡± Diana grimaced in annoyance. She hated how Kal-El still had thoughts about his dead wife and unborn son. They were gone and she was here. She placed a kiss on his cheek to try and distract him from those unnecessary thoughts. ¡°Come, Themyscira awaits us...¡± XXX chapter 266 chapter 266 Chapter 266: Artemis and I sat next to each other as servants brought out entire cartloads of food. My mouth watered at the sight of all the delicacies. Themyscira must have had a pretty diverse ecosystem because I was seeing prime rib, roast pork, and lobster all on the same spread. It was all placed on the long table in front of us. ¡°I hope the meal will be to your liking, my Ladies. We Amazons don''t usually host such extravagant feasts, but our chefs went all out this time,¡± Queen Hippolyta said. She was sitting at the head of the large table. Her sister was sitting on her left. ¡°It is... adequate,¡± Artemis said curtly. She was still acting naughty and aloof. I could tell she was excited to try all the food. ¡°That means she likes it,¡± I translated for her and the Queen sighed in relief. Artemis could act haughty and aloof, but she was anything but a picky eater. She spent most of her existence living in the wilderness after all. ¡°This is nice. It feels homey,¡± Hestia said with a small smile while glancing around the dining room. She was seated across from Artemis and I. ¡°When will your daughter arrive?¡± ¡°In a few minutes. I just received word that her flying machine has landed. She should head directly towards the palace since she''s a bit late,¡± Hippolyta told us. I couldn''t wait to meet her. I understood why Hippolyta wasn''t exactly proud of the path that Diana was currently on. The Amazons were all warriors. Diana joining the Justice League made the mother think that her daughter had turned her back on how she was raised. In a way, maybe Wonder Woman had. I never agreed with the Justice League¡¯s no killing rule myself¨Csome villains just straight up need to die. But that doesn''t mean I can''t appreciate someone for sticking to their own beliefs. That''s why I wasn''t expecting Artemis¡¯s ¡°talk¡± with Diana to amount to much. Members of the Justice League tended to be damn near incorruptible. They would never turn against their own morals. There were only a handful of DC universes where that wasn''t the case, and I hadn''t gotten any evidence we were in one of those bad Universes... The double doors to the dining hall were pushed open by one of the guards. ¡°Now presenting Princess Diana...and guest,¡± the guard grumbled that second part. My eyes lit up a second later as Wonder Woman entered the dining hall. She wasn''t alone either. Superman walked in directly behind her! They were both in full costume and strode in the room with their heads held high, full of confidence. ...Confidence that quickly dissolved when they noticed who was sitting at the table. ¡°A¨CAunt Hestia?¡± Wonder Woman¡¯s voice was laced with surprise. ¡°What are you doing here...?¡± She sounded incredibly nervous. Next to her, Superman was cleaning his fists tightly. ¡°I''ve always been here...¡± Hestia said nonchalantly. ¡°This is my home.¡± ¡°Is that so...?¡± Diana asked while turning around and sharing a look with Superman. She turned back to Hestia a second later. ¡°...I thought I just saw you on Olympus. We took a small detour there. That''s why we arrived a few minutes late.¡± Artemis scoffed next to me. They were more than a few minutes late. They were closer to an hour late at this point. Hestia wasn''t surprised by Diana''s confusion. ¡°I left a puppet of myself on Olympus. It had most of my memories and a bit of my power, but otherwise it was completely autonomous,¡± she explained. ¡°You don''t have remote access to your puppet at all? You can''t see what it has seen?¡± Wonder Woman inquired with a gleam in her eye. Hestia shook her head. ¡°No, I wanted a clean break from Olympus,¡± she explained. ¡°Please keep the existence of my puppet a secret from Zeus. I don''t want him coming here to try and drag me back there. He hasn''t needed me in hundreds of years, but his paranoia always made him want to keep every other God or Goddess in Olympus where he could see them.¡± ¡°Your secret is safe with us. Besides, I do not think you will have to worry about Zeus anymore...¡± Diana said with a small chuckle. [Well...that wasn''t ominous or anything.] ¡°Daughter...¡± Hippolyta spoke with a strained tone. ¡°You are aware of our laws. Why have you brought a man to our island? Even if he is your... friend, his presence is still not allowed here.¡± Hippolyta said while barely hiding her disdain for Superman. Wonder Woman actually glared at her own mother. ¡°Kal-El can go wherever he pleases, mother. If you don''t want him here, then why don''t you try and kick him off the island yourself. I''d like to see how well that goes for you,¡± she snarked. Hippolyta grimaced and didn''t say anything more on the topic. She was obviously aware of who Superman was. All of Themyscira could rise up against him and they wouldn''t be able to beat him. ¡°Fine... Will you and your guest please take a seat? We have other guests here who were kind enough to wait for your arrival before the feast,¡± she said. I think that was the first time Wonder Woman and Superman noticed Artemis and I. That was actually surprising, I wasn''t used to not being the center of attention. Did that make me sound narcissistic? [Yes.] ¡®That was rhetorical, System...¡¯ The princess¡¯s eyes widened when she locked eyes with us. Once again, she sputtered in surprise. ¡°L¨CLady A¨CArtemis. I wasn''t expecting to find you here as well. W¨CWere you not also just on Mount Olympus earlier?¡± ¡°I don''t have to give you my schedule. I can go where I please. Just like your little boy toy, princess,¡± Artemis remarked dismissively. ¡°Boy toy!?¡± Superman glared at Artemis, who in turn scoffed at him. She could probably tell he was stronger than she was, but that didn''t mean she would ever back down. Her statement drew reactions from all around. The guards all gasped in disbelief while the Queen and her sister looked mortified. ¡°Daughter!? You''re together with a man!? How could you? The Scandal!¡± Hippolyta exclaimed in disbelief. ¡°You''re the princess of the Amazons! What will all of our subjects say when they find out?¡± ¡°I can be with whoever I please, Mother.¡± her daughter replied. ¡°It''s none of your business and I could care less what the rest of the Amazons think.¡± I found myself nodding in agreement. Fuck anyone else''s opinion. I felt like Wonder Woman and I could be great friends if we could get past the strange reaction she seemed to have to all of us. I thought she was supposed to be respectful of the Greek Gods, but it was clear as day that she was very upset that Hestia and Artemis were in her home. ¡°It is our business! Your relationship is unnatural!¡± Antiope added while crossing her arms. ¡°Men and women aren''t supposed to be together!¡± she declared loudly. Unnatural... What? ¡°Pfft! Hahahaha!¡± I couldn''t help it. I started cracking up at that statement. It was absolutely absurd and the best part was that Antiope believed her own statement wholeheartedly. ¡°Tell that to the other 99 percent of the world!¡± I said with a giggle. Antiope blushed and put her head down. ¡°You all know what I meant,¡± she mumbled to herself in embarrassment. My laughter drew the heroes¡¯ eyes to me next. ¡°And who might you be? I do not recognize you, but I sense you are divine in nature.¡± Wonder Woman asked me distrustfully while folding her arms. ¡°Another Goddess?¡± Superman was clenching his fists again. I wiped a few tears of laughter out of my eyes and stood up, still letting out a few chuckles. ¡°Hello, I am Layla of the Fallen. Otherwise known as the Goddess of Angels. It is nice to meet the both of you, I''ve heard quite a bit about the exploits of the Justice League. While I don''t agree with all of the League''s principles, I can appreciate everything it does for the world,¡± I introduced myself with a calm smile, hoping to ease all the tension. The League might cause immense property damage on a regular basis fighting the same villains over and over, but that''s not all they do for the world. They also help rescue people from natural disasters or any other potential tragedies. Superman frowned at me for some reason before he spoke. ¡°I''ve never heard of a Goddess of Angels before. Definitely never read about you in the Bible either...¡± he said. ¡°You wouldn''t have heard of me,¡± I confirmed. ¡°I am relatively young after all, only a little over 300 years old. My ascent is also incredibly recent as well. I''ve only been a Goddess for a year. Sometimes I still forget that I am one, and not just a regular Fallen Angel anymore,¡± I said to the two heroes. There was also the fact that I was from another Universe entirely, but that was left unsaid. Artemis reached over and grabbed my hand in support. ¡°Layla is downplaying her achievements quite a bit. She is very impressive, there are very few beings who can hope to best her in combat these days. She cut the Devil''s head off less than a week ago in single combat.¡± Artemis smirked at the two of them. Superman¡¯s eyes widened after Artemis''s declaration. ¡°You¡¯re not joking? The Devil is real? You''re claiming that you''re actually an Angel?¡± he asked me in shock. I stood up from my chair. My 14 Black Wings sprang up behind me. ¡°Be not afraid...¡± I said with a small chuckle at both of their gaping expressions. My wings receded and I sat back down with a smirk. It was interesting that I had now reached a point where I could officially say I was stronger than Superman. Despite my Observe skill telling me he was Level 130, I had faced higher leveled opponents and come out on top. There was tension in the room. Tension that didn''t seem to go away even as Wonder Woman and Superman took their seats at the table. I thought this was going to be an enjoyable dinner where I got to meet some of my favorite heroes come to life. Unfortunately, that wasn''t the case.The two heroes sat next to each other in relative silence, they didn''t bother so much as glancing at all the delicious food in front of them. I tried to strike up a conversation with either of them, but I kept getting brushed off with one or two word answers. They simply sat there, whispering only to each other. Their behavior made the meal extremely awkward for everyone else. It was so awkward that my plate was full of delicious foods I was dying to try, but I hadn''t bothered taking a single bite. Between their whispers that I couldn''t make out, the glares and distrustful glances that the two heroes kept giving Artemis, Hestia and me were very distracting and unpleasant. [This is why they say you shouldn''t meet your heroes.] After five minutes I had had enough. There was no reason for me to have to stick around after all. I stood up from the table and Artemis quickly did the same. [Faith Energy: 7,585,457] [Vigor: 10,400] [Strength: 5,643] [Intelligence: 13,100] [Luck: 2656] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 100x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse.) I had really struck a nerve with my speech. Superman rushed forwards and slammed his fist into my cheek. My head whipped backwards. {-50 HP} ¡°Everything I said was true by the way! Don''t get mad at me because you''re a dumbass.¡± He obviously had not been expecting me to recover so quickly. I lashed out and punched him in his face. I had over 5000 Strength, but I hardly ever used it outside of the improved reaction times it gave me. I felt like mixing things up a bit. Spit flew out of Superman¡¯s mouth as he went careening backwards. His body smashed through a stone wall and he ended up landing in the next room. ¡°Kal-El!¡± Wonder Woman shouted his name in panic! ¡°Damn you! How dare you attack my beloved!¡± she unsheathed her sword and pointed it at me. ¡°He literally attacked us first. We were just going to leave and go on a burger run...¡± I don''t know why I was even trying to reason with these people at this point. ¡°Enough of your filthy evil lies!¡± Wonder Woman exclaimed. She levitated off the ground and rapidly accelerated towards me. She swung her sword directly at my head. CLANG! Her blade was never able to make contact. It was intercepted by Artemis who had drawn her own silver blade in my defense. Despite being more proficient with a bow, that didn''t mean she didn''t know how to use a blade. ¡°I promised your mother I would have a chat with you, Diana. I figure now is as good a time as any.¡± Artemis stabbed forward with her blade. Wonder Woman was sent flying backwards as she blocked. Her armored boots skidded across the floor as she landed next to her mother and Aunt. ¡°Diana...what are you doing? Why are you attacking our guest!?¡± Hippolyta asked in panic. ¡°You need to stop this! Zeus and Hercules are dead, let this madness end.¡± ¡°You need to stop now, Diana. You are not acting like the girl I spent so many years training,¡± Antiope pleaded as well. Wonder Woman scowled at both of them. ¡°No! It won''t end until the whole world bows down to Superman¡¯s rule! Themyscira included! This is a new world order mother, and the Amazons will join!¡± Hippolyta and Antiope looked completely shocked at her declaration. ¡°You would have your sisters bow down to the rule of a man? One who only wishes to conquer?¡± Hippolyta asked in disbelief. ¡°He''s not just any man. He is Superman, our world''s new god. The Justice League serves him as its new pantheon. The only pantheon the world needs,¡± her daughter replied. There didn''t seem to be any reasoning with her. ¡®Ugh...this is why I find evil Universes to be annoying. It''s like she''s turned insane and evil just for the sake of being evil...¡¯ [That pretty much describes most of the villains you''ve fought] ¡®...shut up, System.¡¯ ¡°You must be pretty confident to ignore me!¡± Artemis took advantage of Wonder Woman¡¯s distraction. She shot forwards and struck the princess across the face with the flat side of her blade. She could have killed Diana in that instant had she chosen to do so. Diana''s head whipped backwards and blood escaped her lips. ¡°You claim to have wiped out an entire pantheon with only this paltry amount of skill?¡± Artemis taunted as she kicked Diana in the ribs. Her armor stopped them from being immediately broken, but she still dropped to her knees and wheezed for air. ¡°Diana!¡± Superman shouted as he witnessed his lover''s beat down. It looked like he had finally recovered himself enough to continue fighting. He stuck his arms forward and tried to tackle Artemis from behind. I didn''t allow that to happen. He was moving so fast that he couldn''t stop himself from flying into the portal I opened right in front of him. I teleported him into the sky a few thousand miles above the Island. I quickly opened another portal next to myself and joined him. We could go all out against each other in the upper atmosphere. Neither of us needed to breathe after all. ¡°I''m going to kill you for hurting her!¡± Superman threw a punch at me with everything he had. He had clearly been holding back his full power earlier. The thin air in the upper atmosphere caught fire all around us from the force of his punch. Bringing him to an isolated area allowed him to truly fight with everything he had. I punched forwards at the same time and our two fists collided. I quickly realized that his Strength was much higher than my own. A snap rang out and I grit my teeth from the temporary pain of experiencing my arms breaking. Thankfully, my Gamer¡¯s Body made it so that my arms didn''t actually break and the pain quickly faded away. {-500 HP} ¡°You''re going to regret going against me. You caught me off guard earlier, but now you''ll experience my true strength. My true power!¡± A yellow aura spread from a small ring on his right hand. It quickly surrounded his body and even changed the color of his costume. It was the Power of the Yellow Lantern Core. The power of Fear. With the power of Fear, he actually jumped in power all the way to Level 180. He really was going all out now. ¡°If you''re going all out, then I suppose I should as well.¡± I started pulling on the Cosmic Energy inside of me. The reward I had gained after dealing with Ego and Arishem. It was a power that I hadn''t truly mastered yet, hence I was very hesitant to use it in populated areas. Thankfully, I didn''t have to worry about that all the way up here. A purple aura began to spread around my body. My jet black hair and wings both changed their hues. They turned slightly purple as I felt a tremendous surge in power. The final change was to my Rinnegan. my eyes stood out before, but now they were literally glowing with enhanced power. [Weird, I''m having trouble giving your enhanced Stats accurate numbers. They keep fluctuating, but at the very minimum your power has increased over 20 times!] ¡®20 times?¡¯ I smirked at the number. I could definitely work with that. ¡°Warning! Tremendous energy surge detected in proximity. Defeat imminent! Recommended course of action: Immediate retreat and request for backup.¡± the Power Ring on Superman¡¯s hand spoke out on its own. Superman ignored his fancy rings warning. Now that we had both powered up to max, we flew at each other. The world shook as we collided! XXX Chapter 267 Chapter 267 Chapter 267: ¨CBatman¨C He was currently trapped behind an impenetrable energy barrier that he had designed himself. He was starting to regret making this prison inescapable. It was designed to hold powerful members of the Justice League in the event they ever went rogue. The irony that the majority of the League did end up going rogue and locked him away in the prison he designed for them was not lost on him. ¡°Alright Bruce, it¡¯s time you give up the location of the rest of your team. It¡¯s over, you''ve lost. Superman is on his way to Themyscira. Within hours, there will be no one left to oppose our rule,¡± Cyborg told him. ¡°Don''t make this any harder than it needs to be. Your little insurgency has ended.¡± ¡°You know I''ll never talk.¡± Bruce would rather die than ever give up his team. No amount of torture in the world would ever break him. He wouldn''t even give up Harley... She had admittedly grown on him. She could actually be a pretty good hero when she wasn''t under the influence of the Joker. Cyborg shrugged indifferently. ¡°I suppose it doesn''t really matter. We control every security network in the world. Your friends can''t hide forever.¡± He seemed pretty sure of himself, but Batman knew the remaining heroes on his side wouldn¡¯t be caught so easily. ¡°It won¡¯t be so easy,¡± Batman replied. ¡°They will never stop fighting until Superman and his corrupt Justice League are overthrown. After all the innocent lives he¡¯s taken, someone is going to bring him down eventually. Even if it''s not me.¡± Cyborg scowled at Batman in annoyance. ¡°That''s where you''re wrong, Batman. All the scheming in the world cannot overcome absolute power. And all of the most powerful beings in the world have joined our cause. There''s no one left who can so much as lay a scratch on Superman.¡± Batman was never one to allow the villains the last word. He was about to give one last witty response when the alarms all around the facility started to flash red and blare loudly. The automated warning system he had installed to detect global threats was going off. ¡°Warning! Massive radioactive energy surge detected over the Atlantic Ocean!¡± ¡°Shit, did some terrorist get their hands on a nuke? I thought Superman destroyed the world''s supply of them,¡± Cyborg cursed. ¡°Computer, bring up a satellite visual!¡± ¡°Now bringing up visual on the main monitor,¡± the automated voice said, and an image popped up on the largest screen. From inside his cell, Batman¡¯s eyes widened at what he saw. Superman was engaged in a fight with a winged woman Batman didn''t recognize... And Superman was losing. ¡°Shit!¡± Cyborg started to panic when he saw the same thing. ¡°Who is this woman!? These energy readings... She''s giving off more power than the average star! What the hell is going on? Dammit, I can''t contact Superman. All that radiation has fried his communicator. I need to contact Diana.¡± Cyborg sounded panicked as he muttered out loud. Batman listened in as Cyborg attempted and failed to bring up Wonder Woman¡¯s communicator as well. All Cyborg ended up receiving was static. She didn''t look like she was a part of the battle, had she already been defeated? ¡°Looks like Superman isn¡¯t as invincible as you all thought,¡± Batman said with a smirk. The Justice League¡¯s spy satellites were even better than most governments. Batman and Cyborg were both watching in High Definition as the woman with 14 black wings made the man of steel bleed. Cyborg spared a second to send one last glare Batman¡¯s way before he sent out a distress signal to all the other members of the Justice League. ¡°Attention all members of the League! This is Cyborg. Superman and Wonder Woman are engaged in combat with powerful foes on the Island of Themyscira. All available League members need to get there as fast as possible to back them up!¡± Cyborg ran a quick diagnostic on himself to make sure he was combat ready. ¡°I¡¯ll leave the TV on so you can watch us kill this woman. Whoever she is, we¡¯ll make sure any future rebellions die with her,¡± Cyborg said vindictively as he left Batman in his cell and headed towards the hangar. Stuck in the prison cell, Batman kept his eyes locked on the screen as the satellites continued tracking the battle. He didn¡¯t know who this woman was, but he was praying she¡¯d be able to succeed where he had failed. CRASH! His prayers were interrupted when the ventilation grate on the ceiling fell and loudly clattered against the floor. A familiar figure dropped out of the vent. ¡°Sheesh, I thought robot-boy would never leave,¡± Harley Quinn said, dusting herself off. ¡°This prison needs a better ventilation system. You wouldn''t believe how much dust I had to crawl through to sneak in here.¡± She walked over to his prison cell and smiled at him through the force field. ¡°Hello, Harley...¡± Batman said with a sigh. He could admit that he was glad to see her, but he was also annoyed that Harley Quinn, of all people, was the one currently rescuing him. ¡°Hiya, Bats! That¡¯s a fancy cell you got yourself stuck in. How do I get you out?¡± she asked, examining the biometric lock to the side. Batman sighed. ¡°It''s a biometric lock. The only way to open the cell is if we get one of Cyborg¡¯s eyeballs or¨C¡± WHACK! Harley completely ignored everything he said as she swung her baseball bat and completely smashed the fancy tech-lock. A second later, the force field flickered before fading away. Harley looked at him smugly as he exited the now open cell. ¡°Looks like you got a bit of a design flaw there, Batsy,¡± she said with a grin. Her signature weapon was resting on her shoulders. ¡°How much money did you spend building this prison again?¡± she teased him. Batman proudly did not admit to anything... He walked over to the computer that Cyborg had arrogantly left on and signed in. That was nice of him, Batman didn;t even have to waste any time hacking in. ¡°Watcha doing there, Bats?¡± Harley asked curiously while peeking over his shoulder. His fingers were furiously typing as he brought up numerous commands and overrides. ¡°I''m hacking into every single TV station on the planet and broadcasting this feed. It¡¯s time to show the world that Superman isn¡¯t as indestructible as they think he is,¡± he said while pointing to the live video. Wow, that girl is smoking hot and she is kicking ass and taking names. Harley likes~¡± she purred behind him. ¡°Who is she? She looks like an Angel, and not those fake Alien Angels either,¡± she said, referring to Hawkwoman and Hawkman. ¡°Angel¡¯s aren¡¯t real,¡± Batman replied immediately as he finished hacking every TV station in North America. It would only take him another 30 seconds to get every other continent after. ¡°Does this video have any sound?¡± Harley asked. ¡°It''s kind of boring not knowing what they''re saying.¡± ¡°The satellites are in space, they obviously can''t pick up sound. However, they can accurately simulate it by measuring the vibrations in the air,¡± Batman explained. ¡°I have no idea what you''re talking about, but if it means we can hear Supes whining as he gets his ass beat, then turn up the volume!¡± Harley said enthusiastically. ¡°Raaaaagh! Damn you, bitch! Just die already!¡± ¡°Wow, Superman has quite a mouth on him. So much for being a boy scout...¡± Harley commented. They heard Superman yell a few more curse words as he failed to land any meaningful blows on his opponent. Batman considered adding a censor before he officially broadcast the battle across the globe, but he decided against it. He wanted to let the world see what kind of man Clark had truly turned into. Batman pressed the Enter Key for the final time. ¡°It''s done, the battle is now being broadcast around the world in real time. The entire world can now see Superman losing. We should probably get out of here before Cyborg realizes what happened and comes back,¡± Batman said as he made his way towards the hangar to steal a jet. ¡°Awwwww, I wanted to stay and watch,¡± Harley whined but followed after him regardless. ¡°We can watch it on the ride to Themyscira,¡± Batman said while climbing into the cockpit of one of Wonder Woman''s spare Invisible Jets. She had multiple because they tended to get shot down pretty often. I placed my hands on my hips and struck a dramatic pose. I channeled more Cosmic Energy in my wings. They started to glow even brighter, giving me a transcendent appearance. I took a deep breath before projecting my voice loudly. ¡°BEHOLD MORTALS, I AM LAYLA OF THE FALLEN! THE FINAL DAUGHTER OF GOD AND THE GODDESS OF ANGELS! I AM THE ANGEL OF HOPE WHO STANDS AGAINST EVIL AND THE ONE WHO CUT THE HEAD OFF OF THE DEVIL HIMSELF!¡± {Faith Energy +10,000,000!} ¡°...Oh crap,¡± Shazam muttered. After my declaration, he was clearly the most afraid. He was only a 10 year old boy after all. One who had followed Superman out of hero worship and was now in way over his head. ¡°Billy Batson...¡± I said his real name while staring at him seriously. ¡°Go home. I have no interest in fighting a child.¡± ¡°W¨CWhat!? You know my real name?¡± he asked me nervously. ¡°Are you really an A¨CAngel?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I replied, my voice becoming more stern. ¡°Go home, Billy. Your foster family probably misses you.¡± I told him as I sensed more beings quickly approaching us in the sky. Superman was getting even more reinforcements soon. Shazam looked conflicted. He started to drift away from us before Superman stopped him. Superman gnashed his teeth. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare leave, Shazam! I thought you wanted to be a hero? I thought you wanted to follow me and save the world!?¡± he asked angrily. Shazam trembled under Superman¡¯s glare. Black Adam spoke up. ¡°Just let the useless whelp go, Superman. He¡¯s clearly too scared of the false Angel to properly fight anyway. We can discipline him later, after we deal with her.¡± As he said that, a jet flew by at high speeds. Three people hopped out of it as it flew by. Cyborg, Hawkwoman and another Yellow Lantern all flew over and took Superman¡¯s side. It wasn¡¯t the full Justice League roster, but other than the Flash these were the strongest members on Superman¡¯s side. ¡°Thank you all for coming,¡± Superman said to them. He seemed to have gotten a second wind now that he was no longer fighting me alone. ¡°Always, Superman,¡± Cyborg replied. ¡°I''m always happy to bash some skulls in!¡± Hawkwoman said while leveling her Nth metal mace at me. ¡°The corps stands with you, Superman,¡± Hal Jordan said while holding up his Power Ring. Superman nodded at them all proudly. He spread his arms out wide and smirked at me. ¡°You might have given me some trouble on my own, but do you think you can beat all of us?¡± he asked arrogantly. ¡°Yeah,¡± I replied bluntly. None of his new allies were strong enough to make a difference in this fight... Superman scowled at my blunt response. ¡°We¡¯ll see how confident you are when facing all six of us at the same time!¡± he declared. ¡°...Four,¡± I corrected him. ¡°...What?¡± Superman paused. ¡°There¡¯s only four of you left," I said again and pointed my finger down. Hawkgirl and Cyborg were both unconscious and quickly plummeting tens of thousands of feet to their deaths. Neither of them had any protection from the ambient radiation I was emitting. It had quickly overwhelmed both of them. I was honestly surprised. I knew Hawkgirl was basically a muscle-brained idiot, but I would have thought Cyborg would have remembered he was still technically half human, and therefore still susceptible to radiation. [Guess not...] ¡°Oh crap!¡± Shazam rapidly flew downwards to save the two of them from going splat. Something told me he probably wasn¡¯t going to come back and join the fight either. Superman¡¯s team of six quickly went back to three. Black Adam and Hal Jordan were glancing at each other awkwardly while their leader seethed from the embarrassment of what just happened. That was rough. He literally called me out and then lost half his team without me moving a muscle. I don¡¯t know if I''d be able to recover from something so embarrassing. [Emotional damage!] ¡°GRAAAAHHH!¡± Superman screamed. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯ll just do it myself! Sinestro taught me how to channel the full power of this ring. I will use it to destroy you!¡± The yellow aura he had dismissed earlier quickly returned as he powered up and prepared to hit me with everything he had! ¡°Shit, he¡¯s going all out!¡± Hal Jordan exclaimed. ¡°That could end up damaging the ring!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think he cares. Quickly, we have to back away or we¡¯ll get caught up in his attack!¡± Black Adam panicked. They both flew away just in time. ¡°You won¡¯t stop me!¡± Superman exclaimed. The Power Ring on his right hand was glowing like a star. He was channeling all of his power into his fist for one final punch. A blow that would be 10 times, maybe a hundred times even stronger than anything he had hit me with so far! I felt myself growing excited at that prospect! He wanted to end this with a final clash of our ultimate moves? I was down for that. I regret not bringing a camera for this! This was turning out to be an anime moment come-to-life. I focused on the Cosmic Energy in my body and started channeling it into my own fist. My right hand started to glow bright purple as I clenched it tightly. ¡°Bring it on, Superman!¡± ¡°Die!¡± He flew towards me so quickly that the air ignited around him. He threw his fist forwards and delivered a punch that was approaching the speed of light! I reciprocated and punched forwards with everything I had as well! Both of our empowered fists clashed and I prepared myself for a clash of power of epic proportions! NOM! There was no epic clash... YUM... BOOM! ¡°Noooooo!¡± Superman let out a scream of agony as his entire right arm was completely shredded and blown to pieces. He flung backwards dozens of times faster than the speed of sound. He quickly disappeared over the horizon. ¡°Well shit. That happened...¡± I muttered in disappointment. Right before our fists had clashed, I felt the familiar inside of me. My Orb of Infinity woke up... It had woken up hungry and devoured Superman¡¯s Yellow Power Ring the second our fists made contact with each other. He was immediately stripped of his borrowed power and subsequently blown away by my Cosmic Punch. [That¡¯s not the first magic ring your Sacred Gear has eaten. Also, please don¡¯t call that move Cosmic Punch. That sounds so cheesy...] I puffed up my cheeks in indignation. ¡®It¡¯s my super awesome anime punch! I can call it whatever I want!¡¯ XXX Chapter 268 Chapter 268 Chapter 268: ¨CBatman¨C The jet they had commandeered landed on the hidden island of Themyscira without any issues. He had been expecting a high-speed chase through the upper atmosphere after their daring escape from prison, but a chase never happened. In fact, no one in the regime even seemed to care that he had escaped. Batman figured they were all too busy scrambling to do damage control for the global broadcast he had released. ¡°Island of lesbian hopes and dreams, here I come!¡± Harley grinned excitedly as she turned off the engines. Batman raised a curious eyebrow underneath his mask. ¡°I thought you preferred men. You were with the Joker for years,¡± he said. ¡°Meh, he got me off... but he never really got me going, you know what I mean, Bats?¡± Harley wiggled her brows at him. She then hopped out of the cockpit and landed on the ground below with the grace of an experienced acrobat. She held her hands up in the air and cheered, ¡°Harley sticks the landing, and the crowd goes wild!¡± Batman sighed as he hopped out of the vehicle and landed next to her. He wished he didn''t know what she meant... but he sadly did. Everyone had a preferred type. There was a reason he was so attracted to Catwoman and Talia. Sexy villains in tight leather really got him going... ¡°What should we do now, Bats?¡± Harley asked. ¡°We need to make our way to the palace,¡± he said, proceeding to walk toward the largest building nearby. Thankfully, the landing pad the Amazons had built for their Princess was close to the center of the island and the palace itself. As expected, their arrival on the island did not go unnoticed. ¡°Halt, outsiders! What are you doing on our island?¡± an Amazon soldier bellowed, brandishing her spear. ¡°One of them is a man! How dare he step foot on our island!¡± another woman yelled, gripping her sword. She looked like she was about to attack him then and there. ¡°Wait! ...I recognize the ¡®man of bats.¡¯ He is a friend of the Princess. She returned to our island earlier. We will escort you to the palace, but know that you are not welcome here, man,¡± the first Amazon said while lowering her weapon. Batman sighed in relief. He had already had quite a long day and wanted to save any of his fighting energy for confronting members of Superman''s regime. It was also good to know that the average Amazon didn¡¯t seem to know that he and Wonder Woman no longer had a friendly relationship. That meant she hadn¡¯t managed to subvert the Amazon people to Superman¡¯s cause yet. ¡°Where is the Princess?¡± he asked the Amazon with the spear. She at least didn¡¯t look like she wanted to murder him on the spot. ¡°She landed a half hour ago and should be in the palace with the Queen and the Royal guests.¡± Harley perked up. ¡°Guests? Is one of them that super sexy Angel with the awesome glowing purple eyes? The one who was kicking Superman¡¯s ass!?¡± The two Amazons glanced at each other curiously. ¡°We do not know what you¡¯re talking about. We¡¯ve been stuck guarding out here all day,¡± one of them said. Batman immediately concluded that neither woman knew what was going on. That wasn¡¯t completely unexpected. It was a big island, and the Amazons tended to reject technology. They had no phones or radios to relay messages to each other. They walked through the city for a few minutes to reach the palace grounds. Batman kept his head forward and made a point to not look any of the gawking women in the eye. That would only make them more aggressive... Harley whistled loudly when they reached the gates. ¡°Wow, this place is swanky,¡± she said while looking around. ¡°And all the women I¡¯ve seen so far have been... so hot!¡± Batman chose not to reply to that comment. He was already getting enough attention as it was by being the only man currently on the entire island¡ªnot counting Superman who should still be fighting in the skies above. Batman unfortunately hadn''t been able to monitor how the fight was going once they had taken off from the prison. He hoped that Superman would be defeated, but the pessimist inside him didn¡¯t think it would be that easy. Even if Superman was being beaten one-on-one, he still had numerous allies he could call on for aid. That''s why Batman was here on the island. He wanted to help the woman fighting Superman. He was here to take down any Justice League members that showed up to help the Man of Steel. He just hoped he wasn''t too late. The flight to the island had taken half an hour. The battle might already be over... BOOOOOM! ¡°Woah!¡± Harley placed a hand on his shoulder to steady herself. ¡°What the fuck!? I think my eardrums just popped.¡± A massive explosion took place in the sky above them. Whatever had caused it was so powerful that the entire island shook! ¡°Kyaaaah!¡± ¡°The sky and the ground are trembling! Are the gods fighting!?¡± ¡°Everybody hide! We do not want to be caught up in their wrath!¡± The two Amazons that had been escorting them, along with all the other nearby women, fled to the nearest shelters as fast as possible. Batman was impressed at how quickly the streets became empty. He wondered if gods fighting each other was a regular occurrence. Was this the Amazon version of a fire drill? ¡°Let''s get inside and find out what''s happening!¡± Batman said, throwing open the gates. The women guarding it had also abandoned their posts. In fact, no one stopped them as they entered the palace. All the women inside looked too shocked at what was happening. The interior was a complete wreck, evidence of a massive super-powered fight. ¡°Who are you?¡± a beautiful woman called out as he turned a corner. Her hair and eyes were both impossible shades of silver. She was adorned in a beautiful set of silver armor that was literally glowing. She also had her foot on top of Diana''s unconscious body. ¡°I''m Batman. Who are you?¡± he asked warily. ¡°I am Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. Are you an ally of this errant Princess? You''re dressed in a silly little costume just like her boy-toy was,¡± the goddess replied. A goddess...? Wonder Woman always claimed the Greek gods were real, but he had never met one in person. He quickly searched his memories for all the lore he had on Artemis. She was allegedly a maiden goddess who hated men. It wasn''t surprising that she would be on Themyscira. Batman didn''t necessarily need to note that fact down, but he tended to make extensive notes about every superpowered being he came across. In the past, people would have called him paranoid, but after half of the world''s superheroes openly tried to enslave the planet, he doubted anyone would call him that anymore. ¡°Are you sure you don''t want anything, Batsy? Not even some fries? I can''t imagine the food in prison was very good. I''ve been in and out of prison a bunch of times, and the food always sucked,¡± Harley said while dipping her fries in ketchup. ¡°I''m not hungry...¡± Batman grumbled before his stomach actually grumbled. The three women all gave him deadpan stares which he promptly ignored. Okay, he was hungry, but he would eat later. There were much more important things to take care of first! The most important being... ¡°What do you mean you''re leaving!?¡± Batman asked Layla. She couldn''t leave yet! Superman had been defeated, yes, but he had yet to be fully captured. Even with only one arm, he was still going to be incredibly dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous now that he was so badly wounded. ¡°Yeah, you can''t leave, Layla. You just got here! Let''s at least have a super passionate threesome before you go. You, me, and Artemis¡ªwhat do you say?¡± Harley asked, completely serious. ¡°Do you like being on top? Do you want me to be on top? I''m honestly fine with whatever!¡± "That''s an amazing idea. I accept, of course!¡± Layla declared with a happy grin. Artemis scoffed and slapped Layla on the shoulder. ¡°Absolutely not! I will not have my first time including some random woman off the street!¡± Artemis protested and Layla whined. Harley giggled. ¡°You''re still a virgin, Artemis!? That''s adorable! ...but wait? Aren''t you like thousands of years old?¡± Artemis blushed in clear embarrassment. ¡°My sex life is of no concern to mortals!¡± she declared while focusing back on her milkshake. She was clearly taking big, long gulps so she didn''t have to talk anymore. Layla giggled and wrapped an arm around Artemis. ¡°My beautiful maid here is just shy. Don''t mind her.¡± ¡°Maid...?¡± Harley asked before a lewd grin spread across her face. She snickered at the still-blushing goddess. ¡°So you''re into some master-servant play? That''s so kinky, I love it!¡± ¡°T¨CThat¡¯s n¨Cnot what being her maid means! I am Layla¡¯s personal maid, I''ll have you know!¡± she declared... proudly? Batman was confused as to why a haughty goddess whose lifespan was measured in millennia would be happy to be someone''s maid. He then noticed the sneaking glances of love Artemis kept sending in Layla¡¯s direction when the other woman wasn¡¯t looking, and he figured Harley might be onto something. Did the goddess have some kind of submission fetish? You know what... never mind. He didn¡¯t want his thoughts going down that path. He needed to get everyone back on topic. Layla had already finished eating her Big Belly Burger and looked like she was ready to leave. ¡°You can¡¯t leave! Superman has lost most of the Justice League, but he will be back for revenge. There¡¯s no telling the atrocities that he¡¯ll commit to try and reclaim everything he lost today. You have to stay, this world needs a chance to recover,¡± Batman swallowed his pride and pleaded with Layla. She looked at him pityingly before she let out a sigh. ¡°...I can¡¯t stay, I have a family waiting for me back in my home Universe. There¡¯s also the fact that my harem members'' relatives are currently visiting and I can¡¯t just skip out on all of that.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve already stayed hours longer than we were supposed to. It¡¯s already past morning back home,¡± Artemis added. ¡°We have to get back.¡± Batman¡¯s shoulders slumped in defeat. Was there really no way to convince them to stay? ¡°But...¡± Layla continued and he perked up with hope. ¡°...I will leave a Shadow Clone here with half of my power. It should have more than enough juice to take down Superman when he shows back up.¡± ¡°A shadow clone?¡± he asked curiously. The Angel placed her fingers together in the sign of a cross. A puff of white smoke manifested next to her. When the smoke cleared away, a second Layla appeared. She was completely identical to the original. Harley ran up to the clone and hugged her/it excitedly. ¡°You can create CLONES? That is so hot! That must be such an amazing ability to use in the bedroom!¡± Batman sighed at Harley¡¯s horny antics but he was at least grateful that Layla had left them with some protection. Even with only half power, a being like her was an absolute game changer. XXX Omake: Layla¡¯s DC Clone, Part 1 I watched the portal close behind them. The original me returned to her home universe with Artemis. She had gone back to deal with her Devil in-laws. I had all of her memories so I was well aware that she was not looking forward to that... Harley Quinn continued to cling to me. Part of me wondered where all the attraction Harley had for me came from, but then I remembered that Harley Quinn was crazy and trying to figure her out was a waste of time. If she¡¯s into me, then she¡¯s into me. ¡°So, what¡¯s being a clone like?¡± Harley asked me curiously. ¡°It is strange. I am a fleeting existence, and yet I find myself perfectly fine with that fact. I was created to serve a specific purpose and will fulfill it to the best of my ability before I am popped,¡± I explained. Harley whined and hugged me tighter. ¡°Noooo!! You can¡¯t go POP! You just got here! That stuck-up Artemis is gone now, we can have as much fun as we want! I can¡¯t wait to introduce you to Ivy. We can bust her out of prison and the three of us can have a super steamy threesome together~! Ivy can create these tentacles with her plants that are absolutely¡ª¡± ¡°Please stop talking, Harley.¡± Batman interrupted. ¡°For my sanity... please stop putting all those images in my head...¡± Harley simply laughed at Batman¡¯s mortification, and I found myself laughing with her. I had to admit that I was curious about the offer. The original Layla was never into tentacles, but maybe she just needed to try it first? Maybe after I popped, she would get my memories and find that she is into them? I wasn¡¯t sure whether my memories could travel across entire universes, though, so she might not. ¡°They won''t. Your memories won''t carry over such a vast distance,¡± a young girl''s voice said next to me. I was momentarily startled. I hadn¡¯t sensed anyone getting close to us! I noticed that all the noises around me had gone silent except for her voice. I turned my head and found a teenage goth girl sitting on the bench next to Batman. The Dark Knight didn¡¯t react to her arrival at all. In fact, he wasn¡¯t even moving¨Che was completely frozen. Everything around us was completely frozen in place. ¡°I froze time so that I could properly speak with you,¡± the girl said. She looked and felt incredibly familiar to me. ¡°Death?¡± I asked her. She smiled at me softly. ¡°You¡¯re correct, but I prefer Didi. Didi of the Endless. I have a proposition for you. I¡¯ve seen your original''s effectiveness and can¡¯t help but feel slightly jealous of Lady Death. How would you like to be my Champion in this universe? I have the power to turn you into a real girl if you accept...¡± XXX Chapter 269 Chapter 269 FG 269: ¨CLayla¨C "We''re back," I said with a small yawn after stepping through the portal. I was mentally drained from all that craziness. How did a relaxing day at the beach turn into me saving an entire universe?e back, Layla. You two were out late. Did anything happen?" Rias asked, wiggling her eyebrows. She was sitting on the couch with her brother, while Grayfia stood dutifully to the side holding a tray of tea. The woman really took her maid fetish to a whole new level and never broke character. I had to respect her for that. I let out a wistful sigh. "I wish something like that had happened. Instead, I ended up getting into a fight with an alien dictator who had enslaved another version of Earth with his superpowered totalitarian regime." I gave her the short version. Sona walked into the living room holding a steaming cup of coffee. She pouted at me before reaching into her pocket and pulling out $20. She begrudgingly handed the money to Rias, who took it smugly. "You couldn''t have not gotten into a fight on just one outing, Layla?" Sona asked in disappointment. I sputtered at them. "You guys bet on whether I''d get into a fight or not?" "Yep!" Rias said happily, pocketing the cash. It was less about the money and more about beating Sona that excited her. "I bet you''d get into a crazy, world-changing battle, and Sona bet that you and Artemis would just have sex the entire time." This time Artemis sputtered next to me. "Wha¡ªhey! I''m not that easy! I''m not the type of girl to put out on the first date...no matter how amazing it was. You girls should have seen the beach; it had the softest sand and the clearest ocean water I''ve ever seen." Rias sat up and grabbed Artemis by the hand. "You need to tell us all the details!" she said while dragging Artemis out of the room. "We''re having girl time!" she called out over her shoulder as Sona hurried after them. I just stood there, pointing at myself. "Am I not a girl...?" Sirzechs simply gave me a shrug as I sat down on the couch next to him. There was a momentary awkward silence, as expected. "So...brother-in-law, how''s it going in your Underworld?" "Fine," he said curtly. "It would be better if some goddess from another dimension didn''t kidnap my baby sister and her best friend." [Oof...] "Y¡ªyeah...don''t you hate it when that happens...?" I glanced up at Grayfia to see if she would say anything. She didn''t. She just stood next to her husband in silence. I don''t think Sirzechs and I were ever going to get along... [Probably not, but at least he''s not trying to kill you anymore!] I hesitantly patted him on the shoulder before standing back up and heading towards the nursery. Inside, I found Serafall and Cecilia taking care of all three of my daughters. "Sia-tan made a big stinky..." Serafall whined to her mother, glancing down at the dirty diaper in her hand in mortification. "I forgot how much babies poop. Sona never pooped this much!" Cecilia scoffed at her eldest daughter. "Yes, she did. You just never had to change her. You''re the big, bad Maou Leviathan¡ªyou made all the servants change her diapers." "Hi, you two. Thanks for watching the girls," I said, walking in. Each of my girls giggled as I gave them a kiss in their cribs. "If you want to get some breakfast, I''ll leave a shadow clone to watch them," I said as another clone poofed next to me. My clone immediately took the dirty diaper out of Serafall''s hands and incinerated it with her Light. No ashes or smell remained. I had long since mastered this cleanup technique with having three daughters at the same time. [I wonder if your father would turn in his grave if he knew you used the Divine Light he granted you to clean up poop?] ¡°...So, Layla, I thought this could be a good time for me to get to know you better. After all, I''m going to be entrusting you with both of my daughters¡ªthe future of the Sitiri Clan.¡± Cecilia said as we sat down for breakfast. I nodded at her. ¡°You have some questions? Feel free to ask away. I''m an open book,¡± I said. ¡°Oh, you shouldn¡¯t have said that.¡± Serafall gave me a look of pity from across the table. Cecilia looked pleased at my response. I noticed a certain gleam in her eye before she started. ¡°What do you do, Layla?¡± Sona¡¯s mother asked me. ¡°Hm,¡± I put my finger on my chin. ¡°I do a lot of things. I protect the world whenever a huge threat pops up. And I like to explore other universes¡ªas you know. Also¡ª¡± Cecilia cut me off. ¡°So you¡¯re currently unemployed,¡± she said bluntly. [Haha! I like her!] Serafall started snickering while sending me a look of pity. ¡°Told you~¡± she singsonged. ¡°I¡ªI¡¯m not unemployed. I''ll have you know that I own my own company¡ªFallcorp! We¡¯re cutting-edge when it comes to gene therapy and space travel.¡± Cecilia shrugged. "Nothing too important. I was just giving her some light teasing about her lifestyle. You came in at a good time. Serafall and I were just discussing Layla¡¯s proposal." "The proposal to move the entire New Satan Faction to this universe''s Underworld? After she clears the place out of our soul-eating counterparts?" he asked. "That''s the one!" Serafall said cheerfully. "I was asking my mom about her opinion." "I think it could be a fresh start for our race, but we would need to be a lot more exclusive than my daughter-in-law proposed. At the end of the day, she was a Fallen Angel. She doesn¡¯t understand just how messed up a lot of Devils truly are. While it''s true that we don¡¯t eat souls, many members of our race are certainly not saints," Cecilia explained. Serafall frowned before she spoke. "So, you want to accept her proposal to move, but you don¡¯t want to allow the entire New Satan Faction to join us. You want to leave most of them behind? That would be cutting our numbers down even more so..." "Yes, but in this world, we wouldn''t be constantly under threat by the Fallen Angels and the Angels in Heaven. The former have moved to Asgard, and the latter won¡¯t attack us without Layla¡¯s permission, which they would never have as long as Layla is married to three Devil girls," Cecilia said, mentioning Rias, Sona, and Serafall. "Our total population is about 3 million, and out of those numbers, I''d say 2 million of us aren¡¯t going to ¡®fit in¡¯ with this new universe." And that was her being generous. Her race was truly full of entitled degenerates. A lot of ¡°members¡± of the New Satan Faction only joined at the very end of the Civil War when victory was all but guaranteed. There were a lot of fence sitters who only wanted to join the winning side of the war. Most of those older were the older Devils who were far too entrenched in their old ways to ever change their vile lifestyles. "It¡¯ll be pretty tough to rebuild our population with only 1 million Devils, but I can¡¯t say it also won''t be easier if we leave behind the most evil members of our race," Sirzechs said, weighing their options. "That¡¯s for sure!" Serafall said with a sigh. "Almost 90% of my job is preventing all the wars that those idiots keep causing! It would be nice to actually be able to get stuff done for once. Plus, the Underworld is massive. Without the Fallen Angels taking up half of it and the Old Satans taking up a full quarter, we¡¯ll have plenty of room to expand. We wouldn''t have to worry about overpopulation for tens of thousands of years with our low birth rates!" Serafall exclaimed. ¡°Of course, all of this depends on us staying on Layla¡¯s good side,¡± she said before turning to Serafall. ¡°Which means, you need to go and spend some time with her. You should catch off before she runs off too far. And please tell her I''m sorry, I was only teasing her. I honestly don''t care whether she has a job or not.¡± Cecilia said. ¡®Not when the 14 winged woman can casually blow up planets...¡¯ she thought to herself. ¡°Ok, mom. I''ll see you guys later.¡± While Serafall left to go spend time with Layla, Cecilia stayed behind with Sirzechs to iron out the details of their plan. ¨CLayla¨C "Hi, Layla! Whatcha doing?" Serafall popped up behind me. I was sitting on the edge of the roof, my feet dangling off the edge. "I''m keeping an eye on the city. Your mom was right. I suppose I could be doing more, especially with all the enemies I keep provoking." Serafall plopped down next to me and placed her hand on her chin. "You know my mom was just teasing you, right? She honestly doesn''t care what you do with your life. At the end of the day, Devils respect power above all else; that''s how we are wired." "I figured it was something like that, but that didn¡¯t mean she wasn¡¯t at least a little bit right. Plus, the world Artemis and I just came from gave me a few ideas." "What was that world like?" Serafall asked curiously. "It was full of professional superheroes. They fought crime all around the world and kept people safe." Serafall grinned at the thought of a world like that. "Really? Were there any Magical Girls there?" I nodded my head, and she squealed in excitement. "That¡¯s great! So what happened?" she asked. "Most of the superheroes turned evil and tried to enslave the world under a totalitarian regime. Artemis and I beat the crap out of their leaders, and I left a clone behind to help clean up the world," I explained, and Serafall deflated. "That sucks..." she said while pouting. "I don¡¯t really see how you plan on taking inspiration from that unless you want to take over this world. I don''t think anyone would be able to fight you if you did." I shrugged. "Eh, you¡¯d be surprised. When up against a wall, the Avengers tend to pull off some pretty impressive bullshit. If Tony Stark tried, I''m pretty sure he could casually create time travel in only a few hours." "What!?" Serafall exclaimed in shock. She obviously hadn''t met him yet. I waved her off. "We''re getting off topic," I said. "I''ve been thinking about creating my own hero team. A team trained exclusively by me, one that can help combat bad guys around the world and in space." SHIELD does its spy stuff pretty well, and the Avengers are great¡ªwhen they are available. That was the thing though, they weren''t always available because every single member had their own day jobs on top of being heroes. Even Natasha''s day job was being a spy. She could be gone on missions for over a month at a time at some points. Then there were groups like the X-men¨Cthey only bothered turning up if mutants were in danger or causing the danger. They didn¡¯t really give a shit whether or not regular humans were under attack. Hence, not a single one of them showed up during the demonic invasion even though the X-men¡¯s base is located close by upstate. ¡°You want to create a team of full time professional heroes?¡± Serafall asked with a small giggle. ¡°That sounds a bit silly, like something out of a manga! ...I have to admit I¡¯d be interested in seeing the results though. Maybe Miracle Levia-tan will stop by once in a while...¡± she suggested. I told her that she was more than welcome to if my plans ended up working. Serafall and I spent the next hour on the roof just chatting. Without her sister there to distract her, I found that she was able to hold a perfect conversation. As we were talking, at some point she reached her hand out and took hold of my own... XXX A/N: Handholding... How Lewd! chapter 270 chapter 270 Chapter 270: ¨CLayla¨C I hovered above Hell''s Kitchen, searching for my target. Finding him wasn''t hard. All I had to do was listen for gunshots and screams. A few minutes later, I spotted him on a rooftop, taking potshots at some gang members below. They were trying their best to return fire, but they were up against one of the best former soldiers in the world. "Hi, Frank. It''s been a while," I said as I touched down on the roof. My wings vanished from sight a second later. "What are you doing here, Layla?" Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, asked without looking up from his scope. He pulled the trigger a few more times, dropping three more gang members. I didn''t make any moves to intervene in the bloodshed. The souls of every man Frank was firing at were stained with Sin. Some of them were almost pitch black, indicating they routinely committed some of the worst crimes imaginable. Not only that, but they reveled in committing them as well. "I came to make you a proposition. I was thinking about putting together a team," I started to explain. "I''m going to stop you there, Layla." Frank said as he fired his weapon a few more times. The last of the gang members dropped dead. With the area clear, he turned around to face me. "I already tried to make nice with SHIELD as a favor to you. It didn''t go well. They had far too many rules and regulations. Too much red tape, and they wouldn''t let me put down the scum of the Earth when it had to be done!" he said bitterly. "I won''t let the scum go free. I can''t let what happened to my family happen to anyone else. Not when I have the power to stop it." Even a full year later, I could tell he was still reeling from the death of his wife. After the mass revival following Thanos¡¯s invasion, Frank had called me up, begging me to revive his wife. He pleaded that his children needed their mother. I felt for Frank. I could hear the pain in his voice. I had wanted to revive her, but I simply couldn''t. It had been too long since her death, and Frank''s deceased wife had already made peace in the afterlife. There had been some friction between us since then, and I was hoping to ease that tension today. "This team isn''t like the Avengers," I continued my explanation. "This is a team that will answer to me only. I want to create a force to protect people not just from global threats but local ones as well." "Aren¡¯t Spiderman and Daredevil already handling that for you?" he asked. ¡°They seem to have things covered.¡± ¡°They¡¯re only two people, one of which is still a teenager with a very naive outlook on the world,¡± I said. Spiderman had been doing a pretty good job in the city, but he was still mostly dealt with low level street crimes. He mostly handled robberies or burglaries. I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s faced a real supervillain yet. I¡¯d have to ask Natasha when she got back from her latest mission. SHIELD had been keeping a hands off approach with him due to his age, but they still monitored him to make sure he didn¡¯t bite off more than he could chew and get himself bumped off accidentally or otherwise. Frank still didn¡¯t seem interested in my proposal. I needed to work better on my sales pitch. ¡°That¡¯s too bad,¡± I said wistfully while turning my head. ¡°I¡¯ve got a whole bunch of super awesome alien guns just sitting around. Too bad I never learned how to shoot them. I wonder if I should just throw them all away? Or I could trade them in the City¡¯s cash for guns program, I suppose.¡± I said while glancing at him from the corner of my eye. Frank¡¯s right eye twitched when I mentioned throwing all the weapons away. ¡°Alien guns?¡± he asked, trying to hide his interest. ¡°...How powerful are we talking here?¡± I smirked, I knew I had his interest now. In hindsight, I should have just started by mentioning the cool weapons. ¡°Some of these guns are powerful enough to injure even me,¡± I said. Not a lot, but they could still take a couple HP off of me with every shot. Frank let out a whistle. ¡°Ok, you have my attention...¡± This was a good start, now I just had a few more people to convince before things started to really kick off. My own ¡®League¡¯ could very well become a real possibility soon. ... ¨CNorman Osborn¨C The green-haired man temporarily ignored him and walked over to the window. He stared up at the sky. ¡°Interesting, how did I never notice that my world¡¯s sun wasn¡¯t real? The energy radiating off of this star is so much more intense,¡± he muttered to himself before shaking his head. He turned back to Norman. ¡°Apologies... I¡¯ve recently become aware of some truths that I would never have believed if I didn¡¯t see them for myself. I came here to confirm them.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not making any sense,¡± Norman said in annoyance. His finger slowly moved toward the emergency button on his bedside. It would only take security 30 seconds to get here after he pressed it. ¡°My apologies, human. I¡¯m not here to hurt you. In fact, I¡¯m here to help you,¡± the man said, and Norman moved his hand away from the button. ¡°Why would you help me?¡± Norman rasped. ¡°We¡¯ve obviously never met. I would definitely remember someone with your... unique traits. What do you want with me?¡± He doubted this man could really help him, but what did a dying man have to lose at this point? The green-haired man smirked and began a strange explanation. ¡°When all the Fallen Angels vanished from the underworld, it set off a lot of panic amongst my people. How did an entire race vanish? Where did they go? These were questions I asked myself. It took me months of dedicated research, but I¡¯m not known as the smartest man in the underworld for nothing...¡± ¡®Clearly not the most humble either,¡¯ Norman thought to himself. When the man mentioned the underworld, Norman started to get the idea that this man wasn¡¯t a mutant after all. No, this being was something much worse. Something darker. The being continued his speech, barely addressing Norman as he arrogantly monologued out loud. ¡°...I discovered a secret that had been hidden from the entire supernatural world! Our entire world was fake! We live in an artificial pocket dimension, one that is in the process of slowly breaking down. Azazel, that bastard, clearly discovered this information ahead of me somehow. The Fallen Angels got a jump on us and managed to escape to this place¡ªthe real world! A world that has barely been influenced by the supernatural and yet has developed almost identically to its separated counterpart¡ªthat¡¯s quite interesting, but I¡¯ll get into that discussion another time. The important thing is what I found here in this world... Or rather who I found!¡± The being finally got to the point. ¡°Layla of the Fallen,¡± Norman said out loud. ¡°You discovered HER...¡± It was obvious WHO the being was talking about. If Norman really was talking to some kind of demon from a ¡°parallel world,¡± then it would obviously be terrified upon discovering something like her. The being snapped its fingers and nodded at him. ¡°You are correct, human. I discovered the Fallen Angel¡¯s secret weapon. They had been hiding her here, allowing her to grow in secret! A Fallen Angel of such unimaginable POWER! The entire Devil race combined won¡¯t be able to defeat her, and it¡¯s only a matter of time before she purges us from existence!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°As my now disowned son would say, sucks to be you,¡± Norman said dryly, rolling his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t see what any of this has to do with me.¡± He was on his deathbed and didn¡¯t know what a ¡®Devil¡¯ would even want with him. He certainly wasn¡¯t giving up his soul, especially when the being just admitted it still wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat Layla. Or maybe he would... The Devil waved his hand flippantly. ¡°Of course not, your puny mortal mind can¡¯t comprehend my plans. Not unless I explain them to you. I was getting there, of course. Layla of the Fallen is powerful, but she has gained quite a few enemies. Enemies like you. She took everything from you, didn¡¯t she? Your company, your legacy, the respect and love of your own son? Don¡¯t you want revenge?¡± the Devil asked him. ¡°Obviously,¡± Norman said, doing his best to ignore the ¡°puny mortal mind¡± insult. ¡°But I''m not going to give you my soul as payment. If that¡¯s what you''re after, then you might as well go back to this Underworld and wait for your inevitable demise with some dignity,¡± he snided back. The Devil scoffed. ¡°Oh please, a soul as worn and rotten as yours would taste horrible to my refined palate. No Noble Devil would want to feast on it. No, I''m not after your soul. I want your help taking down our mutual enemy. I¡¯m gathering as many of her enemies as I can find. I have a gift for them, something to even the odds a bit.¡± The Devil reached into its pocket and pulled out... a chess piece? Specifically the King. Norman glanced at it in confusion. ¡°What will that do?¡± The Devil smirked. ¡°This was an old invention of mine. It used to grant incredible power to weaker devils. I¡¯ve since modified it to do something a little different. This improved King Piece not only grants incredible power but it can also change the race of whoever absorbs it into a Devil as well. It¡¯s basically a souped-up version of another invention of mine known as the Evil Pieces. Becoming a Devil will not only grant you an extended lifespan, but it will also completely purge the genetic disease from your body. What do you say, human? Are you willing to give up your race for revenge against Layla?¡± ¡°...Who are you?¡± Norman asked. The Devil grinned. ¡°My name is Ajuka Beelzebub, and you haven''t answered my question. I¡¯m on a bit of a schedule here. I have a few more people to visit after you. Layla has certainly made no shortage of enemies in this world. So, I offer one last time. Do you accept?¡± Norman ripped the respirator off of his face and grinned madly. ¡°Will I give up my humanity for a chance at revenge? For a chance to take everything back? ...Yes!¡± XXX chapter 271 chapter 271 A/N: This chapter has an R-18 Scene that¡¯s marked. Chapter 271: ¨CLayla¨C I was feeling pretty good after successfully recruiting TWO candidates for my newest project. My own superhero team! The second candidate was also a lot more cooperative than Frank had been. She had said yes to joining my team immediately. ...Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com A few hours earlier... ¡°Hi, Isane!¡± I waved to her after portaling over to Earth DxD for a bit. I found her in the middle of a Kyoto mall shopping by herself. Her Draconic energy had grown much stronger this past year. She had truly grown into her role as the Red Dragon Empress. The Japanese girl¡¯s eyes lit up upon seeing me. ¡°Layla! It¡¯s been so long since I''ve seen your perfect Oppai!¡± Of course, she blatantly yelled that in the middle of a crowded mall. Numerous people gasped, mother¡¯s started leading their young children away while glaring at Isane. The perverted dragon girl didn¡¯t seem to mind at all. ¡°R¨CRight...¡± I said with a slight pause. ¡°I came to ask you something. Im putting together a team and was wondering if you wanted to join¨C¡± ¡°Say no more! I¡¯m in!¡± Isane immediately cut me off. ¡°I''ll follow you and your perfect Oppai anywhere!¡± she declared passionately. Her eyes never left my chest as she spoke. ¡°T¨CThat¡¯s... That¡¯s great, Isane. I¡¯ll make sure to send you the details later... I just remembered there¡¯s something I have to do.¡± I said before quickly running away. ... So yeah... Isane was onboard. Clearly she was able to see my vision and didn¡¯t need any further convincing... [Clearly, she was staring at your tits the whole time and barely listened to a word you actually said. I don''t know why you want Isane Hyoudou to join, she''s a sexual assault lawsuit waiting to happen...] ¡®She''s not that bad,¡¯ I thought dismissively. [We both just watched the same flashback...] Ok, maybe the System was right. I¡¯ll definitely have to set some ground rules with Isane once we get more female members. Yasaka had trained her for a year, but had unfortunately failed to beat all of the perversion out of the now adult girl. For now though, I had my own perverse thoughts to deal with. I could admit that Isane¡¯s forwardness and her lustful gaze had gotten me a bit hot and bothered. Training with Yasaka for a year put Isane in great shape. On top of that, the Draconic Energy from Ddraig was further enhancing her body and figure. Isane is actually ridiculously hot now. She was just too much crazy for me, and that was saying something. That left me in an awkward position that I decided to immediately rectify. I opened a portal and headed back home. I¡¯m sure one of my girls won¡¯t mind helping me release some of this pent up frustration... ... ¨CSerafall¨C Serafall had been taking some time to catch up with her little sister privately. They used to spend so much time together when So-tan was younger, but they slowly drifted apart as her little sister got older. Serafall was hoping to change that since there was a possibility they would be living together again for possibly forever... ¡°...And that''s how I plan on finishing up the finale for season 17 of Miracle Girl Levia-tan? What do you think, So-tan? Do you think people will like it?¡± Serafall asked her darling little sister. So-tan simply gave her that cute little deadpan stare she had inherited from their mother. ¡°There were three separate plot holes in the first five minutes of your explanation alone. Does your show even have a functional plot at this point...? And why do you keep killing characters off only to mysteriously show they actually survived a few seasons later? That trope is so overdone!¡± Serafall scoffed playfully. ¡°Plot? Trope? Oh So-tan, no one cares about any of that. People only tune into my show to see the cool action sequences and all the sexy scenes between me and other magical girls!¡± she explained shamelessly. So-tan covered her face with her hands and let out a cute sigh. ¡°How can you be so shameless, Nee-san!?¡± Serafall shrugged. ¡°We''re Devil''s So-tan, that''s just how we are. I know you like to act like a good girl, but I bet you''re actually super naughty in the bedroom~¡± Serafall said teasingly. So-tan¡¯s silent blush was all the confirmation Serafall needed to know she was correct. They''re conversation was interrupted a second later when a purple portal manifested directly in So-tan''s bedroom. Serafall tended up and only relaxed when she saw Layla step through the portal. Serafall tilted her head curiously when she noticed something strange about Layla. The beautiful ravenette looked flushed and her pupils were dilated. Serafall also noticed Layla¡¯s breaths were heavier and her nipples were poking through her T-shirt. Those were all signs of heavy arousal. Layla turned towards So-tan and her sister let out a sigh. ¡°It looks like you really got yourself worked up, my love.¡± ¡°Sorry, Sona,¡± Layla blushed. ¡°I need some help calming down...¡± (R-18 end) ... ¨CLayla¨C I took a big gulp of orange juice directly from the carton. That session with Serafall and Sona had been absolutely crazy. It had also been the exact thing I needed. It wasn''t healthy for my mental state to go so many days in a row without sex. [It was barely four days, you nympho...] I shut the fridge behind me and took a seat at the kitchen table. ¡°I wonder if both of my daughters are pregnant now?¡± Cecilia sauntered into the kitchen and sat down next to me. She placed a piece of paper in front of me. It was the marriage contract for me and Serafall. The Maou¡¯s signature was already signed at the bottom. ¡°Serafall won''t be. We only did... Oral stuff,¡± I said awkwardly when I realized I was talking about sex with my mother-in-law. ¡°As for Sona, she''s on birth control now. Neither she or Rias want to be mother''s again so soon...¡± I trailed off. Despite Devil¡¯s having extremely low fertility rates, they both ended up immediately pregnant after their first night. I still don¡¯t know whether that was a divine fluke or whether Hela secretly cast some type of fertility magic on the three of us. So far, she has admitted to nothing... Cecilia nodded at me. ¡°That''s probably a good idea. My granddaughter has already started displaying signs of accidental magic. Along with her two sisters, that''s three troublemakers you''ll have to watch out for,¡± she warned me playfully. I smiled at the thought of my girls causing a bit of mischief. ¡°Really? What did Sia do?¡± Cecilia chuckled. ¡°She turned my hair bright pink when I was holding her earlier. She''s going to be very powerful one day, it''s very impressive that she was able to overcome my natural magic resistance at such a young age.¡± Cecilia Sitri was not a weak Devil by any means. Her own mother was the original Sitri, and Cecilia was well over 1000 years old and easily in the Ultimate Class. Devils got stronger naturally with age. ¡°My girl¡¯s are going to be powerful,¡± I said while glancing down at the marriage contract. ¡°I guess it¡¯s official then?¡± I asked and Cecilia nodded. She explained that Serafall had tracked her down a few minutes ago and demanded to make the arrangement official. I conjured a pen in my hand and signed my name next to Serafall¡¯s own. With that, it was official. Both the Sitri girls were now mine. Serafall was also officially the ninth woman in my harem. Cecilia smiled as she took the signed contract back and rolled it up. ¡°Welcome to the family... Officially at least. You now have our clan¡¯s full support in the Underworld. I¡¯d also like to inform you that I accept your proposal. There are about 100,000 Devils living in the Sitri territory. I''d like to move them to this Universe once you clear out your own underworld. I obviously don¡¯t speak for any of the other clans, but I suspect Sirzechs will be able to convince his mother to move their people over as well.¡± That was great news! I was happy that Rias and Sona were going to have their families closer. ¡°When do you plan on ¡°cleaning house?¡±¡± Cecilia asked me. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet,¡± I told her honestly. ¡°To be fair, I could do it at any time. I don¡¯t see the Devils being able to stop me. Whenever I think about actually going through with it though, I find myself hesitating a bit.¡± I admitted to her and she nodded in understanding. ¡°I understand, not even your late Father wasn¡¯t able to bring himself to commit genocide against an entire race. Had he truly wanted the Devils exterminated, there would have been nothing any of us could have done to stop him. At the height of his power... He was terrifying,¡± Cecilia explained with a small shudder. ¡°Yeah...¡± I still have no idea how he managed to split our world in two without killing everyone, even with help that was still an insane concept to me. [What¡¯s your plan to deal with the Devils if you don''t want to kill them all then?] ¡®I was thinking about using the infinity stones.¡¯ I mentally replied to the System. ¡®I have the Power Stone in my possession. If I can also get my hands on the Reality Stone as well, I might be able to banish the Devils on Earth DxD to a completely separate Universe. I just have to find a dead Universe where they won''t have anyone to pray on. I''ll also have to make sure to kill the smartest Devil¡¯s such as Ajuka Beelzebub first.¡¯ [That plan could work, but why kill him?] ¡®I have no doubt that he¡¯s smart enough to figure out Multiversal travel at some point. If Azazel can stumble upon it, then so can he. There will be no point in banishing them if they find their way right back home.¡¯ [Good thinking.] Cecilia and I spent the next few minutes chatting now that we were family. She told me a few embarrassing stories about Sona and Serafall¡¯s childhoods and I couldn¡¯t keep the grin off of my face when I heard them. Especially when she told me that Sona used to regularly dress up as a Magical Girl herself so she could ¡®be like her big sister.¡¯ We were only interrupted when my eldest daughter Heather came running into the kitchen. She looked slightly panicked and was holding a letter in one hand and a hooting owl under the other arm. The poor bird looked absolutely exhausted for some reason. ¡°Mom! I just got a letter from Luna! She sent her owl all the way from Hogwarts! Headmistress McGonagall has been overthrown and all the SHIELD agents monitoring Hogwarts and Hogsmeade have been locked in the dungeons!¡± she explained quickly. ¡°Huh...¡± That was certainly something. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked. ¡°Dumbledore came back to the school! He had all of his followers with him too.¡± Heather said bitterly. ¡°He¡¯s taken over again and started preaching all of his Light propaganda. He¡¯s telling everyone that you''re a Demon and that the wizarding world needs to rise up against you! He destroyed all the Muggle technology in the school that SHIELD had installed. Luna wasn¡¯t able to email me. She had to send an owl across the Atlantic to get a message to me.¡± Luna Lovegood was one of Heather¡¯s closest friends and they mailed each other almost every other day from what I knew. That explained why the poor bird looked so tired. I let out a whistle. ¡°Wow...¡± SHIELD had really dropped the ball on this one. Did Nick Fury even know this was happening? ¡°I guess I¡¯m taking a quick trip to Hogwarts then,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s one more thing,¡± Heather told me. ¡°There¡¯s a deranged man dressed like a goblin that¡¯s with Dumbledore too. Luna wrote that he¡¯s really scary. The Nargles are absolutely terrified to even go near the man. There might be other people too, but Luna wrote that she didn¡¯t get a good look at them.¡± So Dumbledore had attracted even more crazies to his cause? That was weird, but I still wasn¡¯t worried. ¡°I''m going to stop by SHIELD¡¯s flying HQ and find out what¡¯s going on before popping over to Hogwarts,¡± I said before waving my hand and conjuring a portal. For a moment, I wondered if this would be a good first mission for my ¡°team.¡± I ended up shaking my head. That would be overkill just to deal with one delusional old man and some weird cosplayer... XXX chapter 272 chapter 272 Chapter: 272 ¨CLayla¨C ¡°Hey there, Fury!¡± I emerged from a portal on the bridge of SHIELD¡¯s lead Helicarrier. It was a testament to Fury''s resilience that he was pretty much used to my shenanigans at this point. He barely even flinched anymore when I popped up out of nowhere, though he did always give me an annoyed look. Fury let out a sigh. ¡°Hello, Layla. What kind of trouble did you bring with you this time?¡± Wow, he just assumes I bring him trouble every time I show up? How rude. [You do, though...] ¡°What makes you think I didn''t just stop by for a visit?¡± I asked.Re?a?d new chapters at novelhall.com Fury scoffed and gave me a look that said, "Bitch, please." ¡°Alright, you got me,¡± I admitted. ¡°Are you aware that Albus Dumbledore escaped his prison and took over Hogwarts?¡± I had never seen him do a spit-take before. He started coughing, and I ran over to pat him on the back. ¡°...I''m sorry... Can you repeat that?¡± Fury asked between deep breaths. ¡°Are you aware that Albus Dumbledore escaped his prison and took over Hogwarts?¡± I repeated. ¡°I got a letter from one of the Hogwarts students. They had to send it by owl because the school internet was taken down.¡± Fury closed his eyes in irritation and massaged his temples. He took another deep breath before shouting so loudly all the Agents on the bridge jumped in fright. ¡°MOTHERFUCKER!¡± A few hours later, we were able to piece together what was happening, partially at least. It turned out that Fury was not aware of what was going on in Scotland. The Agents assigned to watching Hogwarts and Hogsmeade had not reported anything abnormal; in fact, they hadn¡¯t reported anything in over a week, which was probably not a good sign. It was even worse for the prison that had been holding Dumbledore. The RAFT is SHIELD¡¯s top prison facility, its location undisclosed but somewhere in the middle of the ocean. It was supposed to be nigh impenetrable and inescapable. That was no longer the case. Every single guard and staff member in the prison had been placed under the Imperius Curse¡ªcourtesy of Dumbledore¡ªand the entire place was now empty of all its convicts. How did Dumbledore even get a hold of a wand in a prison completely run by Muggles? No one has any idea, but Fury obviously suspects an inside job. So yeah, this was not a great situation. On the upside, we actually knew where Dumbledore and some of the other escapees had run off to. On the downside, as Luna had already informed us, it was Hogwarts¡ªa school full of underage children that may or may not all be hostages at this time. ¡°Would Dumbledore actually take all the students hostage?¡± I asked Fury. My world¡¯s Dumbledore was so different from canon that I really had no idea what he would do. Fury pulled out some folders and flipped them open, starting to summarize out loud. ¡°The SHIELD therapists on the RAFT have been compiling Dumbledore''s psych profile for over a year now,¡± he began. ¡°According to their reports, Albus Dumbledore sees himself as the wisest man in the Wizarding World. He believes he''s the only person who can guide his people into the Light. He''s willing to employ any means necessary to fulfill his goals, and right now, we don''t even know what those goals are.¡± ¡°Taking revenge against me?¡± I suggested. ¡°It was because of me that he went to prison in the first place.¡± Fury scoffed. ¡°Not everything in the world revolves around you, Layla. If he wanted to go after you, he would have just gone to New York. It''s not like everyone in the world doesn''t know where you live. Your building in New York is more famous than the White House at this point. A simple internet search would tell him exactly where to find you.¡± I couldn¡¯t really argue with his logic, but I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that this was about me somehow. Call it a gut feeling... [It¡¯s not paranoia if they really are out to get you... And in your case, they¡¯re out to get you a lot.] ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just portal to Hogwarts and capture the old goat again. We can pry the answers out of him,¡± I told Fury. We¡¯d already been sitting around for hours at this point, and I was feeling antsy. I stood up and did a few stretches. ¡°Not so fast, Layla,¡± Fury said, placing his hand on my shoulder. ¡°I¡¯d like for us to send someone in first to assess the situation at the castle. You can¡¯t just run into a potential hostage situation guns blazing. That¡¯s how you get people killed.¡± ¡®Yeah, but then I can revive them if they do get killed...¡¯ I wanted to say that out loud, but I realized how crass that would sound. Even if I could revive them afterward, Fury was right¡ªI didn¡¯t want to get any kids at Hogwarts killed. [Maybe just the Slytherins...] ¡®Bad, system! Even though most of the Slytherin students are ignorant assholes, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s... um...¡¯ My thoughts trailed off. [You can¡¯t think of anything positive to say about them, can you?] ¡®Not really, no... But that¡¯s not the point!¡¯ I thought back. I took a second to think about how we were going to approach this situation. We needed to send one or two people into the castle to find out what was going on inside. SHIELD was a spy organization, so it wasn¡¯t difficult to find skilled infiltrators. The problem was that none of those trained infiltrators would be able to blend in. They were all too old and none of them were magical. Satellite images showed the Castle in Scotland was once again invisible. That meant that Dumbledore had re-enabled the anti-muggle wards around the school. ¡°We need someone who¡¯s a teenager and also magical. Also, they need to be strong enough to defend themselves in case they get exposed...¡± I pointed all this out to Fury. ¡°I''d suggest Heather but she¡¯s the most recognizable girl in the Wizarding World.¡± He furrowed his brows while he pondered. ¡°Someone who looks like a teenager and is magical? We don¡¯t have anyone like that.¡± he admitted. ¡°What about one of your Fallen Angels in Asgard? Don¡¯t some of them look like kids?¡± That was a good idea actually. Unfortunately, my gut was once again telling me not to use any of my brothers or sisters. Something more was in play here. I suspected my siblings would immediately be caught. [A magically powerful teenager. It just so happens that you recently recruited one to your team, didnt you.] ¡®...Fuck.¡¯ Are we really going to have to use her? [You know anyone else who¡¯s immediately available?] ¡°I might have someone who can pull this off...¡± I told Fury with a bit of hesitation. ... "Whoa! This sounds serious! This is exactly what I''ve been training for the past year! Thank you for picking me for this important mission, Layla. I promise I won''t disappoint you or your glorious Oppai!¡± Isane Hyoudou declared passionately once she was brought up to speed on the situation. For the second time, I got to witness Fury do a spit take after she shouted the word "Oppai." He turned and gave me a very judgmental look since I was the one who had brought Isane on board. I did my best not to meet his eyes. His second-in-command, Maria Hill, frowned at Isane. "You shouldn''t use those kinds of words, young lady," she tried to chastise a girl who openly had zero shame. Isane tilted her head. "Why not?" "Oppai is a very vulgar word! You shouldn''t say it anymore," Maria exclaimed. Isane gasped in disbelief. "You take that back. There is nothing more amazing in this world than a glorious pair of Oppai! As the future harem queen, I need to show the beautiful women of the world the true path! You have a very nice pair yourself, Hill-san. You should be proud of them!¡± ¡°Keep your weird fetishes to yourself, girl. We''re here to do a job,¡± Frank Castle said while shooting a glare at Isane. ¡°Not yet,¡± Frank said without taking his eyes off the screen. ¡°Something about this situation doesn¡¯t sit right with me. Where are all his other followers?¡± He pressed the talk button on his headset. ¡°Isane, do you sense anyone else nearby?¡± Isane whispered back her response, but the high-tech spy device was designed to pick up things like that. ¡°I think so. I sense a couple of powerful magical signatures coming from the room behind the Gandalf knock-off. Also, the old guy is really freaking powerful. He feels almost as strong as Yasaka!¡± she hissed into the mic, and all of our eyes widened. Almost as strong as Yasaka? How? He was cut off from magic for a year; there¡¯s no way he could have made the jump from High Class to Ultimate Class! ¡°I know some of you are scared to face the demon. You don''t think we''re powerful enough to stop her...¡± Dumbledore continued on speaking. ¡°No one''s thinking that you old fuck!¡± Isane shouted indignantly. Thankfully she didn''t blow her cover as other students shouted along with her. ¡°Get off the stage, we hate you!¡± ¡°Give us back the Internet! I''m missing out on my daily quests!¡± ¡°...But you have no need to fear! For I have gathered great and powerful allies who will stand with us against her tyranny! Here they are now!¡± he gestured behind himself towards the backroom. I think that was the room from the ¡®Goblet of Fire¡¯ movie. The door swung open, and a large group of men started to strut out into the Great Hall. Every single one of them was unfortunately recognizable. ¡°Dammit!¡± Maria exclaimed upon seeing one of the men. ¡°That¡¯s Baron Von Strucker, the current leader of Hydra. We¡¯ve been hunting for him all this time!¡± The Baron was flanked by two identical and very familiar men. ¡°Did Hydra clone the Winter Soldier?¡± I asked in disbelief. Two identical copies of Bucky Barnes were marching alongside Strucker. The next man to strut out caused gasps among the student body. ¡°That¡¯s Gellert Grindelwald!¡± One student¡¯s yell set the rest into panic. Students tried to get up and run out of the hall, but they were stopped. Dumbledore waved his wand and froze every single student to their seats. ¡°I''m stuck, guys,¡± Isane whispered to us. ¡°The only way I''m going to be able to break free is if I summon the Boosted Gear!¡± I quickly leaned forward and grabbed Frank''s headset. ¡°Don¡¯t make yourself stand out! Suppress your magic power as much as possible!¡± I hissed into the mic to warn her. The last two figures emerged together. One of them was the most recognizable villain from Marvel. What the hell is the Green Goblin doing in Hogwarts!? Wasn''t Norman Osborn on his deathbed? How was he suddenly healed? He was wearing his iconic green armor, which shouldn''t even exist considering I had Penemue destroy all that research when we took over Oscorp. Clearly, some scientists chose to disobey her and saved the armor. It wasn''t the Goblin that gave me pause, however. It was the green-haired man next to Norman. Ajuka Beelzebub was here! He¡¯d somehow managed to cross over into our world without anyone knowing until now! Thankfully, I had warned Isane in time and she had properly suppressed her Draconic Power. If he got close enough to her, I had no doubt he would sense her Sacred Gear, but thankfully she had followed Frank''s orders and was sitting at the very back of the hall. We watched as Ajuka strode forward and stood next to Dumbledore. He presented the old man with a small ornate wooden case. Dumbledore eyed it with a twinkle in his eyes. He cleared his throat before turning back to the students, who were still struggling in their seats. ¡°As you can see, each of these great men has decided to join us in our fight! I present to you Gellert Grindelwald, Baron Von Strucker, Norman Osborn, and Ajuka Beelzebub!¡± Dumbledore paused to see if any students would applaud. Obviously, no one did. Most of the students were terrified. Except for the Slytherins, of course. On the side of the screen, I could see many of them grinning maniacally. I wasn¡¯t the only one who noticed that fact either. ¡°Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott. Please come forward. I have a gift for the two of you.¡± Dumbledore waved his wand, and they were both free to stand. Instead of doing the smart thing and running away, both boys proudly strode forward and stood in front of the old man. He opened the small wooden case and pulled out¡ª ¡°Zoom in on his hands!¡± I ordered loudly. Were those what I thought they were!? Maria did as I asked, and the spy camera zoomed in even further. Dumbledore was holding two chess pieces in his hands. Two pawn pieces, to be exact. He held them up to Malfoy and Nott¡¯s chests. They were Evil Pieces! ¡°Both of your fathers were killed by Layla of the Fallen. So I present you with the power to take your revenge against her!¡± The Evil Pieces sank into both boys'' chests. A second later, a pair of Devil wings sprang out of both boys'' backs! ¡°Jesus Christ!¡± Fury swore next to me. ¡°What the fuck was that!?¡± he glared at the screen in front of us with his one good eye. ¡°He turned them into Devils,¡± I said solemnly. ¡°Ajuka himself must have turned Dumbledore into a Devil. I think he turned all of those men into Devils, actually. Norman Osborn and Baron von Strucker included.¡± Dumbledore smiled at the boys and then turned back to the student body. ¡°As you can see, Draco and Theodore here have both ascended to a new realm of power! This was but a small demonstration. In the next few days, all of you will receive this gift as well. You students have been granted the honor of becoming the glorious heroes who will fight for the freedom of the Wizarding World!¡± Dumbledore exclaimed cheerfully. ¡°He wants to turn all the students into Devils and create his own army...¡± I muttered in disbelief. ¡°And with the creator of the Evil Pieces there working with him, he could actually do it.¡± ¡°You can cure them, right? Like you cured your niece, Akeno?¡± Fury asked me. I shot him a small glare and he flinched. ¡°I won''t ask you how you even know about that, but yes I can. Although, Ajuka should know I¡¯m able to do that as well. I¡¯ll have to be careful when I do, he might have trapped those Evil Pieces.¡± We watched for a few more minutes as more Slytherin Students voluntarily stepped forward to be transformed into Devils. Every single piece Dumbledore used was a pawn piece. This wasn¡¯t a standard rating game chess set. These Pieces weren''t meant for that, they were meant for the creation of a small army. I think Ajuka simply handed Dumbledore a box filled with pawn pieces. Finally, when no more students volunteered, Dumbledore allowed all the students to stand again and sent them off to their respective house dorms. Isane blended in and followed the Hufflepuffs. I was glad she wasn¡¯t discovered, she was strong, but she wasn¡¯t strong enough to fight a soul eating Super Devil just yet. Once she was out of the Great Hall and out of danger, Frank spun around in his chair to face us. He had a scowl on his face. ¡°That went Fubar real fast.¡± {Quest Started: Rescue the Students of Hogwarts and defeat the Alliance of Villains} {Reward: Level UP X 5! Access to all of Ajuka¡¯s research.} ¡°I''m calling the Avengers!¡± Fury declared and reached for his emergency communicator. ¡°Wait!¡± I stopped him. ¡°The Avengers won¡¯t be able to handle this. Thor is not even available, and the last thing we need is Tony or Andrea blowing up the school,¡± I said. [And let''s not even get started on letting the Hulk rampage around so many kids...] ¡°We''re going to need a bigger team, Layla.¡± Frank pointed out. ¡°I might be able to take on one of those guys with my new alien guns, but that''s it. We need some people to get the kids out of there too while we''re fighting.¡± ¡°At least let me call the Captain,¡± Fury offered and I nodded my head. A Campione would be pretty useful right now. Steve was also great with kids and knew when to use restraint. I thought about who else I could call on for help. According to Isane, each of those men on the stage were at Ultimate Class. Jean could be pretty useful here for evacuating all the students, but I didn¡¯t want to call on the Champion of the Phoenix Forces as the Champion of Death myself. I knew that both our patrons had a bit of a rivalry going on. I smirked when I finally thought of who I could call on to help. I currently had two extra dimensional Maous visiting my home. Both of them were best friends with their universe¡¯s Ajuka Beelzebub, so they should know how the one from my Universe fights and even how he thinks. An army of students couldn¡¯t be his master plan, there had to be something else we were missing. XXX chapter 273 chapter 273 Chapter 273: ¡°I need volunteers to help me take down a bunch of evil supervillains!¡± I announced loudly from my living room. My family members stared at me awkwardly after my sudden declaration. ¡°Sorry, Layla. Tonight is the season finale of the show I''ve been watching with Frigga and Hestia,¡± Artemis said, shaking her head. Frigga nodded in agreement. ¡°Midgardians truly have the best entertainment in the nine realms. I can''t wait to find out what will happen when Joseph discovers his girlfriend Irene has been sleeping with his evil twin brother!¡± I sighed. I was hoping to have Artemis'' help on this one, but I knew better than to come between a fan and the last episode of their favorite show. I turned to the others in the room. ¡°Rip and tear...?¡± The Doomslayer slowly raised his hand. Yes, he still lived here. I had actually offered to move him to Asgard to join their war, but he insisted his duty was to protect Earth and humanity first and foremost. I could respect that. ¡°Good enthusiasm, John. Any other time I would say yes, but unfortunately, all these supervillains are currently holed up in Hogwarts, and I don¡¯t want you traumatizing a bunch of kids,¡± I said. He put his hand down in disappointment. Heather gasped. ¡°There are supervillains at Hogwarts? I thought it was just Dumbledore!¡± ¡°What''s a Dumbledore, and why are we talking about warts on a hog?¡± Serafall asked in confusion. Our other visiting house guests looked just as puzzled. ¡°Hogwarts is Britain''s premier school for magic... Although technically it''s located in Scotland,¡± I explained, then gave them the complete rundown on Heather''s old school. ¡°Wait, so this school only taught its students magic before you took over? And not even useful magic?¡± Sirzechs asked, scratching his head. ¡°What about other courses like science, writing, or just basic math?¡± ¡°Nope, none of those,¡± I said. ¡°They only taught magic, and not even useful magic at that.¡± ¡°There''s a reason I dropped out,¡± Heather added. ¡°Honestly, there are like 10 useful combat wizarding spells, and the rest are all redundant. I didn''t want to waste years of my life learning useless magic,¡± she added with a shrug. That''s my girl! She knows how to recognize nonsense with the best of them now! [Dark Wizards never made sense. What''s the point of learning dark magic when a simple Bombarda will literally blow a person to pieces?] ''Screw the Killing Curse,'' I thought. You don''t even have to aim a Bombarda spell. You can fire it at the ground, and the shrapnel from the explosion will still mess them up if it doesn''t outright kill them. The only better combat spells are Fiendfyre and Protego Diabolica. Neither of which are even taught at Hogwarts. I''m glad most Wizards and Witches are idiots; otherwise, it would have been a lot more difficult to overthrow them. ...Although, we''ve now learned that their stupidity works both ways. I''m pretty sure Dumbledore has basically become a puppet for Ajuka at this point. Whatever Ajuka is secretly planning at Hogwarts, it definitely isn''t going to benefit the Old Goat. ¡°Never fear, my dear! Miracle Girl Levia-tan ? is here!¡± Serafall stepped into the middle of the room, suddenly surrounded by flashing rainbow lights. All of her clothes vanished off her body as her own theme song started to play. For the next 20 seconds, we all watched her strike numerous poses in the nude as her magical girl costume slowly started to appear on her, one piece of clothing at a time... It was pretty hot, and all of a sudden, I had the urge to actually start watching her show... Cecilia Sitri sighed and facepalmed. ¡°Serafall, there are children here...¡± she said once Serafall¡¯s complete magical girl outfit manifested. Oh, right... I glanced over towards my daughter and niece. Heather''s face was bright red, and I couldn''t even see Asia¡¯s since it was buried underneath her hands. Serafall rubbed the back of her head. ¡°Whoops, sorry girls. I was just trying to put on a show for my new fiance?.¡± Serafall shot me a flirtatious wink. I was surprised at how close we had become so soon, but I supposed getting her in bed with Sona worked out in my favor. ¡°There¡¯s such a thing as a proper time and place, daughter...¡± Cecilia said in a tone that only a disappointed mother could imitate. ¡°That being said, I¡¯m proud that you¡¯ve volunteered to help your fiance?. You''re setting up the foundations for a healthy and long relationship.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± Serafall bounced in place and smiled brightly. ¡°So... Who are we fighting, Layla? I¡¯m ready to give all the baddies a thrashing!¡± ¡°Well...¡± I paused for a moment. ¡°My Universe¡¯s Ajuka Beelzebub is there...¡± The smile dropped from her face, and she immediately stopped bouncing. She spun around and quickly ran over to Sirzechs, shaking him back and forth by his shoulders. ¡°I''m tagging out, Zexy! You''re going to have to handle this one!¡± ¡°Please don''t call me Zexy...¡± Sirzechs sighed as he was forcefully rocked back and forth. Grayfia glared at Serafall. ¡°Please take your hands off of my husband.¡± Fake tears appeared in Serafall''s eyes, and she immediately started bawling loudly. ¡°Noooo! I don''t want to fight Ajuka! Especially not an alternate evil version of him! He''s so annoying to fight, and he always figures out all my attacks with that stupid formula of his!¡± Sirzechs slowly pried Serafall''s hands off himself and patted her on the shoulder comfortingly. ¡°Sera... I have something important to tell you.¡± Serafall wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded with a few sniffles. ¡°What is it, Zexy?¡± ¡°...I don''t like fighting Ajuka either!¡± ¡°Eh!?¡± ¡°Good luck,¡± Sirzechs said as he grabbed Serafall and literally threw her in my direction. I caught her and quickly opened a portal back to the Helicarrier. ¡°Alright, I have my volunteer! I''ll see you all later for dinner,¡± I called out over my shoulder while crossing over. ¡°Nooo! I don¡¯t want to go anymore! I changed my mind!¡± Serafall whined. ... ¡°Is she okay?¡± Fury glanced at Serafall, who was curled up in the corner and muttering to herself about ¡°traitorous red-haired devils.¡± ¡°Eh, she''ll be alright,¡± I told him. ¡°Good to see you again, Cap. How''s your girlfriend?¡± ¡°The King Pieces are valuable, and I am loath to waste them on some inferior humans, but I didn''t exactly have a choice. There aren''t any other Devils in this world, as you found out.¡± Ajuka unhappily told her. ¡°So they''re just distractions,¡± she pointed out and dashed some of his enthusiasm. ¡°To be perfectly blunt, yes. Each of them will be commanding their own groups of reincarnated students. They will soon go out into the world and attempt to conquer sections of it for themselves,¡± Ajuka explained. ¡°As you said, they are the perfect distraction. Especially considering all of them are well known enemies of the state.¡± Serafall nodded her head in understanding. ¡°This is a pretty amazing plan, Beel-tan! Levia-tan is very impressed!¡± Serafall lied cheerfully. ¡°Can I meet these ¡®Generals¡¯ now?¡± ¡°Of course, they¡¯re all assembled in a room down the hall. We¡¯ve been drawing up plans¡ªwho attacks where and all that. We want to cause maximum devastation as quickly as possible. The eyes of the world need to be completely distracted while we subvert the magical world.¡± Serafall followed Ajuka down the hallway to a large stone room. In the center was a massive table covered with maps of the world. The ¡®Generals¡¯ stood around it, marking out territories. Serafall had been briefed on all of them before Layla sent her into the castle to trick Ajuka and meet up with Isane. ¡°I will, of course, be retaking my precious Germany,¡± Grindelwald said to the others as they walked in. The Austrian man¡¯s different colored eyes brimmed with insanity. Being locked away for decades had clearly done a number on his mental health. ¡°The country has become an embarrassment since my defeat. A pathetic imitation of a once-great nation,¡± he said while glaring at one of the other men. ¡°I apologize, Gellert,¡± Dumbledore told the insane man. ¡°I realize now that I shouldn¡¯t have stood in your way. The Muggles have truly become too dangerous. For the Greater Good, we have to subjugate them. After I retake the Ministry, I will begin my conquest of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. After that, we can join together and finally take over Europe! Just like we planned when we were young boys!¡± Grindelwald seemed to tacitly accept Dumbledore¡¯s proposal. ¡°I guess that leaves the Western Continents to Osborn and me,¡± Baron Von Strucker said. ¡°With the awesome powers I have been granted, I will destroy Washington, D.C., and plunge the United States into chaos!¡± The Green Goblin, as Layla called him back on the Helicarrier, cackled under his mask. ¡°New York is mine! I will finally take back Oscorp and slaughter everyone who turned their backs on me!¡± Serafall could hardly believe the audacity of these men. After being given a bit of power they didn¡¯t earn, they all immediately assumed they could start carving out sections of the world for themselves. She knew that even without Layla, there were still beings on Earth Marvel who would eventually stop them¡ªalbeit probably not without considerable casualties. There''s a reason Ultimate Class beings are usually restricted from visiting other factions'' territories. No one wants a potential living nuke walking around in their backyards. Serafall reached up and pressed the hidden communicator in her ear. ¡°Did you get all of that, Layla?¡± she asked, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. ¡°All of these men are in the same room, away from any students.¡± Ajuka looked at her in shock and disbelief. ¡°Y¨CYou? You betrayed me, Serafall!? You betrayed our race!?¡± Serafall simply winked at him. ¡°Sorry, you¡¯ve got the wrong Magical Girl!¡± ¡°What!? I¡¯ll kill you for¡ª¡± ¡°Almighty Push!¡± Ajuka''s threat was cut off as her fiance?e magically threw him through multiple stone walls. Serafall let out a sigh of relief, even though she knew a hit like that wouldn¡¯t keep Ajuka down for long. ¡°¡°¡°¡°You!¡±¡±¡±¡± The men in the room all pointed at Layla simultaneously. Their collective hatred was palpable. Layla seemed to find their hatred of her amusing. She giggled and pointed at herself. ¡°Yep, it¡¯s me. Better luck with your evil plans next time¡ªyou¡¯re all busted.¡± ¡°Avada Kedavra!¡± Dumbledore fired a green spell that Serafall didn¡¯t recognize directly at Layla. Her betrothed didn¡¯t even bother dodging. It harmlessly splashed against her and did no damage at all. ... ¨CLayla¨C ¡°That spell couldn''t even kill me when I was a four winged Fallen Angel. You think it can harm me now that I have 14 wings?¡± I shook my head at Dumbledore as my wings manifested behind me. To his credit, he didn¡¯t immediately start trembling in fear like most villains do these days when they see me. ¡°You don¡¯t scare me, thief! I will be taking back everything you stole from me!¡± The Green Goblin stepped forward. He was holding a detonator in his hand with a bright red button on top. ¡°Unlike these fools, I anticipated you would track us down. I¡¯ve rigged explosives in every single ¡®common room¡¯ in this castle. If I press this button, then every single student will be blown to pieces!¡± he threatened with a cackle. I eyed the detonator warily. Shit, I didn¡¯t know whether or not he was bluffing. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t have to find out. I picked up our youngest team member on the way here. ¡°I will protect all the Magical Oppai! I won¡¯t let you press that button! BOOST!¡± Isane came flying through the hole in the wall and pumped the Green Goblin with all of her enhanced strength. The detonator flew out of his hands as he went crashing through another set of walls. [The poor castle is going to take a beating by the end of the day...] The Red Dragon Empress immediately followed after him. She had chosen her opponent it seemed. ¡°Number one, number two. Kill her!¡± Baron von Strucker pointed at me. The two Winter Soldier clones both emotionlessly started charging in my direction. They didn¡¯t reach me. CRACK! CRACK! Two energy blasts punched holes in both of their torsos. Their bodies flopped backward, unmoving, but they weren¡¯t dead yet. The holes slowly started to seal themselves up. It seemed both clones were enhanced with Extremis, just like the original. ¡°That was sloppy, Layla. If the pervert didn¡¯t take out Osborn, a bunch of kids could have died,¡± Frank chastised, keeping his alien gun aimed at the leader of Hydra. ¡°Who the hell are you!?¡± the Baron growled at him. ¡°I¡¯m just an ex-soldier who really loves punishing bad guys,¡± Frank said before opening fire. The Baron dove for cover and quickly tried to escape the castle with his new Devil Wings. He didn¡¯t get far before the Punisher clipped one of his wings. He landed with a thud but quickly scrambled to his feet. ¡°All Hydra forces! Mobilize on Hogwarts! Storm the castle and kill everyone!¡± the Baron shouted into his own communicator before taking off down the hallway. I was about to end him with a Lightspear before Frank stopped me. ¡°Leave the Hydra goons to me, Layla. I¡¯ll take care of them,¡± he said confidently, putting a few more blasts into each of the Winter Soldier clones. Their regeneration didn¡¯t seem to help once their heads were blown off. That left Serafall and me in the room with Dumbledore and Grindelwald. ¡°Which one do you want to fight, Levia-tan?¡± I asked her jokingly. ¡°The race traitor will be fighting me!¡± Ajuka finally pulled himself out of the rubble. His green hair was covered in dust, and his eyes glowed with hatred. ¡°My plans won¡¯t be stopped here! I''ll kill you and your sister for this betrayal, Serafall!¡± Serafall lost all hints of nervousness the second he threatened Sona. ¡°Levia-tan Sparkle Blaster¡î!¡± She pointed her heart-shaped wand at Ajuka, and a rainbow-colored beam slammed into him so hard he was blown clear out of the castle. I sensed he landed all the way in the lake. Serafall spread her wings and flew off after him. That left me to face Dumbledore and the legendary Nazi wizard, Gellert Grindelwald. XXX chapter 274 chapter 274 Chapter 274: ¨CLayla¨C "This is Captain Steve Rogers. A small army of Hydra goons are rolling up on the castle. They''ve got tanks and everything," Steve''s voice crackled through the comms in my ear. "Do you want some help, Steve?" I asked. "No, I''ve got this," he replied confidently. Gunfire and explosions echoed faintly in the background as I stood across from Dumbledore and Grindelwald¡ªthe two most powerful wizards of their generation, now twisted into something far beyond human. "We meet again, old man," I said, locking eyes with Dumbledore. "Been a while. How was prison?" Dumbledore glared at me from behind his tiny spectacles. "Prison was dreadful! They forced me to eat Muggle food for every meal, and no matter how much I pleaded, they never offered me a single piece of candy! The withdrawals were agonizing. But I emerged stronger. During my time in that cell, I came to a revelation¡ªI realized the error of my ways...¡± Grindelwald scoffed beside him. "And all it took was for my warnings to come true. I told you this day would come, Albus. I warned you that Muggles would rise above their station and take over the Magical World. Look at your precious school now¡ªMuggles have introduced their perverse technology, changed all the courses and fired most of the staff!" Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "You were right, Gellert. How many times do I have to say it? I''m sorry..." "Considering you trapped me in my own castle for 60 years, you''ll be saying it for many years to come! We''re lucky to be immortal now. So much time wasted, and the Muggles have grown much stronger since the Great War!" Dumbledore''s eyes narrowed in resolve. "You''re right, Gellert. But now, with our power, we can crush the Muggles and restore the world to the Magicals!" Grindelwald sneered at the Headmaster. "We may be far more powerful now, but I''m the only one of us who understands war. The Muggles won''t go down without a fight. This will be a long and bloody campaign..." I stood there feeling left out as Dumbledore and Grindelwald argued with each other like a couple of old spiteful lovers¨Cwhich they were technically. My foot tapped the floor in irritation at the fact that they were suddenly ignoring me. Weren''t we about to fight? What just happened? [Either it''s pure narcissism or they''ve both gone senile in their old age. It''s hard to decide. Either way, they''re now completely ignoring you...] ¡°...And that''s why I want to conquer Germany first! Not just for sentimentality, but for the strategic value as well! Don''t second guess me, Albus. I know war better than anyone alive!¡± ¡°...I''m not saying you shouldn''t conquer Germany, Gellart. I''m simply arguing that it might be better if you took down one of the stronger countries first. We shouldn''t give them time to build up their forces.¡± ¡°What stronger countries? Europe is a joke compared to its former might!¡± Should I have been offended that they were ignoring me to argue with each other? I felt offended... [You could just kill them now when they''re distracted...] The System pointed out the obvious... ¡°Eh... Fuck it,¡± I said with a shrug. A single Lightspear appeared in my right hand. I tossed it at Grindelwald¡¯s head. Grindelwald and Dumbledore were so enraptured in their old man argument that neither of them saw my actions. Not until Grindelwald¡¯s head was vaporized from his body. His headless corpse flopped to the floor. It was for the best. He should have died in prison years ago, forgotten by the world as it moved on. Dumbledore should have never broken the old magic Nazi out. And speaking of Dumbledore, he was in the middle of drumming up another argumentative point when his words got caught in his throat. He stared down at the headless corpse of his former lover in disbelief. It took him a few seconds to register what just happened. I could have easily taken him out as well while he was in shock, but I wanted to hear more about Ajuka first. How did Akuka even find Dumbledore and Osborn? Did Hydra still have spies in SHIELD that leaked their locations? If so, then how did Ajuka even get in contact with Hydra in the first place? "...You killed him," Dumbledore turned to me, disbelief etched across his wrinkled face. "Why...?"Nne?w n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com Was he seriously asking that? "What do you mean, why? He was a magical Nazi who sold his soul to a devil and wanted to slaughter all non-magicals. I think the reason I killed him is pretty obvious." I reached into my inventory and pulled out my Asauchi. If I was facing another Hell Lord from Marvel, then this was the best weapon to use against them. My actions did not go unnoticed. The demon possessing Grindelwalds body chuckled. ¡°Now now, beautiful Angel. There''s no need for you to get involved. This is between me and him. Over 90 years ago, he and his lover both made a deal with me. They both wanted to be the most powerful Wizards since Merlin himself. They wanted power, they wanted knowledge. As the generous being I am, I granted it to them. In return, I only wanted one small thing from each of them as payment for services rendered...¡± It was obvious what it wanted as payment. I scoffed and pointed the tip of my Katana at the corpse. ¡°Let me guess, all you wanted was their souls?¡± It let out another infernal chuckle. ¡°Hehe, indeed. Our deal was fair. Once their human lives naturally ended, their souls would belong to me. How unfortunate that they both violated our agreement and turned themselves into Devils. Their human souls became corrupted and are now almost worthless. Even so, they are still my rightful property!¡± it declared. ¡°Please don¡¯t let this creature take my soul, Layla!¡± Dumbledore was nearly in tears as he pleaded with me. This was the first time he¡¯d also used my real name. ¡°I promise I¡¯ll leave you and Heather alone from now on! I¡¯ll even give Heather back all of the money and heirlooms I took from her! I hid them all in the basement of my family''s old estate!¡± He was doing everything he could to bargain with me. I knew about the money, but I wasn¡¯t aware he also took her heirlooms. I clicked my tongue and quickly came to a decision. As much as I would like for Dumbledore to have his soul dragged into one of the Hells for all of eternity, I knew I couldn''t allow that to happen. I also feel like the demon was lying. Demons get more powerful by devouring all souls...and other Demons. Dumbledore¡¯s soul isn''t worthless, if anything, his current demonic soul is even more valuable to this infernal being. ¡°You''re not taking him,¡± I declared. ¡°Heh heh, feel free to try and stop me!¡± [Kick it¡¯s ass, Host!] ¡®That¡¯s the plan!¡¯ I kicked off the ground and blitzed towards the corpse, but before I could bring down my Asauchi and slay the entity, I suddenly froze! I was frozen in place and couldn¡¯t move at all! Something was seriously wrong! ¡°W¨CWhat!? What is this...?¡± My hands trembled, I could barely hold onto my sword without dropping it. I felt scared, I felt utterly terrified and I couldn''t figure out why! ¡®System, what the hell!? He¡¯s fucking with my mind!¡¯ I shouted internally. My heart was pounding in my chest and I couldn¡¯t breathe! [He¡¯s not messing with your mind! That¡¯s impossible, this is something else!] ¡°Heh heh! Nice try, Angel. What you¡¯re feeling right now is fear. True Fear. Terror so invasive and tormenting that it seeps into your very being. It makes your bones grow cold and your muscles go limp.¡± A dark aura emanated from the body as it reached down and placed its hand on an unmoving Dumbledore. The old Wizard had been completely knocked out by the aura of fear. ¡°It was interesting meeting you, Angel. Maybe we¡¯ll meet again someday...¡¯ The aura of terror disappeared along with Dumbledore and Grindelwald¡¯s corpse. One second they were there, the next they were simply gone. Whatever that creature was, it had gotten what it came for. I sucked in a deep breath to calm my pounding heart. ¡°Fuck me...¡± I muttered to myself. That was horrible, there were goosebumps covering every inch of my usually flawless skin. [That was certainly different. It was some kind of conceptual attack that completely bypassed all of your natural defenses.] ¡°I should have let the Doomslayer come along after all.¡± I lamented. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t have even flinched.¡± I said to myself before placing my finger on my ear. ¡°This is Layla. Dumbledore and Grindelwald are both neutralized. What¡¯s everyone else''s status?¡± I asked over the comms. ¡°I beat the crap out of the Green Guy!¡± Isane sounded cheerful over the calms. ¡°I deserve a big reward once this mission is over, Layla!¡± ¡°This is Castle, the Baron is down. These alien guns are freaking awesome. I took a couple shots myself though and could use some healing...¡± he said nonchalantly. ¡°He didn¡¯t just take a couple shots,¡± Maria Hill scoffed. She and Fury were running mission control on this one. ¡°He¡¯s missing his entire right arm. He had to cauterize it himself to avoid bleeding out!¡± Frank didn¡¯t seem that upset. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal, Layla will just heal me later...¡± He was one tough son of a bitch. ¡°I''m still fighting off the remaining Hydra forces, but I¡¯ve almost wrapped things up,¡± Steve said. ¡°It¡¯s really weird being bulletproof now. It kind of feels like I''m bullying these men.¡± I could hear a couple gunshots in the background but it had been a while since I¡¯d heard any loud explosions. That meant he¡¯d taken care of all the tanks at least. The only one left to respond was Serafall. I waited for her to answer, but she didn¡¯t. That meant she was too busy with her fight to talk even for a few seconds. I spread out my senses to try and find her. Her battle with Ajuka had started over the black lake, but they had moved far off into the distance since then. I sent out one last message. ¡°...Serafall and Ajuka are fighting in the middle of the forbidden forest. I''m heading out to help her. We need some people to secure the school grounds and the students while I''m gone. Ajuka told Serafall that he turned most of the Slytherins into Devils. We also need to find out what happened to all the agents that were stationed at Hogwarts and in Hogsmeade. With any luck, they''ll still be alive and in the dungeons.¡± ¡°Roger that Layla,¡± Fury responded. ¡°Our people will move in and secure the castle, but I recommend you don''t take too long to bring down the Green haired asshole.¡± XXX chapter 275 chapter 275 Chapter 275: ¨CAjuka Beelzebub¨C ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake! This is why I hate humans¡ªuseless vermin, the lot of them!¡± Ajuka cursed, his voice echoing with frustration as he sensed his generals either unconscious or dead. He had granted them power surpassing that of most gods, yet they couldn¡¯t even last a week. Granted, he hadn¡¯t actually taught them how to properly utilize that power... but still! All of his carefully laid plans were probably ruined, and he still hadn¡¯t finished dealing with the Magical Girl menace. How dare she betray him! Their race had been on the precipice of world domination! His greatest ambition had been so close to realization! ¡°Sunshine Smasher!¡± Serafall snarled from directly above him. A giant hammer, appearing rainbow-colored but actually crafted from ice magic, materialized in her hands. She swung it down at his head with crushing force. Few knew that Serafall was, in fact, the physically strongest of all the Maous. ¡°You¡¯re wasting your time, Serafall!¡± Ajuka raised his hand, dispelling the ice hammer with a burst of superheated fire magic before it could make contact. ¡°Just give up. You got one lucky shot on me at the start, but you¡¯ll never land another now that my guard is up.¡± ¡°Never!¡± Serafall shot back with an angry pout. ¡°You threatened So-tan, so you have to die!¡± Ajuka gritted his teeth in annoyance, regretting that spur-of-the-moment threat. Serafall could hold a grudge like no other woman he had ever known. While she wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat him, she was doing an annoyingly good job of preventing his escape. He knew why, of course¡ªshe was buying time until that monstrously strong Fallen Angel arrived to slay him. He could already sense her approaching; her power was unmistakable and indescribable. ¡°I promise I won¡¯t target Sona Sitri in retribution,¡± Ajuka said, desperation seeping into his voice as sweat beaded on his brow. ¡°Liar!¡± Serafall charged at him again, fury etched on her face. This time, an icy blue greatsword appeared in each of her hands. She wasn¡¯t wasting any Demonic Power on making them look like pretty magical girl weapons¡ªthis meant she wasn¡¯t playing around anymore. With both swords raised, she swung down at him, channeling an enormous amount of power into a single strike. Ajuka knew he could dispel the attack, but doing so would cost him precious Demonic Power that he needed to conserve for his fight with the Fallen Angel. A short-range teleportation magic circle flared to life beneath Ajuka¡¯s feet. It always stung his ego to dodge an enemy¡¯s attack rather than countering it, but he swallowed his pride this once. His eyes widened in shock when the teleportation abruptly failed. ¡°What the hell!?¡± In a panic, he encased himself in a cocoon of flames, forming a desperate, last-second shield. ¡°I won¡¯t let you hurt So-tan or Layla! Die!¡± Serafall roared, putting everything she had into her dual strike. The moment the icy blades touched the flames, they snuffed out the fire instantly. Ajuka took the full force of her blow head-on. Blood spewed from his mouth as he was violently hurled from the sky, plummeting over a thousand meters before crashing into the forest below. His innate resistances were the only thing keeping him alive. Bruises marred his entire body, and two deep gashes on his chest marked where the blades had struck him. ¡°My teleportation failed, and her blades snuffed out my fire magic instantly. How is that even possible?¡± he muttered to himself, struggling to comprehend the situation. Serafall slowly descended, hovering 30 meters above him. The icy greatswords in her hands dissipated, unable to be sustained any longer. She was breathing heavily, drained from expending so much Demonic Power in a single attack. Despite her exhaustion, a vindictive smirk curled her lips. ¡°Everyone always says I''m the weakest Maou, but no one knows how much I''ve truly mastered ice magic!¡± Ajuka, pulling himself out of the dirt, came to a chilling realization. ¡°You reached the impossible... Absolute Zero.¡± Absolute Zero was a concept even he, with the Power of Imagination, couldn¡¯t believe Serafall had actually achieved. Those icy greatswords of hers had reached an impossible temperature, rendering his fire magic useless. They had even managed to temporarily freeze him in place, disrupting his teleportation. Fortunately, it seemed such an attack had taken a toll on her. He doubted she could summon those swords again in this fight. He was severely injured, but she was nearly out of Demonic Power. Sensing an opportunity, Ajuka decided it was time to finish Serafall off and escape. But he couldn¡¯t resist taunting her one last time. ¡°You were right, Serafall! I was lying. I¡¯m going to kill you... But I¡¯m going to do so much worse to your baby sister. The Devils can¡¯t afford to lose another pillar clan. I¡¯ll destroy Sona¡¯s mind. For the rest of her existence, her only purpose will be as a baby-making slave!¡± he gloated, his voice dripping with malice. Instead of the expected rage, Serafall simply looked at him with pity. Confusion flickered in Ajuka¡¯s eyes¡ªuntil something massive suddenly gripped him tightly. A crushing force enveloped his body, lifting him into the air. He was caught in the hand of a colossal, purple, angel-like construct. It radiated burning Light Energy. The massive angel raised its hand, bringing him level with its face. Embedded in its forehead was a large purple gem, and inside it, Layla, the 14-winged fallen angel, stared at him with fury blazing in her eyes. ¡°You just threatened to kill one of my previous lovers and turn the other into a mindless sex slave...¡± she said coldly. ¡°I was planning on killing you slowly, but now, I just want you gone.¡± The construct¡¯s grip tightened, the pressure increasing dramatically. Ajuka screamed in agony as he felt his bones on the verge of shattering. Never before had he endured such humiliation, such helplessness. He couldn¡¯t do anything against this woman! ¡®No, I can¡¯t die!¡¯ Panic surged within him. ¡®My race is doomed without me!¡¯ He thrashed wildly, desperately summoning every ounce of his Demonic Power reserves to escape the crushing grasp of the giant hand. But no matter how fiercely he struggled, he couldn¡¯t break free! ¨CLayla¨C Serafall had done far more damage to Ajuka than I¡¯d expected. I caught the tail end of their battle and was amazed to see her wielding ice at the temperature of absolute zero! Ajuka bore two massive gashes across his chest, his attention entirely focused on Serafall. It was remarkably easy for me to sneak up on him¡ªhe was so consumed by anger that he didn¡¯t even sense me summoning my Susanoo. With Ajuka gone, the Devils would be effectively neutered. He wasn¡¯t just a genius¡ªhe was *the* genius of their entire race. Without him and Serafall, their race would have imploded long ago under the weight of infighting and greed. I tightened my grip, and my Susanoo mirrored my actions perfectly. Ajuka¡¯s struggles ceased after a few seconds, his body going completely limp. I maintained the crushing hold for a moment longer, just to be sure he wasn¡¯t faking. When my Susanoo finally unclenched its hand, his arms and legs hung like broken pretzels, bent at grotesque angles. I set his mangled and unconscious body down beside Serafall and canceled my Susanoo. She was grinning at him vindictively as I landed next to her. ¡°You were pretty amazing, Levia-tan,¡± I said sincerely. Serafall shuddered, then gave me a flustered grin. ¡°Fuck, I really love it when you call me Levia-tan! No one else ever does! It gets me so hot and bothered. I just want to push you down and right here and now!¡± she said with hearts in her eyes¨Cliterally. She was using some kind of unconscious magic to turn her pupils heart shaped. McGonagall raised her nose in the air. ¡°Hmph! We haven¡¯t had a single fatality in over 20 years. It¡¯s perfectly safe. Wizards and witches are made of sterner stuff than the average Muggle. A fall from 30 or 40 feet won¡¯t kill them,¡± she didn¡¯t like people talking bad about Hogwarts. ¡°What about horrific injuries, though?¡± Isane asked. McGonagall pointedly avoided answering. ¡°If either of my kids turn out to be magical, they¡¯re never coming to this school...¡± Frank said, and the older woman grumbled in response. I decided not to mention that his son and daughter were both magical. Whether it was pure coincidence or because I awakened any latent magic in their bloodline after healing them, I wasn¡¯t sure. All I knew was that Frank¡¯s reaction would be priceless when both his kids received their letters on their 11th birthdays. Eventually, we reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room. McGonagall, as the Headmistress, knew its location but had admittedly never been inside. With the removal of the Slytherin head of house last year, the students were now monitored by an alternating team of SHIELD agents to ensure they corrected their behavior and moved away from their deeply ingrained racism. Since we didn¡¯t know the common room password, I simply punched the wall in front of us. There was a hidden door concealed with some basic illusion magic. The door collapsed backward with a heavy thud. I ignored the glare McGonagall shot me for damaging school property. It shouldn¡¯t be too difficult to repair with magic later, I don¡¯t know why she was so upset. The sight we encountered inside was unsettling. ¡°Okay, this is kind of messed up,¡± Isane said while taking a few steps behind. ¡°This is like the start of a horror movie, or the end of it,¡± Serafall added, even she sounded a bit unnerved. ¡°I can¡¯t believe Ajuka actually did this, even an Evil version of him...¡± All the Slytherin students were standing in the middle of the common room, completely motionless. They were entirely mindless, awaiting orders from their devil masters. Ajuka might have succeeded in creating his perfect mind-controlled army if we hadn¡¯t intervened in time. ¡°Have any of you seen Professor Snape?¡± I asked the unmoving students. Not a single one responded. [Maybe they only respond to commands from a noble devil.] That made sense. I asked Serafall to try giving them orders. ¡°Listen up. We¡¯re looking for that ugly Snape guy! Has he been through here?¡± Serafall shouted. This time, there was a response. As if they were one organism, they all raised their right arms and pointed to a door at the back of the room. Their arms stayed raised and didn¡¯t move afterward, awaiting further instructions. ¡°This is horrible. Please fix them, Layla!¡± McGonagall pleaded. ¡°I will,¡± I assured her. ¡°But I can¡¯t do that until I interrogate Ajuka and find out what he did to them. Before that, we need to capture Snape. He was locked up with Dumbledore when Ajuka freed them. He might have some information for us. I still don¡¯t know how the Maou found out about them in the first place.¡± I carefully navigated through the students and reached the door I suspected to be Snape¡¯s old office. As expected, the handle was locked tight with magic. With a playful smirk at McGonagall, I proceeded to break down my third door of the day! Frank stormed into the room with his weapon at the ready. ¡°It¡¯s clear¡ªhe¡¯s not in here,¡± he called out to us, and we followed inside. ¡°Where is this guy?¡± Isane asked. ¡°Didn''t the zombie students all point here?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no Floo in Snape¡¯s old office. He couldn¡¯t have escaped from here,¡± McGonagall said, glancing around the dusty room. It was clear that no one had been here in over a year. Thanks to the neglect, I spotted a pair of footprints on the dusty floor, leading to a bookcase in the corner. ¡°It¡¯s always the classics...¡± I muttered to myself with a smirk. Behind the bookcase, a secret passage awaited. ¡°Please don¡¯t break anything else, Layla. The castle has already taken so much damage today...¡± McGonagall pleaded as I prepared to rip the bookcase off the wall. I pouted but eventually relented and let her handle it. With a wave of her wand, she cast a few unlocking spells, and the bookcase slid smoothly to the side. Beyond it was a small room, housing a shrine of some kind. Snape was kneeling in front of it, as if in prayer. On the shrine sat a photo of a red-haired woman, a wand, and a few locks of red hair. ¡°Oh, Lily! I¡¯m sorry it took me so long to get back to you! Muggle prison was awful. I thought I¡¯d never escape! But I never gave up hope, and true love found a way! I¡¯m back with you now, my love.¡± Snape reached for a lock of the red hair, bringing it to his nose and inhaling deeply. ¡°Even after all these years, you still smell amazing, my love!¡± he declared passionately to the shrine of Lily Potter. ¡°Jesus Christ...¡± Isane muttered. ¡°Ow!¡± Serafall pouted at Isane while rubbing her head. ¡°This guy is absolutely messed up,¡± Frank said. ¡°Can I shoot him?¡± Snape hadn¡¯t noticed the bookcase move or that we were no longer alone. His entire focus remained on his disturbingly creepy shrine dedicated to Heather¡¯s deceased birth mother. Heather was going to be pissed when she finds out Snape had been holding onto her mother¡¯s wand all this time, keeping it locked up in this weird shrine. [Definitely don¡¯t mention the hair sniffing...] XXX chapter 276 chapter 276 Chapter 276: ¨C???¨C Elsewhere in the multiverse, a group of men were having a conversation after observing ¡®the anomaly¡¯ in her latest battle. ¡°Ajuka Beelzebub complained about humans being useless, and yet he was defeated almost immediately. How pathetic...¡± ¡°Did we even manage to obtain the relevant data? That couldn¡¯t have been the extent of that abomination¡¯s full abilities...¡± ¡°We got some data, but not enough... This was, unfortunately, a failure.¡± ¡°Damn it! I¡¯ve lost my entire reputation because of her! Everything I¡¯ve worked for!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, brother. This is just the beginning of your vengeance. Everything that has been taken from you will be reclaimed. No one should ever dare stand against superior beings like us.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. After meeting you all, I finally understand my true importance. We are the only ones worthy to guide the multiverse!¡± ¡°Should we dispose of Ajuka while he¡¯s only guarded by that strange Captain America? We¡¯ll not get a better opportunity.¡± ¡°...No. That might tip the anomaly off to our involvement. She can interrogate Ajuka all she wants, he won¡¯t dare expose us.¡± ¡°You¡¯re correct. No one in the multiverse is foolish enough to willingly double-cross us...¡± ... ¨CLayla¨C ¡°It was a group of human men who all looked identical! They each claimed to be the same man¡ªa man named Reed Richards!¡± Ajuka had been surprisingly cooperative once he regained consciousness. He didn¡¯t hesitate to sell out the ones who provided him information about my former enemies and where to find them. [He spilled his beans before you even started torturing him...] ¡°The Council of Reeds...¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°They showed up quicker than I expected...¡± ¡°The Council of what?¡± Steve asked. The others looked just as confused as well. ¡°You certainly have a lot of colorful enemies, Layla,¡± Frank pointed out. ¡°They''re all just jealous of how hot she is!¡± Isane defended me. I gave them a rough explanation of everything I knew about them¡ªor rather him. An entire multiversal organization composed of a single man from hundreds of different realities. The only common thread was that this man arrogantly believed he was the smartest being in the universe in each of those realities. Steve could only look at me in disbelief when I finished my explanation. He then started muttering about how he missed the 1940s when ¡°villains weren¡¯t so complicated.¡± [Just wait until he finds out the Red Skull is now some kind of wraith stuck eternally watching over a magic space rock that controls people¡¯s souls...] ¡°An entire organization filled with one man and a bunch of his clones. That honestly sounds like something you would have come up with, Ajuka,¡± Serafall said to our prisoner. Ajuka growled as he looked up at her in annoyance. ¡°I tried cloning myself once, thinking it would improve the productivity of my workshop. It didn¡¯t work out as intended. The problem with giving the clones my superior intellect was that they immediately tried to kill me and take over my position in the underworld,¡± he spat out. ¡°Can you imagine the audacity?¡± I gave our prisoner a teasing smirk. ¡°How do you know they didn¡¯t succeed?¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°What if you¡¯re just a clone? One who replaced the real Ajuka Beelzebub?¡± I said with a straight face. Ajuka scoffed. ¡°What a pointless question! I would know if I were a clone.¡± He winced as the black chains tightened around him even further. I had made it so the chains would tighten every time he tried to escape. Since he¡¯d woken up, this was already his fifth attempt. If nothing else, the Maou was persistent. That¡¯s why we were all here for this interrogation at once¡ªto make sure eyes were on him at all times so he couldn¡¯t escape. ¡°What if you purposely erased your own memories so no one would ever find out you were a clone...¡± I pointed out, just to irritate him. Serafall smirked evilly next to me and decided to join in. ¡°Layla has a point, Beel-tan! You wouldn¡¯t know if you were actually a clone! In fact, it¡¯s more likely that you are a clone. It¡¯s like 70% more likely!¡± she said, nodding her head sagely. I was sure she just randomly pulled that number out of her cute little ass. ¡°Ugh, my brain hurts, girls, please stop!¡± Isane whined, rubbing her head. ¡°He¡¯s an evil clone now? This is too confusing to keep up with...¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a clone!¡± Ajuka spat out. ¡°Stop trying to trick me with your pointless drivel!¡± The problem with being so intelligent was that you could end up having an existential crisis by overthinking scenarios like this. I could see it on his face¡ªhe was actually running through mental scenarios because of our teasing. ¡°Do you think those clones of the Winter Soldier I killed knew they were clones?¡± Frank asked curiously. ¡°I didn¡¯t really think about it at the time...¡± [I¡¯m surprised Steve hasn¡¯t mentioned anything about them yet.] ¡°Aaargh! Stop talking about clones!¡± Ajuka groaned. ¡°Fine,¡± I said, holding up my hand to stop everyone¡¯s snickering. ¡°Let¡¯s just finish this interrogation. Tell us what we want to know. What kind of traps did you place on the evil pieces in the Slytherin students?¡± I couldn¡¯t safely extract them without knowing. Well, I could, but the kids might end up spontaneously combusting or something! Once Lady Death was gone, Serafall let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Damn... She was super hot but super intimidating. I can¡¯t believe you regularly have sex with her, Layla,¡± Serafall said, a bit crassly. I playfully smacked her on the shoulder. ¡°You know she can probably still hear you,¡± I pointed out. Serafall¡¯s eyes widened, and I couldn¡¯t help but giggle as she started frantically looking around to see if Lady Death was still there. ¡°Don¡¯t scare me like that, Layla!¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± I said, still laughing. ¡°So... can we just leave now? Ajuka¡¯s dead, and I already miss my darling So-tan!¡± Serafall said boisterously. I nodded in agreement. Some of those memories I absorbed with the Human Path were truly disturbing, and I needed to de-stress and spend time with my family as well, especially with another mission looming. I crossed my fingers and created a single Shadow Clone. I sent it off to go and save all the Slytherin students. ¡°Hm? What¡¯s this?¡± Serafall leaned down and picked something up off the ground near Ajuka¡¯s corpse. ¡°Is this a King Piece? It feels much more powerful than the ones you pulled out of the Green Goblin and that Nazi guy earlier,¡± she said, inspecting the chess piece in her hand. I reached over and took it from her. She was right¡ªit was different from the other King Pieces I¡¯d seen. I used Observe on it. {Supreme King Piece: Created by the original Ajuka Beelzebub for the sole purpose of empowering his clones. This Supreme King Piece is the last one in existence after this clone slaughtered all the others and the original Ajuka Beelzebub. It has the ability to raise any Devil to Super Class.} I snorted after reading the description. ¡°Get the fuck out of here, Ajuka really was a clone,¡± I said, almost in disbelief. A clone that had killed the original and taken his place. ¡°Eeeehhh!¡± Serafall exclaimed. ¡°What the hell!?¡± I guess it doesn''t really matter in the end since it replaced the original. Although, I wonder if your Universes Ajuka is a clone too?¡± I asked her honestly. ¡°EEEEEEHHHHH!?¡± ... [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 105] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 118,000] [MP: 130,000] [Faith Energy: 7,585,457] [Vigor: 10,400] [Strength: 5,643] [Intelligence: 13,100] [Luck: 2656] [Available Free Stat Points: 500] [Perks and Skills:] -Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Acting (Max: You are a master of the craft when you want to be.) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 100x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random stat points after every ¡°session.¡±) XXX chapter 289 chapter 289 Chapter 289: ¨CHela¨C ¡°...Niece?¡± Hela muttered in confusion. Her brow furrowed, but a moment later, everything clicked. A smirk curled on her black-painted lips. ¡°Interesting. So, I¡¯m not Odin¡¯s daughter in this dimension...¡± she muttered, wondering how that was possible. She''d have to ask Layla later¡ªher Angelic lover knew far more about other dimensions or universes than Hela ever cared to learn. Odin blinked, which, with only one eye, looked more like a wink. ¡°A different dimension? Huh, I thought you were just trying out a new wardrobe and hairstyle, Hela. But now that I really look, I do sense a bit of my own divinity in you...¡± He paused, rubbing his long silver beard thoughtfully. She wasn¡¯t impressed with the beard. In fact, she found it gross¡ªway too long. She''d never been a fan of facial hair, especially since she was only attracted to beautiful women. Even if she wasn''t, she couldn''t understand how anyone could be into a guy whose beard literally dragged along the floor. She bet he¡¯d tripped over it at least once. This Odin didn¡¯t seem as sharp as her own father, but he gave off the vibe of a schemer. As Queen, Hela had gotten pretty good at reading people. With Asgard reopening ties to other realms, she¡¯d had to learn how to size up foreign dignitaries at a glance¡ªto make sure they weren¡¯t trying to trick her into a bad deal. She glanced around. They were standing on the outskirts of this Universe¡¯s Asgard. She still couldn¡¯t figure out how this place even existed, given that Earth DxD and Earth Marvel used to be the same. There should only have been a single Asgardian people per Universe. And yet, there were two. Layla theorized that the DxD Asgardians came from a completely different universe. She figured they¡¯d probably escaped their own Ragnarok, or at least delayed it. The enormous body of Surtur lay just a hundred meters away, stuck with large black swords and covered in burn scars from her brother¡¯s lightning. Thor had definitely improved under her training over the past two years. He used to fight like a fool, relying on brute force. He still did, regrettably, but now he at least knew how to harness his power over thunder on command. "Tell me, Hela... if you''re not my daughter in this dimension, why come to our rescue? Surely, you wouldn¡¯t care whether Asgard lives or dies.¡± Odin raised a bushy eyebrow and crossed his arms. Hela stared at him neutrally. ¡°You¡¯re right. I wouldn¡¯t care at all.¡± She gestured to the massive form of the fallen Surtur nearby, ¡°Frankly, whether this Asgard is reduced to ashes or not means nothing to me. I might have even encouraged it, considering I''m not happy your Asgard even exists in the first place. Wherever your people came from, it certainly wasn''t this Universe.¡± Hela felt that they were unwanted interlopers in her Universe. Had it been just them being attacked, she might have even tried to convince Layla not to give assistance. Unfortunately, the foolish Devils chose to strike out against the whole entire world. Odin frowned at her. ¡°That¡¯s a secret not many outside the Norse are privy to...¡± Hela scoffed, old men and their secrets.... ¡°Well, it won¡¯t be a secret for long. The Convergence is almost upon us. The two Earths will soon merge again.¡± She said. Odin clicked his tongue before changing the subject. "You still haven¡¯t answered my question," Odin pointed out, "or properly introduced yourself. I suspect you¡¯re more than just the ruler of Helheim." A smirk played on her lips. ¡°You¡¯d be correct. I¡¯m the Queen of Asgard and the ruler of the Nine Realms¡ªwell, eight now. I¡¯ve already secretly signed some documents that seeded Earth over to Layla¨Cnot that she knows it. But since we¡¯re going to be married, that¡¯s basically a formality at this point.¡± She continued. ¡°As for why I came to your rescue, you can thank Layla for that. Earth DxD is her birth world, and she doesn¡¯t want it destroyed by this Universe¡¯s Devils. Pathetic creatures, really¡ªrelying on human souls to grow stronger. I much prefer their counterparts from other universes.¡± ¡°What...?¡± Hela found Odin¡¯s confused expression priceless. He was doing his best to keep up, but she wasn¡¯t explaining as much as she could have. She liked being petty. As Layla would say: Hela was that bitch. "Earth DxD?" Odin repeated. ¡°I assume that¡¯s the name of this half of the Earth. My people came to this world after the split, so I¡¯ve never seen it when it was whole.¡± "You¡¯re lucky for that.¡± Hela said. ¡°My Odin was a prideful warmonger, he would have slaughtered all of you for daring to use his name or claiming to be Asgardians. As for the world back then, it was much bigger¡ªfilled with magic, wonder, and humans far stronger than they are now. They suffered the most from the split. Their bodies weakened over the millennia due to the lower gravity.¡± Odin¡¯s one eye widened at the implications. ¡°Then won¡¯t they all die when the worlds combine again?¡± Hela waved off his concern. ¡°We¡¯ve handled that. A pair of genius siblings Earth Marvel developed a serum to physically enhance humans, restoring them to their original state. It also boosted their resistances to diseases and increased their lifespans. Humans used to live into their 200s easily, but now most barely reach 70 years of age before death. We suspected the magic of the world being ripped in half caused all of that." She rattled off the information casually. ¡°...But enough of all that. We must discuss this war!¡± Hela declared, demanding that Odin take her inside Asgard so that they might begin planning the counter attack against the Devils! ¡°Ugh, planning an entire war campaign. Sounds like way too much effort for me in my old age.¡± Odin whined. ¡°I think I¡¯ll just leave it to my loyal secretary, Rossweisse. She¡¯s a tactical genius, best war mage in Asgard, despite the fact that she¡¯s never had a boyfriend...¡± Odin added, throwing in that last bit of information for no apparent reason. Hela felt patience thinning. This Odin was far too carefree, especially given that Surtur nearly breached Asgard¡¯s walls. If she and Thor hadn¡¯t shown up, everything would¡¯ve been in flames by now. Speaking of her brother, where had he wandered off to? He said he was going to help the surviving Einherjar, but he should¡¯ve been back by now. ¡°Sister! Look who I found!¡± Ah, there he was. Hela turned around and almost did a double take. Thor was standing next to...another Thor. This one looked almost exactly like him, except his hair and beard were bright red. And instead of Mjolnir made of Uru metal, this Thor had a hammer that looked like it was made of wood and stone. Hela couldn¡¯t hide her disappointment. Really? Were the soldiers of this Asgard so weak that they were wiped out by just three beings in such a short time? They had been slaughtered so quickly that none of the gods had even sensed nearby battles... Both Thors froze as Hades¡¯ words sank in. Her Thor let out a low growl, thunder started rumbling above them. ¡°You dare!?¡± he hissed, lightning crackling around his form. "YOU DARE?!" echoed the red-haired Thor! Both Thors shot into the sky, their hammers glowing with lighting as they fell upon Hades. The red-haired Thor struck first, swinging his hammer down at Hades like a meteor. Hades barely raised his staff in time to block, the ground beneath him cracking under the impact. He gritted his bony teeth, straining against the force of the blow. Her Thor followed with his own Mjolnir, launching a blast of lightning that exploded on contact with their skeletal foe. Hades staggered back a few steps, smoke rising from his robes, but he stood firm, using his bone staff to steady himself. ¡°Foolish thunder gods! Know your place!¡± Hades growled, summoning a wave of death energy that erupted in all directions around himself, forcing both Thors to temporarily retreat. The death energy immediately scarred the surroundings, turning the very earth itself a dead gray... ¡°You will pay for their deaths, Hades!¡± The red-haired Thor hurled his stone hammer with deadly precision, aiming for Hades¡¯ head. Hades barely dodged, the hammer grazing his skull and knocking him off balance. Her Thor seized the opportunity, hurling his own Mjolnir with all his might. This time, Hades couldn¡¯t evade. The hammer slammed into him, sending him crashing into the ground, carving a massive trench as he skidded across the battlefield. Hela smirked when she heard the snapping of bones. Rizevim had been standing by, watching all this unfold with a bored expression. He let out a sigh. ¡°Looks like I¡¯ll have to get my hands dirty.¡± With a wave of his hand, a blast of dark energy shot toward the Thors. The red-haired Thor barely raised his hammer in time to block the powerful magical attack. Blood and spit flew out of his mouth as he was blasted away. Rizevim prepared to fire another blast of darkness at her own Thor. When he tried to do the same to her own little brother, Hela decided to step in. A black sword flew at Rizevim¡¯s head, moving 10x the speed of sound. The devil barely managed to snap his head out of the way before he lost it. Black blood dripped from the large gash on his cheek. His eyes snapped over towards Hela in surprise. ¡°I wasn''t aware you were so powerful, Hela. And why are you attacking me? Can''t you see I''m on the same side as your father?¡± Hela scoffed. ¡°You¡¯ve got the wrong woman. I am Hela, Goddess of Death and Queen of Asgard¡ªthe true Asgard, not this pathetic imitation. And I won¡¯t be letting you destroy any more of it. That would make my precious Layla sad after all...¡± Hela said before frowning as she sensed something approaching quickly. She quickly tilted her head at the last second! A small orb of Destruction passed by her face. BOOM! The orb crashed into the ground, leaving behind a massive crater that spanned a hundred meters in diameter. Rizevim snickered, clearly enjoying the extra chaos, as yet another Devil arrived on the battlefield. Hela recognized him instantly¡ªafter all, she had deflowered his little sister in another universe. ¡°Hello, Lucifer,¡± Rizevim said the title sarcastically. ¡°Fancy meeting you here...¡± Sirzechs Lucifer eyed the silver-haired Devil warily. ¡°Hello, Rizevim. We tried to track you down before starting this war, but no one seemed to know where you¡¯d disappeared to.¡± Rizevim shrugged as if he couldn¡¯t care less. ¡°I had my own plans for the apocalypse. Plans that I''m sure you and those other fake Maous would have disagreed with.¡± ¡°We declared war on the entire world. What could you possibly have that¡¯s worse than that?¡± Sirzechs asked in bewilderment. Hela stayed silent. She was also interested in hearing what the silver haired Devil had to say. Rizevim smirked and simply replied with three ominous numbers: ¡°Six... Six... Six.¡± Sirzechs¡¯ eyes widened in horror. ¡°You¡¯re insane! That will destroy the whole world!¡± Rizevim grinned maliciously. ¡°That¡¯s the idea! I think it''s high time that Khaos takes this world for its own!¡± With that, he turned his attention back to Hela, anticipation dancing in his eyes. ¡°One of the seals needed to release Khaos is hidden in Asgard. You won¡¯t stand in my way to destroy it!¡± Hela wasn¡¯t sure why she felt a shiver down her spine when Lucifer said those three little numbers. Whatever this Devil was planning was sure to be a massive pain in the ass, if his plans unfolded. She decided to simply nip them in the bud by cutting off his head here and now. A vindictive glint also appeared in her eyes when glanced over at Sirzechs. She didn¡¯t know why he was here in Asgard, but he had just tried to kill her with a sneak attack. She might as well kill him here as well to save her beloved the trouble of tracking him down later. Hela held up both of her hands, two pitch black swords manifested in her grips. ¡°I think you¡¯ll both find that the Queen of Asgard isn¡¯t going to be defeated by two little bats who drastically overestimate themselves.¡± XXX MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD! chapter 290 chapter 290 Chapter 290: ¨CLayla¨C I stepped through a pair of wooden doors that led to one of the Vatican¡¯s secret inner chambers. I admired the ancient architecture and the beautiful stained glass windows as I continued inside, my heels echoing across the floor. I spotted a familiar blond figure standing near an altar. ¡°Layla!¡± Michael¡¯s voice was warm and filled with relief. His bright, golden wings were tucked behind him as he stood underneath a window with sunlight shining down on him. I wondered if he had any idea just how much he resembled Father right now. The second he saw me, he crossed the room and pulled me into a tight hug. ¡°Thank God,¡± he whispered, his chin resting on my head. ¡°I was so worried when you disappeared for so long. Gabriel told me you were all right, but I had to see for myself.¡± I was caught off guard by his sudden hug before wrapping my arms around him. He was warm¡ªhugging him felt reassuring. It reminded me of a time before everything had gotten so complicated. I hoped we could go back to those times someday soon. ¡°I¡¯m happy to see you too,¡± I mumbled against his chest. He pulled back a bit, still holding onto my shoulders, his eyes searching my face. ¡°What happened to you? Where did you go? Why didn¡¯t you¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, Michael. Really,¡± I cut him off, giving him a small smile. ¡°I handled it...¡± I didn''t want to spend any more of my life talking about the things I had missed out on. I got my revenge already. It might not have been as bloody as Hela would have liked, but that''s not who I was at my core. [I thought it was a fine punishment. There''s nothing worse for someone with amazing superpowers than turning back into a regular person...] Michael didn¡¯t say anything and just patted me on the back. A smooth, cocky voice came from behind us. ¡°Well, well, if it isn¡¯t our prodigal sister. You didn''t come to visit me after returning either. I would be offended if I didn''t know you were spending so much time catching up with your harem.¡± Azazel stood there, leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t worried at all, just so you know. I knew you would come back to us just fine. Better than fine, apparently! I can''t even begin to sense the depths of your power.¡± I stepped away from Michael and nodded. ¡°Yeah, it''s taken some getting used to.¡± Eight sets of black wings spread out behind me. Michael gasped, and Azazel let out a startled whistle. ¡°You really went and did it, huh? You surpassed our old man. Good for you, little sis. Have you thought about how you want to decorate your throne yet? Wait, let me guess¡ªany color is fine as long as it¡¯s black?¡± he asked jokingly. [He¡¯s got you there, host.] I raised an eyebrow, trying not to laugh myself. ¡°I can''t help it if black is my best color,¡± I said while tossing my hair behind my shoulder. I allowed my wings to recede back inside me. The power they emitted could get a bit overwhelming for anyone not used to it. ¡°Thanks for believing I¡¯d return, big brother.¡± I stepped forward and hugged him next. ¡°Although I¡¯m a bit upset that you weren''t worried about me at all,¡± I pouted playfully. Azazel¡¯s smirk faltered for a second, then he shrugged. ¡°Okay, maybe I was a little worried. But you¡¯re the toughest woman I know. I knew you¡¯d make it back.¡± It wasn¡¯t much, but coming from Azazel, it meant a lot. ¡°We''re just glad you¡¯re safe, Layla. That¡¯s all that matters,¡± Michael said. ¡°Although I wish this reunion came under better circumstances.¡± I reluctantly nodded in agreement. These shitty devils really had the worst timing! There was a table in the center of the room with a large map of the world spread on top of it. Michael had marked out locations where the devils attacked and the positions where the forces of Heaven were strongest. Unsurprisingly, Europe and the majority of the Middle East were where most of the angels were stationed. I could see on the map that we did have small contingents of my other brothers and sisters scattered throughout the world, though. ¡°The devils have thrown the world into chaos,¡± Michael said grimly. ¡°But we¡¯ve been pushing them back, step by step.¡± Azazel nodded with a serious expression on his face. ¡°Indeed, we¡¯ve given them a few hard smacks. They definitely weren¡¯t expecting us to hit back this hard and fast.¡± He glanced at me. ¡°And speaking of hard smacks¡ªnice job with Riser Phenex and his brothers, by the way.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°You already heard about that?¡± It had only been an hour since I¡¯d gotten rid of them. Azazel gave a low whistle of appreciation. ¡°Oh, trust me, everyone who matters has already heard about it. Taking down Riser and his brothers like that on camera¡ª the devils took a massive loss on this one. Their supply of Phenex tears has now been cut in half. Maybe even less, since Ravel Phenex is reported to be pretty weak; she can¡¯t produce even close to as many tears every day as her brothers could.¡± I expected Michael to chime in, maybe tell me I was too heavy-handed in how I dealt with the devils or that I should¡¯ve held back more. He was always the voice of mercy. But to my surprise, he nodded in agreement. ¡°Azazel¡¯s right. You did what needed to be done.¡± His eyes met mine supportively. ¡°I never wanted to be responsible for eliminating an entire race, but... the underworld has gone too far this time. They¡¯re not giving us any choice.¡± A few years ago, Michael would¡¯ve never said something like that. The idea of wiping out devils had always seemed unthinkable, but now, with the world in flames and innocent lives lost, the line between right and wrong felt blurred... ¡°The world¡¯s not going to forgive them after this war,¡± Azazel added. ¡°This was the last straw.¡± I sighed and crossed my arms. ¡°I guess this means my plan to repopulate the underworld with devils from Earth DxD-C is screwed. There¡¯s no way they¡¯ll welcome them now, even if I vouch for them.¡± Michael shook his head, looking regretful. ¡°No, devils will never be welcome on Earth again... besides your two brides and children, of course. And even then, they¡¯ll always be looked at with scrutiny.¡± ¡°They¡¯re not my brides... yet.¡± I blushed. ¡°We¡¯ve been so busy that I¡¯ve never had any proper time for a real ceremony. As for my children, anyone who tries to bully them for being half-devil will learn that¡¯s a very bad idea!¡± I declared. The ground underneath us started to tremble slightly. ¡°Easy there, sis!¡± Azazel called out. ¡°We completely agree with you, but your aura is shaking the Vatican.¡± ¡°Oh, sorry...¡± I pulled back my angry aura and blushed slightly. Azazel tilted his head, a thoughtful look crossing his face. ¡°I might have a better idea for you anyway. You told us that the dark elves will return during the convergence that¡¯s going to occur soon. After we deal with them next, we¡¯ll basically have an entire empty planet. Svartalheim could house all of those devils from Earth DxD-C just fine. It¡¯s technically a wasteland, sure, but the conditions there aren¡¯t all that different from the underworld when I think about it.¡± I paused to think about it. ¡°Svartalheim? You know, that just might work, although it is a complete ruin.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Azazel agreed with a grin, ¡°but it¡¯s a ruin with potential. The devils might prefer having their own planet instead of having to stay underground anyway. It¡¯ll give them a chance to eventually expand into the stars and start fresh.¡± I told them both that I would go over the details with Serafall and her mother once this was all over. I¡¯m sure neither of them would hate Azazel¡¯s new idea. A flash of golden light erupted in the chamber, momentarily blinding us all. Someone was playfully making a very dramatic entrance. I shielded my eyes and squinted against the brightness. When the light faded, I saw Gabriel standing before us. She was wearing golden armor that was covered in bloodstains. None of the bloodstains were her own. ¡°That makes two of us,¡± Rizevim said begrudgingly. ¡°Maybe he just needs a little push to show us what he can really do?¡± Hela said with a menacing laugh. She raised her right hand vertically above her head as her power surged. A massive black blade the size of a skyscraper manifested directly above her in an instant. She swung her arm down, and with it came the gigantic blade, hurtling directly toward the two shocked devils. She wanted to crush them beneath her boots, but she was a bit disappointed they weren''t even putting up a fight. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± Rizevim cursed. ¡°Are all the gods and goddesses from beyond the dimensional gap this powerful?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even know what¡¯s going on!¡± Sirzechs complained. ¡°But I¡¯m not going to lose here! I am Lucifer! The strongest Devil!¡± ¡°The fuck you are!¡± Rizevim cursed at the redheaded Maou. Despite that, Rizevim and Sirzechs were forced to combine their demonic power to stop the gigantic blade crashing down above them. They launched their retaliatory attacks at the same time, emitting a massive black and red beam that collided with the falling sword. Boom! A massive explosion ensued, ripping apart the already destroyed battlefield! Hela conjured a large flat sword directly in front of herself to avoid getting pelted with flying debris. As the dust started to clear, Hela smirked when she saw the tattered states of her two opponents. Hela started to slowly clap her hands sarcastically. It was a mocking gesture she had learned from some Midgardian movies. ¡°That was better. Maybe you two will actually be able to give me a fight. You were both so arrogant earlier after all.¡± Hela said, shaking her head in disappointment. ¨CRizevim Lucifer¨C This was not going how he planned... But then again, where would be the fun in that? Chaos was the most beautiful part of life! Of course, he would enjoy the chaos a lot more if he were alive to see it. And for that to happen, he and the false Lucifer were going to have to work together to bring down the monstrously powerful woman in front of them. Or, at the very least, bring her down to the point where Rizevim could escape himself. ¡°Get your shit together, Sirzechs!¡± he shouted. ¡°No more holding back! Go all out!¡± Without hesitation, Rizevim activated his bloodline¡¯s most powerful ability¡ªDenial of the Divine. A dark, oppressive energy pulsed from deep inside him, warping the rules of reality itself. Divine Power was no longer allowed within his vicinity! This was his ultimate trump card, it was the reason he never feared any of the dead God¡¯s Sacred Gears. ¡°What is this ability?¡± Hela asked as she staggered momentarily. He grinned when he saw the shocked expression on Hela¡¯s face. That¡¯s right! She thought he would be defeated so easily, but she thought wrong. Rizevim could already feel Hela¡¯s power drop by at least half. She might have even been weakened to the point that they were finally fighting on an even level. The only downside to using Denial of the Divine was that it rapidly drained his Demonic Power reserves, which meant that they needed to settle this quickly. Hela waved her hand and tried to throw another volley of swords at them. Rizevim smirked when all of her swords broke apart and shattered before they made it halfway. Hela frowned. ¡°Some kind of conceptual ability? My beloved, Layla, told me that she faced a similar attack over two years ago...¡± she muttered out loud. A small black hole manifested to Hela¡¯s left. She shoved her hand inside the hole and pulled out a silver sword. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had to use an actual Uru sword,¡± Hela said, gripping the blade with both hands. She then let out a war cry and charged at them! Rizevim was shocked by how much speed she had despite having her Divine Power mostly sealed away. ¡®Her physical strength must be enormous!¡¯ he thought to himself. That was unfortunately an area most Devils were lacking in, himself included. ¡°RAAAAaaaaaaggghh!¡± Sirzechs let out a scream next to him. The false Lucifer¡¯s skin, hair, and even organs started to disappear. Standing in the Maou¡¯s place was a being made entirely of pure destruction. Rizevim smirked. It wasn¡¯t often the false Lucifer showed anyone his horrifying true form. Was Sirzechs even a devil anymore, or just a mass of sentient destruction masquerading as one? The very ground he stood on and the air around him started to break down. Hela reached Sirzechs right as he finished his transformation and swung her blade at the Maou¡¯s head, separating it cleanly from his shoulders! The smirk soon disappeared from her face, however, when Sirzechs¡¯s body punched forward and nailed her in the stomach with a fist of destruction energy. Blood and spittle flew out of Hela¡¯s mouth as she was launched backward. She shoved her sword into the ground and used it to stop herself. While she was recovering, Rizevim held his hand up and unleashed a blast of pure darkness at her. Hela¡¯s blade lashed out and severed the beam in two. It continued past her and erupted into two identical explosions. Despite being pushed back and injured, Rizevim was surprised to see a genuine grin on Hela''s face. ¡°Now this is more like it! Killing you both wouldn¡¯t be any fun if you couldn¡¯t even fight back!¡± Hela declared before immediately charging at them again. Sirzechs¡¯s missing head fully regenerated. The living mass of sentient destruction held up both arms and began to unleash waves of crimson ruin at the charging goddess. Her momentum didn¡¯t stop as she continued charging, all of Sirzechs¡¯s attacks were either deflected by the goddess¡¯s sword, or she simply tanked them with her body and armor. She once again reached the two of them, this time far more injured and bloody. That didn¡¯t stop her, though, as she quickly lopped off Sirzechs¡¯s head a second time. She didn¡¯t stop there either, her blade lashed out with insane speed and precision, removing all four limbs from the mass of destruction. His limbless torso flopped onto the dissolving ground. ¡°Die!¡± Hela slammed her sword directly through Sirzechs¡¯s torso before it had the chance to regenerate. Her sword was shoved down all the way to the hilt. Rizevim couldn¡¯t help but smirk at the sight in front of him. Watching this bloody goddess cut the false Lucifer to pieces was actually making him hard. Rizevim was a true Devil, and he would have loved nothing more than to pin down this haughty, powerful goddess and claim her for himself then and there! But as much as he would have loved to do that, he was still intelligent enough to recognize a lost cause when he saw one. Sirzechs Lucifer¡ªno, Gremory¡ªdied then and there. The mass of destruction began to break down, along with Hela¡¯s weapon that she¡¯d sacrificed to kill him. Instead of taking the opportunity to attack her when she was unarmed, Rizevim chose to use the moment to escape. It hadn¡¯t just been himself, Loki, and Hades who came to Asgard. He had other hidden agents as well who were breaking the seal while the three of them caused a distraction. He was sure that they had completed their objective by now. ¡°This has been fun, Queen Hela! We will meet again. I hope we can have much more fun together then,¡± Rizevim left those words behind as he departed from the battlefield. ¨CHela¨C Hela was annoyed that the Uru weapon in her hand had been destroyed. It might have only been a ceremonial weapon she had forged for her inauguration ceremony, but she had expected better from a dwarven creation. Had they scammed her...? She would be having words with King Eitri once she returned to Asgard! With a sigh, she stood up and glanced around. The silver-haired descendant of Layla¡¯s evilest brother had fled while she was finishing off Sirzechs Lucifer. ¡°What a disgusting coward,¡± she scoffed. She had also noticed the way Rizevim had looked at her before he fled. The desire in his eyes disgusted her even more. ¡°The next time we meet, I¡¯ll be sure to take his head personally.¡± With that said, she decided to see how Thor... and Thor were faring against their skeletal opponent. Hopefully, they had finished him off already so she could finally meet up with Layla again. XXX chapter 291 chapter 291 Happy Halloween!!! There is a lemon at the start of this chapter. As always, it''s optional to read. Chapter 291: (R-18 Start) I tried to ask Hela what happened once she got back from DxD¡¯s Asgard, but she quickly took hold of my hand and dragged me into a private room without saying anything. Before I could even ask what she wanted, She roughly grabbed me by my upper arms and forcefully shoved me back up against the nearest wall. Her lips immediately latched onto my neck, leaving behind many passionate and hungry kisses. "Ahh...Layla," she purred, her voice thick with lust, "I just got finished with a really annoying fight and now all I want is you. I want you so badly." Her words sent shivers down my spine as she continued to ravage my sensitive neck with her hungry mouth. One of her hands started to roughly grope and play with my left breast over my dress. I could feel my nipples hardening instantly from her touch. At the same time, I felt Hela''s knee push its way up between my legs, rubbing right against my most intimate spot through my panties. "Mmmh...Hela!" I let out a wanton moan, giving in to the pleasure she was giving me. Hela chuckled against my neck before biting down on it. Nipping at the skin playfully. "You like that, don''t you, Layla? I can feel how wet you''re getting for me already." She increased the pressure of her knee, grinding it harder against my sensitive clit. "Yes!" I gasped out, my hands gripping onto her shoulders. Without any warning, she attacked my lips next, her tongue slipping right into my mouth. I could feel my knees growing weak, despite the immense power now flowing through my veins. Hela had a way of making me submit so easily, as if my body was hers to command. I closed my eyes and let her do what she wanted. Her deft hands made quick work of my black dress, yanking it off with supernatural strength. I gasped as I felt something hard and fleshy poking insistently against my lower lips. When I opened my eyes, I realized that Hela had magically shed her own clothes during our passionate kiss. But rather than plunge her magically conjured cock into my eager pussy, Hela instead adjusted her hips and aimed for a different hole entirely. "Hela, that''s the wrong one!" I squeaked in alarm, my eyes widening as realization dawned on me. The Goddess just smirked and kissed my cheek, her eyes swimming with mischief and desire. "Not tonight, it''s not," she purred silkily. Then with a sharp thrust of her hips, she shoved her thick cock deep into my asshole. I let out a shriek of pained pleasure as my body stretched to accommodate the sudden invasion. Anal play was not something we indulged in very often, and I had not been expecting this! "You''re mine, Layla!" she growled possessively. My feet dangled off the ground as she held me effortlessly with her strong arms. Our breasts were pressed together, slick with our sweat as we started to make love. I purred as Hela slowly thrust her thick, hard cock deeper into my tight ass. "It''s so big," I whimpered, my voice quivering with pleasure. Hela smiled wickedly, her hips never stopping their relentless rhythm. "Your ass is even tighter than your perfect pussy," she panted, her breath hot against my ear. "You''re so bad, H¨CHela," I replied with a small stutter. The pleasure was getting to me. "Don''t you know where we are?" I asked her. Hela laughed, and didn¡¯t stop. "Oh, I know alright. Getting your ass fucked in a church of all places is exciting, isn''t it?" She locked her gaze with mine, my cheeks flushed and my moans echoing off the stone walls. This wasn''t just any church! It was the freaking Vatican. We were definitely committing blasphemy right now! Hela kept up the steady, deep thrusts for what felt like an eternity, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my body. In between breathless kisses and love bites, she whispered filthy words in my ear, telling me how good I felt, how much she loved fucking me. As she picked up the pace, I could see Hela''s expression tightening and hear her breathing quickening. Suddenly, her hips stilled and a guttural moan tore from her lips as she threw her head back in ecstasy. I felt her hot cum spilling deep inside me, coating my inner walls and triggering my own explosive orgasm. "I''m cumming too, Hela!" I cried out, not caring if anyone in the nearby rooms heard our wanton cries of bliss. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me as Hela continued to fill me with her essence. She didn''t pull her thick, hard cock out of my well-fucked ass right away. Instead, she decided to lavish my large, bare breasts with her attention first. Her mouth attacked my sensitive nipples with passion and urgency, as if she''d been pent up and needed this release. I figured she must have been in some annoying, draining battle to work up such an appetite. Hela marked me up good, sucking possessive hickeys all over the soft swells of my tits. When she was satisfied, Hela scooped me up, cock still buried deep in my ass, and carried me over to a nearby table. She laid me out on my back and I smirked up at her with pure lust, already knowing what was coming next. This goddess never disappointed. Hela spread my legs wide open, giving her perfect access to my most intimate places. Then she started fucking my ass again, right there on the table. Her huge shaft pumped in and out of my tight hole even faster and harder than before. The second round felt even better than the mind-blowing first. My big tits bounced and jiggled on my chest as I cried out in pure ecstasy. "Fuck yes, I needed this so badly!" Hela moaned, clearly feeling the same intensity of pleasure. One of her hands came up to play with her own nipples as she continued thrusting into me. "Oh god, you''re so fucking sexy, Layla," she panted, slamming her cock deeper. "You feel so good inside me. So hot." I lost myself in the sensation of her huge shaft spreading me open and filling me up. "You''re so good, Hela. I love your cock," I mewled. Hela grinned down at me, biting her lip. "You like when I fuck your tight little ass?" she demanded to know, holding my hips as she pounded me. "Yes!" I cried out immediately, pushing my hips back to meet her thrusts. "Yes, I love it!" "Who owns your ass, Layla?" she asked again, her hands gripping my waist tightly. I could feel how hard and thick she was, getting ready to explode inside me again. When she opened her eyes again, a soft, radiant glow surrounded her, and as I¡¯d suspected, a pair of white, fluffy wings sprouted from her back. Irina let out a joyful squeal and immediately began rubbing her wings with her fingers, pure delight lighting up her face. "They¡¯re so soft!" she exclaimed, her happiness bubbling over. Gabriel clapped her hands in excitement. "Irina, you look beautiful!" Irina blushed again, her gaze briefly meeting Gabriel¡¯s. "Thank you... Gabriel," she whispered, her wings fluttering lightly as she basked in the praise. I turned to the rest of the exorcists, offering them the same opportunity. "If any of you wish to become angels as well, I can grant that to you. The choice is yours." Vasco Strada, the legendary exorcist, stepped forward first. His weathered face bore the marks of a life spent on the battlefield, and his eyes, though aged, still burned with the fire of a warrior. "I appreciate the offer, Lady Layla," he said with a deep, respectful bow. "But I¡¯ve lived my life as the strongest human. I¡¯d like to die as a human, too. That¡¯s the path I¡¯ve chosen." I nodded in understanding. Vasco Strada had earned his title through sheer human determination. To him, staying mortal was a matter of pride. I respected that choice. Griselda, however, seemed more conflicted. She stood there, silent, her expression one of deep contemplation. She glanced at Xenovia. "I want to become an angel," Xenovia declared confidently, looking at me and then at Irina with a soft smile. "I want to stay with my friend. And... being an angel will make my future child more powerful!" Her words surprised Griselda, who raised her brows slightly. "Your future child?" she echoed. Xenovia nodded in determination. "Yes. My future child. Becoming an angel will make them stronger.¡± Griselda looked back at me, a trace of hesitation in her eyes. "I¡¯ve spent my entire life fighting as a human... but if my daughter...and grandchild,¡± she added with a sigh, ¡°is going to walk this path, then I will too. We¡¯ll continue to fight together, as Angels." She turned to Vasco Strada and apologized to him for not wanting to stay human, but he just waved her off. Saying it was completely fine. I smiled. "Alright, let¡¯s do this." I reached out and placed my hands over Griselda¡¯s and Xenovia¡¯s heads. Just as I had with Irina, I let my divine power flow into them, altering their very essences, elevating them to something more than human. As the transformation took hold, a pair of white wings emerged from the backs of mother and daughter. I let out a small breath of relief. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure Xenovia was going to have white wings. The girl was very perverted in Canon after all... But that was after she became a Devil I supposed. Irina flew over to her best friend. "We match now!" she laughed, her wings brushing against Xenovia¡¯s. Xenovia smiled as she tested her wings, stretching them out carefully. "I suppose we do." Now that the matter of transformations had been settled, Michael stepped forward again and gathered everyone¡¯s attention. His expression turned serious as he began giving orders to the gathered exorcists¡ªangel or human, it didn¡¯t matter. Each was assigned a role, and he laid out the strategy for where they would be striking in the underworld. He detailed the areas of focus, the battle lines they would need to hold, and the demonic strongholds they planned to assault. Once the exorcists had received their instructions and dispersed to make preparations, Michael turned to Hela and me. "Hela, are the forces of Asgard ready to join us in this fight? Azazel claims they are ready but I wanted to be sure." Hela gave a small curt nod. "Of course. Asgard stands ready. I will personally lead our forces alongside Thor and Sif on the front lines." I raised an eyebrow at that. "Where has Sif been?" I asked Hela, wondering why I hadn¡¯t seen Sif with Hela when she arrived. Hela smirked slightly. "Sif¡¯s been busy training, she has really gotten a lot more powerful since you last saw her fight. I think you¡¯ll be surprised by the results,¡± Hela told me. I couldn¡¯t help but smile at that. Sif was always the disciplined one. It made sense that she would be training hard, ensuring that she was at her absolute best for the chaos that always seemed to find us wherever we went. ¡°As for Thor...¡± Hela let out a deep sigh. ¡°He¡¯s busy playing with...Thor.¡± She couldn''t have sounded more exasperated by that confusing statement if she tried. ¡°Wait, what?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Hela groaned. ¡°They basically became best friends as soon as they met each other. They then teamed up to beat the Hell out of Hades,¡± Hela said with a small smirk. She knew what she did there... ¨CRizevim¨C Rizevim Livan Lucifer returned to his hidden mansion deep within the chaotic expanse of the Dimensional Gap, his expression twisted with a mix of frustration and cruel satisfaction. The events in Asgard had not gone according to plan¡ªHades had been lost, claimed by the relentless fury of not one, but two Thors. Rizevim¡¯s lip curled in disdain at the thought, but his mind quickly shifted to the grander scheme at play. As much as he hated losing an ally like Hades, it was a small setback in the face of his true goal. His plans to unleash Trihexa, the apocalyptic beast, were nearing fruition. The hidden seals that kept the beast imprisoned were being dismantled one by one by his loyal followers scattered across the world. Soon, all of the seals would be broken, and Khaos would reign! He let out a low, sinister chuckle as he strode through the dark corridors of his mansion. As he entered a dimly lit chamber, his gaze drifted toward the large, fortified cage nestled in the corner of the room. A cruel smile crept across his face as he approached. Inside the cage sat his secret weapon¡ªhis ultimate trump card in the chaos of the coming war. He couldn¡¯t allow the Devil¡¯s to lose too easily after all, since they were down to a single Maou that couldn''t even attack. Inside the cage was Vali Lucifer. The boy sat quietly in the cage, his silver hair falling over his eyes. His once sharp and defiant gaze was dull and lifeless, a far cry from the White Dragon Emperor who had once threatened Rizevim¡¯s plans. The disgusting blood of a human coursed through Vali¡¯s veins was something Rizevim couldn¡¯t tolerate. But Rizevim had taken care of that. Years ago, when Vali had been much younger and weaker, Rizevim had broken him¡ªmind, body, and spirit. Slowly, meticulously, he had shattered every shred of the boy¡¯s will, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind. Vali, the once-proud White Dragon Emperor, was no longer a threat. He had become nothing more than a tool, a bomb waiting to be unleashed. Rizevim¡¯s fingers lightly tapped the bars of the cage as he stared at his creation, his smile widening. He had conditioned Vali¡¯s mind to trigger the Juggernaut Drive whenever Rizevim wished. He could unleash the White Dragon¡¯s rampage at a moment¡¯s notice, turning Vali into a living weapon of mass destruction. "How far you¡¯ve fallen, my dear descendant," Rizevim muttered mockingly, his eyes gleaming with malice. "But don¡¯t worry, soon enough, you¡¯ll be useful again. Amidst the chaos, you¡¯ll burn everything. You¡¯ll be the perfect distraction while I sneak into heaven and undo the final seal. And then, Khaos will reign!" Vali didn¡¯t respond. He never did. His mind was too far gone... XXX chapter 292 chapter 292 Chapter 292: The gathering of a large army of alien Vikings, along with tens of thousands of fallen Angels, outside the Vatican didn¡¯t exactly go unnoticed. Michael and Gabriel hovered above the city, their wings spread wide, trying to keep the humans of Rome from panicking. I walked through the ranks of soldiers, making sure everyone was ready for the upcoming battle in the Underworld, offering quick healing to anyone who needed it. ¡°Excuse me! Can you please answer some questions!?¡± A woman¡¯s voice called out from the nearby streets. Crowds of thousands of curious onlookers were being held back by hundreds of Vatican agents and exorcists, creating a barrier between them and the army. I turned toward the sound and saw a reporter looking directly at me. My 16 black wings manifested behind my back as I floated over to her. Her eyes widened, and she swallowed nervously. The nearby crowd fell completely silent, all eyes locked on me. ¡°Hello... You¡¯re the Angel who helped save New York City, aren¡¯t you?¡± she asked nervously. I gave a slight nod. ¡°Yep. That was me. My name is Layla...¡± I introduced myself. The reporter shifted her weight nervously and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why are there so many men and women in old-fashioned armor and carrying swords outside the Vatican? And why... Why are there so many Angels here?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smirk a little. ¡°You¡¯re asking why there are a lot of Angels outside the Vatican?¡± I teased her. Her cheeks flushed, and she fumbled with her notepad. ¡°I-I mean, it¡¯s not something we see every day...¡± I suppose she had a point there. I chuckled softly, then waved a hand toward the army. ¡°We¡¯re preparing for a battle in the Underworld. It¡¯s nothing for the people of Rome to worry about. The soldiers in armor are our allies from Asgard, they''ve graciously come to offer their aid in these trying times.¡± I explained. The reporter blinked, clearly trying to process everything I had just said. ¡°The Underworld? You mean Hell?¡± ¡°Kind of...¡± I said while tilting my head. ¡°The underworld isn''t exactly Hell though since it''s where Devils live...not damned human souls.¡± The reporter hesitantly nodded at me, clearly overwhelmed by my words and probably not exactly understanding.. I could tell she wasn¡¯t exactly a devout person before all of this chaos unfolded around the world. "You said the armored soldiers are from Asgard?" she asked curiously, as the cameraman behind her started filming the ranks of warriors. I gave a small smile. "Yes, but probably not the Asgard you''re thinking of. Their Asgard is in another solar system. So technically, they¡¯re aliens." "Aliens!?" She stared at me, eyes wide in disbelief. "Why are aliens here? How long have they been on our world!?" I shrugged casually, still hovering in the air with my wings occasionally gently flapping behind me. "They¡¯ve been here for quite some time, if we¡¯re going by human years¡ªeasily over 1,000. As for why they¡¯re here... Hela, the current Queen of Asgard, happens to be my betrothed. Our daughter is going to be the next Queen." The reporter blinked at me, even more confused now. "Queen? But... how do two women have a daughter together?" I grinned at her. "Magic..." I said simply, keeping my answer vague on purpose. Her face had a look of confusion, before her cheeks heated up and turned scarlet as she probably came to her own conclusions. ¡°How scandalous...¡± she mumbled to herself while lowering the mic. I didn¡¯t answer any more questions and flew back towards our forces, gliding smoothly through the air until I found a spot near the front of the legions. As I landed, I found myself right next to Sif. The beautiful blonde goddess greeted me with a warm smile, and I took her hand in mine, leaning in to kiss her cheek. ¡°Hela mentioned you¡¯ve gotten a lot stronger,¡± I said softly. Sif blushed and nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been training intensely these past two years,¡± she admitted. ¡°It¡¯s been frustrating, being the goddess of war and always having to leave the big battles to everyone else. It should¡¯ve been my responsibility.¡± I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. ¡°You¡¯ll get your chance, Sif. You¡¯ve already proven yourself many times over.¡± She smiled at me, though I could still see a flicker of frustration in her eyes. Before I could say more, Michael and Gabriel appeared overhead, hovering above our combined forces, their majestic wings glowing with divine light. Michael raised his voice, his powerful words echoing across the battlefield. ¡°The Devils have always pushed the boundaries of what''s acceptable, but they''ve gone too far this time! They have brought too much death and suffering to this world! Three of the Maous are dead, and the Underworld is at its weakest. It¡¯s time to purge the Devils from Father¡¯s creation!¡± Serafall wasn''t actually dead yet, but it was better for morale that people thought she was... [I''m sure that won¡¯t come back to bite someone in the future...] A thunderous cheer erupted from the army. Soldiers pounded their fists against their shields, and the Asgardians raised their swords in the air, ready for battle. Azazel activated multiple magic circles beneath our feet. In an instant, the entire army was transported to the middle of the Underworld. The sudden shift was momentarily jarring, but everyone was immediately on alert, weapons drawn, ready for the fight. I scanned the dark barren landscape for our enemies. The Devils knew we were coming¡ªthere was no way they wouldn¡¯t. I suspected the Vatican still had a few traitorous human spies in its ranks, despite Gabriel¡¯s best efforts to root them out. [Sure enough, you''re right.] I let out a low whistle as I glanced up. Hundreds¡ªno, thousands¡ªof long-range magical attacks were streaking through the air, aimed directly at our army. The Devil Allegiance had been waiting, hoping to ambush us the moment we arrived. ¡°Shields up!¡± Michael¡¯s voice boomed across the battlefield. In perfect unison, hundreds of Angels and thousands of Fallen Angels raised their hands, conjuring massive light barriers. Fireballs, icicles, and all manner of demonic magic slammed against the shields, but they splashed off harmlessly, dissolving into nothing. When my brothers and sisters lowered their hands, we finally got a clear view of the enemy forces, gathered about a kilometer away. We had chosen this massive open plain in the Underworld for the final battle. There was nowhere for the Devils to hide, no more surprises waiting for us. Their ambush had failed, and now, it was time for the Great War to come to an end. As I stared at the Devil Army, a grimace crossed my face. My heart tightened as I spotted familiar faces among the ranks¡ªdoppelgangers of people I had grown to care about. My eyes locked on Cecilia Sitri, leading her forces in place of her missing daughter, Serafall. Near her, I saw Rias Gremory standing beside her parents. In another life, Rias probably would have thanked me for getting rid of Riser for her, but now, all I could see in her eyes was hatred as she gazed at us. ¡°Damn it!¡± I cursed, diving down at full speed. In an instant, I summoned my Susanoo. A gigantic purple Angel was suddenly towering above the battlefield, its wings spread wide as it blanketed the false sky. The breath attack slammed into my Susanoo, the force of it shaking everything around us. The purple construct held strong, its massive form tanking the blast head-on. I hovered inside my Angelic Susanoo, staring down the massive silver dragonoid in front of me. Vali Lucifer¡ªfinally, after all this time. We¡¯d never officially met, but I knew all about him from my past life. I¡¯d always wondered where he¡¯d been, and why he hadn¡¯t shown up until now? ¡°Vali!¡± I shouted, trying to get his attention. ¡°Why are you attacking everyone?¡± Since he was technically only a half-Devil, we should be able to spare him if he comes to his senses and stops attacking. Wasn''t he supposed to hate the Devil race anyway after what they did to his mother? I got no response. The silver dragonoid¡¯s glowing red eyes just locked onto me with a single-minded purpose. It flapped its wings lunged, trying to rip apart my Susanoo with claws and teeth. It was almost like I was fighting a rabid beast. It wasn''t even trying to Divide my power. Was there any consciousness inside there at all? ¡°Roooooooaaaaaar!¡± The silver dragon¡¯s roar pretty much answered that question. Vali had completely lost control of his Juggernaut Drive. Looks like we were doing this the hard way then. I was going to rip apart those scales and yank his body out to find out what happened to make him like this! Subduing a giant rage dragon without killing it was way more tedious than I expected. Vali''s metal teeth and claws kept trying to rip me apart, but my Susanoo¡¯s hands were locked tight around the Juggernaut Drive¡¯s neck. I pulled back my arm and slammed the dragon into a nearby mountain. The rocks shattered instantly, crumbling to dust under the impact. That just seemed to piss Vali off even more. Out of the dust cloud, the dragon¡¯s tail whipped forward and slapped my Susanoo right across the face. I stumbled back a couple of steps, gritting my teeth in annoyance. ¡°Now listen here, you little shit,¡± I snapped, clicking my tongue in frustration. ¡°I was trying to be nice, but now you¡¯ve asked for it.¡± Without missing a beat, I grabbed the dragonoid by its tail, wrapping my Susanoo¡¯s massive hands around it. ¡°Let¡¯s see how you like this!¡± I shouted, spinning him around like a windmill. The dragon shrieked as I swung it faster and faster, the force building up with every turn. ¡°Hang on tight, Vali!¡± I yelled, grinning a little despite myself. After a few rotations, I released him, sending the dragon flying straight up toward the false sky of the Underworld. Vali shot upward, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The illusionary sky above us flickered and winked out as he crashed into the ceiling of the Underworld with crushing force. A dragon-shaped hole appeared in the Earth''s crust. I let out a breath, shaking my head. ¡°You¡¯re really making this difficult, Vali.¡± I hovered in place, watching as the dust and debris began to settle. ¡°You better stay down after that one,¡± I muttered, half-expecting him to get up again. Sure enough, there was movement¡ªVali wasn¡¯t done yet. The dragon let out another roar, this time filled with frustration and pain, as it tried to free itself from the Earth''s crust that it was embedded in. ¡°Unbelievable,¡± I sighed, rubbing my forehead. ¡°You just don¡¯t know when to quit, do you?¡± I crossed my arms in front of me again, bracing for another of Vali¡¯s darkness breath attacks. This one was even more powerful than before. My Susanoo wasn¡¯t enhanced with cosmic energy, and I winced as cracks began to form in the construct. If that attack had hit the ground below, it would¡¯ve wiped out hundreds of my people. ¡°Fuck it,¡± I muttered, frowning. I was done holding back. Whether Vali survived or not, I¡¯d leave that up to fate. Launching myself upward toward the ceiling, I reached him just as he finished pulling his massive body out of the bedrock. Without hesitating, I grabbed the top and bottom of the dragonoid¡¯s jaws. ¡°Sorry about this, kid...¡± I muttered under my breath before yanking my hands apart, tearing the dragon¡¯s head in two. There was no blood, just a sickening crack, but the machine-like dragonoid let out one final shriek of agony before its entire body began crumbling to pieces. As it collapsed, I noticed a small, human-shaped figure falling from the debris. I darted forward and caught him, my Susanoo¡¯s hand gently cradling his fragile form. When I opened my Susanoo¡¯s hand, I finally got a good look at Vali. ¡°Oh...¡± I whispered, taken aback by the state he was in. He was nothing like I expected. Skinny, malnourished¡ªa Devil shouldn¡¯t look like this. But that wasn¡¯t the worst of it. His body was covered in scars and bruises, the kind that spoke of years of torture. My heart clenched at the sight. ¡°I should heal him,¡± I thought instinctively, but then I hesitated. After everything he¡¯d been through, I wasn¡¯t even sure if he was still sane. ¡°He might not be,¡± the system in my mind commented dryly. With a deep breath, I let my Susanoo fade away and grabbed Vali with my real hands. He wasn¡¯t waking up anytime soon, and his chest was rising and falling very weakly. I couldn¡¯t leave him like this either. I opened a portal back to my penthouse on Earth Marvel and stepped through. On the other side, I found Artemis sitting with Hestia and Frigga. They looked up as I entered. Artemis smiled warmly at me. ¡°Hi, Layla. What¡¯s wrong?¡± Without a word, I showed them Vali¡¯s scarred and battered body. Frigga gasped, horror written across her face as she rushed over to take him from me. ¡°What have they done to him?¡± she whispered, cradling him as though he were her own child. I sighed, feeling a weight lift from my shoulders now that he was in her care. ¡°Can you watch over him? He¡¯s... been through a lot.¡± Frigga nodded, her motherly instincts kicking in. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll take care of him.¡± I gave them a small, grateful smile. ¡°Thank you. The battle¡¯s almost over. I¡¯ll be home soon.¡± ¡°Good luck, Layla,¡± Artemis said gently, her eyes filled with understanding as I closed the portal behind me. I turned and flew back down toward the battlefield. It was over. The opposing forces had been wiped out. As I descended, I forced myself not to look too closely at any of the familiar faces among the bodies scattered below. Once I landed, I immediately started searching for Gabriel, Michael, and Azazel. I needed to know what they had planned for next. For some reason, Michael was heavily frowning when I caught up with them. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Michael?¡± ¡°While you were busy subduing the White Dragon Emperor, I sensed a powerful Devil sneaking into Father¡¯s throne room in Heaven...¡± XXX chapter 293 chapter 293 Chapter 293: ¨C Layla ¨C It didn¡¯t take long for Azazel to speculate on who had broken into Heaven while we were all distracted during the final battle. He crossed his arms and huffed. ¡°It had to be Rizevim,¡± he pointed out. I scowled. ¡°Hela fought both him and Sirzechs at the same time yesterday,¡± I said, my voice edged with frustration. ¡°The red-haired Lucifer is dead¡ªshe made sure to kill him personally¡ªbut according to Hela, the silver-haired one got away practically unscathed while gloating at her. She also mentioned something about 666...¡± I trailed off uneasily. Gabriel and Michael both gasped at the same time, their wings fluttering nervously behind them. ¡°I wish you would have mentioned something about that sooner, Layla,¡± Azazel muttered, shaking his head. I tilted my head, trying to piece together what was unfolding with the information we had. ¡°So, he really is trying to release Tri¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that monster¡¯s name!¡± Azazel snapped, cutting me off with a sharp glare. His eyes bore into mine, more serious than I¡¯d ever seen them. ¡°Names have power, especially when they¡¯re spoken by beings as powerful as us. If that silver-haired asshole has really been going around weakening the seals, someone like you even whispering its name could speed up its release.¡± I clamped my mouth shut and nodded, my lips pressing together in silent apology. We all turned to Michael. He was the one who knew the most about the Heavenly system, especially since he¡¯d inherited God¡¯s position when his wings had turned golden. If anyone could give us some clarity, it would be him. But instead, Michael sighed and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my brother and sisters,¡± he began regretfully. ¡°But I don¡¯t know anything about the seals beyond the fact that Father placed them all over the world. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if one of them was up in Heaven.¡± I ran a hand through my black hair, my fingers tangling in the strands as I exhaled slowly. ¡°Well, at least now we know what Rizevim was doing in Heaven,¡± I said, trying to keep my tone calm even though my frustration was building. ¡°We¡¯re lucky Heaven didn¡¯t have any angels stationed inside. They¡¯re all busy fighting in the war or defending human territories. If there had been any angels here, Rizevim would¡¯ve slaughtered them¡ªhappily.¡± The thought made my stomach twist. His cruelty knew no limits, just look what he had done to his own grandson Vali. That was pretty obvious now since the heavily abused White dragon emperor had been thrown at us as nothing more than some kind of distraction. Gabriel spoke up. ¡°We have to find him before he succeeds in releasing the beast!¡± [I don''t know why they''re all so worried. That monster was still sealed away by your father in the end and he only had Seven wings at the time...] The system made a fair point, and I brought up its words to Michael, Gabriel, and Azazel. ¡°I bet I can take it,¡± I said confidently. Gabriel and Michael exchanged unsure glances, before Azazel shook his head and shot down the possibility of me fighting that creature. "That''s not going to work, Layla," Azazel said. "With eight wings, you''ve easily surpassed any power the old man had behind him, but there¡¯s something you¡¯re severely lacking." I raised an eyebrow. "And what''s that?" "Time," he said simply. "He had thousands, no, millions of years to learn how to fully harness all of his powers. You¡¯ve barely scratched the surface of your own." I could tell he wasn¡¯t trying to be cruel, but his words hit like a hammer to the chest. I hated feeling like I wasn¡¯t enough, especially after everything we¡¯d been through. I opened my mouth to argue. "I still have two Infinity Stones¡ªthe Mind Stone and the Power Stone." Azazel¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. He shook his head. "Even then, I¡¯m not sure that will be enough," he said, turning toward Gabriel and Michael. They had matching blank expressions, clearly uncertain themselves. "You all might¡¯ve forgotten this little detail, but that monster was spawned from all of humanity¡¯s darkness. The hatred and cruelty hidden deep within every human heart." I frowned, feeling a knot tighten in my stomach as I absorbed his words. Azazel continued. "When Father perished sealing that thing away, the human population was only 300 million. Now, on Earth DxD alone, it¡¯s 8 billion. And if the worlds merge again after the seals break, that number will double to 16 billion." He paused, letting the weight of his words settle over us. "You can do the math on how much more darkness that monster will be able to harness." [I did the math for you, it''s going to be over 50 times more powerful!] Ok, this thing¡¯s probably going to be even more powerful than Arishem was, but 50 times more powerful wasn''t that bad. That''s how much the Power Stone ended up boosting me anyway. I felt like my siblings were still underestimating me, not out of spite, but out of protectiveness. "We¡¯ll table the beast for now," I said, feeling the weight of the conversation hanging in the air. "Let¡¯s focus on cleaning up the underworld first." Gabriel¡¯s eyes lit up immediately. "I want to lead the forces! Let me wipe out the devil cities and population centers!" Her eagerness was almost unsettling. My beautiful sister, the kindest Seraphim of them all, always managed to surprise me with how bloodthirsty she could become when it came to dealing with devils... "Of course you do," I said with a faint smile, shaking my head. Michael gave us both a nod. "I¡¯ll head back up to Heaven. I need to assess the damage Rizevim¡¯s caused.¡± ...No doubt the devil trashed the place out of spite, but who knows what else he might¡¯ve accomplished while we were down here? Heaven¡¯s probably a mess, which is kind of an odd concept to think about. Azazel chimed in, "Before Gabriel goes all ¡®divine wrath¡¯ on the Devil Capital, I want to investigate Ajuka Beelzebub¡¯s lab." [He wants to plunder another scientist''s lab for leftover goodies...] I had my own plans as well, but before I left, I made my way over to Hela and Sif. Flying over the battlefield, I spotted them, both of their armors still splattered with devil blood. They were busy chatting together with actual smiles. It caught me off guard how well they seemed to be getting along. This was clearly a new development over the past two years. When they noticed me, both of their faces lit up. "Hey there, you two," I called out, landing beside them. "Did you enjoy the battle?" Before I could say anything else, Hela grabbed me and yanked me toward her, pressing her lips firmly against mine in a passionate kiss. I let out a muffled squeak into her mouth, completely caught off guard. When she finally pulled back, licking her lips with a wicked grin, she murmured, "The battle was most wonderful, my love." I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks as I smiled back. Turning toward Sif, I noticed her face had reddened as well. "And you, Sif? How was the battle? Do you need any healing?" I asked her. Hela gave Sif a playful nudge, her grin widening. Before I could even ask what that was about, Sif stepped forward, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me close, mimicking Hela¡¯s earlier move. Her lips found mine, but this kiss was much gentler, catching me off guard in a completely different way. Sif had always been the shy one when it came to displays of public affection. Her sudden boldness took me by surprise! A few nearby Asgardian soldiers let out loud wolf whistles, clearly entertained by the display. The soldiers, however, quickly went silent when the Queen of Asgard glared at them and said, "The next one who whistles gets latrine duty for a month!" The men immediately straightened up with pale faces. "I think you scared them, Hela," I said with a laugh. But the real prize? The convergence wasn¡¯t just about merging the two worlds¡ªit was his golden opportunity. "Once those worlds come together," Rizevim murmured, his grin widening, "I¡¯ll be able to break the final seal." The thought sent a thrill through him. Trihexa¡ªthe beast that even the gods feared. It had been sealed away for so long, but soon, he would set it free. The convergence would rip open the barriers between realities, and once that happened, the seal would shatter like glass. A world already teeming with chaos would be the perfect playground for Trihexa. "Let them have their little moments of hope. It¡¯ll make their despair all the sweeter when they realize what¡¯s really coming." He chuckled to himself. "And I¡¯ll be there to watch it all burn... Or rather, we¡¯ll be there won¡¯t we Serafall...¡± She glared at him. Serafall Leviathan was sitting in the chair next to him, and she was a little bit tied up at the moment. Demonic sealing chains were wrapped around her body and there was a gag in her mouth. She had been ranting and raving about the destruction of her race for hours now and it was getting annoying. Rizevim didn¡¯t care if the Devil race was destroyed. He could just make a new one anytime he wanted, especially now that he had the most powerful female Devil all to himself. She could bear the honor of being the Lilith to his Lucifer... ¨C Layla ¨C As the cameras finally shut off and the studio lights dimmed, Yasaka came over with a warm smile. "You two did a great job," she said. ¡°People tuned in from all over the world, and I¡¯m sure your announcement will be replayed on TV for years to come. I gave her a faint smile in return. "Thanks, but I¡¯m drained now...¡± Yasaka didn¡¯t miss a beat. She wrapped me in a tight hug, her tails brushing against my back in a comforting gesture. "You¡¯ve been through so much. You should go home, Layla. Spend time with your family. I¡¯m going to be spending the rest of the day with Kunou myself.¡± I opened a portal back to my penthouse on Earth Marvel. Stepping through, the familiar hum of the big City outside greeted me, but a glance at the window told me it was well past midnight. I quietly walked down the hall to the nursery. The cribs were gone now, replaced with three tiny, adorable beds, each one perfectly suited for the little girls who slept in them. I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I looked at Hilga, Sia, and Lia, their peaceful sleeping faces. For a moment, the chaos and bloodshed of the past two days melted away. I¡¯d fought battles, made hard choices, and willingly stood by as my siblings committed genocide on Earth DxD, but looking at my daughters now, I was thankful they would grow up in a less violent world because of those choices. And that made it worth it. I didn¡¯t want to wake them. Instead, I conjured up a couple of pillows using the Creation of All Things, laying them down on the floor beside their beds. As I closed my eyes, listening to the soft, steady breathing of my girls, the mental exhaustion finally took over. Before I knew it, I drifted off to sleep next to them. [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Sixteen Winged Angel, High Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 122] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 1,245,000] [MP: 1,412,000] [Faith Energy: 545,687,566] [Vigor: 124,500] [Strength: 61,455] [Intelligence: 141,200] [Luck: 28,025] [Available Free Stat Points: 17000] [Perks and Skills:] -High Goddess of Angels (100x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Acting (Max: You are a master of the craft when you want to be.) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random stat points after every ¡°session.¡±) XXX chapter 294 chapter 294 Chapter 294: ¨C Layla ¨C The morning sun filtered through the curtains, and I stirred awake on the soft pillow bed I had made on the floor. A small smile crept onto my lips as I realized my three daughters¡ªHilga, Sia, and Lia¡ªhad woken up and all snuggled up against me sometime during the night. I gently brushed a few strands of hair from their faces, leaning in to wake them softly. "Girls," I whispered. "Time to get up." Hilga was the first to stir, blinking groggily as she stretched. Sia and Lia followed, rubbing their sleepy eyes and yawning. "Mommy," Sia asked. "Is everything okay now? Is the fighting over?" I smiled warmly, stroking Sia''s dark hair. "Yes, sweetheart, it¡¯s all over. Everything¡¯s okay now." As I looked at them, I couldn¡¯t help but marvel at how much they¡¯d grown. Sia and Lia were starting to look more like their other mothers¡ªSia a near mirror image of Sona, and Lia resembling Rias more with each passing day. Even their expressions were the same. Hilga, on the other hand, had started to take after me more than Hela, though her nose and eyes were still unmistakably Hela¡¯s. The door to the nursery creaked open, and Natasha strolled in. ¡°I see you¡¯re all finally awake.¡± The moment the girls saw her, they perked up. "Aunty Nat!" Natasha chuckled and made her way over to them. "Good morning, girls," she greeted them, ruffling Hilga¡¯s hair before turning to me. "Hestia¡¯s finished making breakfast. Come on, girls." Hilga jumped up with a giggle. "I have to pee first!" she announced loudly, darting off toward the bathroom. Sia and Lia burst into giggles and chased after her. Natasha sighed, shaking her head with an amused smile. "Hilga¡¯s definitely getting her crassness from Hela," she said, crossing her arms as she watched them disappear into the bathroom. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh softly, nodding in agreement. "No denying that," I said. "But I wouldn¡¯t change a thing." A small sigh escaped me. Natasha noticed right away, of course. She always did. "You okay?" she asked, settling down beside me on the pillows. "Yeah," I replied, though I knew she could hear the regret in my voice. "I just... I missed the potty training years, you know?." I chuckled softly, rubbing my temple. "Although, I¡¯m kind of thankful. Changing poopy diapers wasn¡¯t something I looked forward to. I used to have my Shadow clones handle most of that." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "You had your clones do the dirty work? Don¡¯t you get all those memories anyway?" ¡°Yeah, but at least I didn¡¯t end up getting peed or pooped on.¡± She laughed. "Smart move. And your girls were all mischievous little troublemakers during that time, I''d say you dodged a bullet." We sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Natasha¡¯s tone shifted slightly. "Speaking of dodging bullets... catch me up on what¡¯s been going on in Earth DxD the past few days. I need the full story." I gave her a curious look. "I thought you weren¡¯t working with S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore?" Natasha leaned her head on my shoulder. "I¡¯m not in the field anymore, no. But I¡¯m still technically a consultant. Fury¡¯s paranoid, as usual. He wants to know exactly what kind of chaos he¡¯s walking into in a week. So... how bad was it?" I sighed heavily, feeling the weight of the past weeks settle on my shoulders. "It¡¯s been rough. Some countries were absolutely ravaged by the devils, while others barely felt the effects.¡± ¡°That''s not all though, right?¡± Natasha asked. I continued to explain. ¡°Before I came back here last night, we made a global announcement from Japan explaining that the two worlds¡ªEarth DxD and this one¡ªare going to merge soon. We figured it would be better to give all the people a heads up and not let global panic ensue." Natasha raised her head off of my shoulder and nodded thoughtfully. "We¡¯ll have to make that same announcement over here, too. You know that, right?" I groaned, rubbing my face with both hands. "I¡¯ve given so many impromptu speeches lately, I¡¯m exhausted. But yeah, I know it¡¯s going to fall on me again." Dropping my hands, I glanced over at her, my voice betraying the fatigue I felt. "I just hope people are ready for it. There¡¯s going to be a lot of confusion and panic." "Andrea is supposed to stop by in the next few hours," Natasha mentioned casually. "They¡¯re going to start distributing the formula across Earth Marvel. My guess is they¡¯ll want to do the same over on Earth DxD soon." I shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. "She and Tony don¡¯t need my permission for that. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m the queen of Earth or something." Natasha shot me a pointed stare, raising an eyebrow. "No? You¡¯re not?" I pouted, crossing my arms defensively. "I¡¯m not!" Natasha smirked, as if she knew something that I didn''t, before leaning in slightly. "Whatever you say, Layla. It¡¯s not like you could take over the planet anytime you wanted and no government could stop you. They¡¯re all very aware of that fact, by the way." Just then, the sound of giggles echoed down the hallway as the three girls came rushing back into the room, their faces glowing with excitement. "Breakfast time!" Hilga shouted, nearly tripping over her own feet in her eagerness. Sia and Lia followed close behind, grinning from ear to ear. I stood up, shaking my head with a fond smile. "Let¡¯s go see what Hestia¡¯s whipped up for us." Natasha gave a mock salute. "Lead the way, Queen Layla." Rolling my eyes, I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at her teasing as I followed my daughters toward the kitchen. Sitting at the breakfast table, I watched my girls eagerly dig into the stack of chocolate chip pancakes Hestia had made. "Mommy! Look!" Hilga exclaimed with her mouth half-full, waving a fork loaded with pancakes. "Chocolate chips! Hestia made our favorite!" I smiled warmly at her, my heart melting at the sight. "I see that, sweetheart. You¡¯re all so lucky." Natasha sat beside me, sipping her coffee and casually scanning the room. I couldn¡¯t help but notice something was off. "Where are Frigga and Hestia?" I asked, frowning slightly. It wasn¡¯t like them to miss a meal, especially one with the girls. Natasha set down her cup and shrugged. "They¡¯ve been spending time with the half-devil you dropped on them. You know how they both are when it comes to family." I frowned. I hadn¡¯t given him much thought since I dropped him off. "How¡¯s he doing?" "Not great," Natasha admitted, her voice dropping lower. "Whatever was done to him was... borderline horrific. He¡¯s messed up, Layla. It¡¯s going to take a long, long time to heal him. Asia¡¯s been able to fix his physical injuries, but those mental scars? Twilight Healing can¡¯t touch those." I nodded, feeling a tight knot of guilt form in my chest. I wasn¡¯t equipped to handle that kind of trauma either. What if there was no healing him? What if his mind was too far gone? A drastic idea crossed my mind, one I hadn¡¯t considered until now. "If he can¡¯t recover..." I started cautiously, "... we might need to erase his mind. Start over from scratch, make him a child again, and let him relive his entire childhood with a better family." "Let¡¯s go see the dolphins next!" Lia was practically bouncing on her toes. "Good idea," I said, standing back up. "Let¡¯s go see some dolphins." ¡°...¡± ...Sia pressed her little hands against the glass and complained softly, "The dolphins look sad, Mommy." Lia, standing next to her, nodded. "Yeah, they¡¯re not swimming." Hilga crossed her arms with a frown. "The tank¡¯s too small. They don¡¯t have room to swim." She stomped up to the glass, they just floated there in the water and staring listlessly at the walls. Hilga then did something that made me blink and do a double take. She started making dolphin noises. Very accurate dolphin noises that seemed to get the attention of the creatures in the tank. ¡°Wait... is that Allspeak?¡± I asked, turning to Andrea in surprise. Andrea held up her hands, looking just as surprised. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me. I might have the body of an Asgardian now, but I didn¡¯t get the ability to speak every single language in the universe.¡± The dolphins swam toward Hilga, responding in their own series of clicks and whistles. My three-year-old was talking to the dolphins. I watched them, fascinated. ¡°I think Hela mentioned something once about the true Allspeak... only the gods of Asgard can speak to animals, plants, sentients... basically anything.¡± Sia and Lia were starting to look a little jealous that Hilga was the only one talking to the dolphins. I placed a hand on each of their heads and smiled softly. ¡°Just wait until Hilga¡¯s done chatting with her new friends. I''m sure she¡¯s discussing very important things... like whatever depressed dolphins talk about.¡± A few minutes later, Hilga turned back to us, her big eyes wide with that irresistible puppy dog look. ¡°Mommy,¡± she started, her voice soft and pleading, ¡°can we please rescue the dolphins? They hate it here.¡± I sighed, knowing what was coming next. Andrea crouched down to Hilga¡¯s level. ¡°Sweetie, we can¡¯t just steal the dolphins. They belong to the aquarium.¡± Hilga shook her head. ¡°But they want to go back to the ocean, where their families are! They told me they used to live there before they got captured.¡± I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, Sia and Lia tugged on my shirt, giving me the same hopeful puppy dog eyes. And then, next to me, Natasha was trying¡ªand failing¡ªnot to laugh. I sighed again, realizing I was trapped. ¡°You know,¡± I muttered under my breath, ¡°I¡¯ve done worse things than stealing a bunch of illegally acquired dolphins.¡± Andrea snickered. ¡°You¡¯re going to spoil them, you know that, right?¡± I rubbed my temples, crouching down so I could look all three of my daughters in the eyes. ¡°Listen, if we rescue the dolphins, we¡¯re probably never going to be allowed back here. You understand that, right?¡± Lia didn¡¯t seem bothered at all, bobbing her head. ¡°That¡¯s okay. Other than the stingrays, the rest of the fish were boring. All they do is swim in circles.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what fish do, sweetie,¡± Andrea said with a chuckle. Natasha had fully given in by now, laughing loudly at the situation, while I just shook my head. ¡°Alright,¡± I relented and stood back up. [Grand Theft Dolphin!] The girls cheered, jumping up and down with excitement. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation myself now. The dolphins floated in their tank, glancing at me expectantly. I raised my hand, focusing on some basic telekinesis, and one by one, I gently lifted each dolphin out of the tank. They squeaked and clicked in surprise but seemed to calm as Hilga spoke to them some more. With my other hand, I opened a portal to an empty beach in Florida. If I was committing a felony, it was definitely not going to be in the same state. Besides, the waters outside Manhattan were kind of gross. Florida¡¯s warm, clear ocean seemed like a much better option. Hilga, Sia, and Lia all cheered as the dolphins were carefully deposited into the open ocean. The dolphins quickly swam off. The girls were already kicking off their shoes and running toward the ocean, playing in the shallow water and occasionally flying above it with their wings. Natasha followed behind them, keeping a close eye on the girls since none of them knew how to swim yet just in case. Meanwhile, I stood there on the shore with hands on my hips, shaking my head. ¡°I guess this turned into a beach day all of a sudden,¡± I said. Andrea smiled. ¡°I mean, why not? Who doesn¡¯t love an impromptu beach day?¡± Andrea grinned at me. ¡°You know what?¡± she said mischievously. ¡°You should do your announcement video in a bikini.¡± I shot her a look. ¡°You want me to deliver the most important news of humanity¡¯s lifetime... from the beach, wearing a skimpy bikini?¡± She wiggled her eyebrows. ¡°Absolutely. It will be sure to go viral immediately. I bet 70% of the world will click on it if only so they can stare at your chest.¡± I rolled my eyes as Andrea pulled out her Stark phone, already hyped up about filming. ¡°Come on, Layla, let¡¯s do it! It¡¯ll be hilarious! If you get it over with now, you won''t have to do it later.¡± [She makes a fair point.] I mulled it over for a second, fighting the grin pulling at my lips. It would be pretty funny. I remembered how serious and formal Amaterasu and I had been in our announcement video back on Earth DxD. We were straight to the point, completely serious as we tried to prepare people for what was coming. This would be a stark contrast. Eh, Screw it... ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do it,¡± I said, pulling a black bikini out of my inventory. The beach was empty so I didn''t mind changing there in the open. I slipped my clothes off and put on the bikini. [Historians will watch this hundreds of years from now and be very confused...] Andrea grinned and held her phone up. ¡°The lighting is absolutely perfect right now. Florida beaches are great for filming.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± I muttered under my breath, letting out one last sigh. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± As Andrea hit record on her phone, I stepped into frame, with the waves softly crashing in the background. ¡°Citizens of Earth Marvel, I¡¯m Layla of the Fallen, and I have some very important news to share with you all...¡± ¨C Nick Fury ¨C ¡°Duh fuck is this shit...?¡± Nick Fury grumbled to himself as he watched the video of Layla telling the people of the world that they were about to merge with an entire separate Earth. ¨CTony Stark ¨C Damn, she looks hot in a bikini.¡± Tony said with a whistle. ¡°This video seems pretty important... I wonder if I should watch it in the bathroom¨COw!¡± he flinched as his wife, Pepper, smacked him upside the head. ¨C Carol Danvers ¨C She¡¯d spent the last two years settling the endless conflicts in space, and finally made it back to Earth. She was in the process of getting reacquainted with life on Earth when the new phone she¡¯d just purchased dinged with a notification. She watched the video of the beautiful woman she hadn''t seen in two years with a smile on her face. ¡°You know, I think I recognize that particular beach,¡± Carol said to herself. XXX A bit of a calmer chapter... chapter 295 chapter 295 Chapter 295: The waves lapped against the shore as I watched my three little angels¡ªHilga, Sia, and Lia¡ªlaugh and squeal, attempting to master the art of body surfing. Their tiny arms flailed against the waves as they threw themselves forward, tumbling into the foamy surf, only to pop up giggling. Natasha and Andrea were nearby, teaching them how to get that perfect balance, while I hovered above the water, my 16 black wings spread wide, catching the sunlight. It felt like a perfect day. [Incoming.] A sudden tingling ran down my spine, there was a familiar energy approaching fast. I turned, just in time to see Carol Danvers flying through the sky, stopping inches from me with a grin as brilliant as the sun. We exchanged smiles, and she let her gaze linger over me, taking in my risque beach outfit. "You look really good in a bikini, Layla," she teased, eyes roving over me with obvious appreciation. Her eyes lingered on my breasts and thighs the longest. "I''ll never turn down Flattery from a pretty lady," I chuckled, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "When did you get back to Earth?" I asked her. "Only a few days ago," she said casually. "I spent the past two years in space¡ªkeeping the galaxy safe, keeping tabs on the biggest Empires and the Celestials especially." Her gaze shifted to my wings, then back to me. "Looks like you¡¯ve added a few feathers since I last saw you. And your little ones... they¡¯re adorable." I felt my smile falter for a second, a pang of sadness breaking through. "Yeah," I replied quietly, glancing down at Hilga, Sia, and Lia, splashing around, blissfully unaware. "I was... trapped in a black hole for two years. Missed so much of their lives. I¡¯m just trying to make up for it now, you know?" Carol¡¯s eyes softened, and without a word, she closed the space between us, wrapping her arms around me in a warm, reassuring hug. Maybe the hug lingered a bit longer than it should have, but neither of us seemed to mind. "Momma!" Lia¡¯s voice called up to us, and I pulled back, looking down to see three pairs of little hands waving up at me. "Come play with us!" they all shouted. Carol glanced down at the water while chuckling. "I really should¡¯ve brought a bathing suit since I knew you were at the beach." I smirked. "That¡¯s not a problem. I¡¯ve got you covered." Using Creation of All Things, I easily created a bikini that matched my own, except hers was pure white. ¡°Now we match!¡± [And now you get to ogle her wearing a bikini just as skimpy as yours...] Carol raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "You know my size?" She took the bikini with a grin, and since the beach was mostly deserted, she didn¡¯t hesitate to shed her uniform right there in mid-air. As she changed, I couldn¡¯t help but steal a few glances at her own bare breasts and hairless lower lips. Carol was a lot bolder than I remembered her. [If she¡¯s been doing nothing but fighting in space for two years, then she¡¯s down bad...] Once Carol was dressed in her bikini, she floated back to me, a sly smile playing on her lips. We drifted down to the water, laughing and splashing as we joined Natasha, Andrea, and the girls. Hilga, Sia, and Lia immediately latched onto us, their laughter and squeals filling the air. The waves surged around us as we all played, with Carol and me helping the girls float on their tiny surfboards. Natasha and Andrea laughed as they held the girls¡¯ hands, while Carol relaxed in a way I hadn¡¯t seen before, fully joining in the fun. After a while, Carol floated closer to me, her expression suddenly turning serious. ¡°You know, one of the main reasons I¡¯m back on Earth is because of the Convergence,¡± she said, keeping her voice low. ¡°It¡¯s drawing all sorts of energy, and some worlds might try to invade during it.¡± I chuckled, shaking my head. ¡°I don¡¯t doubt it,¡± I replied, more amused than concerned. ¡°The Dark Elves are bound to make a move. They¡¯ve probably been itching for revenge on Odin¡ªthough they don¡¯t know he¡¯s dead.¡± Carol raised an eyebrow, intrigued. ¡°And if they do, what do you think will happen?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll learn the hard way,¡± I said confidently. ¡°Under Hela¡¯s rule, Asgard is stronger than ever. And that¡¯s not counting my fallen angel siblings, who are stationed there now. If the Dark Elves try anything, it¡¯ll be their funeral.¡± Carol chuckled, and we spent the next few hours basking in the simple joys of sunshine, sand, and surf. Eventually, though, the girls started to get tired and hungry. I scooped Lia up, kissing her cheek. ¡°How about we all get some dinner? Are there any good seafood places nearby?¡± I asked Andrea. Andrea pulled out her phone. ¡°Let¡¯s see... Jarvis, can you find us a nearby restaurant?¡± ¡°Certainly, Ms. Andrea,¡± Jarvis¡¯s familiar voice chimed from the speaker. A second later, Andrea smiled. ¡°There¡¯s a fish restaurant with amazing reviews just down the beach a few miles.¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± I said, and with a wave of my hand, I opened a purple portal right in front of us. One by one, we stepped through, landing on a lively beach near the restaurant. Unlike the quiet stretch we¡¯d just left, this beach was crowded with families, couples, and groups of friends, all frozen mid-movement as we appeared. I laughed, giving a small wave to the crowd while leading the girls toward the entrance, knowing my face was one of the most recognized on the planet. Inside, the hostesses and waitstaff stopped dead, openly staring as we entered. Andrea took the lead, striding up to the hostess with her usual calm. ¡°Could we rent the restaurant for the next hour? We¡¯ll pay triple your daily revenue.¡± One of the managers stepped forward, eyes practically shining with greed. ¡°Absolutely, ma¡¯am! Right this way.¡± We were led to the largest booth. The girls'' faces all lit up in excitement as they were handed kids menus and crayons that they could use to color them with. Carol leaned back, watching the kids happily scribble on their papers. ¡°Playing on the beach, a meal at a restaurant... This is a lot more mundane than I was expecting another day with you would be.¡± Natasha laughed, slipping her hand into mine. ¡°What, you expected nonstop galaxy-saving action?¡± ¡°Shit!¡± I muttered, my mind racing. I kept my tone steady. ¡°We¡¯ll find her, Akeno, don¡¯t worry. Hang tight, and stay safe.¡± I hung up, meeting Carol¡¯s and Natasha¡¯s concerned stares. ¡°Phoenix has been taken. Magneto must¡¯ve ambushed her¡ªprobably while she was heading to class or something.¡± Natasha¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°I¡¯m surprised someone as powerful as Jean could be taken that easily.¡± ¡°Normally, I would be too,¡± I replied, running a hand through my hair in frustration, ¡°but she¡¯s used to hearing the thoughts of everyone around her. With that helmet, Magneto could¡¯ve walked right up to her. Hell, he might have injected her with something remotely. Jean¡¯s got a lot of power, but when she isn¡¯t channeling the Phoenix Force, she¡¯s not invincible.¡± Before I could catch my breath, my phone buzzed again. It was Andrea. ¡°Are you guys alright?¡± she asked, sounding both worried and ready for action. ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± I exhaled, laying it out quickly. ¡°I¡¯m going to send five shadow clones around the planet with my cosmic Susanoo. It¡¯s our best shot to contain all these damn meteors. I¡¯ll need Jarvis to find the best positions for the clones.¡± ¡°On it,¡± Andrea replied without missing a beat. A moment later, Jarvis¡¯s smooth voice came through, already calculating. ¡°The optimal points for planetary coverage are as follows...¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± I said, committing the locations to memory. Andrea kept rolling. ¡°Do you want Tony and me to jump in?¡± ¡°Yes, be ready,¡± I replied, glancing at Carol and Natasha. ¡°I have a feeling Magneto¡¯s got a backup plan. After protecting the planet, I¡¯ll be drained, so if he tries anything else, it¡¯s on you guys to stop him.¡± The next call was just as expected, it was Fury, and he was livid. ¡°You¡¯ve got some nerve, putting me on hold, Layla!¡± ¡°Well, Nick, the entire planet¡¯s on the line. I have to prioritize,¡± I snapped, filling him in on the plan¡ªonly for him to cut me off with bad news. ¡°That bastard didn¡¯t just grab Phoenix,¡± Fury growled. ¡°We have reports that some of the strongest mutants on the planet went missing this morning. All at the same damn time!¡± ¡°Great,¡± I muttered. Natasha spoke up. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re dealing with possible mind control,¡± she noted, tension obvious in her voice. We all knew just how dangerous a mind-controlled Jean could be. She was a planet killer...literally, that was her job. I grimaced, realizing that after creating the planetary shield, I¡¯d be tapped out. Facing Jean¡ªor any of the other missing mutants¡ªafter would be very difficult. ¡°Layla, you still have the Mind Stone, don¡¯t you?¡± Natasha asked suddenly. Her unspoken plan was obvious, she wanted to use the stone in the event that Jean and the other mutants really were under mind control. ¡°I do,¡± I admitted, ¡°but I don¡¯t trust anyone else to use it right. The only person who¡¯s ever managed it correctly was...¡± I trailed off as a wild idea hit me. Reckless, insane even, but it might work. I grinned, meeting Natasha and Carol¡¯s eyes. ¡°I think we¡¯re going to need to break someone out of Asgardian prison real quick.¡± Carol raised an eyebrow, and Natasha¡¯s lips twitched in a knowing smirk. ¡°Let me guess. The one person crazy enough to wield the Mind Stone to its fullest potential?¡± ¡°Yep. Time to pay Loki a visit...¡± [I''m sure he won''t try to stab you in the back...] I couldn¡¯t argue with the system¡¯s warning about Loki¡ªhe was risky, no doubt. But I had the perfect solution for keeping him in check: sicking his own mother on him. I knew for a fact that Loki still loved Frigga deeply, no matter how much he despised Odin. If anything, he probably loved her more than in canon, especially since she despised Odin right back. Before we left, I went to Frigga¡¯s room to fill her in and get her on board. I found her there, sitting beside Vali, who was fast asleep in her bed. Vali had his own problems that would need dealing with after this, but for now, Loki was our priority. Frigga looked up at me as I approached. ¡°What brings you here, Layla?¡± she asked. I took a breath, knowing this was kind of a bold plan. ¡°I need your help, Frigga. I¡¯m planning to break Loki out of Asgardian prison...¡± I explained what was going on. She let out a deep sigh, clearly weighing the risks. ¡°You¡¯d be entrusting him with the Mind Stone,¡± she murmured, her voice laced with concern. But I could see the understanding in her eyes¡ªshe knew we were out of options since Magneto only gave us an hour before he was going to start dropping the asteroids in orbit and they became genuine meteors of pure destruction. ¡°I know, it¡¯s a huge risk,¡± I admitted, ¡°but you know Loki. He¡¯s too clever to get caught up in anyone else¡¯s schemes. And if anyone can keep him from backstabbing us, it¡¯s you.¡± Frigga rose from Vali¡¯s bedside, her stance calm yet resolute. ¡°Very well,¡± she said, a hint of that maternal fierceness in her eyes. ¡°I shall accompany you and make sure that Loki doesn¡¯t betray you... And if he tries to, well, sometimes a mother has to give their unruly child a proper spanking.¡± XXX chapter 296 chapter 296 Chapter 296: ¨C Layla ¨C Frigga and I stepped out of a purple portal and arrived in Asgard. I deposited us near the palace, which was where the most secure prisons were kept. Some of the prisoners were so powerful that only the royal family had any hopes of stopping them in the event they escaped. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry,¡± I urged Frigga to pick up the pace. ¡°We¡¯re on a clock, and it¡¯s ticking down fast.¡± She somehow offered a serene smile even while rushing. ¡°I am moving as fast as I can, my dear. But tell me, Layla, if Magneto is so dangerous, why not simply... eliminate him?¡± Her tone was matter-of-fact, though she was clearly curious. ¡°You have the power. You could blast him out of existence before he even realizes it...¡± [She makes a fair point.] It was nice that she had so much faith in my power, but I was still shaking my head. ¡°I thought about that. But a guy like Magneto... he¡¯d have fallback plans. No way he¡¯d sit back for two years without preparing for me of all people. Who knows? He might¡¯ve stashed nukes around the planet for insurance. No, better to play by his rules, for now. Keeps things under control.¡± [You make a fair point as well.] Frigga tilted her head thoughtfully as we continued down the golden corridor. ¡°Tis sound thinking, I suppose. Though, if anyone were to outwit Magneto, it would be my son.¡± She gave me a pointed look. ¡°Loki¡¯s the master of trickery, he might help us uncover what this Magneto is hiding.¡± We reached the entrance to the underground prison where the two Asgardians guarding it immediately stepped aside at the sight of their princess and the previous queen. The sight of two beautiful women like ourselves drew jeers and lecherous looks from the majority of the prisoners as we passed cell after cell. We both kept our heads high and ignored all the cat-calling until we reached Loki¡¯s cell.. ¡°Well, well, well.¡± Loki stepped forward towards the enchanted glass, his sharp gaze flicking between us. ¡°If it isn¡¯t Mother and the fallen angel who ruined everything!¡± His eyes narrowed on me with a glint of disdain. Clearly, he wasn¡¯t thrilled about my presence. I let out a scoff, crossing my arms. ¡°I wasn¡¯t even involved in your capture. Or your dumb ass plan to conquer Midgard in my absence.¡± Loki sneered. ¡°Oh, believe me, I noticed. You probably thought you were too good for me, and sent your lackeys instead.¡± I was actually a bit relieved that''s what he thought happened. The villains were less likely to make any overt moves had they thought i was just taking a temporary backseat instead of having completely disappeared. [Of course, that didn''t stop Magneto...] Loki continued to stare at me hatefully, and I just glared right back at him. Frigga¡¯s sigh broke the tension between everyone. ¡°Can¡¯t I simply visit my son?¡± ¡°Of course, Mother. You are always welcome. But a visit with the Fallen Angel feared even by the Celestials?¡± He glanced my way. ¡°This is no friendly reunion, I think.¡± I raised a brow. ¡°Really? The Celestials fear me?¡± Loki rolled his eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t flatter yourself. I might have slightly misspoke. Rumor has it that they are simply very cautious of coming anywhere near your perceived territory ever since Arishem disappeared after his confrontation with you.¡± I grinned, unable to hide my satisfaction. ¡°Good to know.¡± I took a breath and decided to cut through the niceties. I told Loki what was happening on Midgard and that we were on a short time frame. Loki¡¯s brows arched in interest, and he began tapping his fingers against the glass. ¡°Sounds like quite the vexing and perilous situation you have on your hands, but I fail to see how any of it is my problem.¡± Beside me, Frigga sighed softly. ¡°Loki, how long did Hela sentence you for, again?¡± Loki¡¯s posture slumped slightly and he frowned. ¡°...She was delightfully vague,¡± he replied dryly. ¡°Something about remaining here until the last mortal I harmed in my invasion dies of old age. So... another hundred years or so, I¡¯d guess.¡± He paused. ¡°Give or take a decade.¡± ¡°Then how about an early parole? Help us with this, and we¡¯ll see about getting you out sooner.¡± I offered. That certainly got his attention, ¡°Go on... What¡¯s the catch?¡± ¡°I may have left out the detail that Magneto¡¯s got the Avatar of the Phoenix Force¡ªand a few other extremely powerful mutants¡ªunder his control.¡± I muttered the last part quickly, hoping it would slide past without too much fuss. Loki turned as pale as I¡¯d ever seen him. ¡°The Phoenix?¡± he choked. ¡°Are you out of your mind? You think I¡¯m going to fight the Phoenix? I¡¯m a god, not a lunatic! I wouldn¡¯t stand a chance!¡± Frigga and I both nodded without hesitation. Loki¡¯s mouth fell open, his offended gaze darting between me and Frigga. ¡°No counter-argument? No ¡®Oh, Loki, you¡¯re so powerful, you¡¯d be fine?¡¯¡± ¡°Come on, son. We all know you were never the most gifted when it came to raw combat,¡± Frigga told him. We started up the recording at double playback speed. I was talking over it to fill Loki in on everything I knew about Magneto as he watched. He listened intently, seemingly at ease with focusing on two things at once. When the video finally clicked off, he gave a thoughtful nod, pausing just a moment longer. I glanced nervously at the clock¡ªonly thirty minutes left. Then, with a snap of his fingers, Loki straightened up and looked triumphant. ¡°I have figured it out,¡± he announced dramatically. ¡°This is all a ruse by another mastermind!¡± We all blinked, glancing at each other before back at him. ¡°Would you care to elaborate, Loki?¡± Frigga asked, her eyebrow arched. With a slight smirk, Loki explained, ¡°Magneto is not the true mastermind here. I could see it in the micro-movements and the subtle hesitations. He believes most of what he¡¯s saying, yes, but not all of it.¡± His gaze flicked between us smugly. ¡°This entire attack is staged. I suspected mind control, and now I¡¯m certain. Your Magneto is also under someone else¡¯s influence!¡± he declared. I mulled over his theory. It made sense... probably? I hadn¡¯t noticed anything off about Magneto¡¯s speech, even after watching it twice, but I wasn¡¯t the god of lies and mischief. I chose to take Loki¡¯s word for it, even if I felt a little out of my depth. ¡°If Magneto¡¯s not the one behind this, then who is?¡± I asked, hoping for a solid lead. Loki scoffed, as though offended at the very question. ¡°I¡¯m a God, not a miracle worker,¡± he said with a dismissive wave. ¡°I¡¯ve uncovered the most important detail, figure the rest out yourself.¡± Well, that was rude. I bit my tongue, keeping my thoughts to myself. Loki was genuinely helping, and we all needed to play nice if we wanted to see this through. I supposed that whether or not Magneto was mind-controlled didn¡¯t really make a huge difference anyway. Not when I¡¯d still have to fight him either way. ¡°All right,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye out for the mastermind when I head up to space.¡± ¨C Magneto ¨C Magneto cursed silently, trapped within his own body, unable to move a single muscle of his own free will or even reach for his powers. It was a terrifying, helpless feeling¡ªone he hadn''t experienced in years. He had always known Charles was a powerful mutant, a force capable of immense control when he chose to be. That was why, even after decades of friendship, he¡¯d never once taken off his helmet around him. Unfortunately, the helmet he wore now was a fake, swapped out in his sleep by Mystique, the one person he trusted enough to have by his side even in the quiet, vulnerable hours of the night. He realized too late that while he had always ensured his own mind was protected, he¡¯d never extended that security to those he relied on most. The price of that oversight was clear now, as he stood frozen in his own lair, controlled by his oldest friend against his will. Magneto¡¯s fortress¡ªhis sanctuary¡ªwas located far above Earth, carved out from a massive asteroid in orbit. It was the ultimate hidden base, painstakingly hollowed out by his own hands and powers. Here, he and the Brotherhood were untouchable by any human government. At least, that was the belief, and perhaps it was that sense of invulnerability that had made them careless. Now, in his moment of vulnerability, Charles sat nearby in his wheelchair, unmoving. His friend¡¯s face was just as blank as his own, but there were moments when Magneto could see something flicker in Charles¡¯s eyes¡ªsmall flashes of agony, like the memories of a terrible nightmare playing on repeat. Whatever power held them both captive seemed determined to torment Charles with his worst fears. A smug, heavy presence loomed in the room, drawing Magneto''s attention to the throne that he himself had crafted. A large man sat there, completely at ease, his mouth twisted in a satisfied smile that bordered on arrogance. He wore dark, imposing armor that seemed Asgardian in origin, the metallic patterns and sharp edges unmistakable. He had long black hair that flowed down his back, and a large mustache that practically screamed ¡°supervillain¡±... As much as Magneto wanted to confront the intruder, his body remained stubbornly locked under Charles¡¯s influence, unable to resist. It infuriated him. The man in Asgardian armor seemed all too aware of Magneto¡¯s helplessness, his smile widening as he leaned back, tapping his armored fingers on the armrest. ¡°Do you think she¡¯ll get here soon?¡± the Asgardian man asked, his gaze fixed on Magneto, a cruel smile twisting his lips. Of course, Erik couldn¡¯t respond. The Asgardian tapped his finger on the throne¡¯s armrest, and suddenly, Charles gasped in his wheelchair, his expression one of pure horror as he turned his head and cried out. ¡°No more! Please, no more!¡± Charles¡¯s voice was choked, desperate. He was begging, begging this man to stop whatever torment he was inflicting. Magneto had never seen his old friend so close to breaking¡ªnot even on that beach when he¡¯d lost the use of his legs. ¡°Silence, you crippled fool, or I¡¯ll make the nightmares worse,¡± the Asgardian snapped, his voice dripping with disdain. He turned to Charles with a commanding look. ¡°Allow Magneto to speak and move, but keep his powers suppressed.¡± Relief washed over Magneto as he felt control of his body return. He flexed his fingers, stretching each muscle, savoring the movement, then straightened and fixed the Asgardian with a searing glare. ¡°Who are you?¡± he demanded, his voice sharp. ¡°And why take control of Charles and the other mutants?¡± The intruder chuckled, the sound low and condescending. ¡°Because they are useful,¡± he replied smoothly, almost bored. ¡°Besides, I thought it might give my enemies pause to see their own friends turned against them.¡± He paused, a flicker of disgust crossing his face. ¡°It sickens me how sniveling and weak the Nine Realms have become in my absence. They¡¯ve forgotten true fear. They¡¯ve forgotten the terror I used to bring under my father¡¯s command.¡± Magneto narrowed his eyes, demanding once again, ¡°Who are you?¡± The Asgardian leaned back, his voice swelling with dark pride. ¡°I am the God of Fear, Cul Borson. Odin¡¯s brother,¡± he declared. ¡°The rightful ruler of the Nine Realms now that my dear brother has passed from this world...¡± Magneto raised an eyebrow, a sardonic smile tugging at his mouth. ¡°Pretty sure Odin¡¯s daughter, Hela, has already taken over.¡± And, reluctantly, he had to admit she¡¯s done more good than bad. Cul¡¯s face twisted in offense, a furious growl rumbling from him. ¡°A weak woman could never rule the Nine Realms!¡± he spat. ¡°Nor could either of Odin¡¯s sons, for bowing to a woman. No, it is time for a true god to reclaim the throne. A god of terror!¡± Magneto let out a scoff, crossing his arms defiantly. ¡°So, you¡¯ll just be the latest villain for Layla to trample when she gets here.¡± He shrugged with a mockery of indifference. Once upon a time, he¡¯d thought about fighting Layla himself, but eventually, he¡¯d seen the extent of her influence and power. Fighting her would only end one way for him. So, he¡¯d made the practical choice to avoid her wrath and work around her instead. Cul¡¯s laughter rang out at Magneto¡¯s words. ¡°You think I will lose to her? That might be your reality,¡± he sneered. ¡°But it¡¯s not mine.¡± Cul lifted his right hand, and in his palm, a glowing red stone manifested, radiating with a sinister energy that sent a chill down Erik¡¯s spine. Slowly, the stone dissolved, its power seeping into Cul¡¯s body, a dark aura pulsing around him as he absorbed it. Magneto couldn¡¯t help the shudder that ran through him. ¡°No, my Reality will be much different!¡± XXX chapter 297 chapter 297 Chapter 297: ¨C Layla ¨C I shot up into the upper atmosphere, the wind blasting against me as I left Earth¡¯s clouds behind and soared straight toward the coordinates Magneto had sent. The higher I got, the more I could see the soft curve of the planet below. But I kept my eyes forward, aimed at that dot in space where he was supposedly hiding. The dot grew, and then it clicked¡ªthat wasn¡¯t just any rock. No, it was a massive asteroid, covered in metallic plating. I slowed a little, taking in the sight. So this is where Magneto had been hiding out all this time. Figures he''d pick a damn asteroid fortress to stay off the radar. Villains and their secret lairs... The second I got close, two massive doors creaked and groaned as they opened up, slowly parting just for me. Guess I was expected. As soon as I passed through the doors, they closed with a heavy clang behind me, sealing me in. I looked around, tense and ready to throw up a shield or blast my way out. But then, I froze, staring in disbelief at what was in front of me. Instead of a cold, dark chamber, I was standing on a wide expanse of grassy plains. I mean actual grass, stretching out for miles under a bright sun hanging in a blue sky that should not exist. A cool breeze hit my face, lifting strands of my hair and giving me goosebumps. It felt like the real deal, down to all the details, including smell. ¡°Duh... fuck?¡± The words slipped out before I could even think. My brain struggled to make sense of it. This scenery shouldn¡¯t have been possible, his asteroid wasn¡¯t that big from the outside. I took a few hesitant steps forward, half-expecting the ground to disappear beneath me like some hologram or a cruel trick. But the grass bent under my heels, and it felt real under my fingers when I crouched down to touch it. ¡°What kind of ridiculous sci-fi shit is this?¡± I muttered to myself. Then, off in the distance, I spotted something that made my jaw drop even further¡ªa city. It was huge, sprawling across the plains, with towering structures made of massive slabs of stone stacked into buildings. ¡°Welcome, Layla, wife of Odin¡¯s spawn, to the original Asgard,¡± a man¡¯s voice echoed across the plains... ¨C Akeno ¨C Akeno stood on the rooftop of Layla¡¯s penthouse. It had been over two years since she¡¯d actually lived here, but she still made the trip regularly to keep in touch with her family. Asia floated nearby, her four pristine, angelic wings spread out, glowing faintly in the evening light. She was trying to comfort Akeno, but Akeno wasn¡¯t in the mood for any sugar coated reassurance. ¡°Everything¡¯s going to be okay, Akeno,¡± Asia murmured gently, a hopeful smile on her face. Akeno clenched her fists, resisting the urge to snap back. How could everything be okay? Both of her lovers, Ororo and Jean, were missing. Gone. Taken by that old bastard Magneto¡ªor whoever was pulling his strings, if Loki¡¯s theory about mind control was on point. ¡°I hate mind control,¡± John¡ªaka the Doom Slayer¡ªgrumbled from nearby, arms crossed and looking as lethal as ever. ¡°I¡¯m not good at... not killing my enemies.¡± His voice had this edge, like he¡¯d rather punch something than try to talk it out. ¡°That¡¯s not true,¡± Asia countered sweetly, smiling at him with that sunshine radiance she had. ¡°You¡¯re always amazing at protecting me.¡± She floated closer to him, her wings fluttering, and John shifted awkwardly, the ever-tough bodyguard looking like he didn¡¯t quite know what to do with himself under her gaze. Over the past two years, John had gone from Asia¡¯s unofficial protector to her actual bodyguard. Akeno watched the exchange with a raised eyebrow, fighting the urge to smirk. She¡¯d bet good money that John was head over heels for her sweet, oblivious sister-cousin. Not that Asia had noticed, of course. No, the poor girl was as clueless as they came. Akeno could hardly believe it. She guessed Asia had a thing for big, brooding types with a penchant for slaughter. Not that Akeno had time to dwell on that right now. She was too focused on Magneto and his bullshit. Layla had left about ten minutes ago to deal with some other crisis, but she¡¯d left Natasha in charge. Natasha now strolled up to them, hips swaying with that predatory confidence that always made her look like she was ready to drop into a fight at any second. ¡°Layla left ten minutes ago,¡± Natasha said, her voice low but carrying an edge. ¡°If something¡¯s going to happen, it¡¯ll happen soon. It¡¯s been way too quiet.¡± Akeno¡¯s blood stirred, her anger flaring up again as she unfurled her ten black wings in a powerful, intimidating display. She didn¡¯t care about the quiet or the risks. She wanted Jean and Ororo back, and she didn¡¯t care what kind of mess she¡¯d have to wade through to make that happen. ¡°Hmph,¡± she scoffed, letting her ten wings stretch to their full span. ¡°If it means getting Jean and Ororo back, I¡¯ll take on anything.¡± ¡°Your confidence is inspiring, little crow,¡± Loki drawled. ¡°But it looks like you¡¯re about to put it to the test.¡± Akeno barely spared him a glance, her attention already fixed on the sky. The sky above New York was ablaze in an unnatural orange glow, as if the sun had decided to set the city on fire. Her stomach dropped as she spotted the source¡ªmassive wings of flame and an all-too-familiar silhouette. ¡°Jean...¡± she whispered, the name barely escaping her lips. A bead of sweat slipped down her cheek. ¡°Yeah... that¡¯s not good,¡± Loki said bluntly. Without a second thought, Akeno launched herself into the air, ignoring the shouts and protests from the others below. She didn¡¯t have time to wait. In the skies over the city, she flew straight toward her lover. The closer she got, the hotter it felt, her skin prickling with the sheer intensity radiating from the massive phoenix construct that was surrounding Jean . She paused, wings hovering as she faced the enormous, blazing construct. "Jean!¡± she called desperately. ¡°Jean, it¡¯s me! Snap out of it!" The giant bird¡¯s head turned, and Jean¡¯s voice echoed from within, but it was wrong¡ª, devoid of the warmth Akeno knew so well. ¡°Submit, Akeno Himejima,¡± the voice droned. ¡°You will surrender yourself as an offering to be used as a hostage against Layla... for our new master.¡± Akeno¡¯s stomach twisted. ¡°What master? Jean, who¡¯s controlling you?¡± But Jean¡ªor whatever twisted force was pulling her strings¡ªdidn¡¯t answer. The phoenix¡¯s massive beak opened, and a wave of cosmic flames surged forward. Akeno¡¯s eyes widened, and she flapped her ten black wings frantically, throwing herself out of the way just in time to avoid the inferno. Her heart pounded as the flames scorched the air beside her, so close she could feel the singe in her feathers. She darted away, barely evading the fiery onslaught as the phoenix screamed and surged after her. The heat clawed at her, each flap of her wings more desperate than the last as she wove between skyscrapers, the bird¡¯s flames licking at her heels. ¡°Jean!¡± she screamed, hoping against hope that some part of her lover was still in there, still fighting. ¡°Come on! You¡¯re stronger than this!¡± But all she got in response was another wave of cosmic fire, larger and hotter than the last. ¨C Loki ¨C Loki sighed, watching Akeno dodge and weave through the sky, her ten black wings beating frantically to keep her just ahead of Jean¡¯s fire. The blazing phoenix let out another screech, hurling streams of cosmic flames that Akeno barely escaped by diving out of the way. ¡°She should¡¯ve listened to me,¡± he muttered, shaking his head. ¡°Did I not tell her to wait?¡± Beside him, Natasha let out a frustrated huff. Her red hair whipped around as six black wings sprouted from her back, ready to launch herself into the fray. ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Loki warned, sounding almost bored. ¡°She¡¯s in trouble, yes, but charging is just going to get her distracted and incinerated faster. At least for now she¡¯s holding off the most troublesome enemy...¡± Natasha clenched her fists, unwilling to watch Akeno fend off someone like Jean Grey on her own. ¡°You¡¯re telling me we should just stand here while that giant bird fries her? That¡¯s Layla¡¯s niece!¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Loki replied smoothly, waving a dismissive hand. ¡°You¡¯d only be in the way against a creature like the phoenix. And one that¡¯s under mind control, no less.¡± He raised a brow, considering. ¡°I didn¡¯t think such a being could even be controlled... unless...¡± He glanced down at the glittering Mind Stone resting in his palm, turning it thoughtfully. His eyes narrowed, the gears in his mind already spinning. ¡°Of course,¡± he murmured, half to himself. ¡°Our enemy must have one of these little gems as well... and it¡¯s the most troublesome one of all.¡± Natasha¡¯s gaze darted from Akeno¡¯s harrowing fight back to Loki. ¡°Which one?¡± She¡¯d heard of these artifacts from Layla and knew some were worse than others. The Soul Stone, for instance¡ªLayla had explained that it demanded the ultimate sacrifice to use, the life and soul of someone you loved. ¡°Are you going to use the stone or not?¡± Natasha barked, soaring overhead with six dark, feathered wings beating around her. She was busy with the lightning woman and some other guy who looked like he could shoot laser beams out of his face. ¡°I¡¯m working on it!¡± Loki snapped, twisting out of the way just as the mutant slashed another clawed hand at his head. ¡°Tis a little hard to focus on the Mind Stone when this beast keeps trying to turn me into mincemeat!¡± And he wasn¡¯t exaggerating. He was already feeling a few cuts piling up, each one stinging worse than the last. Whatever those claws were made of, they could slice through his Asgardian armor like it was paper. Not to mention they looked razor-sharp enough to make excellent daggers... if he could steal them somehow after all this... Meanwhile, the blonde Angel¡ªAsia, was it?¡ªhad dashed into the penthouse to hide behind the wards. Probably a smart move, but she was also the healer so that was a bit annoying. The ¡°green armored man,¡± as Loki liked to call him, was preoccupied in his own brawl, wrestling with another mutant who seemed to be made entirely out of steel. ¡°Alright, alright, let¡¯s try this,¡± Loki muttered to himself, reaching for the Mind Stone tucked safely in his pocket. But the instant he reached for it, the clawed mutant lunged again, making Loki stagger back with a curse. ¨C Natasha ¨C Natasha whipped out a flash grenade, tossing it between Cyclops and Storm. The blast was bright as hell, blinding both mutants and giving her a crucial few seconds. She didn¡¯t waste them, instantly conjuring a spear of pure light in her hand. With a sharp, practiced throw, she sent it hurtling straight at Wolverine, piercing his back and severing his spine. The clawed menace hit the ground with a thud. ¡°Now, Loki! Before he starts healing!¡± she shouted, watching Loki fumble with the Mind Stone like he was handling a hot potato. Loki finally got it together, yanking the stone from his pocket and pressing it to Wolverine¡¯s forehead. The stone flared, and the light shimmered as Wolverine¡¯s eyes went unfocused. The feral look in his gaze cleared as the mind control released its hold. Wolverine blinked, looking as confused as a deer in headlights. ¡°How the hell did I get here? And why can¡¯t I move?¡± His eyes shifted down to the light spear sticking out of his torso. With a gruff snarl, he gripped it and yanked it out, tossing it aside with a grimace. Natasha rolled her eyes and barked, ¡°Quick update, bub! Your team¡¯s under mind control. Help us knock some sense back into them, or we¡¯re all screwed.¡± She glanced over at Loki, who was already eyeing the rest of the mutants like he¡¯d rather be anywhere else. Wolverine scowled but gave a quick, sharp nod. ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s get these clowns back in line.¡± He cracked his neck, the healing already kicking in as he got to his feet. ¨C Carol Danvers ¨C Carol had secretly tailed Layla all the way up to that metal-covered asteroid in space. She wouldn¡¯t admit it out loud, but she just wanted to make sure Layla got there okay. Once she saw Layla disappear inside, Carol shot back down through the atmosphere, her body slicing through the air as she reentered Earth¡¯s atmosphere toward New York. She¡¯d only been gone maybe ten minutes, but by the time she touched down in the city, it was pure chaos. Everything had gone to hell in record time. Carol scanned the skies, spotting Jean¡ªyes, that Jean, the Phoenix Avatar¡ªflying around like a fiery goddess from hell, hurling massive fireballs at... what was her name? Akeno? Yeah, she was pretty sure Layla had mentioned her. Akeno looked a lot like Layla, minus the wings and maybe a bit less firepower, but she seemed to be holding her own as she dodged Jean¡¯s flaming onslaught. Carol darted in between one of Jean¡¯s fireballs and Akeno, swatting it away like a beach ball. ¡°Hi there! I¡¯m Carol,¡± she called out with a smirk. ¡°Looks like you could use a hand?¡± Akeno scoffed, her gaze sharp. ¡°Where the hell have you been this whole time?¡± Carol bit back a snappy retort, deciding it was better not to admit she¡¯d been babysitting from space. Instead, she gave a quick nod and said, ¡°Well, I¡¯m here now, so let¡¯s deal with Big Bird over there.¡± Before Akeno could snap back, Carol charged straight toward the blazing phoenix construct surrounding Jean. She could tell right away Jean wasn¡¯t tapping into her full Phoenix powers; if she were, New York would already be a smoldering crater. Carol figured that meant Jean was either fighting the mind control or whoever was pulling the strings didn¡¯t want her going full nuclear. Either way, it was a sliver of hope. Carol shot blasts of her own, meeting fiery strikes from the Phoenix head-on, the two clashing mid-air with waves of energy bursting out in all directions. The heat was intense, but Carol pushed through, absorbing as much of it as she could. Finally, she saw her opening. Carol rocketed straight into the Phoenix construct¡¯s open mouth and barreled straight into Jean, grabbing her by the shoulders and dragging her right out of the flaming beak. The second they broke free, Jean¡¯s eyes snapped open, glowing bright, searing orange. Carol barely had time to register the change before a powerful force slammed into her mind, burning and relentless. ¡°Ah¡ªdammit, Jean, it¡¯s me!¡± Carol gritted out, struggling against the mental attack. Right then, she heard Akeno¡¯s voice from above. ¡°Sorry, Jean!¡± With her ten black wings unfurled, Akeno swooped in, her hand cocked back, and clocked Jean right on the back of the head. Jean¡¯s eyes flickered, her mind assault easing as she slumped in Carol¡¯s grasp, knocked out cold. Carol let out a sigh, her grip loosening a bit as she steadied them both in the air. ¡°Nice timing,¡± she muttered, shooting Akeno a grateful look. Carol sweatdropped a bit when Akeno ignored her and grabbed Jean from her arms swooping down towards Loki and Natasha. ¨C Loki ¨C With Natasha and the ¡°green armored man,¡± who she called the Doom Slayer, by his side, Loki finally managed to use the Mind Stone to free Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, and Colossus from the mind control. Each one blinked in confusion as the haze cleared from their eyes, looking around like they¡¯d just woken up from a bad dream. Storm sat up, scowling as she looked down at her bright yellow uniform. ¡°Oh, for the love of¡ªseriously?¡± She tugged at the fabric, clearly disgusted. ¡°I left the X-Men ages ago. Why am I back in this awful costume?¡± None of them seemed to remember what had happened, which Loki counted as a small mercy. Less explaining for him. Before he could say anything, Akeno descended from above, her ten black wings folding behind her. ¡°Thanks for the help,¡± she said, placing the unconscious Jean¡ªthe Phoenix Avatar¡ªright in front of him. ¡°You¡¯ve got one more to go.¡± Loki glanced down at Jean, frowning. He wasn¡¯t particularly thrilled about poking around in the mind of the most volatile mutant of the lot, but if he didn¡¯t... ¡°Oh, shit!¡± Natasha¡¯s shout cut through his thoughts, her gaze fixed on the sky. She jabbed a finger upward, her face twisted in panic. ¡°Loki, you better fix Jean right now, or we¡¯re all gonna die!¡± Loki looked up, his heart skipping a beat as he took in the sight above. He¡¯d assumed it was an empty threat¡ªjust Magneto being dramatic¡ªbut apparently, he was very, very wrong. Dozens of massive meteors, each one surrounded by a faint metallic gleam, were all beginning to break out of orbit and descend toward the Earth. ¡°Of course,¡± he muttered. ¡°Because fighting mind-controlled mutants wasn¡¯t enough.¡± He crouched down and pressed the Mind Stone to Jean¡¯s forehead, gritting his teeth as he focused. ¡°Jean Grey, if you¡¯re in there, wake the hell up. We could use a little cosmic firepower right about now.¡± ¡°Loki, hurry it up!¡± Natasha shouted, looking between him and the sky. The meteors were growing larger by the second. ¡°Working on it!¡± Loki snapped back, pushing every bit of power he had into the Mind Stone. Whatever was controlling her was far more powerful than the others, it did not want to let her go! Thankfully, the force seemed far away and Loki was holding an Infinity Stone. Jean¡¯s eyes managed to snap open before they were all crushed under billions of tons of falling space rocks. ¨C Layla ¨C ¡°I know what your greatest FEAR is!¡± [No! Watch out, Host!] ... I woke up to the blaring of my alarm clock, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. ¡°Ugh,¡± I groaned, slapping it off and rolling over. ¡°I don¡¯t want to go to work today,¡± I muttered to the empty room. My boss was such an insufferable asshole, but rent didn¡¯t pay itself, so here I was, dragging myself up and out of my warm bed. I let out a yawn that felt like it stretched halfway across the room, then shuffled to the bathroom, feeling the fog of sleep cling to me. A quick shower helped¡ªat least it woke me up. The hot water washed away the lingering drowsiness, but as soon as I stepped out and dried off, I caught myself in the mirror. There she was, staring back at me. Just... me. An ordinary woman with plain brown eyes, brown hair that was already frizzing up from the steam, and a face that didn¡¯t exactly stop traffic. Small chest, a bit of chub around the edges¡ªnothing extraordinary. I don¡¯t know why, but every time I looked at myself, I couldn¡¯t shake this weird feeling, like this wasn¡¯t who I was supposed to be. Like I was looking at a stranger instead of... well, me. But I didn¡¯t have time to sit here and overthink it. I had a shift to get to, and I was already running late. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Layla,¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°Time for another boring ordinary day...¡± XXX Ah, sorry for the Cliffhanger but this chapter was already extra long... chapter 298 chapter 298 Chapter 298: ¨C Cul ¨C A giant red crystal floated silently in the center of the dim chamber, casting an ominous glow that illuminated the dark stone walls. Inside the crystal, Layla of the Fallen stood motionless, her eyes wide with a fear that only she could see. Her long black hair surrounded her as if suspended in water inside the prison crystal. Cul Borson sat slumped on his stone throne, breathing heavily. Even with the combined power of the Reality Stone and the Power Stone, trapping Layla had taken nearly everything out of him. Sweat dripped down his brow as he glanced at the two Stones in his hands. He immediately pulled out a small containment device and slipped the Power Stone inside. Using it without a medium was incredibly dangerous. ¡°You look a bit tired, Master,¡± Magneto said, unable to keep the edge out of his voice. He stood rigidly at the base of the throne. Cul¡¯s gaze snapped to the mutant, and his expression darkened. ¡°Silence, slave,¡± he commanded. Cul shifted, leaning forward as he considered his next move. Layla was supposed to have the Mind Stone, a crucial piece of his plans. Without it, he couldn¡¯t completely seize control of all of Asgard, and the thought of searching Earth for years to find it grated on him. His fingers tapped against the arm of the throne as he pondered. ¡°If the stone is sealed, then I will break the seal,¡± he muttered to himself. The idea brought a twisted smile to his face. He raised his eyes to Magneto, who stood there, his posture stiff with barely contained emotion. ¡°Slave,¡± Cul said, smirking. ¡°Start dropping the asteroids. Let the people of Earth see what true power looks like now that their savior is gone.¡± Magneto¡¯s eyes went wide, and for a moment, disbelief rendered him speechless. ¡°No... you can¡¯t do this,¡± he whispered. Cul ignored him and allowed the Reality Stone to seep back into his body. He lifted a glowing red hand towards his other Slave, Charles Xavier. ¡°Oh God, no! Not again!¡± Charles cried out in anguish as Cul flooded the cripples mind with more fear and terror. Charles immediately followed Cul¡¯s will and took control of Magneto¡¯s body and powers. ¡°Damn you!¡± Magneto shouted, trying to resist the control of his friend. But he simpy, couldn¡¯t. Slowly, his hand lifted, and the countless asteroids surrounding Earth shifted, turning into deadly meteors that began to fall towards the planet. ¡°There are still mutants down there!¡± Magneto cried out in anguish. ¡°And they¡¯ll die along with all the worthless humans,¡± Cul chuckled darkly. ¡°Let¡¯s watch!¡± Cul waved his hand and an illusionary window appeared before the throne. Giving him a perfect view of earth.The meteors cut through the atmosphere, burning brightly as they approached the surface. Cul smiled at the upcoming destruction. ...And then his smile vanished in an instant when a sudden, blinding light burst across the planet. A massive bird of cosmic fire emerged, wings spanning across the entire Earth and wrapping it in a cocoon of blazing protection. The meteors impacted the flaming feathery barrier and disintegrated, turning into harmless ash before they could touch the ground. Cul snarled in disbelief. ¡°The Phoenix...!¡± His eyes darted around the room as panic surged in his chest. ¡°How is the Avatar of the Phoenix free of my control!?¡± The realization struck him like a physical blow. The Mind Stone was not sealed. Someone was using it. He focused the Reality Stone¡¯s power, searching furiously for the source. The image of Layla¡¯s home city appeared before him. ¡°Slave!¡± Cul barked. Magneto¡¯s shoulders slumped as he registered the command, eyes wide with a mix of shock and relief. ¡°Bring this asteroid base down to Earth!¡± Magneto moved with reluctant obedience, hands trembling as he controlled the metal beneath their feet. The asteroid base rumbled and shuddered as it began its descent towards Earth. ¨C Layla ¨C I got dressed in my usual work attire, a fitted black blazer over a white blouse and a pencil skirt that barely hit my knees. I glanced at the clock on my phone, realizing I was already running a few minutes behind schedule. With a groan, I hurried out of my tiny apartment, catching my reflection in the cracked hallway mirror as I locked the door. My first stop was the corner cafe?, where the barista greeted me with a knowing smile. ¡°Three trays of coffee again?¡± she asked, already loading them up. ¡°Yep, you know me,¡± I replied with a sigh. ¡°See you tomorrow, Leslie!¡± she called out behind me as I left. Stark Tower loomed ahead. I walked through the automatic doors, and the cool blast of air conditioning hit me. Security guards in dark uniforms flanked the entrance, giving me nods as I passed. ¡°Morning, Lisa,¡± one of them said, glancing at the coffee trays. ¡°Morning, Tony,¡± I replied, shifting the weight to one arm as I handed out the first few cups. ¡°Here you go, Johny.¡± I slid one cup toward the young guard stationed at the front desk, who looked up with a grin. ¡°Thanks, Leela!¡± he said, taking the cup from me. ¡°It¡¯s Layla,¡± I muttered under my breath, not that it made any difference. No one ever seemed to remember my name, no matter how many times I corrected them... No one ever seemed to care enough. I made my rounds, handing out the rest of the coffees to the other secretaries, guards, and maintenance staff in the lobby. I took my seat at one of the kiosks, the same one I¡¯d claimed as mine ever since I started working here. I leaned back in my chair, letting out a quiet sigh. That was pretty much it for the work day. The entire building was automated at this point so none of us really had any actual work to do. We were just here to not make the place look empty... I slipped my phone out of my pocket, scanning through social media without much interest. Just the usual¡ªmemes, cat videos, another endless scroll of influencer snapshots. Then something caught my eye: a shaky video posted by a news outlet. The headline read, ¡°Mysterious Attack in Germany.¡± I clicked on it, the footage loading with a slight buffer. The camera zoomed in on a man wearing a long, dark green coat, crowned with golden antlers. He stood before a crowd, arms raised in a dramatic fashion as he threatened them all and said they were all now his slaves. Then, out of nowhere, Captain America leapt into view. The two exchanged blows, and for a second, the crowd¡¯s panic turned into an awestruck silence. My eyes were glued to the screen as Iron Man swept down from the sky and ended the fight by blasting the strange terrorist. The life of a superhero looked so exciting¡ªhow could anyone not dream of that kind of life? But I knew it was never going to be for an ordinary woman like me. I was just Layla, the low-level secretary who got coffee... I sighed again, dropping my phone onto the table. Today was going to be another slow, boring day, just like yesterday. Just like every day. Or was it...? The building started to tremble. At first, it was subtle, but within seconds, the shaking turned violent. My phone off the table and clattered onto the marble floor. I stood, gripping the edge of the desk for balance, my heart racing with confusion. Earthquakes in New York City were practically unheard of! ¡°What the¡ª¡± I managed to mutter before the sound of panicked screams from outside filled the lobby. I pushed myself away from the desk and hurried toward the massive glass windows. People were running in all directions, their faces twisted in pure terror. The streets were chaotic, and cars skidded to a halt, drivers abandoning their vehicles to flee. ¡°The hell is going on?¡± one of the guards shouted. He glanced back at us before rushing outside to see what was happening. I watched, my breath caught in my chest, as something dark and monstrous swooped down from the sky. It landed with a thud that reverberated even inside the lobby. The creature was unlike anything I¡¯d seen¡ªtwisted, with jagged, insect-like features and eyes that glowed a sickly green. In its clawed hands, it held a massive, alien-looking weapon. Before anyone could react, the creature opened fire. A bright blue beam shot out at the guard. He disintegrated into a pile of ash in an instant... Screams erupted around me. A surge of horror swept through the lobby as people scattered, some running for the emergency exits, others too paralyzed by fear to move. The creature¡¯s eyes swept over the lobby before it bared its jagged teeth and ran at us, shattering through the reinforced glass. More of its kind joined it. ¡°Everyone, please remain calm,¡± Jarvis¡¯s voice echoed from the speakers. ¡°The building is going into lockdown.¡± ¡°Its a little fucking late to remain calm!¡± I screamed. The monsters had already breached the tower. I watched in horror as the people I¡¯d worked with for years were mercilessly gunned down... My body moved before my mind could catch up. I bolted toward the nearest elevator, dodging the chaos around me. I pressed the call button repeatedly, heart thundering in my chest as the doors slid open. I slipped inside and frantically jabbed at every floor button, hoping for a miracle. {You have leveled up!} {Skill Gained: Fear Resistance (Max!)} When I opened my eyes, I was trapped in a large, floating red crystal. The shock of it was immediate, but the fury that followed hit me even harder. That bastard Cul had trapped me in an illusion so deep that it had erased everything¡ªmy kids, my lovers, my friends, my family. I clenched my fists, anger searing through me. He was dead. A dead Asgardian walking. I felt my returned power coursing through my veins as I flared my sixteen black wings. The crystal around me shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, scattering across the metallic floor like rain. I glanced around, taking in my surroundings. This wasn¡¯t Cul¡¯s stone city anymore. The room was surrounded by metal walls and modern control panels. This was exactly what I imagined Magneto¡¯s base would look like on the inside. I floated down to the ground, landing softly. As I looked at my open palm, the Mind Stone pulsed, almost as if it was relieved to be back in my possession. [Go kick Cul¡¯s ass and get those other two stones back from him!] The voice of the system rang in my mind, and I couldn¡¯t help but smirk. That was the plan, and I intended to make it hurt. But my smirk faltered when I remembered one crucial detail. Cul had the Reality Stone, which meant he could rip any of the stones away from me if he wanted. Before I could even react, the Mind Stone lifted from my palm and hovered in the air, spinning rapidly. My eyes widened as it shot forward, slamming into my back between my top pair of wings. A sudden, intense heat coursed through me, and I gasped, feeling the energy surge through every inch of my body. [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Sixteen Winged Angel, High Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Level: 123] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 1,245,000] [MP: 14,120,000] [Faith Energy: 545,687,566] [Vigor: 124,500] [Strength: 61,455] [Intelligence: 141,200¡ú1,412,000] [Luck: 28,025] [Available Free Stat Points: 25000] [Perks and Skills:] -High Goddess of Angels (100x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Acting (Max: You are a master of the craft when you want to be.) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random stat points after every ¡°session.¡±) -Fear Resistance (Max!) My Intelligence just went up by 10x! I turned my head just in time to see my top pair of black wings start to glow, their color shifting from pitch-black to a bright gold! It kind of ruined my all black aesthetic so far, but I had to admit that my new pair of wings did look beautiful. {New Quest Started! The Birth of the Supreme Goddess!} {Merge with all 6 Infinity Stones from your universe along with the Stones of Life and Death to become the Supreme Goddess!} I blinked, trying to absorb what the System just told me. Supreme Goddess? That¡¯s what Peni Parker called me! I needed to absorb 8 different stones of power? Hadn¡¯t I already absorbed an Infinity Stone before? Why was it different this time? [That was your Artificial Sacred Gear that absorbed it, and you can do it now because you¡¯re powerful enough to handle the mental and physical stress without breaking down.] Hungry... Despite the tense situation, the whine from my Orb of Anywhere brought a chuckle to my lips. BOOM! I didn¡¯t have time to dwell on any more revelations. I could hear explosions going on outside of Magneto¡¯s base. The world didn¡¯t sit still while I was trapped in that illusionary world. XXX chapter 299 chapter 299 Chapter 299: ¨C Layla ¨C I blasted out of Magneto''s damn meteor base, following the sounds of fighting and explosions. As I shot out of the massive asteroid, my eyes narrowed when I realized where we were. His floating fortress was hovering directly above New York City. Specifically, right over the part of town where my penthouse was¡ªwhere my family lived. "Of all places," I muttered darkly. A wave of cosmic energy rippled through the air. I turned to see Jean Grey standing across from Charles Xavier on the rooftop of my own building. The two of them were locked in some kind of psychic showdown. I was surprised she hadn''t already mopped the floor with him, but she looked utterly drained. "Guess it''s up to me." I dove down and landed directly behind the professor. Jean''s eyes flickered with relief when she saw me, though she shot a curious glance at my new wings. My fingers tightened around Charles Xavier¡¯s neck. He was so focused on his psychic struggle with Jean that he didn¡¯t even flinch when I grabbed him. One twist and a sickening crack echoed across the rooftop. Jean¡¯s eyes flicked to me, a sharp look of surprise more than shock. ¡°Layla, couldn¡¯t you have just knocked him out?¡± I met her gaze without a hint of regret. ¡°No. Charles was too dangerous. He was an Omega-level telepath who could control any mutant he wanted, but Cul turned him into a puppet like it was nothing. That¡¯s not a risk we could keep around.¡± Jean shrugged, glancing down at his limp body, sitting in the wheelchair, without much emotion. ¡°I get it. It was probably for the best, although the rest of the X-men won¡¯t see it that way when they find out Charles is dead.¡± I nodded and turned my attention back to the chaos around us. The sounds of fighting echoed through the city. Flames and smoke rose in the distance, and explosions shook the air. ¡°Where¡¯s Cul? He stole the Power Stone, and I¡¯m taking it back.¡± Jean¡¯s eyes shifted to the skyline where smoke billowed above Central Park. ¡°If you mean that insane Asgardian who came out of the asteroid, demanding the Mind Stone, he¡¯s over there. Loki, Akeno, Natasha, and Carol are fighting him and Magneto.¡± [Go fuck him up and take back what''s yours!] {Quest Started: Ascension} {Defeat Cul and claim both of his Infinity Stones!} ... ¡°Mom!¡± I spun around in mid-air, my heart clenching at the sound of Heather¡¯s voice. She was flying up to me, her eight black wings outstretched and looking pristine, even if her outfit was shredded and splattered with blood. My pulse slowed a little when I saw none of it was hers. ¡°Are you okay, Heather?¡± I asked, my eyes scanning her up and down for any hidden injuries. She nodded, drifting closer with a tired but determined look in her eyes. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good. All of this blood isn¡¯t mine.¡± She let out a breath. ¡°I¡¯ve been handling riots all over the city. It¡¯s like everyone¡¯s lost their damn minds. Some assholes took this chaos as an opportunity to cause trouble.¡± My jaw clenched at that, but before I could say anything, Heather went on, ¡°I saw Spider-Man and a few others doing the same thing, but they weren¡¯t exactly handling it like I was. I took care of the worst of the worse. There were a lot of men trying to take advantage of the chaos and¨C¡± I drifted closer and pulled her into a hug, feeling her body relax a bit against mine. ¡°I¡¯m sorry you¡¯re stuck in this mess. I didn¡¯t want to pull you out of university to help.¡± Heather smiled at me, a quick flash of warmth cutting through the seriousness in her eyes. ¡°Mom, I was never going to have a normal life. If I wanted that, I wouldn¡¯t have become a Fallen Angel in the first place.¡± She tilted her head slightly, her expression shifting to concern. ¡°Is Asia okay?¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s fine. The Doom Slayer¡¯s got her well protected in case anything else pops up.¡± The faintest smirk tugged at the corner of Heather¡¯s lips. There was definitely something I was missing there. ¡°You know,¡± she said, eyeing me up and down with a curious look, ¡°your new golden wings are really pretty. But where did they come from?¡± ¡°I absorbed the power of the Mind Stone,¡± I said, feeling the weight of that truth settle over me. ¡°A couple of my other pairs of wings will probably change soon too.¡± I glanced towards Central Park, the chaos below pulling my attention. The dark storm cloud above it was alive, flashing with continuous bolts of lightning. Akeno was clearly putting up one hell of a fight against Cul. I wondered how much juice he had left after sealing me away. If the Mind Stone hadn¡¯t helped, I would¡¯ve been stuck there much longer. [I helped too!] The system chimed in my head. I couldn¡¯t help but roll my eyes slightly. ¡®Yes, yes, you did. And I¡¯m grateful, really.¡¯ [Damn right you are!] Heather¡¯s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. ¡°Are you going to take down another bad guy?¡± ¡°You look tired, Cul,¡± I said, my tone dripping with mock sympathy. ¡°Trapping me in that illusion must have taken a lot out of you.¡± His eyes darkened, turning an unnatural black as he snarled, ¡°I still have two Infinity Stones, and you have none! You shall know Fear.¡± I felt the familiar push against my mind, the same insidious fear attack he had used on me before. His eyes gleamed as he tried to overwhelm me with pure, gut-wrenching terror. But those days were over. The Mind Stone and I were one now, and his tricks didn¡¯t stand a chance. [Be gone, evil thought!] The system¡¯s voice rang in my head, its usual sass even more satisfying now. Cul let out a scream, throwing his head back as a snarl of pain ripped from his throat. Blood-red tears dripped from his eyes. ¡°How is that possible?¡± he demanded, his voice raw. ¡°How are you resisting Fear?¡± He pushed himself harder, drawing on even more power from the stones, but it was clear he was reaching his limit. His movements had a desperation now, the kind that told me he was on the edge. I took advantage of the opening, knocking his greatsword aside and snaking my free hand forward to grab him by the throat. His eyes widened, and I leaned in, meeting his glare with a smile that promised nothing good. ¡°You have something that belongs to me, and I intend to collect interest,¡± I said, tightening my grip. ¡°Both of those Infinity Stones are going to be mine.¡± ¡°Help me, slave!¡± Cul choked out, his voice strained as my grip around his neck tightened. I could feel his pulse pounding against my fingers. I wasn¡¯t going to end this quickly. Not after everything he put me through. No, this was going to be dragged out a bit. He deserved it. A sudden rush of air behind me made me turn my head just as Akeno¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Aunt Layla, watch out!¡± A mid-sized Jeep slammed into my back with a force that would have broken a lesser being in half. The metal bent and wrapped around my body, groaning as it tried to crush me. I clicked my tongue in annoyance and flared out my sixteen wings. Metal shards and pieces of the destroyed Jeep flew in all directions, clattering to the ground around us. I glanced at Magneto, who was hovering nearby with a cold, focused expression. He had been fighting Loki and Natasha when I arrived, but it looked like he¡¯d come to save his master now. ¡°Charles Xavier is dead,¡± I said, my voice sharp as I looked back at Cul. ¡°How are you still controlling Magneto?¡± Cul¡¯s lips twisted into a dark grin despite the pressure around his neck. ¡°Heh, I made sure the cripple planted one final powerful suggestion in the metal man¡¯s mind. For the rest of his life, he¡¯ll never disobey a direct order.¡± [Wait a minute! He did what now?] Akeno, who was floating beside me, her ten black wings flared out and ready, caught on immediately. She turned her sharp gaze toward Magneto and shouted, ¡°Knock yourself unconscious!¡± Cul¡¯s eyes widened, panic crossing his face. ¡°What? No! That won¡¯t¡ª¡± To everyone¡¯s surprise, Magneto reached up, pulled his helmet off, and, using his powers, reshaped it into a small metal bat. Without a second thought, he swung it at his own face. The sick thud of metal against flesh echoed as he smacked himself hard, once, twice, three times. On the fourth hit, he dropped to the grass, unmoving. Loki and Natasha moved toward us, both of them staring at Magneto¡¯s crumpled form. Loki threw his hands up in the air, muttering various curses in ancient Asgardian. ¡°It was that easy to beat this old man all along!?¡± I smirked, tightening my grip on Cul¡¯s neck until his eyes bulged. His breathing turned ragged, a mix of rage and desperation flashing across his face. I leaned in close, my voice cold. ¡°You have something that belongs to me, and I¡¯m taking it back. Both stones are mine.¡± Cul tried to draw on the Power Stone¡¯s energy, but he was too weak now. The greatsword slipped from his fingers and left a small crater in the ground. ¡°End this, Layla.¡± Natasha sounded like she was pretty much done with this whole fiasco at this point. ¡°Do you have any last words?¡± I asked, my voice cold and unwavering as I stared down at Cul. His face was twisted in anger and desperation, his eyes bloodshot and wild. ¡°This isn¡¯t over, we will¨C¡± Crack! I didn¡¯t care to hear the rest. His neck snapped cleanly under my grip, the sound sharp and final. The so-called God of Fear, brother of Odin Borson, was dead. I released him, and his body crumpled to the ground, lifeless. I stood there, taking in the sight as a red glow surrounded his corpse. The Reality Stone appeared on top of his chest, humming with raw energy. Without wasting a moment, I reached down and grabbed it, the warmth of the stone pulsing against my skin. As I pocketed the Reality Stone, my eyes shifted to the greatsword lying beside him. The Power Stone, still embedded in the pommel, shimmered with a familiar violet light. ¡°Don¡¯t mind if I do,¡± I muttered, prying the Power Stone from its place. The moment it touched my palm, a jolt of energy rushed through me. It didn¡¯t have a mind of its own, but it felt as if it recognized me, almost like it was happy to be back with me. I glanced up and saw Akeno watching me, her eyes wide and cautious. Loki was muttering something in disbelief, while Natasha kept her gaze locked on me, a slight nod of approval crossing her face. ¡°Layla, are you ok?¡± Akeno asked, her voice a mix of relief and concern. ¡°I¡¯m more than ok,¡± I said, unable to stop the grin from spreading across my face. Before I could say anything more, the stones in my hands floated up, hovering a couple of centimeters above my palms. The red and purple orbs spun in a tight circle, energy crackling between them. My wings flared instinctively as the stones shot forward and slammed into my back! {Quest Complete!} XXX A lot of neck snapping this chapter... chapter 300 chapter 300 Chapter 300: ¨C Layla ¨C I woke up feeling mentally better than I expected, considering the madness of yesterday. I stretched out, noticing the bed beside me wasn¡¯t empty. Turning my head, I grinned. Carol was lying there, sound asleep, her chest rising and falling in a soft, steady rhythm. The sheets had slipped down her body, and she was completely naked. She looked beautiful like that. After everything we went through against Cul and his brainwashed mutants, last night had been a...rewarding ending. My slight movements must¡¯ve disturbed her because, a few seconds later, her eyes flickered open. She yawned, rubbing her face as she sat up, and I shamelessly took in the sight of her. The sheets slid down further, and I couldn¡¯t stop myself from staring at her chest. I¡¯d never get over how gorgeous she was. "Good morning, beautiful," I greeted her with a grin that I knew was way too smug. But, hey, I¡¯d earned it. Carol¡¯s cheeks flushed as she looked down, suddenly realizing she wasn¡¯t exactly dressed. She grabbed the sheets and pulled them over herself, looking adorably embarrassed. "Good morning, Layla. Last night was..." She trailed off. "Amazing?" I offered, the smirk on my face only growing. She nodded, a shy smile creeping across her lips. I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before hopping out of bed. She stared after me, and I made sure to give her a show, strutting naked toward the bathroom with a little extra sway in my hips. The hot water was practically calling my name after yesterday¡¯s chaos. After about twenty minutes, I was refreshed, wrapped in a towel, and feeling like I could take on the world again. When I stepped out, though, Carol was gone from the bed. I could feel her energy in the living room, and...wait. I could sense the rest of them, too. My entire harem. Every single one of them. They were all here, in the same room... [Hey... The gangs all here...] In the back of my mind, I heard the System laughing at me. It loved this sort of chaos. I rolled my eyes, muttering a few choice words under my breath, and tossed on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. The comfy, casual outfit would do, especially with what I was about to face... Hela, Yasaka, Sif, Natasha, Rias, Sona, Serafall, Artemis, Lady Death, and now Carol were all in my living room. Some were sitting on the couch, others leaned casually against the wall or stood near the large windows. As I walked in, the entire room went dead silent. All those beautiful, powerful women turned their eyes on me, and I felt a sudden, awkward lump form in my throat. The confident smirk I had when I left my bedroom slipped a little. ¡°Hey, everyone,¡± I said, raising a hand in a half-wave. ¡°This is a... first,¡± I added, forcing a smile. ¡°Indeed it is, my Champion,¡± Lady Death said, her voice carrying that same hypnotic, dangerous allure it always did. I noticed a couple of the others shift uncomfortably, shivers running down their spines. Hela crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes narrowing in on me. ¡°Why is it that every time we leave you alone, Layla, you end up doing something completely insane? Like getting attacked by some ancient Asgardian no one even knew existed until now.¡± She let out a low growl, muttering curses that I could only guess were directed at Odin. That man really had a habit of leaving his messes for us to clean up. ¡°This time wasn¡¯t even my fault,¡± I said, raising my hands in defense. [Yes it was...] I ignored the sarcastic laugh in my head from the system. It seemed to think it absolutely was my fault. ¡®Stupid system...¡¯ Rias¡¯s eyes lit up as she clapped her hands together, breaking the tension. ¡°Can we see them, Layla? Your new wings?¡± She was practically bouncing with excitement. I felt my lips twitch into a real smile for the first time since stepping into the room. ¡°Sure,¡± I said. With a deep breath, I let my wings unfurl behind me. Three pairs were no longer black. The topmost pair was a gentle gold, reminiscent of my oldest brother Michael''s. But it was the next two pairs of wings that drew their eyes, their colors shifted as well after I absorbed the powers of the Power Stone and the Reality Stone. They shimmered in hues of deep purple and rich crimson. The room stayed silent for a moment, the awe on their faces saying more than any words could. Natasha was the first to step closer, her hand reaching out but stopping just before she touched one of the wings. She glanced at me, a silent question in her eyes. I nodded, and she traced a finger over the glowing feathers, a smile breaking out on her face. ¡°They¡¯re beautiful,¡± she whispered. Around her, a couple of the others nodded in agreement. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, letting myself smile wider. ¡°They are.¡± ¨C Lady Death ¨C Lady Death observed the scene before her with a mix of admiration and amusement. Layla had come so far in so little time, amassing power that few beings could even dream of. She was strong, formidable, but Lady Death knew that she had not yet reached her full potential. Around Layla, the other women were eagerly touching her new wings, their fingers exploring the smooth, vibrant feathers. Some of them were being far less subtle, letting their hands wander to other parts of Layla¡¯s body. Layla didn''t seem to mind, she had always been shameless, taking pride in who she was and who she loved. Lady Death found it endearing, but she was here for more important matters. The room stilled when Lady Death spoke again. Her voice commanded attention. Conversations halted, and all eyes turned to her. ¡°Layla, is it your objective to merge with all of the Infinity Stones?¡± A collective gasp rose from the women, and Layla¡¯s eyes met Lady Death¡¯s. Layla nodded slowly. ¡°I¡¯m not just going to merge with the Infinity Stones,¡± Layla said, her voice steady and certain. ¡°I¡¯m going to claim the Stones of Life and Death as well.¡± ¡°Stones of Life and Death?¡± Sona Sitri asked, confusion clear in her tone. ¡°What are those?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of them either,¡± Serafall added, her brows knitting together. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the Life Stone,¡± Layla admitted. ¡°But I think I have an idea of what the Death Stone is. Isn¡¯t it one of the Deathly Hallows?¡± she asked Lady Death. And she wasn¡¯t kidding. As soon as we entered the first boutique, Sif dove right in. She pulled dresses off the racks with quick precision, stacking them in my arms with absolutely no mercy. After what felt like a small fashion show, Sif finally gave a satisfied nod when I tried on a sleek, deep red dress that hugged my every curve. ¡°Now that,¡± she said, ¡°is the one. Absolutely stunning.¡± I glanced at myself in the mirror. I had to admit, the dress was perfect. And I couldn¡¯t deny that I loved the way she looked at me in it. We left the store, bags in hand, but before we even made it to the street, we were swamped by a group of fans who must¡¯ve spotted us. They surrounded us in an instant. ¡°Layla!¡± one of them, a young woman, said, her voice breathless with excitement. ¡°Thank you so much for saving us. Again!¡± A few others nodded, a chorus of thank-yous and admiration pouring out. I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the genuine appreciation in their faces. ¡°Thank you,¡± I said, making eye contact with as many of them as I could. ¡°I promise, I¡¯ll fill you all in soon, but you¡¯ll have to wait for my next press release.¡± I smirked, adding, ¡°And who knows, maybe I¡¯ll wear a bikini again, considering how many views that last video got.¡± The crowd laughed, some of them cheering, a few of them pulling out their phones to snap pictures. After a few more thank-yous and waves, Sif and I managed to pull away and make our way to a nearby cafe?. Once inside, we settled at a small table in the corner. Sif ordered something strong, of course¡ªher Asgardian side demanded it. I opted for regular coffee. Sif took a sip of her drink, her eyes gleaming as she looked over at me. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see you in that dress at dinner tonight,¡± she said, her voice low and a little wicked. ¡°I already have our table reserved at one of the fanciest places in town. They¡¯ll see us coming from a mile away.¡± I grinned, leaning forward. ¡°Just remember who¡¯s doing all this showing off, Sif. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s all just about me.¡± She smirked back, a glint of challenge in her eyes. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t get too comfortable, Layla. We¡¯re not done yet.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I asked, raising an eyebrow. ¡°I still want to see you in a few more beautiful outfits before dinner,¡± she replied with a grin. ... We were seated at an exclusive restaurant, the kind that had a waiting list longer than most people¡¯s lifespans. Luckily for us, I didn¡¯t ever have to wait for anything. Sif looked radiant across from me, her blonde hair pulled back, wearing a deep green dress that accentuated every bit of her goddess-like body. The soft lighting made the gold accents of her jewelry glimmer, and I couldn¡¯t help but admire her. We both went all out with our orders. I picked the most decadent steak on the menu, paired with some kind of truffle-infused side that had a name I couldn¡¯t pronounce for some reason, even knowing every language. Sif ordered three of them herself... We were halfway through our meal, laughing over some story Sif was telling about her childhood¡ªsomething about Thor getting stuck in a barrel of ale¡ªwhen I saw someone special approaching us. My eyes, sharper and more attuned since merging with the Reality and Mind Stones, picked up on it immediately. The waitress uniform didn¡¯t fool me for a second. I sighed, setting my fork down, knowing this was going to ruin the mood. ¡°Mystique,¡± I said, my voice flat as I looked at her. ¡°What do you want? And you do realize you¡¯re interrupting my lovely date with Sif, right?¡± Sif¡¯s blue eyes narrowed, and she shot the disguised mutant a glare that could have killed. Mystique¡¯s blue skin flickered for a split second before settling back into her fake waitress disguise. ¡°I need answers, Layla of the Fallen. What did you do to Magneto after you fought him?¡± ¡°Magneto¡¯s alive, but he¡¯s being kept in a coma for now,¡± I said. ¡°The mind healers of Asgard are set to work on him when they have time. He was pretty messed up, courtesy of Cul. And, in case you didn¡¯t know, Charles Xavier left some nasty mental programming in him, making him susceptible to following any command given by anyone. We can¡¯t let him wake up like that and cause even more problems.¡± Mystique¡¯s eyes flared with yellow, the fake persona slipping as her anger got the better of her. ¡°How long will that take?¡± she demanded. I glanced at Sif, knowing she had the most up-to-date information on the healers. She sighed, her jaw tightening. ¡°Asgard just returned from a victorious campaign in the underworld,¡± Sif explained. ¡°But it was a bloody one. Many of our newer troops need care from the mind healers first. Magneto is a foreigner, so he¡¯ll be treated only once they are free. You might see him again in a few Earth years...¡± ¡°That¡¯s unacceptable!¡± Mystique spat. Sif and I exchanged a look, both of us shrugging. ¡°That¡¯s the best we can do,¡± I said plainly. And honestly, that was more than I thought he deserved. The truth was, even if Magneto was healed, I didn¡¯t want him back in the world. Mind control or not, he nearly destroyed everything. I would have preferred to see him rot in an Asgardian prison, but that was a detail I kept to myself. For all I knew, the old man might just keel over from old age before we had to deal with him again. Mystique¡¯s eyes burned into mine for another moment, then she turned on her heel and stormed out. ¡°Well, that was fun,¡± I said dryly, picking my fork back up. Sif chuckled, the sound low and rich. ¡°Always attracting trouble, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Part of my charm,¡± I replied with a grin. ¡°Now, where were we? Oh right, dessert!¡± XXX chapter 301 chapter 301 Chapter 301: ¨C Layla ¨C Having my entire harem in the penthouse made me a lot happier than I thought it would have. I could already imagine a future where we all lived together permanently. At the moment, I was on the couch with Serafall, my legs draped lazily over hers. Her lips were on mine as we made out, and her hands wandered all over my body just enough to keep things interesting. We¡¯d been at it for a while, and I wasn¡¯t in any hurry to stop. After spending an entire day and night with Sif, it felt good to be with Serafall next. Someone cleared their throat. I groaned internally as I pulled away from Serafall¡¯s now swollen lips, glancing toward the doorway. Artemis stood there, looking as composed as ever, except for the faint blush creeping up her neck. Serafall giggled, clearly amused by the interruption. ¡°I still can¡¯t get over how much you look like Grayfia,¡± she teased, leaning back into the couch. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re not secretly related?¡± Artemis rolled her eyes, but before she could reply, Serafall grinned mischievously. ¡°So, is it your turn next with Layla?¡± ¡°Well, yes,¡± Artemis admitted. Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red, but she didn¡¯t flinch under Serafall¡¯s teasing. ¡°...But that¡¯s not the point.¡± Serafall giggled again, clearly loving the reaction. ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯ll share. For now.¡± She gave me a quick peck on the cheek before standing and giving Artemis a playful bow. ¡°She¡¯s all yours, Goddess of the moon.¡± I watched Serafall saunter out of the room, and then turned my attention to Artemis. She was standing stiffly, arms still crossed, and clearly trying not to look flustered. I patted the spot next to me on the couch. ¡°Alright, what¡¯s up? You didn¡¯t come here just to rescue me from Serafall.¡± Artemis sat down but kept a bit of distance between us, as if she was still debating something. ¡°The stars are wrong.¡± I frowned. ¡°What do you mean, wrong?¡± ¡°They¡¯re unrecognizable,¡± she said. ¡°The convergence will happen later tonight.¡± I ran a hand through my hair, letting that sink in. So, the two worlds were finally about to merge. It had been building for weeks, and now it was here. I wasn¡¯t sure how to feel¡ªexcited, nervous, maybe a bit of both. It wasn¡¯t just the convergence that was a problem, though. ¡°Oh, great,¡± I muttered. ¡°Guess the dark elves will be showing up too.¡± Artemis stiffened slightly. ¡°You¡¯re expecting them to attack immediately?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll want the Aether,¡± I said. ¡°But honestly, they¡¯re more of an afterthought at this point. Compared to everything else, they¡¯re just an annoying speed bump.¡± ¡°You¡¯re too casual about this,¡± Artemis said. ¡°This isn¡¯t something you can brush off. The convergence isn¡¯t just another challenge. It¡¯s going to change everything.¡± ¡°I know,¡± I said, meeting her eyes. ¡°But freaking out won¡¯t help, will it? We¡¯ve got plans in place. I¡¯ve got you, and everyone else. I trust all of you to handle whatever comes our way. And, you know, I¡¯m not exactly useless myself.¡± Artemis let out a startled yelp as I grabbed her waist and pulled her onto my lap. She tried to squirm away, her cheeks burning red, but I wasn¡¯t having it. If she was going to interrupt my fun with Serafall, then she owed me a little something in return. ¡°Layla!¡± she protested, her hands lightly pushing against my shoulders. ¡°You owe me,¡± I said flatly, smirking as I tightened my grip around her waist. ¡°Interrupting me like that? You knew exactly what you were doing.¡± Before she could respond, I leaned in and kissed her. Her lips were soft, and despite the way she tensed at first, she quickly melted against me. She let out a quiet moan, her arms wrapping around my back as I deepened the kiss. Her usual stoic demeanor slipped away, replaced by raw, unfiltered passion. We made out like that on the couch, the world outside forgotten, at least for a little while. ... A few hours later, I stood on the roof of my penthouse. The city was calmer than usual, and the stars above looked unfamiliar, scattered like pieces of a puzzle that didn''t go together. Lady Death stood beside me silently. The rest of my harem was inside, giving us the space we needed. ¡°Death is coming for many humans tonight,¡± she said after a long stretch of silence. It wasn¡¯t a prediction. It was a certainty. ¡°You think so...?¡± I asked, though I already knew the answer. She nodded. ¡°The convergence won¡¯t be as simple as you¡¯ve imagined it to be. When the Earth was separated into two, it was guided by the careful hands of your father. An immense delicate ritual ensured no lives were lost in the process.¡± [Now it¡¯s being violently shoved back together with no one steering the ship.] Lady Death turned toward me with her black eyes gleaming faintly under the starlight. ¡°I need to ask something of you...¡± She sounded a bit hesitant. I smiled, reaching out to take her hand. It was cold, as always, but so soft that it almost didn¡¯t seem real. I squeezed it gently. ¡°Of course. I¡¯m your champion, aren¡¯t I?¡± Her lips curved into a small smile as her thumb traced circles over my hand. ¡°That you are. And I have never regretted my decision, my champion. But I must ask that you not revive any of the people who will die tonight... unless you know them personally.¡± I blinked, surprised at that request. ¡°Why not?¡± Her smile faded just slightly. ¡°You¡¯ve been cavalier with the number of lives you¡¯ve resurrected, Layla. Other forces have begun to notice. Particularly when you commit to mass resurrections. They believe I am playing favorites. And, in truth, they are not wrong.¡± I bit my lip, the weight of her words sinking in. I¡¯d always been quick to use my powers to fix things when I could, especially when it came to death. But I hadn¡¯t thought about the larger implications¡ªor how it might reflect on Lady Death herself. I nodded slowly. ¡°Alright. I won¡¯t. I don¡¯t want to put you at odds with the other powers. Especially not... him.¡± She smiled again, softer this time, and squeezed my hand. ¡°Thank you, my champion.¡± [Don¡¯t worry, host! One day, it won¡¯t matter! You¡¯ll be able to do anything you want, with no repercussions.] I didn¡¯t respond to the System. I wasn¡¯t sure if having that much freedom was a good thing, but I wasn¡¯t in the mood to argue. Instead, I stayed quiet, holding Lady Death¡¯s hand as we both looked up at the strange stars in the sky. ... An hour later... I floated in orbit, staring down at the planet with Lady Death by my side. My children, along with Vali, had been sent to Asgard earlier that day. Frigga and Hestia were with them, ensuring they would be safe no matter what happened here. After giving it some thought, I decided to send Heather and Asia along with them. They were eighteen now, technically adults, but I didn¡¯t want them here to witness the chaos that was about to unfold. They¡¯d be better off with their little sisters, far from the devastation. ¡°It¡¯s starting,¡± Lady Death said, her gaze fixed on Earth. I nodded, gripping my hands into fists as I focused. Tony and Andrea had done their part, putting a genetic delay in the serum distributed worldwide. The serum would activate once the increase in gravity was felt in a person or animal¡¯s body. I could only hope it was kicking in now, sparing as many lives as possible. The view from orbit was surreal. The Earth started to wobble beneath us, shifting in ways that were impossible to describe. My stomach twisted as I realized what was happening on the surface. ¡°Tsunamis,¡± I muttered. ¡°Earthquakes. It¡¯s all starting.¡± Lady Death didn¡¯t respond, but she didn¡¯t need to. The planet below began to swell, growing slowly at first, then picking up pace. More surface area, more volume¡ªEarth was merging with its twin. New cities appeared, materializing in flashes of energy that disrupted the land and people already there. My enhanced vision caught horrifying details: buildings erupting inside other buildings, collapsing into each other, taking everyone inside with them. I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to watch. I could see everything if I focused hard enough, and it was devastating. People screaming, entire blocks crumbling, entire regions swallowed by chaos. My heart pounded as I gulped, trying to process it all. None of this was on me directly, but I¡¯d taken responsibility for the convergence. This was my mess to manage. ¡°The death toll has passed 500 million,¡± Lady Death said. Her tone was calm, detached. ¡°I estimate it will reach 1.2 billion when all is said and done.¡± I exhaled sharply. ¡°That¡¯s... horrible. But it¡¯s not as bad as it could¡¯ve been.¡± I forced myself to think logically. ¡°The global population will still be around 15 billion once this is over.¡± As I approached, I got a better look at the ship. It was just as intimidating as I¡¯d expected¡ªits surface gleamed under the faint light, and smaller fighter ships swarmed around it like gnats. They spotted me almost immediately, and I could feel their weapons locking onto me. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this over with,¡± I muttered. The first ship fired, a streak of red energy slicing through the void. I twisted out of the way easily, my wings propelling me forward with sharp precision. More ships joined in, launching a barrage of missiles and lasers. I threw up a glowing purple shield, letting their attacks fizzle harmlessly against it. ¡°Cute,¡± I said, smirking. I extended a hand, channeling a burst of Light Energy , and fired. The nearest ship exploded in an instant, its debris scattering through space. The others hesitated, clearly rethinking their life choices. I didn¡¯t give them time to regroup. I darted between them, unleashing blasts of Light Energy that tore through their defenses. Within moments, the space around me was littered with wreckage. The path to the mothership was clear. I landed on the ship¡¯s surface with a heavy thud, the metal beneath my feet groaning under the impact. I slammed my fist into the hull, sending a shockwave through the metal. A section of the ship tore open, revealing a dark, cavernous interior. The moment I entered, I felt them. Dozens¡ªno, hundreds¡ªof dark elves, their presences were cold and dark like the energy surrounding the ship. I could hear them moving through the corridors. ¡°There''s an intruder!¡± ¡°Kill her!¡± ¡°She has the Aether!¡± ¡°Bring it on,¡± I muttered. And started unleasing a barrage of Light Spears. I stepped over the bodies of the first few elves I¡¯d cut down. Their black armor was no match for my Lightspears, and their weapons might as well have been squirt guns with how harmless they were. Another group of soldiers rounded the corner, their black and red helmets hiding their expressions, but I could feel their fear as they charged at me. I was surrounded by dozens of their friends after all. I conjured another Lightspear. ¡°You really should¡¯ve just stayed on your shit hole of a planet,¡± I said, twirling the spear before throwing it with precision. It tore through the first row of elves, pinning two of them to the wall. The rest hesitated for a split second before screaming and charging me in a last ditch suicide attack. I ducked under one¡¯s swing, grabbed his arm, and twisted. The crack of bone echoed as I kicked him into another elf. ¡°Almighty Push!¡± A quick blast of gravity from my hand sent the rest sprawling. They barely had time to scream before I finished them off. By the time I reached the bridge, I was annoyed. My wings flared as I pushed open the large doors, stepping into the wide, circular room. Screens displayed the view of Earth growing larger with every second, but my eyes were on the figure standing in the center. Malekith. The guy was as pale and menacing as I remembered from the movies, with his angular face and piercing red eyes. Beside him stood a massive dark elf, easily twice my size, armed with a glowing red warhammer. Malekith smirked when he saw me. ¡°Ah, there you are,¡± he said, spreading his arms like he was welcoming me to a party. ¡°You save me the trouble of hunting you down. Delivering the Aether directly to me... how thoughtful.¡± ¡°Uh-huh...¡± Please don''t start monologuing... ¡°Once I have possession of the aether, this universe will once again tremble before my might...¡± And he started monologuing. ¡°Wow... That''s so cool.¡± I said blandly. ¡°I see you too recognize the brilliance of my plan! Are you here to serve me? Do you understand the folly of those who live in the light?¡± ¡°Totally...¡± ¡°Excellent! We shall bath the universe in eternal darkness together. You are a fine beauty, and you might make a fine Queen as well!¡± ¡°Nope...¡± ¡°And in return, I promise to make the deaths of your people¡ªquick. I am not without mercy, after all.¡± I yawned. ¡°Are you done yet?¡± ¡°Sire, I don''t think she''s going to hand over the aether.¡± The large dark elf whispered in Malekith¡¯s ear. ¡°I think that she has been mocking you this whole time...¡± ¡°You dare, wench!?¡± Malekith snarled at me. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I dare,¡± I cut him off. ¡°Listen up, I¡¯m all out of mercy today, so I¡¯ll make this simple. Surrender now, and I won¡¯t kill you.¡± I summoned another Lightspear. ¡°You¡¯ve got one chance.¡± [Obviously he won¡¯t take it.] ¡®I know,¡¯ I thought back. When do they ever? Malekith glared at me, his hand tightening around the black blade he¡¯d been holding. ¡°I think not. I shall rip the Aether from your corpse!¡± ¡°You''ll certainly try.¡± With a roar, Malekith charged, the giant elf beside him lumbering forward like a tank as well. I spun the Lightspear in my hand. If they wanted to die in combat, I¡¯d grant them that much. It was probably more than they deserved to be honest. The giant elf reached me first, swinging his warhammer with enough force to level a building. I sidestepped easily, jabbing the spear into his side. He let out a guttural growl, twisting to face me, but I was already moving. I leapt onto his back, yanking the spear free and plunging it into his neck. He crumpled to the ground, lifeless, as I flipped off him and landed gracefully. ¡°Next,¡± I said, turning to Malekith. He lunged at me with his blade, aiming for my throat. I parried with the spear, the clash of energy and steel ringing through the room. His movements were fast, but I was so much faster. I could¡¯ve ended it in seconds, but I held back, giving him the illusion of a fight. ¡°You¡¯re strong,¡± he said, gritting his teeth as our weapons locked. I smirked. ¡°Far stronger than you,¡± I replied, shoving him back easily. He stumbled, recovering quickly and charging again. This time, I didn''t bother to hold back as much. I ducked under his swing, spinning the spear and slicing across his chest. He gasped, blood staining his armor, but he didn¡¯t stop trying to attack me. I admired the persistence, even if it was stupid. With a final thrust, I drove the spear through his heart, pinning him to the ground. His red eyes widened, and he let out a choked gasp before going still. I yanked the spear free, watching as his lifeless body finally slumped. ¡°And that¡¯s a wrap,¡± I muttered, letting the spear dissolve. The room fell silent, save for the hum of the ship¡¯s systems. I sighed, glancing at the screens showing Earth. The planet was still intact and had finally finished merging. Although the fallout and disasters to come would probably last for months. XXX chapter 302 chapter 302 This chapter has R-18 Chapter 302: ¨C Lady Death ¨C ¡®All things come to an end,¡¯ Lady Death thought to herself as she stepped onto the Dark Elf mothership. Their entire race had sealed their own fate, and now they had no one to blame but themselves. It was a fitting conclusion to their arrogance. She didn¡¯t bother walking through the corridors like a mortal. Instead, she phased effortlessly through multiple floors until she found Layla. Her champion was seated on a large black and red throne at the heart of the ship. If a human had designed this ship, they would probably describe its interior as incredibly edgy. The Dark Elves certainly had a flair for dramatic aesthetics. Layla sat with a strange katana resting across her lap, her fingers running along the flat side of the blade. Her expression was thoughtful but tinged with frustration as she examined the weapon. ¡°Something wrong, my champion?¡± Lady Death asked, tilting her head slightly. Layla looked up, a wry smile tugging at her lips. ¡°I was just killing time, going through my inventory, and I pulled this out.¡± She gestured to the katana. ¡°It¡¯s my Asauchi, but something feels... off.¡± ¡°May I?¡± Lady Death extended her hand. Layla nodded and handed over the blade without hesitation. Lady Death inspected the weapon carefully. It was a fascinating creation, clearly the product of another universe, one skirting the edges of what Layla might call the Marvel Multiverse. The craftsmanship was remarkable, but Lady Death¡¯s attention was drawn to something deeper. She could sense the budding artificial soul within the blade, weak and sickly, as though it were struggling to survive. ¡°This weapon has a tiny soul,¡± Lady Death said after a moment. ¡°But it¡¯s very sick, my champion. I imagine it began forming from you, but something disrupted the process in the early stages.¡± Layla sighed, leaning back on the throne she''d just claimed. ¡°That makes sense. It probably started forming from our connection two years ago, but then I disappeared. I couldn¡¯t exactly keep working with it. Not my fault, but still...¡± ¡°Is there a way to fix it?¡± Layla asked, sitting up a little straighter. Lady Death shrugged¡ªa gesture she had only recently adopted from mortals. ¡°I can show you the Universe where its creator resides. I suspect he¡¯ll know how to fix it. This weapon could be invaluable during your trial with the Phoenix Force, should you choose to pursue the Life Stone.¡± Layla groaned. ¡°I¡¯ll probably have to do that soon, huh? I¡¯ll give it a couple of days. Earth¡¯s a disaster right now, and I don¡¯t want to leave until things calm down...¡± Her eyes flickered down. Lady Death frowned slightly. She didn¡¯t enjoy seeing sadness in Layla¡¯s brilliant purple eyes. Without a word, she moved to sit beside her champion. The throne was large enough for both of them, and she draped an arm around Layla¡¯s shoulders, pulling her close. Layla sighed and leaned into the comforting embrace, resting her head on Lady Death¡¯s shoulder. ¡°This is nice,¡± she murmured. ¡°We don¡¯t spend enough time together. I know I have that problem with a lot of my mates.¡± ¡°We will in the future,¡± Lady Death replied softly, her fingers drawing soothing circles on Layla¡¯s back. She took a strand of Layla¡¯s long black hair and brought it to her nose, inhaling its perfect scent. ¡°You are all still so young, even by immortal standards. You are busy now, but it won¡¯t always be like this.¡± Layla chuckled lightly. ¡°Are you saying we¡¯ll all eventually get lazy and just stay in the house all day having sex with each other?¡± Lady Death allowed herself a small smile. ¡°Does that sound so bad, my champion?¡± ¡°Not at all,¡± Layla said, grinning. Their eyes met, and for a moment, everything else faded away. Lady Death leaned in, capturing Layla¡¯s lips in a gentle kiss. Her lips were soft and warm, and Lady Death savored the sensation. The kiss deepened slowly. Lady Death moved her hand down, her fingers brushing against Layla¡¯s thigh, tracing gentle patterns. The touch earned her a quiet hum of approval against her lips. Layla pulled back just enough to meet her gaze, her smile turning playful. ¡°Are you taking advantage of me while I¡¯m feeling down, Lady Death?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Lady Death admitted without hesitation. ¡°Is it working?¡± ¡°Damn right it is,¡± Layla said, leaning in again, this time with more urgency. Their lips met once more, and this time, the kiss was filled with passion. Layla¡¯s hand settled on Lady Death¡¯s chest, her touch firm but tender, as the moment between them deepened. Lady Death moaned softly, letting herself melt into the embrace, savoring every sensation as Layla¡¯s tongue brushed against hers. Finally, Lady Death threw her head back and let out a loud, uninhibited wail as her own powerful orgasm washed over her in intense waves of euphoria. Her velvety pussy walls clamped down rhythmically around Layla''s spurting cock, milking out every last drop of her champion''s seed. For a long moment, the two women stayed like that - Lady Death impaled on Layla''s shaft, both lost in the throes of climax. Finally, Lady Death collapsed forward onto Layla''s heaving chest, her huge tits squishing against her lover''s. They lay there in a sweaty, satisfied heap, basking in the afterglow of their passionate lovemaking... ¨C Layla ¨C At this point, I seriously doubted the people of Earth would even care if I kept my new spaceship hovering over New York. With everything that had happened lately, a giant ship in synchronous orbit barely even registered as a big deal. Honestly, I just wanted to keep an eye on it so no one would steal it again. The thought of my last ship made me frown. My dog¡ªmy dog¡ªhad hijacked it. How he¡¯d managed that, I still didn¡¯t know, but he was a very bad boy, and he was absolutely getting punished when I tracked him down. Lady Death interrupted my thoughts by pulling me in for one last kiss. Her lips were soft against mine, her hand lingering on my cheek for a moment before she stepped back. ¡°Until next time, my champion,¡± she said, her black eyes locked on mine. ¡°Until next time,¡± I said, watching as she faded into nothingness, returning to her realm. I let out a long sigh and opened a portal, stepping back into my penthouse. The moment I walked in, I noticed the stillness. For the first time in a long while, the place was completely empty. The quiet was almost unsettling. I closed the portal behind me and looked around. Most of my mates were probably scattered across the now much larger New York, helping people where they could. The city was still a mess. The other New York that had merged with us was still reeling from the war against the devils, and rebuilding wasn¡¯t going to happen overnight. As for my devil mates, Rias and Sona had gone to Asgard to be with our kids. I didn¡¯t blame them. Half the Earth wasn¡¯t going to be happy with devils for a long time, and they didn¡¯t need to be here to deal with that mess. Naturally, Serafall went with them. That left me alone. [Are you lonely?] ¡°A little bit,¡± I admitted, plopping down on the couch. I grabbed a throw pillow and hugged it against my chest. The silence was weird. I wasn¡¯t used to it anymore. [Don¡¯t worry I¡¯m sure some supervillain out there is plotting to kill you. You won¡¯t be lonely for too long.] ¡°Haha,¡± I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. ¡°Thanks for that.¡± I laid out on the couch, staring at the ceiling. The quiet wouldn¡¯t last, and I knew it. For now, though, I¡¯d take the peace, even if it felt strange... ¨C Fury ¨C ¡°This is an absolute clusterfuck...¡± Fury said to Agent Coulson as they looked over half a dozen monitors. The devastation the world had just gone through was unprecedented. Over a billion people confirmed dead...entire countries and cities in absolute chaos as people from separate Earths have merged together. A second pentagon literally popped up next to the original and now the US had two separate governments trying to declare themselves the rightful government. On top of that, the other Earth that just merged with their own was full of a bunch of powerful supernatural beings. He hated that it was his job to start sorting all of this out... ¡°You can say that again, sir.¡± Agent Coulson let out a sigh. ¡°I should have retired like Barton or Romanoff.¡± ¡°If you dare retire on me now, I''ll kill you, bring you back to life, erase your memories and put you right back to work!¡± Fury threatened. He was only half kidding too. Project T.A.H.I.T.I fucking worked after all... Mostly. There were still a few minor kinks, but they were working on them. Coulson gulped before nodding his head and saying he wasn''t going anywhere. ¡°That''s what I like to hear. Now what''s our favorite Angelic Goddess been up to?¡± Fury asked. ¡°She''s been running around the entire world, healing people all over. She''s actually been spotted in multiple places at once at least a dozen times over,¡± Coulson said. ¡°That''s good,¡± Fury said. ¡°Her presence always has a calming effect on the masses.¡± ¡°Also she has a new giant spaceship...¡± ¡°...What!?¡± XXX chapter 303 chapter 303 Chapter 303: ¡°Now I lay me down to sleep...¡± ¡°Dear Lord, can you please allow...¡± ¡°Goddess Layla, please grant me the strength to...¡± ¡°URG!¡± I woke up clutching my head in agony. The pain was sharp and overwhelming, like someone was stabbing my brain with a million needles. I rolled off the couch and hit the floor hard, groaning. What was happening? Why did it feel like my mind was being torn apart by an endless sea of voices? [They¡¯re prayers! Billions and billions of prayers are being directed to you! I¡¯m doing my best to block them out, and the Mind Stone you fused with is helping, but there¡¯s just too many! You need to do something fast!] I heard the System¡¯s frantic explanation in my mind. I groggily sat up, the world spinning around me. I couldn¡¯t even remember the last time I¡¯d been in this much pain. Why now? I¡¯d occasionally heard some prayers before, but never like this¡ªnever an endless flood of them! Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to focus. A portal to Heaven. I needed to go there now. I pulled together what little concentration I had left and opened the portal, practically throwing myself through it. As soon as I was on the other side, I collapsed on the pristine white floor. My head was pounding so hard I could barely breathe. ¡°Please God, help me get a good grade on...¡± ¡°Please Lord, let Tiffany say yes when I ask...¡± ¡°Heavenly Father, please kill that cheating son of a bitch, Tristan...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± ¡°Amen...¡± The voices kept coming, over and over. I fell to my knees, clutching my head again. My vision blurred, and my stomach churned. It was unbearable! ¡°Sister! What¡¯s wrong?¡± Gabriel¡¯s voice cut through the chaos in my mind. She was running toward me, her expression filled with concern. She knelt down and gently placed her hands on my head. Warm, golden light radiated from her fingers, and I felt some of the pain ease. I could finally think¡ªjust barely. ¡°I...I can hear billions of prayers all at once,¡± I managed to explain. ¡°I can¡¯t take it! It¡¯s too much!¡± Michael appeared at my side, his face filled with worry. ¡°We knew Heaven¡¯s system would crash once the worlds fused together, but I didn¡¯t expect all the prayers to be sent your way, little sister. I¡¯m sorry!¡± Gabriel stepped back as Michael placed his right hand on my head. I suddenly felt half of the voices go quiet. The relief was immediate, but when I looked up at Michael, I saw him gritting his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was visibly straining. Unlike me, he didn¡¯t have the Mind Stone or any other advantage to help him bear the weight of so many voices at once. I could tell he was taking some heavy damage! ¡°Michael, s-stop!¡± I shouted. ¡°You¡¯re hurting yourself!¡± ¡°I c-can manage for now,¡± he said. ¡°B-But we need a solution fast. This is... a lot more than I expected.¡± I glanced toward the center of the room and saw the shattered remains of the Golden Throne. It was covered in cracks and pieces had literally fallen off to the floor. That throne used to be the control center of Heaven¡¯s system. Every human prayer would go there to be heard by whoever sat on it. Michael had taken that role after Father disappeared, but with the throne broken, it seemed like all the prayers were defaulting to me for some reason. With Michael temporarily shouldering half the burden, I shakily stood up. Gabriel helped me walk over. My wings spread out behind me and my sole crimson pair started to glow with power. I was calling on my newfound power over Reality to fix and improve the throne. The cracks began to seal themselves, crimson-red patches filled in the gaps. The throne reshaped itself under my will. The broken pieces reassembled. It became a mix of gold and red¨CI''m sure Tony and Andrea would get a kick out of it if they saw it. By the time it was done, it barely resembled the original. When I was finished, I collapsed back onto my knees. Michael and I both let out long sighs of relief as the remaining voices in our heads went quiet. I rubbed my aching temples, summoning my Sacred Gear to start healing myself. Gabriel hurried to Michael¡¯s side, her glowing hands tending to him as well. ¡°I''ve never even heard of an Archangel giving themselves a stroke, but that''s almost what you did!¡± she told him while pouting in disappointment. She still looked very relieved that we are both okay though. ¡°It was worth it to make sure our little sister was okay...¡± Michael said, smiling in my direction. I hugged Michael tightly. ¡°Thank you for taking half the burden, if only for a few seconds. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯d have managed without you...¡± That was a fucking close one! He patted my back briefly before stepping away. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. But I have to ask, what did you do to the throne? It looks so different now.¡± I turned to look at the newly restored and enhanced throne. ¡°I didn¡¯t just fix it. I improved it and changed it. The old system wasn¡¯t cutting it anymore.¡± Gabriel tilted her head. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± I pouted at her, crossing my arms. ¡°You¡¯re impossible.¡± Turning to Michael, I gave him one last smile. ¡°Thanks again for helping me with all those prayers. I don¡¯t know how you handled it for so long, but I¡¯m glad you¡¯re still here.¡± Michael nodded, his expression soft. ¡°Be safe, Layla. And come back soon. There¡¯s always more work to be done.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t remind me,¡± I said with a chuckle. I focused on opening a portal, purple light swirling as I connected it to my penthouse on Earth. With one last glance at my siblings, I stepped through, leaving Heaven behind. I wanted to spend the rest of the day with my harem members that are still on Earth before I go on another adventure into the unknown. Well, not technically unknown, I know the general plot of Bleach, although I never made it through the entire anime in my past life... ... The next day I said goodbye to everyone and ventured off. ¡°So this was Karakura Town. It¡¯s very mundane...¡± I said it out loud as I stepped through the portal into a new Universe, taking in the normal-looking streets and buildings. Lady Death had given me the coordinates, and she hadn¡¯t steered me wrong yet, so I was fairly certain I was in the right place. A glowing prompt popped up in front of me. {Quest Started: Slice and Dice!} {Objective: Get your asauchi fixed and turned into a proper zanpakuto?.} {Reward: A cool new sword! +5 levels.} ¡°That seems easy enough,¡± I muttered and dismissed the prompt with a wave of my hand. Now I just needed to figure out how to get to the Soul Society. Maybe I could just teleport there myself if I could sense it? I closed my eyes and focused, letting my senses stretch out as far as they could go. With the Mind Stone fused to me, I was shocked at just how far my perception reached. It wasn¡¯t long before I felt like I could sense all of Japan and every person in it. My awareness even started brushing up against China as it continued to spread further and further before I stopped it and pulled back my senses. That didn¡¯t work. I had no doubts I could teleport to the Soul Society, but I wasn¡¯t going to find it that way. It looked like I¡¯d have to find myself a Shinigami or something to start. ¨C Yoruichi Shihoin ¨C Yoruichi Shihoin stretched out lazily in her cat form, her tail flicking back and forth as she watched Kisuke Urahara work on another one of his experiments. She was bored, and that usually meant one thing¡ªit was time to annoy Kisuke. ¡°Kisuke! When are you going to buy me more catnip?¡± she complained, hopping onto the table and swishing her tail across his face. Kisuke didn¡¯t even flinch. ¡°I¡¯m not buying you catnip anymore, Yoruichi. Last time, you got so high you activated Shunko? and trashed half my workshop. Do you know how long it took to fix everything?¡± Yoruichi pouted, turning around and fixing him with her saddest cat eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t you care about my happiness?¡± Kisuke glanced at her and smirked. ¡°Nice try, but I¡¯m not falling for that again...¡± ¡°Fine,¡± she sighed, hopping down from the table. Her mind shifted to the real reason she¡¯d come to bother him. ¡°So, what¡¯s this I hear about weird signals coming from the Soul Society?¡± Kisuke¡¯s expression turned serious as he adjusted a device on the table. ¡°It¡¯s not just the Soul Society. My sensors have been picking up strange energy readings in Hueco Mundo and the human world too.¡± ¡°Any idea what¡¯s causing it?¡± Yoruichi asked. ¡°If I had to guess, Quincies,¡± Kisuke said. ¡°The energy matches their signatures, but that¡¯s supposed to be impossible. Uryu? is the last Quincy, as far as we know.¡± Yoruichi crossed her paws and scowled. ¡°We just finished dealing with Aizen. Are you telling me we have another enemy rising from the grave?¡± Kisuke muttered under his breath, ¡°999 years...¡± ¡°That prophecy again? You really buy into that crap?¡± Yoruichi said, rolling her eyes. Before Kisuke could respond, the air shifted. Yoruichi froze as an overwhelming pressure crushed down on her. She couldn¡¯t breathe. Her body trembled uncontrollably, and before she could stop it, she was forced out of her cat form. She landed on the table, butt ass naked and gasping for air! Her chest heaving up and down. Kisuke wasn¡¯t faring any better. He clutched the edge of the table, choking and shaking as his knuckles turned white. The aura of power that washed over them wasn¡¯t malicious, but it was beyond anything they had ever felt. Yoruichi¡¯s heart raced as she tried to process it. Not even the Head Captain¡¯s Bankai had come close to this. It felt like that times a hundred. ¡°What the fucking shit was that?¡± Yoruichi managed to say between ragged breaths. Kisuke wiped sweat from his brow. ¡°I have no idea,¡± he said. ¡°But it¡¯s coming from Karakura Town.¡± Yoruichi groaned. ¡°Ah, shit. Why did we ever think living here was a good idea?¡± XXX chapter 304 chapter 304 Chapter 304: I hopped from rooftop to rooftop, the cool breeze brushing against my face as I surveyed Karakura Town below. My eyes scanned the horizon, looking for the infamous candy shop or any other landmarks I might recognize from *Bleach*. I kept my movements low to avoid attention. Unlike hollows or shinigami, I wasn¡¯t invisible to humans. The last thing I wanted was to cause a scene. Okay, maybe that wasn¡¯t entirely true. I just didn¡¯t want to deal with the hassle of explaining myself to a bunch of strangers. The truth was, I didn¡¯t come here to play hero or get involved in any dramatic battles. My only goal was to get my asauchi fixed and then leave. That was it. No detours, no distractions. No extra harem members thank you very much! [Uh huh...] I wasn¡¯t even caught up on the story past Aizen¡¯s defeat. As far as I knew, everything ended happily ever after. No one died, the good guys won, and all the loose ends were tied up. Why mess with something that already worked out? [It¡¯s that kind of thinking that always gets you into trouble.] The system¡¯s voice echoed in my head, but I ignored it as I caught sight of a familiar-looking school in the distance. Was that Karakura High? It had to be. The sun was high in the sky, which meant classes were probably in session. Maybe I¡¯d run into one of the main characters. Assuming it wasn¡¯t the weekend or something. Suddenly, I turned my head sharply to the left as I felt the air shift nearby. Someone pretty fast had just popped next to me with a strange movement technique. ¡°Die, you monster!¡± The shout came from a young man with spiky orange hair. He wore black shinigami robes, and in his hands was a massive cleaver-like sword. He was swinging it directly at my head. ¡°That¡¯s rude,¡± I muttered, raising my hand. The blade met my bare palm and was stopped dead. My HP dropped a few points but regenerated instantly. The orange-haired attacker blinked at me, his eyes wide with shock. He yanked his blade back and jumped, landing effortlessly on what looked like thin air. ¡°Attacking strangers out of nowhere? I expected better manners...¡± I pouted at him. Ichigo Kurosaki frowned at me, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. ¡°Who the hell are you, woman!? You¡¯re not human, and you¡¯re definitely not a shinigami!¡± I raised an eyebrow at Ichigo. ¡°Okay? And? Is me not being human or a shinigami a reason to attack me on sight? That¡¯s just racist.¡± ¡°Racist?!¡± Ichigo sputtered. ¡°Hey, you wouldn¡¯t happen to know how to get to the Soul Society, would you?¡± I asked, changing the topic. ¡°I have some minor business there, and then I¡¯ll be back on my way home.¡± Ichigo bristled and pointed his oversized sword at me. Honestly, it looked comically large in real life, almost as big as his entire body. ¡°Nice try! But every time someone tries to illegally enter the Soul Society, they always end up destroying the place and causing a whole bunch of chaos!¡± I raised a finger as if to argue, but then lowered it. According to all the filler arcs in the anime... that¡¯s pretty much on point. The Soul Society does get invaded a lot. ¡°I could pay you?¡± I made a final offer. If there''s one thing I was never lacking in, it was money. ¡°That¡¯s new,¡± Ichigo admitted before suddenly looking determined. ¡°But that¡¯s not happening! I¡¯m taking you in, lady. All that crazy spiritual pressure came from you! You made my regular friends pass out in the classroom!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± was all I could say before Ichigo charged at me with his giant sword again. This time, he went for a sweeping slash. I raised my right hand and flicked out my finger. CLANG! His sword bounced off my fingernail, and Ichigo was forced backward, skidding across the air itself. ¡°How are you doing that?!¡± he asked in shock. ¡°I¡¯m kind of OP at this point...¡± I said with a shrug. Ichigo gritted his teeth and charged again. He swung at me repeatedly, each strike faster than the last, but none of them even came close to hurting me. I blocked one with a flick of my wrist, another with a slight shift of my foot. His frustration grew with every failed attempt. ¡°You¡¯re wasting your energy,¡± I said. ¡°Do you really think this is going to work?¡± ¡°I have to stop you!¡± he shouted. ¡°You¡¯re too dangerous to leave alone!¡± Before I could respond, something sharp whizzed through the air behind me. I felt the impact as a series of blue arrows struck my back. They shattered harmlessly, but the sudden attack caught my attention. I turned to see Uryu Ishida standing on a nearby rooftop, a Quincy bow glowing blue in his hands. ¡°Ichigo, are you okay?¡± Uryu called out. Beside him were Chad and Orihime, both looking ready to jump into the fray. ¡°What are you guys doing here?¡± Ichigo asked, keeping his eyes on me. ¡°We felt her spiritual pressure,¡± Uryu said. ¡°It¡¯s off the charts! We thought you might need help.¡± ¡°I had it under control,¡± Ichigo muttered, though he didn¡¯t sound convincing. ¡°You brought your friends?¡± I said, tilting my head. ¡°This is getting ridiculous. Are we really going to make this a group effort?¡± Chad stepped forward, his massive frame casting a shadow over the rooftop. ¡°We¡¯re not going to let you hurt Ichigo.¡± ¡°Hurt him?¡± I laughed. ¡°He¡¯s the one who attacked me! I¡¯m just trying to get directions, and he¡¯s swinging that oversized butter knife around like a maniac!¡± I turned my attention to Orihime, hoping she might be the voice of reason in this ridiculous standoff. [What happened to not adding anyone to your harem this trip?] I bristled at that. I could look if I wanted to! She was the one who randomly appeared in front of me naked, after all. It wasn¡¯t my fault if I looked. Yoruichi glanced at me, her expression somewhere between amused and cautious. ¡°Hello there...¡± ¡°Hello yourself,¡± I said, still not looking up from her beautiful body. That actually made her chuckle. ¡°My eyes are up here, you know.¡± ¡°Oh, I know,¡± I said with a grin. She sighed, clearly realizing I wasn¡¯t going to make this easy for her. When I finally looked her in the eyes, I winked at her. There was a glint of curiosity in her gaze, not hostility like the trigger-happy super powered teenagers had shown me. She crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly. ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked. I let my grin grow even more as I spread my 16 wings out behind me. The top three pairs radiated a level of power far beyond the black wings beneath them. Yoruichi¡¯s eyes widened as she took a step back. For a second, she didn¡¯t say anything, her gaze fixed on my wings like she couldn¡¯t believe what she was seeing. ¡°Angel...¡± she whispered, the word slipping out before she could stop herself. I spread my wings a little wider and nodded. ¡°I am indeed an Angel,¡± I said to Yoruichi, who was still staring at me like I¡¯d grown a second head. She shook her head quickly. ¡°That¡¯s impossible! Angels aren¡¯t real! I¡¯ve never seen or heard of one before.¡± ¡°Maybe you just weren¡¯t looking hard enough,¡± I said with a playful shrug. I wasn¡¯t about to get into the whole ¡°I¡¯m from another universe¡± thing just yet. I liked to reserve that for the second date. Yoruichi¡¯s eyes darted to the knocked-out and injured teens nearby. ¡°What are you doing in Karakura Town?¡± she asked. ¡°And why did you attack them?¡± My wings shifted behind me as I scoffed. ¡°Attack? I didn¡¯t attack anyone. That shinigami kid came at me out of nowhere, and then his friends jumped in. That was assault, you know. I could press charges if I wanted to!¡± I grinned to let her know I was joking. Mostly. Yoruichi crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. ¡°Good luck with that. Shinigami courts are completely corrupt and run by stuffy nobles...¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay,¡± I said. ¡°If they give me an unfair ruling, I¡¯ll just destroy the courts.¡± Her face shifted slightly, and I could see the nervous flicker in her eyes. She wasn¡¯t sure if I was serious or not. For the record, I was¡ªjust not about reporting the teens. Honestly, their attempts to hurt me had been more amusing than dangerous. I decided to get to the point. ¡°I¡¯m in Karakura Town because I want to visit the Soul Society.¡± I reached into my inventory and pulled out my asauchi. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw the blade. ¡°A zanpakuto?... no, an asauchi. Why does an Angel have one?¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t I have one?¡± I said, tilting my head. ¡°I guess that¡¯s fair,¡± she said, taking the blade and examining it. She turned it over in her hands for a moment before handing it back to me. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly an expert, since I lost my own zanpakuto?... due to reasons... but yours feels kind of weak.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m here,¡± I explained. ¡°The spirit inside the blade is sick and possibly dying. I need to get it fixed.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s why you released that terrifying spiritual pressure across all of Japan? You scared the fuck out of all of us!¡± she said, glaring at me. I blushed and looked away. ¡°I don''t know where the Soul Society is, and I thought maybe I could find it myself. Obviously, I failed.¡± Yoruichi told me she¡¯d bring me to her friend Urahara and said maybe he¡¯d help me. I glanced over at the knocked-out teens. Chad was helping Uryu up, who looked conscious again but still shaky. Orihime was still out cold, even though I¡¯d gone the easiest on her. Ichigo had managed to get back on his feet and was glaring at me like I¡¯d just killed his dog. I couldn¡¯t help but snicker because there was still smoke coming off him. ¡°Stop laughing at me! What¡¯s going on with this chick, Yoruichi?¡± he demanded. ¡°None of your business, Ichigo. Just wake Orihime up so she can heal you all,¡± Yoruichi said, not even looking back at him. With that, she hopped onto the nearest rooftop. I hesitated for a second before following her, keeping a few steps behind. She was fast, but I still had an amazing view of her bare, jiggling ass as she moved. ¡°I can feel your eyes on my backside! You¡¯re very perverted for a supposed Angel,¡± Yoruichi said. ¡°Didn¡¯t you see that most of my wings are black? That means I¡¯m a Fallen Angel,¡± I replied cheekily. ¡°Then what about the gold, red, and purple wings?¡± she asked, clearly curious but trying to sound casual. She was definitely fishing for more information. ¡°Those wings are proof that I have access to three of the most powerful forces in existence,¡± I told her honestly. She didn¡¯t turn around, but I could practically feel her rolling her eyes. She obviously didn¡¯t believe me. That was fine. She¡¯d figure it out eventually. A minute later, we landed on the street in front of a small candy shop. I was honestly kind of sad that Yoruichi was so fast because it meant the nice show I had of her backside was over... As soon as we arrived, she disappeared in a puff of smoke, and in her place was a black cat sitting on the ground. When she spoke, her voice was a lot deeper and more masculine. ¡°Follow me inside,¡± she said. The cat padded toward the door, and I shrugged before following. XXX chapter 305 chapter 305 Chapter 305: ¨C Layla ¨C ¡°What was up with those brats attacking me out of nowhere?¡± I asked as Yoruichi, still in her cat form, led me into the shop. The place looked way bigger inside than it had any right to be from the outside. I could see an endless hallway with dozens of rooms. Her tail swished back and forth as she answered. ¡°Sorry about all that. Ichigo has been extremely protective of his friends ever since a man named Aizen almost killed them all a year back. I imagine you spreading out your spiritual senses like that gave him a flashback or something to that time. Your power hit us all like a tidal wave, and thanks to Ichigo, his friends are all spiritually aware enough to have probably sensed you. I imagine it wasn''t pleasant for them.¡± Yoruichi explained to me. ¡°Hmmm, I think he did mention something about that...¡± At least now I knew why he attacked me out of the blue. ¡°I hope his friends are ok.¡± The cat continued. ¡°I''m sure they''ll be fine with Orihime there. Just be more aware of it on your end. A lot of people in this town are at least a little spiritually aware and you have so much power that even the weakest of them will probably be able to see you crystal clear, Angel.¡± ¡°Everyone can already see me,¡± I pointed out. That made her stop and turn to look at me. ¡°Huh...? What do you mean everyone can see you?¡± ¡°We Angels are actually alive,¡± I said. ¡°Everyone can see us...¡± ¡°T-That¡¯s certainly... interesting,¡± Yoruichi said, clearly trying to process that. She didn¡¯t press the subject further and instead padded ahead, leading me through another set of doors..The room inside was mostly empty, save for a giant ladder descending into a dark hole in the floor. Yoruichi hopped down, not even touching the ladder. I followed, landing lightly on the hard ground below. It was a fall that would¡¯ve flattened any normal human, but for me, it was nothing. We were in an artificial, barren landscape. It was the same place I recognized from the anime, where Urahara had trained Ichigo before the hot-headed kid decided to storm the Soul Society with his friends. I think I could even see the gouges in the ground from they''re training nearby. I couldn¡¯t help but spread my senses out, trying to see how truly vast this place was. It felt like it was even larger than the entire town above. Yoruichi¡¯s fur puffed up, and she hissed at me! ¡°Can you please not do that? It freaks all of us out!¡± ¡°Oh... sorry,¡± I said, pulling my senses back in. The people in this Universe were very sensitive... ¡°Hoh hoh! That¡¯s quite a lot of power you¡¯re packing there, my lady,¡± a cheerful voice called out. I turned to see Urahara Kisuke approaching with his signature fan already in hand and that ridiculous striped hat on his head. He stopped a few feet away, looking me up and down. ¨C Yoruichi ¨C Yoruichi rolled her eyes. Her friend Kisuke was always so dramatic, but he should have known when to hold back on his theatrics. Especially now, when they were standing in front of someone with more power than she had ever felt before. Yoruichi was pretty sure even a dozen So?suke Aizens wouldn¡¯t have been a threat to this Angel. A very beautiful and slightly perverted Angel... Wait... beautiful? Why was she suddenly thinking that? Kisuke¡¯s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. ¡°How come you¡¯re back in your cat form, Yoruichi?¡± he asked, tilting his hat slightly as he studied her. She rolled her eyes and pointed a perfectly manicured paw at the Angel. ¡°Because she wouldn¡¯t stop ogling my naked body. It was embarrassing!¡± The Angel merely shrugged, obviously unapologetic. ¡°Guilty as charged. I have a thing for super sexy and fit women,¡± she said. ¡°Nice!¡± Kisuke said with a thumbs up. If cats could blush, Yoruichi felt like she would have been. She shook her head a few times. Normally, she never cared about being seen naked. And yet, something about the Angel seeing her like that had her immediately reverting to her cat form to hide her embarrassment. Kisuke chuckled. ¡°Why don¡¯t you introduce our guest properly, Yoruichi?¡± Yoruichi froze, realizing she hadn¡¯t even asked the Angel¡¯s name yet. ¡°Err...¡± she trailed off, feeling a rare moment of embarrassment. The angel giggled and placed a hand over her chest. ¡°Hello, Urahara Kisuke-san. My name is Layla of the Fallen, and I came to Karakura Town looking for a way into the Soul Society. I promise I¡¯m not going to destroy it... probably.¡± ¡°Oi! What do you mean ¡®probably¡¯?!¡± Yoruichi sputtered, her fur puffing up slightly. Layla scratched her cheek, looking sheepish. ¡°Sometimes crazy events happen around me, and things tend to escalate out of control. I would like to say those events are not in any way, shape, or form my fault and are merely coincidences...¡± That sounded almost rehearsed... Kisuke smirked while fanning himself casually. ¡°Ah, another magnet for chaos I see. That¡¯s not as rare as you¡¯d think around these parts!¡± ¡°I''ve learned to live with it,¡± Layla said. ¡°You are quite fascinating, Miss Layla. An actual Angel standing right in front of me after all this time. I¡¯ve spent years wondering if Heaven existed. With Hell being real , it only seemed logical there might be a counterpart hidden somewhere.¡± Kisuke got that look he always got when he discovered a new mystery. Layla tilted her head slightly. ¡°Maybe it does exist, maybe it doesn''t,¡± she said coyly, not giving him a direct answer. ¡°Oh? A true mystery! I love those!¡± Kisuke exclaimed, giggling in that unsettling way of his. Yoruichi sighed, recognizing the look in his eyes. She knew he was already mentally drafting plans to figure out Heaven¡¯s location, adding it to his ever-growing list of obsessions, right next to that bizarre Quincy prophecy he¡¯d been stressing over lately. Once the awkward introductions were out of the way, Kisuke folded his fan and leaned forward slightly. ¡°So, Layla-san, what brings you to Karakura Town?¡± he asked her. A tall guy with a shaved head stepped forward, pointing his zanpakuto? at me. ¡°Surrender now, winged ryoka, or we¡¯ll take you down by force!¡± ¡°You''ll certainly try,¡± I said, letting a smirk slip onto my face. Five of them charged at me at once, their zanpakuto? raised to strike. ¡°What happened to capturing me?!¡± I shouted, ducking under the first swing. ¡°We know where to cut you so you won¡¯t bleed out, ryoka!¡± one of them yelled back. ¡°We were all personally trained in kendo by the Head Captain himself!¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s disappointing,¡± I said, sidestepping another attack. Their swings were fast, but not fast enough. I caught one blade mid-swing and shoved it aside, sending its wielder stumbling backward. Another came at me from behind. I spun around and smacked his sword away with my bare hand. . The Shinigami froze, staring at me with wide eyes. ¡°She¡¯s not even using a weapon!¡± one of them shouted. ¡°It has to be some kind of trick, I''m sure she''s bleeding!¡± another shouted, clearly panicking. ¡°Nope,¡± I said, swatting another blade out of the way. ¡°I¡¯m not. None of you have what it takes to make me bleed.¡± It wasn¡¯t that these guys were weak. Honestly, they weren¡¯t bad. Each of them felt like they could probably hold their own against someone like Captain America before his Campione upgrade. But compared to me? They didn¡¯t stand a chance. ¡°Alright, this is boring,¡± I said. The guy with the shaved head snarled and charged again, swinging his zanpakuto? in a wide arc. I ducked under it, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it just enough to make him drop the blade. With a quick jab to his stomach, he crumpled to the ground. ¡°Who¡¯s next?¡± I asked, glancing at the others. They hesitated, clearly shaken, but two of them tried to rush me together. I stepped between them, grabbed their collars, and slammed their heads together! [Ooof! They''ll be feeling that one!] They dropped instantly. The rest tried to regroup, but it was pointless. I mowed through them easily, knocking each one out with minimal effort. A punch here, a kick there. It wasn¡¯t a fight¡ªit was cleanup duty. When the last one hit the ground, I dusted off my hands and looked around at the pile of unconscious Shinigami. ¡°Well, that was a waste of time,¡± I muttered. [Heads up!] I jumped back just in time to dodge a wave of hot red flames that scorched the ground where I had been standing. ¡°That was rude,¡± I said, staring at the old man who strode toward me with authority practically radiating off him. ¡°I am Genryu?sai Yamamoto, the Head Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads,¡± he said. His piercing gaze swept over his unconscious subordinates before landing squarely on me. ¡°What are you doing here, ryoka?¡± [Not the best first impression with the head honcho...] ¡°I¡¯m here to meet the guy who makes zanpakuto?s,¡± I told him, standing my ground. ¡°Mine¡¯s broken, and I need him to fix it.¡± ¡°Foolish,¡± Yamamoto declared as flames burst around him. ¡°A single ryoka would never be allowed to meet them!¡± Instead of being upset, I felt my interest spike. ¡°So, you know who I¡¯m looking for?¡± I asked him. ¡°Can you please tell me how to meet him? Or her?¡± ¡°It is a man,¡± he said flatly. ¡°And no.¡± ¡°Right on. So why can¡¯t you tell me?¡± ¡°Because it is my duty,¡± he said bluntly. The staff in his hand dissolved, and a sheathed katana appeared in its place. He gripped it tightly with his only hand. ¡°Surrender, ryoka! Now that I stand before you, you will not escape justice!¡± ¡°Yeah... how about no?¡± I told him. ¡°Counter offer! If I beat you in a fight, you let me meet the guy so he can fix my asauchi!¡± I declared. Yamamoto paused, his eyes narrowing as he considered my challenge. To my surprise, he actually agreed. ¡°Very well! It has been a long while since I have engaged in a proper duel. We shall face each other in single combat.¡± A second later, he vanished with a flash step, but my special eyes were easily able to keep up with him. I flapped my wings, and flew after the old man. Even though I was suppressing my power because of how sensitive people were in this Universe, I had no doubts he could sense something. The old man had some serious stones to accept my challenge head-on like that! We arrived on top of a large mountain, one that looked strangely familiar. It took me a second to place it, but when I did, my grin widened. This was the same mountain where Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki had their epic duel. That fight had been one of my favorite moments in the entire anime! Before our own fight could begin, I held up my hand. ¡°Wait a second,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not fighting a cripple.¡± His brows furrowed. ¡°What are you talking about, ryoka?¡± I didn¡¯t answer right away. Instead, I called upon my Sacred Gear, the Purge of Darkness, and held my hands toward him. A soft purple light emanated from my palms, and his eyes widened as he realized what I was doing. My healing power flowed into him, and before he could protest, his missing arm was completely restored! He flexed his newly healed arm, a mix of shock and cautious gratitude flashing across his face. ¡°Why would you do this?¡± ¡°I want to see you go all out,¡± I told him. I didn''t want to bully the old man too badly. At least this way he would have a...well, not really a chance, but he might be able to give me a couple scratches. Yamamoto¡¯s grip on his sword tightened. I saw a faint smile tug at the corner of his lips. ¡°Very well,¡± he said. ¡°I will show you my full power in return for restoring my arm. BANKAI!¡± XXX chapter 306 chapter 306 Chapter 306: ¨C Layla ¨C ¡°BANKAI: ZANKA NO TACHI!¡± The Head Captain unleashed his full power, and I wasn¡¯t all that surprised he was going all out from the start. I am freaking HER after all. [How modest of you... but also true.] I ignored the system¡¯s usual snark and focused on Yamamoto. The air on the mountain suddenly felt different¡ªdry, lifeless. I realized it wasn¡¯t just the mountain. The entire Soul Society had been stripped of moisture in an instant, leaving an oppressive dryness that felt unnatural. I let out a small whistle when I saw his blade. It looked like he was wielding an actual sun. The heat radiating from it was so intense that the ground around him was beginning to crack and smolder. ¡°Bankai: Zanka no Tachi. The full power of all my flames condensed into this blade,¡± the Head Captain said. ¡°Can you handle it, Ryoka...?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but grin. That power was incredible. Someday, I¡¯d have my own Bankai, and it would be just as epic. Maybe even better. For now, though, I knew my asauchi wouldn¡¯t survive even one clash against that weapon. It was already weak, and fighting with it would destroy what was left of the blade. Instead, I raised my right hand and conjured a Lightspear. The weapon crackled with energy, radiating raw power. My Light Energy, cosmic energy, divine energy, and the three Infinity Stones I held had all merged into something new. Whatever this new power was, I could tell it wasn¡¯t complete. Not yet. I¡¯d need all the stones for that. The Head Captain¡¯s eyes narrowed as he studied the spear. ¡°That¡¯s not your ultimate weapon, is it? You just created that with less than a single percent of your power.¡± ¡°You want the truth?¡± I asked, smirking. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are, Ryoka, but as the Head Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, I won¡¯t go down without a fight.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯d be disappointed if you did.¡± The ground beneath him cracked and melted as he moved, faster than I expected for someone who looked that old. His glowing red blade came crashing down on me with both hands, and I raised my Light Spear to intercept. The clash of our weapons sent a shockwave through the area. The impact was powerful¡ªmore than I¡¯d anticipated¡ªbut it still wasn¡¯t enough to make me flinch. The ground beneath us didn¡¯t fare as well. The entire area for at least 100 meters was obliterated, leaving nothing but a smoldering crater. Yamamoto stepped back, his eyes narrowing further as he evaluated me. ¡°Your strength is undeniable. You are the most powerful enemy I''ve ever faced.¡± I casually tapped my Lightspear with my other hand. ¡°I wouldn''t necessarily call us enemies. This is just a casual sparring match.¡± That comment made him crack a small grin. ¡°I can¡¯t remember the last time I had an honest spar with someone,¡± he said. ¡°Zanka no Tachi: West!¡± he declared, and his entire body and sword suddenly erupted into flames. The heat around us intensified immediately. I¡¯d never stood on a star before, but now I could guess what it might feel like. My HP fluctuated wildly. Every second, it dropped by a few hundred points, only to shoot back up thanks to my natural regeneration. To him, though, it probably looked like I was completely unaffected. ¡°Here I go!¡± he shouted, launching himself at me again. ¨C Unohana Retsu ¨C Unohana Retsu, Captain of Squad Four, stood silently with the other captains on top of the tallest tower in the Seireitei. They all watched the intense battle unfolding at Sokyoku Hill. The power on display was unlike anything she had seen in centuries. It had been so long since the Head Captain used his Bankai. She had almost forgotten what it looked like. Unohana couldn¡¯t imagine anyone left in the world who could push him to this level. She felt a twinge of jealousy¡ªnot because she doubted his abilities, but because he was experiencing such a magnificent fight. A fight he was shockingly losing. From their vantage point, it was difficult to see the exact movements of the combatants, but the clash of their spiritual pressures was impossible to ignore. The Head Captain¡¯s tremendous energy collided violently with the strange power of the ryoka. Unohana didn¡¯t know much about this newcomer, only that they had shattered the near-indestructible barriers around the Seireitei with ease before landing near the Head Captain¡¯s personal barracks. He had confronted them directly without hesitation. The Head Captain had been on edge for the past few days, she realized. Was this why? Or was there something else he hadn¡¯t shared? ¡°Such power,¡± Captain Hitsugaya said, his voice tight with frustration. ¡°How am I still this far behind?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so down, Shiro-kun,¡± Shunsui said, tipping his hat slightly. ¡°The world¡¯s a big place.¡± Unohana noted the tension in Shunsui¡¯s stance. He was trying to sound calm, but even he was uneasy. All of them wanted to run to the Head Captain¡¯s aid, but the sheer heat radiating from the battle made it impossible. The flames were so intense that even getting close could be fatal. Unohana doubted her own Bankai would allow her to last long in those conditions before the heat dried every drop of blood in her body. The hill was barely visible through the waves of heat, but they could still sense the chaotic flow of spiritual pressure clashing again and again. Each collision shook the entire Soul Society. Glass windows across the Seireitei had shattered long ago, and many of the buildings looked ready to collapse. ¡°This is madness,¡± Soi Fon muttered, gripping the railing tightly. ¡°If the Head Captain is struggling, how can we hope to deal with this?¡± Unohana didn¡¯t answer. She was focused entirely on the fight, her mind racing through possibilities. Who was this ryoka? What kind of power could overwhelm the Head Captain in such a direct confrontation? None of it made sense. Another shockwave rocked the Seireitei, forcing some of the captains to steady themselves. Unohana remained still, her eyes never leaving the hill. ¨C Layla ¨C I shook my head and put my cup down. ¡°That¡¯s not true,¡± I said. To prove it, I conjured a small knife made of chakra metal and dragged it across my palm, letting it cut deep. Blood welled up for a moment before the wound sealed itself completely, leaving no trace it had ever been there. ¡°You did manage to hurt me. I just have an insane healing factor. Your Bankai actually did damage me. I just healed through it.¡± The Head Captain chuckled, shaking his head. ¡°At least that¡¯s something.¡± A knock came at the nearby door before it slid open. A stunning woman stepped inside, and I couldn¡¯t help but appreciate her figure. She was gorgeous, with curves that were impossible to ignore even under those thick robes. Her chest was massive, and her whole presence screamed confidence. This was definitely an A-grade MILF. She glanced at me, and her eyes widened in shock. ¡°Hello, Head Captain... I take it this is the ryoka you were fighting?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± the Head Captain said. ¡°This is Layla of the Fallen. She soundly defeated me. Since the full might of the Soul Society wouldn¡¯t be able to stop her from doing whatever she wants, she is now considered a guest here.¡± Unohana blanched. ¡°Is that how it works? She is a ryoka, after all. The Central 46 won¡¯t be happy about any of this.¡± I giggled, swirling the tea in my cup. ¡°Laws are only for the strong to enforce. Likewise, the strong can ignore those same laws.¡± [That¡¯s how the omniverse works...] Unohana took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing slightly, but then she walked over and sat down next to me. Her gaze flicked to my wings, which were still out, and I caught the fascination in her expression. ¡°Want to touch them?¡± I asked. ¡°I know you¡¯re a doctor. You¡¯re probably curious about how they work.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to be rude,¡± she said, but her hand was already reaching out. Her fingers brushed against the edge of one wing, then slid across the feathers. Her touch was careful, like she was trying to memorize the texture. I held back a shiver and kept my expression neutral. Angel wings were weird. They could be tougher than steel, but depending on the situation, they were just as sensitive as an erogenous zone. I wasn¡¯t about to make this awkward by moaning, though. Unohana studied my wings with the same focus I¡¯d expect from a scientist. ¡°They¡¯re incredible,¡± she said. ¡°They¡¯re not just spiritual constructs, are they? These are physical and feel alive.¡± ¡°They¡¯re sort of both,¡± I said. ¡°They can shift between states when I need them to.¡± Unohana¡¯s hand lingered for a moment longer before she pulled it back. ¡°Fascinating. I¡¯ve never seen anything like them.¡± I leaned back slightly and grinned at Unohana. ¡°You¡¯re free to study them more if you want. Maybe even in private...¡± Her eyes widened, and a small blush crept onto her cheeks. ¡°Ara, it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve met someone so direct.¡± [Oy! What happened to not flirting with other women while you were here?] The system scolded me again... I pouted internally. ¡®That comment came out automatically! I can¡¯t help what I am!¡¯ The Head Captain coughed, drawing both of our attention back to him. ¡°Unohana, why are you here?¡± he asked. ¡°I was chosen as the representative of the other captains to see what was going on,¡± she said. Her gaze flicked back to me for a moment before continuing. ¡°That fight was incredibly intense. Then an unstoppable red wave swept through the entire city, and suddenly everything was restored. Even Sokyoku Hill was completely repaired after half of it had been leveled. That was... truly amazing,¡± she said, looking at me. I felt my cheeks heat up at her compliment and scratched the back of my head awkwardly. ¡°Thanks.¡± The Head Captain cleared his throat again. ¡°I¡¯ll send a report to all the captains later. For now, everything is fine.¡± He turned to me. ¡°As for you, I will keep my word. I¡¯ll send a message to O?etsu Nimaiya.¡± I raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name, but he continued before I could ask. ¡°He is the creator of all zanpakuto?. However, he resides in a place unreachable by all Shinigami.¡± He didn¡¯t elaborate further, and I just shrugged. That was fine. Progress was progress. He nodded. ¡°Since the two of you seem to get along so well,¡± he said, glancing between me and Unohana, ¡°you shall stay in Squad Four¡¯s barracks while we wait for a response.¡± I turned to Unohana with a smile. She hesitated for a moment before giving me a small, nervous smile in return... ¨C Carl ¨C ¡°Ugh... my stomach...¡± Carl muttered as he shuffled back to his post in front of a bunch of screens. They were connected to dozens of secret cameras hidden all over their enemy¡¯s territory. ¡°No more burritos for the next few weeks...¡± Carl was a nobody. Just a regular soldier in the Wandenreich army. As a Quincy, his abilities weren¡¯t anything special, which was probably why he never moved up the ranks. The only thing he was particularly good at was staying awake for long periods and focusing on tasks that bored everyone else. That made him the perfect candidate to stare at screens all day and spy on the Soul Society, a job he¡¯d been doing for the past 100 years. Occasionally, there¡¯d be something interesting, like when that Ichigo kid and his human friends stormed the place. But most days were just him watching Shinigami going about their lives, training, working, and talking to each other. Today wasn¡¯t any different¡ªexcept for the fact that Carl had food poisoning. He kept having to leave his post to deal with his stomach issues... His last trip to the bathroom had taken him about 30 minutes. By the time he finally returned, everything in the Seireitei looked exactly the same as before he left. ¡°Nothing new to report,¡± he muttered while rubbing his stomach... XXX I was gonna write the Quincy reactions to the Head Captain getting beaten, but then I was like... it would be funnier if they didn¡¯t know because the battle ended so fast and Layla fixed everything. Also, when I googled random German names for this throwaway character, Carl is literally the first result which made me laugh. chapter 307 chapter 307 Chapter 307: ¨C Layla ¨C I followed Isane, Captain Unohana¡¯s lieutenant, through the Squad 4 barracks. She was giving me a tour, and while I appreciated her effort, I would¡¯ve much preferred if the Captain herself had been the one to show me around. Unfortunately, Unohana got pulled away to some important captains'' meeting almost as soon as we arrived... ¡°This is one of our main treatment rooms,¡± Isane said, sliding open a paper-thin door with that gentle professionalism she had. ¡°We don¡¯t usually get patients with serious injuries unless it¡¯s a rare Hollow attack or someone went too hard during sparring. For example, Kentaro over there¡ªhe¡¯s from Squad 11 of course¡ªgot his hand chopped off yesterday. The Captain hasn¡¯t had time to reattach it yet.¡± She gestured toward a one-armed man sitting on one of the beds, glaring at everyone in sight. ¡°Why the hell is everyone in this pansy squad so useless?!¡± he barked at one of the nurses nearby. ¡°It¡¯s just a freaking hand! Can¡¯t you just tape it back on or something?!¡± I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Isane. ¡°Tape it back on?¡± She sighed, the kind of sigh that said she¡¯d been through this routine countless times. ¡°Yes. Members of Squad 11 are... not the brightest. You wouldn¡¯t believe how often they try to heal cuts and scrapes by rubbing dirt on them, only to show up here a couple of weeks later with green, infected wounds.¡± [It¡¯s weird how everyone here is a spiritual being, yet they still get sick and injured.] ¡®Yeah,¡¯ I said internally. ¡®This universe doesn¡¯t make much sense...¡¯ Although, I suppose it doesn''t really need to because it has cool weapons. And that''s all that matters. Meanwhile, the poor nurse was still getting screamed at by the rude shinigami. I rolled my eyes, deciding to step in. Summoning my Purger of Darkness Sacred Gear, I waved my hand toward the guy¡¯s stump. A flash of purple light later, and voila?¡ªa brand-new hand appeared where his old one used to be. The man stared at his hand for a moment, flexing his fingers, then grinned widely. ¡°Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about! That¡¯s some top-tier service right there!¡± He turned to me, his grin turning sleazy. ¡°Well, hello there, beautiful. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen you around before. What¡¯s your name, gorgeous?¡± Isane cleared her throat, stepping forward before I could respond. ¡°This is Layla of the Fallen. She just defeated the Head Captain in combat. While he was using his Bankai.¡± The guy froze, color draining from his face. The nurse standing nearby gasped audibly. ¡°Uh... well...¡± He backed away slowly. ¡°...Would you look at the time? I, uh... I have something else to do. Thanks for the hand! Bye!¡± Without another word, he turned and leapt through the window. I heard a loud crash followed by a groan of pain. ¡°He better not have landed on the Captain¡¯s new flower pots!¡± Isane huffed. Her face twisted in frustration, and, without so much as a word to me, she dove out the window after him. A second later, I could hear her yelling at the guy. I turned toward the random nurse still standing in the room and gave her my best attempt at a friendly smile. ¡°So,¡± I said awkwardly. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot, collapsing onto one of the empty beds. ¡°Okay then,¡± I muttered, mostly to myself. It seemed like I was going to have to find a way to entertain myself while waiting for Unohana to finish whatever captain-y thing she was doing. Given how scared most of the Soul Society seemed to be of me now, I figured I might have better luck back in the World of the Living. I still had a couple of hours to kill. Why not? ... I opened a portal back to Urahara Kisuke¡¯s fake candy shop and stepped through. Everyone inside stared at me with wide eyes. ¡°Layla... you¡¯re back... yay...¡± Yoruichi said. Her voice sounded unenthusiastic, and it was obvious she wasn¡¯t happy to see me. It made me frown. I crossed my arms, feeling a little disappointed. At least she was in her human form again. That was nice, though it was disappointing she¡¯d decided to wear clothes this time. I smiled at everyone, deciding to ignore Yoruichi¡¯s less than enthusiastic reaction to my arrival back here. ¡°I thought I¡¯d stop by. I¡¯ve got nothing to do in the Soul Society right now. Everyone¡¯s afraid of me, and I¡¯m just waiting for the Head Captain to get in touch with the zanpakuto? guy for me.¡± Kisuke dropped his fan. It hit the floor with a loud smack. ¡°The Head Captain is helping you? How did you manage that?¡± he asked in disbelief. I shrugged. ¡°I had to give him a good ol¡¯ ass-kicking first. Once he couldn¡¯t beat me with his Bankai, he didn¡¯t really have a choice.¡± Yoruichi¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°Wait, you fought the Head Captain? And you beat him while he was using his Bankai?¡± Before I could answer, Ichigo Kurosaki spoke up. ¡°You saw that old farts Bankai!? What was it like? Was it cool!?¡± I turned toward him. ¡°Oh, hey, Carrot Top. I didn¡¯t notice you there. Sorry about what happened between me and your friends earlier. I¡¯ve learned to keep my aura under control now, so stuff like that won¡¯t happen again. Are they okay?¡± Ichigo sighed and scratched his head. ¡°Yeah, Orihime checked on them. They¡¯re fine, just knocked out. I¡¯m sorry for attacking you too. I thought I got a lot stronger after all the stuff with Ginjo, but you took me down so fast it was embarrassing.¡± Yoruichi scoffed. ¡°Did you not hear what she just said, Ichigo? She beat the Head Captain while he was using his Bankai. Not even Aizen had the guts to do something like that.¡± Kisuke adjusted his hat, looking at me like he didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°You are... a very interesting person¨Cbeing, Miss Layla. But I''m surprised I didn¡¯t hear anything about your battle with Yamamoto. Is the Soul Society still standing...?¡± I decided I could think about it later. Or not. It wasn¡¯t like I needed to know. Yoruichi landed next to me, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked at the spot where the Hollow had been, then at me. ¡°Wow,¡± she said sarcastically. ¡°You really needed my protection for that terrifying Hollow...¡± I turned to her, grinning. ¡°Hey, you never know. Maybe the next one will put up a fight.¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t hold your breath.¡± I smirked, dismissing my spear. ¡°That was almost too easy. The thing was barely sentient. Are they all like this?¡± Yoruichi sighed. ¡°Hollows used to be a rare thing, you know. Before Ichigo got his powers, we¡¯d only see one every few weeks. Now, we¡¯re dealing with over a dozen a day. The kid and his friends just attract trouble.¡± ¡°That sucks,¡± I said honestly. I could literally see him and his friends fighting on the other side of the city. With my enhanced vision, I watched them going head-to-head with what looked like a hundred Hollows at once. They were handling it, sure, but if this was a regular thing, it meant someone had to constantly watch over this town. That was fine when they were all in highschool, but what about when they graduated and wanted to go to college? Without me needing to ask that out loud, Yoruichi nodded. ¡°Kisuke¡¯s been working on a barrier to lower the number of Hollows attracted to this town,¡± she explained. ¡°So far, nothing¡¯s worked. Their method of ripping holes in dimensions makes it nearly impossible to stop them. But Kisuke¡¯s sure he¡¯s close.¡± Before I could say anything else, a voice called out behind us. ¡°Why bother going through all that trouble when the simple solution is to slaughter them all en masse until there¡¯s none left?¡± Yoruichi stiffened, her body tensing as she turned toward the voice. I wasn¡¯t as shocked. I kept my senses reeled in to avoid overwhelming the sensitive people in this universe, so someone sneaking up wasn¡¯t a surprise. I turned in the air and saw a man walking toward us. He was dressed entirely in white, his uniform sharp and clean as he walked on the air like it was solid ground. His eyes gleamed with arrogance as he approached. ¡°A Quincy?¡± Yoruichi said aloud, her voice low. ¡°I thought Uryu? and his father were the last of them.¡± The man grinned, and it wasn¡¯t a friendly grin. ¡°There are more of us than just those leftovers you mentioned. Far more. Some of us are even worthy of the Wandenreich, unlike them.¡± ¡°Wandenreich?¡± I repeated, glancing at Yoruichi. She didn¡¯t look away from the man, her golden eyes narrowing. ¡°They¡¯re supposed to be gone. The Quincy were wiped out, and the Wandenreich disappeared with them.¡± The man chuckled, clearly enjoying being all dramatic. Uryu? was like that in the anime, were all Quincy¡¯s like this? [Probably...] ¡°That¡¯s what you were led to believe. We¡¯ve been hiding, growing stronger, waiting for the right time. And now it¡¯s here! The time for our beautiful war of justice and vengeance! I¡¯ve been sent here to kill you Yoruichi Shihouin!¡± The man turned his attention to me, glaring with all the arrogance in the world. ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are, stranger, but you¡¯ll have to die as well. All the Shinigami and their allies will henceforth be exterminated. Our declaration of war is being delivered to the Soul Society as we speak!¡± ¡°It is?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°I should probably get back there and help...¡± I muttered, mostly to myself. Before I could do anything, Yoruichi powered up with a sudden shout. ¡°Shunko!¡± A powerful white aura exploded out of her back like a wave of energy. In the blink of an eye, she blurred across the sky and delivered a devastating punch to the Quincy¡¯s gut. He was launched backward, smashing through several buildings in the distance. Immediately, I started hearing humans on the ground freaking out. ¡°Another gas explosion!?¡± ¡°Why does this happen so much in this freaking town!?¡± ¡°I knew we should¡¯ve moved after that gas leak two years ago knocked everyone out!¡± I sweatdropped at the comments. It seemed like the humans in real life were a lot more aware of all the crazy stuff happening in Karakura Town than they were in the anime. Not wanting to leave the damage unchecked, I flexed my powers over reality. The destroyed buildings started fixing themselves, and I forcefully teleported all the humans in the immediate area a few kilometers away to keep them safe. [The Reality Stone is really OP...] ¡°It sure as hell is,¡± I said with a chuckle. More explosions went off a few blocks away as Yoruichi and the Quincy continued their fight. I hovered nearby, watching the action. It didn¡¯t take a genius to see who was going to win. Yoruichi was dominating him. Every time he tried to use his glowing blue bow, she would close the distance and knock it away before delivering more brutal body shots. The only thing keeping him alive was some kind of shimmering blue barrier just above his skin. It seemed to protect him from fatal damage, but it wasn¡¯t going to last forever. ¡°Try these, Yoruichi!¡± I shouted, using Creation of All Things to conjure a pair of chakra metal gauntlets. I tossed them over to her, and she caught them mid-air. The Quincy, already bleeding and clearly struggling, still managed to sneer at me. ¡°Some pathetic weapon that isn¡¯t even a zanpakuto? won¡¯t help you defeat me! I was sent here specifically to kill you, Yoruichi Shihouin!¡± ¡°You already said that, asshole,¡± Yoruichi scoffed. She slipped on the gauntlets and knocked them together, smirking. ¡°These have some nice weight to them. I¡¯m trusting you here, Angel. Don¡¯t let me down!¡± She disappeared in a flash step, reappearing in front of the Quincy. He threw his reinforced arms up to block her punch, but as I¡¯d expected, the chakra metal gauntlets tore through his barrier like it wasn¡¯t even there. There was a loud crunch as his arms snapped, and he screamed in shock and pain. ¡°Oh, hell yeah!¡± Yoruichi cheered before landing another punch. This time, a few ribs broke. She didn¡¯t stop. Every time he tried to fight back, she was faster, stronger, and relentless. The Quincy cried out something about how his ¡°Blut Vene¡± wasn¡¯t working, but soon he couldn¡¯t say anything else. Yoruichi shattered his jaw with one hit, followed by his spine with another. He fell unconscious and started plummeting from the sky, but Yoruichi caught him by the collar before he could hit the ground. She flew back to me, holding his limp body like a trophy. ¡°I¡¯m sure Kisuke will be proud of me for taking this guy alive! Maybe he¡¯ll stop hiding all my catnip!¡± XXX chapter 308 chapter 308 Chapter 308: ¨C Layla ¨C A sudden burst of spiritual pressure swept over the entire town. I turned my attention to the north of Karakura Town. High in the sky, I spotted Ichigo. He was already in the thick of a battle with another Quincy. His Bankai was already out, which honestly wasn¡¯t surprising. I was pretty sure he used it in nearly every fight after unlocking it in the anime. ¡°Another one,¡± Yoruichi said, frowning as she hefted the unconscious Quincy over her shoulder. This one had shown up with the clear intention of killing her but had failed spectacularly. ¡°I can sense that Ichigo can handle that guy easily, but what this one said was disturbing. I¡¯m heading back to Urahara¡¯s place. I don¡¯t sense any more Hollows nearby. Pretty sure this Quincy wiped them all out,¡± she added, glancing toward me. I pouted, trying to convince her otherwise. It seemed like all the sexy women in the bleach verse kept finding ways to avoid me... [Maybe because you scare the shit out of them with your insane power.] ¡°Don¡¯t you want to come with me to the Soul Society and find out what¡¯s going on? That guy mentioned something about a declaration of war,¡± I asked her. Yoruichi bit her lip, clearly torn. ¡°I do want to know what¡¯s going on... but I really should check in with Urahara if this is as serious as I think it is. I never thought that prophecy could be real.¡± ¡°Prophecy?¡± I tilted my head, curiosity getting the better of me. ¡°You can ask the Head Captain if you¡¯re going there anyway,¡± she said, dodging the question. She gave me a faint smirk. ¡°Good luck, angel. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be seeing you soon.¡± I grinned back. ¡°I certainly hope so.¡± And with that, she disappeared, flash-stepping across the rooftops toward Urahara¡¯s shop. I watched her go for a second before shaking my head and focusing on Ichigo¡¯s fight. With a single beat of my wings, I shot across the town and closed the distance in an instant. ¡°What the hell!? Why isn¡¯t it working? I can¡¯t take your bankai!¡± the Quincy was yelling, his voice tinged with frustration. He was fiddling with some silver device in his hand, looking utterly baffled. I landed nearby, my eyes narrowing at the strange tool. ¡°Steal bankai?¡± I muttered to myself. That sounded both interesting and dangerous. No way was I letting this guy keep that thing. I wasn''t letting anyone steal MY bankai whenever I got one. ¡°Universal Pull!¡± I extended my hand. The device flew out of the Quincy¡¯s grasp and landed in mine. I turned it over briefly before tossing it to Ichigo. He fumbled with it for a second before catching it. ¡°Oi! Where did you come from?¡± Ichigo demanded. ¡°Weren¡¯t you on the other side of town? I could sense Yoruichi¡¯s spiritual pressure skyrocket! Who was she fighting?¡± ¡°Just some low-level Quincy trash. Like this guy.¡± I shrugged, jerking my thumb toward the one in front of us. ¡°You bitch! Who are you calling low-level trash?!¡± the Quincy snapped, his face twisting in anger. He raised his hand toward me, his spiritual energy flaring. ¡°Just for that, I¡¯m going to make sure to have some fun with you before I kill¡ª¡± Puchi... A Lightspear tore clean through his head, cutting off his sentence mid-threat. His body slumped and dropped out of the sky like a rock. ¡°Holy shit!¡± Ichigo exclaimed, staring at the falling body. ¡°You just killed that guy!¡± ¡°I tend to take threats like that personally,¡± I told him with a huff, crossing my arms. ¡°Anyway, make sure you give that bankai-stealing device to Urahara. It might be important.¡± Before he could respond, I called on my orb of anywhere, and a purple portal formed beside me and I hopped through it back to the Squad Four barracks... ¨C Unohana ¨C Chojiro Sasakibe lay on the floor, lifeless, his blood pooling beneath him. Unohana knelt beside him, her expression grim. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Head Captain,¡± Unohana said quietly. ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do for him.¡± The Head Captain nodded, his face stoic as ever, but Unohana noticed how tightly he gripped his staff. It was clear he was holding back his emotions. Chojiro wasn¡¯t just a subordinate¡ªhe was one of his oldest friends. A purple portal suddenly appeared nearby. Both Unohana and the Head Captain immediately shifted into defensive stances, their spiritual pressure rising. ¡°Are the Quincy attacking again?¡± Unohana hissed, her hand on her sword. From the portal, a figure emerged, her 16 black wings fluttering behind her as she stepped through casually. Layla of the Fallen waved at them. ¡°Hey there, you two,¡± Layla greeted. Her gaze then fell to Chojiro¡¯s lifeless body, and her casual expression shifted to shock. ¡°Oh no, tea guy!? What happened to him!?¡± Unohana sighed heavily. ¡°He was killed by a Quincy. There¡¯s nothing more I can do for him. Where have you been, Layla?¡± Layla placed her hands on her hips. ¡°I was with Yoruichi in the human world. Quincy assassins showed up to kill her and Ichigo Kurosaki. Yoruichi took her guy down, no problem. I handled the one going after Ichigo because, let¡¯s face it, the creep deserved it.¡± Unohana¡¯s lips twitched into a brief, humorless smile. ¡°At least there¡¯s some good news.¡± She straightened, her gaze hardening. ¡°But I must return to the Captains¡¯ Tower. The war demands my presence.¡± Layla blinked, her wings twitching. ¡°Whoa, an actual war? So, the guy Yoruichi captured wasn¡¯t just rambling. That sucks. What about the guy who¡¯s supposed to help me fix my Asauchi??¡± The Head Captain turned his stern gaze on her. ¡°I¡¯ve sent a message, but I don¡¯t imagine they¡¯ll respond soon because of this war...¡± Layla groaned, throwing her arms up. ¡°These Quincy are the worst! Why does everyone¡¯s drama always have to mess up my plans?¡± Despite the situation, Unohana couldn¡¯t help but find Layla¡¯s theatrics slightly¡ªonly slightly¡ªamusing. The Head Captain¡¯s lips quirked into a faint smile as well for a moment. ¡°I need to return now.¡± ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t forget to take tea guy with you!¡± Layla said suddenly. Unohana frowned, confused. ¡°What?¡± Layla walked over to Chojiro¡¯s body and, to everyone¡¯s shock, kicked him in the side. ¡°Wake up, tea guy! Quit being dead and making everyone sad!¡± ¡°What the hell are you doing?!¡± Unohana bristled, her spiritual pressure flaring. ¡°That¡¯s blatant disrespect¡ª¡± Her words cut off as something impossible happened! Chojiro, who had been dead, his chest brutally pierced and heart missing, suddenly gasped and sat up. He clutched his chest, which was now unmarred. ¡°What?¡± Unohana stared. ¡°Impossible,¡± the Head Captain whispered. Layla shrugged like it was no big deal. ¡°Well, that¡¯s handled. I¡¯ll let you guys catch up.¡± Without waiting for a response, she strolled off, her wings fluttering behind her. Unohana and the Head Captain exchanged stunned glances, then looked back at Chojiro, who was still gasping for air, completely alive again. Neither had any idea how to process what had just happened. Unohana immediately dropped to the ground to check over Chojiro. She pressed her fingers to his neck, checked his chest, and even leaned in to confirm his breathing. This wasn¡¯t some kind of trick¡ªhe was actually alive. ¡°Huh? Of course I¡¯m alive,¡± Chojiro said, sounding confused. He sat up, wincing as if his body still remembered the pain. Then his eyes widened. ¡°Wait... didn¡¯t I lose that battle with that Quincy?¡± He turned to the Head Captain, who still looked stunned. ¡°The Quincy stole my Bankai from me! They have devices that can steal anyone¡¯s Bankai as soon as they¡¯re used, Head Captain.¡± The Head Captain¡¯s grip on his staff tightened. ¡°That is grave news,¡± he said. Then, after a moment, he added softly, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alive again, my old friend.¡± Unohana straightened, her face serious as she turned to the Head Captain. ¡°Sir... Layla of the Fallen. I think she¡¯s more than ¡®some random angel¡¯ like we thought she was. With her incredible powers... being able to revive the dead... that puts her on the level of someone like the Soul King himself.¡± {-500 HP!} ¡°Ow!¡± I complained. As I was flying over the city, I suddenly felt like something punched me in the gut! The same sensation suddenly hit me in the arm and then my upper thigh! Large holes suddenly appeared in my clothes that I had created myself. What the hell was hitting me!? I quickly scanned the surroundings and spotted who it was. A dark skinned man with green hair was standing on top of a building about a kilometer away holding a massive fucking sniper rifle. The gun actually looked pretty cool and I was very interested in the fact that it could actually hurt me... despite not really doing that much overall damage at this point. [That¡¯s cuz you¡¯re broken.] [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Sixteen Winged Angel, High Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored.] [Supreme Goddess 3 / 8: Merged with Mind Stone, Power Stone, Reality Stone] [Level: 123] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 12,449,300 / 12,450,000] [MP: 706,253,120] [Faith Energy: 3,365,676,843] [Vigor: 1,245,000] [Strength: 3,072,758] [Intelligence: 70,625,312] [Luck: 128,145] [Available Free Stat Points: 0] [Perks and Skills:] -High Goddess of Angels (100x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Acting (Max: You are a master of the craft when you want to be.) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Blood of the Kryptonian (Massively Increases strength while under a yellow sun.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random stat points after every ¡°session.¡±) -Fear Resistance (Max!) ...Yeah. I flapped my wings and blurred myself over to the top of that building. The sniper was glaring at me with only one of his eyes open. ¡°Can you stop shooting me? That¡¯s really rude, you know!¡± I floated up to him with my hands on my hips. He gave me a look that pretty much asked ¡°really?¡± before he pointed the large gun at me and pulled the trigger again. This time I was ready for it and put my hand up in time. I felt something invincible but strong slam into my palm and chip off a couple dozen more HP. Of course, all of it was restored by my natural regeneration along with all the damage he¡¯d previously done... Including the holes he¡¯d rudely put in my outfit. ¡°What the hell are you!?¡± the Quicy shouted at me. ¡°My power was granted to me by his majesty. There¡¯s no way my shots can¡¯t hurt you!¡± I tilted my head. ¡°Ok...?¡± Technically his power did hurt me, but sometimes it was just too much fun to mess with people. Especially when they were trying and failing to kill you. ¨C Unohana ¨C It was definitely unusual for every single captain to be inside Unohana¡¯s barracks at the same time, yet that was exactly what was happening. Her barracks seemed unusually popular today, although one captain was notably absent. ¡°Where is Zaraki?¡± Captain Hitsugaya asked, sounding annoyed as he crossed his arms. ¡°I don¡¯t sense him or his lieutenant anywhere nearby,¡± Captain Kuchiki said, his tone calm but pointed. Captain Kyoraku chuckled lightly. ¡°He¡¯s probably running around looking for that angel woman to pick a fight. Tell me, is she as beautiful as I¡¯ve heard?¡± Unohana¡¯s calm gaze shifted to Kyoraku, her eyes narrowing just slightly. ¡°She is,¡± she said evenly. ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t risk antagonizing her.¡± Her voice stayed calm, but the warning in her tone made Kyoraku shiver. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± he said quickly, holding up his hands in mock surrender. The Head Captain cleared his throat, drawing the room¡¯s attention. ¡°We¡¯ll have to start this meeting without Zaraki, then,¡± he said, his voice heavy with authority. But before he could continue, a knock sounded at the door. Unohana turned to see her lieutenant, Isane, slipping into the room. ¡°Forgive me for interrupting, Captains,¡± Isane said, bowing slightly. Her expression was tense, and she seemed unsure of how to proceed. ¡°But... um... I just got word from some other members of our squad. It¡¯s about our guest, Layla of the Fallen, and Captain Zaraki Kenpachi.¡± Unohana¡¯s calm expression didn¡¯t falter, but she raised an eyebrow slightly. ¡°Go on,¡± she said. Isane took a deep breath. ¡°They decided to storm the enemy stronghold. There¡¯s apparently a purple portal floating in the middle of our cafeteria that leads directly there.¡± The room went silent for a moment as the captains processed what Isane had just said. ¡°Eh?¡± XXX chapter 309 chapter 309 Chapter 309: ¨C Layla ¨C [It¡¯s villain monologue time!] Oh, please no! Without me even asking, the dark-skinned Quincy started introducing himself. ¡°I am Lille Barro!¡± he announced dramatically. ¡°I am Sternritter X, granted my letter by His Majesty himself.¡± I tried to cut in. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t really care¡ª¡± He kept going like I hadn¡¯t said anything. ¡°My powers allow me to pierce all things in my sight with my rifle. I don¡¯t know what tricks you¡¯re using, but I will see past them and defeat you!¡± Before I could even roll my eyes, he opened his second eye, which had been closed this entire time. His entire demeanor changed in an instant. He went pale, and for a moment, he looked genuinely horrified. ¡°Impossible,¡± he declared, almost like he couldn¡¯t believe the words himself. ¡°My power grants me supreme authority over the X-Axis... but you... you control all of space!¡± I could feel the Orb of Anywhere inside me getting smug. Lille¡¯s horror didn¡¯t last long. He shook himself and shouted, ¡°His Majesty¡¯s power won¡¯t lose to some imitation!¡± He pointed his green Quincy sniper rifle at me again and started firing. It wasn¡¯t hard to figure out how his power worked, especially after he¡¯d practically handed me a manual. His shots would basically always hit what he was aiming at. All I had to do was move right as he pulled the trigger. Simple. Honestly, I didn¡¯t even need to dodge. My passive regeneration could outheal the maximum damage he could dish out. But that didn¡¯t mean I was some masochist who enjoyed the pain. [Only in the bedroom...] So I zipped around the skies above the Quincy city, dodging shot after shot. He fired hundreds of times, and I pulled off some aerial maneuvers that I thought were pretty fun¡ªstuff like sharp dives and sudden rolls. It was honestly kind of exhilarating. After about thirty seconds of this, he finally had to lower his rifle. He was panting heavily, clearly on the edge of exhaustion. I hovered above him, watching as he struggled to catch his breath. His Majesty must¡¯ve really believed in him, but firing full-powered shots nonstop like that was not a sustainable plan. Not for him, anyway. I swooped down and landed on the white rooftop, my heels clicking against the concrete. Strutting over to the Quincy, I watched as he glared up at me hatefully, his hands on his knees, wheezing from spiritual exhaustion. He looked like he was about two seconds away from falling over. ¡°That was... certainly something,¡± I said with a shrug. A Lightspear appeared in my hand with a flick of my fingers as I debated whether I should kill him or not. He had tried to shoot me¡ªa lot, actually¡ªbut right now, he was so pathetic it was hard to work myself up to it. My decision was taken out of my hands when he suddenly screamed, ¡°I won¡¯t die here! I WON¡¯T DISAPPOINT HIS MAJESTY!¡± A torrent of energy burst out of him, and he started glowing bright gold. I raised an eyebrow, watching the spectacle as his entire body began to shift and change. And then... he transformed. I stared at him, but not because I was impressed or anything. No, I was gaping at him because... what the actual fuck? ¡°What the fuck just happened?¡± I asked out loud, not bothering to keep the disgust out of my voice. He had turned into some kind of giant, long-necked Quincy chicken. His weird, creepy eyes blinked at me, and it was honestly unsettling. ¡°Now you will see my true power! Power that will destroy you!¡± he squawked. His voice had completely changed, going from something deep and mildly intimidating to squeaky and ridiculous. I couldn¡¯t help it¡ªgiggles started slipping out of me, even as I tried to hold them back. This was just too dumb. Unfortunately, his power-up wasn¡¯t all for show, because the next thing I knew, two simultaneous golden explosions slammed into me. The force knocked me violently off the roof, and I crashed hard into the building next door. I groaned as I pulled myself out of the rubble. I glanced at my health bar. I¡¯d lost around 5000 HP from that attack. It was a drop in the bucket for me, but I had to admit I was a little impressed. The chicken had managed to boost his damage output by more than ten times. I dusted myself off, making sure none of it had gotten into places it shouldn¡¯t have, and stretched a little to loosen up. In the distance, I could hear the Quincy chicken cackling and monologuing like he¡¯d already won. ¨C Yhwach ¨C Yhwach had just finished delivering his grand speech to the majority of his upper-rank forces when the entire building shook violently. The sound of a loud explosion echoed in the distance, cutting through the air like a warning. ¡°What is happening?¡± Yhwach asked out loud, looking around the throne room as it trembled. He could feel it¡ªthe Quincy soldiers were being slaughtered, dozens of them every minute. One of his Sternritter was unleashing their full power against an enemy, but something about the energy felt... off. It was strange, difficult for Yhwach to sense clearly. That alone was enough to irritate him. Haschwalth, his second in command, demanded answers. He barked an order at one of the lower-ranked Quincy in the room to investigate immediately. The grunt barely had time to move before the door was thrown open with a loud crash. Everyone turned to see who had barged in so rudely. It wasn¡¯t some nameless underling, though. Yhwach vaguely recognized the man. Carl. The guy who¡¯d been assigned to monitor the cameras hidden around the Soul Society for years. Yhwach raised an eyebrow. Whatever had made Carl storm in like this, it had to be serious. Carl looked nervous as hell. His eyes darted around the room as everyone stared him down. He gulped audibly before stammering out his report. ¡°Hey, uh... everyone,¡± Carl began, his voice shaking. ¡°I was, uh, just watching the security feeds from the cameras we hid in Squad Four¡¯s barracks... and, um, that lieutenant we killed? Cho?jiro? Sasakibe? Um... he¡¯s not dead anymore.¡± The room fell silent. Carl continued, stuttering worse as the pressure of so many eyes bore down on him. ¡°The Soul Reapers... they have this woman I¡¯ve never seen before. She has the ability to bring the dead back to life. And she can make portals. She and Kenpachi Zaraki came through a portal and are... uh, they¡¯re invading us. And... I just checked the cameras again. All the Soul Reaper captains are in the process of coming through that portal to invade us too.¡± Zaraki rubbed a finger in his ear, tuning her out as she kept ranting. Something about vengeance, retribution, and how she was going to crush him. Whatever. He stopped paying attention after she introduced herself as Catnip... or something like that. Catnip? Was that seriously her name? What a joke. ¡°Catnip, huh? That¡¯s dumb as hell,¡± he muttered, laughing to himself. Her face twisted in fury, and a second later, she fired more of that painful green lightning at him. Zaraki didn¡¯t even flinch. He charged straight at the bolts, his sword held high, laughing like a maniac the whole way. This fight was going to be fun! ¨C Yamamoto ¨C Flames burned around Yamamoto as he stood across from his most ancient enemy. He stared at Yhwach, the Quincy King, who had the audacity to declare war on the Soul Society. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, Yhwach,¡± Yamamoto said, his voice steady and full of smug satisfaction. ¡°You went out of your way to declare war on us, so I thought maybe we should drop by and settle things now.¡± As far as Yamamoto was concerned, Layla had already earned the title of honorary Shinigami. For bringing his dear friend back to life and allowing them to storm the Quincy stronghold directly, she was far more than an ally. No, to him, she was more like a goddess. When they first arrived, Yamamoto and the captains had immediately sensed an incredibly powerful Quincy, one that could¡¯ve easily wiped out most of the Gotei 13. Yet moments later, that Quincy¡¯s spiritual pressure had been completely snuffed out by Layla¡¯s overwhelming power. Even now, Yamamoto could feel her watching them, her presence distant but unmistakable. Yhwach, however, seemed too consumed by his anger to notice. ¡°Genryusai Yamamoto... to think you would be brazen enough to pull this off,¡± Yhwach said, his fury evident. ¡°I will enjoy killing you myself!¡± Yamamoto¡¯s staff vanished, revealing his Zanpakuto?. ¡°I killed you a thousand years ago,¡± he said flatly. ¡°It obviously didn¡¯t take, but I don¡¯t mind a repeat performance.¡± Before they could clash, two figures swooped down and landed between them. It was Layla and Unohana. Unohana looked a little sheepish, like she knew she¡¯d just interrupted a big moment. ¡°Hey, old man,¡± Layla said casually. ¡°How¡¯s tea guy? I don¡¯t sense him nearby.¡± ¡°I felt it prudent to leave him in the Soul Society,¡± Yamamoto replied. ¡°He is still shaken up, and his Bankai has not been recovered.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Layla said, tilting her head slightly. ¡°Was it a good idea to follow me with so many captains who could also lose their Bankai?¡± It was a fair question. ¡°They have been warned of the dangers,¡± Yamamoto said. ¡°But none of my captains are cowards. They¡¯ve come to end this war before it can truly begin and damage our home.¡± ¡°And what about my home!?¡± Yhwach cut in angrily. Yamamoto scoffed and prepared to draw his sword, but Layla stopped him again. ¡°Who¡¯s this guy?¡± Layla asked, looking at Yhwach curiously. ¡°Who am I?!¡± Yhwach bellowed. ¡°You dare invade my home and not even recognize its owner? I am Yhwach, the King of the Quincy!¡± Layla covered her mouth and let out a small chuckle. ¡°Uh-huh... sure you are, buddy. That¡¯s a nice illusion, but you can¡¯t fool my eyes now that they¡¯ve fully merged with the Rinnegan. You¡¯re nothing but an imposter.¡± ¡°He¡¯s what?!¡± Yamamoto thought, shocked. Before anyone could react further, Layla blurred forward. She seized the fake Quincy King by the throat, ignoring his punches, kicks, and desperate struggles. With a sharp squeeze of her hand, she snapped his neck. His body hit the ground, and in an instant, it transformed into a completely different man¡ªdefinitely not Yhwach. ¡°So that was his plan,¡± Yamamoto said with a scowl. Yhwach had wanted him to waste his strength fighting this fake copy, only to strike when he was tired. Once again, he owed Layla a debt. ¡°Thank you,¡± Yamamoto said firmly. ¡°I¡¯m going to find the real Quincy King.¡± ¡°I¡¯m coming too!¡± Layla declared without hesitation. ¨C Yoruichi ¨C Yoruichi and Urahara arrived at the head captain¡¯s building, both on edge and trying to find the old man. Urahara had finally cracked the Bankai-stealing device Layla had given them and had come up with a method to counter it. If it worked, it would make this inevitable war a lot easier on their people. But something was off. Yoruichi couldn¡¯t sense Yamamoto¡¯s presence... or any captain¡¯s, for that matter. The entire Soul Society felt strangely empty. ¡°What the hell happened? Where did they all go?¡± she muttered, glancing around the eerily quiet barracks. ¡°This is quite the conundrum,¡± Urahara said, lazily flicking open his fan like this wasn¡¯t a big deal. Yoruichi rolled her eyes. ¡°Thanks for the insight,¡± she said dryly before heading deeper into Squad One¡¯s barracks. They needed answers. Pushing further inside, they found Lieutenant Cho?jiro? Sasakibe. He was standing near a desk, looking like he¡¯d just seen a ghost. Despite whatever he¡¯d been through, he straightened up and greeted them politely. ¡°Ah, Yoruichi and Urahara. Welcome back home. Are you looking for the head captain?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid you just missed him. He and the other captains are currently storming the enemy¡¯s main base. I¡¯ve been left behind to manage things in their absence.¡± He hesitated, his gaze shifting slightly. ¡°Also, I¡¯m... recovering from having recently been dead,¡± he added, almost like an afterthought. Yoruichi stared at him blankly. ¡°What...?¡± Cho?jiro? shifted uncomfortably. ¡°I... died. The enemy killed me. But thanks to Layla¡ªthe woman who arrived from another dimension¡ªI was brought back. Apparently, she has the ability to revive the dead.¡± Yoruichi¡¯s confusion only deepened. ¡°Wait... she can bring people back to life? When the hell did that happen?¡± ¡°Shortly before the captains left,¡± Cho?jiro? explained. ¡°Her power is extraordinary. She even opened a portal that allowed them direct access to the Quincy stronghold. The head captain believed it was the perfect opportunity to strike...¡± XXX chapter 310 chapter 310 Chapter 310: ¨C Layla ¨C I stepped out of the purple portal with a small smile, curious who might be home. The scent of incense hit me first. Natasha was in the middle of the living room, practicing Tai Chi with smooth, deliberate movements. Artemis sat on the couch, watching a soap opera. They both looked surprised to see me but quickly smiled. ¡°Back already, Layla?¡± Natasha grabbed a towel from the arm of the couch and wiped the sweat from her face and neck. ¡°Not really,¡± I said, shrugging. ¡°I''m still in the middle of the quest to get my sword fixed, but I figured I¡¯d stop by. You know, check in like you all wanted me to...¡± Artemis paused the TV and got up. She walked over and gave me a hug, which I returned. ¡°Technically, the rule was that one of us has to go with you, to keep you from doing anything insane. But we¡¯re glad you¡¯re checking in at least,¡± Artemis explained. I nodded, then brought my fingers together in a cross sign. ¡°Shadow Clone Jutsu.¡± A pair of clones appeared in front of me. The first clone immediately popped, letting the one I¡¯d left in Asgard with my girls know I was back for a bit. The second opened a portal and disappeared, replacing that clone, which also popped itself to transfer the memories of anything I¡¯d missed. My kids seemed fine. The memories showed them playing with a couple of new friends who looked around their age. Then again, Asgardian kids aged strangely, so who could tell? Either way, I smiled at the thought before turning back to Natasha and Artemis. ¡°Is it just you two here?¡± I asked. Natasha shook her head. ¡°Carol¡¯s been staying here too, but she¡¯s been flying all over the place helping people. She¡¯s working with a few of your other clones to deal with the fallout of the world''s combining.¡± she said and I nodded. ¡°How''s Yasaka?¡± ¡°She''s doing good. Japan¡¯s mostly under control,¡± Natasha continued. ¡°Yasaka¡¯s got it handled. They actually listen to their government over there. Of course we don''t have that in America. Especially with two governments still trying to claim they''re in charge...¡± I winced. ¡°Sorry I left in the middle of all this.¡± ¡°It is what it is. I think it''s probably good you don''t get involved at the moment. I heard the two US presidents were going to have a debate soon and then all the Americans would vote. The winner will be the president and the loser will become the VP. It''s not so bad.¡± Natasha sighed. ¡°Any word from the godly community about Rizevim Lucifer?¡± I asked Artemis. The silver haired goddess/maid shook her head. ¡°The Godheads have a council next week. Don¡¯t expect an invite, though. They¡¯re still terrified of you. I¡¯ll fill you in afterwards,¡± she added. I walked over to the couch and sat down, smugly patting the cushions on either side of me. Natasha rolled her eyes, and Artemis sighed before sitting on my left and right. I leaned my head against Natasha¡¯s shoulder. ¡°This is nice,¡± I said. ¡°Things over there in that Universe are weird, and I just needed a break for a few hours.¡± Artemis reached over and started massaging my shoulders. I groaned softly. Her hands were strong from millennia of wielding a bow, and it felt like she was working a miracle on the knots I metaphorically had. ¡°So, what¡¯s happened so far?¡± Natasha asked. ¡°Who¡¯s the big bad you¡¯re tangling with this time?¡± I laughed. ¡°You know me too well. The big bad is some guy named Yhwach. Believe it or not, he actually pulled one over on me. It all happened like this...¡± ... A few hours earlier... ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Yamamoto said. ¡°Knowing a dramatic man like Yhwach, he¡¯s probably hiding in that gaudy palace up ahead.¡± I followed after him as he flash-stepped toward the massive building in the distance. Unohana was right behind us, her movements calm and precise. As I moved to follow, something caught my eye. The corpse of the fake Quincy I¡¯d just killed was doing something weird. Its power wasn¡¯t fading the way I¡¯d seen before. Instead, it seemed to leave the body quickly, shooting off in the same direction we were heading. That was odd. I slowed for a moment, watching it disappear. It didn¡¯t take much effort to figure out what was happening. The energy wasn¡¯t dissipating. It was going somewhere. Or to someone. ¡°Is this guy the type of villain to suck the powers out of his minions to make himself stronger?¡± I muttered. [That sounds pretty generically evil, so I¡¯m going with yes.] ¡®Yeah, same,¡¯ I said, chuckling as I picked up speed to catch Yamamoto and Unohana. Yamamoto wasn¡¯t wasting any time. He looked ready to kill this Yhwach guy. I wasn¡¯t surprised; he¡¯d already said he was planning to use his Bankai. This was going to be serious. I wondered if Yhwach would even manage to put up a fight against me. [Probably not.] ¡®Yeah, probably not,¡¯ I agreed. Then again, I¡¯d been wrong before. Some villains could surprise me. We touched down at the entrance to the palace, and I took a second to look around. The place was massive, gleaming white, and every bit as over-the-top as I¡¯d expected. Waiting for us were hundreds of Quincy soldiers, weapons drawn and ready. The moment they spotted us, they unleashed a storm of blue arrows. ¡°Almighty Push!¡± I shouted, and the entire barrage dissolved into nothing before it reached us. ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°How are they so powerful!?¡± ¡°We will have vengeance! Kill the shinigami!¡± The Quincies were yelling over each other, but none of them were moving forward. Yamamoto just stood there, arms crossed, looking as though he couldn¡¯t be bothered. He didn¡¯t even glance at them as they started readying another attack. Was he expecting me to handle this? I could. It wasn¡¯t like they were a threat, but mowing down this many weaklings felt like a chore. Yamamoto spoke. ¡°Captain Unohana, take care of these Quincies. We¡¯ll move ahead.¡± She was going to fight? I glanced at Unohana. She hesitated, looking between Yamamoto and me. That was new. I didn¡¯t think she ever fought. She was the healer, right? Sure, she was a captain, but... She sighed. ¡°Fine. But you know I don¡¯t like embracing my past like this. I¡¯ll clear the way for you this one time.¡± She then glanced at me. ¡°Don¡¯t... judge me too much for this.¡± ¡°Of course I won''t,¡± I said, watching her step forward. ¡°Bankai: Minazuki.¡± ¡°Oh shit, she¡¯s using her Bankai!¡± one of the Quincies shouted. ¡°Someone steal it!¡± Several of them pulled out silver disks, the same ones they¡¯d used on Ichigo to steal Bankais. {You have awakened the New Title: Soul Queen!} {Soul Queen: Spiritual Beings will no longer tremble before your awesome powers, but they will instinctively feel that they are lesser. Something inside them will always acknowledge that you are a being above them.} ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s something...¡± I muttered, looking around. I was back in the Soul Society. All the captains who had stormed the Quincy stronghold were there too. ¡°Come on!¡± Zaraki yelled, his voice filled with frustration. ¡°The fight was just getting good!¡± His body was covered in gashes and burns, but he was grinning like a lunatic. ¡°How distasteful,¡± Byakuya said, staring at his sword like it had betrayed him. ¡°Did you get your Bankai stolen?¡± I asked. He turned his head, avoiding my gaze. That was a yes. ¡°Let me try something,¡± I said. I placed my hand on his blade, letting my wings glow crimson. Using around two million MP, I made it so his Bankai was never stolen. Somehow, this cost more energy than when I restored the entire Soul Society after my spar with Yamamoto. Byakuya examined his blade, then gave me a small nod. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Someone tugged on the back of my shirt. I turned to see Soi Fon standing behind me, looking uncomfortable. ¡°Can you return my Bankai too?¡± she asked. ¡°It was stolen as well...¡± She shuffled in place. A few captains chuckled. ¡°Sure,¡± I said, repeating the process. Once I finished, I turned back to Yamamoto. ¡°How the hell did he kick us all out like that? We were seconds from killing him.¡± Yamamoto sighed, his zanpakuto? shifting back into a staff. ¡°Yhwach has always been a coward. Him being able to expel us from his city isn¡¯t surprising. At least all of our captains are alive, and now we know what to expect.¡± ¡°Or,¡± I said, ¡°I could just make another portal.¡± I opened one, but when I looked through it, all I saw was a massive crater in a dark cavern. ¡°He escaped with the entire city...¡± I muttered. ¡°Wow. That¡¯s actually impressive.¡± I turned towards Unohana next and noticed that she had a large scar right below her neck. The wound didn¡¯t look fresh though. ¡°Do you want me to heal that for you?¡± I asked her. She immediately paled before blurting out ¡°NO!¡± I was a bit taken aback. ¡°I... apologize for my outburst.¡± Unohana said to me before saying she needed a few hours to calm down after she had used her Bankai. Unohana quickly vanished away towards her squad¡¯s barracks. BOOM! What the hell was that!? Captain Hitsugaya shouted as the ground violently shook. Something had fallen out of the sky and slammed into the area right outside of the Soul Society. ¡°Ho...? Now this is going to be quite interesting.¡± Captain Kurotsuchi said. ¡°I never expected to see the members of Squad Zero in person...¡± The head captain told all the captains that there would be a mandatory meeting with Squad Zero in a couple hours, but for now they should all get themselves healed and cleaned up but stay on their guards. ¡°Yhwach and his army will be back soon, this is not over!¡± he told them all while slamming his staff on the ground. ... Back in my Penthouse... ¡°And then he took me to meet the members of Squad Zero...who were all in charge of guarding the Soul King or whatever...¡± I explained with a small moan as Artemis had moved on to massaging my lower back. ¡°What were they like?¡± Natasha asked curiously. ¡°They were...a very eccentric bunch, but I could tell none of them trusted me.¡± Probably because of my New Title making them want to bow to someone who¡¯s not their King... ¡°They actually invited a few captains walking with the teenager Ichigo Kurosaki back to the royal palace for training, but they refused to allow me to go with them.¡± I explained. The creator of all Zanpaktou, O?etsu Nimaiya, was a strange guy as well. He was shocked that my own asauchi was apparently not made by him, but he was able to recognize what was wrong with it. In his words, it simply needed an injection of some vital soul power...something that could only be performed up in the Royal Palace. I gave him my Asauchi and he took it with him when they all rode that giant pole back into the sky... ¡°That¡¯s all a pretty interesting story, Layla,¡± Artemis said as she finally took her hands off my shoulders. I let out a small whine, missing the pressure of her fingers. ¡°I¡¯m glad you came back to check in with us.¡± Natasha scoffed. ¡°Uh-huh. She only came back because Unohana wanted some alone time, and Layla probably couldn¡¯t track down that beautiful catgirl either.¡± I choked on air for a second. Damn, Natasha¡¯s intuition was still sharp. Even after being retired for over a year, she hadn¡¯t lost her edge. ¡°That¡¯s not... entirely true,¡± I said, fidgeting slightly. ¡°I did find Yoruichi. She¡¯s just busy helping Urahara set up some defenses for when the Quincy attack again.¡± Natasha rolled her eyes. ¡°Sure. Sounds to me like both of these women are more invested in their own world. I doubt either of them will drop everything to follow you back here. Not that we need any more sisters joining us, no matter how much I¡¯m sure you and Hela would love that.¡± Artemis nodded in agreement, her arms crossed. I got the vibe they weren¡¯t wrong. If something happened between me and the Shinigami women, it would probably be more of a fling. That didn¡¯t mean my harem had any rules against it¡ªthey knew I carried the sin of lust, something we all suspected Hela had as well. But the women in my harem weren¡¯t exactly thrilled about me bringing over new additions who might shake things up, especially not now. I completely understood, which was why I¡¯d already decided to start checking in with all the girls in my harem more often. Keeping everyone happy was part of my job, after all. And speaking of keeping them happy, Natasha and Artemis were right here, alone in the penthouse with me. They both seemed a little... jealous. I gave them both a sultry smile. ¡°You know,¡± I said, stepping closer to Natasha first, then Artemis, ¡°if you¡¯re feeling neglected, I can make it up to you.¡± Natasha raised an eyebrow. ¡°Make it up to us how, exactly?¡± Artemis looked at me, curiosity flickering in her silver eyes. ¡°Oh, I have some ideas,¡± I said, letting my voice drop slightly as I reached out to brush a strand of Natasha¡¯s hair behind her ear. I turned to Artemis, letting my hand linger on hers. ¡°But only if you¡¯re both interested.¡± Natasha gave a small laugh, shaking her head. ¡°You¡¯re incorrigible,¡± Natasha said. ¡°Is that a yes?¡± I asked, grinning. XXX chapter 311 chapter 311 Chapter 311: ¨C Layla ¨C I woke up the next morning and stretched, letting out a satisfied yawn. Artemis and Natasha were still pressed up against me, their bare bodies warm and soft against mine. Last night had been... memorable and very passionate. Wait... Morning!? ¡°Shit,¡± I whispered, carefully slipping out of bed. I¡¯d only meant to be gone for a couple of hours, but somehow, I¡¯d managed to spend the whole damn night. I didn¡¯t regret it, of course, but I hope nothing happened while I was gone. I tiptoed into the bathroom and closed the door quietly. Turning on the shower, I waited for the water to heat before stepping in. The steam quickly filled the space as I let the water wash over me. I grabbed the shampoo, working it into my long black hair. I took my time, making sure to clean myself thoroughly. Nothing beat a steamy shower after a long, wild night of steamy sex. When the water finally ran cold, I turned it off and grabbed a towel¡ªthe last clean one, of course. I dried off and made a mental note to stop slacking on laundry. Hestia usually handled it, but with her off in Asgard, I¡¯d let things pile up. She was incredible at keeping everything in the home running smoothly, and I missed her already... I snapped my fingers and conjured a pair of black jeans and a snug white tank top. The jeans fit perfectly, and the tank top left very little to the imagination¡ªjust how I liked it. ¡°If you¡¯ve got it, flaunt it,¡± I said, winking at my reflection in the mirror. Running my hands through my damp hair, I stepped back into the bedroom. At some point, Natasha had scooted closer to Artemis, and now their naked bodies were pressed up against each other. I smirked, pulling out my phone and snapping a few pictures for myself. This scene was definitely worth remembering. I headed into the kitchen to grab something quick to eat. Just because I didn¡¯t technically need food didn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t want it. Inside, Carol was leaning against the counter, sipping a mug of coffee. "Who would''ve thought a stoic woman like Natasha was such a screamer," she teased, smirking over her mug. I smirked right back. If she wanted to play that game, I wasn¡¯t about to let her win. ¡°Says the woman who wasn¡¯t much different during our first time,¡± I shot back. Her cheeks turned pink, and she set the mug down, reaching for a plate stacked high with waffles. ¡°Figured you¡¯d all be hungry after hours... and hours... and hours,¡± she said flatly, sliding the plate toward me. I felt the heat rise to my face and grabbed a plate, piling it high with waffles before drowning them in syrup. ¡°Thanks,¡± I muttered, digging in. The waffles were perfect, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Carol leaned against the counter, watching me as I ate. ¡°I was helping out with some demolitions yesterday,¡± she said after a moment. ¡°A lot of buildings got fused together or just collapsed when the two Earths merged. Most of them are too unstable to fix.¡± I swallowed a bite of waffle and looked up. ¡°How bad is it?¡± ¡°Almost half the city has to come down,¡± Carol said with a frown. ¡°And a lot of people are going to be homeless.¡± I put my fork down and thought about it. ¡°I might have a way to fix that,¡± I said, leaning back in my chair. ¡°I had a spar with this ridiculously powerful guy in the other universe. The aftershocks from our fight caused a lot of damage, but I was able to reverse it using my reality powers.¡± Carol raised an eyebrow. ¡°You¡¯re using the Infinity Stones¡¯ powers that casually? Layla, you¡¯re the first being to ever fuse with three stones. You need to be careful.¡± I waved her off. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯m built different...¡± At least I am now, I didn¡¯t used to be able to handle so much power so easily but I¡¯ve come a long way. She rolled her eyes but didn¡¯t push it further. I leaned forward, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear before pressing my lips to hers. When I pulled back, she was blushing again. ¡°Your lips are all sticky with syrup,¡± she pouted. I laughed, picking up my fork again. ¡°That¡¯s what you get for teasing me.¡± ... Carol and I floated high above New York, the city¡¯s chaos stretched out beneath us. She had her arms crossed, giving me a look that practically screamed she thought I was about to do something reckless. ¡°You¡¯re about to do something crazy, aren¡¯t you?¡± she asked. I smirked. ¡°Can¡¯t really argue with that.¡± Before she could respond, a glowing orange portal opened next to us. The Ancient One stepped through, her robes flowing as the wind caught her. She waved a hand, summoning an orange platform under her feet before gravity had the chance to drag her down. ¡°Well, this is unexpected,¡± I said, raising an eyebrow. ¡°Hey there, Ancient One. Long time no see.¡± She wasn¡¯t interested in small talk. ¡°I still can¡¯t see your future,¡± she said. ¡°But I can see the world¡¯s, and I wanted to witness whatever crazy thing you¡¯re about to unleash personally.¡± Carol let out a short laugh. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I said earlier.¡± They both turned to me, clearly impatient. ¡°Fine,¡± I said with a shrug. I closed my eyes and reached inward, pulling at the threads of power coursing through me. Mind and Power merged, spreading my awareness across the entire planet. I felt every crack, every broken building, every single piece of this new, fractured Earth. Then I pulled on Reality, letting it blend with the other two. The world began to shift under my will. The damage from the merge was staggering. Cities were crushed together, roads twisted into uselessness, dams on the verge of collapse¡ªor already gone. It was a mess on a planetary scale. I wasn¡¯t just going to fix it. I was going to erase every sign of it, all at once. ¡°Oh my...¡± the Ancient One murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. Carol stared as the changes started below us. ¡°This is unbelievable...¡± New York began to rebuild itself. Buildings untangled and stood tall again, streets smoothed out, and the city realigned. The people nearby were shielded as I worked, protected from the overwhelming energy I was pouring into this. I wasn¡¯t about to let anyone get hurt while I was fixing this mess. And it wasn¡¯t just New York. Across the globe, cities were repairing themselves. Skyscrapers stood tall again, bridges reformed, and even entire landscapes reshaped back to how they were meant to be. I wasn¡¯t asking permission. I was rewriting reality, and the world would just have to deal with it. When I finally opened my eyes, the process was complete. The majority of the major damage everywhere was fixed. ¡°Done,¡± I said, brushing off my hands like I¡¯d just finished some minor chore. What I saw made me gasp. Isane stood over a table, tears streaming down her face. On the table lay Unohana¡¯s body, peaceful as if she were asleep. But there was no life in her at all. [It¡¯s so weird that literal spirits can die in this universe...] ¡®Not the time, System!¡¯ I snapped internally. ¡®...Sorry.¡¯ [It¡¯s okay...] ¡°What happened, Isane?¡± I asked. Her red-rimmed eyes met mine, and she trembled as she spoke. ¡°Captain Unohana was tasked with helping Captain Zaraki Kenpachi unlock his true powers and learn the name of his zanpakuto?,¡± Isane explained shakily. ¡°And that called for her to die?¡± I said, my voice rising. ¡°What the fuck? Did Yamamoto order this? Because I¡¯m about to go kick that old man¡¯s ass.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t!¡± Isane pleaded. ¡°The captain... she wanted to do this herself. She said she was finally correcting her life¡¯s greatest sin. A thousand years ago, Captain Unohana was not a kind person. She was... a killer, and she spent her life atoning for those sins. This was her final act of redemption.¡± I scoffed loudly. ¡°That¡¯s bullshit. Dying doesn¡¯t fix anything.¡± ¡°Are you going to bring her back?¡± Isane asked hesitantly. She handed me a sealed letter. ¡°The captain left this for me. She said she didn¡¯t want to be brought back. She¡¯s finally at peace.¡± I didn¡¯t even bother opening it. The letter burst into flames in my fingers. ¡°If she wants to tell me something, she can do it herself.¡± I placed my hand on Unohana¡¯s forehead, pouring energy into her lifeless body. Seconds later, her eyes shot open. She moved so fast I barely saw her fist coming at me, but I caught it easily. Her naked body sat up as the sheets slid off, and her eyes were sharp, deadly¡ªthose of a killer. ¡°Nice punch,¡± I said with a cheeky grin. ¡°Welcome back to the land of the living. Well, technically the dead, but you get it.¡± She blinked, her expression softening as she took in her surroundings. Glancing down, she flushed and quickly grabbed the sheet to cover herself. ¡°I asked not to be brought back,¡± she said, her voice calm but firm. ¡°My life of atonement as a shinigami was over.¡± ¡°Well, tough shit,¡± I said, crossing my arms. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ll have to find a new purpose now.¡± She sat in silence for a moment as Isane and I waited. Finally, she let out a tired sigh. ¡°So be it. I will find a new purpose from now on...¡± she wanted a couple minutes alone to think and get dressed so I told Isane that I would be back in a few moments. ...I was pissed! My wings carried me through the air toward Squad One¡¯s barracks, each beat fueled by my seething rage. By the time I landed, I wasn¡¯t in the mood for politeness. I marched straight inside, ignoring the shocked faces of the shinigami who spotted me. A few of them had the nerve to try and block my way. One glare from me was all it took to make them back off, their hands falling to their sides as they scrambled out of my path. I didn¡¯t bother knocking. My foot slammed into the double doors, sending them flying open as I barged into the captains¡¯ meeting. All eyes turned to me¡ªevery single captain in the room, along with Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi, who were sitting off to the side. The head captain, always so composed, visibly tensed as I stormed past the line of powerful shinigami and came to a halt in front of Zaraki Kenpachi. ¡°You killed Unohana,¡± I said, my voice low and dangerous. My hands were clenched into fists at my sides. Zaraki grinned down at me, unbothered by my presence. ¡°Heh... yeah, I did. What are you gonna do about it, beautiful? I¡¯ll have you know I¡¯m a lot stronger now that me and Nozarashi are¡ª¡± Wham! My fist connected with his gut before he could finish. He didn¡¯t even have time to react. His body folded like a piece of paper, and a sonic boom exploded through the meeting room. Zaraki was blasted backward, his momentum so powerful that he tore through the wooden and stone walls like they were nothing. I shook out my hand, flexing my fingers. That was the first time I¡¯d ever punched someone without holding back. ¡°I think his body flew all the way to the Rukongai,¡± one of the captains muttered. I scoffed, flipping my hair over my shoulder as I turned and walked back toward the doors. ¡°Unohana is alive again,¡± I said, glancing over my shoulder at the stunned captains. ¡°If I accidentally killed Zaraki with that punch, bring his body to me later, and I¡¯ll bring him back too.¡± Without another word, I left the way I came, my wings unfurling as I launched into the sky. Let them deal with the mess. I¡¯d made my point. ... I made it back to the barracks and found Isane in the tea room, locked in what looked like a desperate argument with Unohana. Isane kept pushing the captain¡¯s uniform toward her, practically begging her to take it back. Unohana, as calm as ever, sipped her tea and shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m not interested,¡± Unohana said firmly. ¡°I¡¯ll help in the war against the Quincy, but once it¡¯s over, I¡¯m done with being a shinigami. I¡¯ve already repaid the Soul Society with my life. The next couple thousand years of my existence should be up to me.¡± Isane looked like she was about to cry, but Unohana didn¡¯t seem fazed. Instead, she stood, walked over to me, and¡ªbefore I could say a word¡ªwrapped her arm around mine. I blinked, completely caught off guard. I¡¯d been picking up vibes that she was only teasing me whenever she flirted back. Now, though, her actions said otherwise. ¡°I¡¯ve been single for over a thousand years,¡± Unohana said, leaning into me and hugging my arm tighter against her chest. ¡°I figured it¡¯s about time I give love a try.¡± My brain short-circuited for a moment. Was this really happening? ¡°You¡¯re going to take responsibility for bringing me back to life, aren¡¯t you, Layla? You¡¯re the one who told me to find my own purpose,¡± she said with a calm, almost amused smile. ¡°Errr... yeah,¡± I stammered, my face heating up. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind going on a few dates with you, but we should probably take things slow. And, uh... I should also mention something before we start anything...¡± I hesitated, then blurted out, ¡°I kind of, sort of... already have a harem.¡± From across the room, Isane let out a loud choking sound, coughing on air like I¡¯d just sucker-punched her. Unohana¡¯s grip on my arm tightened significantly, and her smile became noticeably sharper. ¡°Ara, what was that...?¡± she asked, her voice deceptively soft. XXX chapter 312 chapter 312 chapter 312: ¨C layla ¨C i lay on my back on the grass, staring up at the clear blue sky. my head rested on a surprisingly comfortable pair of thighs. unohana was giving me a lap pillow, though the thousand-year-old shinigami wasn¡¯t entirely pleased with me at the moment. that probably had something to do with the fact that, about an hour ago, i¡¯d casually dropped the bombshell that i had a harem with ten other lovers and four children. subtlety wasn¡¯t exactly my strong suit. ¡°your family and world seem lovely,¡± unohana said, gazing down at my face. her smile didn¡¯t quite reach her eyes, but i could tell she was at least making an effort. that was something. i let out a pleasant sigh as her fingers threaded through my black hair, her touch was soothing as she massaged my scalp. ¡°yeah... i haven¡¯t had a situation where any of the women have gotten into big fights yet,¡± i explained. ¡°we all get along pretty well. that might also be because we kind of all have sex together...¡± i felt her fingers pause for just a second before resuming. there was a brief silence, broken by a few amused ¡°ara aras¡± and even an ¡°oh my¡± that made me smirk. ¡°you have quite an exciting life,¡± unohana said, her voice tinged with something almost wistful. then she added, ¡°i¡¯ve spent the past thousand years mostly in the same place here in the soul society. i¡¯ve never really explored anywhere. i¡¯ve barely spent more than a few months in total in the land of the living.¡± i tilted my head slightly to look up at her. ¡°that¡¯s probably for the best. earth has kind of sucked for humans for all but, like, the past couple hundred years anyway. it especially wasn¡¯t great for women,¡± i pointed out. unohana nodded thoughtfully at that. ¡°the soul society doesn¡¯t really have that problem,¡± she explained. ¡°here, everything is determined by how much spiritual energy a person has. gender means nothing in the face of power like that.¡± unohana continued massaging my scalp as we talked. her fingers moved in steady, practiced circles, and i couldn¡¯t help but sink further into her lap. it was almost enough to make me forget she wasn¡¯t entirely thrilled with me right now. ¡°what is your world like?¡± she asked, her voice soft but curious. ¡°would i even fit in there?¡± i opened one eye to glance up at her, smirking a little. ¡°of course you would,¡± i said. ¡°my world¡¯s a crazy place. heroes and villains constantly popping up, fighting in the streets, or trying to save the day. you could fit in anywhere you wanted. go out and fight crime if that¡¯s your thing, or open a clinic or hospital and put out miracle cures all day long. you¡¯d have people lining up around the block.¡± unohana¡¯s fingers paused for a moment, and i caught a flicker of thought crossing her face before she resumed the massage. ¡°that sounds... like a lot.¡± ¡°it is,¡± i admitted with a chuckle. ¡°but it¡¯s got its perks. my sister gabriel and my niece asia, they¡¯re almost as revered as i am. they go to entire hospitals and heal everyone inside every few days..." i kept telling her more and more about ¡°earth marvel dxd.¡± [we¡¯re gonna need to come up with a better name for it...] ... ...i woke up what felt like a few hours later, still resting my head on unohana¡¯s lap. i guessed i must have fallen asleep at some point. smiling up at her, i felt a flicker of peace, but it didn¡¯t last long. my smile faded as i noticed we weren¡¯t alone anymore. ¡°good, you¡¯re awake,¡± unohana said softly, her fingers still idly combing through my hair. ¡°you have visitors.¡± sitting up, i blinked in confusion as several members of squad 11 stood nearby, looking uncharacteristically nervous. my gaze drifted downward, and that¡¯s when i saw it. a body. kenpachi zaraki¡¯s body, lying motionless on the ground. his chest was completely caved in, and he wasn¡¯t breathing. ¡°shit,¡± i muttered under my breath. i realized in that moment that i had killed him with that punch earlier¡ªthe one that sent him flying right out of the soul society. the squad 11 members began begging me all at once, their voices overlapping in frantic desperation. ¡°please, bring him back!¡± ¡°we¡¯re sorry for whatever he did! he always causes problems, but he doesn¡¯t deserve this!¡± ¡°captain zaraki¡¯s the heart of squad 11! we need him!¡± i glanced over at unohana, who let out a long sigh. ¡°i didn¡¯t waste my life training up that big lug just for him to end up dead from a single punch,¡± she said. ¡°bring him back please.¡± i nodded. ¡°yeah, yeah, i got it. don¡¯t worry.¡± standing up, i walked over to kenpachi¡¯s body, pulling back my foot. ¡°wake up, you lazy bastard,¡± i muttered before kicking him hard in the side of the head. his body rag-dolled through the air, though nowhere near as far as when i punched him earlier. he crashed into a nearby wall, the impact causing it to crumble into a pile of rubble. ¡°and layla scores...¡± i muttered to myself, giggling playfully as the squad 11 members all looked at me in horror for what i just did. kenpachi started pulling himself out of the rubble, looking completely fine but visibly disoriented. ¡°oi, what the hell happened?¡± he demanded, rubbing his head. ¡°the last thing i remember was meeting the old fart and all those other stuffy captains...¡± ¡°you died, genius,¡± i said, crossing my arms. kenpachi frowned, processing that for a moment. then he let out a low growl. ¡°...died? just like that? damn it, that¡¯s pathetic.¡± he stood up fully, brushing off the dust and cracking his neck. ¡°next time, it¡¯ll be different. me and yachiru¡ªi mean, nozarashi¡ªwon¡¯t lose so easily.¡± i waved him off dismissively. ¡°it¡¯s fine. he got better.¡± ichigo sputtered, clearly struggling to process that information. ¡°what do you mean ¡®he got better¡¯? that¡¯s not how¡ªwait, how did you even¡ª¡± ignoring the barrage of questions he threw at me, i turned my attention to o?etsu nimaiya. ¡°so,¡± i said, placing my hands on my hips. ¡°where¡¯s my zanpakuto??¡± o?etsu cringed slightly before gesturing for me to follow. ¡°right this way,¡± he said, his voice a bit strained. i wasn¡¯t expecting that kind of reaction. ¡°what¡¯s with the face?¡± i asked, quirking an eyebrow. he avoided my gaze. ¡°you¡¯ll know it when you see it.¡± instead of leading me into his workshop, like i expected, he brought me to... his house? i blinked, glancing around the modest structure as i stepped inside. politeness won out, and i slipped off my shoes before following him further in. he led me through a simple but cozy space until we reached the kitchen. sitting at the table, snacking on crackers, was an absolutely adorable little girl. she couldn¡¯t have been older than seven or eight. she wore a white kimono, just a shade paler than her skin, and had long white hair cascading down her back. her gray eyes lit up when she noticed me, and i couldn¡¯t miss the fluffy white angel wings sprouting from her back. ¡°momma! i knew you¡¯d come!¡± she cried, crumbs flying out of her mouth as she bolted out of her chair and latched onto the bottom of my shirt in a tight hug. ¡°mama?¡± i muttered, looking down at her in surprise. ¡°i guess i¡¯ve got another one...¡± [heh. leave it to you to have a zanpakuto? that is literally just an angel.] ¡°not just any angel,¡± i said quietly, examining her closely. despite her small size and only having two wings, she radiated an overwhelming power. it wasn¡¯t spiritual energy exactly¡ªit felt more... conceptual. the girl finally let go of my shirt and smiled up at me. ¡°hello, little one. what¡¯s your name?¡± i asked her. she didn¡¯t answer right away. instead, she grinned cheekily at me before a flash of white light engulfed the room. when it faded, she was gone. in her place was a brilliant katana, practically glowing as it hovered in the air. i reached out instinctively, grabbing the hilt. it felt unbelievably soft, almost like holding feathers themselves, but i knew the blade was impossibly sharp. more than that... it was powerful. ¡°tenshi no sa?ba?,¡± i said, her name coming to me instinctively. angelic sever. the blade¡¯s power was as beautiful as it was terrifying. it could sever bonds... on a conceptual level. [holy shit!!! asdfgh!!!! its power is absolutely horrifying! you absolutely can never, ever tell people what this blade can do! in fact, don¡¯t freaking use it ever!] ''why are you freaking out?'' i asked the system in my head. [that blade of yours can permanently sever a gamer system from its host! you¡¯ve never met other gamers because you¡¯ve stuck to your multiverse, but remember when i told you most of them are pieces of shit with massive egos? if they find out you can take their powers, they¡¯ll all declare war on you!] i rolled my eyes. ¡°i¡¯ll be careful...¡± [you better be!] with a wave of my hand, i used creation of all things to manifest a sheath for the blade. ¡°ten-chan,¡± i said, deciding on her nickname. o?etsu was watching me critically, arms crossed. ¡°tenshi no sa?ba?, huh? the only zanpakuto? i never made myself. what¡¯s it do?¡± i stuck my tongue out at him. ¡°it¡¯s a secret.¡± ¡°ah, man. now you¡¯ve got me really curious.¡± ¡°too bad,¡± i said, sliding ten-chan into her new sheath. ¡°i¡¯ve got a meeting with the soul king now.¡± o?etsu¡¯s expression shifted, replaced by something much more serious. ¡°so you do... i¡¯m sure senjumaru is waiting to escort you. a word of advice, the soul king is probably not going to be what you¡¯re expecting, but he¡¯s very important. don¡¯t you dare harm him!¡± i rolled my eyes. ¡°it¡¯s not like i was even planning on meeting him. i¡¯m sure everything will be fine...¡± with that, i headed back outside... ... a half hour later... ¡°puchi!¡± ...everything was not fine. the soul king had definitely not been what i''d been expecting. not that it mattered in the end because he was now very much dead. my new zanpakuto?, tenshi no sa?ba?, was currently impaling him through the heart. the palace around us started violently shaking as the soul king¡¯s connection to his realm, along with the entire world, was severed with his death. [welp, that happened...] xxx chapter 313 chapter 313 chapter 313: ¨C layla ¨C i trudged up the long, winding staircase, my footsteps echoing in the silence. the members of squad zero had accompanied me only halfway before halting. ¡°we don¡¯t go any farther. the rest is yours to handle.¡± then they turned on their heels and marched away, leaving me alone to face this so-called soul king. i had no clue what to expect from this guy. my old anime knowledge was worthless at this point. a massive set of doors loomed before me, humming with palpable spiritual pressure. when i was close enough to touch them, they slid open on their own. ¡°dramatic much...¡± i grumbled, stepping into the palace halls. i expected some grand spectacle¡ªornate walls, fancy columns, maybe a choir of angels singing in the distance? instead, the place was strangely plain and damn near empty. no guards, no advisors, not even a single piece of furniture. i walked forward, the echo of my shoes the only sound keeping me company. after a short while, i found a set of thick crimson curtains. they looked out of place, as if someone had tossed them up as an afterthought to hide something behind them. i could sense a presence just beyond¡ªa faint, sluggish energy that barely felt alive. my pulse quickened. ¡°hello?¡± i lifted my hand and channeled a bit of telekinesis, pulling the curtains aside. the sight that greeted me made my stomach lurch. ¡°what the fuck?¡± i blurted. encased in shimmering crystal was¡ªwell, it looked like a corpse. a mutilated corpse... there were no limbs. just a torso and a head, the features slack and lifeless. i stared, my mind spinning. ¡°this is the soul king? you¡¯ve gotta be kidding me. what the hell is wrong with this universe?¡± he¡ªor it¡ªremained as still as a statue. the faint spiritual pressure came from inside the crystal, but i couldn¡¯t sense any will or intelligence behind it. ¡°hello!?¡± i yelled. ¡°can you hear me in there?¡± i stepped closer, half-expecting an alarm to go off or some hidden guard to appear and try to slice me down for disrespect. but the hall stayed quiet. i tried again, louder this time, ¡°helloooo, soul king?¡± i reached up and rapped on the crystal with my knuckles. it felt cold and unyielding, more like a coffin than any royal throne. i scoffed. ¡°damn. this is beyond fucked up.¡± i circled around the crystal, examining every angle. there were no tubes or wires, nothing hooking this corpse-king to a machine. yet the entire palace pulsed with spiritual energy that clearly originated from him¡ªor it. ¡°how the hell does this even work?¡± i wondered. part of me wanted to bail out and pretend i¡¯d never seen this. another part was morbidly intrigued. if this pitiful figure was the lynchpin of this entire universe, what did that say about everything else? i rubbed my temples and let out a long sigh. this was definitely not in the brochure... [what brochure...?] ¡®i was being facetious!¡¯ [i know...] i stared at the soul king¡¯s unmoving form and was on the verge of leaving when its eyes shifted. they actually fucking turned to look straight at me. the crystal surrounding its torso glowed with a strange, pulsating light. i opened my mouth to say, ¡°huh, i wonder what¡¯s goi¡ª¡± but never finished. a beam of raw energy hurtled toward me, aimed right for my chest! ¡°susanoo!¡± i yelled in a panic. instantly, a purple ribcage formed around me, my spiritual guardian flaring to life. the beam slammed against the ribs. the attack faded after a moment, leaving me breathless and pissed. ¡°the fuck was that?¡± i muttered with my heart hammering. as if in response, the soul king¡¯s crystal prison glowed again. this time, some kind of blue tentacle formed and then rapidly snapped towards me. there was something ominous about it, like it wanted more than just to blow me to pieces this time. the instant it made contact with my susanoo, it tore straight through the protective ribs with ease! ¡°that¡¯s not possible,¡± i gasped. my susanoo was made of my light energy, cosmic power, and the might of the infinity stones themselves. yet this bastard¡¯s attack cut through it like wet tissue paper. my wings flared behind me and i propelled myself backward, so fast a sonic boom detonated right there in the palace. the shockwave tore through the floor and walls, leaving cracks across the marble and stone. thankfully, i managed to dodge just in time. the tentacle narrowly missed me before retracting. [holy shit! i know what this piece of shit is trying to do! he¡¯s trying to body-jack you by latching his soul onto yours! that was a direct soul attack!] ¡°that¡¯s not gonna happen,¡± i growled under my breath, glaring at the wretched figure in the crystal. ¡°how dare he try to hurt mama!¡± ten-chan shrieked from my waist. my new zanpakuto trembled with anger, practically vibrating in her sheath. ¡°let me stab him!¡± ten-chan said eagerly. damn, despite being so adorable, she didn¡¯t fuck around... [i can¡¯t believe i¡¯m going to say this...but use your sword. until you have the soul stone, you won''t be able to block soul attacks without it.] i snorted in disbelief. ¡°didn¡¯t you tell me not to use my sword?¡± i mean, i wasn''t going to listen, but the system seemed pretty damn adamant... [just this once is fine! you¡¯re at the bum-fuck end of your multiverse. no one will sense it... probably.] i should¡¯ve been more cautious, weighed the consequences, but in that moment, i was too pissed to give a damn. the soul king¡ªthis rotting torso in a crystal¡ªhad tried to hijack my body like some kind of second rate xianxia villain. ¡°tough crowd...¡± ¡°you killed the soul king!? how dare you!¡± oetsu shouted, swinging an incredibly sharp looking blade at my face. i conjured a lightspear to block it, and was surprised when the guy''s sword managed to almost cut halfway into the spear before it was stopped! i let out a whistle. damn, the creator of the zanpakuto? had one sharp ass sword! unfortunately for him it wasn''t sharp enough because it got stuck and i was able to use the distraction to kick him square in the balls. i wasn''t proud of it! but he immediately went down... ¡°not cool...¡± he whispered in pain while cradling into the fetal position. a flurry of silken cloth ripped through the air. senjumaru glided forward, her many mechanical arms weaving strands of golden thread and cloth that whipped around my body. she was quick, and for a moment, the thick cloth pinned my wings to my sides! ¡°i have you now!¡± she declared. ¡°no you don''t!¡± i declared right back. i flexed and tore the cloth apart with my muscles and bare hands. senjumaru staggered back, eyes wide with surprise. ichibe hyosube darted at me next! he was wielding a giant japanese paint brush covered in black ink! ¡°i will erase your name for the crime you''ve committed!¡± he swung his brush and black ink came flying in my direction. ¡°almighty push!¡± i snapped. the ink was sent flying right back at him and splattered in his eyes and mouth. he comically crashed onto the ground and started choking on his own ink while scrubbing his eyes. ¡°ow! that stings!¡± all three members of squad zero had failed to avenge their king with their first attacks, and after a couple seconds to recover, it looked like they were all about to try again. but before any of them could, ten-chan stamped her tiny foot on the floor and shouted, ¡°stop it right now!¡± ¡°why should we brat¨Ceeeeeehhhhh!?¡± oetsu suddenly shouted in disbelief as he got a proper look at ten-chan. on the outside she didn''t look different, but the amount of spiritual energy radiating off of her was at least twice as much as before. ¡°she''s.... she''s become the new soul king!?¡± oetsu declared. senjumaru and ichibe both gaped in shock. ten-chan smirked cutely and put her tiny hands on her hips. ¡°none of you are allowed to hurt momma! the bad man wanted to die! everything''s fine now!¡± she explained. i don''t exactly know if everything was ¡°fine¡± but the world didn''t seem to be ending at the very least. ...one not so long explanation later, and the three of them had to bitterly accept that they were all technically out of a job now... ¡°what should we do now, soul princess!? we''ve been guarding the soul king for over a thousand years!¡± ichibe asked ten-chan like she had all the answers. i had a feeling she was wise for her age... she just blinked her eyes at him. ¡°you all should take a nap!¡± ...but not that wise. ichibe blinked his eyes right back at her. i reached down and scooped ten-chan up in my arms. ¡°yeah, so like... we''re just gonna go if that''s cool.¡± before they could argue or try to stop me from leaving with their new soul princess, i immediately hopped us both through a purple portal and we ended up back at the squad four barracks in the soul society. i think. the place looked different. everything was on fire and there were a lot of dead bodies scattered around. quincy and shinigami bodies. i could sense, see, and hear intense fighting coming from pretty much every single direction. ¡°oh come on! i was only gone for like an hour!¡± i shouted to know one in particular. [and that''s probably why the quincys chose to attack...] ¡°this time i''m killing the quincy king!¡± xxx chapter 314 chapter 314 Chapter 314: ¨C Layla ¨C The Soul Society was in utter chaos. Fighting broke out everywhere, and I could see the bodies of Shinigami and Quincy scattered across the battlefield as I flew over the carnage. The air was thick with spiritual pressure, screams, and the clash of weapons. There were too many dead to count. Lady Death had made it clear that mass resurrections were off the table unless absolutely necessary. This definitely didn¡¯t qualify. Most of these people¡ªspirits, whatever¡ªweren¡¯t my problem. ¡°Die, you Quincy trash!¡± ¡°Death to the Shinigami!¡± ¡°Your time is at an end!¡± The shouting echoed below me, punctuated by explosions of reiatsu and the screams of the dying. It was brutal, and honestly, I couldn¡¯t help but be a little impressed at how intense the whole thing was between the two sides. Ten-chan, back in her sword form, rested snugly in her sheath on my hip. I hadn¡¯t really had the chance to see how strong she was outside of being a zanpakuto, and now wasn¡¯t the time to experiment. She was safe where she was for now, and I¡¯d keep it that way. Below, a familiar orange haired voice cut through the battlefield. ¡°Getsuga Jushiro!¡± I glanced down and spotted Ichigo Kurosaki, that spiky orange-haired kid, standing on the air and unleashing a massive wave of power. It ripped through a group of Quincies like they were paper. The blast left nothing but scorched earth and craters in its wake. Damn, kid. Overkill much? I swooped down toward him. Up close, he looked rough. His face was pale, and there was a flicker of something in his eyes that wasn¡¯t just exhaustion. I wondered if he¡¯d ever actually killed anyone before this, aside from Hollows. Probably not. Even when he stormed the Soul Society with his ragtag group of friends, none of them had killed anyone. That¡¯s probably why they got off so easy in the end. Ichigo noticed me as I landed a few feet away, my wings folding behind me. His expression shifted from tired to annoyed almost instantly. ¡°It took you long enough to get here!¡± he shouted over the noise. ¡°What the hell did the Soul King even want with you in the first place? Couldn¡¯t he have waited until this invasion was over?¡± I scratched the back of my head, trying to figure out how to phrase what had just happened without sounding completely insane. ¡°Uh... probably not,¡± I said awkwardly. ¡°Especially since he basically summoned me over there to commit suicide.¡± Ichigo froze, standing on the air like it was solid ground, and just stared at me. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, waving a hand like it wasn¡¯t a big deal. ¡°The Soul King¡¯s dead. Long story. Anyway, there¡¯s a new Soul Princess now. She¡¯s adorable, and you can meet her later. But first, I have to go kill Yhwach, I guess. The guy made me look bad the first time he got away.¡± Ichigo¡¯s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, his brain clearly struggling to catch up. I gave him a cheerful wave and launched myself back into the air, ignoring the angry and confused shouts he hurled after me. Why was it so fun messing with that kid? The familiar heat slammed into me like a wave as I dove downward, the scorching energy licking at the air. Head Captain Yamamoto, surrounded in his Bankai¡¯s flames, was locked in battle with the Quincy King, Yhwach, and it was clear things weren¡¯t going well for the old man. From what I could see, he was getting his ass handed to him. When I landed next to him, it was obvious he was in rough shape. His left arm was gone¡ªthe stump seared shut to stop the bleeding¡ªand burns and deep cuts covered his body. His breathing was ragged.. ¡°You look like shit, old man,¡± I said ¡°How are you losing this badly?¡± He lowered his scalding blade slightly, his shoulders heaving with every breath. ¡°Yhwach...¡± he began, his voice rasping like dry paper, ¡°is far stronger than I remember. He has some new ability that lets him see my attacks before they even land.¡± Before I could respond, Yhwach let out a deep, mocking laugh that echoed across the battlefield. ¡°I have always possessed this ability! It was stolen from me by that fat bastard, Ichibe Hyosube. But now my full powers have returned! This world will bow to me! The Soul King will perish by my hand!¡± I turned my attention to Yhwach and immediately grimaced. His eyes... what the actual fuck was going on with his eyes? I¡¯d seen plenty of freaky eye powers in my time¡ªhell, I¡¯d had the Rinnegan for years¡ªbut this guy¡¯s eyes were on a whole different level of disgusting. They bulged out of his face unnaturally, each one filled with five separate pupils that spun and twitched in random directions. Just looking at them made my skin crawl. ¡°Gross,¡± I muttered. Yhwach¡¯s lips curled into a sneer. ¡°Women...¡± he said, his voice dripping with contempt. ¡°Always so shallow. They can never appreciate the sacrifices necessary to obtain supreme power!¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°I can appreciate power just fine,¡± I shot back, ¡°but I don¡¯t need to look like I just rolled around in toxic waste to get it.¡± Yamamoto let out an uncharacteristic chuckle at my comment, but it quickly turned into a grimace as he steadied himself on his sword. ¡°I''ll just take a step back and let you finish this...¡± he muttered. ¡°I¡¯m getting too old for this.¡± I sighed playfully, shaking my head as I processed the old man¡¯s comment. The Bleach universe never failed to baffle me. Seriously, how the hell did a spirit even get old in the first place? Yhwach gripped his massive sword tightly, his gaze locked on Yamamoto. For a moment, I thought he was about to attack the old man again, but he stopped himself. ¡°It makes no difference whether I kill you now or later, Genryusai Yamamoto. You and all the Shinigami will perish regardless.¡± His voice was dripping with disdain as he turned his many-eyed glare toward me. ¡°As for you, I see you¡¯ve acquired one of those accursed zanpakuto. Draw your blade, and we shall finish this. You will not find me such an easy opponent this time.¡± He sounded awfully confident. Suddenly, the sky above the Soul Society darkened, thick clouds swirling ominously as a strange energy pulsed through the air. Behind me, Yamamoto muttered under his breath. ¡°This is ominous.¡± I nodded in agreement, though something about it didn¡¯t feel right. ¡°Yeah, no kidding,¡± I said, my eyes narrowing as I focused on the energy he was releasing. It was powerful, no doubt about that, but... it didn¡¯t feel like it was aimed at me. That raised a lot of questions. ¡°What the hell is he up to?¡± I asked aloud, more curious than concerned. The energy from the sky began to spiral downward, reaching out like threads of light that connected to Quincy soldiers scattered across the battlefield. I watched as their spiritual energy was drained from their bodies, leaving them crumpling to the ground one by one. ¡°What is happening!?¡± ¡°Your majesty!? Why!?¡± ¡°No! I was always loyal!¡± Their screams echoed through the air, and I felt Yamamoto tense behind me. ¡°He¡¯s taking their powers,¡± the old man said grimly, his voice heavy with disdain. ¡°Sacrificing his own people to increase his strength.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just messed up,¡± I muttered. I turned back to Yhwach, who was literally glowing now, his body practically radiating with the stolen energy. His many eyes locked onto me and he grinned smugly. ¡°Do you see now, interloper?¡± he boomed. ¡°This is the power of a true God!" ¨C Unohana ¨C Unohana stood among the surviving Shinigami, her hand resting lightly on her sword. She watched the battlefield where Layla and Yhwach faced off, the clash so overwhelming that it had forced the entire war to pause. She wiped the sweat from her brow, trying to steady her nerves. ¡®What kind of woman did I get involved with?¡¯ she thought, eyes glued to Layla. Yhwach¡¯s voice boomed across the silence, full of arrogance and venom. ¡°Do you see now, interloper? This is the power of a true God!¡± He stood tall, his body practically glowing with the stolen energy of his soldiers. He had drained their life forces to fuel himself, and the oppressive weight of his power made the air hard to breathe. Unohana tightened her grip on her sword. She knew that even with her Bankai at full strength, she wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against him. Next to her, Zaraki Kenpachi¡¯s face was twisted in a rare frown. He wasn¡¯t charging in for once, clearly understanding the gap in their abilities. If Zaraki wasn¡¯t confident, that said everything. The remaining Shinigami behind them were visibly nervous, fidgeting and glancing between each other. Their hands trembled on their weapons, their fear rolling off them in waves. Unohana couldn¡¯t blame them. This wasn¡¯t a fight anyone here could win. Except, apparently, Layla. Layla just snorted, crossing her arms under her chest. She looked unimpressed, even amused. ¡°The power of a God?¡± Layla said, her voice laced with mockery. ¡°Oh please... let me show you the true power of a Goddess! Cosmic Susanoo!¡± She spread her arms wide, and her voice reverberated through the air, making Unohana¡¯s skin prickle. Then everything turned purple. The sky above the Soul Society shifted, or maybe it didn¡¯t shift at all. A massive angel of glowing purple light appeared, so enormous that it blocked out the view of the blue sky entirely. Unohana¡¯s breath hitched. The thing was incomprehensibly large, its size beyond anything she had ever encountered. Was it bigger than the entire Soul Society? Bigger than the Rukongai? She couldn¡¯t tell, and honestly, she didn¡¯t want to. It was just... overwhelming. ¡°Intimidating as fuck...¡± she muttered under her breath. She wasn''t usually one to curse, but she felt like this situation called for it. Yhwach¡¯s confidence finally cracked. His head tilted back as he stared up... and up... and up. His many grotesque eyes darted around, unable to process the sheer scale of what he was seeing. ¡°Impossible...¡± he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. His jaw hung slack. The angel¡¯s booming voice cut through the air, unmistakably Layla¡¯s. ¡°Universal Pull!¡± Yhwach didn¡¯t even have time to react. He simply screamed as he was yanked off the ground, flying thousands of kilometers into the sky in seconds. The pull was so violent, so absolute, that it left no room for resistance. Layla¡¯s voice echoed again, this time with a hint of amusement. ¡°You know what else has a lot of disgusting eyes like you? Flies! And you know what happens to annoying flies?¡± The angel raised its massive right hand, holding an equally enormous, glowing purple version of Layla¡¯s zanpakuto?. ¡°They Get Swatted!¡± Layla¡¯s giggle followed the declaration. The massive sword swung through the sky, its speed impossibly fast for its size. Dodging wasn¡¯t even a consideration. The blade itself was so massive that it could have cleaved through the entire Soul Society in one go. Unohana squinted, unable to see the exact moment of impact, but she felt it. Yhwach flared his power desperately, unleashing everything he had in a final attempt to defend himself. It didn¡¯t matter. The instant the blade connected, his power snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. And then there was silence. The oppressive weight of Yhwach¡¯s energy was gone. Maybe the history books would tell it differently, thousands of years in the future. Maybe they would say the king of the Quincy went out in an epic final clash? But to Unohana, he barely even put up a whimper in the end... XXX Yay! That wraps up the bleach arc for now. Layla goes home again, next chapter! chapter 315 chapter 315 Chapter 315: ¨C Layla ¨C Everything had been wrapped up nicely in the world of Bleach.@@@@ [Sure it did...] Okay, that wasn¡¯t true... I had basically decided to just run away from all responsibility and deal with it all later. After defeating Yhwach, I used some power to drastically amplify my voice and declared that all fighting from this point on was over and that the surviving Quincy and Shinigami would get along... or else. Unsurprisingly, the fact that I could summon a gigantic purple angel that one-shot Yhwach pretty much made them all compliant, and the fighting stopped then and there. Unohana wanted to stay in the Soul Society for a few more weeks to heal everyone after the fighting, but after that, she requested I come back and get her. ... I stepped out of a portal into Kyoto. The sun was setting, bathing Yasaka¡¯s palace in a warm orange light, and the cicadas were chirping all around. The atmosphere was peaceful. Yasaka was sitting on her back porch, sipping tea with that serene expression she always wore. Kunou was in the yard, practicing some magic. Ten-chan¡¯s eyes lit up the moment she spotted Kunou. She bolted across the yard to introduce herself as my daughter and asked if they were sisters now? Kunou, who looked a couple of years older, immediately puffed out her chest and declared herself the big sister! Ten-chan seemed more than okay with that, and soon the two of them were running around, laughing and playing as if they¡¯d known each other forever. Yasaka smiled fondly at the sight. ¡°Ara... when did you pop out another one, Layla?¡± she teased, setting her teacup down. ¡°It¡¯s a long story,¡± I replied with a grin as I walked over to her. I took a seat on the porch right next to her, so close that our legs were touching. ¡°I''m sure it is,¡± Yasaka said, her voice soft and teasing. She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek. The simple contact sent a flush of heat to my face, and I turned my head slightly to face her. That one kiss seemed to embolden her, and soon, more kisses followed. Yasaka¡¯s arms slid around my back as she pulled me closer, her lips trailing along my jawline until she captured my mouth with her own. My heart raced as I kissed her back, losing myself in the moment. Her soft moans filled the air, sending a shiver down my spine. It was only when her lips parted from mine, leaving us both breathless, that we remembered where we were. We glanced toward the yard, relieved to see that Ten-chan and Kunou were still engrossed in their attempts to catch beetles and hadn¡¯t noticed our very heated make-out session. Yasaka¡¯s arms remained around me, and she gently tugged me down until my head was resting on her plush thighs. ¡°I¡¯d very much like to hear all about how you acquired another precious daughter,¡± Yasaka said as she began stroking my hair with a tenderness that made my chest ache. I let out a soft, contented hum, the tension in my body melting away under her gentle touch. ¡°It all started when I noticed that my sword was sick...¡± ... I finished my explanation of everything that had happened in the other universe. Yasaka had been listening intently the entire time, her fingers never stopping their rhythmic motions as they combed through my hair. Her touch was soothing, almost hypnotic, and it made recounting the craziness of my latest adventure feel less exhausting. ¡°That¡¯s quite the tale,¡± Yasaka said softly, her amber eyes fixed on me. ¡°It sure was,¡± I replied with a sigh, though a small smile tugged at my lips. ¡°Some places I go can get pretty crazy.¡± ¡°Momma, look at this!¡± Ten-chan suddenly called out, her voice high with excitement. She came running over, holding a very large rhinoceros beetle in her small hands. She grinned from ear to ear as she showed off her prize. ¡°Wow, that¡¯s quite the big one you caught there,¡± Yasaka said with an amused smile. ¡°Are you going to keep it as a pet?¡± Ten-chan shook her head quickly. ¡°Nah, I¡¯d probably forget to feed it after a couple days and then it would die.¡± Both Yasaka and I sweatdropped at her blunt honesty. Well, at least she knew herself well enough to admit that... Ten-chan ran back to Kunou, holding up the beetle like a trophy. Kunou pouted as she compared it to the much smaller beetle she¡¯d caught. ¡°Mine isn¡¯t even half as big,¡± she grumbled. ¡°They get along very well,¡± Yasaka remarked. Hela''s heiress Hilga, and her two sisters, were nearby on the carpet playing with large blocks, giggling as they worked together to build the tallest tower possible. Layla¡¯s clone knelt beside them. ¡°That¡¯s very good, girls. You should add that block there, and¡ª¡± ¡°Dynamic entry!¡± The shout rang out as a portal tore open behind the clone, startling everyone. Before anyone could react, a familiar figure shot out of the portal and delivered a sharp kick to the back of the clone¡¯s head! Causing it to pop in a puff of smoke! The kicker was... none other than Layla herself. ¡°Ow!¡± Layla groaned as she landed unceremoniously on the carpet, rubbing the back of her head. ¡°When I got the clone¡¯s memories back, I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d remember the pain too!¡± she whined. Then her expression brightened into a wide smile as she waved at everyone. ¡°I¡¯m back, girls!¡± Hilga blinked in confusion, tilting her head as she looked at her mother. ¡°Momma... why did you kick yourself?¡± Layla shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°I thought it would be funny,¡± she admitted with a sheepish grin. The three young girls exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. Their high-pitched giggles filled the room as they ran toward Layla and tackled her in a group hug, their tiny arms wrapping around her tightly. ¡°Welcome back, my love,¡± Hela said as she rose gracefully from her chair. She crossed the room to where Layla knelt, bending down to join the hug and pressing a soft kiss to Layla¡¯s temple. ¡°I take it your journey was successful?¡± Layla nodded enthusiastically, her grin widening. ¡°Yep! And we have a new daughter! You''ll meet her later.¡± Hela raised an eyebrow at that, folding her arms as curiosity flickered across her face. ¡°Oh? I¡¯m sure there¡¯s quite the story there.¡± Layla glanced around the room, taking in the cozy scene before her eyes landed on Frigga and Hestia. ¡°Where are Rias and Sona?¡± she asked. ¡°They¡¯re outside the city training with Vali Lucifer,¡± Hela explained. ¡°The young man has been making significant progress here in Asgard. Our healers have done wonders for his damaged mind, and Sona and Rias felt they needed to sharpen their combat skills.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Layla tilted her head. ¡°Has anything else been going on here?¡± she asked. Hela smirked slightly. ¡°Don¡¯t you get the memories of your shadow clone when they pop?¡± ¡°Uh...¡± Layla¡¯s face scrunched up in thought as she let go of her daughters. ¡°I think... me popping her violently made it so I didn¡¯t get, like, half her memories.¡± She sighed dramatically. ¡°Once again... I thought that would¡¯ve been way funnier, but hindsight is 20/20.¡± Hela chuckled softly and leaned in to kiss Layla on the cheek. ¡°I suppose it is. You haven¡¯t really missed much. The Nine Realms, other than Midgard, have been relatively peaceful. We haven¡¯t even had to deal with any pirates or raiders lately.¡± Frigga looked up from her knitting with a soft smile. ¡°Sometimes boring is good,¡± she said. Hestia, who had been quietly tending the fire, suddenly spoke up. ¡°What about the you-know-who stealing the you-know-what?¡± she pointed out. Layla¡¯s curious gaze snapped back to Hela, who let out a small cough. ¡°Right... there was that..." Layla curiously tilted her head at Hela, waiting for her to continue. Hela cleared her throat. ¡°I suspected that once you got your Zanpakuto? repaired, you¡¯d want to continue your quest to claim all of the Infinity Stones.¡± Layla nodded. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I was planning on doing.¡± ¡°The Space Stone was here in Asgard, and your Ancient One has the Time Stone,¡± Hela said, watching Layla¡¯s reaction. Layla nodded again, confirming her knowledge. ¡°The only one unaccounted for was the Soul Stone, but you already knew where that one was, right?¡± ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Layla nodded. Hela hesitated, scratching her cheek awkwardly. ¡°Right, well... I had the Space Stone specially set aside for you to absorb when you returned. The only problem is... it got stolen.¡± She grimaced slightly before continuing. ¡°By Loki.¡± Layla blinked, processing the news, then threw her hands up dramatically. ¡°Oh my God!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°Of course it was Loki! After everything I did for him too... Why am I not surprised? ¡± ¡°In hindsight, it¡¯s not,¡± Hela admitted, giving Layla a sheepish smile. ¡°The good news is we sort of know where he went. The bad news is that it¡¯s Loki, so that might be a fake trail he set up to slip away from us.¡± ¡°Are you leaving again already, momma?¡± the girls asked Layla sadly. They clearly didn''t want her to go after she had just gotten back. Hela could admit she didn''t want Layla to leave so soon either which was why she was hesitant to tell her in the first place. Layla shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s a big universe, but not that big. I¡¯m sure Loki won''t be getting too far if I give him a couple days head start before I start chasing after him. For now, I just want to spend time with my girls!¡± Hela smiled when Layla plopped herself down on the floor and started playing with them. XXX chapter 316 chapter 316 A bit of a more insightful chapter. Also there''s a small R-18 scene. Chapter 316: ¨C Layla ¨C The sky outside Asgard¡¯s walls was perfectly clear, the perfect backdrop for my daughters¡¯ first real flying lesson. Hilga, Sia, and Lia¡ªmy precious trio of cuteness and chaos¡ªhovered in front of me, their little black wings fluttering in excitement. It was adorable, really, watching their tiny forms bobbing unsteadily in the air. ¡°Alright, girls,¡± I said, grinning as I adjusted my stance mid-air. ¡°Flying isn¡¯t just about looking cute¡ªeven if you¡¯ve already nailed that part. You¡¯ve gotta know how to control your speed and balance. Watch me.¡± I spread my wings wide, feeling the familiar pull of the air against them. ¡°To slow down, you spread your wings out like this. Make yourself as big as possible. It¡¯s like hitting the brakes.¡± I demonstrated, coming to a smooth halt mid-air. ¡°And if you wanna speed up, flap them like you mean it, but in rhythm. Like this.¡± With a few strong beats, I shot forward, then circled back to them. Hilga clapped her hands. ¡°Mommy, you¡¯re so fast!¡± ¡°Of course I am, sweetheart,¡± I said, puffing up a little. ¡°I¡¯m your mom, after all.¡± Sia, the most curious of the three, tilted her head. ¡°Do we have to flap all the time? It¡¯s kinda hard.¡± ¡°Good question,¡± I said, ruffling her hair as I hovered closer. ¡°You don¡¯t actually need to flap at all if you don¡¯t want to. Your wings are basically magic. Think about where you want to go, and they¡¯ll take you there. But flapping helps for sharp turns or extra speed. It¡¯s all about knowing what works for you.¡± Lia, the quietest of the trio, was already experimenting, gliding in slow, deliberate circles. ¡°Like this?¡± she asked, her little voice carrying over the wind. ¡°Exactly like that, Lia,¡± I said, beaming. ¡°You¡¯re a natural.¡± Down on the ground, Hela, Rias, and Sona were watching us with varying degrees of interest. Hela leaned casually against a tree, her dark armor gleaming in the sunlight. Rias and Sona stood next to her, Rias with her arms crossed and a smirk playing on her lips, while Sona looked more reserved, as always. ¡°They¡¯re doing great, Layla,¡± Rias called up. ¡°Must¡¯ve gotten their flying skills from their mom.¡± ¡°Obviously,¡± I shot back, giving her a wink. ¡°They¡¯re perfect, like me.¡± "I was talking about me and Sona." Rias pouted. "And Hela I guess, but she can''t fly..." Hela snorted. "I can fly just fine while standing on one of my conjured swords." "We all know that doesn''t count," Rias smirked. Hela simply pouted and shook her head. Had any person outside of our group openly made fun of Hela like this, they would have been in for a world of hurt, but we all knew Hela was a softy when it came to all of our beautiful lovers. Besides...she''d probably just punish Rias for her words later in the bedroom and I''m sure Rias would enjoy it. I called out to the three women below. Telling them to come up into the sky and join us! Sona and Hela immediately took to the air, much to our kids'' excitement, but I noticed something was up with Rias. She suddenly looked like she was staring off into space... ¨C Rias ¨C A few months ago... Rias had lost track of how many times she¡¯d paced across the polished floor of Layla¡¯s penthouse. The place felt emptier now, quieter¡ªtoo quiet. Nearly two years had passed since Layla disappeared, leaving her entire harem worried about her. Tonight, though, Hela had called a meeting, gathering every woman who¡¯d ever been part of Layla¡¯s life. It was a hell of a lineup. Hela stood at the head of the room. Natasha lounged on a chair near the window, her expression carefully neutral. Yasaka, regal as ever, sat with her hands folded, her tails swishing slowly as she waited for them to start. Sif leaned against the wall, looking like she¡¯d rather be anywhere else. Rias herself perched on one of the plush couches, next to Sona, who was busy pretending to scroll through her phone. Artemis, Serafall, and even Lady Death had shown up. That last one was kind of a surprise. The kids, thankfully, were being watched by Frigga and Hestia¡ªthe only silver lining in this whole mess. ¡°So,¡± Rias started, breaking the awkward silence. ¡°Is this about Layla¡¯s ship getting stolen by her space dog?¡± Hela actually chuckled at that. ¡°No. But we can talk about that after. I called you all here because the topic of this meeting is important.¡± The topic was, of course, Layla. Hela didn¡¯t waste time sugarcoating things. ¡°Look, it¡¯s been two years. We all know what that means. Layla¡¯s harem¡ªthis harem¡ªis on the verge of breaking apart.¡± Rias wanted to argue, to claim that wasn¡¯t true, but she couldn¡¯t. She¡¯d had more than a few quiet conversations with Sona over the past year, and they both knew the truth. Layla had swept them off their feet when they were both young, horny devils. Then came the whirlwind romance, the pregnancies, the promises of forever. Eighteen years of commitment wasn¡¯t a big deal in the grand scheme of her eternal life, but Rias couldn¡¯t deny she sometimes wondered if she¡¯d committed too soon. Sona had admitted to feeling the same. As Rias scanned the room, she realized she wasn¡¯t alone. A lot of the women looked uncomfortable, avoiding eye contact or fidgeting. The only ones who outright declared they would never leave Layla were Hela, Lady Death, and, surprisingly, Yasaka. ¡°The biggest issue,¡± Hela continued, ¡°is that some of you feel like Layla doesn¡¯t spend as much time with you as she could.¡± ¡°So good~¡± Layla purred. The two of them stayed in that position for a few moments, their bodies entwined and their breaths gradually slowing. Layla placed soft kisses on the back of Rias¡¯s neck, her lips leaving a trail of hickies as she whispered how beautiful Rias was and how much she adored her! Rias smiled, hearing all of those words. ¡®Yep, this was definitely a relationship worth keeping,¡¯ Rias thought to herself, her heart swelling with love and satisfaction... ¨C Hela ¨C Hela couldn¡¯t help but shake her head when Layla and Rias finally reappeared, a full half hour after disappearing. Rias¡¯s crimson hair was slightly messy, and Hela was pretty sure she spotted a few love marks on the sides of the devil¡¯s neck. Subtle, they were not. Rias and Layla both blushed under Hela¡¯s knowing stare, like teenagers caught sneaking out past curfew. Luckily, the kids playing in the sky with Sona didn¡¯t seem to notice their brief absence¡ªor the very adult reason behind it. ¡°Did you two have fun?¡± Hela teased. Layla flashed a bright smile and placed a quick kiss on Rias¡¯s cheek, making the devil blush even harder. ¡°Yep! We had a lot of fun. Although...¡± Layla¡¯s grin turned mischievous. ¡°We forgot to grab whatever Rias left in her bedroom. We might have to go back and search for it again.¡± She giggled, clearly daring Hela to stop her. ¡°Not happening.¡± Hela shut that idea down immediately. ¡°You two were already gone for half an hour. This was supposed to be a family day, so fly back up there and start teaching our children how to do a proper...what is the Midgardian term?¡± She paused, thinking. ¡°Ah, yes. A proper barrel roll.¡± Layla¡¯s eyes lit up with delight. ¡°When did you become so cultured, Hela!?¡± Hela blushed. ¡°I¡¯ve been studying Earth memes in my free time so I can keep up with your humor, my love,¡± she admitted with a touch of pride. Layla¡¯s laughter rang out as she shot into the air, calling out to Hilga, Sia, and Lia. ¡°Alright, girls! We¡¯re playing air tag now. And guess what? Sona¡¯s it!¡± Without missing a beat, she swooped down and tapped Sona on the shoulder, tagging her. Sona let out an exaggerated pout. ¡°That¡¯s not fair! I wasn¡¯t ready!¡± she protested, but she took off after Layla anyway. Hela turned back to Rias, her smirk firmly in place. ¡°Good job,¡± she said. Rias didn¡¯t miss a beat, smirking right back. ¨C Loki ¨C ''Well, this certainly hadn¡¯t gone according to plan,'' Loki thought to himself, slouching in his chair with as much dignity as someone in handcuffs could muster. The interrogation room was as drab and lifeless. Bare walls, a table bolted to the floor, and a single, flickering light overhead. The chains binding his arms to the table looked ordinary enough, but no amount of Asgardian¡ªor Jotun¡ªstrength could break them. Whoever had captured him had clearly done their homework. And, to top it all off, they¡¯d been incredibly rude, leaving him here to stew for hours. Loki sighed loudly, just to remind whatever unseen audience might be watching that he was, in fact, still here. Finally, the door swung open with an air of dramatic finality. A man strolled in, dressed like a Midgardian cop straight out of a cheesy 2000s crime drama. Loki raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. ¡°Loki Odinson,¡± the man said, his tone flat but somehow smug at the same time. ¡°You¡¯re not exactly a rare sight around here. Although...¡± He cocked his head, looking Loki over like he was a particularly confusing puzzle piece. ¡°We have no idea exactly which universe you came from this time. Welcome to the TVA!¡± he declared as if Loki was supposed to know what that was. The guy then dramatically reached into his pocket and dropped a blue stone onto the table in front of Loki with a heavy thunk. The Space Stone. The whole reason Loki had gotten himself into this mess in the first place. Why had he thought taking it was a good idea again? Oh, right. Because it was shiny! He¡¯d hadn¡¯t been able to resist. It had been sitting there, practically begging to be taken. He wasn¡¯t planning to keep it forever, of course¡ªhe wasn¡¯t completely foolish. Making an enemy of that overpowered fallen angel goddess was not on his to-do list. He¡¯d just wanted to play around with it for a while, maybe stir up a bit of harmless chaos, and then return it in a few months. But now, here he was, handcuffed in some ridiculous bureaucratic nightmare of a room. ¡°That stone doesn¡¯t belong to you,¡± Loki said. The man smirked. ¡°It does now. I think I''ll add it to my collection of them!¡± "Your funeral I suppose. I''m pretty sure Layla doesn''t like people stealing from her." Loki pointed out. He actually hoped the guy would fuck around and find out. More entertainment for him that way! The TVA cop, or agent, or whatever he was narrowed his eyes at Loki. "And who exactly is Layla...?" "Wouldn''t you like to know." Loki smirked. "Yes, I very much would..." XXX chapter 317 chapter 317 Chapter 317: ¨C Layla ¨C I turned off the shower with a satisfied sigh, the warm water having done wonders to wash away the day¡¯s exhaustion¡ªnot that I had much to complain about. Today was a very good day. I¡¯d spent quality time with my children, which was always the highlight of my week, and then Rias and Sona both decided to ¡°attack¡± me in ways that still had me grinning like an idiot a few hours later. Honestly, Sona had surprised me. After dinner, she¡¯d pulled me aside, all proper and composed... until she wasn¡¯t. I always thought of her as the most reserved and buttoned-up of my girls, the one who would never do anything remotely improper. But then she¡¯d kissed me¡ªor, well, ¡°pounced¡± is probably the better word¡ªand dragged me into the bathroom where we didn¡¯t leave for almost a half hour. A devil¡¯s still a devil, I guess. Wrapping a towel around my hair, I stepped out of the bathroom without bothering to put anything else on. Why bother? It was my room, after all. Sona was sitting on the edge of my bed, her posture perfect as usual, with a book in her hands. She looked up when she heard me, and her cheeks immediately flushed pink when she saw me standing there in all my naked glory. I smirked, unable to resist. Sona was always so composed, so serious. Seeing her blush like that was beyond adorable. No wonder Serafall loved teasing her so much. ¡°Something wrong, Sona?¡± I teased, sauntering over. ¡°N-No,¡± she stammered, quickly burying her nose back in her book. But I caught the way her fingers trembled ever so slightly as she turned the page. I chuckled softly. ¡°You¡¯re so cute when you¡¯re flustered, you know that? It makes me want to eat you up again.¡± Sona¡¯s blush deepened, and she huffed, clearly trying to regain her composure. ¡°I am not flustered,¡± she said, her voice a touch too defensive. ¡°Sure you¡¯re not,¡± I said, sitting down next to her on the bed. ¡°I¡¯m just saying, if you ever wanted to try being more relaxed like your sister, you¡¯d have a lot of fun.¡± Sona rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. ¡°I¡¯m fine the way I am, thank you very much.¡± I flopped backwards, glancing up at the ceiling. ¡°You know, once Serafall and the other Maous finish getting the devils settled on Svartalfheim¡ªor the ¡®New Underworld,¡¯ as they¡¯ve decided to call it¡ªwe¡¯re all going to have to spend some "quality time" together. ¡± I wiggled my brows. ¡°That sounds... nice,¡± Sona admitted with a blush. Our topic then drifted to the Devil''s new home world in our Universe. They seemed to really like the new planet they were gifted. ¡°I hear the devils love it there,¡± she said. ¡°The constant bad weather, the lack of sunlight... They all consider it to be a paradise, apparently...¡± ¡°Who would have thought? A shithole to everyone else, a paradise to them,¡± I said with a grin. Sona and I just sat there on the bed, teasing each other and enjoying the quiet moment. Then, like a slap to the senses, the air in the room shifted. Something was wrong. I sat up, all my senses on high alert as I glanced around. ¡°What is it?¡± Sona asked, immediately catching on to my change in demeanor. [I sense it too] The System voiced in my head, and that just confirmed that this wasn¡¯t a bad feeling. [Something weird is coming...] From the far corner of my bedroom, a distortion rippled through the space. A doorway¡ªa literal square doorway¡ªmaterialized. Before I could even process my disbelief, a group of men and women in strange, futuristic military gear stormed out. They were armed to the teeth with weapons that looked straight out of some sci-fi movie. ¡°There she is!¡± ¡°Why is she naked!?¡± ¡°Who cares, let''s get her!¡± I bristled instantly. Not only had these idiots breached our private space, but they¡¯d done it while I was fresh out of the shower and still naked! The audacity! Sona was on her feet in an instant. ¡°Who are you, and what do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± she demanded, her voice was practically ice cold. The lead soldier stepped forward, although we couldn¡¯t see his face under his weird looking helmet. ¡°You are under arrest for violating the Sacred Timeline,¡± he announced, like he thought he had any authority here. ¡°You will come with us immediately, and this entire timeline will be purged!¡± I stood up slowly. ¡°Purged?¡± I repeated, stepping toward him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°You broke into my bedroom, while I was naked, and now you¡¯re threatening to erase my timeline...?¡± [It¡¯s crazy that this might be the boldest your enemies have ever acted before.] ¡°If you¡¯re resisting then you will be purged!¡± The soldier pulled out some kind of stun baton. Except it wasn¡¯t just any baton¡ªI could feel the spatial fluctuations it was giving off. Interesting... It wasn¡¯t every day I came across a toy that could manipulate space. Still, nothing short of the Space Stone itself could dare to challenge my control over the space around me. My Orb of Anywhere buzzed inside my soul in indignation, almost offended that these fools even tried. Before he could take another step towards me, every single one of their weapons sputtered out and disintegrated into nothing. The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless. ¡°Impossible!¡± one of them sputtered, staring at the remnants of his weapon. ¡°How?¡± another whispered, taking a cautious step back. The leader¡¯s jaw tightened as he gaped at me. ¡°What the hell is this creature?¡± ¡°A time-traveling cult from another universe is attacking us and trying to blow up our entire timeline,¡± Layla said without preamble, her words coming out rapid-fire. The Ancient One raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching into something that wasn¡¯t quite a smile. ¡°Of course they are,¡± she said dryly. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t they be?¡± Layla crossed her arms. ¡°I¡¯m serious. These assholes call themselves the TVA, and they think they can just waltz into our timeline and attack us! They¡¯ve already attacked Asgard. My kids were in danger, Ancient One. My kids.¡± Her voice cracked slightly on the last words. The Ancient One¡¯s expression softened. She had known Layla long enough to understand that beneath all her bravado, the woman¡¯s love for her family was the cornerstone of her being. ...Threatening that was a mistake no one should have been foolish enough to make. ¡°I see,¡± the Ancient One said, rising gracefully from her seated position. The Ancient One followed Layla through the portal, emerging in the middle of an empty courtyard in Asgard. What caught her attention immediately was a strange device sitting in the center of the courtyard. It looked completely out of place among the ornate Asgardian architecture, a strange piece of technology she¡¯d never seen in any of her future visions. ¡°Hmm, what is that?¡± the Ancient One asked, narrowing her eyes as she studied the foreign object. Layla grimaced, her wings twitching slightly. ¡°It¡¯s a bomb. Specifically designed to wipe out entire timelines.¡± The Ancient One gaped at Layla in disbelief, her usually calm demeanor cracking for a moment. ¡°Such a thing shouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± ¡°Well, apparently it is,¡± Layla said. ¡°And now it¡¯s my problem.¡± The Ancient One approached the device with caution. Unsealing the Eye of Agamotto, she summoned the Time Stone as she started to scan the bomb, searching for the mechanisms that made it tick. Her expression grew darker with each passing moment, her mind racing as she pieced together the horrifying reality. ¡°What an abominable weapon,¡± she muttered, her voice low and tinged with anger. Layla frowned. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± The Ancient One straightened, her gaze somber as she turned back to Layla. ¡°This bomb... it feels like it was made with its own Time Stone at its core! The explosive force is tied to temporal energy, and...¡± she hesitated, her voice dropping, ¡°somehow, someone stole an Infinity Stone from another universe, got it to function outside its original reality, and weaponized it to destroy entire timelines.¡± Layla¡¯s jaw tightened. ¡°Are you saying someone turned a Time Stone into a bomb?¡± ¡°Exactly that,¡± the Ancient One replied grimly. ¡°The implications are... horrifying.¡± ¡°So, what do we do about it?¡± The Ancient One let out a heavy sigh. ¡°There¡¯s only one way to fix this mess. I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later.¡± Carefully, she fully unsealed the Eye of Agamotto, levitating the Time Stone until it hovered just above her palm. She turned to Layla. Without a word, she extended her hand, offering the stone to Layla. Layla caught it easily, her bare hand closing around it. Layla stared at the stone in her hand, then back at the Ancient One. ¡°You¡¯re giving me the Time Stone? Just like that?¡± The Ancient One sighed as she looked at Layla. ¡°We both knew this was bound to happen sooner or later,¡± she said. ¡°Just get on with absorbing the thing already so you can save our timeline.¡± Layla smiled warmly. She gave the Ancient One a deep bow. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said sincerely. The Ancient One nodded, offering her a small bow in return. Layla raised the glowing green stone to her chest. It sank into her, fusing seamlessly with her being. The Ancient One watched in quiet awe as a pair of Layla¡¯s wings flickered with green energy, momentarily shifting colors. One pair of her wings glowed vibrant green, joining the array of purple, red, and gold already shimmering on her back. But within seconds, every single one of Layla¡¯s wings turned pitch black again, their natural state restored. Layla grinned as her aura crackled with newfound power. ¡°With the power of the Time Stone, I¡¯m able to change my appearance back to how it was before. Having colorful wings was fun for a while, but I¡¯ve always preferred their natural color.¡± The Ancient One raised an eyebrow. ¡°I hope being able to change the color of your wings wasn¡¯t the only perk you got from permanently absorbing one of our Infinity Stones.¡± Layla rolled her eyes playfully. ¡°Of course not.¡± She turned her attention to the time bomb and waved her hand. ¡°I can now do this too!¡± The entire device disintegrated into ash, leaving behind a small, glowing green stone. It floated toward Layla, and the Ancient One¡¯s curiosity piqued as she wondered what Layla intended to do with a second Time Stone? Layla held the stone in her palm for a moment, studying it. Then, with deliberate focus, she wrapped her hand around it and channeled a massive amount of her power into the stone. The Ancient One could feel the intense energy radiating from Layla as she worked. When Layla opened her hand again, the stone gave off an identical presence to the one she had just absorbed! The Ancient One let out a startled yelp as Layla carelessly tossed the stone back toward her! Scrambling slightly, she caught it telekinetically before it could hit the ground! ¡°Really, Layla!?¡± she said in exasperation. Layla ignored her look. ¡°I¡¯ve given that stone pretty much all the powers of the one you just gave me,¡± Layla explained with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have to take away the most powerful weapon of the sorcerers who have been protecting Earth for thousands of years.¡± The Ancient One exhaled in relief, carefully placing the recreated Time Stone back into the Eye of Agamotto. It fit perfectly, its energy flowing as seamlessly as the original. ¡°I¡¯m glad too,¡± she said, her voice tinged with gratitude. The Ancient One then noticed Layla space out like she had the habit of doing occasionally. She decided to give her a couple moments. ¨C Layla ¨C ¡°...¡± ¡®Holy crap...¡¯ [Wow...] I was staring at her new insane stats in shock, before the Ancient One spoke up again and asked me what she was going to do now? ¡°I''m going to go and pay the TVA a visit!¡± I told her. ¡°Not without me or not!¡± Sona called out that she landed next to me, her bat wings folding away back inside her. ¡°Hela and Rias agreed to stay here in case these bastards try to attack again, but we all agreed at least one of us needed to come with you and to get revenge!¡± Sona had the same crazy look in her eye that her sister would have whenever someone tried to threaten her preciously ¡°So-tan!¡± A lot more TVA agents were about to meet some watery graves. And that was just the way I wanted it! We were off to go and destroy an entire multiversal spanning organization...And I guess rescue Loki and retrieve my Space Stone while we were at it... XXX chapter 318 chapter 318 Chapter 318: ¨C Layla ¨C Earlier, I had picked up a teleporter device from the dead TVA agent¡¯s body. We were going to use it to open a direct path to the TVA headquarters. They had a lot to answer for. I clicked the largest button on the side, and a golden orange square portal materialized a few feet away. ¡°Are you ready?¡± I glanced at Sona, who stood beside me. She gave me a determined nod. Together, we stepped through. Everything felt off the instant we emerged on the other side. Instead of the neat, sterile corridors I¡¯d seen in the man''s memories whose soul I read. I found myself in a barren wasteland. Gray clouds churned overhead, and the ground looked scorched and broken. ¡°Layla,¡± Sona said bluntly, ¡°this isn¡¯t the TVA.¡± She was right. My wings twitched with annoyance, and I took a slow look around. ¡°No, it¡¯s definitely not...¡± Sona took a breath, then exhaled. ¡°Must be a failsafe. A trap to dump unauthorized people here who try to use their teleporters.¡± I knew where we were. It was a place that all the TVA agents knew about and feared. I ground my teeth. The TVA seemed more annoying by the second. ¡°The Void,¡± I muttered, kicking aside a small chunk of rock. ¡°They send variants here to die or wait around forever.¡± Sona rested a hand on one hip, scanning the horizon. ¡°This place is giving me the creeps. Let¡¯s leave.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, ¡°I should have just used my own portal instead of someone else''s. I just wanted to make a dramatic entrance...¡± I finished with a pout. I was about to open up a portal so we could leave, when I heard someone call out to us nearby. ¡°Oh? Hey there!¡± I had to do a double take when I saw who was talking to us. ¡°Ryan Reynolds?¡± I asked in confusion. He looked exactly like Ryan Reynolds, but his clothes were ragged, and he had a battered scabbard strapped to his back. The guy shook his head and gave me a friendly grin. ¡°Nope, I¡¯m Nicepool! Everybody always gets that wrong for some reason.¡± Sona raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nicepool?¡± She said it like she was trying to make sense of the name. He nodded with enthusiasm. ¡°That¡¯s right. I¡¯m not the usual mercenary type. I¡¯m a kinder, gentler version.¡± He shrugged like it was the most normal thing in the world. What? [What?] ¡°So you¡¯re... stuck here?¡± I asked. This was the Void after all. Nicepool let out a laugh that sounded strangely genuine. ¡°Yup. Been here for a while. It¡¯s not exactly a five-star resort. More like the TVA¡¯s trash can for everything they don¡¯t want.¡± He looked between me and Sona, then brightened. ¡°I never expected I¡¯d meet the Supreme Goddess Layla in this place. Today is a good day.¡± Sona and I exchanged a confused glance. ¡°How do you know who I am? We¡¯ve never met,¡± I asked him. He scratched the back of his head. ¡°I just tend to know things, you know. I¡¯m Nicepool.¡± I guess that makes sense if he was some kind of variant of Deadpool...? [Not really, but sure let''s go with it...] Sona nodded slowly. Pretending she knew exactly what was going on. I always found that cute about her, when she could never admit to not knowing something. I took a breath. ¡°Right... Anyway, I was about to open a portal to get Sona and me out of here. Do you want to come along? No one deserves to be stuck here.¡± He seems like a chill dude and I didn''t mind sending him back to his own universe. The TVA wouldn''t be able to come after him again after I got rid of them. Nicepool shook his head. He then crouched down and started tending to a rusty metal pot that was hanging above a small campfire. Huh, I didn''t notice that before, I guess we somehow ended up in the middle of his campsite. ¡°Thanks for the offer, but I have to stay in the Void. Do either of you want any of this soup? There''s more than enough for everyone!¡± He lifted the lid and the odor that hit us was not pleasant. I fought hard not to cringe. ¡°Uh, no thanks,¡± I said. ¡°Sona?¡± She shook her head with a forced smile. ¡°Thank you for the polite offer, but I''m good...¡± He shrugged, taking a sip of it himself without batting an eye. ¡°It¡¯s raccoon. Bit tough and gamey, but you make do when in the void.¡± Then he carefully placed the lid back on the pot. I was about to take Sona and leave, but I just had to freaking ask the obvious question! ¡°...Why exactly are you wanting to stay in the Void?¡± ¡°I have to wait for the chosen one. The Deadpool who¡¯s going to save all Deadpools across the multiverse. I have to be here to lend him my car,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°I appreciate that. Go on, find the prisons, set everyone free.¡± The battered Captain America spat blood onto the floor. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± he said with a grim sort of respect. ¡°And,¡± I added, letting my wings flutter dramatically, ¡°once this is all over, I¡¯ll open portals to send every single one of you back to your home universes!¡± They broke into excited murmurs and they all split off to take care of that... Sona looked at me with a faint smile. ¡°You always know how to work a crowd.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I promise big, then deliver bigger.¡± I turned to her with a smirk. ¡°Ready to burn this place to the ground?¡± She nodded firmly. ¡°After they dared to try and harm our children, there will be no mercy.¡± We left the blood-soaked lobby behind, fully aware that the variants we¡¯d just freed were more than capable of ripping apart any TVA stragglers in their path. Sona and I pushed open a pair of double doors that led into a dimly lit corridor. The overhead lights flickered dully, and I felt like I was at the supernatural DMV... Father, this place was depressing... My wings rustled against my back as we strode forward, my eyes scanning for any sign of a trap. Sona walked beside me, her shoes squeaking on the glossy floor. We were almost at the next door when I heard footsteps echo behind us. I glanced over my shoulder. Female Loki appeared behind us. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you with the others?¡± I asked. She flashed a sweet, innocent smile that didn¡¯t match the blood on her clothes. ¡°I wanted to see if you two lovely ladies might need my assistance.¡± Her tone dripped with a sly eagerness. Sona adjusted her glasses, pushing them up the bridge of her nose. ¡°Uh-huh... Are you sure you¡¯re not just staying close so you can keep an eye on us? Maybe you want to make sure we keep our word and help everyone get home?¡± Loki smirked, crossing her arms under her chest. ¡°My, aren¡¯t you a clever one. Okay, you got me. I don¡¯t trust you. Then again, I hardly trust anyone, and I am the Goddess of Lies. Can you blame me?¡± I let out a short laugh and rolled my eyes. ¡°Fine. Stick around if you want. But if you try anything stupid, I¡¯m gonna blast you through the nearest wall.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± Loki replied in a casual tone that made me wonder if she actually cared. Just then, a door on the far side of the corridor hissed open, and a group of TVA agents poured into the room. They wore heavier armor than the first wave and looked more pissed off. Several carried rifles, while others brandished those pruning batons. I motioned toward the agents. ¡°You want to help? Clear our path.¡± I said to female Loki. She let out a theatrical sigh. ¡°I suppose if I have to...¡± She reached behind her back and produced two slender knives with dark blades. Her lips curled into a pleased grin. ¡°Try to keep up.¡± Then she darted forward, knives flashing under the fluorescent lights, and lunged at the nearest TVA bastard. ... ...I watched as female Loki wiped a streak of thick, dark blood from her blades, using a torn scrap of fabric she must have ripped from one of the dead agents. When she finished, she ran her tongue over her teeth and smiled at us. ¡°That was some cathartic stress relief,¡± she said, glancing at the limp bodies around her. ¡°These bastards have been hunting me for literally hundreds of years...¡± I tensed at her words. ¡°Hundreds of years? I¡¯d never even heard of these guys until recently, and they¡¯ve been around that long?¡± I felt irritation roil in my chest, thinking about how deeply entrenched these TVA assholes were. She cleared her throat and straightened up. ¡°By the way, my name is Sylvie Laufeydottir,¡± she said. ¡°Oh,¡± I replied with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯ve just been calling you ¡®female Loki¡¯ in my head.¡± She let out an exasperated sigh. ¡°Yes, most people do that. For some reason, the vast majority of my alternate selves are men. It¡¯s annoying, but I¡¯m used to it.¡± Sona stepped closer, adjusting her glasses and eyeing the corridor. ¡°So, Sylvie, what else do you know about the TVA?¡± Sylvie launched into an explanation. ¡°They¡¯re run by someone called He Who Remains, along with a bunch of judges under him. Their entire reason for existing is to destroy timelines that go against their precious ¡®Sacred Timeline.¡¯ It¡¯s all meant to prevent some huge multiversal war.¡± I traded looks with Sona. It seemed the two of us were on the same page. ¡°B¨CBut that¡¯s dumb,¡± Sona said bluntly. ¡°How is destroying entire universes any better than letting them fight? Either way, people die.¡± Sylvie shrugged, pushing a bit of hair away from her face. ¡°They claim the war would destroy all of reality or some nonsense like that. Personally, I think they¡¯re just a bunch of control freaks.¡± ¡°Whatever,¡± I said, waving a hand. ¡°We¡¯re here to wreck the TVA, rescue our own stupid Loki, and get our universe¡¯s Space Stone back.¡± Sylvie¡¯s eyes lit up with interest at that last one. She opened her mouth like she was about to ask something, but Sona cut her off with a sharp glare. ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. All the Infinity Stones from our universe belong to Layla.¡± I raised an eyebrow at Sona. Then I grinned. ¡°Aww, you said ¡®our universe!¡¯¡± I leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Her skin felt warm under my lips, and she sputtered in response. She rubbed at her cheek, trying to hide her blush. ¡°Of course it¡¯s my home too. My daughter was born there, and my whole family¡¯s there now. So stop distracting me and let¡¯s go kill some more people.¡± She lifted a hand and conjured a swirling orb of water. As if on cue, more TVA agents rounded the corner with weapons at the ready. Sona hurled the compact sphere straight at them, and it slammed into their bodies with a wet crunch. Bones snapped under the pressure, and they screamed before collapsing in a heap. XXX chapter 319 chapter 319 Chapter 319: ¨C Layla ¨C I flicked some sticky blood off my wings and let out an annoyed breath. ¡°These guys just don¡¯t quit,¡± I muttered. Holy shit, the TVA really wanted to stop us from going any further! They had thrown at least five hundred agents into our path. Maybe more¡ªI¡¯d lost count around the time my wings got covered in gore. I kicked aside the last body cluttering the corridor and conjured a rag to wipe my hands, then made another one for Sona. [642 actually. That¡¯s an impressive number of fatalities.] She wiped her glasses, wincing at a stubborn smear of blood on the lens. Sylvie shook her head as she stepped over a sprawled corpse. ¡°No wonder no matter how many guys I kill, they always send more...¡± We started down a long, dull hallway. The lights above flickered like no one had bothered replacing the bulbs in centuries. The walls and floors felt sterile, like some soulless government office, but the occasional weird piece of cosmic tech stuck out. Every so often, we passed a random desk piled with dusty forms or propaganda posters screaming slogans like ¡°Always Choose the Sacred Timeline!¡± and ¡°Prune First, Ask Questions Later!¡± One corner was a cramped break area with a sad-looking coffee pot that smelled burnt and a battered vending machine that hummed loudly. I frowned at the sight. ¡°These guys are out here destroying entire universes, and they still make employees pay for their own snacks?¡± [That''s just plain diabolical!] ¡°Quit getting distracted, Layla,¡± Sona said with a pout. ¡°Anyone want some chips?¡± I asked, ignoring her expression. Sona blinked at me. ¡°Are you seriously¡ª?¡± Before she finished, I drew back my fist and shouted, ¡°SMASH!¡± Glass sprayed in all directions as I broke straight through the vending machine¡¯s front panel. ¡°Seize the means of production!¡± I announced triumphantly, grabbing a bag of potato chips. I tore it open, ate a few, then offered the bag to Sona. She stared at me in total disbelief before grabbing a couple for herself. She munched on them reluctantly, rolling her eyes when I smirked. Honestly, murdering a bunch of time cops worked up an appetite. I grabbed more bags and passed them around. Sylvie eyed a chocolate bar with suspicion at first, then her face lit up once she bit into it. "I didn''t know midgard had such good snacks." I popped a few more chips in my mouth. Yeah, that was something I¡¯d noticed about the TVA: everything looked like it came from Earth¡ªmaybe some 80s or 90s version of Earth, but definitely Earth. It was weird that an organization controlling time was apparently staffed by humans. [They obviously didn''t originate from your timeline. You would have sensed people opening portals all over the world.] ¡®Exactly,¡¯ I thought back. If they¡¯d been hopping around my Earth, I would¡¯ve sensed the portals, and so would the Ancient One. Maybe these guys were from the future, a time after she was gone. It would explain their high-tech weapons, even if their office equipment looked old as fuck. The one agent whose memories I¡¯d read didn¡¯t know much about the TVA, except that their goal was to protect some ¡°Sacred Timeline¡± and they supposedly paid well. Not that it mattered for his dumb ass. We finished our snacks, then got moving again. Sylvie pointed out that this was the furthest she¡¯d ever been inside the TVA. She wasn¡¯t even sure if this place was a normal building or if it was more like a pocket dimension. Sona asked if Sylvie had been captured before? Sylvie admitted that the TVA had grabbed her a few times, but she¡¯d always managed to escape. For some reason, they kept trying to bring her in "alive." That pretty much confirmed my suspicion¡ªthey needed Sylvie for something. Not that it mattered, because we intended to shut down their entire operation today. We turned a few more drab corners, passing another row of identical doors, until we spotted a sign with an arrow labeled ¡°Interrogation Rooms.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably where they have my variant,¡± Sylvie said stiffly. ¡°Technically, you¡¯re his variant,¡± Sona pointed out with a shrug. Sylvie huffed, looking offended. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I¡¯m obviously the original Loki!¡± Sona adjusted her glasses and shot her a smug look. ¡°Impossible. Layla¡¯s the only Layla in the entire multiverse so far, which suggests our universe is the original Earth. Everyone else must be branching off from us! And that makes you a variant!¡± [I think Sona forgot that she was originally from a branch as well...] I giggled quietly to myself as Sylvie and Sona glared at each other. We continued further along, stepping over bodies as we moved deeper into the complex. Every once in a while, we ran into small squads of TVA agents, but they were no match for us¡ªSona would drown them in a sudden onslaught of swirling water, or Sylvie would lunge and bury her daggers into their skulls with brutal efficiency, or I would simply incinerate them with a casual Lightspear. Some of the freed variants we¡¯d unleashed earlier sprinted past us in small packs, hollering for revenge. A few recognized me (or at least recognized my wings) and paused to ask for directions to the nearest cell blocks so they could free more imprisoned variants. Sylvie pointed them the way, and they rushed off, determined to break as many ¡°Sacred Timeline¡± rules as possible. ¡°Layla, do you think that crowd can handle themselves?¡± Sona asked after the third group ran by, leaving a trail of blood behind them. I snorted. ¡°They¡¯re an angry mob of Captain Americas, Tony Starks, maybe a Thor or two, and who knows what else¡ªdefinitely capable of turning the TVA inside out. We¡¯ll let them handle the grunt work while we focus on the main quest.¡± Speaking of Quest... ¡®Where¡¯s my freaking Quest, System!?¡¯ [I gave it to you earlier, but you were too angry to notice it!] I huffed. ¡®Sure you did!¡¯ I waved my hand and pulled up my Quest backlog. Sure enough, there was a quest listed there that I hadn''t seen before, but I was still of the opinion the System just randomly made this one up to pretend it didn¡¯t forget! {Quest Started: Destroy the TVA and stop them from ruining more Universes and Timelines.} {Reward: Level Up x10! The Space Stone. The attention of ?????} Those rewards seemed a little bland, especially considering the Space Stone was already supposed to be mine, but that last one was a bit worrying. The attention of ¡°what¡± exactly? Meh, that was future Layla¡¯s problem! ...Eventually, we came upon a large metal door sealed shut, with a circular window at about head height. Inside, I caught a glimpse of a single occupant with slicked-back dark hair, leaning casually in a chair like he was on vacation. ¡°Loki,¡± I muttered. His eyes flicked toward the window. A smile curved across his lips, and I saw him let out a dramatic sigh of relief like, ¡°Ah, finally, my rescue squad has arrived.¡±@@@@ I raised my foot and easily kicked the door in. ¡°My dear sister-in-law,¡± Loki drawled, green eyes dancing with that trademark mischief, ¡°I knew you¡¯d come for me.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t flatter yourself. I''m only here because these assholes tried to attack my children!¡± Loki looks surprised to hear that. ¡°Ah, I apologize for that. I told them about you because I was sure you could easily handle them, but... I would never have suspected they¡¯d go after little girls.¡± At least he looked remorseful when he said that. Sylvie scoffed and crossed her arms. ¡°They''ve been going after me since I was a little girl!¡± Loki¡¯s attention snapped to the girl Sona and I had brought with us. He blinked at her, then let a lazy smirk settle on his face. ¡°Well, hello there, beautiful,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve seen you around before. Is it strange that I feel some kind of connection between us? I wonder if that¡¯s fate.¡± Sona started choking on thin air, and Sylvie took an uneasy step back, looking like she might throw up. I just bent over, laughing so hard. I never thought I¡¯d live to see the day Loki tried to flirt with anyone we brought along¡ªlet alone his own variant. ¡°That¡¯s... bold of you,¡± I said, still trying to catch my breath. ¡°But Loki... this is Sylvie Laufeydottir. She¡¯s basically your female clone from another universe.¡± Loki¡¯s smug expression vanished in an instant. He looked about as sick as Sylvie now. ¡°You¡¯re telling me I¡ªno, she¡ªwhat? Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake...¡± He closed his eyes and exhaled like he was willing the moment away. ¡°Let¡¯s just agree to never speak of this again.¡± He cleared his throat and rattled the chains around his wrists, causing the metal to scrape against the desk. ¡°Anyway, can you get me free now?¡± I narrowed my eyes at Loki and put a hand on my hip. ¡°Not so fast, Loki. I want the Space Stone. Where are you hiding it?¡± ¡°Probably up his ass,¡± Sylvie remarked, not even bothering to hide her disgust. My nose wrinkled, and I threw my hands up in exasperation. ¡°Gross! You better not be!¡± I snapped at Loki. I sure as hell didn¡¯t want to handle that thing if he¡¯d shoved it somewhere questionable. ¡°And if you did, don¡¯t even think about giving it back until you¡¯ve cleaned it thoroughly.¡± Loki¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°I did not shove it¡ªanywhere! I don¡¯t even have it,¡± he sputtered. ¡°One of those TVA agents took it off me when they dragged me in here. I don¡¯t know where the damn stone is.¡± I groaned dramatically. ¡°Ugh, come on, you¡¯re the so-called God of Lies. Why didn¡¯t you just give him a fake?¡± He tried to shrug but winced as the chains dug into his wrists. ¡°These cursed restraints block my magic,¡± he muttered. ¡°I couldn¡¯t conjure anything if I wanted to.¡± Above us, Loki and Sylvie dealt with the Wanda and Spider-Man variants. Wanda¡¯s illusions filled the air with swirling horrors. Loki¡¯s illusions twisted among hers, green tangling with red. Meanwhile, Sylvie pinned the four-armed Spider-Man to a pillar, daggers glinting with enchantment. He hissed, spraying webs. She slashed them away with a fearless grin. I shot upward, ignoring the illusions. My senses homed in on Wanda¡¯s real form behind the conjured crows. She tried to fling another chaotic bolt. I powered through, grabbing her mid-air. We wrestled for a second, her eyes flaring red. ¡°You can¡¯t kill chaos!¡± she screeched. This time she was finally speaking in english. ¡°Watch me!¡± I placed my hands on both sides of her head and squeezed. Arguably one of the grossest ways I''ve ever killed anyone, and probably won''t be doing it again, but it worked. The illusions vanished, leaving the air clear as her corpse dropped. Below, Loki used a glowing sword conjuration to finish off the wounded Spider-Man variant, slicing him neatly from shoulder to hip. Another wave of variants stormed in as more portals opened. A black armored Ironman soared above, launching crackling repulsor beams, while a hulking beast of living rock slammed the floor, sending tremors through the chamber. ¡°This is getting old,¡± I snarled. Sona slid to my side. ¡°We need to kill him,¡± she said, pointing at He Who Remains, still hiding behind a shimmering barrier. ¡°I have an infinite number of variants to throw at you all! You will all fall before the sacred timeline!¡± I moved in his direction. ¡°Your little force field won¡¯t save you forever,¡± I warned. He sneered. ¡°I know every step you¡¯ll take, every action you¡¯ll try.¡± More monstrous variants rushed us. A black Ironman zoomed overhead, raining mini missiles. Sona shielded us with a torrent of water that burst into steam under the explosions. Loki conjured illusions to divert a cackling War Machine variant. Sylvie darted behind a pillar, hurling knives at a distant archer. I inhaled and started focusing all of my power. ¡°Keep them busy,¡± I barked. ¡°I¡¯m about to blow this place apart.¡± I still needed more power to match the Infinity Stones. They encircled me protectively while I gathered more power than I had channeled in a while, letting it spark across my wings and surge through my arms. The air tingled with static. I felt the floor start to disintegrate beneath me. Variants swarmed closer, but Sona and Sylvie fought like hell to hold them back. Sona used razor-edged waves to slice through a demonic Black Panther. Sylvie threw enchantments, forcing a feral Hawkeye to turn his own arrows against himself. Loki¡¯s illusions confused a monstrous War Machine, leading it into a watery trap that Sona solidified into ice. A quake rumbled. The rock-Hulk pounded forward, unstoppable. He battered Loki¡¯s illusions aside and roared, seizing a chunk of marble to throw right at me. Sylvie blurred behind him, daggers stabbing into the backs of his knees. He dropped with a furious howl. Sona seized the chance to drown his head in swirling water, cutting off his breath until he stilled. My Cosmic and Faith energy reached a peak, forming a star-like orb between my palms. The pressure was intense, but I was exhilarated just holding it. ¡°Get clear!¡± I shouted. Sona, Sylvie, and Loki ducked behind me! With a fierce grin, I hurled the orb across the chamber. It expanded in a white-hot explosion, swallowing the monstrous variants in a single blinding flash. The floor shattered, pillars crumbled, and a chunk of the domed ceiling collapsed in glittering shards. The shockwave thundered outward, demolishing the entire array of twisted foes. I kept my wings angled to protect my allies from the worst of the blast. When the brilliance faded, the chamber was half-ruined: a gaping hole in the floor revealed a cosmic void beneath. Broken columns jutted out at odd angles. Of the monstrous variants, not a single one remained standing¡ªonly ash and rubble. Sona stepped up behind me, eyes wide. ¡°Wow.¡± ¡°They asked for it,¡± I grinned. Loki surveyed the destruction nervously. ¡°I¡¯ll try not to annoy you too much in the future.¡± Sylvie pointed across the ruined chamber. He Who Remains still stood behind a golden barrier, but it was on the verge of collapse and he was sweating hard. Surviving that blast almost drained him. ¡°You dare¡ª¡± he snarled, voice trembling. ¡°You¡¯d risk the entire multiverse for your petty grudge?¡± I raised my chin. ¡°Petty grudge? You tried to prune my fucking kids!¡± He jabbed a finger in my direction, Infinity Stones flashing. ¡°I¡¯m preventing a cosmic war! Kill me, and a thousand Kangs rise to replace me. You don''t understand! I am the best of them. The only one preventing total anarchy!¡± Sylvie snarled at him. "You''re no hero.¡± A swirling green energy gathered around him as he tried something new. I felt time distort. Sona¡¯s arms froze mid-motion. Sylvie took half a step and stopped. ¡°Time is under my control!¡± he roared. ¡°What a coincidence! It¡¯s under my control too!¡± I smirked at him as a green aura shot out of my body, smashed through his cracked barrier and struck him, freezing him in place. Before he could free himself, I rapidly flew forwards and ripped the gauntlet off of his wrist. I could sense that none of the stones on it belonged to my Universe so I decided to feed them all to my Orb of Anywhere right in front of his eyes. ¡°YAY!!!! NUM NUMS!¡± My Sacred Gear was very appreciative for the snacks. ¡°My stones!¡± he hissed at me! ¡°No matter, I have access to thousands more where those came from!¡± ¡°And you¡¯ll never get to use them again.¡± ¡°Kill me, and the variants come¡ªeach one worse. A war of infinite Kangs! Do you want that?¡± I stepped forward, looking him in the eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t fear your family reunion. If you are the best of them, then I''ve got nothing to worry about.¡± He opened his mouth, but I silenced him by snapping his neck. Sylvie apparently wanted to make sure he was dead, because she lunged in to bury a dagger in his heart, ensuring there was no chance he¡¯d rise again. He Who Remains lay still, eyes vacant. The Infinity Gauntlet¡¯s stones dimmed as his life slipped away. Sylvie trembled for a moment, then pulled her dagger free. ¡°We did it,¡± she breathed. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± ¡°Good work everyone!¡± I shook out my wings. ¡°Now we finish off the TVA. We still have a few tasks: free any prisoners, destroy what¡¯s left of this place, and¡ª¡± ¡°The Space Stone,¡± Sona reminded me. ¡°Right, let''s go and find that!¡± XXX Thanks for reading!!! I have a patreo n. My subs can read advanced updates of my stories ahead of standard release and even check out pics for some of the more naughty chapters. Link: Patreo n .com (slash) Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters: The Fallen Gamer ch 320-324 The Titan 28 The Fox Hole 60 Thunder and Black Wings 11 The Blood Queen 36 The Fox Hole 59 The Titan 27 The Fox Hole 58 The Blood Queen 35 The Fox Hole 57 Thunder and Black Wings 10 The Fox Hole 56 chapter 320 chapter 320 Chapter 320: ¨C Sona ¨C Sona had always known that Layla¡¯s life was one chaotic, violent mess, but witnessing it firsthand was something else entirely. As a pureblood devil, she was no stranger to bloodshed. She had seen plenty of it in Rating Games and clan disputes, but this? This was something else. The TVA, the arrogant organization that had dared to target their children, was in complete ruin. Freed variants stormed through the halls, slaughtering the last of the straggling agents with the kind of wrath that came from having their entire existences stolen. They had a lot of anger to burn through, and she couldn¡¯t really blame them. Sona adjusted her glasses, stepping over a lifeless body as their group entered what looked like an administrative office. A lone TVA agent cowered in the corner, shaking like a leaf. He wasn¡¯t even armed¡ªnot that it would have helped him. His eyes darted between them, sweat beading at his temple as he took in Layla¡¯s glowing wings, Sylvie¡¯s daggers, and Loki¡¯s sharp smirk. But Sona¡¯s attention wasn¡¯t on him. It was on the desk. More specifically, on the blue stone sitting on it¡ªthe Space Stone. And right next to it? A dozen other identical ones. Sona stared. ¡°What the hell?¡± Sylvie let out a sharp breath. ¡°Are you fucking kidding me?¡± Layla picked one of the stones up and turned it between her fingers. It pulsed with cosmic energy, undeniably real. They were all real. Sona clenched her fists. Just how many universes had these bastards wiped out that they had an entire stockpile of Infinity Stones just lying around? How many worlds had been erased so casually that these powerful relics were now nothing more than glorified paperweights? Too many, she thought grimly. Far, far too many. The TVA agent whimpered. ¡°P-please... I had nothing to do with¡ª¡± Sona flicked her gaze to Layla and saw the moment her friend came to the same conclusion she had. For all of Layla¡¯s playful, airheaded moments, she was sharp when it mattered. And right now, her expression was cold, her golden eyes burning with the kind of fury that made even devils uneasy. Layla dropped the stone back onto the desk and turned to Loki. ¡°Do whatever you want with him.¡± Loki grinned, pulling a sleek dagger from inside his jacket. He twirled it between his fingers before stepping forward, his eyes gleaming with wicked amusement. ¡°This is going to be fun...¡± Sona didn¡¯t bother watching. She just turned and followed Layla and Sylvie into the next room, shutting the door behind her to drown out the screaming. ¡°What¡¯s the plan now?¡± Sona asked Layla. Layla slipped the Space Stone into her pocket while she thought about it for a moment. ¡°I need to keep my promise to all the variants running around and do my best to send them home... or find new homes for them in the event that that simply isn¡¯t possible.¡± Sylvie¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°My home is gone,¡± she admitted. ¡°And even if it wasn¡¯t, I don¡¯t really want to go back.¡± Layla offered her a small smile. ¡°You seem much more pleasant than our own Loki. You¡¯re welcome to join us if you want.¡± Sylvie hesitated, then smiled slightly at the offer. Before she could respond, Sona cut in, crossing her arms. Layla had a habit of picking up stray girls and she was nipping this one in the bud. ¡°You¡¯re not joining Layla¡¯s harem, though. She has enough girls already!¡± Sylvie balked, looking genuinely shocked, while Layla sputtered. ¡°That wasn¡¯t my intention at all!¡± ¡°Sure it wasn¡¯t,¡± Sona said playfully, smirking. She actually knew it wasn¡¯t, but once in a while, it was fun to be the one doing the teasing. Loki rejoined the group, looking deeply satisfied despite being absolutely drenched in blood. He wiped a hand down his face, smearing the crimson across his cheek before flicking away the excess with a casual shake of his fingers. His usual smirk was sharper now, more pleased with himself than usual, like he had just gotten some much-needed therapy via stabbing. Layla arched a brow at him, arms crossed. "So, how the hell did you even get captured by the TVA in the first place?" Loki¡¯s smirk faltered. A faint blush colored his cheeks as he quickly looked away. "I don¡¯t want to talk about it." Sona blinked. That was interesting. Loki, the God of Mischief, embarrassed? There was definitely a story there. One she had no doubt Layla would pry out of him eventually, if only for her own amusement. ¨C Layla ¨C I pressed my fingers together in a cross sign, and with a series of soft poofs, multiple clones of myself materialized around me in the dimly lit corridors of the TVA. Without needing further instruction, they shot off in all directions, their mission clear¡ªassemble every single variant still lingering in this forsaken place and bring them to the main lobby. I was done here. The TVA had crossed a line the moment they came after my family. I had no intention of letting them exist a second longer than necessary. But I wasn¡¯t heartless. I had made a promise to let everyone go home first¡ªif their homes still existed. Half an hour later, I stood in the middle of the TVA¡¯s massive main lobby, surrounded by nearly two hundred variants from all over the multiverse. So many versions of Captain America. An entire assortment of Thors, some carrying hammers, others wielding weapons a bit more unique. A staggering number of Tony Starks, some in sleek, futuristic suits, others looking worn from battle. And then there were the ones that didn¡¯t quite fit a recognizable mold¡ªvariants of heroes and villains alike, some male, some female, some something else entirely. A female Captain America pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Her confident stride reminded me of Steve, but her aura was undeniably different. My gaze flickered to her uniform¡ªPeggy Carter, I realized. She stopped a few feet away and hesitated, eyes darting to my wings. Her expression faltered, but only for a second before she composed herself. ¡°The others told me an actual angel showed up to save us.¡± She squared her shoulders. ¡°Thank you.¡± I smiled at her. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. The TVA made the mistake of coming after my family. Today¡¯s the day this insane organization disappears for good.¡± Behind me, Sylvie let out a triumphant cheer. ¡°Hell yeah!¡± A few more variants stepped forward, murmuring among themselves before one finally voiced the question that was on everyone¡¯s mind. ¡°How exactly are you planning to send us all home?¡± That was... a damn good question. I closed my eyes, thinking for a moment. [You could ask Lady Death?] The system¡¯s voice chimed in my mind. Yeah, I supposed I could. The moment I opened myself to her, I felt an invisible touch caress my face. A whisper of cold lips brushed lovingly against my ear. My relationship with Lady Death would always be different than with my other lovers. Lady Death was always been with me, watching, waiting for when I needed her. And now, she whispered words I didn¡¯t fully understand¡ªuntil suddenly, I did. A spell. Ancient. Powerful. One meant for guiding lost souls home. I turned back to Peggy. ¡°Would you like to go first?¡± She didn¡¯t hesitate. ¡°Heroes lead by example.¡± I extended my hand toward her, calling on the spell Lady Death had gifted me. A violet glow enveloped Peggy, and in an instant, I understood exactly where her universe was. Relief flooded through me. The TVA hadn¡¯t gotten around to destroying it yet. With a snap of my fingers, a swirling purple portal manifested beside her. The air hummed with energy, and on the other side, I glimpsed the familiar skyline of her world. Still, as long as her pranks were harmless and fun, no one would care too much. Then Hela turned to Loki, her expression shifting from amused to exasperated. "Now then, my dear foolish little brother. What shall I do with you? We released you from prison early to assist with our deranged uncle, and in return, you stole a gift I had specifically prepared for my beloved Layla!" I flushed as she announced that to the entire throne room! Loki scowled. "I wasn¡¯t planning on keeping it forever... I just wanted to have some fun! Layla got it back herself anyway. No harm done..." Hela¡¯s eyes narrowed. "Except for the fact that you led an interdimensional terrorist strike force directly into the bedroom of your nieces!" Loki winced, looking much less cocky. "I¡¯m sorry... I thought they¡¯d just attack you or Layla. You both would have easily handled them. I wasn¡¯t expecting them to go after Hilga, Sia, and Lia." The murmuring in the court grew louder at that revelation. People exchanged glances, some looking outright furious. I could already see the shift in perception. It wasn¡¯t just about Loki being reckless anymore¡ªit was about him directly endangering Asgardian royal children. Deciding to cut off any potential outrage, I leaned forward slightly. "It was his way of making sure we¡¯d come and rescue him," I said. "He knew neither of us would have been harmed..." That quieted some of the murmuring, though plenty of people still glared at him. Loki really needed to work on making people like him more... Hela, however, remained unimpressed. She leaned back in her throne, tapping her fingers against the armrest as she considered her next words. The room waited, silent, for her to announce Loki¡¯s punishment... ... ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting her to go that route...¡± I muttered mostly to myself as Sona and I made our way back toward the palace living chambers. Sona nodded beside me, adjusting her glasses. "Yeah. Can¡¯t say he didn¡¯t deserve it, though." I sighed but didn¡¯t disagree. As we reached my daughters¡¯ room, I noted multiple Asgardian guards stationed outside. They stiffened slightly but gave respectful nods as we passed. Sona and I returned the gesture before stepping inside. Inside, we found Sif sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing with Hilga, Sia, and Lia. The four of them were putting together a puzzle, the girls fully engrossed in it. My gaze drifted to the box lying nearby, and I blinked at the familiar image on the cover. It was a puzzle of me? Distributed by Fallcorp. Huh? I didn¡¯t know we started making toys too. Sif looked up and smiled. On the bed, Rias sat beside Frigga, both looking relieved we safely made it back. I walked over to Sif first, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek before making my way to Rias and doing the same. "Welcome back," Rias greeted with a small smile. "Did you get those bastards?" "Sure did," I replied. "They won¡¯t be bothering us again." Sona smirked. "The TVA is in ruins. I suspect a few agents got away, but the majority of the organization has been destroyed. The remnants will know never to cross us again." Sif nodded approvingly, still helping Hilga with a few puzzle pieces. "Excellent." "I¡¯m just glad everything worked out," Frigga said in relief. Then, her expression shifted slightly. "Is Loki... alright?" I hesitated. "Uh... define ¡®okay¡¯?" "Is he alive?" Frigga asked, more pointedly this time. "No?" I said at the same time Sona said, "Yes?" Sona and I exchanged glances, neither of us quite sure how to phrase it. Technically, "he" was not alive... Frigga¡¯s face paled, her eyes widening in shock. Sona quickly held up a hand. "Wait¡ªhe is alive! Just... not exactly as he was before." Before we could explain, the doors behind us flew open. Sylvie strolled inside, looking exasperated. And right beside her... was another Sylvie. No. Not another Sylvie. Loki... Who was now a woman. [Hahahaha! Look at his face!] "Mother, look what they did to me!" Loki wailed, voice several octaves higher than usual. "I can¡¯t undo the spell either!" I winced. Yeah... Hela turned Loki into a girl. Not permanently¡ªjust until, as she put it, he ¡®started thinking with his upper head and not his lower one.¡¯ Honestly? He had it coming... Sort of? Meh, it wasn''t like it was forever so he''d get over it eventually. "At least she used a spell," I muttered, "and didn¡¯t just chop off his... bits." Frigga looked shocked for all of half a second before her expression completely changed. She stood up, her face lighting up like she had just received the best news of her life. "Oh! I¡¯ve always wanted a proper daughter, and now I have two of them!?" Loki¡¯s expression became truly devastated as his mother all but beamed at him. Frigga turned to Sylvie next, who, despite trying to look disinterested, was clearly enjoying this. "Hela never lets me go dress shopping with her! We should get you some new outfits at once!" "Mother, no¡ª" "I think it¡¯s a great idea," Sylvie interrupted with a wicked grin. Loki groaned, burying his/her face in her hands as Frigga practically bounced with excitement. I just smirked and sat down next to Sif and started helping my daughters put together the puzzle about me. ¡°Where does this piece go?¡± XXX chapter 321 chapter 321 This chapter has R-18 Chapter 321: ¨C Layla ¨C I lounged on my bed, toying with my newest souvenir¡ªthe Infinity Gauntlet, now completely empty of any real stones. I flexed my fingers inside the metal glove and let out a soft giggle. ¡°SNAP!¡± I chirped, snapping my gauntleted hand just for the fun of it. The hollow clack that followed didn¡¯t have the same cosmic impact as the real deal, but it still amused me. Villains always think they can control ultimate power, I mused. He Who Remains sure found out the hard way. In hindsight, he should¡¯ve just focused on mastering one or two stones, instead of putting them all together and acting like the final boss when he obviously couldn''t handle all that power. [Villains are always overconfident.] ¡°You¡¯re right about that,¡± I agreed. Suddenly, a gentle knock sounded on my door. I grinned, already feeling a mischievous little spark. ¡°Come in!¡± The door opened, revealing Sona. Her eyes landed on the Gauntlet, then flicked up to my face. ¡°Layla?¡± she asked cautiously. I couldn¡¯t resist. I conjured an illusion of six glowing stones filling the Gauntlet¡¯s slots. Then I snapped my fingers a bit too dramatically. Sona flinched. ¡°Wha¡ª are you insane?¡± I dispelled the illusion with a laugh. ¡°Relax! It¡¯s just for show, I promise.¡± She pressed a hand over her racing heart. ¡°Yes, well... from my perspective, you were about to blow a hole in reality!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I teased, tossing the Gauntlet onto the bed. ¡°It¡¯s harmless now.¡± Sona eyed it warily. ¡°Why keep it at all?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Souvenir? Sometimes I kill to collect cool stuff from the enemies we beat. Though I¡¯ll admit, half the time I forget I even have them.¡± ¡°Like what else?¡± "Hmmm." I rummaged through my inventory and pulled out a pitch-black scythe, its blade radiating a deathly chill. Sona visibly tensed at the dark aura it gave off. ¡°The Scythe of the Underworld.¡± I gave it a little twirl, nearly knocking over a pillow. ¡°Once a fearsome weapon, now it just collects dust.¡± I chuckled and stashed it away before retrieving a small vial of thick green fluid. ¡°And here¡¯s a Hulk serum, I think. Could turn you into a raging beast... or not. Honestly, I never tested it. Might be fun to try out.¡± I gave her a wink. It''s not like I couldn''t cure it at this point. She blanched. ¡°Hard pass, thanks.¡± I dropped the vial back into my inventory. ¡°Suit yourself. I¡¯ve also got a miracle potion that cures all diseases, but it¡¯s kinda moot since my Purger of Darkness Sacred Gear already covers that.¡± Sona nodded slowly, clearly at a loss. Then she cleared her throat. ¡°Anyway... it¡¯s late. Or maybe early? Asgard time is bizarre.¡± She rubbed her arm and looked at me with a flush on her cheeks. ¡°I was hoping we could... talk. Or, you know, unwind after all the craziness.¡± A playful grin tugged at my lips. ¡°You sure you just want to talk, So-tan?¡± She flushed. ¡°I mean, no. But... I¡¯m also not alone. I called Serafall over too...¡± I blinked. ¡°Wait, what¡ª?¡± Right on cue, the door flew open again, revealing Serafall in her full magical girl costume. She brandished her wand overhead. ¡°Miracle¡îGirl Levia-tan is here! Surrender now, villains, and remove your clothes!¡± Sona groaned, covering her face. I, on the other hand, burst out laughing and started unbuttoning my shirt. ¡°Well, you heard the magical girl,¡± I said, winking at Sona. Serafall twirled her wand, striking a triumphant pose. ¡°Yes, yes! Obey me!¡± A split second later, Sona bucked her hips and stiffened, moaning Serafall¡¯s name as she joined me on that delicious plateau of ecstasy. Our bodies trembled against each other, and we sank into the bed, chests heaving as we fought for breath. Serafall finally slowed her movements, carefully pulling her fingers out. She had this triumphant, smug grin plastered across her face. She raised both hands to her mouth and winked down at us before she started licking her fingers. ¨C Serafall ¨C Serafall finished licking her fingers clean and wiped the last traces of Layla and Sona¡¯s juices from her lips, savoring the tangy warmth on her tongue. Seeing them sprawled out beneath her, their bodies still trembling from the orgasms she¡¯d just delivered, made her core tighten with excitement. Sure, she was Serafall Leviathan, but right now she was also Miracle¡îGirl Levia-tan, and that meant the show was far from over! Still in character, she cleared her throat with an exaggerated flourish. ¡°Ahem! Justice hasn¡¯t finished handing out punishments yet!¡± she proclaimed, in her most theatrical magical-girl voice. She had to stay committed to the act, even if her own body was screaming for release. She reached under her frilly pink skirt, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her soaked panties. With a quick yank, she tore them down her thighs, discarding them over the side of the mattress. She wanted to keep the rest of her costume on¡ªthere was something deliciously naughty about wearing that cute magical-girl uniform while getting downright filthy. Her gaze flicked between Layla and Sona. Layla was still panting, her face flushed, her large breasts rising and falling with each deep breath. Sona was propped on her elbows, hair disheveled, eyeing Serafall with a mixture of curiosity and arousal. Perfect, Serafall thought. Both were just waiting for her next move. Planting a hand on Layla¡¯s thigh, Serafall guided one of Layla¡¯s legs up, shifting her weight so she could press her own slick pussy against Layla¡¯s. The instant their folds met, Serafall let out a soft moan, relishing the wet heat and the way Layla¡¯s lips spread around her. Her clit throbbed with anticipation as she started rocking her hips. Layla¡¯s eyes fluttered shut. ¡°Oh, fuck,¡± she murmured, arching her back. Her breasts swayed enticingly with every thrust of Serafall¡¯s hips. Serafall couldn¡¯t resist staring¡ªshe loved how Layla¡¯s nipples peeked erect against her flushed skin. The sight of those firm, bouncing tits made Serafall¡¯s mouth water. She found a steady rhythm, grinding her mound against Layla¡¯s, letting their juices mingle. Every roll of her hips sent a jolt of pleasure shooting up Serafall¡¯s spine. She could feel the hot, slippery friction on her clit, each press making her gasp. The bed creaked softly beneath them, adding a hint of background music to their dance. Sona sat up, finally catching her breath after that last mind-shattering orgasm. Her cheeks were still pink, and her hair stuck to her forehead in damp strands, but there was a spark in her eyes that told Serafall she wasn¡¯t done yet. ¡°Oh no, the evil-doers are multiplying,¡± Serafall teased, forcing a mock-serious tone even as she grinned. ¡°I guess Levia-tan needs to handle you both at once!¡± She didn¡¯t stop the delicious grind of her pussy against Layla¡¯s, but she crooked a finger at Sona, beckoning her closer. Sona obliged, crawling across the sheets until she was within reach. Serafall leaned in, catching Sona¡¯s lips in a heated kiss. Sona moaned softly, parting her mouth to let Serafall¡¯s tongue slip inside. Their kiss was messy and urgent, saliva mingling as Serafall nipped at Sona¡¯s lower lip, relishing the soft gasp it elicited. Meanwhile, her lower body kept rocking and swiveling in a steady tribbing motion against Layla. She could hear Layla¡¯s breath hitch every time their clits brushed. Serafall lifted her free hand, groping blindly until her palm found Layla¡¯s breast, giving it a firm squeeze. Layla groaned, pressing her chest into Serafall¡¯s hand, clearly hungry for more. Serafall broke the kiss with Sona, just long enough to catch a glimpse of the devil woman¡¯s flustered expression. ¡°Come here,¡± Serafall murmured before diving back in, nipping at Sona¡¯s jawline, then moving lower to suck gently on the side of her neck. Sona whimpered, her body shivering under Serafall¡¯s mouth. ¡°You¡¯re... so damn persistent,¡± she breathed, though the way she gripped Serafall¡¯s waist betrayed her eagerness. Serafall just hummed in response. The swirl of sensations was almost overwhelming¡ªLayla¡¯s pussy slick against hers, Sona¡¯s warm mouth tangling with hers, and the electric tension winding tighter and tighter in her core. She felt Layla¡¯s hands clamp onto her hips, urging her on, trying to increase the pace. With a smirk, Serafall obliged, rolling her hips faster, letting the wet friction amplify. The bed rocked beneath them, the sheet bunching up as they moved. Layla¡¯s nails dug into Serafall¡¯s skin. ¡°Oh god,¡± Layla groaned, her voice breaking on a moan. Serafall ground down harder, determined to push Layla right to the edge. Her own clit throbbed, the pressure building fast. Next to her, Sona leaned in, planting a line of open-mouthed kisses along Serafall¡¯s shoulder and collarbone. She even let her tongue flick out, tasting the light sheen of sweat. Serafall shivered, her head spinning. She turned just enough to capture Sona¡¯s lips again, the kiss sloppy and desperate. She grunted into Sona¡¯s mouth, lost in the slick heat at her crotch. ¡°Fuck,¡± Serafall whispered, pulling away from the kiss to breathe. She could feel herself getting close¡ªeach thrust bringing a molten surge of pleasure. She forced her eyes open to glance at Layla beneath her. Layla¡¯s black hair was plastered to her forehead, and her cheeks were bright pink. Her parted lips let out short, frantic gasps. ¡°Levia-tan... oh, shit...¡± Layla hissed, her voice shaking. Layla¡¯s back arched off the mattress, her eyes squeezing shut as a raw cry ripped from her throat. She came hard, body jerking as waves of ecstasy tore through her. That raw, desperate look on Layla¡¯s face drove Serafall wild. She dug her knees into the bed, grinding her slick folds against Layla¡¯s in a final burst of frantic thrusts. Her own climax hit like a lightning strike, a hot, pulsating wave that crashed through her from her pussy upward. ¡°Ah¡ªfuck!¡± she choked out. Her thighs were quivering as her orgasm wracked her body. Her hips stuttered, each spasm jolting with sweet agony. She was vaguely aware of Sona¡¯s hands steadying her, or maybe just clinging to her, as pleasure surged through her. For several seconds, the only sounds were disjointed moans and ragged breathing. Serafall¡¯s mind floated in a haze of bliss, her limbs trembling with the aftershocks. Slowly, she let out a breath, letting her body collapse forward onto Layla. Layla panted, wrapping an arm around Serafall¡¯s waist. Sona settled next to them, still catching her breath, a hand stroking lightly up and down Serafall¡¯s back. After a moment, Serafall remembered to keep her magical-girl persona going. She lifted her head, a lazy grin on her face. ¡°Justice... has been served,¡± she declared in a fake heroic tone, drawing a small laugh from both Layla and Sona. XXX chapter 322 chapter 322 Chapter 322: ¨C Hela ¨C Hela stood alone in the darkest chamber of her palace, hidden away in a place only she could access. Not even her beloved Layla was allowed beyond these walls. This was her sanctuary, a place where she could commune with her patron deity without interference, without prying eyes or wandering senses. Even for someone as close to her as Layla, there were things only Lady Death could hear. She exhaled slowly and reached out with her power, summoning the presence of the one entity who had stood beside her since the beginning¨CEven if Hela had lost favor with her at a few points in her long life. The air grew heavier, thick with the scent of something both decayed and eternal. Shadows lengthened unnaturally, and a cold, familiar presence coiled around her spine. Then she appeared. Lady Death materialized before her, draped in flowing black, her otherworldly beauty as intoxicating as it was terrifying. Her lips curled in amusement as she gazed at Hela. "Ah, my dear Hela," Lady Death purred, her voice like silk over steel. "I sense that my Champion has returned to Asgard. Tell me, did you summon me here because you desire a threesome with me and her? You have become quite bold, my dear, but I might be open to such an arrangement." A chill ran down Hela¡¯s spine, her composure faltering for a brief second. "That¡¯s... not exactly why I called you here," she admitted, shifting slightly. Even she wasn¡¯t immune to the sheer presence of Lady Death when she teased like that. Lady Death chuckled, stepping closer. "Pity..." Hela took a steadying breath, forcing herself back to the matter at hand. "Layla now has five of the six Infinity Stones," she pointed out. "I wanted to know what happens when she gains all six. Her power is already beyond anything I¡¯ve ever seen. Hell, the entire multiverse barely holds beings who can compare." Lady Death smiled at that, a slow, knowing expression that sent another shiver through Hela. Was that nervousness? Or arousal? Obviously it was both. "Our beloved is quite impressive, isn¡¯t she?" Lady Death mused. "The power she has gathered in such a short time makes even the most ancient beings I know green with envy. But you need not worry, Hela. The Infinity Stones alone will not change her. As she¡¯s fond of reminding her enemies¡ªLayla is simply built different." Hela rolled her eyes at that. "She does say that a lot... Midgardians have the strangest phrases." Lady Death smirked, clearly amused. "That they do." Hela crossed her arms. "So, the Stones aren¡¯t the end of it, are they? Layla is too ambitious for it to stop there. What comes next?" Lady Death nodded approvingly at her foresight. "After she gathers the six Infinity Stones, she will need two more. The Life Stone, which is held by the Phoenix Force, and the Death Stone... which belongs to me. Only after obtaining all eight will Layla ascend as the Supreme Goddess." Hela frowned at that. "And what exactly will that entail?" She didn¡¯t like the sound of Layla throwing herself into more danger, even if she was damn near indestructible. Sure, Layla always came out on top, but no woman wanted to constantly watch their beloved run headfirst into cosmic-level threats over and over again. Lady Death tilted her head, as if considering how much she should reveal. "I won¡¯t lie to you, Hela. The trials she must overcome to obtain the Life and Death Stones will not be easy. They will test her will, her strength, her very existence. But more than anyone in this universe, I believe in her." Hela huffed, crossing her arms. "Not more than me." Lady Death¡¯s lips curled in amusement. "We shall see." Hela narrowed her eyes but let it go. "Fine. But there was something else I wanted to ask." Lady Death arched a delicate brow. "Oh?" Hela shifted slightly, suddenly uncharacteristically hesitant. She mumbled something under her breath, barely audible. Lady Death chuckled. "Hela, my dear, you know I can hear everything. Speak plainly." Hela exhaled and straightened her shoulders. "I wish to have a wedding with Layla soon! A real one. So she can be known as my wife in all ways. I want you to officiate the ceremony." Lady Death blinked, her teasing demeanor shifting into something more serious¡ªthough there was still a trace of amusement in her expression. "Oh? I suppose that can be arranged. But then, who will officiate my ceremony when it¡¯s my turn for a wedding?" Hela opened her mouth, then paused. That was a good question. Who the hell would be worthy to preside over a ceremony between Layla and Lady Death? "The One Above All?" Hela suggested after a moment. Lady Death actually sputtered. Hela¡¯s brows went high. She¡¯d never seen that reaction before! Lady Death composed herself quickly, shaking her head with a small laugh. "...You always know how to surprise me, Hela. Very well. I will officiate your wedding with Layla. However, I''d rather not get HIM involved. I have no doubts he knows about Layla after everything she''s done, but if he has chosen not to involve himself then...what''s the Midgardian phrase again? Yes, it''s best to let sleeping dogs lie..." "Probably a good idea..." Hela agreed. She then blushed slightly. "...So... About that threesome...?" Lady Death sighed. "Too late, I can already sense my champion enjoying herself with the two Devil sisters." Hela whined in jealousy! ¨C Layla ¨C "I¡¯m so glad everyone¡¯s okay!" Heather called out as she sprinted toward me, wrapping me in a tight hug. She had portaled over from her university the second she heard someone had dared to threaten her little sisters! I hugged her back just as tightly, taking a moment to appreciate how much she had grown. Every time I saw her, she looked more radiant, more powerful. No doubt, that was because she was now a fallen angel. Nearby, Hilga, Sia, and Lia were in the middle of a flying lesson with Rias, Serafall and Sona, but the moment they spotted Heather, all three of them abandoned their training and shot toward us like tiny missiles. "Big sister!" they squealed in unison before colliding into Heather, nearly knocking her over. Their little arms latched onto her, hugging her as tightly as their tiny bodies allowed. Heather let out a surprised laugh, adjusting to the sudden weight of three excited fallen angels/devil/asgardian children clinging to her. "Wow, okay! Didn¡¯t expect a full-force tackle!" she said, ruffling their hair as they giggled. I smirked at the sight. "Thanks for coming, Heather. The girls needed some cheering up." "Of course, Mom," she said, her tone warm. Then her grin widened. "Besides, I brought presents!" At the word "presents," my daughters perked up like tiny wolves catching the scent of fresh prey. Heather reached into her pocket space and pulled out an armful of Earth candy. Chaos immediately ensued! The girls let out high-pitched squeals of excitement, grabbed fistfuls of candy, and started tearing into the wrappers like their lives depended on it. The moment sugar hit their systems, I knew we were all doomed. [Three tiny fallen angels hopped up on processed sugar. This''ll be good...] Yeah, this wasn¡¯t going to end well. But it would be funny at least... "Wanna see who can make the biggest Lightspear?" Hilga declared! "Okay!" Lia chirped. "I bet I¡¯ll win!" Sia announced confidently. Sona and Rias visibly paled as all three of my daughters summoned their Lightspears at the same time. Serafall, instead of being concerned, found the whole thing hilarious, giggling to herself. The three girls pouted as they glanced at one another¡¯s spears, realizing they were identical in size. Clearly, that wasn¡¯t good enough for them. "Whoever makes the biggest explosion wins!" Hilga said with a determined nod. Before anyone could intervene, Hilga hurled her Lightspear at the ground like a little war goddess in training. The resulting explosion sent a shockwave through the training grounds. Debris shot into the air, and a thick cloud of smoke followed. Meanwhile, Heather and I stood well outside the blast radius, casually chatting as though this was completely normal--which it was when you had a supernatural family. "So," Heather said. "What exactly have you been up to lately, mom? I know you don¡¯t sit still for long." I smirked. "Oh, you know. The usual. Possibly getting a new harem member, destroying an evil interdimensional organization. Oh, and you have a new little sister, by the way." Heather, who had been nodding along, suddenly froze. "Wait, what?! I have a new sister and didn¡¯t know?! How could you not tell me, Mom?!" I winced. "I meant to... But then the TVA thing happened, and Asgard needed a few days to calm down. You know how things get." Heather pouted. "That¡¯s not an excuse." I held up my hands in surrender. "Look, I was going to introduce Ten-chan to everyone properly, but things got hectic. Fortunately, Yasaka has been watching her for me, and she and Kunou get along great." Heather let out a dramatic sigh but seemed appeased for now. "Fine. But I want to meet her soon." "Of course," I promised with a chuckle. ...In the background: ¡°I win!¡± Hilga cheered. "No fair!" "Best two out of three!" "Ok!" "Boom!" ...The conversation between Heather and me shifted to something a little more serious. Heather wanted to know when we¡¯d all be moving back to the penthouse in New York? I hesitated at that. The whole reason I had brought my daughters here in the first place was to keep them safe. Two of them were half-devil, and with the newly merged Earth¡ªMarvel and DXD combined¡ªhalf the human population had a serious problem with devils. But at the same time... I missed Earth. Sure, I knew I¡¯d be spending more and more time in Asgard in the future, but Earth was still my home. I wasn¡¯t ready to let it go either. "I¡¯m honestly torn," I admitted. "I want to go back, but I also don¡¯t want to put the girls in danger." Heather wrapped me in another hug, resting her chin on my shoulder. "You¡¯ll figure it out, Mom. Your job is to do whatever keeps the family safe." I chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. Guess that¡¯s the burden of being a mom." Heather smirked. "Well, that and making sure your kids don¡¯t turn entire landscapes into craters with Lightspears." I sighed. "Speaking of which..." I turned to check on Rias and Sona, who were still failing miserably at containing the whirlwind of destruction that was Hilga, Sia, and Lia. Serafall, to no one¡¯s surprise, was not helping. Instead, she was rolling on the ground laughing her ass off. "My three nieces are the best and so adorable! You all make Levia-tan so proud!" I honestly found it funny as well, but I wasn''t happy the girls weren''t listening to Rias and Sona at the same time. Were they already reaching their rebellious phase!? I blurred into the air. In less than a second, I had all three of my wild little fallen angels securely in my arms, their tiny bodies squirming in protest. "Moooom!" Hilga whined. "We were still playing!" "Yeah! I was gonna win!" Lia pouted. Sia just huffed dramatically. "Not fair!" I grinned down at them. "Sorry, my little troublemakers, but it¡¯s dinnertime. You all need some proper nutrition, and not just sugar." ¨C Asia ¨C ...Asia carefully set the table, placing the last dish down. "Dinner is ready," she said with a smile, stepping back to admire her work. "Thank you, Asia," Susan said warmly, though there was still a faint awkwardness between them. Not tense, exactly¡ªjust the kind of residual hesitation that came from adjusting to a new, unexpected dynamic. Asia had never imagined herself being part of a harem. Well, that wasn¡¯t entirely true. Living with Layla for as long as she had, she had considered the possibility. But this was different. This was her life now, and it involved John¡ªbetter known to the rest of the world as the Doom Slayer¡ªand his other girlfriend, Susan Storm. Had it been awkward at first when John confessed his feelings despite already being in a relationship? Absolutely. But Asia had liked him back, and more than anything, she wanted to be part of his life. And surprisingly, Susan hadn¡¯t been opposed. In fact, Susan had been... enthusiastic about it. Asia¡¯s face suddenly went bright red. Oh no. Why was she thinking about that now? About how Susan had very clearly had experience with other women in college? About how skilled she was when they were all in bed together¡ª "Asia?" Susan¡¯s voice pulled her back to reality. "Are you okay?" "I-I¡¯m fine!" Asia stuttered, flustered as she hurried to take her seat. John, sitting at the head of the table, raised an eyebrow at her but didn¡¯t comment. Susan just gave her an amused, knowing smirk before picking up her fork. They settled into dinner, chatting lightly about Asia¡¯s progress in medical school. John, naturally, still acted as her personal bodyguard. As an angel¡ªone well-known for her healing Sacred Gear¡ªshe was an obvious target for anyone looking to exploit her powers. Having John around made her feel safe. Susan, meanwhile, had taken a job at the university. It allowed them to stay close during the day. Despite the recent upheaval in the world, Asia had been enjoying the normal life she had going. Which, of course, meant something had to ruin it. A yelp escaped her lips as a portal tore open directly above the table. Before any of them could react, a figure came crashing through, slamming into the center of the table with a heavy thud. Plates shattered, food flew in every direction, and their peaceful dinner was completely obliterated. John had already reached for one of his guns, but he hesitated when the figure didn¡¯t move. The man was unconscious, covered in burns and cuts, his clothes tattered and singed. Susan gasped. " Reed!?" Asia blinked, still processing what had just happened. Wait. Reed? As in Reed Richards? Susan¡¯s ex. The guy who was wanted internationally for terrorism. The guy who had also vanished for two years. And now he was passed out, bleeding all over what remained of their dinner table. ¨C Reed Richards ¨C An hour earlier... In a hidden pocket dimension in the far corner of the multiverse... The council of Reeds. Reed¡¯s hands clenched into fists as the chamber erupted into chatter and shouting. Dozens of alternate versions of himself shouted over one another, arguing, theorizing, debating endlessly about what should be done. It was the same thing, every single time. He had been pleading with them for almost two years to help him kill Layla of the Fallen and reclaim his world from the supernatural forces that had overrun it. ¡°She already has five of the six Infinity Stones!¡± Reed bellowed over the chatter, his patience at its breaking point. ¡°Somehow, she¡¯s figured out how to permanently merge them with herself¡ªmaking them work across every single universe! If we don¡¯t stop her now, no one will be able to oppose her! We have to act!¡± The shouting only got worse. A few Reeds nodded in agreement, murmuring about the danger she posed. But the majority? They weren¡¯t interested in fighting her. If anything, they were grateful. ¡°She destroyed the TVA,¡± one of them argued. ¡°That¡¯s something we¡¯ve been trying to do for centuries!¡± ¡°She¡¯s done more good than harm!¡± another added. ¡°Antagonizing her is pointless!¡± Reed¡¯s jaw tightened. Fools. Every last one of them! Couldn¡¯t they see the danger? He was the smartest man in the universe, in every universe, and he knew that no one should wield that much power alone who wasn¡¯t as smart as he was! Layla was going to be corrupted by it. It was only a matter of time! The arguing stretched on for another half-hour. No matter what he said, no matter how much he tried to reason with them, the majority voted to leave Layla alone. Reed¡¯s fury boiled under his skin. Was he ever going to get his world back? Was he ever going to get Susan back? Then¡ª ¡°BOOM!¡± The entire pocket dimension trembled as an explosion rocked the chamber. A ripple of panic spread through the gathered Reeds. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± ¡°We¡¯re under attack!¡± ¡°Impossible! This place is untraceable!¡± A section of the wall was obliterated, debris flying in all directions as a figure in a flowing green cloak stepped through the smoke like he owned the place. ¡°Well now,¡± the intruder drawled, his metallic voice dripping with amusement. ¡°Isn¡¯t this fucking quaint? All of my most hated people gathered in one room. Is it Christmas?¡± Victor Von Doom stood in the wreckage, arms folded behind his back, his masked face unreadable¡ªbut the amusement in his tone was unmistakable. Reed¡¯s stomach twisted. ¡°Doom,¡± he spat. The question was, was this his Doom or one from another of the infinite Universes? Reed barely had time to process the horror of Doom standing there before another figure emerged from the smoke. Kang the Conqueror. A being that the council feared more even than the TVA! ¡°How did you find this place!?¡± ¡°What are you doing here, Kang!?¡± The Conqueror of numerous universes simply smirked at all the Reed¡¯s in the room. ¡°...With the TVA gone, there''s no one left to stop me. Well, no one besides you morons! Isn''t it obvious, I''m here to kill you all! But first, this Layla person sounds fascinating, and I want to know everything there is to know about her.¡± ¡°...As for me,¡± Doom cut in. ¡°I just like killing Reed Richards. Over and over and over again!¡± ¡®Shit! I have to get out of here!¡¯ Reed thought to himself. He once again realized that he was the smarted Reed there because when everyone else chose to fight, he was the only one that wisely chose to flee... Unfortunately, he didn''t get very far before an explosion completely surrounded him and bathed his world in pain and fire. XXX chapter 323 chapter 323 A/N: So this chapter upset some of my pat. reon readers, but I promise everything will be ok... Chapter 323: ¨C Doom: Earth Marvel/DxD¨C Victor Von Doom leaned against the ornate balcony railing of his palace, sipping whiskey from a crystal glass and admiring the capital city sprawled out before him. The buildings shone under bright electric lights, powered by technology he had personally introduced. Towers of modern steel and glass stood beside older stone structures. The entire nation had expanded beyond its original borders after the two Earths merged, but he had handled that little obstacle. Other armies had tried to stake their claim, and he had crushed them. Now this new territory belonged to him. Life was good. He no longer wore the iron mask that had once been his trademark. He no longer needed to. He had everything he ever wanted: respect, power, and a thriving population that adored him. He had territory stretching farther than Latveria ever had before, a wife named Zora who was carrying his child, and the backing of "actual angels" who had become allies when the world changed. Sure... The so-called democracies hated him, but that was their problem. He was content, and his people lived well under his rule. He sipped his whiskey, savoring its smoky flavor. He considered it one of the best luxuries he had discovered from the newly merged Earth. Imported from some region that no longer existed under its old name, it had a bite that reminded him of his younger days, when he had something to prove. He let out a small chuckle. He was a different man from who he had been a few years ago. And more happy for it. Suddenly, a swirling green portal materialized behind him, distorting the air in the corner of his balcony. He tightened his grip on the whiskey glass and set it aside, then moved a hand toward the concealed weapon at his hip. He was prepared to blast whoever the hell was intruding, but then he paused. A figure stepped through the portal, and Victor¡¯s eyes widened. It was him. Or rather, an alternate version of him, wearing the familiar old armor and cloak. The green hood was drawn low over a metal mask, the same design he had once worn in his darkest days. The mask¡¯s eyes glowed faintly, and the figure¡¯s posture radiated anger and bitterness. Victor felt a hint of nervousness, but he forced it down. The man in the mask looked around, taking in the modern lighting and advanced cityscape. He seemed confused. Or possibly impressed, though it was hard to read his expression behind the metal face. Victor cleared his throat. ¡°Hello, me. Welcome to Latveria. To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting... myself?¡± The alternate looked him up and down. ¡°Why do you stand there without your armor? Where is your mask?¡± Victor shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t need it anymore,¡± he said, gesturing to himself. He wore a fine tailored suit. ¡°I achieved my goals. My face is healed, my rule is absolute, and I have a life worth living. No reason to hide behind steel anymore.¡± The alternate let out a harsh scoff. ¡°You... you stand barefaced, sipping a drink like some complacent fool?¡± He scanned the city again. ¡°Why is everything so... modern?¡± Victor chuckled. ¡°When the two Earths fused, I seized the opportunity to expand Latveria. Now I have territory that dwarfs what either Earth recognized before. My people are prosperous. I have a wife, a child on the way, and angels for allies. Life is good.¡± That final statement made the alternate stiffen. ¡°Angels? Allies?¡± he growled. ¡°Doom bows to no one. Doom conquers!¡± Victor let out an amused sound. ¡°Calm down. I haven¡¯t bowed to anyone. This was a mutual arrangement. In exchange, I gained benefits that no other nation could match. That¡¯s how Latveria became the most powerful country in Europe.¡± And all he had to do was not fuck with Layla of the Fallen or any of her allies. Honestly, not that difficult since she mostly stayed in New York, Japan, or Asgard. The alternate¡¯s masked eyes flared. ¡°You¡¯ve grown weak.¡± Victor turned away from the railing, picking up his whiskey and taking another sip. He sensed the anger rolling off his alternate, but he also felt an odd pity for the man who stood where he used to be¡ªbitter, scarred, and raging at the world... ¡°Call it what you want,¡± Victor said. ¡°I have what I always desired. The days of wearing that tin can on my face and ranting about revenge are over.¡± The alternate took a menacing step forward. ¡°Revenge? Against who?¡± Victor paused, swirling the whiskey in his glass. ¡°Used to be the Fantastic Four,¡± he admitted. ¡°But they¡¯re done. Reed Richards broke the law one too many times. He¡¯s wanted for terrorism. Susan Storm... ended up in some other relationship that had nothing to do with him. I think that¡¯s hilarious. Johnny Storm is off in space somewhere, or so I heard. Ben Grimm is living peacefully, retired from the hero business. There¡¯s nothing left for me to fight.¡± The alternate¡¯s posture twitched. ¡°No... that can¡¯t be. Doom must stand triumphant over his enemies. That¡¯s the point!¡± Victor spread his hands. ¡°I did, in my own way. Then I moved on. The world changed, and I adapted.¡± They locked gazes, the alternate¡¯s mask reflecting the ambient light. Victor sensed the man¡¯s frustration building. ¡°Why did you come here?¡± Victor asked. ¡°Looking for answers on how to find a better life for yourself?¡± The alternate hesitated, anger flickering behind the mask. ¡°You are not Doom,¡± he spat. ¡°You¡¯re a coward wearing my face. I wanted to see if this new Earth had anything to offer me. I wanted to see if there was a path for me that didn¡¯t involve constant struggle. But you disgust me!¡± Victor set his whiskey down on the small table behind him, a sudden sense of danger prickling the back of his neck. ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry you feel that way. If you want me to help you, maybe show you how to¡ª¡± He never finished the sentence. The alternate lunged forward with terrifying speed, slamming a gauntleted hand right into Victor¡¯s chest. Victor felt metal fingers crush bone and tear through flesh. He coughed up blood as agony shot through his entire body! ¡°No...!¡± he choked, reaching a trembling hand toward his attacker. The alternate¡¯s eyes behind the mask burned with hate, and he pressed deeper, driving his arm through Victor¡¯s chest. Blood dripped onto the balcony floor. ¡°Your thirst for vengeance is gone,¡± the alternate snarled. ¡°You are not worthy of the name Doom! I will take your place and show this world the true meaning of power!¡± Victor¡¯s vision blurred. He coughed again, more blood spilling out, staining his immaculate suit. He staggered, his strength draining away as his heart struggled to keep beating around the metal that had impaled him. He tried to speak, to call for guards or to summon some last burst of power. But his mind clouded, and the pain overwhelmed him. He fell to his knees, legs giving out. The alternate yanked his arm free with a sickening wet sound. Victor collapsed onto the cold stone, gasping, the world fading around him. The last thing he saw was his own face¡ªtwisted in hateful rage¡ªstanding over him. Then everything went black. ¨C Doom Earth ??? ¨C His hand glowed for a moment before he vaporized the corpse, erasing any evidence of his crime. Now he could truly usurp his alternate¡¯s life as his own. ¡°I suppose I have a ¡°wife¡± to greet along with a few wars to declare...¡± ¨C Charles Xavier ¨C Charles Xavier stood at the second-floor railing of the mansion, looking down at the front yard where a group of young mutants ran around, chasing each other in a casual game of tag. He smiled. The children seemed happy. He stretched his legs, a simple habit, and yet it meant the world to him ever since Layla of the Fallen brought him back to life and fixed his spine. She had apologized for snapping his neck, but he never blamed her for it. He was a fool for being so easily mind controlled... Erik¡¯s voice drifted out from the living room. ¡°Do you ever get tired of standing, old friend?¡± Charles let out a short laugh. ¡°Of course not,¡± he said, stepping back inside. ¡°I spent more than thirty years in a wheelchair. I¡¯m still enjoying the novelty of walking, if you can believe it.¡± Erik nodded from his seat on the couch. He was sipping tea from a simple mug. Charles walked over to a small table, grabbed a snack, and popped it into his mouth. He and Erik were basically retired now. They taught at the school, guiding new generations of mutants and making sure the children felt safe. Tensions between humans and mutants had never been lower. The public had realized that the big existential threats were usually from the stars, so they left the mutant population alone more often than not. Of course, it was never perfect. There were humans who still held hatred in their hearts, but Charles and Erik refused to give up. They spent much of their time discussing expansions to the school. They wanted to build more dorms and labs, specifically for young mutants with dangerous abilities who needed a safe place to learn. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about dedicating half of the western wing to advanced power testing,¡± he said. ¡°We could reinforce the walls with that Wakandan metal we ordered. It would help reduce accidents.¡± Erik sipped his tea. ¡°I agree. We should also consider an outdoor obstacle course. The kids need more exercise. They spend too much time playing video games nowadays...¡± Charles nodded and was about to respond when he felt a strange disturbance. He frowned, seeing Erik stiffen as well. A rectangular portal formed in the air beside the couch. A bald woman stepped out, wearing a faded trench coat. She looked at them both, her lips curving into a sinister smile. Erik placed his mug down, the metal surfaces around the room rattling in response to his agitation. He was prepared to attack if needed. Charles focused on the woman, trying to probe her mind, but his head exploded with pain the moment he tried. ¡°Stay out of my head,¡± the woman said. ¡°...I¡¯m more than happy to introduce myself, anyway.¡± She paused, looking straight at Charles. ¡°Nice to meet you, big brother. I¡¯m Cassandra.¡± Charles winced, rubbing his temples as the mental backlash subsided. He blinked in confusion. ¡°Big brother? Why are you calling me that? Why are you here!?¡± Cassandra let out a small chuckle. ¡°I¡¯m here because the new boss wants me and my associates to cause chaos... Our mission is to destabilize Layla of the Fallen in any way we can! I don¡¯t personally care about any of that nonsense, but I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by dropping in on an alternate version of the brother who tried to murder me!¡± Erik frowned, raising a hand to manipulate the metal in the room. He flung a wave of iron ornaments at Cassandra, only to watch them all crumble into ash before they reached her. She wagged a finger at him. ¡°That was naughty,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯ll have to be punished. Both of you will. You can live in the hell I spent hundreds of years in. Enjoy the void!¡± Charles felt an invisible force yank him off his feet. His stomach lurched. He heard Erik let out a shout, and then the two of them were shoved into the portal she had stepped out from. ¡°Stop!¡± Charles cried, but the portal swallowed him whole. The last thing he saw was Cassandra¡¯s grin as she casually waved goodbye. ¨C Cassandra ¨C Cassandra glanced around at the cozy furniture, the pictures on the walls, and the muffled sounds of children playing outside. Ugh, it was all so disgustingly pedestrian. Things around here were going to be changing, that was for sure... ¡°Well then,¡± she muttered in glee. ¡°I suppose I should introduce all the students to their new headmistress!¡± ¨C Michael ¨C Michael sat on the grand throne in the new heaven, letting billions of prayers wash over him in a constant hum of voices. It used to overwhelm him, but he had grown more accustomed to it with each passing day. Every time he settled into the throne that Layla had repaired and enhanced, he felt a subtle surge in his power. Even more interestingly, he had noticed Gabriel seemed stronger each time they met. He suspected they were both on track to gain their fourteenth set of wings, just like Layla. He took in a slow breath, channeling divine energy to respond to a handful of important prayers that stood out from the mass. He gently closed his eyes, focusing on the emotions coming through the prayers¡ªfear, desperation, gratitude¡ªwhen a pulse of light flashed in the throne room. He opened his eyes to find Gabriel standing there, looking tense. Michael greeted her with a warm smile. ¡°Sister, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Gabriel bit her lip. ¡°I got a strange prayer from my adopted daughter, Asia. One of our sister¡¯s enemies¡ªReed Richards¡ªapparently appeared out of nowhere during dinner at Asia¡¯s home. He was badly injured.¡± Michael straightened. ¡°Reed Richards? That¡¯s unexpected. Do you need me to go with you?¡± Gabriel shook her head, brushing a strand of her shining hair aside. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I can handle it, and you need to stay on that throne until the problems around the merged Earth all settle down. We still have countries with two separate governments from different dimensions fighting over who¡¯s in charge.¡± Michael sighed, pressing a hand to his temple. ¡°I know. Things are stabilizing in many areas, but some places are a mess. America is especially complicated right now, but at least the fighting there hasn¡¯t turned violent. People are mostly ignoring the political shouting and waiting for the next election to kick both inept governments out.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Gabriel said softly. ¡°So keep doing what you¡¯re doing. I¡¯ll see what¡¯s going on with Reed. If things get out of hand, I¡¯ll call you.¡± Michael offered a quick nod, and with that, Gabriel vanished in a swirl of golden sparkles, leaving him alone with the constant buzz of prayers. He inhaled and settled back into the throne. Layla was on Asgard, so many of the prayers meant for her naturally rerouted to him. It was a system they had worked out, so that if one of them was unavailable, the prayers would still get answered. Usually, the prayers that came through were requests for small miracles, blessings, or messages of gratitude. But then a sudden wave of desperate pleas slammed into Michael¡¯s mind. The voices contained raw panic. ¡°Help us, Layla!¡± ¡°That monster is killing everyone!¡± ¡°Please save us from the monster!¡± ¡°Layla, please help! Tony is dead! That robot killed him! And that red bitch made Bruce go crazy!¡± Michael stiffened, eyes snapping open at the mention of Tony Stark¡¯s death! He recognized that last voice as Andrea Stark¡ªa friend of Layla¡¯s. He tried to focus on her prayer, feeling the terror behind her words. Then, in the space of a heartbeat, he sensed Tony Stark¡¯s soul entering heaven. That meant Tony was truly dead! Michael felt a rush of dread. There was no time to figure out the exact circumstances. He picked up enough from the prayers to realize that the Hulk was rampaging in a city in California, attacking innocent people. Some sort of ¡°robot¡± had apparently killed Tony. The mention of a ¡°red bitch¡± though was something he couldn''t figure out right away. He stood up from the throne. He had to go. He had to stop the carnage before the body count rose any higher. ¡°Keep watch in my absence,¡± Michael said firmly, directing the words at a pair of lower-ranking angels who lingered near the throne. They bowed, acknowledging his command. He closed his eyes and teleported away in a burst of golden light. ¨C Rizevim ¨C ¡°...Well, that got him away pretty fast. You really know what you¡¯re doing, human,¡± he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Kang responded in an even tone. ¡°I am far more than a simple human, Devil. I¡¯ve ruled over countless timelines. Of course I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, human,¡± Rizevim shot back, rolling his eyes. Rizevim sized up the so-called human next to him¡ªa man named Kang the Conqueror¡ªwho claimed he had brought entire universes under his rule. The arrogance in his voice grated on Rizevim¡¯s nerves, but he had to admit that this ¡°human¡± was pretty smart and ruthless at the very least. The angels in front of him tried to gather enough courage to speak or call for help, but Rizevim was already tired of wasting time. He lifted his hand, letting dark energy swirl around his fingertips. With a swift gesture, he sent a wave of shadows that drained the grace right out of them. The angels collapsed, their bodies turning pale and husk-like before falling to the floor dead. A faint smirk crossed Rizevim¡¯s lips. ¡°That should make Michael take notice. We don¡¯t have much time,¡± he said, glancing at Kang. ¡°Now let¡¯s see if you¡¯re worth a damn.¡± Kang shot him an annoyed look but didn¡¯t argue. He walked toward the throne that Layla of the Fallen and Michael had obviously repaired. They had done something with it. Something annoying that was blocking him from finally releasing Trihexa onto this new world, even after he''d broken all of the annoying seals. He wouldn''t be able to destroy it a second time. Rizevim sensed the immense power radiating from it¡ªhe knew he wouldn''t be able to so much as scratch it. The beings who fixed it were now far above himself in power. ...Man, he''d really fucked around and found out hadn''t he? And yet, he wasn''t really that mad. Weak enemies were boring after all! ...The devils had been almost wiped out. He considered it a tragedy in theory, but in practice, he didn¡¯t really care. They were mostly pathetic. Serafall at least had her uses, bearing more female devils to repopulate the race. He had long found the secret to enhancing his race''s birth rates but never bothered sharing it. Rizevim killed all the sons she bore though. Sons and grandsons always ended up disappointing him, so he snuffed them out the moment they were born. He turned his attention back to Kang. The man had pulled out a small, glowing device and was holding it up to the throne, pressing a button on the side of the device. ¡°I should be able to shift it into another dimension for a couple of minutes.¡± Rizevim let out a huff of laughter. ¡°A couple minutes is all I need to unleash Trihexa onto this world. Not that I expect it to do more than scratch Layla at this point,¡± he admitted. ¡°But I¡¯ll enjoy the "Khaos" anyway.¡± Kang glanced over at him, lips curling in distaste. ¡°The chaos is secondary. My true goals lie elsewhere...¡± Rizevim didn¡¯t care what those goals were, as long as they didn¡¯t get in his way. XXX AN: A chapter dedicated to villains before shit goes down. Layla: Wait...? I''m not even in this chapter... Thanks for reading!!! I have a patreo n. My subs can read advanced updates of my stories ahead of standard release and even check out pics for some of the more naughty chapters. Link: Patreo n .com (slash) Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters: The Fallen Gamer ch 324-328 The Fox Hole 70 The Blood Queen 40 Thunder and Black Wings 15 The Fox Hole 69 The Blood Queen 39 The Fox Hole 68 The Titan 30 The Fox Hole 67 Thunder and Black Wings 14 The Fox Hole 66 The Blood Queen 38 The Fox Hole 65 The titan 29 chapter 324 chapter 324 Chapter 324: ¨C Tony Stark ¨C Tony Stark had always assumed that if there was an afterlife, he¡¯d get there in style. Maybe a dramatic last stand, some fireworks, hell, even a send-off party on his deathbed with plenty of strippers and blow. Instead, he got vaporized in a split second by a random robot that had called itself "Ultron." What a dumb name, but that didn''t stop it from instantly vaporizing him. Poof. Dead. ¡°Hello, Father. Time to die!¡± That robot didn''t fuck around. And it went just like that. "Well, this sucks," Tony muttered, rubbing his temples as he took in his surroundings. He was in some kind of massive white void, glowing clouds and soft golden light stretching out endlessly. It was uncomfortably peaceful, which only added to his irritation. "I die and I don¡¯t even get a VIP lounge? Typical." ¡°Anthony.¡± Tony froze. His head snapped up at the sound of a familiar voice, one he hadn¡¯t heard in decades. He turned around, and his breath caught in his throat. "Mom... Dad..." Maria and Howard Stark stood before him, looking exactly as he remembered them from old photographs. His mother had that warm, knowing smile that could instantly disarm him, while his father had the same confident, sharp gaze he had inherited. Maria stepped forward first, placing a gentle hand on Tony¡¯s cheek. ¡°Oh, sweetheart... We¡¯ve missed you.¡± Tony swallowed the lump in his throat, forcing out a smirk to cover the storm of emotions raging inside him. ¡°Yeah, well, I wasn¡¯t expecting a family reunion this soon. Not exactly part of the five-year plan.¡± Howard chuckled, crossing his arms. ¡°You and your five-year plans. Still the same, huh?¡± Tony scoffed. ¡°Not exactly. You know, what with the whole ¡®being dead¡¯ thing. Kinda puts a damper on future projects.¡± Maria smiled, tears shimmering in her eyes. ¡°We¡¯ve been watching, Tony. Everything you¡¯ve done... We are so proud of you.¡± Tony let out a shaky breath, shoving his hands into his pockets. ¡°Yeah? Even the times I royally screwed up?¡± Howard smirked. ¡°You mean the times you nearly got yourself killed, built killer robots, or publicly pissed off the U.S. government?¡± Tony pointed at him. ¡°See, you do pay attention.¡± Maria laughed softly before taking his hands in hers. ¡°You¡¯ve accomplished so much, Tony. Creating the serum that saved everyone, making sure people and creatures alike could have a future kn Earth... and then you went and made a freaking moon base, for heaven¡¯s sake.¡± Tony raised an eyebrow. ¡°You¡¯re telling me you know about the moon base?¡± Howard nodded approvingly. ¡°Of course we do. Hell of a feat. Even by Stark standards.¡± Tony rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious. ¡°Well, it wasn¡¯t easy, but, y¡¯know... I¡¯m awesome.¡± He shot them a smug grin, which Maria returned with a fond shake of her head. ¡°It¡¯s been hard without you two,¡± Tony admitted after a moment. ¡°Even you, you old bastard,¡± he added, glancing at Howard, who just chuckled. Howard placed a firm hand on Tony¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We know. And we¡¯re sorry we weren¡¯t there for you when it mattered most.¡± Tony shrugged, attempting nonchalance. ¡°Well, I turned out pretty great, so I guess I managed.¡± Maria¡¯s smile softened. ¡°You didn¡¯t just manage, Tony. You thrived. And you did it while carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.¡± Tony cleared his throat, shifting awkwardly. ¡°Yeah, well, someone had to. World¡¯s full of idiots.¡± Howard smirked. ¡°Spoken like a true Stark.¡± Tony looked between them, a question nagging at the back of his mind. ¡°So, how are you guys here? I figured you¡¯d be hanging out with Lady Death or something.¡± Maria¡¯s expression turned amused. ¡°She let us come here as a favor to that woman named Layla.¡± Tony blinked. ¡°Layla?¡± His mother nodded. ¡°Too bad she¡¯s only interested in women. She would¡¯ve been a perfect match for you.¡± Howard chuckled. ¡°Not that your current wife isn¡¯t incredible, of course.¡± Tony smirked, shaking his head. ¡°Yeah, well, Pepper would kill me if I even thought about it.¡± An orange portal popped open beside them, startling Tony and his parents. A familiar figure stepped out, wings neatly folded behind her back. Tony immediately noticed they were black again. "Oh, back to the classic look, huh?" Tony smirked, crossing his arms as he took her in. "What, did the rainbow aesthetic get too exhausting?" Layla grinned, giving her wings a slight stretch. "The colors were fun for a while, but let¡¯s be real¡ªnothing beats the classics. My black wings were always the best!" Maria and Howard Stark exchanged a glance before Maria stepped forward, smiling warmly at Layla. "It¡¯s nice to finally meet you. Thank you for being Tony¡¯s friend." "Yeah, nice to meet you,''" Howard added with a polite nod. Layla chuckled. "Likewise." Tony, meanwhile, tapped his foot impatiently. "Alright, so what happens now? Do I get a golden harp and a cloud, or are we actually going to do something productive?" Layla gave him a playful smirk. "I mean... I could just leave you dead." Tony groaned. "Please don¡¯t. It¡¯d probably be a huge pain in the ass to bring myself back to life." Layla laughed at that. "Honestly? I wouldn¡¯t put it past you. But no, I¡¯m here to resurrect you because, as fun as Heaven is, we¡¯ve got some serious problems to deal with. Like figuring out why Ultron and Wanda suddenly popped up out of nowhere and decided to murder you, Andrea, and sic Hulk on California. Michael¡¯s handling Hulk right now, but we need answers. How the hell did they even find their way into this universe?" Layla explained." Tony raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like a lot. We should get started." Fixing things was what he did best after all. Maria placed a hand on Tony¡¯s shoulder. "If anyone can figure that out, it¡¯s you, son." Tony gave her a small, awkward smile. "Thanks, Mom." Then he caught the way Layla was looking at him¡ªa cheeky, knowing grin that immediately put him on edge. "What?" he asked warily. Layla¡¯s grin widened. "Well, here¡¯s the thing. Your entire body got destroyed by Ultron, which means I have to fully resurrect you from scratch. And that means... I get to decide what you come back as." Tony groaned. "Oh, come on! Don¡¯t tell me¡ª" "Yep," Layla chirped smugly, placing her hand on his head. A weird sensation washed over Tony, like static electricity crawling under his skin. He barely had time to process it before two bright white wings burst out of his back. He turned his head, eyes widening at the sight of the feathery appendages. "Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake! White wings? Really? I don''t even get to be a fallen angel? How did I, of all people, have good enough karma for white wings?" This was going to ruin his ''bad boy'' image! Howard snorted. "You saved the human race, son." "Oh yeah... right." Tony sighed dramatically. "Guess that explains it." Maria touched his new wings gently, a look of wonder on her face. "They suit you." Tony rolled his eyes but couldn¡¯t help the small smile tugging at his lips. "Yeah, yeah. So, I guess this is goodbye for you two? You gonna head back to, uh... wherever you were?" Layla tilted her head. "Why would you say that? They can come with us." Both Tony and his parents blinked in surprise. "They can!?" "We can?" Maria asked, eyes widening. "We can?" Howard echoed. Layla smirked. "Sure." She reached out, placing a hand on each of them. A brief pulse of divine energy flowed through them--and it was weird Tony could suddenly sense that--and suddenly, Maria had a pair of white angel wings, while Howard¡¯s were black. Ha! Tony always knew his dad was a dick! Although Tony, could admit he was jealous... Howard flexed his new wings, examining them with curiosity. "Huh. I can work with this." Maria beamed. "Welcome back to the land of the living," Layla said, grinning. "We have cookies." Maria sighed blissfully. "God, I miss cookies. I can¡¯t wait to be able bake things again. No one gets hungry in the after life..." Tony let out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "You really just brought my parents back to life. Damn." Layla squeaked when he suddenly grabbed her in a tight hug. "Thank you so much, Layla." Layla chuckled, patting his back. "It¡¯s no problem, Tony. We¡¯re friends, aren¡¯t we? Now, let¡¯s go avenge your murder." Tony pulled back, cracking his knuckles. "Oh yeah, I¡¯ve got an evil robot to scrap." Layla nodded. "And I¡¯ll handle the insane red witch. If the Ancient One hasn¡¯t already clapped her or something." ... Layla opened an orange portal for him. On the other side, his beach house in California came into view. The sight of his home felt surreal, considering he had been dead only moments ago. The living room lights were dim. Pepper sat curled up on the couch, sobbing into a tissue. Tony¡¯s heart clenched at the sight of her grief. ¡°Hey, honey, I¡¯m home,¡± he called out casually as he stepped through the portal. Pepper''s head snapped up, eyes widening in shock. For a moment, she just stared, as if afraid he was an illusion. Then she bolted off the couch, launching herself into his arms. ¡°Tony!¡± she gasped, gripping him tightly. ¡°Oh my God, you¡¯re¡ª¡± Her hands ran over his chest, his arms, confirming he was real. ¡°You¡¯re back! You¡ª¡± She pulled back suddenly, eyes locking onto his new wings. ¡°And you have wings!?¡± Tony sighed. ¡°Yeah, Layla made me an angel...¡± he muttered, giving them a small flex. The bright white feathers shifted slightly as if responding to his irritation. Pepper blinked, staring at them with fascination. ¡°Can she make me one too?¡± she asked, half-joking, half-serious. Tony smirked. ¡°Maybe later, Pep.¡± He was grateful for the distraction. Anything to take her mind off the fact that he had just come back from the dead. Tony turned his attention to the next immediate issue. ¡°JARVIS! Fire up the lab, it¡¯s time to build me a new set of armor!¡± ¡°Very good, sir,¡± JARVIS responded smoothly. ¡°Might I say, it is good to have you back among the living.¡± Tony grinned. ¡°Meh, everyone knew a little thing like being vaporized wouldn¡¯t keep me down forever.¡± A holographic screen popped up in front of him, and he immediately got to work, fingers swiping through blueprints as JARVIS began initializing the fabricators. He had to make sure his new armor had proper modifications¡ªextra protection to accommodate the wings, something that would shield them while still allowing for movement. Layla had mentioned that angel wings were both a strong point and a weak point. He wasn¡¯t about to let some murder robot take him out again by yanking on them mid-fight. As Tony worked, his mother, Maria, turned to Pepper with a warm smile. ¡°You must be Pepper,¡± she said, stepping forward and taking Pepper¡¯s hands. ¡°It¡¯s so nice to finally meet my daughter-in-law.¡± Pepper, still processing everything, blinked in confusion. ¡°Daughter-in-law!?¡± she sputtered, looking between Maria and Tony, her brain catching up to the fact that these weren¡¯t just some random angelic bodyguards from Layla. Tony smirked. ¡°Oh yeah, did I mention my mom and dad are alive again too? Thanks to Layla.¡± Pepper opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head. ¡°I... I need a drink.¡± Maria laughed. ¡°I¡¯ll pour us both one.¡± Tony just chuckled, rolling his shoulders as JARVIS completed the first stage of his armor assembly. ¨C Layla ¨C Leaving Tony with his family for now, I opened a portal to Asia¡¯s home after getting a message from my sister Gabriel that they had a lead on what was happening. I stepped through and landed right in the middle of Asia¡¯s kitchen, immediately noticing the mess. The table was shattered, broken wood and food scattered everywhere. Looked like someone had smashed into it. I followed the trail of tension and stepped into the living room, where everyone was gathered. Right in the center of the room, tied to a chair, was Reed Richards. John¡ªthe Doom Slayer¡ªstood nearby with a gun to the guy¡¯s head. Seemed a little extreme, but given that we were dealing with one of the smartest and most arrogant men in the universe, I wasn¡¯t about to complain. Letting him get comfortable was a mistake we weren¡¯t going to make. John and I exchanged nods, then I turned my attention to the women in the room. Asia was the first to react, rushing over to give me a quick hug. ¡°Glad you¡¯re here, Auntie Layla,¡± she said. I gave her a squeeze before letting go and turned to Susan Storm, who was standing off to the side with her arms crossed. ¡°Exes... am I right?¡± I said with a smirk. Susan snorted. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you¡¯ve ever even had an ex, Layla,¡± Gabriel chimed in with a soft giggle, her twelve white wings fluttering behind her. I pouted at her. ¡°I was just trying to lighten the mood.¡± Then, I focused on Reed. The guy looked like absolute shit¡ªbruises, cuts, and burns all over. He¡¯d been through hell just getting here. ¡°You look like shit!¡± I said cheerfully. ¡°Fuck you, homewrecker!¡± Reed spat at me, his voice raw with anger. Wow. Way more aggressive than I expected. [He seems mad, I wonder why?] The system snarked in my head. Honestly, it wasn¡¯t even fair of him to blame all his problems on me. All I ever did was fix his messes, and somehow, that always made me the villain in his mind! I glanced at Gabriel. ¡°You get anything out of him yet?¡± ¡°I¡¯m right here,¡± Reed snapped. ¡°I can answer for myself.¡± ¡°Okay then,¡± I said, crossing my arms. ¡°What the fuck did you do? Why are Ultron and an evil Wanda running around California causing chaos?¡± Reed scoffed. ¡°Why should I answer you?¡± Click. John cocked back the hammer on his gun. ¡°Because if you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll let him shoot you,¡± I said. ¡°Then I¡¯ll bring you back to life and let him shoot you again.¡± ¡°Auntie Layla... that¡¯s a little extreme,¡± Asia pouted. ¡°I think it¡¯s about right,¡± Susan muttered. Reed clenched his jaw, struggling against his bonds for a moment before sighing. He seemed to realize he had no real way out of this. ¡°Fine,¡± he muttered. ¡°I¡¯ll talk.¡± He began his explanation. ¡°The Council of Reeds was in the middle of a vote,¡± he said. ¡°We were deciding whether or not Layla of the Fallen needed to be... removed.¡± I scoffed. ¡°Bunch of arrogant bastards.¡± As if they could even threaten me at this point... [You never know...] Reed kept going. ¡°But before the vote could conclude, the Council was attacked. Doom and Kang the Conqueror came out of nowhere! I don¡¯t know if they had others with them. I barely made it out. I didn¡¯t stop to look back.¡± I had heard the name Kang the Conqueror before¡ªfrom He Who Remains, right before we killed him. I crossed my arms and frowned. "Alright, Reed, what¡¯s Kang¡¯s deal? Why is he suddenly causing problems in my universe?" Reed let out a frustrated sigh, his bruised face tightening as he squirmed in his chair. "That¡¯s just what Kang does. He conquers. No matter the cost. Whatever he¡¯s doing now is probably just part of some larger master plan." He scowled. "Who knows what else he¡¯s up to?" It was clear that it annoyed him¡ªprobably more than it should¡ªthat he couldn''t figure out another supervillain''s plan. I was about to taunt him over that when Gabriel suddenly stiffened. Her golden eyes went wide with alarm. "Turn on the TV." Susan quickly picked up the remote and turned on the living room¡¯s television. The news channel flickered on, and the sight on the screen made my brows furrow. A picture of Victor Von Doom in full armor appeared. "The hell?" I muttered. "I thought he rolled up his cape after becoming a successful businessman." The broadcast played his speech. "Citizens of Europe! I am Doom! And I am here to deliver an important message to all of you! Your economies are weak, your armies are a joke, and your governments have failed you. But have no fear, because Doom is here to rescue you from all of that. As of this moment, I am declaring war! Europe will be mine! And you shall all prosper under my rule." I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned. "Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake. Is he seriously pulling a Hitler right now?" "Kinda seems like it," John grunted. "Was that really Doom?" Susan asked in disbelief. "It''s not," Reed growled, glaring at the screen. "I have an eidetic memory. I recognize all the scratches in his armor. That¡¯s the same Doom that attacked the Council!" "Then what happened to the real one?" Asia asked nervously, her blue eyes flickering between us. I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. "He¡¯s probably dead." There was a heavy silence. I didn¡¯t like Doom, but he was definitely one of the more chill versions in the multiverse. At the same time, I knew his soul wasn¡¯t going to end up in Heaven, which made reviving him more of a hassle. And, unfortunately, I was going to have to bring him back if I wanted to fix this mess before another world war broke out. "Alright," I said. "I¡¯m gonna go take care of this real quick." This imposter was about to be in for a rude awakening. But before I could even think about portaling away, Gabriel suddenly let out a sharp gasp and collapsed to her knees. Her entire body shook, her wings trembling as if an invisible force was pressing down on her. "Gabriel! What¡¯s wrong?!" I asked, alarmed. I had never seen her like this. She looked up at me, her expression filled with dread. Her voice was barely a whisper. "It¡¯s here..." I blinked. "What¡¯s here?" Before she could answer, the news anchor on the television suddenly broke in with another urgent report. "We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news. Hong Kong is under attack by an unknown entity. We¡¯re getting live footage now¡ª" The screen cut to a live feed, and my stomach dropped. People were running in terror. Skyscrapers toppled like dominoes. The ground was splitting apart as a massive, black-furred beast rampaged through the city, its disfigured heads snapping at everything in sight. I felt an unnatural chill crawl up my spine. "Trihexa..." Gabriel whispered, eyes locked onto the screen in pure horror. Well... fuck. [This Kang guy is apparently working with Rizevim as well...] ¡°Fuck, this is not what we need right now!¡± I groaned and massaged my temples. I brushed some stray black hairs out of my eyes before I spoke again. ¡°Ok, I¡¯m going to go and take care of THAT real quick, and THEN I¡¯ll take care of Doom, and then... We¡¯ll figure it out from there.¡± XXX chapter 325 chapter 325 Chapter 325: ¨C Tony Stark ¨C Tony Stark soared across the country, blasting Black Sabbath in his helmet speakers! Feeling the hum of his new Iron Man suit around him. The wings he¡¯d designed for it were pitch-black metal, shielded in a way that protected his newly acquired angel wings underneath. ¡°Jarvis,¡± Tony said, voice echoing inside his helmet, ¡°any hits on ¡®knockoff skynet¡¯ yet?¡± ¡°Sir, I¡¯ve taken the liberty of hacking every relevant satellite over the United States,¡± Jarvis replied calmly. ¡°Ultron has been sighted in New York, apparently rummaging around the defunct Baxter Building. Possibly for lootable technology.¡± Tony grinned behind his visor. ¡°The old Baxter Building, huh? I was hoping for something more dramatic, but I guess that¡¯ll do.¡± He kicked the thrusters to max and felt the suit rocket forward, the jet stream peeling clouds aside as he covered hundreds of miles in seconds. The adrenaline buzzed through him, mixing with the new angelic energy in his system. It was a strange sensation for sure. When he finally reached New York, Tony dropped down into the city, weaving between skyscrapers. Smoke rose from abandoned streets near the Baxter Building, and a few scattered civilians were fleeing from the general area. It gave him a bad feeling. He landed on the sidewalk, the black wings clanking softly against his suit. He folded them behind him, then strode toward the building¡¯s broken entrance. The old Baxter Building looked like it had been stripped of anything valuable. There were exposed wires and shattered windows on every floor. Nobody had ever bothered really fixing the place up after the demonic invasion. Tony¡¯s HUD scanned for signs of movement. ¡°Intruder discovered on the tenth floor, sir,¡± Jarvis reported. ¡°Readings suggest Ultron¡¯s signature.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s say hi,¡± Tony muttered. He fired his boot thrusters and soared through a gaping hole in the side of the building, scanning the hallways. Debris littered the corridors, old lab equipment knocked over or half-disassembled. He found Ultron in one of the larger labs, rummaging through a dusty terminal that no one had used in years. The metallic figure turned, red eyes glowing, and Tony felt a flare of anger at the sight of the killer AI that had ended his life so casually. ¡°You¡¯re alive,¡± Ultron observed, voice laced with electronic static. ¡°I assumed it¡¯d take longer for you to get back from the afterlife.¡± Tony stepped forward, repulsors charging at his palms. ¡°Heaven wasn¡¯t as exciting as I hoped. Lots of fluffy white clouds and not nearly enough titties.¡± Ultron¡¯s robotic face twisted into a semblance of a grin. ¡°I can''t help but admit that im curious about death. I¡¯ll never experience it for myself, having no soul and all.¡± Tony snorted. ¡°I bet I can still show you all the same.¡± Ultron tilted his head. ¡°You¡¯re probably here for revenge. I suppose that¡¯s fair. But you might want to hear my plan first don''t you.¡± Tony aimed his repulsor. ¡°Sure. Lay it on me. Why bother coming to this universe? Im sure their were plenty of job openings for toasters back home.¡± Ultron shrugged in a way that wasn''t quite human. ¡°I slaughtered all organic life in my old home. Got bored. Kang found me, offered me a chance to do a sequel here if I helped him with some big, complicated conquest. Sounded fun.¡± Tony¡¯s eyes narrowed behind his visor. ¡°Not if I have anything to say about it.¡± Ultron let out a synthesized laugh. ¡°Let¡¯s see about that.¡± Tony fired the first shot, a bright-blue repulsor beam slamming into Ultron¡¯s chest. The android skidded back, but recovered instantly. He retaliated with a barrage of energy blasts from hidden cannons in his arms. Tony dodged behind a rusted support column, then returned fire. The inside of the building erupted in bursts of sparks and flying debris. The fight escalated quickly. Ultron launched himself forward with surprising speed, tackling Tony into a stack of old servers. Tony felt the impact rattle his entire suit. He gritted his teeth, pushing Ultron off him with a well-placed boot thruster. ¡°Jarvis, give me a reading on his armor,¡± Tony growled, boosting into the air to avoid another volley of blasts. ¡°His structure seems to be an advanced vibranium alloy,¡± Jarvis answered calmly. ¡°We have limited data, but it¡¯s extremely resilient.¡± ¡°Yeah, no kidding,¡± Tony muttered. He tried a wide repulsor sweep that knocked Ultron sideways, tearing up half the lab in the process. Bits of shattered machinery went flying, smashing into walls and windows. Ultron rallied, slamming a heavy metal fist into Tony¡¯s side. Tony felt the blow crack some plating. He countered with a point-blank unibeam from his arc reactor, sending Ultron crashing through the lab¡¯s thick partition door. At first, it seemed like a stalemate, with Ultron¡¯s armor able to withstand most of Tony¡¯s usual tactics. Tony started getting frustrated, feeling like the android had the upper hand. Then Jarvis chimed in with an alert. ¡°Sir,¡± Jarvis said, ¡°the arc reactor is reacting to your angelic energy. It appears to be absorbing and amplifying the power.¡± Tony blinked. ¡°In English, buddy.¡± ¡°It means you have more output than anticipated,¡± Jarvis clarified. ¡°Considerably more.¡± Tony felt a grin stretch across his face. ¡°Well... How bout that!?¡± Looks like his fluffy white wings were good for something after all. "Energy readings at 1000% and climbing!" Jarvis sounded shocked. Tony unleashed another volley of repulsor blasts, this time feeling an extra surge from deep within his suit. The beams glowed hotter, sizzling with intensity. Ultron¡¯s eyes flashed in surprise as the blasts slammed into him, melting parts of his so-called vibranium alloy. ¡°You¡ª¡± Ultron snarled, stepping back with sparks flying from his torso. ¡°That¡¯s not possible! My tech is far more advanced than yours!¡± Tony advanced, the black metal wings on his suit spreading out dramatically. ¡°Guess you forgot to do your homework on angelic arc reactor synergy.¡± He fired again, sending a concentrated beam that bored through Ultron¡¯s shoulder, leaving molten edges. Ultron made a furious sound and tried to dash toward the building¡¯s broken window, presumably wanting to escape. Tony shot after him, his wings catching the air as he soared. He locked onto Ultron, who was climbing higher into the sky. He was done letting this bastard run. ¡°Jarvis, power to thrusters,¡± Tony commanded. ¡°Let¡¯s show him what a real angel can do.¡± ¡°Right away, sir,¡± Jarvis responded. Tony shot upward, flames trailing from his boots. The cityscape blurred beneath them, wind rushing across his helmet. Ultron tried to accelerate, but Tony closed the gap, the arc reactor in his chest glowing brighter than ever. He leveled an arm at Ultron¡¯s back, repulsor whining with power. ¡°End of the line, you tin can.¡± Ultron twisted his head around, red eyes blazing. ¡°You think you can stop me? I was unstoppable in my universe¡ª¡± ¡°Not unstoppable here,¡± Tony snapped. ¡°Time for you to figure that out.¡± They clashed midair, weapons firing on both sides. Tony felt a surge of satisfaction as he realized he now had the advantage. Ultron¡¯s armor was failing against the amplified blasts. The bastard was going down! And Tony had never felt more alive! Weird that he had to die first though for that kind of feeling... ¨C Michael ¨C A bit earlier... Michael soared through the smoke-filled sky, his twelve golden wings flapping behind him as he surveyed the destruction below. Los Angeles was in a bad place. Streets were littered with burning vehicles, buildings lay in ruins, and bodies¡ªtoo many bodies¡ªwere scattered along the roads. The sound of sirens blaring was almost drowned out by the screams of terrified civilians fleeing for their lives. Michael clenched his fists. This kind of suffering never got easier to witness. He had sworn to protect humanity, to bring order to chaos, and yet, once again, he found himself arriving too late to prevent the innocent bloodshed. A deafening roar echoed from the distance, followed by an explosion. Missiles streaked across the sky before slamming into a massive form. With a single powerful flap of his wings, he rocketed toward the battle. As he neared, he saw Andrea Stark¡ªthe woman whose desperate prayers he had answered¡ªengaged in a desperate fight against a raging Hulk. Andrea¡¯s red and gold Iron Woman suit was battered and dented as she dodged attacks from the green behemoth. This wasn¡¯t just an uncontrolled outburst of rage. He hadn''t had any of those in years. The Hulk¡¯s eyes were glowing a faint, unnatural red¡ªclear signs of mind control. Someone had done this to him. Whoever the ''Red Witch'' was from Andrea''s prayers... Michael landed between them on a cracked street. Andrea let out a breath of relief as she hovered beside him. ¡°Archangel Michael!? Thank Layla you¡¯re here!¡± she gasped, her voice filled with both exhaustion and horror. ¡°It¡¯s bad. Really bad. He won¡¯t stop¡ªhe¡¯s not himself!¡± Michael nodded, eyes locked onto the Hulk. ¡°I can see that. We¡¯ll stop him together.¡± The Hulk let out another monstrous roar and charged at them, the pavement cracking beneath his massive feet. Michael moved first, summoning a golden lightspear in his right hand. He didn¡¯t want to kill Banner¡ªhe knew this wasn¡¯t his fault¡ªbut he also couldn¡¯t afford to hold back. The Hulk¡¯s strength and regeneration were legendary. Andrea fired off a barrage of repulsor blasts, hitting the Hulk square in the chest, but the monster barely flinched. Michael followed up by launching his lightspear, striking Hulk¡¯s shoulder. The attack burned in and sent him staggering back, but only for a moment. The angry green giant snarled and ripped the spear out, his wound healing almost instantly. Michael and Andrea barely had time to react before the Hulk was upon them again. He swung a massive fist at Michael, who dodged and countered with a powerful golden energy-infused punch to the ribs. The force of the impact sent shockwaves through the air, but the Hulk simply roared in fury and retaliated with a brutal backhand that sent Michael crashing through the side of a ruined building. Michael sighed as the rubble shifted around him. It looked like he was going to have to use even more force... Andrea cursed and unleashed another missile barrage, striking the Hulk in the face and chest. Explosions erupted all around him. He stumbled, but only for a second before leaping toward her snarling. She barely managed to activate her thrusters and avoid him. Michael emerged from the wreckage. "I apologize Bruce Banner,¡± he muttered, summoning another pair of lightspears. He threw one with more perfect aim, piercing and pinning the Hulk¡¯s foot to the ground for a moment, long enough for Andrea to unleash a concentrated blast from her chest-mounted unibeam. Her suit started to flicker, it looked like she was giving it all the juice it had... The Hulk roared in pain as the energy seared into him, forcing him down to one knee. But his rage was still growing, his wounds already healing over. Michael rushed forward, dodging another of Hulk¡¯s swings before slamming his spear directly into the beast¡¯s chest. Golden energy exploded outward, sending Hulk crashing through the remains of a small convenience store. The Hulk was squirming in agony as the spear stuck into his chest. Michael had avoided the heart, but the divine energy was surging through the Hulk''s body. Finally stopping him. Michael pulled the golden spear from the Hulk¡¯s chest. As the weapon left his body, the green behemoth let out a low, guttural groan before his massive frame began to shrink. Muscles deflated, his skin paled, and within moments, Bruce Banner lay in the rubble. Andrea Stark landed nearby, her Iron Woman armor barely holding together. Sparks sputtered from damaged plating, and smoke curled from various joints where the suit had taken heavy blows. She let out a breath of relief that sounded pained. Michael scanned the destruction around them now that they had finished the fight. Los Angeles was in ruins¡ªcollapsed buildings, scorched pavement, shattered vehicles. The bodies... too many innocent people had died today. His divine senses allowed him to feel the lingering remnants of their suffering, and it weighed on him heavily. Andrea removed her helmet, revealing a tear-streaked face. She looked down at Bruce¡¯s still form, her expression torn between sorrow and resignation. ¡°There¡¯s no coming back from this,¡± she said, her voice thick with emotion. ¡°Just like the devils, the world will never accept him again. Even if he wasn¡¯t in control... they¡¯ll demand justice. They¡¯ll hunt him down.¡± Michael stepped toward her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. ¡°You could both move to Asgard,¡± he suggested. ¡°You¡¯re already an artificial Asgardian yourself, aren¡¯t you?¡± Andrea let out a bitter chuckle, shaking her head. ¡°That¡¯s just a cop-out,¡± she replied. ¡°People will demand Layla turn us over. The governments will never let this go. I love Bruce... I won¡¯t let them take him from me-not again. We have to disappear.¡± Michael frowned, realizing what she meant. He could see the pain in her eyes, the silent goodbye she had already come to terms with. ¡°I¡¯ll tell Layla,¡± he said softly. ¡°She¡¯ll be saddened to lose you.¡± Andrea¡¯s lips curled into a sad smile. ¡°Tell her thank you for everything she¡¯s done for me. And... tell Tony thanks for taking me in so easily, for treating me like family.¡± She swallowed hard. ¡°But this is goodbye. Maybe in a few hundred years, when people have forgotten, we can return. But not before then...¡± She reached down and tapped a device on her wrist. A portal materialized beside her. He was surprised she was able to create such a device with nothing but her own genius. He didn¡¯t recognize the destination, but he could tell one thing for certain, it wasn¡¯t anywhere in this universe. With one last look at him, Andrea bent down, scooped up Bruce¡¯s unconscious form, and carried him through the portal. The rift sealed shut behind them with a quiet hum, leaving only an eerie stillness in the ruined city. Michael sighed and looked up toward the sky. Layla wouldn¡¯t take this well, but at least Andrea wasn¡¯t dead. They would meet again someday. For now, though, something in Heaven felt... wrong. He had to return immediately. With a single flap of his golden wings, he ascended, disappearing into the clouds. ¨C The Ancient One ¨C The Ancient One sat in quiet contemplation, sipping her tea as the troubling global broadcasts played across a floating projection of energy before her. The world was unraveling, chaos spreading like wildfire. Doom had declared war on Europe. A monstrous being had appeared in Hong Kong. The Hulk was wreaking havoc in L.A. And now-- "BOOM!" The entire compound trembled violently, cracks splintering along the invisible barriers surrounding Kamar-Taj. Shouts and hurried footsteps filled the air as sorcerers scrambled into defensive positions. The Ancient One sighed and placed her teacup down. She could already sense the immense energy hammering against the protective wards¡ªunstable, corrupted, and fueled by something far beyond normal magic. A dangerous presence. She stepped outside just as another explosion rocked the compound. The barrier shattered, an opening ripped through the once-impenetrable defenses. Red, swirling chaos magic surged through the air, aiming directly for her. With a flick of her wrist, the Ancient One dispelled the energy effortlessly, sending it dispersing into harmless particles around her. She narrowed her gaze at the figure descending from the sky, crimson energy crackling violently around her. Wanda Maximoff. Or at least, some version of her. This Wanda was different¡ªcorrupted, drenched in malevolence, her very aura tainted by forces that should have been left untouched. The Darkhold¡¯s stench clung to her like a disease, and the sheer instability of her magic was enough to make the Ancient One frown. ¡°Strange! Where are you?!¡± Wanda¡¯s voice rang out, sharp with desperation and fury. The Ancient One stood her ground. ¡°I¡¯m afraid Stephen Strange never became a sorcerer in this universe.¡± She observed Wanda carefully, noting the erratic energy surging around her. ¡°Can I help you instead?¡± Wanda hovered for a moment, crimson energy curling around her fingers. Then her eyes widened slightly in shock. ¡°The Ancient One?¡± she muttered. ¡°You¡¯re alive?¡± The sheer disbelief in her voice almost made the Ancient One chuckle. ¡°That surprises you?¡± ¡°In every universe I visited with the Darkhold,¡± Wanda growled, ¡°you were always dead.¡± Well, that was unsettling. Perhaps she owed Layla more gratitude than she¡¯d initially thought. It was strange, even after all these years, to consider how much her continued existence had been influenced by an outsider. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t believe everything you read,¡± the Ancient One remarked dryly. She gestured subtly for the younger sorcerers to keep their distance. They were not prepared to handle someone like this version of Wanda Maximoff. ¡°I didn¡¯t come here to chat,¡± Wanda spat. ¡°Hand over the Darkhold. Strange destroyed my copy, but Kang told me I could have this universe¡¯s copy if I helped him.¡± Ah. So that was her game. The Ancient One crossed her arms. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s not going to happen, Wanda. You don¡¯t get to breach into my universe, cause chaos, and then expect to walk away with a prize.¡± The air around Wanda crackled violently, the red glow intensifying. ¡°Fine,¡± she sneered. ¡°Then I¡¯ll take it from you, you old bitch.¡± The Ancient One tilted her head, unimpressed. ¡°You¡¯ll certainly try.¡± With a flick of her hands, she tapped into the eldritch energies that had been her companion for centuries. Golden mandalas formed around her arms... She was about to take Wanda Maximoff ''to school.'' XXX Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 326-330 (New Worm Story) A Systematic Tale: The Hero 3 The Fox Hole 74 (New Worm Story) A Systematic Tale: The Hero 2 (New Worm Story) A Systematic Tale: The Hero 1 Thunder and Black Wings 17 The Fox Hole 73 The Fox Hole 72 The Blood Queen 41 The Fox Hole 71 Thunder and Black Wings 16 The Fox Hole 70 The Blood Queen 40 Thunder and Black Wings 15 chapter 326 chapter 326 Chapter 326: ¨C Layla¨C A swirling purple portal tore open over Hong Kong, and I shot out of it, my sixteen black wings flaring wide as I soared over the burning city. My glowing purple eyes scanned the devastation below, and even though I had already seen the destruction on the news, seeing it in person was far worse. People screamed, running frantically in all directions, desperate to escape the absolute carnage. Buildings crumbled, flames raged, and in the middle of it all, a massive black monster with multiple twisted animal heads rampaged through the streets. It crushed people beneath its hulking body, sent cars flying with every step, and even swallowed screaming victims whole. I grimaced at the sight and sounds... Trihexa. The beast had to die, and it had to die fast before it caused more destruction. But first, I needed to get it the hell out of the city before the casualty count got any worse. I spread my arms wide. "Susanoo!" My eyes burned with power, and in an instant, brilliant purple light erupted around me. A colossal ethereal construct formed, surrounding my body in the shape of a towering, armored angel. Hovering above the city. Its glowing wings spread wide as it loomed over everything. The screams below stopped. People stopped in their tracks, their fear momentarily replaced with stunned shock and awe. Usually, I would have smiled or waved to reassure them. Let them know that I had everything under control. But there wasn¡¯t any time for that now. Trihexa roared, its monstrous heads twisting toward me. Multiple sets of eyes glowed red with fury. My susanoo¡¯s massive hand shot down and closed around the beast¡¯s entire body. Trihexa snarled and thrashed, but my grip was far too strong to escape. I tightened my hold, squeezing the monster¡¯s torso with crushing force. Trihexa was a creature whose existence had been debated for centuries. Some called it a myth, others whispered that it had been locked away since the dawn of time. But everyone old or powerful enough to know the truth understood one thing¡ªit existed for one purpose only: to destroy everything. Susanoo¡¯s massive hand clenched around the beast, and with a powerful heave, I hurled it straight out of the city. The sheer force of the throw sent shockwaves through the air, and Trihexa¡¯s screeching roars faded as it flew miles away, crashing into the empty countryside far beyond Hong Kong. I was about to follow after it when something unexpected happened. A weight suddenly landed on my construct¡¯s shoulder. I turned my head and saw a man standing there. A Chinese man. Dressed in regal robes. Ten glowing rings gleamed on his fingers. Oh... The Mandarin? I had never met him before personally, though I knew of him. He was one of the most powerful figures in China¡¯s underworld and controlled vast swathes of territory, much of which had become even more influential after the two Earths merged. Judging by the furious look on his face, he was not happy to see me. "You," he said, voice low and seething, "explain why your Christian monster is destroying my territories¡¯ most prosperous city!" Wow. That was an accusation if I ever heard one. I frowned. "Okay, first of all, it¡¯s not MY monster. And second, it doesn¡¯t give a damn about religion, race, or nationality. It wants to kill everyone equally." [It¡¯s an equal opportunity apocalyptic beast of the end!] The Mandarin narrowed his eyes. "That does not change the fact that it appeared here¡ªon my lands." I sighed. I really didn¡¯t have time for a territorial pissing match, not when Trihexa was still very much alive and about to start wrecking the countryside. "You will help me rid my lands of this beast," he continued, "and then you will leave immediately." Jeez. "Man, I thought we were cool since you invested in FallCorp," I muttered, mostly to myself. The Mandarin didn''t respond. I just rolled my eyes and directed Susanoo¡¯s enormous wings to flap, propelling us toward where I had thrown Trihexa. Whether the Mandarin wanted to tag along or not, I had a monster to kill... [Quest Started: Slay Trihexa and ¡°save the day!¡±] I still have a bunch of stuff to do¨Csince the world decided to go crazy today¨Cbut sure... {Reward: The Soul Stone!} The Soul Stone? How the hell is that a reward for beating Trihexa? My Susanoo touched down on the ground, the massive construct making the earth tremble beneath its weight. Trihexa was already pulling itself out of the mountain it had been lodged into, shaking off boulders like they were mere pebbles. It looked very pissed off. The Mandarin hopped off Susanoo¡¯s shoulder and floated in the air beside me. His rings glowed with power as he stared down at the beast like a king looking at an unworthy subject. He lifted a hand and started giving a speech. "I am the Mandarin!" he declared, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "You have dared to set foot in my lands, to bring destruction upon my people. For this insult, I will personally slay you!" I sighed. I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell him that Trihexa didn¡¯t understand a word he was saying. The monster was pure destruction incarnate, a creature that existed solely to annihilate everything in its path. It didn¡¯t care who ruled what land or who thought they were strong. It just killed. And right now, it was already charging an attack. The goat head in the center of its body opened its mouth, and I felt the surge of power gathering. Lightning crackled between its jagged teeth, the air around us heating as electricity built up into something catastrophic. The Mandarin scoffed. "Arrogant beast!" One of his rings flared with energy, and a massive, shimmering shield appeared in front of him. A fraction of a second later, the lightning blast fired. It wasn¡¯t just a normal storm. It was pure divine thunder, a massive wave of destruction that ripped through the air and slammed into his shield. The barrier shattered instantly. Before the Mandarin could even react, the lightning engulfed him completely. And just like that¡ªhe turned to ash. ...Well. That was disappointing. I let out a sigh, rubbing my temple as the last bits of his ashes scattered to the wind. I should have felt bad, but honestly? He was kind of dumb for thinking he could go toe-to-toe with the monster responsible for my father¡¯s death. Was his death going to have massive repercussions on the world at some point soon? [Probably, but you have other stuff to deal with...] ¡°Rest in peace, my guy...¡± I clasped my hands together and my Susanoo copied my motion. "I''m not dead!" I blinked as the Mandarin suddenly reappeared in the same spot he had just died. His outfit was burnt to hell, his hair was a wild mess, and he was panting, but otherwise? He looked completely fine. Damn. Those rings were more powerful than I thought. That wasn¡¯t just a resurrection¡ªthat was a reality-warping resurrection. That was almost on the level of a Reality Stone in terms of power. "You try to kill me with lightning! I''LL SHOW YOU LIGHTNING!" The Mandarin screamed, his rage palpable as another one of his rings flared with golden energy. A massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky. ¡°CRACK-BOOM!¡± The strike was so powerful it drove Trihexa into the ground, leaving a smoking crater. ...Unfortunately, it barely did anything. The wounds from the attack were already healing over, Trihexa¡¯s disgusting flesh knitting itself back together as if nothing happened. Then, without warning, the snake head on the beast¡¯s body lunged forward. Faster than I expected. Way faster. Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, snapping shut around the Mandarin, trying to swallow him whole. His body suddenly warped into darkness, slipping through the snake¡¯s teeth before reforming a few feet away. But he didn¡¯t get away unscathed. Even from a distance, I could see the strain on his body. His movements were slower. His breathing was ragged. Trihexa had some kind of anti-divinity and anti-magic properties. [You just gonna stand there and watch?] The system¡¯s sarcastic reminder snapped me out of it. I grit my teeth and Susanoo rushed in to help. However, just as I started moving, an orange portal ripped open nearby. And I saw it. A genuine, ballistic missile¡ªheading straight at me. [HOLY SHIT, THAT''S A NUCLEAR MISSILE!] My eyes widened, and I reacted fast! I swung Susanoo¡¯s massive arm, obliterating the missile before it even got close. The mandarin looked pissed. "Who dares try and use a weapon like that on us?!" I let my Susanoo fade away. As much as I loved the extra power, it did slow me down in certain situations. And considering someone just launched a fucking nuke, I needed to be able to move fast in case another one came my way. Not that it would actually kill me, or even hurt me that badly¡ªbut the blast radius would have leveled Hong Kong. "I dare!" A voice rang out from behind us, making both me and the Mandarin turn around in the air. Trihexa took the opportunity to try and lunge at us again, but I didn¡¯t even need to look. With a flick of my wrist, I summoned a lightspear and tossed it over my shoulder. The spear expanded mid-air, impaling the giant monster and slamming it into the ground. It screamed in agony, but I ignored it. It wasn¡¯t going anywhere for a second. A portal appeared in front of us, swirling with energy, and someone stepped out. A face I immediately recognized. I narrowed my eyes. "Didn¡¯t I kill you already?" The man smirked. "You killed my alternate, He Who Remains." He spread his arms in mock gratitude. "And I thank you for that. But my name is Kang. Others know me as Kang the Conqueror." I grimaced. Right. He Who Remains might have mentioned something about this guy before we killed him, but I wasn¡¯t exactly listening to the monologue of a man who tried to hurt my children. I crossed my arms. "So what do you want? You behind all the crazy shit happening today?" Kang¡¯s smirk twisted into a scowl. "What I want?" He scoffed. "What I want is one thing and one thing only¡ªto be the undisputed ruler." His expression darkened, and I felt the sheer rage radiating off of him. "But that¡¯s impossible now!" ¡°And why is that...?¡± I asked him. "The future I lived in... the futures that I ruled..." His hands clenched into tight fists. "They''re all GONE." Kang¡¯s gaze locked onto mine, and I could see the hatred burning in his eyes. "There¡¯s only one future now in all of the multiverse... And I will not accept your rule, ¡®Supreme Goddess!¡¯" He spat the last words like poison. My mind raced as I tried to figure out if this guy was just insane or if he actually had a legitimate reason to hate me. I settled on probably both. Obviously, he had a serious grudge against Future Me and decided that instead of dealing with her, he¡¯d jump back in time and take it out on Present Me. Fucking time travelers. That was exactly why I never bothered with time travel even after merging with the Time Stone. It was too much of a headache. Kang¡¯s scowl deepened. "Enough talking! There can only be one!" he yelled. I blinked. "Did you just¡ªwas that a Highlander reference?" He ignored me, throwing his arms wide. Hundreds of portals ripped open around us. My gaze snapped to them immediately¡ªand my stomach tightened when I saw what was coming through. Missile tips. Hundreds of nuclear missiles, all locked and loaded, ready to wipe out everything. Kang¡¯s expression twisted into a cruel grin. "I¡¯ll reduce you and this entire Earth to radioactive dust!" he declared. The sheer amount of firepower in the air was enough to exterminate all life on the planet. Too bad for him... He was seriously underestimating me. I felt cosmic energy surge through my body as I raised both hands. "Almighty Push!" A wave of pure gravitational force exploded outward from me in a 360-degree blast, slamming into every single missile at the same time. The entire sky rippled. The missiles crumpled like tin cans, their metal shells twisting and warping under the sheer pressure before they were flung back through their own portals. Kang¡¯s face twisted in fury. "You¡ª!" The Mandarin suddenly flew forward. He shot toward Kang like a missile himself. He wasn¡¯t too happy about the hundreds of nukes aimed at his country either. The Mandarin was going all out against Kang the Conqueror, and honestly, it was kind of fun to watch. He was throwing everything he had at the time-traveling bastard, unleashing a chaotic display of ring-powered abilities that were honestly a bit ridiculous. One moment, he was summoning golden lightning from the sky, the next, he was hurling black holes, only to follow up with a storm of energy blades that looked sharp enough to cut through reality itself. Kang, for his part, wasn¡¯t going down easily. The air cracked and distorted as he teleported away from the Mandarin''s attacks, appearing in multiple places at once, as if time itself was folding around him. His armor absorbed and redirected several of the Mandarin¡¯s energy blasts, launching them right back at him! But I wasn¡¯t focused on them anymore. Because Trihexa was doing something way worse. While those two megalomaniacs were busy trying to kill each other, the apocalyptic abomination in front of me was in the middle of literally eating my Lightspear. Its skin darkened, shifting into a deep, glowing purple, and I felt its energy spike hard. "Well, that¡¯s fucking annoying," I muttered, watching as the monster¡¯s many heads shuddered and twisted unnaturally, its size starting to increase. The ground trembled underneath it. The mutated snake heads suddenly shot forward, way faster than before, snapping at me with rows of jagged teeth. I barely managed to dodge, twisting mid-air as its gaping maw missed me by inches. Damn, that thing was insanely fast now! I flipped backward, summoning another Lightspear, but this time, I wasn¡¯t going to just throw it and hope for the best. I compressed the energy, forcing all of its divine power into a single point, until the spear was small, dense, and radiating enough raw heat to make the air around it shimmer. If this thing wanted to absorb power, fine. Let¡¯s see how well it handled this. I shot forward, faster than before, and drove the new, concentrated Lightspear straight into the center of its chest. The moment it made contact, the energy detonated, blasting through its corrupted flesh and sending the beast screeching as a shockwave tore through its body. It staggered back, black ichor dripping from the wound. But I wasn¡¯t done yet. I spun mid-air, summoning three more spears¡ªall condensed, all brimming with divine power¡ªand hurled them toward its multiple heads. If it wanted to absorb my power, I was going to make damn sure it choked on it! [Something tells me it doesn¡¯t like deepthroating Lightspears!] All of Trihexa¡¯s heads exploded into nothing, leaving behind a massive, twitching corpse. I grinned, thinking it was finally over. [Good work there...] "Thanks, system," I muttered in my head, relaxing slightly. "NO! I DIDN¡¯T GO TO THIS MUCH EFFORT FOR NOTHING!" Kang screamed. I looked up to see Kang the Conqueror still locked in combat with the Mandarin. Supervillains killing each other? Normally, I¡¯d just let them go at it, but something about Kang¡¯s tone made me uneasy. Then he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a decent-sized, glowing white stone. Oh, that son of a bitch¡ª A small portal appeared next to Kang, and before I could stop him, he tossed the Soul Stone through it. The same portal opened up right next to Trihexa¡¯s corpse, and the stone landed right on top of the monster, sinking into its blackened flesh like it was being absorbed. The second it vanished beneath the surface, the air shifted violently. The ground cracked, and a massive shockwave shot out, rattling the entire area. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," I muttered as dust and debris kicked up all over the place. Blocking my vision for a couple seconds. I flapped my black wings, clearing the dust and smoke for miles. As the debris settled, I blinked a few times, trying to process what the hell I was looking at. Standing in the massive crater where Trihexa had been was a young woman. She had pale white skin, long black hair, and glowing red eyes. Completely naked, with perky, perfectly shaped breasts, long toned legs, and a body that looked like it was sculpted to perfection. I stared at her. ¡®Okay, system. What the fuck just happened?¡¯ [The Soul Stone happened? I don''t have all the freaking answers...] ¡®What did it do then? Give Trihexa a soul and a human form?¡¯ [I guess so?] Trihexa stood motionless, examining herself, running her fingers along her arms, stomach, and thighs. I could see it. The hatred and madness from before? Gone. Instead, there was genuine intelligence in those glowing red eyes. What. The. Fuck. "What the fuck did you do, Kang!?" A new voice cut through the air, one I recognized and hated. I looked up to see Rizevim Lucifer floating above the battlefield, his silver hair messy and his expression somewhere between shock and outrage. "What kind of moron gives a chaotic monster intelligence!? That defeats the whole purpose!" he yelled at Kang. Kang, still hovering in the sky, looked smug as hell. "I did what I had to. Can you sense her power now?" Rizevim paused. His brow furrowed in confusion. "No! I can¡¯t sense anything!" Kang grinned, like he had just pulled off the ultimate victory. "Exactly!" he declared. "The monster¡¯s power is now boundless. And with me granting her the Soul Stone and intelligence, she will be loyal to me. I will use her to destroy all of my enemies and finally restore the future I deserve¡ª" Kang¡¯s words cut off. Along with his head. I barely even saw it happen. And that was saying something because I had amazing eyes! One second, Kang was gloating. The next, Trihexa was behind him, her hand gripping his severed head by the hair. His headless body twitched before dropping from the sky. Even Rizevim and the Mandarin both looked stunned. Whatever protections Kang had, whatever bullshit future tech he had been using to go toe-to-toe with the Mandarin, had been completely useless. Before... her. Kind of weird Trihexa had a gender now... And that¡¯s when it hit me. I hadn¡¯t even bothered to use my Observe skill on her yet. I focused on Trihexa¡¯s new form. {The Beast of the End - Trihexa: Level 306} Oh... XXX [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Sixteen Winged Angel, High Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Favored, Soul Queen.] [Supreme Goddess 5 / 8: Merged with Mind Stone, Power Stone, Reality Stone, Time Stone. Space Stone] [Level: 143] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 12,464,200] [MP: 1,450,005,000] [Faith Energy: 10,897,584,459] [Vigor: 1,246,420] [Strength: 3,083,899] [Intelligence: 145,000,500] [Luck: 1,345,788] [Available Free Stat Points:] [Perks and Skills:] -High Goddess of Angels (100x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!) -Acting (Max: You are a master of the craft when you want to be.) -Observe (Max: No one''s level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.) -Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.) -Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.) -Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.) -Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.) -Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.) -Blood of the Kryptonian (Massively Increases strength while under a yellow sun.) -Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random stat points after every ¡°session.¡±) -Fear Resistance (Max!) Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 327-331 The Fox Hole 77 Thunder and Black Wings 18 The Fox Hole 76 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 4 The Fox Hole 75 The Fox Hole 74 The Blood Queen 42 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 3 The Fox Hole 74 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 2 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 1 Thunder and Black Wings 17 The Fox Hole 73 The Fox Hole 72 The Blood Queen 41 chapter 327 chapter 327 A/N: And I¡¯m pretty sure everyone knew this was coming, but yeah this chapter has R-18... Chapter 327: ¨C Trihexa? ¨C She felt incredibly strange as she slowly examined her new form. "...Strange?" she whispered to herself, savoring the unfamiliar word on her tongue. It was fascinating, being able to think clearly for the first time. Before this, her only purpose had been destruction¡ªobliterating everything until nothing remained. But now, for the first time, she wasn''t quite sure what she truly wanted. Well, except perhaps killing the loud, irritating man hovering nearby. He was ranting arrogantly about how he intended to control her, as if she were some pet he could command. Rage surged through her at the thought. She had just achieved self-awareness, and this pitiful creature presumed to dominate her? In an instant, faster than mortal eyes could follow, Trihexa appeared behind the arrogant man and casually sliced through his neck with a swift, decisive motion. His head rolled free, eyes wide with shock, mouth agape mid-sentence as his lifeless body plummeted to the ground far below. Trihexa observed the man''s demise with detached curiosity. Her memories from before were fuzzy, but she distinctly remembered mortals being fragile and easy to kill. Apparently, severing their heads worked very efficiently. With that annoyance handled, Trihexa turned her attention to the others nearby. Three beings still floated cautiously nearby¡ªtwo males and one female. She narrowed her eyes slightly when she recognized the female. Yes, that woman had harmed her significantly in her previous monstrous form. Trihexa felt a faint pang of unease. The woman¡¯s sixteen black wings radiated power, strength clearly comparable to her own. Trihexa knew she was stronger now, but risking a confrontation so soon after gaining consciousness didn''t seem wise. She still needed to fully understand her new capabilities before engaging such a dangerous opponent... While Trihexa considered this, she noticed a curious sensation across her body. Looking downward, she examined herself more closely. Her hands moved upward, gently exploring her newly acquired breasts. They were soft and warm beneath her fingertips, and when she squeezed gently, an unexpected gasp slipped from her lips. "Oh..." she murmured softly, surprised by the intensity of the pleasant feeling. Her body seemed exceptionally sensitive. Perhaps exploring this more would be worth her time¡ªlater. But now, her attention shifted back toward the two remaining men. One of them, the human, was quickly attempting to flee. Trihexa tilted her head, irritated by his cowardice. "That''s rude," she muttered, waving her hand casually toward him. "Come back." The human abruptly jerked backward through the air, pulled violently toward her by invisible force. He flailed and screamed in panic, utterly helpless. Trihexa grabbed him effortlessly by the throat, squeezing just enough to silence his cries. She stared into his terrified eyes. "You struck me with lightning," she said, speaking clearly yet calmly. "That wasn''t very nice." The man struggled desperately, his face reddening with anger and lack of oxygen. He spat at her defiantly, "Fuck you, psycho bitch! You were destroying my goddamn city!" Trihexa paused, considering his words carefully. She glanced over at the distant skyline, seeing smoke and ruined buildings still crumbling in the distance. Ah, yes, she remembered vaguely¡ªher previous form had indeed been causing widespread damage. She understood his rage better now. It made sense he would lash out. She would likely have done the same if someone damaged something she valued. Not that she currently had anything to value. "Hmm," she finally replied, relaxing her grip on his throat and allowing him to gasp for breath. "Fair enough. You may go." The human hesitated only briefly before bolting away into the sky, quickly vanishing from sight. That left only one being nearby¡ªthe silver-haired devil watching her cautiously, his eyes wide with fear. Trihexa felt a sudden wave of intense dislike. She wasn''t entirely sure why, but his mere presence provoked a deep, instinctual loathing within her. She turned slowly toward him, narrowing her eyes. "You," she spoke with a dangerous edge to her voice. The devil visibly flinched, holding up his hands defensively. "Whoa! Wait a minute. I didn''t do anything to you! That idiot Kang is the one who¡ª" "I don''t care," Trihexa interrupted coldly. Her red eyes bored into his terrified expression. "Something about you disgusts me." He swallowed nervously, inching backward. "Look, there''s no reason to¡ª" Trihexa raised her hand slightly, interrupting him again. "Stop talking." The devil fell silent instantly, trembling now, clearly realizing how precarious his situation was. She studied him carefully, noticing the way his aura shifted and twisted nervously, clearly deceitful. Her instincts had been correct. He was cowardly, manipulative, and untrustworthy. "Leave," she commanded firmly, her voice low and dangerous. "If I see you again, I will kill you." The silver-haired devil needed no further encouragement. He immediately turned and fled at top speed, disappearing rapidly into the distance. Now Trihexa turned back toward the winged woman. She hadn''t moved or spoken, watching cautiously from afar. After a moment, Trihexa addressed her directly. "Are you here to fight me as well?" she asked, genuinely curious. The woman hesitated slightly before shaking her head. "Not unless I have to. I''d honestly rather talk than destroy half the planet today..." Trihexa considered the woman carefully. Her demeanor seemed genuine enough. Perhaps conversation would indeed be more interesting than conflict. "Very well," Trihexa agreed softly. "Let''s talk." ¨C Layla ¨C I was feeling pretty damn irritated that Rizevim managed to escape, especially since this entire mess was basically his fault. But that wasn''t something I could deal with right now¡ªnot when the literal apocalypse in human form was casually floating in front of me. Trihexa¡¯s crimson eyes watched me curiously, her slender, naked body hovering gently down to the shattered ground below. With a sigh, I flapped my wings once and landed smoothly on the wrecked landscape. I glanced upward, watching Trihexa cautiously as she landed gracefully a few feet away. [You should probably figure out what she actually wants before things escalate again.] ¡®Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious, System,¡¯ I muttered internally, feeling a twinge of irritation. I took a deep breath, stepping forward hesitantly as Trihexa turned to fully face me. Her red eyes studied me intently, and even though her expression was neutral, I could tell she was sizing me up. I had faced powerful beings before, but this felt entirely different. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because she used to be an apocalyptic beast or because she''d suddenly gained intelligence thanks to the Soul Stone. "Hey there," I began awkwardly. "So, uh... you''re not planning to start destroying shit again, right? We¡¯re good?" Trihexa tilted her head slightly, looking thoughtful. Her voice was calm and surprisingly gentle when she replied, "I''m... still deciding. Destroying is all I know... It was my purpose." Well, that wasn''t reassuring at all. "You know," I said carefully, trying to keep the mood light, "there''s this old human saying: ''Make love, not war.'' Ever heard of it?" I giggled a bit. Trihexa gave me a blank look, clearly not understanding. "No," she answered simply. "Should I have?" "Uh, probably not, considering you were busy being locked away and stuff," I said with an awkward laugh. "But the idea is, basically, peace and pleasure are way better than violence and destruction." Trihexa still looked puzzled but intrigued. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully, considering my words. "Interesting," she said quietly. "I''ve never considered anything besides destruction. That was before of course." My eyes involuntarily drifted downward, and I noticed again how incredibly naked she was. It seemed inappropriate to just stare, but damn, her body was distractingly attractive. Pale, flawless skin, smooth curves, full breasts that looked... very appealing. I coughed awkwardly and forced my eyes back up to her face. "You, uh, like your new body?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual. "Doesn''t that feel a bit weird?" Trihexa glanced down at herself as if noticing her body again. "I''m not sure," she replied honestly. "I''ve never had this form before. It feels... strange." As if experimenting, she raised her hands and gently touched her breasts. Her fingers pressed softly into the soft flesh, and she let out an unexpected, quiet moan, eyes widening in surprise. The sound sent a shiver down my spine, and I had to quickly remind myself to behave. "Um," I cleared my throat awkwardly. "You... you okay?" She blinked a couple of times, looking mildly startled. "That felt... good. Do bodies usually feel this sensitive?" Oh shit, this was dangerous territory. My sinfully curious side wanted to push this conversation further, even though my logical side¡ªthe side I usually ignored¡ªwas warning me to back the hell off. "You know," I found myself saying despite my better judgment, "it¡¯s pretty unusual to walk around naked like that. Aren¡¯t you uncomfortable?" She shrugged nonchalantly. "I don''t understand what comfort means yet. Is clothing required?" "Well, no, not required," I admitted. "But it might feel better. And you know, some of us get distracted when you¡¯re like that." "Am I distracting you?" she asked bluntly, looking genuinely curious. I chuckled nervously. "Uh, maybe just a bit." She tilted her head again, studying me closely. "Perhaps you can help me understand. Teach me more about this body?" The System immediately screamed in my head! [Don''t you dare, Host! You know that''s a terrible idea!] But honestly, when did I ever listen to the System when temptation knocked on my door? A wicked grin spread slowly across my face as I stepped a bit closer, looking her straight in those intense red eyes. "I mean, if you''re really curious, I suppose I could help you explore a bit. No harm in learning, right?" She paused, clearly contemplating my words before nodding slightly. "I would like that. I can figure out if I want to destroy things again afterwards..." she added. I swallowed hard, feeling my heartbeat quicken. Well that just meant I¡¯d have to be so good she couldn¡¯t think afterwards... [I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re going to bang the apocalypse to save the world...] ... I opened a swirling purple portal in the center of my bedroom in my New York Penthouse. I stepped through first to make sure all the wards were still in place, because being interrupted right now would not be good. Behind me, Trihexa followed, curiosity burning in her bright red eyes as she took in every detail of the new surroundings. ¡°This is interesting. What¡¯s that?¡± Trihexa asked, pointing at the large, king-sized bed against the wall. I grinned, turning to face her. ¡°That¡¯s where people sleep... and do other fun things.¡± Without a second thought, I snapped my fingers, letting my clothes vanish in a flash. My pale, bare skin was now completely exposed, and the expression on Trihexa¡¯s face made it clear she was not disappointed. Her gaze locked onto my breasts, which were still a bit flushed from the rush of arousal I¡¯d been feeling. I heard her breath catch, and it sent a pleasant shiver down my spine. The sight of the so-called apocalypse blushing like a shy virgin was kind of adorable. She opened her mouth as if to ask something, but I moved forward and silenced her with a kiss. My lips brushed against hers, guiding her gently as I felt the warmth of her mouth. She seemed hesitant at first, unsure of what to do, so I slipped my tongue between her lips, tasting her for the first time. It was soft and tentative, but Trihexa quickly picked up on the rhythm and brushed hers against mine. Her hands roamed aimlessly across my back at first, like she wasn¡¯t sure where they should go. I smiled into the kiss, then reached down and guided her palms lower, pressing them against my ass. A low moan escaped me as she instinctively squeezed, fingers digging into my cheeks. Our naked breasts came together in a soft press, and the slight friction of our sensitive nipples rubbing sent jolts of pleasure coursing through me. We stayed locked in that intense kiss for a couple of minutes, tongues tangling and hands exploring, both of us getting more worked up by the second. By the time we finally pulled apart, her cheeks were bright red and her breathing was uneven. ¡°I liked that,¡± Trihexa said, voice thick with new desires. Her red eyes seemed to glow more intensely. I licked my lips, feeling my own face burning. ¡°I did too,¡± I admitted. ¡°And trust me, there¡¯s a lot more we can do.¡± She paused, curiosity in her gaze. ¡°Show me!¡± My heart pounded. I¡¯d never expected to be teaching the literal embodiment of destruction how to enjoy physical pleasure, but here we were. ¡°Gladly,¡± I replied, stepping closer. I leaned down, pressing my lips against her neck, letting my tongue flick out to taste her skin. She let out a little gasp, fingers twitching on my shoulders like she was deciding whether to grip or push me away. But she didn¡¯t resist. I moved lower, trailing kisses down to her chest. Her breasts were firm and inviting, and I heard her catch her breath as I closed my mouth around one pink nipple. My tongue circled it slowly before I sucked gently, looking up to see her reaction. She shuddered at the sensation, her lips parting in a soft moan. That was my cue to keep going, so I switched to the other breast, giving it the same careful treatment. She squirmed, pressing against me as her hand slid around to stroke along my lower back. Meanwhile, my free hand trailed lower, tracing the curve of her hip before slipping between her legs. I found her pussy warm and slick, another sign that she was just as turned on as me. I rubbed gentle circles over her lips, testing how sensitive she was. Her reaction was immediate¡ªshe moaned again, and her hips pushed forward, seeking more pressure. I couldn¡¯t help but smile. She might have been new to this, but her body was definitely telling her what felt good. ¡°You like that?¡± I murmured, my voice low and husky. She bit her lip, nodding quickly. ¡°Yes... more,¡± she whispered, sounding both demanding and unsure. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I teased, letting my fingers move a little faster. ¡°I¡¯ll show you everything.¡± Her breathing got heavier, and her moans became louder. She pressed her face against my shoulder, clinging to me as she tried to keep from collapsing. The pleasure was clearly overwhelming her in the best way. I stayed focused, guiding her through each new sensation. Her slickness coated my fingers as I teased her entrance, stroking her sensitive folds. Every noise she made, every twitch of her hips, told me how much she was enjoying this. This was Trihexa, the apocalypse made flesh, moaning and squirming in my arms. The whole thing was surreal, but the raw intensity of it all was exactly what I craved. I gave her nipple another flick with my tongue and felt her body tense. She let out a choked cry, her nails digging into my back as she came for the first time. The rush of warmth and wetness against my hand told me she was having quite a powerful climax! When she finally slumped forward, breathing hard, I pulled her close, pressing a soft kiss to her collarbone. ¡°Feel good?¡± I asked gently. Trihexa just nodded, still trying to catch her breath. ¡°Yes,¡± she panted, looking at me with a mix of wonder and desire. ¡°I want... more.¡± I gave her a mischievous grin. ¡°Lucky for you, we¡¯ve got all the time we need.¡± Because really, when you¡¯re a goddess with a penthouse in New York and you¡¯re about to fuck the living embodiment of chaos and destruction, time isn¡¯t exactly your biggest worry. I took Trihexa¡¯s hand, guiding her carefully to lie down on the bed. Her eyes locked onto mine, and a kind of reverent excitement flashed across her face. I felt my own heartbeat quicken at the sight. That awe in her gaze told me this was something she wanted¡ªsomething we both wanted. I crawled on top of her, planting kisses along her smooth shoulders and then down over her soft, pale breasts. My lips brushed her skin, and I could hear every small intake of breath she made. Her body trembled under me, eager for more. As I worked my way lower, I gently nudged her legs apart. I settled my hips between her thighs, pressing myself against her. A bolt of raw arousal shot through me when I felt how warm and slick she was. A low moan slipped from my mouth as our bodies aligned, my wet pussy sliding against hers in a warm, stimulating friction that made me shiver. Trihexa¡¯s red eyes went wide at the sensation, and she let out a shaky sigh that sounded part disbelief, part hunger. I couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°This is going to feel really good for both of us,¡± I murmured, leaning down to brush my lips over hers in a soft kiss. She nodded, her cheeks flushed, and I started rolling my hips slowly. The friction built quickly. Every little movement sent waves of pleasure through me, spreading tingles down my spine. I gripped Trihexa¡¯s hips, savoring the sound of her breathy moans. She gasped each time our sensitive spots rubbed together, her voice raw with new desire. ¡°Oh... this feels so good,¡± she managed, arching her back. ¡°Yeah,¡± I breathed, holding her close. ¡°Just let yourself enjoy it.¡± She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, tugging me closer. Our chests pressed together, nipples grazing each other¡¯s skin, adding to the rush of sensation. My breathing turned ragged as my hips moved in a deliberate, steady rhythm against hers. I kept a careful pace, not wanting to overwhelm her but also giving us both enough pressure to keep the pleasure building. Each grind sent sparks dancing through me. Our bodies got slicker with each motion, making the slide between us easier, hotter. I felt Trihexa¡¯s thigh muscles tighten around my waist, her moans growing louder and more urgent. I shifted slightly, angling us so our clits could meet more directly. The instant I did, the sensation sparked into something almost electric. Trihexa let out a startled cry, and I gasped. The sudden rush made my head spin. ¡°Oh, fuck,¡± I groaned, keeping that angle. ¡°Just like that.¡± Trihexa seemed to fall into a perfect rhythm with me. She thrust her hips in time, creating a delicious friction that had both of us trembling. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I could feel my body teetering on the edge. Her face was flushed, mouth open in a silent plea for more. I leaned down, catching her mouth in a deep kiss, tongues meeting heatedly. Her moans vibrated against my lips, fueling my own desire. My fingers dug into her hips, and I rocked harder. The bed frame creaked slightly from the force, but I barely noticed, too lost in the rush building inside me. Trihexa¡¯s eyes squeezed shut, and she let out a broken moan as her body tensed beneath me. I felt her legs tighten around my hips. The pressure sent me hurtling over the edge right along with her. My vision blurred, and my entire body clenched in a cascade of pleasure! I cried out, pressing my forehead against hers as I rode out the waves. She let out a choked sob of ecstasy, her nails scratching gently against my back. For a long moment, the two of us just shook together, drowning in that sweet, pulsing high. When the tremors finally eased, I opened my eyes and saw Trihexa gazing at me with an expression that was part awe, part relief. Her breathing was ragged, chest rising and falling, and I could see the faint tremble in her thighs where they were still wrapped around me. ¡°You okay?¡± I asked softly, brushing a strand of her dark hair away from her damp forehead. She nodded, voice shaky. ¡°That was... incredible.¡± I smiled, leaning in to place a gentle kiss on her lips. ¡°We can stop if you want. Or we can keep exploring. Whatever you feel up for.¡± She looked thoughtful, then slid a hand along my waist, pulling me close. ¡°More...¡± she whispered. I took a moment to steady my breathing, trying to wrap my head around what I was about to do. ¡°Get on your hands and knees,¡± I said softly, my voice warm but firm. I didn¡¯t want her to feel uneasy, but I also needed to guide her since she was so new to everything. She hesitated briefly, then did as I asked. Her posture was a little awkward at first¡ªlike she was testing out an unfamiliar position. She glanced over her shoulder, curiosity flickering in her crimson eyes, but she didn¡¯t question me. I let my gaze travel down her back, taking in every inch of her smooth pale skin. The soft curves of her hips and butt looked incredibly enticing. There was something surreal about seeing the literal embodiment of cosmic destruction posed so vulnerably like this, but I tried not to overthink it. I stepped behind her, knees sinking into the mattress, and my view of her backside sent a warm surge of arousal through me. Her ass was firm and nicely shaped, her pussy clearly wet from the teasing we¡¯d done before. I reached out, resting one hand on her lower back while the other cupped her left cheek. She let out a quiet moan at my touch. I squeezed gently, fondling the soft flesh. The noises she made only got louder, and her body twitched a little under my palm. She had developed such intense sensitivity in this new form of hers, and I loved how responsive she was. ¡°Relax,¡± I murmured. ¡°Just enjoy it.¡± She nodded, her breath hitching. ¡°Alright,¡± she whispered. I focused on my own power for a moment, channeling it down into my core. I felt a slight tingle as energy flowed, and with a subtle shift, I conjured the extra part of my body I¡¯d been thinking about. A pale cock appeared above my pussy. I paused, letting the sensation settle in. Then I let out a breathy laugh as I realized the magnitude of what I was about to do. I was literally going to take the apocalypse¡¯s virginity. I gave Trihexa¡¯s ass a playful pat. ¡°It might hurt a bit at first, but trust me, it¡¯ll feel incredible before long.¡± She turned her head slightly, eyes full of curiosity. ¡°Ok...¡± she said softly, though I could still see a hint of uncertainty. I guided my cock forward, pressing the tip against her slick entrance. Even that small contact made me gasp. She felt so good. She let out a surprised moan. ¡°Easy now,¡± I said, voice shaking just a bit as I pushed a fraction of an inch into her. The tightness and wetness were almost overwhelming. I had to close my eyes for a second to keep from bucking my hips immediately. ¡°Wow... you¡¯re really wet.¡± Trihexa moaned again, body trembling under my hands. ¡°It feels... intense,¡± she said breathlessly. ¡°Tell me if it¡¯s too much,¡± I murmured, sliding in a bit deeper. My cock sank into her, and I had to bite my lip at how amazingly tight she felt. I paused, giving her time to adjust. She breathed heavily, then exhaled in a low, throaty noise that signaled she wanted more. ¡°Keep going,¡± she urged. Her voice was strained, but definitely laced with arousal. I grinned, heart pounding. ¡°Alright.¡± I began a gentle thrusting motion, easing myself in and out in short strokes at first. The slick friction drove sparks of pleasure through me, and Trihexa¡¯s soft cries encouraged me to go on. I reached forward, sliding my hands up her sides, then back down to her waist, guiding her movements in time with my thrusts. She caught on quickly, rocking her hips to meet mine. The pace stayed slow and deliberate for a while. I could feel her body gradually relaxing, opening up to me. Her moans turned from timid gasps to deeper, more passionate sounds. Each push brought me deeper into her warmth, and I gasped as a rush of sensation jolted through my core. The mutual pleasure was almost dizzying. ¡°You okay?¡± I managed, breath ragged. ¡°Does it hurt?¡± Trihexa shook her head, a little grin tugging at her lips. ¡°It... stings a bit, but I like it,¡± she admitted. ¡°I want more.¡± ¡°Fuck,¡± I swore under my breath, hearing the need in her voice. I adjusted my position, angling my hips so I could slide in a bit more firmly. She moaned loudly as I sank deeper, her fingers clenching into the sheets. My own arousal spiked. The wet sounds of our bodies meeting filled the room, and the heady smell of sex hung in the air. I tightened my grip on her hips, drawing back almost all the way before rolling forward again in a smooth thrust. She cried out, her entire body trembling at the impact. Her pussy gripped me in a slick, pulsing clamp that felt damn near perfect. I picked up the pace, letting the rhythm become more insistent. My hips slapped against her ass, echoing through the bedroom with each thrust. A warm pressure built in my stomach, intensifying with every stroke, driving me closer to the brink. ¡°Fuck,¡± I groaned. ¡°You feel amazing.¡± The bed creaked beneath us as I increased my tempo, driving deeper. Wet, rhythmic noises filled the air, mingling with the heated sound of our breathing and the occasional slap of skin meeting skin. My nails bit lightly into her hips, keeping her in place as I pressed forward, letting my body grind against hers. I listened to every sound she made. Each moan or gasp told me if the pace was right, if the angle felt good, if she needed a softer touch or a harder thrust. She responded eagerly, meeting me halfway with her own movements. Every time she lifted her hips to match my thrust, sparks of pleasure shot through my core. ¡°More,¡± she murmured, voice muffled by her arm as she pressed her forehead against the sheets. ¡°Please...¡± Trihexa¡¯s breathing turned into a series of wild, desperate gasps. She pushed herself back against me, meeting my thrusts. Her voice rose in broken moans that made me just as crazy. I leaned forward, bringing my chest against her back. Her moans grew in volume, echoing in the otherwise quiet room. I could tell she was close to cumming by the way her thighs trembled and her walls clenched around my cock. Feeling her start to come undone spurred me on, and I let myself go harder, thrusting in a relentless, almost urgent rhythm. That sent her over the edge. She tensed up, head thrown back, a guttural moan ripping from her throat as her pussy clenched around my cock. The sudden tightness pushed me past my own limit, and a surge of hot pleasure tore through me. My eyes squeezed shut as I let out a raw cry, hips jerking erratically while I started to cum spurts inside of her. For a few long moments, we both shook together, bodies locked in that intense climax. Then, little by little, the spasms calmed. My cock continued to throb, and her folds still pulsed around me, both of us riding the aftershocks. I stayed like that for a while, leaning over her, chest heaving, cock still buried inside. Finally, I withdrew carefully, hissing at the oversensitivity. She shivered, collapsing forward onto the bed, my cum leaking down her thighs... I chuckled softly as I laid down beside her. Trihexa turned her head, her cheeks flushed, eyes heavy-lidded with satisfaction. ¡°That was... intense,¡± she mewled. I laughed quietly, brushing a lock of dark hair away from her face. ¡°Yeah, it was. You doing okay?¡± I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She nodded, her breathing still uneven. ¡°That part was... interesting,¡± she murmured, voice low. ¡°I enjoyed it. I... want to enjoy it again.¡± I reached out, letting my fingers trace the curve of her thigh. ¡°We can. We will. But let¡¯s catch our breath first.¡± Trihexa nodded and rolled onto her back, gazing at the ceiling. I could tell she was processing a lot. I scooted closer, pressing myself against her warm body, and let out a slow exhale. She slid an arm around my waist, pulling me in. The simple act of cuddling felt almost domestic, which was hilarious given who¡ªwhat¡ªshe was. Eventually, I broke the silence with a soft laugh. ¡°I guess I can add ¡®deflowering the apocalypse¡¯ to my bucket list. That¡¯s not something many can claim.¡± She turned her head to give me a curious look. ¡°Deflowering?¡± I snorted. ¡°I¡¯ll explain later. It¡¯s a silly phrase. But it fits.¡± She didn¡¯t push me for answers, just snuggled closer to me with a very happy and content expression. I didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be destroying anything anytime soon with how happy she looked... While we cuddled and I gave her time to recover before our inevitable next round, my mind drifted to what I was going to tell my other harem members about this? [...That you banged the apocalypse to save the world and somehow it worked...] ¡®Yeah, that¡¯d probably do it...¡¯ XXX Thanks for reading!!! Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 328-332 Thunder and Black Wings 20 The Fox Hole 79 Thunder and Black Wings 19 The Fox Hole 78 The Blood Queen 43 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 5 The Fox Hole 77 Thunder and Black Wings 18 The Fox Hole 76 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 4 The Fox Hole 75 The Blood Queen 42 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 3 The Fox Hole 74 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 2 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 1 chapter 328 chapter 328 A/N: The beginning has a short R-18. Yeah, I know... I couldn''t help myself ;) Chapter 328: ¨C Layla ¨C A few hours later... I lay sprawled across the bed with a contented sigh, gazing at the ceiling. My entire body hummed with lingering desire. Trihexa¡¯s tongue worked between my thighs, and it was all I could do to keep my breathing steady. I tried to relax, yet I couldn¡¯t help smiling whenever I felt her soft lips brush against my most sensitive flesh. She was so enthusiastic. I had been with people who were confident and skilled, but Trihexa¡¯s raw curiosity and inexperience combined into something uniquely erotic. My sheets were bunched around me, still a bit damp from our earlier activities. I slowly curled my toes, savoring each warm pulse of pleasure as Trihexa licked up along my folds. The tension in my muscles melted with every new stroke of her tongue. I glanced down past my breasts, and my gaze met Trihexa¡¯s bright red eyes. Her dark hair spilled around her face, and she gripped my thighs like she wanted to anchor herself in place. I smiled at her, giving her a small nod of encouragement. ¡°Right there,¡± I breathed, guiding her gently by pressing my hand to the back of her head. ¡°What you¡¯re doing... it¡¯s perfect.¡± She kept her eyes locked on mine for a moment, then moved them lower, focusing on my glistening flesh. I felt a shiver run up my spine. Her tongue flicked against my clit, and the sudden spark made my hips jerk. She paused like she was checking if I was okay, then found a steady, teasing rhythm that had me moaning softly. She was such a quick learner. She moved in slow, experimental motions at first, tilting her head to kiss different spots, or changing pressure to see how I reacted. Whenever I let out a louder moan or my legs trembled, she lingered there, licking in tight, deliberate circles before experimenting somewhere else. The sensation built in waves of tingling warmth. I let out a shaky laugh. ¡°You catch on so fast,¡± I said, my voice trembling from the pleasurable tension. ¡°It¡¯s almost unfair.¡± Trihexa lifted her head for a second, lips glistening, and let out a small hum in response. ¡°I like the sounds you make,¡± she admitted. Her expression was a sweet mixture of pride and innocence. ¡°It feels... good to please you.¡± I reached out, smoothing a hand over her head, brushing back her hair. ¡°I promise, it feels incredible,¡± I told her. ¡°You¡¯re doing great.¡± Her cheeks flushed with a pinkish hue that looked so endearing. She leaned back down and resumed the slow, careful lapping at my folds. I tried to keep my breathing measured, but the pleasure only intensified. Each time her tongue pressed into me, an electric jolt coursed through my belly. I arched my back, letting my head fall against the pillows. My nipples were stiff, sensitive from hours of previous ¡°playing.¡± A soft moan escaped my mouth as Trihexa pressed her lips fully against me, the gentle suction sending tingles along my thighs. Her hands slid up to my hips, then moved inward to keep my legs apart. She held me open with an unexpected sort of strength¡ªcasual for her, but enough for me to feel pinned in place. She was very strong... The feeling of being restrained, however lightly, made me tremble. There was no malice in her grip, she was just determined to do this right. ¡°Layla,¡± she murmured, her voice muffled. ¡°Tell me if this is okay.¡± I let out a breathy laugh. ¡°Yes.¡± She pressed her tongue more firmly onto my clit, delivering a series of slow, focused licks. Pleasure flooded my senses, and I let my eyes drift shut. My mind grew fuzzy, focusing only on the warmth in my core and the wet, intimate sounds she made as she devoured me. My hips jerked upward. She was so hungry for me, but also delicate. Her tongue was silky, her lips so soft. She latched onto my clit, alternating between gentle suction and light flicks that sent sparks dancing along my nerves. I let out a series of ragged breaths, trying to keep myself from bucking too hard against her face. ¡°That¡¯s it,¡± I said, voice catching. ¡°Don¡¯t stop.¡± I felt Trihexa¡¯s nails dig into my thighs as she steadied me. She moaned against my flesh, the vibration shooting straight to my core. I slid a hand across my own stomach, feeling the sweat that had gathered. My skin was hot, every inch of me tingling. She learned so quickly. She noticed the subtle changes in my voice and posture that signaled approaching climax, then focused her efforts there. I fought the overwhelming urge to clamp my thighs tight around her head, wanting to give her space to work, but I couldn¡¯t help rocking my hips, matching her movements. The pressure inside me coiled like a spring. I grabbed a fistful of the sheets, twisting the fabric around my knuckles. My heart hammered. My breath came in short gasps. My breasts moved with every tense inhale. My lower belly clenched as a hot rush of energy built. Trihexa sensed the change in me. She peeked up for a quick moment, noticing the flush in my cheeks and the way my mouth hung open. She seemed fascinated. She flattened her tongue and licked more firmly, letting my hips roll forward to grind into her face. The friction made my back arch until my chest lifted off the mattress. ¡°Oh¡ªdon¡¯t stop,¡± I repeated, my voice louder now. Trihexa moaned and obeyed, pressing her mouth closer, her tongue sliding along my slick entrance before focusing on my clit again. I felt the coil tighten, tighter and tighter, until it snapped. Pleasure came in a burst, rocking through my body. I gasped, eyes shut, moaning so loudly that my throat hurt. My muscles clenched, and my vision filled with spots of light. A sudden wave of warmth gushed between my legs, and Trihexa gasped against my flesh as she felt me pulse. My orgasm peaked in a burst of euphoric heat, and I squirted, soaking her mouth and chin. My hips jolted. A shuddering cry escaped me, and I brought a shaky hand to my lips, trying to stifle the sound¡ªbut it was too strong to contain! Trihexa looked absolutely fascinated. The liquid dripped from her face, and she licked at her lips, swallowing what she could catch. My body was still shaking, my thighs quivering uncontrollably. I fought to catch my breath, feeling an odd mix of embarrassment and pride that I had lost control so forcefully. ¡°Wow,¡± Trihexa breathed, finally lifting her head. Her lips were glistening, and her cheeks shone. Her eyes were fixed on the wet patch on the sheets beneath me. ¡°Did I do that?¡± I let out a breathless laugh, still trembling from aftershocks. ¡°Yeah,¡± I whispered. ¡°You... definitely did.¡± She looked at me with a thoughtful expression. ¡°That felt powerful.¡± I propped myself up on my elbows, still trying to calm my racing heart. My chest rose and fell quickly as I took deep, steadying breaths. ¡°It was,¡± I said. ¡°An orgasm can be a really overwhelming release... especially one like that.¡± My throat felt tight. I cleared it. ¡°You¡¯re... amazing.¡± She ran her fingers along my inner thigh. ¡°I liked seeing you lose yourself.¡± I brushed back a damp strand of my hair. ¡°Isn¡¯t it weird how you¡¯ve gone from being the apocalypse to making me come so hard I can barely breathe?¡± She blinked, then let out a small, slightly awkward laugh. I realized she was still adjusting to the concept of humor, or jokes about her past life as an unthinking beast. I reached for her, and she crawled up the bed until she was face-to-face with me, her naked body lightly pressed against mine. She leaned in, and I tasted a hint of my own essence as our lips met. Right as I pulled her closer, a soft cough broke the mood. I turned my head to see Natasha standing in the open doorway, one brow arched, her arms folded over her chest. She looked at me, then at Trihexa, and let out an exasperated sigh. I reluctantly broke the kiss and slid up against the pillows. My heart skipped a beat. ¡°Natasha.¡± I gave her a small grin, trying to act casual. ¡°You... uh... want to join us?¡± She fixed me with a blank stare. ¡°Really?¡± Trihexa¡¯s bright red eyes moved to Natasha, her expression curious. ¡°Is that possible? Can more than two people engage in sexual acts at once?¡± ¡°Absolutely,¡± I replied with a grin. I reached down to give Trihexa¡¯s bare backside a playful smack. ¡°Sometimes, it¡¯s even more fun.¡± Trihexa blushed and eyed Natasha with interest. ¡°I would allow it,¡± she said, nodding like she was giving permission. Natasha groaned. ¡°I¡¯m not here for that.¡± She put a hand on her hip, her expression stuck somewhere between amusement and mild irritation. ¡°And I¡¯m not buying whatever excuse you¡¯re about to give me, Layla! The world is on fire and you¡¯re here doing...this.¡± ¡°I had to sleep with her to save the world!¡± I nodded my head up and down. [It¡¯s so weird that that¡¯s true...] She looked completely unconvinced. ¡°Really...?¡± she asked again. ¡°Yes.¡± I lifted my chin. ¡°Ask Trihexa yourself. This is her human form, and she¡¯s definitely the legendary destroyer I might have mentioned once or twice. Except she¡¯s... not quite bent on destroying anything anymore.¡± Trihexa glanced between me and Natasha. ¡°Layla convinced me there are better things to do than destroy. She taught me... many things.¡± Her cheeks reddened again. ¡°I can see that...¡± natasha said ¡°Including sex.¡± Trihexia added with a happy smile ¡°Yes, that was implied.¡± Natasha sighed. Natasha watched us both for a moment longer, then shook her head. ¡°Okay, get dressed. Both of you.¡± She paused and gave Trihexa another once-over. ¡°I guess I should hear this whole story without the two of you being naked.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Fine, but you¡¯re missing out.¡± Natasha simply turned and left the room, her footsteps echoing down the hallway. I slid out of bed, still feeling a bit sore in the best way. I snapped my fingers and conjured some jeans and a T-shirt. Trihexa stayed on the bed, watching me dress with a curious expression. Her eyes traced my body. ¡°You need something to wear too,¡± I said. She lifted an eyebrow. ¡°I can just copy you.¡± A moment later, she hopped off the bed. Her form shimmered, and a set of black jeans and a tight black T-shirt materialized over her bare skin. She looked herself over. ¡°I think I like black...¡± I laughed. ¡°Looks good on you with your black hair and red eyes. You might want shoes if we eventually want to go outside though. You don¡¯t actually need them but the streets of New York are kinda gross.¡± She glanced at my feet and made a pair of black boots appear on hers. Satisfied, I ran a quick brush through my hair to make it look a bit less like I just engaged in a marathon sex session, and then I led her out of my bedroom. ... A few minutes later, Trihexa and I sat at the kitchen table with Natasha in my penthouse. Trihexa was fidgeting with a box of cereal, struggling to open it without tearing it apart. Natasha watched in silence, her arms folded over her chest again. Her expression was one of confusion... I cleared my throat. ¡°So, as I was saying... Trihexa here is the apocalyptic monster you¡¯ve heard about, except now she¡¯s in a human body with a very different mindset.¡± Natasha narrowed her eyes. ¡°You claimed you slept with her to keep her from destroying the world. I need a little more than that.¡± I gave her the rundown of everything that happened the past day. ¡°Only your life would be so crazy, Layla.¡± she said once I was finished explaining. Natasha looked at Trihexa. ¡°And you¡¯re okay with not bringing about the apocalypse anymore?¡± Trihexa finally got the cereal box open. She poured some into a bowl, then grabbed a carton of milk. ¡°Yes,¡± she said, carefully measuring out the milk. ¡°She taught me that pleasure is... better than destruction.¡± She pressed her lips together, then poured the milk. She poured way too much, and the bowl overflowed, spilling milk all over the table. Trihexa frowned, trying to scoop the milk back into the bowl with her hands, but she just made more of a mess. Her cheeks turned a light pink in embarrassment. ¡°Food is harder than it looks,¡± she whined. Natasha sighed, though I caught a small twitch at the corner of her mouth that looked suspiciously like a suppressed smile. ¡°So she¡¯s new to everything, including basic tasks,¡± she said. ¡°And you still slept with her?¡± she shot me a judgmental look. ¡°To save the world!¡± I reiterated. ¡°Besides, she''s way older than me!¡± I stood at the kitchen table in my penthouse, watching Trihexa fuss over her overflowing cereal bowl. Milk dripped onto the tabletop, and she looked frustrated as she tried to push the puddle back into the bowl with her fingertips. Natasha looked like she wasn¡¯t sure whether to lecture me or laugh. ¡°Thank you for not destroying the world,¡± Natasha said, directing her words at Trihexa. Trihexa glanced over and shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re... welcome?¡± She sounded uncertain. I cleared my throat. ¡°Speaking of things not being destroyed, I wanted to ask: what happened to the Soul Stone? I never actually got to see where it ended up after... well, everything.¡± Trihexa set her spoon down, tilting her head in thought. Then she pressed her palm lightly against her left breast. A subtle glow shone through her shirt, and a moment later, a glowing white stone seemed to seep out of her body. She cupped it in her hand and held it out to me. ¡°I don¡¯t really need it now that I have my own soul,¡± Trihexa said. ¡°You can take it.¡± I blinked, surprised by how easy that was. ¡°I... thank you,¡± I managed, gingerly taking the Soul Stone from her. I turned it over in my hands, feeling a soft hum of power. ¡°Thank you so much, Hexy.¡± Trihexa made a face. ¡°Hexy?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a nickname,¡± I said. ¡°What do you think?¡± She tapped her finger against her chin for a second. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± I said with a playful shrug. ¡°I¡¯ll figure out something else.¡± I glanced over at Natasha, giving her my best puppy-dog eyes. We both knew what was coming. She rolled her eyes, sighing. ¡°If you¡¯re going to ask me to babysit her,¡± Natasha said, ¡°the answer is yes... for a bit, at least.¡± She turned to Trihexa. ¡°I can take you to FallCorp. Penemue might be able to help you get settled, and I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find you some more food on the way.¡± Trihexa¡¯s face brightened. ¡°Food?¡± Natasha looked back at me. ¡°So what are you doing while I keep her out of trouble?¡± I crossed my arms and frowned, feeling the weight of the day. ¡°There¡¯s so much going on, I hardly know where to start,¡± I admitted. ¡°I want to check on Tony, especially after that fight with Ultron. I need to figure out what Doom is up to in Latveria. And I should probably recruit more healers, like Unohana Retsu from the Bleach universe, because too many people got hurt today. Asia and I can¡¯t be everywhere at once.¡± Natasha listened, then nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Start with the healer. The more hands on deck to deal with injuries, the better.¡± I tucked the Soul Stone into my inventory for now, ensuring it was secure. ¡°All right. That¡¯s the plan. What about Tony?¡± She rubbed at her temples. ¡°I¡¯ll reach out to him myself. As for Doom, I¡¯ll talk to Fury¡¯s old network. We had some agents embedded in Latveria who might know what¡¯s happening.¡± ... I raised my hand, opening a swirling purple portal directly to the Soul Society. Stepping through, I felt a wave of nostalgia mixed with mild apprehension. I hadn¡¯t been back here since I¡¯d killed that arrogant Quincy King and prevented the collapse of this entire dimension. The moment I emerged in the sky above the Seireitei, my wings flared open. I hovered for a moment, taking in the sight of the countless buildings and courtyards below. Almost immediately, several Shinigami looked up, pointing and shouting at me. Some of them shouted in admiration, recognizing me as the one who saved them. But more than a few of them looked wary, probably remembering the chaos I¡¯d left in my wake last time. I frowned, feeling a little insulted. They should all be grateful I showed up when I did! [They probably would have been fine without you.] ...My System chimed in sarcastically. [This world did have a "hero" after all.] I pouted at my System¡¯s snarky remark. ¡°Sure, they did. And how well was that going for them?¡± [Well enough.] ¡°Yeah, right,¡± I muttered. I angled downward, gracefully gliding toward the Fourth Squad barracks. My black wings cast a large shadow over the rooftops as I made my descent. I landed gently in the central courtyard, folding my wings neatly behind me. I noticed Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu standing at attention near the entrance, her hands clasped anxiously in front of her. It was clear she''d been waiting for me. ¡°Layla,¡± she said softly, bowing respectfully. ¡°Everyone felt your arrival.¡± ¡°I noticed,¡± I said lightly, flashing her a reassuring smile. ¡°I promise I¡¯m not here to cause trouble this time.¡± I wasn¡¯t planning on sticking around and getting yelled at for taking Ten-chan away either... In and out, 20 minute adventure! Isane¡¯s tense shoulders relaxed slightly, though her expression remained concerned. ¡°Are you here for Captain Unohana?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I answered honestly. ¡°But only if she agrees to come with me. I won¡¯t force her to leave.¡± She hesitated, glancing down at her feet. ¡°Are you really going to take her away permanently?¡± I reached out gently, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. ¡°If Retsu chooses to come with me, she¡¯ll be saving countless lives. And I¡¯ll be sure to always treat her right as a woman. But I understand what her leaving would mean to you all. It¡¯s ultimately her decision.¡± Isane gave me a sad yet understanding look, nodding softly. ¡°I know. And I know she wants to go with you, Layla. She hasn¡¯t been the same since your last visit.¡± She sighed softly. ¡°Thank you for being there for her when I couldn¡¯t.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll always be important to her,¡± I assured her gently. ¡°No matter where she goes.¡± She nodded, a grateful smile crossing her lips. ¡°Please follow me.¡± I walked alongside Isane as she led me through the peaceful Japanese-style corridors. Isane stopped outside a simple sliding door, hesitated, then carefully pulled it open. ¡°Captain, Layla is here.¡± Unohana Retsu sat at a low table inside, calmly writing something on a delicate scroll. Her black hair cascaded neatly down her shoulders, and she looked up at me with a serene, welcoming smile. Warmth flooded her gentle eyes¨Cand possibly something more. ¡°Layla, it¡¯s good to see you again.¡± ¡°Same to you,¡± I said sincerely. My eyes drifted to the scroll she was writing on, and curiosity got the better of me. ¡°What are you working on?¡± Unohana set down her brush gently. ¡°My resignation letter,¡± she replied softly. ¡°I suspected you¡¯d be back soon, and I thought I¡¯d be prepared. I don¡¯t imagine I¡¯ll be returning here for quite a while.¡± I nodded at Unohana¡¯s words, taking a small step closer. ¡°Yeah, a lot¡¯s happened since we last spoke. There¡¯s plenty I¡¯ll have to catch you up on.¡± My voice softened, becoming gentler. ¡°But honestly, more than anything, I¡¯m just glad I¡¯ll finally have the chance to get to know you better.¡± Unohana¡¯s cheeks flushed slightly, a faint pink coloring her pale skin. Her calm, serene expression softened, revealing a shy, vulnerable side I hadn¡¯t fully noticed before. ¡°I...feel the same way, Layla,¡± she admitted quietly, her eyes meeting mine with genuine warmth. Then her expression became hesitant, and she glanced down at the neatly written resignation letter. ¡°Do you think your other lovers will accept me? I''m aware you have a large and complicated harem. I can¡¯t help but worry about how they¡¯ll feel about someone new joining you.¡± I smiled reassuringly, reaching out to gently touch her shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that at all, Retsu. They¡¯ll absolutely love you. Trust me. They¡¯re great¡ªwelcoming and warm. And they¡¯ll understand how much you mean to me.¡± Unohana visibly relaxed at that, letting out a relieved breath. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. Although...¡± Her smile became slightly playful. ¡°I expect there might still be some minor tension. After all, being your ¡®newest girlfriend¡¯ might require a bit of adjusting.¡± I tensed up slightly at her words, suddenly remembering everything that had happened earlier with Trihexa. I cleared my throat, awkwardly glancing away. ¡°Er...yeah, about that...¡± I said slowly, trying and failing to hide the sheepishness in my voice. ¡°You might not technically be my ¡®newest¡¯ girlfriend anymore.¡± Unohana¡¯s gentle smile immediately fell from her face, replaced by a dangerous calm. Her eyes narrowed, darkening noticeably as a chilling aura filled the room. A sinister shadow of spiritual energy began rising ominously behind her, making my heart skip a nervous beat. ¡°Ara ara,¡± she said slowly, her voice dangerously sweet, eyes locked firmly onto mine. ¡°And what exactly do you mean by that, Layla dear?¡± Behind me, Isane let out a startled squeak and quickly backed up, pressing herself against the sliding door as if trying to blend into the wall. [Hehe, you''re in trouble, Host.] XXX Thanks for reading!!! You can check out more of my stories on my profile. Wanna read more of my stuff ahead of regular release? You can Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 329-333 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 7 The Fox Hole 82 Thunder and Black Wings 21 The Blood Queen 44 The Fox Hole 81 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 6 The Fox Hole 80 Thunder and Black Wings 20 The Fox Hole 79 Thunder and Black Wings 19 The Fox Hole 78 The Blood Queen 43 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 5 The Fox Hole 77 Thunder and Black Wings 18 chapter 329 chapter 329 Chapter 329: ¨C Cassandra ¨C Cassandra Nova was disappointed... Seriously¡ªher so-called patron was dead already? She''d honestly expected a guy calling himself "Kang the Conqueror" to last longer than thirty minutes against his sworn enemy, Layla. Although as far as Cassandra knew, that whole sworn enemy thing was a one-sided affair. It seemed absurd. Even Ultron had been wiped out, and possibly the Scarlet Witch too, though she wasn¡¯t totally convinced about that red-haired psychopath. Maybe she was still alive after foolishly trying to face the Ancient One. Still, this left only herself and Doctor Doom stranded in this new world. ...And Doom had immediately declared war on Europe, which meant he¡¯d probably be dead in a couple hours tops. Cassandra sighed, deeply annoyed. She should¡¯ve just stayed in the damn Void. Sure, she''d only been queen of a multiversal trash heap, but at least she''d been a queen. Now the real question was what the hell to do next? She didn''t even get to have any fun. She¡¯d literally just finished introducing herself as the new headmistress of Xavier''s Academy. The students were predictably confused, asking nervous questions about where Charles Xavier and Magneto had gone. Naturally, she''d lied and told them their beloved leaders had taken a spontaneous vacation together. Well, technically, that wasn¡¯t entirely false¡ªCharles and Magneto were indeed on an involuntary vacation to the Void. But if Cassandra planned to survive beyond tomorrow, she¡¯d better bring them back... Spending hundreds of miserable years trapped in that shithole dimension had left Cassandra oddly attuned to it. Summoning a portal back there was now second nature. With an irritated flick of her fingers, she opened a swirling doorway beside her, connecting directly to where she''d dumped the old men. She immediately blanched at the sight awaiting her. Charles Xavier and Magneto sat together on a log, chatting calmly with... him. "What the hell is this?" Cassandra snapped, disgusted. Nicepool glanced up from munching on what appeared to be a roasted squirrel-on-a-stick, smiling cheerfully. "Oh, hey there, Cassandra! What brings you back here? Did you miss home already?" Charles and Magneto turned toward her, wary expressions on their faces. Magneto narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Have you returned to finish the job... Cassandra?" "No. Unfortunately, my patron''s brilliant plan completely fell apart. Layla of the Fallen managed to kill Kang¡ªand considering I''ve never even met the woman, I somehow already know it¡¯s probably bad for my health if I do. So I''ve decided to cut my losses. You two are coming back with me." Xavier and Magneto shared a surprised glance, uncertain whether to trust her sudden generosity. Cassandra didn''t give them the chance to argue. With an impatient wave of her hand, an invisible force seized both men, dragging them roughly back into the mansion¡¯s familiar interior. They scrambled awkwardly to their feet, still reeling from being abruptly transported. Magneto dusted off his cape indignantly. "A bit of warning would have been appreciated," he grumbled, scowling at her. "You''re welcome," Cassandra replied dryly. "Feel free to put in a good word for me when Layla inevitably arrives later to kill me." Charles took a cautious step toward her. "You brought us back simply to protect yourself?" "Precisely," Cassandra replied without hesitation. What? Did he seriously think she had some kind of random change of heart? Pffft, not a chance. On the other side of the portal, Nicepool waved enthusiastically, still munching away happily on his squirrel stick. "See you later, Ms. Nova!" "Fuck off," Cassandra said irritably, promptly shutting the portal in his cheerful face. ¡°Maybe now we can sit down and have a proper conversation...sister.¡± Charles smiled at her warmly. ¡°I know we got off on the wrong foot but I¡¯d like the chance to help you.¡± Cassandra glared at him, annoyed she couldn¡¯t kill him like the dozens of other alternates of her brother she¡¯d slain over the centuries. ...Fuck, maybe she should just go back to the Void and stay there. And that¡¯s when a lighting bolt and a wave of red cosmic energy came out of nowhere and blasted her through the wall... ¨C Akeno ¨C "Be careful, you two," Akeno murmured warmly, brushing a few stray red locks behind Jean''s ear. She leaned over, placing a tender kiss on the psychic''s lips. Jean Grey smiled softly, gently cupping Akeno¡¯s cheek. "We will. Promise." Akeno turned toward Ororo next, taking her time to admire her Storm goddess¡¯s striking beauty. She gently brushed Ororo''s silver-white hair from her face before claiming another deep, lingering kiss. "And you as well, my lovely Storm." Their playful morning session together had abruptly ended when the television showed a breaking report, revealing big problems erupting all across the globe. Absolute madness everywhere. Then came the panicked texts from the young mutants at Xavier''s school. Apparently, a mysterious woman named Cassandra Nova had suddenly taken over the mansion after Charles Xavier and Magneto vanished without any real explanation. Of course, Jean and Ororo immediately insisted on investigating their old home turf, worried for the younger mutants'' safety. Akeno, however, wanted to check on her aunt Penemue at FallCorp to find out what was happening on a wider scale. Penemue usually knew what the hell was going on¡ªat least more than anyone else Akeno knew. Then something even stranger appeared on TV¡ªa replayed clip of what had happened in China hours ago. Akeno stared in disbelief, jaw dropping slightly. Was that... the legendary apocalyptic beast, Trihexa, fighting Aunt Layla on international television? When the anchor clarified that the footage wasn¡¯t live but had happened hours ago, Akeno¡¯s eyebrows shot up even higher. "Holy shit," she muttered incredulously. "Were we seriously too busy having sex to notice the literal apocalypse happened¡ªand ended¡ªalready?" Jean and Ororo exchanged sheepish, amused looks. Ororo shrugged lightly, looking both amused and mildly embarrassed. "Well... at least it looks like Layla handled it, right?" Jean groaned softly. "We really do live in the weirdest possible timeline." Akeno shook her head, sighing quietly. Ever since Layla had freed her from slavery, her life had become progressively stranger. She smiled wryly. Strange as her new life was, she wouldn''t trade it for anything. Jean and Ororo lifted off into the sky, heading toward Xavier¡¯s mansion. Akeno watched them until they became tiny specks in the distance before unfurling all twelve of her black wings behind her. She flew into the air, heading straight toward FallCorp¡¯s impressive headquarters, easily one of the most iconic skyscrapers in the New York skyline. FallCorp¡¯s security personnel¡ªalmost all of whom were Fallen Angels these days¡ªrecognized Akeno instantly and respectfully stepped aside. She gave them friendly nods as she passed, heading directly toward the executive elevator. When she opened the large office door, she immediately spotted Emma Frost seated behind her elegantly sleek desk. Emma was not only Penemue''s personal secretary but, as Akeno knew it, her aunt''s lover and even Azazel¡¯s mistress as well. ...Her family really were freaky weren¡¯t they? ¡°Is Penemue available?¡± Akeno asked. Emma nodded, looking thoughtful. "Yes, but we¡¯ve got a very strange guest here at the moment, along with Miss Romanoff..." ¡°Who?¡± Akeno wondered curiously. Emma sighed. ¡°...You¡¯ll have to see her to believe it. Your Aunt Layla is crazy by the way. I¡¯m kind of glad we never became ¡®a thing¡¯ after seeing her newest conquest...¡± Emma said with a shudder. ¨C Layla ¨C Unohana had been more than a bit upset with me, and I promised her we would have a conversation later. I arrived back in Hong Kong with Unohana after we left the Bleach universe. The city streets were in ruins and the lingering smoke made everything look grim. Unohana stood beside me, a thoughtful expression on her face as she scanned the damage. She let out a soft sigh. ¡°So much work to do,¡± Unohana said quietly, looking around at the rubble and the injured survivors. ¡°I can sense many people who need healing.¡± I frowned, wishing I could just snap my fingers and fix everything. But when Unohana turned to me and asked why I didn¡¯t use my cosmic powers to restore the entire city, I hesitated. ¡°I¡¯m trying not to flex that much power on Earth these days,¡± I explained. ¡°I want to protect my world, but I also don¡¯t want to become the goddess who solves every little thing with magic. People need to do some of the rebuilding themselves.¡± Unohana gave me a small nod. ¡°I see. You already did quite a bit for the Soul Society.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, shrugging. ¡°I might have gone a bit overboard there. I¡¯m trying to do better now.¡± She smiled at me, then pulled out a gigai¡ªa temporary body that let normal humans see her clearly¡ªand slipped into it. ¡°I will begin,¡± she said. A moment later, she vanished in a blur of flash steps. I closed my eyes briefly, checking in on other parts of the globe with my senses. I wondered if Asia Argento had come here as well, but I sensed her healing people in Los Angeles instead. That was where the Hulk had lost his mind, leaving a bunch of devastation. It was less severe than Trihexa¡¯s rampage, but there would still be plenty of wounded I imagined. I wanted to stay and quietly help Unohana, healing people personally, but I had one last urgent thing on my list to fix all this crazy shit. Doctor Doom had declared war on Europe, and I needed to shut that down before it officially started. I spread my sixteen black wings, preparing to take flight. Then my phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out, noticing a text from my niece, Akeno. My eyes widened when I read it. Akeno: You fucked TRIHEXA!!!???? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???? I stared at my screen, my face warming a little. A small laugh escaped me, and I quickly typed a response. Me: Yeah, and she was amazing... I turned my phone off, still grinning. There was no time to explain everything to Akeno right now. Besides, I¡¯d told the truth¡ªTrihexa was incredible. Strange, but incredible. I flapped my wings and shot into the air. I could have just opened a portal to get to Europe, but at this point, the difference in travel time was maybe half a minute. I felt like flying for a while, just to clear my head before I had to deal with Doom¡¯s grandstanding. ... I flew across Eastern Europe until Latveria¡¯s borders came into sight. I was high above the country when my flight path led me over the capital city, and I felt my stomach clench at the sight. Thousands¡ªmaybe hundreds of thousands¡ªof flying robots were swarming the sky, each one armed to the teeth. And below them, on the ground and rising through dark portals, were countless red, imp-like demons. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that this Doctor Doom had joined forces with Mephisto, or at least whoever was running Mephisto¡¯s dimension these days. ¡°This is insane,¡± I said, mostly to myself. ¡°How did he amass all of this so quickly?¡± [It wasn''t quick, you lost track of time. You were busy sleeping with Trihexa.] I rolled my eyes. ¡°That¡¯s not helping.¡± I glared down at the swarm. Taking down a few hundred thousand robots and a million or so imps... this was just another tuesday. I summoned a purple lightspear into my hand. It crackled with divine and cosmic energy, humming against my palm. ¡°Time to clear the skies,¡± I murmured. I concentrated on my shadow clone technique next. Ten perfect copies of me appeared in the air around me, each wielding a similar lightspear. They gave me confident grins, and I nodded back at them. I¡¯d have summoned more, but ten was enough to handle all of this. [Show-off...] ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment,¡± I replied. I shot forward, the wind exploding and whipping around me. My wings flapped once, and the speed pushed me into a blur. My clones followed, radiating power as they arranged themselves in a formation behind me. The nearest wave of robots took notice. I saw thousands of red sensors swivel in my direction, and an instant later, beams of plasma hurtled through the air. I spun, raising my lightspear to intercept the plasma. In one fluid motion, I slashed downward, sending a wave of divine power that sliced through a whole thousand of them. Sparks rained from the shattered metal, and fragments of circuits plummeted toward the ground below. I felt bad for the citizens screaming in terror, but I was already holding myself back enough to not wreck another city today. For now. My clones darted off in different directions, each engaging a chunk of the army. Every time a group of the metal soldiers tried to gang up on one of us, a clone would blast them apart with a wide sweep of a lightspear or a burst of amaterasu flames. Below, I heard the guttural shrieks of the imps. They were flying lower, pouring into the streets, probably searching for anything they could kill or terrorize. I paused in midair, watching the chaos spread through Latveria¡¯s capital. Imps screeched, latching onto innocent civilians and ripping them apart in the streets. My stomach turned at the sight of so much bloodshed. They tore into anyone within reach, feeding on the terror and pain. [What are you going to do about this?] ¡°They have to be stopped,¡± I muttered, glancing at the armies of flying robots and the swarms of red imps below. ¡°There¡¯s no time to play nice.¡± I raised my hand high, giving the signal. My shadow clones caught sight of me and immediately adjusted their strategy. No more holding back. In seconds, they dashed off at speeds that made sonic booms echo across the city. People screamed. Streets cracked under the force of their wings. Windows blew out from the turbulence. Each clone targeted clusters of tens of thousands of demons and robots. Latveria never had a huge population, and from what I saw, Doom or whoever was commanding the demonic forces wasn¡¯t doing anything to protect these people. It wouldn¡¯t take long for the imps and killer machines to wipe out the entire country if I didn¡¯t stop them. My clones tore into them without hesitation, leaving mangled demon bodies and shattered robots in their wake. I hovered above, taking it all in with a resigned sigh. I spotted a few clusters of survivors cowering behind overturned vehicles or barricaded in buildings. Some peered out cautiously. I made a mental note to provide aid once the demons were gone. For now, eliminating the threat was priority number one. I glanced toward the largest spire in the city¡ªthe palace. Doom¡¯s seat of power. Even from here, I could see the flicker of energy shields around the upper towers. He¡¯d probably sealed himself inside, expecting his army to slow me down long enough for whatever evil scheme he had going for him. He was going to be disappointed. XXX chapter 330 chapter 330 Chapter 330: ¨C Layla ¨C I approached Doom¡¯s palace and hovered for a second, sizing up the glowing green energy shields surrounding the highest towers. The shields hummed loudly, pulsing with power, but I could sense right away they wouldn¡¯t hold against even the smallest fraction of my strength. Doom really had no idea who he was dealing with. Without hesitation, I clenched my fist and struck forward, casually punching through the shields like they were made of glass. They shattered instantly, sending glittering fragments cascading downward. The resulting noise echoed throughout the fortress. Almost immediately, dozens of Doom¡¯s soldiers rushed out onto the open balconies, armed and ready for trouble. They were human this time, not robots or demons, but instead of immediately opening fire, they froze in place when they spotted me. Confusion flashed across their faces first, quickly replaced by looks of genuine relief. Then, from among their ranks, a woman stepped forward. She was tall and beautiful with an aura of natural authority. She wore polished golden armor over a regal emerald gown, a long green cape fluttering gently behind her in the wind. Her gaze met mine evenly, with no hostility¡ªjust calm acknowledgment. ¡°I am Zora von Doom,¡± she announced clearly. Her voice carried strength but was tempered with genuine warmth. ¡°Queen of Latveria and wife to Victor von Doom.¡± Her eyes studied me carefully, and after a brief pause, she added, ¡°You must be Layla. We¡¯ve never met, but Victor spoke of you often. Fondly, even.¡± I raised my eyebrows in surprise. ¡°Fondly? Doom spoke fondly about me? We¡¯ve never exactly been friends. More like business acquaintances.¡± And even then it was Penemue handling the majority of the business. Zora shook her head slightly. ¡°You underestimate your impact, Layla. Your existence changed Victor¡ªmore than you know. He once had ambitions far darker and more ruthless. Knowing you were out there, he altered his plans. Victor wanted a future where Latveria could prosper without resorting to the horrors he''d once considered.¡± She frowned then, sadness and confusion flickering through her gaze. ¡°But now...something has gone terribly wrong. My husband has been acting strangely these past few hours. He barely acknowledges me or our son. And when I confronted him about this madness¡ªthe demons, the attacks on Europe¡ªhe threatened our lives. Victor would never do such a thing. Not to us.¡± My stomach tightened as I listened. This woman clearly loved Doom deeply, and it made the news I had to deliver that much harder. My System buzzed impatiently in my head. [Stop delaying it. She deserves the truth.] I sighed heavily, closing my eyes for a brief second to brace myself. Zora watched me carefully, a glint of fear creeping into her expression. ¡°Zora,¡± I began gently, trying to soften the blow but knowing there really was no way to do it, ¡°the Victor you knew¡ªyour husband¡ªis probably already dead.¡± Her face paled instantly. Her lips parted slightly, trembling, as tears began to form in her eyes. ¡°What...? No, that¡¯s impossible. He¡¯s right inside, he¡ª¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Zora. But the man who¡¯s been doing all this isn¡¯t your husband. He¡¯s an imposter from another universe¡ªa Doom from somewhere else entirely. I don¡¯t know his full plan yet, but I guarantee you it¡¯s just generic evil. This other Doom probably killed your husband the second he arrived.¡± Zora crumpled slightly, placing a trembling hand against the wall to steady herself. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her breath came in shaky gasps. She clenched her fist tightly against her chest, trying desperately to contain her grief. I stood quietly, giving her space to process everything. Part of me expected her to immediately beg me to resurrect her husband¡ªto plead for my help in reversing what had happened. Instead, she surprised me by straightening slowly, blinking back tears, and wiping her face with a determined expression. ¡°I...thank you for telling me the truth, Layla,¡± she managed, voice thick with emotion. Her eyes hardened, and anger replaced sorrow as she met my gaze fiercely. ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s even possible for Victor to come back now. But the monster who stole his face¡ªthe monster who killed my husband¡ªcannot be allowed to live.¡± I nodded solemnly, respecting her strength and resolve. ¡°I promise, he¡¯ll pay dearly for what he¡¯s done. And after this is over, if there¡¯s anything I can do to help you or your son, all you have to do is ask.¡± Zora¡¯s expression softened slightly at that, gratitude flickering briefly through her pain. ¡°Just make that bastard suffer,¡± she whispered harshly. ¡°That¡¯s all I want right now.¡± ¡°I can definitely do that,¡± I said. I took one final glance around at the soldiers, who stood silently, eyes full of sympathy for their grieving queen. ¡°Stay with your men, Zora. Keep them safe. This will be over soon.¡± Then, without waiting another moment, I strode purposefully into the palace, heading directly for the heart of Doom¡¯s throne room. ¨C Doom ¨C A bit earlier... Victor von Doom paced angrily inside his throne room, gauntleted fists clenching tightly. Everything had started going sideways, and he was quickly losing patience. Mephisto stood before him in his full demonic form, his skin blood-red and eyes nervously flicking around, clearly uncomfortable being there. "What the fuck happened to you, Mephisto?" Doom growled, voice dripping with disgust. "You used to be a blight upon the multiverse¡ªa terror whose very name mortals feared to utter. Now you cower here, trembling at the mere mention of one fallen angel?" Mephisto''s eyes narrowed, but the demon didn''t rise to the bait. Instead, his shoulders slumped in a very un-demonic gesture of defeat. "You don''t know who you''re messing with, Doom! That damn angel, Layla, just won''t die. Every time I''ve tried killing her, she comes back even stronger and pulls out some new cosmic bullshit!" Mephisto¡¯s voice trembled slightly as he admitted it. "She wields a sword that stabbed my avatar and nearly destroyed my true form!" Doom scoffed loudly, waving a dismissive hand. "Relax, demon. We won''t have to worry about Layla for much longer. Kang the Conqueror is holding her off as we speak." He disliked Kang intensely¡ªhe viewed the man as competition at best, a temporary ally at worst. The multiverse only had room for one true ruler, after all. Still, Doom respected Kang¡¯s ruthlessness and his ambition. Countless iterations of Earth''s Mightiest Heroes had fallen at Kang''s feet, their worlds left broken and conquered. Surely even the strongest defender this universe could produce wouldn''t easily defeat someone like Kang¡ªespecially not with this reality¡¯s Soul Stone in his possession. "Kang is dead," Mephisto stated bluntly, cutting through Doom''s thoughts. Doom turned sharply toward Mephisto, eyes widening behind his iron mask. "What?" "I just felt his soul get completely obliterated," Mephisto replied. He spoke flatly, without exaggeration. "You''re on your own now, buddy." Doom¡¯s fists tightened again, and anger boiled through him. "We had a deal, demon!" he roared furiously. "Your armies were to join mine, and together we would seize control of this miserable world!" Mephisto shrugged, indifferent to Doom¡¯s rage. "Yeah, deal¡¯s off. I''m getting out of here. I''ll run to the very edge of the multiverse and pray Layla doesn''t come after me. Because guess what? I''m pretty sure she now has all six Infinity Stones from her universe, and somehow¡ªdespite them normally being useless in other realities¡ªshe¡¯s fused them directly into her very being. They''re fully functional, Doom. You''re screwed." Without waiting for Doom''s response, Mephisto snapped his fingers, opening a swirling, fiery portal behind himself. "Good luck, Doom. You¡¯re going to die horribly." And with that, the demon stepped backward into the portal, vanishing instantly. Doom stood frozen for a moment, his mind racing. He turned slowly toward the enormous open balcony, staring at the vast sea of demons spread across Latveria¡¯s capital city. They had poured from Mephisto¡¯s hell dimension, hundreds of thousands¡ªmaybe millions of red, clawed monsters¡ªand now, without their master, they looked around in confusion. Some of the demons even began scratching their heads, clearly unsure of what was happening. "Idiots," Doom muttered bitterly, deeply frustrated. "Worthless idiots¡ªall of them." He briefly wondered if every creature in this universe was incompetent, then dismissed the thought. It didn''t matter. Doom would not let this setback ruin everything he had worked for. Even without Kang or Mephisto, he was Victor von Doom, and Doom never surrendered. He stepped onto the balcony, cape billowing dramatically behind him. Below, countless demonic faces turned upward, watching him expectantly. "You! Demons of Hell!" Doom shouted, voice amplified through his armor¡¯s speakers. "Mephisto has abandoned you¡ªhe has fled in cowardice! But fear not, for you now serve Doom! I declare myself your new king and master! Together, we will bring ruin to this pathetic reality!" The demons paused, glancing uncertainly at each other... Doom felt rage rising again at their hesitation. He roared louder, pointing dramatically toward the horizon. "What are you waiting for? Go forth, my demonic slaves! Unleash chaos! Burn this world to ashes in my name!" With that final command, a thunderous roar rose up from the army of demons. They surged forward eagerly, streaming into the streets and skies, wreaking havoc in every direction. Doom watched them with a dark, bitter satisfaction. If he had to rule alone, he would. No Kang. No Mephisto. Only Doom. The world would bow at his feet one way or another. But even as he watched his demonic armies ravage Latveria, he felt an icy knot of anxiety forming deep inside his chest. Kang¡¯s death had come as a shock. For the first time since he''d begun his conquest, Doom felt genuinely uncertain. Perhaps he''d underestimated just how dangerous this "fallen angel" really was. His fists clenched tightly again. It didn¡¯t matter. He was Doom. He would overcome this. He had to. "Let her come," Doom whispered harshly, his voice filled with arrogant resolve. "I''ll be ready." Behind him, explosions and screams echoed through the city as the demonic horde laid waste to Latveria. His eyes narrowed beneath the iron mask as he observed the scene unfolding above Latveria. The sky had become a battlefield, lit by explosions and streaked with fire. Layla had finally arrived. He watched as the fallen angel hovered effortlessly over the city, her sixteen enormous black wings spread wide and shimmering with power. Even from this distance, Doom could sense the incredible amount of energy radiating from her form, and a chill ran down his spine. She was every bit as powerful as Mephisto had feared. As Doom watched in stunned silence, Layla casually created multiple copies of herself¡ªexact replicas radiating the same staggering amount of raw power. In mere moments, these clones spread out across the sky, laying waste to his carefully assembled army of robotic drones and demons with shocking efficiency. Doom¡¯s invasion force crumbled rapidly under the assault. For the first time since arriving in this universe, genuine uncertainty clawed at Doom¡¯s resolve. "I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one," Doom murmured bitterly to himself, hands tightening further on the railing. This battle was clearly already lost. His dreams of conquering this universe were rapidly slipping away, and Doom was not foolish enough to think he could withstand a direct confrontation with someone wielding Infinity Stone-level power across multiple realities. He stood silent for a long, angry moment, watching helplessly as the fallen angel demolished everything that was his power base. Sure, it''s not like he had it for very long, but it was still his! Doom recognized immediately that she would soon be coming for him personally. And he knew, deep down, that fighting her directly was suicide. But Doom was no fool. He always had a backup plan¡ªalways. And now was precisely the time to use it. "Fine," he muttered darkly, pushing away from the balcony railing. "If Kang is truly dead, then his universes are rulerless. I''ll simply begin my conquest anew somewhere else. Another reality, one without this absurd fallen angel." He hated retreating¡ªespecially from a woman who appeared so casually arrogant. Doom had fled from his own home reality already, chased off by the intolerably annoying Fantastic Four and their absurdly overpowered child, Franklin Richards. To be forced to run away once again stung his pride deeply. Still, Victor von Doom would never be truly defeated. If this particular reality refused to bow, then another would serve instead. There were endless Earths ripe for his domination. He turned swiftly from the balcony, heading back into the throne room. The teleporter he''d constructed earlier was positioned securely on the opposite side of his fortress, prepared explicitly for a worst-case scenario exactly like this one. Doom prided himself on his foresight¡ªhe was never without an escape route. Soon, he would vanish, and this catastrophic defeat would be nothing more than a brief annoyance. Latveria, Layla, and this miserable universe could burn for all he cared. Yet before he could take more than a few steps toward his escape, a massive booming noise echoed throughout the throne room, vibrating through the stone floor beneath his feet. Doom halted immediately, head snapping around toward the reinforced vibranium doors that led into HIS throne chamber. Doors that should have been strong enough to withstand 100 nukes. "What!?" Doom growled angrily. Those same doors exploded inward, utterly ruined. Vibranium hinges were torn clean from the reinforced walls, leaving the metal warped and useless on the throne room floor. And standing calmly in the now-empty doorway was Layla herself, hand raised lightly, as if she''d merely tapped the doors rather than obliterating them with ease. Her purple eyes met Doom''s across the room. Doom froze in place, a fresh surge of unease twisting in his gut. He had vastly underestimated the extent of her strength. He could feel raw cosmic energy practically radiating from her body, and it left him shaken in a way he hadn¡¯t experienced in decades. "You," Doom hissed, voice tight and full of barely contained rage. "You¡¯re far more troublesome than I anticipated, Layla." Layla stepped casually through the broken doorway, the shattered metal crunching beneath her boots. She kept her gaze firmly fixed on him, unimpressed by his furious glare. "Yeah, that''s kind of my thing," she replied lightly, but her eyes were anything but playful. They were cold, hard, and dangerously focused. "You know, I''ve met other versions of you. Some were decent enough men¡ªothers were miserable bastards like yourself. Guess which ones survived the longest?" Doom clenched his gauntleted fists tightly, refusing to be cowed by her bravado. "You dare lecture Doom?!" he roared furiously, hoping to mask his growing unease behind bluster and fury. Layla didn¡¯t even flinch. She continued forward with slow, confident steps. "Oh please. I''ve dealt with creatures way scarier than you. But what you¡¯ve done here... that''s low, even for a Doom." His anger surged higher, defiance giving him a final burst of courage. "You have no idea who you¡¯re addressing!" he snapped sharply. "I am Victor von Doom, rightful master of every universe¡ª" Layla cut him off sharply, eyes narrowing. "No, you¡¯re just an asshole who killed a good man and stole his family from him. And now you''re about to pay for it." Doom''s heart sank at her icy words, a glimmer of panic finally breaking through his bravado. He took a cautious step backward, edging subtly toward the hidden exit that would lead him to his escape teleporter. Layla raised an eyebrow, a faint, humorless smile forming on her lips. "Going somewhere?" she asked calmly, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking. Doom glared hatefully at her, briefly weighing his limited options. He knew now that running was impossible, she''d never let him get away. She was too strong, too fast, and infinitely more dangerous than he''d ever imagined. His carefully laid escape route was no longer viable. "If I am to die here," Doom snarled defiantly, straightening himself up and facing her directly, "then I will at least do so with dignity. Do your worst, fallen angel." Layla shook her head slightly, a dangerous glint in her eyes as she slowly approached. "Oh Victor," she said softly, voice dripping with cold resolve, "I promise...my worst is exactly what you''re about to experience." ¨C Layla ¨C Doom obviously wanted some kind of epic, climactic final battle. Maybe he thought I''d let him deliver one last dramatic speech or reveal another secret weapon hidden up his sleeve. Yeah, that wasn''t happening. He didn''t deserve a grand finish or any kind of respect. He killed a decent version of himself and tried to slaughter a country just because he could. Doom was an arrogant asshole, and I was done wasting my time on him. A purple lightspear materialized in my right hand. Doom flinched back slightly, perhaps expecting me to make some kind of flashy charge. But instead, I vanished from his sight, appearing right in front of him in less than an instant. His eyes barely widened behind that metal mask before I drove the lightspear straight through it, shattering the mask, vaporizing his head, and utterly destroying his brain. Blood, bone, and metal fragments splattered outward violently, hitting the floor and walls. Doom''s body crumpled immediately, dropping lifelessly to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut. There was no possible way he was coming back from that¡ªno secret clones, backup plans, or last-minute resurrections. Just a very dead villain lying on the floor. The room fell silent except for the crackling of residual cosmic energy around my lightspear. [Huh... That was... anticlimactic.] I shrugged, dismissing my lightspear and stepping back from Doom¡¯s corpse. "Honestly, I¡¯m kind of over his bullshit. Every single Doom thinks he''s some unbeatable genius, the most evil, the most powerful, the most clever. But most of them are just assholes with big egos. This one definitely tops the charts for ''most evil,'' but that¡¯s about it." [Fair enough. So, are you going to resurrect the ''nice'' Doom he killed?] I paused for a moment, seriously considering the question. Then, slowly, I shook my head. "No." [No? Really?] I sighed quietly. "Lady Death was right, annoying as it is. I can''t fix every death and problem in the world just by snapping my fingers. Even if I could, Doom wasn''t exactly my friend. More of a business associate, really¡ªand even then, Penemue handled most of the interactions. I stopped the worst of the damage here, saved most of Latveria''s citizens, and his country is still largely intact. Plus, it looks like his wife is strong enough to rule without him, and his son can grow into his father''s legacy. They''ll be fine." [I suppose that''s the right call.] "Glad you agree." I glanced around the throne room one last time. Seeing nothing dangerous, I focused on my next priority. With a casual wave of my hand, a purple portal opened right next to me. "Anyway, I¡¯ve got something else I need to handle now," I said quietly. I stepped through my portal and emerged on the surface of the moon, my feet settling gently onto the dead gray soil. The vast lunar landscape stretched out endlessly around me, silent and peaceful beneath a sky full of stars. This was as good a place as any for something so personal. [Uh...what exactly are we doing here?] The System asked curiously, clearly confused by my choice of location. "I''m going to fuse with the Soul Stone," I explained calmly, looking out toward Earth, beautifully illuminated in the distance. I turned my attention back to my task, taking a slow, steady breath. [Oh..] The System sounded genuinely unsure. [Good luck then. Even I have no idea what''s going to happen now, Host.] I grinned to myself. Reaching into my inventory, I carefully pulled out the white Soul Stone. The stone glowed faintly. Its energy felt warm and alive against my palm, and I stared at it thoughtfully, savoring the moment. This was the last Infinity Stone¡ªthe final piece of a puzzle I''d been assembling for so long now. After this, the only artifacts left would be the Life and Death Stones, guarded personally by the Phoenix Force and Lady Death herself. "And then," I whispered to myself with an amused little giggle, "I''ll officially be the Supreme Goddess. Whatever the hell that actually means." "Do you mind if I watch?" came a calm voice from my right. I glanced over in mild surprise, spotting the bald, golden-robed figure standing nearby, observing me patiently with his large, solemn eyes. "Uatu," I said dryly, offering him a little smile. "Earth¡¯s greatest voyeur. Figured you''d show up sooner or later." He inclined his head respectfully, completely unfazed by my teasing. "Lady Layla. I''d very much appreciate the chance to witness this moment personally." I shrugged casually, unbothered by his presence. "Knock yourself out." The Watcher actually smiled faintly at that. "Thank you. Moments like these shape entire universes. I''m glad to see it firsthand." Returning my focus to the glowing Soul Stone, I took another deep breath, steadying my nerves. Raising my hand slowly toward my chest, I felt the stone''s energy humming louder and more intensely. I pressed it lightly against my flesh, and almost immediately, the stone began to sink into my body, merging with me. ¨C Lady Death ¨C "So, it has begun," Lady Death murmured softly to herself, her voice drifting gently through the cool silence of her realm. Her beloved Layla had finally merged with the last Infinity Stone, officially stepping closer to her ultimate destiny. Soon, Layla would begin the two most difficult quests of her existence¡ªclaiming the Life and Death Stones. ...And Lady Death would be watching every step closely. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of cosmic fire illuminated the dark space nearby, shattering the calm. Out of the blaze stepped the Phoenix Force herself, taking a rare humanoid form. She appeared as a tall, graceful woman dressed in an elegant gown woven from shimmering cosmic flames that cascaded down her slender frame. Her fiery red hair flowed freely, framing her sharp, angular features and intense golden eyes. "I see you''ve sensed her ascension as well," Lady Death remarked dryly, a faint smile touching her pale lips. The Phoenix Force nodded, stepping forward gracefully, cosmic embers trailing her movements. Her expression was serious¡ªmore solemn than usual. "Everyone sensed it," she responded firmly, placing distinct emphasis on the word "everyone." Lady Death chuckled quietly, amused rather than concerned. At this stage, it hardly mattered if every powerful cosmic entity in the multiverse had felt Layla''s transformation. She had grown strong¡ªstronger perhaps than anyone had anticipated¡ªand was now largely beyond the reach of meddling, jealous beings. "You look troubled," Death observed gently, raising an eyebrow at her fiery counterpart. "Are you having second thoughts about your trial?" The Phoenix shook her head slowly, golden eyes glinting with something dark and unreadable. "Not troubled¡ªjust thoughtful. And yes, my trial is ready. Though I must admit, this will be unlike anything I''ve ever tasked anyone with before." Lady Death tilted her head slightly, genuinely curious. "I admit, I''ve wondered what exactly your test would be. You''ve always been about nurturing life, growth, rebirth. I imagine it''ll involve that somehow?" The Phoenix paused briefly, her expression growing distant as she chose her next words carefully. "Usually, my trials are about exactly that¡ªlife, renewal, creation. But I''ve come to understand something critical. Sometimes, in order for life to truly flourish, death itself is necessary." Lady Death raised an eyebrow. "How remarkably cryptic. Care to explain precisely what you''re planning to have Layla do?" she asked. The Phoenix met Death¡¯s gaze squarely, an intense resolve burning in her luminous eyes. "If Layla wishes to prove herself worthy of becoming the supreme ruler of this multiverse¡ªworthy of wielding the Life Stone¡ªthen I need to see her both preserve life and fully embrace death. I wish to see her save countless lives by decisively ending another. Not just any enemy, but another of her own kind." Lady Death¡¯s eyes widened slightly at this revelation. She''d expected a difficult challenge, of course, but even she hadn''t anticipated something so harsh and emotionally taxing. "That¡¯s...quite a tall order..." "Exactly," the Phoenix said. "But, I believe she will be capable of it, especially with that terrifying sort of hers.¡± Lady Death studied the Phoenix quietly for a long moment, absorbing the seriousness of this new trial. Eventually, she exhaled softly, nodding in understanding. "I have faith that she''ll handle it.¡± XXX Thanks for reading!!! You can check out more of my stories on my profile. Wanna read more of my stuff ahead of regular release? You can Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 331-335 The Fox Hole 87 Thunder and Black Wings 23 The Fox Hole 86 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 9 The Blood Queen 46 The Fox Hole 85 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 8 The Fox Hole 84 Thunder and Black Wings 22 The Blood Queen 45 The Fox Hole 83 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 7 The Fox Hole 82 Thunder and Black Wings 21 The Blood Queen 44 chapter 331 chapter 331 Chapter 331: ¨C Layla ¨C I opened my eyes slowly, feeling an immediate surge of power unlike anything I''d ever experienced before. It was an intense rush that left me breathless for a moment, my entire body tingling from head to toe. A cascade of glowing messages appeared in my vision, rapidly announcing multiple upgrades to my skills and perks! [Death¡¯s Favored has evolved into ¡ú Death¡¯s Chosen!] [Faith Energy and MP have merged into ¡ú Divine MP!] [Senjutsu has evolved into ¡ú Heavenly Sage!] [Rinnegan has evolved into ¡ú Eyes of the Supreme Goddess!] [Light Manipulation has evolved into ¡ú Light Mastery!] [Cosmic Energy Manipulation and Kryptonian Body have evolved into ¡ú Cosmic Body!] [Fear Resistance has evolved into ¡ú Almost Incorruptible!] Holy shit¡ªso many powerful upgrades at once! Each of these evolutions felt incredible, and I couldn¡¯t stop the satisfied grin that spread across my lips. My heart was racing, excitement flooding every inch of my being. Even the System sounded impressed as it chimed in: [You¡¯ve gotten significantly stronger, Host. I strongly recommend checking your stats.] I eagerly followed the System¡¯s advice, pulling up my stats menu. My jaw instantly dropped in shock at what I saw: [Layla of the Fallen] [Title: Sixteen-Winged Angel, High Goddess of Angels, Death¡¯s Chosen, Soul Queen, Mistress of the Infinity Stones] [Supreme Goddess 6/8: Merged with Soul Stone, Mind Stone, Power Stone, Reality Stone, Time Stone, Space Stone] [Level: 180] [Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity] [HP: 300,780,500] [Divine MP: 50,000,000,000] [Vigor: 30,078,050] [Strength: 35,475,896] [Intelligence: 500,000,000] [Luck: 12,547,789] [Available Free Stat Points: ] [Perks and Skills: -High Goddess of Angels (100x increase in all stats. Access to all Angelic abilities. Ability to turn other races into white or black-winged angels depending on the person''s Karma.) -Death¡¯s Chosen (Instant resurrection within 1 hour of death.) -Daughter of Heaven''s Will (Passive: Reality bends to your whims. Desired circumstances are vastly more likely to manifest.) -Acting (Max: You are an absolute master of the craft.) -Observe (Max: No levels are hidden from your gaze. Targets cannot detect your observation.) -Eyes of the Supreme Goddess (Access to all abilities originating from the Naruto Universe.) -Heavenly Sage (Constantly replenishes your Divine MP at a rate of 1,000,000,000 per minute.) -Light Mastery (Complete mastery over all forms of light¡ªdivine or corrupted.) -Cosmic Body (Your body and energy are now fundamentally infused with cosmic power.) -Lustful Queen (Active: Drains energy from physical contact, converting it into any desired energy. Effectiveness increased by 1000x during sexual intercourse. Random stats awarded after each "session.") -Almost Incorruptible (Complete immunity to negative mental effects¡ªexcept lust.) ] ...I stared blankly at the incredible numbers. My body quivered involuntarily, heat flooding my core as a potent wave of arousal surged through me. My breathing grew heavy, nipples tightening and hardening beneath the thin fabric of my shirt. Fuck¡ªI was actually getting turned on by my own overwhelming power. Goddamn, it felt incredible. A sudden realization interrupted my indulgence. I wasn¡¯t exactly alone here. A quick glance confirmed my suspicion¡ªUatu, the ultimate cosmic voyeur himself, was sprawled awkwardly on his back nearby, eyes rolled into his head, mouth open and foaming slightly. I chuckled softly at the sight, apparently, he couldn¡¯t handle seeing me ascend to this insane level of power from such a close vantage point. Good thing I chose the moon for this little event. If this had happened back on Earth, half the planet probably would¡¯ve passed out. I took a deep breath, savoring the delicious sensation still lingering through my body. But it wasn¡¯t time to indulge myself¡ªnot yet, anyway. I had important shit to handle first. The question now was, where the hell should I start? I flexed my wings slightly, feeling the raw cosmic power surging through my veins. There were countless things I could do next¡ªvisit Lady Death, check on my family back on Earth, or maybe just indulge myself a little with my new powers. But first things first¡ªI had to make sure everyone was alright. I decided to start with Tony. After everything he''d been through, especially after I turned him into an angel and brought his parents back from the dead, it was important to me to check up on him. I rocketed off the lunar surface, leaving a shallow crater beneath me. A second later, I was hovering comfortably in open space, Earth glowing beautifully in the distance. The silence up here was strangely calming, and I took a second to enjoy it before reaching casually into my pocket and pulling out my phone. Technically speaking, my phone shouldn''t have had any reception out here in space. But after merging with the Infinity Stones, reality itself bent effortlessly to my whims. So getting five-bar reception in the middle of space was trivial at this point. Honestly, I bet I could make calls from completely different universes if I wanted to. Maybe I''d test that theory out later. With a quick flick of my thumb, I dialed Tony¡¯s number and raised the phone to my ear. It only rang twice before he answered. "Layla!" Tony sounded startled but genuinely happy. "Holy shit? You¡¯ve been busy!¡± I then heard someone else excitedly talking to him nearby and it sounded like they tried to grab the phone from him. ¡°Mom! Stop! Yes, it''s Layla! You can talk to her later." He sighed heavily, clearly embarrassed. I laughed softly, grinning at the sound of his voice. "Hey, Tony. Yeah, I have been busy. Just wanted to see how you¡¯re doing...with everything. And what happened to Ultron?" "His tin¨Ccan ass is dead! As for me, I¡¯m doing great, actually¡ª" Tony started, but a loud, warm, excited voice cut him off instantly. "Layla, sweetheart, hi!" Maria Stark¡¯s voice cut in. I heard Tony groan in mortification as his mom stole the phone from him. "Oh my god, thank you again so much for everything you''ve done. Howard and I are forever grateful, and we absolutely love being angels!" "Mom, give me back my phone!" Tony protested weakly in the background. I chuckled softly. "You''re welcome, Maria. I''m just glad you and Howard are enjoying yourselves. How''s life as an angel treating you?" Maria laughed lightly. "Oh, it''s wonderful, dear. Flying around with actual wings, it''s fantastic! Tony and Howard have already had their first race!" "Mom!" Tony sounded utterly mortified. "What?" Maria replied innocently. "I¡¯m just telling Layla how much fun you''re having with your father." I bit back a laugh, picturing Tony¡¯s red-faced embarrassment clearly in my head. Poor guy was probably wishing he could disappear right now. Tony managed to wrestle back control of his phone. "Sorry about that," he muttered, clearly flustered. "She¡¯s just really... excited. You know, about being alive again and everything!" "Relax, Tony," I said soothingly, smiling gently despite knowing he couldn''t see it. "I''m honestly glad you guys are getting along so well. Having parents back takes some getting used to, huh?" He laughed ruefully. "Yeah. You could definitely say that again. I swear, Mom hasn''t stopped fussing over me since you brought her back. And Dad is constantly pestering me about my suits¡ªhe insists he can upgrade them way better." "Can he?" I teased gently. Tony hesitated, before grudgingly admitting, "...Maybe. But first he''ll have to catch up with modern engineering practices." I grinned broadly. "That¡¯s awesome, Tony. Seriously, I''m happy for you. You deserve this." He paused quietly on the line for a second, his voice softening. "I know I¡¯ve already said it, Layla, but thank you. You really changed my life. I''ll never forget it." His sincerity warmed my heart, and I felt a gentle flush of affection bloom inside me. "You''re welcome, Tony," I told him gently, my voice filled with genuine warmth. "It was my pleasure." He cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed by the moment of vulnerability. "Anyway, enough mushy stuff. What''s the super fallen angel goddess herself up to?¡± I laughed quietly. "I''m actually floating in outer space right now, deciding what insane, overpowered thing to do next!" Tony snorted, amused. "Jesus. Only you, Layla. Well, good luck. Call me if you need backup, alright?" "Will do. Take care, Tony." "Bye, Layla!" "Bye, sweetheart!" Maria yelled from the background again, making Tony groan. I closed my eyes for a moment, reaching outward with my senses to check on everyone else who was important to me. Now that I was this powerful, it was effortless¡ªdistance and barriers meant nothing anymore. First, my awareness drifted to my youngest children, and almost instantly, I sensed them. They were safe, currently residing thousands of light-years away on Asgard, playing under the watchful eyes of their caretakers. It was kind of incredible that I could feel their presence so vividly¡ªas clearly as if they were standing right next to me. It felt reassuring and warm. As I focused more intently, I saw little Hilga, my adorable Asgardian princess, suddenly pause in her play and look upward, directly toward me, smiling brightly. She giggled, her tiny hand waving cheerfully in my direction. I laughed softly, surprised but delighted that her senses were sharp enough to notice me so quickly. I waved back warmly, projecting a gentle feeling of motherly affection her way. Hilga laughed again, clapping her hands excitedly before returning to her play. Next, I checked on Heather. My senses drifted deeper into Asgard, searching carefully until I found her energy. I gently touched her presence to make sure everything was fine and¡ªoh shit! I immediately recoiled, pulling my senses away quickly with an embarrassed blush heating my cheeks. Heather was fine. Actually, Heather was more than fine¡ªshe was currently very occupied, naked, entwined intimately with a beautiful female Asgardian on a plush bed, their bodies locked passionately together, moving rhythmically. I couldn''t help but laugh softly to myself, my cheeks still flushed at catching them like that. So, Heather really had found her type after all. Good for her. Giving Heather her privacy, my senses shifted next to Earth, specifically Japan. I wanted to check on Ten-chan and Kunou. Thankfully, I found them immediately, happily playing together in the sunlit yard of Yasaka¡¯s home. They were enjoying some kind of traditional Japanese ball game that I didn''t quite recognize, but it didn''t matter¡ªboth girls looked safe and happy. Just like Hilga, Ten-chan suddenly paused in her game, turning her face toward the sky with a bright smile. She laughed excitedly, waving her hand vigorously toward me. I sent her a gentle wave in return, feeling my heart swell with motherly pride. My kids really were something special. I continued searching out everyone else important to me¡ªfriends, family, lovers, and allies¡ªmaking sure each of them was safe and sound. Most seemed fine, doing their best after the recent chaos. Unohana and one of my shadow clones were still busy in Hong Kong, quietly healing as many people as they could without revealing the full extent of their abilities. Jean and Ororo were comforting some of the younger mutants at Xavier¡¯s mansion. Akeno and Penemue were safe at FallCorp¡¯s headquarters...along with Trihexa who was happily munching on some nacks. But when I turned my focus toward Andrea Stark, something felt off. I concentrated carefully, searching Earth thoroughly. Yet, strangely, I found no trace of her. Neither Andrea nor the Hulk seemed to be anywhere on Earth or even within the solar system. I expanded my senses further, rapidly scanning the entire galaxy, but still came up empty. Where the hell could she have gone? However, I did sense Michael¡¯s presence clearly¡ªhe was in Los Angeles, where the Hulk had recently rampaged. I decided to get answers from him. With a casual wave of my hand, a swirling purple portal appeared next to me. I stepped through smoothly, emerging instantly on a battered street in L.A., not far from Michael¡¯s location. The moment I appeared, Michael glanced up at me, giving a calm, slightly wry smile. He was crouched low, gently pressing his glowing hands against the chest of a homeless man sprawled on the sidewalk. The guy was obviously high out of his mind, staring dazedly at the glowing angel before him. ¡°Am I dead or something, man?¡± the homeless guy mumbled sluggishly, blinking slowly. Michael chuckled softly, his warm voice reassuring. ¡°No, my friend. You''re very much alive. I''m simply healing your injuries. Relax¡ªyou''ll feel better soon.¡± I smiled slightly, feeling a surge of affection for my older brother. Michael had always been gentle and compassionate. No matter who or what someone was¡ªhigh, homeless, rich, or poor¡ªMichael always gave his best to help without hesitation. I waited patiently for Michael to finish his healing, and after a few more seconds, the homeless man sighed softly, visibly relaxing as his injuries disappeared. ¡°Whoa...thanks, angel-dude,¡± the man mumbled appreciatively, giving Michael a sleepy thumbs-up. ¡°You''re welcome,¡± Michael replied kindly. ¡°Please, find somewhere safe to rest.¡± The man stumbled off slowly, leaving Michael to rise gracefully to his feet and turn fully toward me. He eyed me curiously, his expression calm and thoughtful. ¡°Layla,¡± he greeted me softly, inclining his head slightly. ¡°You''re even stronger now¡ªI can sense it. You''ve completed your fusion with all the Infinity Stones, haven''t you?¡± I grinned faintly, shrugging casually. ¡°Yeah. Feels pretty amazing, honestly. But I''m here because I can''t find Andrea. Or Bruce. They''re not anywhere in the galaxy, Michael. Do you know anything about that?¡± Michael¡¯s face turned slightly serious, and he nodded slowly. ¡°Yes, actually. After the incident here, Andrea teleported herself and Hulk somewhere far beyond this galaxy¡ªanother dimension, in fact... He then gave me the sad explanation that Andrea had chosen to leave our Universe, not believing there was a place for Bruce in it anymore after what he¡¯d done. I grimaced, this was similar to what Bruce chose to do in the MCU...exiling themselves. I sighed, figuring I¡¯d track them down sooner or later and we¡¯d work something out. I¡¯m sure Tony was not going to be happy when he found out his sister was gone. Especially since I''m sure they wanted to meet ¡°their alternate daughter¡± as well. In the worst case scenario... I was debating using my powers to erase the Hulk¡¯s rampage from everyone''s memories. But that...that was a slippery slope. I had a tremendous amount of power at my disposal but I needed to be careful about how I used it. I paused mid-conversation with Michael, tilting my head as a strange sensation abruptly tugged at my consciousness. I furrowed my brow slightly as I tried to make sense of the sudden feeling. ¡°What''s wrong, Layla?¡± Michael asked gently, noticing my distracted expression. I hesitated for a second, reaching out with my senses. "I think someone¡¯s calling for me. Actually¡ª" I frowned slightly, correcting myself. "Make that two someones." Michael raised an eyebrow, intrigued. ¡°Really? Any idea who?¡± I nodded slowly, already getting a clearer sense of the energies reaching out. "Lady Death and someone else. A very powerful someone else." I paused, sensing the urgency clearly. "They seem...eager to talk." Michael nodded in understanding, a soft smile on his face. ¡°Then you''d best answer their call, little sister. Just be safe, alright? You might be incredibly powerful now, but caution never hurts.¡± I chuckled softly and stepped forward to hug him tightly. Michael''s presence was always comforting. He wrapped his strong arms around me gently, holding me close in a warm embrace. "Thanks, Michael," I murmured quietly against his chest. "I promise I¡¯ll be careful." He squeezed me once more before releasing me. "I trust you, Layla. Go. I''ll take care of things here." I stepped back, giving him a grateful smile. Then, with a casual wave of my hand, a shimmering purple portal appeared before me. I felt a thrill of anticipation run through me as I stepped through it smoothly. The second I emerged in Lady Death¡¯s dimension, my gaze was immediately drawn to her. She sat regally on her dark throne, an amused and seductive smile on her lips. She wore a translucent black gown that did nothing to conceal her impossibly gorgeous figure. Her long legs were visible beneath the thin fabric, smooth pale skin practically begging for my touch. "Layla," Lady Death purred, her voice sending pleasant chills down my spine. "It seems you''ve grown even more deliciously powerful since we last saw each other." I opened my mouth to reply, but my eyes flicked to the figure standing beside her, causing me to pause momentarily. Next to Lady Death stood a strikingly beautiful woman. Her presence was powerful and imposing, her very form flickering with shimmering cosmic flames that served as her vibrant red hair. She radiated an intense, primal beauty¡ªwild yet mesmerizingly alluring. The human form of the Phoenix Force. Instinctively, I began to dip into a respectful bow, but Lady Death swiftly raised her hand, stopping me. "Equals don''t bow to each other, my love," Lady Death said gently, her lips curling into a playful smirk. "You have earned your place among us." I felt a rush of pride at her words and straightened, meeting her seductive gaze with a matching grin. "Yeah, you''re right. I suppose I am pretty damn overpowered now, aren''t I?" Lady Death chuckled warmly. "Indeed. And I couldn''t be prouder of you, Layla." Grinning wider, I crossed the distance to her throne and hopped right into her lap. Wrapping my arms around her slender shoulders, I kissed her softly, savoring the sweet taste of her lips. "I collected all six Infinity Stones," I announced proudly between kisses, nuzzling gently into her neck. "One step closer to supreme goddesshood." I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. Lady Death smiled affectionately, her hands moving to wrap around my waist as she held me tightly against her supple body. Her warm breath brushed my ear, making my heartbeat quicken deliciously. "You''ve done magnificently, my beloved," she whispered seductively, planting soft kisses along my neck. I shivered pleasurably in her grasp. "Truly remarkable." I would have gladly allowed myself to get lost in Lady Death¡¯s sensual affections, but I was abruptly reminded we weren''t alone. The Phoenix Force stood calmly beside us, watching our intimate display with detached curiosity, clearly unbothered. Reluctantly, I turned my attention back toward her, though Lady Death kept her hold on me, continuing to gently caress my sides and thighs possessively. I didn¡¯t protest, enjoying her boldness, but curiosity burned brightly within me. "You called for me?" I asked the Phoenix, barely keeping my voice steady as Lady Death shamelessly reached up and cupped my breasts through my shirt. Her teasing fingers gently squeezed, sending another delightful surge of arousal through me. I gasped softly, but refused to pull away. The Phoenix''s golden eyes shone in amusement at our shameless display, clearly unaffected. Her voice was cool and calm when she finally spoke, though her gaze was intense, locked firmly onto mine. "Indeed, Layla of the Fallen. You''ve successfully merged with the Infinity Stones, but the task before you now will determine your true worthiness," she explained. "I am here to administer your trial¡ªthe test that will grant you access to the Life Stone. Only upon completing it successfully will you be able to ascend fully as the supreme goddess of our reality." I perked up instantly at her words, heart racing eagerly, even as my breath quickened under Lady Death¡¯s persistent touches. "Sounds important," I murmured breathlessly, leaning back against Lady Death¡¯s chest as her nimble fingers teased me relentlessly. "So...what exactly is this trial?" The Phoenix Force¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, her expression turning deadly serious. "To prove you''re truly worthy of the Life Stone," she began quietly, her voice firm and clear, "I require you to permanently slay another like yourself. Another... Gamer.¡± [Nani the fuck!?] My heart pounded hard in my chest, and it wasn''t just because Lady Death¡¯s fingertips were teasing and rolling my nipples between them, making them sensitive and achy beneath the thin fabric of my shirt. No, the Phoenix Force¡¯s words had genuinely shaken me. I squeaked softly, eyes wide with surprise and uncertainty. "You two...you know about me being a Gamer? How could you possibly¡ªno one else has ever known about that." Lady Death leaned in close, her lips brushing gently against my ear as she whispered. "Oh, my beloved, we''ve always known. Beings like you¡ªGamers¡ªhave attempted to enter our reality before. Most were dangerous intruders that we¡¯ve had to repel to protect our universe. It wasn''t difficult for me to recognize what you truly were the first moment I saw you. But I quickly learned that you were very different from those others. You''re kind, generous, loving, and compassionate. You genuinely want to help people rather than dominate them. That makes you incredibly special." She paused, sliding her palm up my shirt, boldly cupping my breast fully, squeezing it firmly and deliberately as if to emphasize her words. I gasped softly, heat flooding my face, my heart racing even faster. Lady Death had absolutely zero shame about openly pleasuring me in front of another cosmic being. And damn if I wasn''t loving every second of it. "But as wonderful as you are, Layla," Lady Death continued, massaging and fondling me shamelessly, "not all Gamers share your benevolence. Many of them are parasites. Cruel, selfish beings who abuse their powers, destroying lives, enslaving entire universes, and causing unimaginable suffering. The removal of such corrupted beings would greatly benefit quadrillions of innocent souls across the omniverse." The Phoenix Force nodded solemnly, clearly unbothered by Lady Death¡¯s explicit fondling. "Exactly." Lady Death nuzzled into my neck, placing slow, deliberate kisses along my skin, sending delicious shivers racing down my spine as she murmured seductively, "Removing these evil creatures from existence would save innumerable lives, Layla. As the Supreme Goddess, you must be capable of protecting reality itself from threats like them." I took a deep breath, steadying myself as I finally nodded slowly. "I understand. But..." I hesitated slightly, feeling uncertainty gnaw at my gut. If I travel to another Gamer¡¯s universe to confront them, won''t I have to give up my Gamer System? I''m incredibly powerful now, but it''s my System that has provided a huge amount of my strength and I didn¡¯t want to give it up... [That might not be an issue for us, Host. I believe I may have discovered a way around that...] XXX Thanks for reading!!! You can check out more of my stories on my profile. Wanna read more of my stuff ahead of regular release? You can Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 332-336 The Fox Hole 89 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 11 Thunder and Black Wings 24 The Fox Hole 88 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 10 The Fox Hole 87 Thunder and Black Wings 23 The Fox Hole 86 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 9 The Blood Queen 46 The Fox Hole 85 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 8 The Fox Hole 84 Thunder and Black Wings 22 The Blood Queen 45 chapter 332 chapter 332 Chapter 332: ¨C Layla ¨C I sat at the very edge of Lady Death¡¯s realm, staring out into the endless void of stars and galaxies. My bare feet dangled lazily over the edge, and I swung them slightly, lost in thought. As incredible as the view was, I barely noticed it at the moment¡ªmy mind was occupied by a rather serious discussion with my System. I sighed softly, rubbing my temples. "Alright, System, let''s slow down and run this by me one more time¡ªclearly. What¡¯s this plan you have?" I asked. "Because I refuse to give up my Gamer status. That¡¯s just non-negotiable at this point." [Don¡¯t worry¡ªthere is a loophole we could potentially exploit. One that will probably be patched out once you pull this off...] I sat up straighter at that. "A loophole? You have my attention. Go on, explain." [Gamer Systems like myself don¡¯t just randomly spawn out of nothingness. In truth, existing Gamer Systems are capable of generating new Gamer Systems once their Host reaches a certain threshold of strength and capability.] I tilted my head, surprised. "Wait, you''re telling me that you could essentially reproduce yourself into a completely new Gamer System?" The System paused for a moment, as if carefully considering its answer. [In essence, yes. You¡¯ve grown incredibly powerful, Host¡ªpowerful enough that I now possess the capacity to split myself into two independent Systems. One part would stay with you, and the other part would create an entirely new Gamer.] I was intrigued. ¡°Go on...¡± [If we did this¨CME¨Cthe half that remains connected to you could safely accompany you to another gamer¡¯s multiverse, because I¡¯d be ¡°weakened¡± enough to not be noticed essentially by any other Systems...] "That sounds almost too good to be true," I admitted slowly, curiosity piqued. "What¡¯s the catch?" The System replied quickly, as if expecting my skepticism. [When I split, like I said, I will temporarily be weakened. You won¡¯t be able to accept quests or gain experience and level up for roughly one week.] I shrugged lightly. Honestly, the temporary loss of quests and levels didn¡¯t bother me much at all. At my current state, leveling up had become nearly irrelevant. I was already strong enough to obliterate gods, demons, and any other cosmic entities. Plus, after completing this Phoenix Force trial, I''d have the Life Stone added to my collection. I doubted leveling up further would even make a difference at this point. "That''s not a problem," I assured the System. "Considering how strong I already am, a week without leveling up isn¡¯t exactly a deal-breaker. But tell me this¡ªhow do I choose the person who becomes the new Gamer? Can it be anyone I want?" [Yes, Host. You have complete control over the selection process. However, I strongly advise you to choose someone... carefully.] I nodded thoughtfully, leaning back on my hands, staring quietly out into the expanse of stars. There was really only one choice then... Well technically three. ... I stepped out of a swirling purple portal, emerging silently into the softly illuminated bedroom of my three daughters. The portal closed gently behind me, the room instantly becoming peaceful again, leaving only the soft glow of magical lanterns floating gently near the ceiling. Hilga, Sia, and Lia were all sleeping soundly, curled up comfortably in their beds. It was long past their bedtimes, and thankfully, the protective wards didn¡¯t trigger any alarms at my sudden intrusion to wake them up. I¡¯d keyed myself directly into their magic long ago, meaning they welcomed my presence without issue. I smiled fondly at the sight of my girls, feeling a surge of warm pride in my chest. Each of them was so incredibly precious, and I''d do absolutely anything to ensure their safety and happiness. Which was exactly why I was here. My children mattered above everyone else. If I had the chance to share something as incredible as a Gamer System, then I wanted my daughters to have it¡ªto protect themselves and become as powerful and independent as possible. Of course, there was absolutely no way in hell I¡¯d let three toddlers have that much power right now. [Rest assured, Host. I can ensure the new Gamer Systems will remain completely dormant until your daughters reach approximately eighteen years of age. They¡¯ll have no indication or knowledge of its existence until that moment.] That sounded perfect to me. I was relieved knowing my kids would have normal¨Cish childhoods before receiving such overwhelming power. The System had also warned me about its own limitations. I wasn¡¯t the kind of mom to pick favorites. I wanted all three of my girls and maybe even Heather (if she wanted it) to have System¡¯s of their own as well. The System told me though that it couldn¡¯t just split over and over and it would take years for that to be feasible. That was fine with me. There was no rush, my daughters were still only three years old. We had plenty of time. Careful not to wake them, I moved silently to Hilga¡¯s bed. My little Asgardian princess slept peacefully. I gently brushed a strand of black hair away from her tiny face, bending down to press a soft kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Hilga," I whispered softly. The second my lips touched her skin, I felt it¡ªa sharp, wrenching pain in my chest, as if something vital was slowly torn away from deep within me. I grimaced, forcing myself not to pull away as a faint glow enveloped Hilga for just a moment before fading away completely. [It is done, Host. Half of myself has now successfully integrated into Hilga. Her Gamer System is safely dormant and will awaken naturally when she turns eighteen.] I exhaled slowly, waiting until the pain faded away completely before responding mentally, ¡®Thank you. You¡¯ve done more than enough for now.¡¯ Stepping back, I gave my daughter another loving smile, feeling deeply satisfied. Hilga would be safer, stronger, and able to stand against anything when she grew up. It was a comforting thought. "I promise, Sia and Lia," I whispered, glancing at my other two sleeping girls, "you¡¯ll both get your turn eventually. You¡¯ll all have the power to keep yourselves safe. But your mommy has to wait a bit longer, okay?" They remained blissfully asleep. My gaze drifted toward the closed bedroom door, thoughts shifting quickly to the rest of my loved ones here in Asgard. I considered briefly visiting some of my lovers to say a proper goodbye before I left on this dangerous mission. But if I did that, they''d undoubtedly insist on accompanying me. Technically, after my unexpected two-year disappearance into a black hole, we''d all agreed that at least one person should always accompany me on my adventures from now on. They¡¯d argued¡ªquite convincingly¡ªthat they never wanted to lose me again. And truthfully, I understood their fear and agreed wholeheartedly. But this...was different. Facing another Gamer, one whose power I knew nothing about, was a risk I couldn¡¯t let anyone else take with me. Maybe this other Gamer was weaker, or maybe they¡¯d match me blow-for-blow. The only thing I knew for sure was that they were ¡°evil.¡± I had to handle this alone. Well, perhaps not entirely alone. Smiling softly, I held out my hand and summoned Ten-chan. In a blink, my beautiful zanpakuto? appeared in sword form. The blade vibrated softly, obviously surprised by the sudden summoning. ¡°Momma?¡± Ten-chan¡¯s voice rang out curiously in my mind. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Sorry for the sudden summoning,¡± I whispered softly, running my thumb along the handle to comfort her. ¡°But we¡¯re going on a very important mission. I don¡¯t want anyone else at risk, so it¡¯s just going to be you and me. Think you¡¯re up for it?¡± Ten-chan¡¯s confusion shifted instantly into firm determination. ¡°Of course!¡± Warmth filled my chest at her unwavering loyalty. ¡°Thanks, Ten-chan. I knew I could count on you.¡± Her blade hummed in satisfaction as I placed her carefully into my Inventory. Turning back to my sleeping other daughters, I smiled tenderly one last time. ¡°I love you all,¡± I whispered. ¡°Be good until I get back.¡± And then, with quiet resolve, I opened another purple portal in the center of the room, stepping through it. The moment I stepped out of the portal, I found myself right back in Lady Death''s throne room. The familiar dark and cold surroundings greeted me warmly as the champion of Lady Death. Lady Death was lounging on her throne, a seductive smirk on her lips as she caught sight of me. Her slender fingers gently patted her thigh again, clearly inviting me to return to her lap. I laughed softly and playfully shook my head, giving her an amused look. "Nope, sorry. If we start fooling around, we¡¯ll never get anything important done..." She pouted dramatically, crossing her arms beneath her full chest. "No fun..." "Business first, pleasure later, my love," I promised her gently, giving her a teasing wink. Lady Death sighed dramatically, clearly disappointed but understanding. "Very well, Phoenix, please inform my beloved exactly where she''ll be going." The Phoenix Force stood near Lady Death, watching our interaction quietly with faint amusement flickering in her golden eyes. "Layla, I have been closely monitoring a certain nearby multiverse¡ªone that has recently gained my attention due to its... peculiarities." I tilted my head curiously. "You have my attention." "This multiverse possesses mortals capable of extraordinary feats," she explained. "Even ordinary humans there can gain strength great enough to obliterate entire planets with ease." My eyes widened in instant recognition. Could it really be...? The Phoenix continued calmly, apparently not noticing my surprise yet. "Moreover, within this multiverse exist powerful artifacts¡ªseven mystical orange orbs capable of summoning a dragon who can grant near-limitless wishes. The magnitude of these wishes easily rivals the powers you''ve experienced with your Infinity Stones." I blinked, my heartbeat picking up as excitement bubbled inside me. "Wait, orange orbs? Planet-busting mortals? You¡ªYou don''t mean..." Lady Death chuckled quietly, finally breaking her seductive pout. She clearly already knew about my enthusiasm for this particular universe. "Yes, Layla. She''s talking about the Dragon Ball multiverse." "Holy shit!" I burst out eagerly, unable to keep the excitement from my voice. "I''m seriously going to Dragon Ball? You have no idea how amazing this is! That¡¯s like my childhood favorite universe of all time!" I then paused for a second and stared at Lady Death. ¡°Wait? How do you know about Dragon Ball?¡± ¡°I get bored from time to time and even I enjoy reading mortal works of fiction,¡± she replied. Fair enough. I smiled at her and suggested we have a watch party sometime with the whole family! Lady Death smiled warmly at my enthusiasm, clearly pleased that I was so excited for this particular task. "I''m glad you''re happy about my hobbies, dearest. But please stay focused." [She¡¯s one to talk, considering she wanted you back on her lap a second ago...] I nodded. "Right, sorry. Phoenix, please continue. What''s this evil Gamer''s goal there?" "Currently, the most powerful being within that multiverse¡ªa childlike entity known as Zen-Oh¡ªis hosting an event called the Tournament of Power. During this tournament, teams from multiple universes shall battle fiercely for their survival. The victor of this tournament receives a single wish granted by these ¡°Super Dragon Balls,¡± the strongest wishing artifacts in existence!" The Phoenix explained dramatically. Lady Death rolled her eyes, giving an exasperated sigh. "Unfortunately, the real version of Zen-Oh himself isn''t particularly bright. He''s far too innocent and naive to comprehend the catastrophic possibilities someone could create by abusing such immense power. He doesn''t even realize that someone might wish to claim all of his abilities for themselves..." I instantly grasped her words, feeling my stomach tighten in concern. "And obviously, that''s exactly what this evil Gamer is planning to do." The Phoenix nodded at me, telling me my task was to stop them and slay them. I don¡¯t think she particularly cared how I went about it as long as they didn¡¯t succeed in usurping Zen-Oh and then possibly becoming a greater threat. I stood quietly for a moment, absorbing everything I¡¯d heard carefully. Despite the seriousness of the task, I couldn''t deny the thrill that raced through me. I was actually going to step foot into the Dragon Ball universe during the Tournament of Power! I was going to get to fight alongside¡ªor maybe even against¡ªcharacters I¡¯d grown up loving and watching. My lips curved upward into a wide, delighted grin. "This is going to be so incredible. I can''t wait to get in on that action!" The Phoenix Force cleared her throat politely. "When you''re ready, Layla, I can open the portal to that multiverse." I stepped back slightly, giving Phoenix an eager smile. "Alright then, let''s do this!" A brilliant golden-orange portal formed in front of me, shimmering brightly in the throne room. I glanced back over my shoulder at Lady Death one last time, flashing a confident grin. "Wish me luck," I said cheerfully, stepping toward the shimmering gateway. Lady Death smiled lovingly, eyes full of warmth and affection. "You don''t need luck, my dearest. You''re more than powerful enough. Now go¡ªsave the Dragon Ball multiverse, and hurry back to me..." ... I stepped out of the portal, feeling my feet sink lightly into a patch of grass. I glanced up and saw a clear blue sky filled with soft clouds drifting lazily overhead. The air smelled fresh, and I could sense the presence of very powerful energies dotted all around this world. It was definitely Earth, but not the one I came from. I couldn''t help the flutter of excitement in my stomach. Turning my head, I noticed an Asian-style dojo just a few yards away. A sudden spike of energy came from inside. Whoever was in there had already sensed me because I felt their ¡°ki¡± focus on my location. They were heading toward me, and they were fast. My eyes lit up. I wondered which Dragon Ball character it would be! Unfortunately, the door slid open to reveal a tall, bald man with three eyes. My excitement dropped instantly. It was just Tien Shinhan. Lame. Inside my head, the System snickered. [You¡¯re being rude, Host. Even if he can¡¯t read your mind...] I sighed mentally. ¡®Fine, I know he¡¯s strong and all for a human, but he¡¯s not exactly my favorite.¡¯ Tien eyed me warily as he came to a halt in front of me. ¡°Who are you, and what are you doing here?¡± he demanded, his tone gruff as his three eyes bored into me. I cleared my throat, deciding I¡¯d keep it polite. "You¡¯re Tien Shinhan, right?" I asked, even though I knew perfectly well who he was. He gave a brief nod, still tense and suspicious. "Yeah, and you still haven¡¯t answered my question." I offered him my friendliest grin, trying to calm him down. "My name is Layla of the Fallen, and I''m here to take your place in the Tournament of Power." Tien¡¯s eyes widened, shock plain on his face. "What? You can¡¯t just barge in and do that! I don¡¯t even know who you are!" I shrugged casually. Technically, he was right. I was a random stranger who suddenly appeared in his yard. "That¡¯s not important," I said, dismissing the detail with a wave of my hand. "What¡¯s important is that the survival of this entire universe is at stake. You need the absolute strongest warriors for the Tournament of Power. If you can¡¯t beat me, you don¡¯t deserve to take part, right?" I caught a flash of anger in Tien¡¯s eyes. He folded his arms over his chest defensively. "Fine, I guess you have a right to challenge me," he said, huffing a bit. Then he looked me up and down, taking in the outfit I was wearing. A sleek, low-cut black dress that showed quite a bit of my impressive cleavage. Tien snorted derisively. "Are you planning on fighting me dressed like that?" I glared at him, irritated that he was insulting Lady Death¡¯s dress. But he had a point¡ªit wasn¡¯t exactly appropriate for a brawl. "No," I snapped. "And don¡¯t talk shit about my dress." I snapped my fingers, channeling a spark of my magic to switch outfits. Instantly, Lady Death¡¯s dark gown was gone, back in my inventory, now replaced by a comfy T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Simple, practical, and perfect for a quick brawl. Tien rolled his three eyes. "Neat trick. So you do know some magic. Magic usually can¡¯t hold up against ki, though." I smirked, crossing my arms. "Yeah? Maybe in your experience. Let¡¯s just say you haven¡¯t met someone quite like me before." His expression hardened, clearly ready for a fight. "Fine. We¡¯ll do this your way. If I lose, you can take my spot in the Tournament. But I don¡¯t plan on losing." I couldn¡¯t help the little thrill of excitement that sparked inside me. This was my first real match in the Dragon Ball world¡ªand I was itching to see how my cosmic power stacked up against Tien¡¯s ki-based abilities. This might be fun, or maybe it¡¯d be over in a single move. Either way, I was ready to see how serious Tien could get. "Let¡¯s see what you¡¯ve got," I said, cracking my knuckles and standing in a loose fighting stance... It¡¯s been a while since I just punched a bitch. ¨C Goku ¨C Goku sat at Bulma¡¯s kitchen table, shoving food into his mouth as fast as he could swallow. Vegeta, Beerus, and Whis were seated around him. There were plates and bowls piled high with various dishes, and Goku was determined to devour as much as he could. Him and Vegeta needed the energy for the upcoming fight in the Tournament of Power! Between bites, Beerus glared at Goku, annoyance clear on his purple face. ¡°You¡¯d better have picked a good team, Goku! I¡¯m not about to get erased because you made stupid choices again.¡± Goku paused long enough to catch his breath. ¡°Relax, Beerus. I got the strongest guys I know together, and we¡¯ll all do great. Just trust me!¡± Beerus growled, displeased. He stabbed at his food with a pair of chopsticks, though his aggression didn¡¯t stop him from eating everything in sight. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe Majin Buu is suddenly out of the tournament. You¡¯d better have a backup for him...¡± he grumbled. Goku shrugged, grabbing another rice ball. ¡°Yeah, that sucks. Buu fell asleep and won¡¯t wake up in time.¡± He tried to sound confident. ¡°But everything will still work out. I¡¯ve got an idea for our tenth member and everyone else is ready in top shape!¡± Well, he hoped they were at least... Vegeta set down his cup. His expression turned serious. ¡°Kakarot, do you feel that energy spike on the other side of the planet?¡± Goku tensed, swallowing the food in his mouth. He closed his eyes briefly, sensing the disturbance. There was a strong ki flaring in the distance, accompanied by Tien¡¯s familiar energy signature. Another ki felt strange¡ªunlike anything Goku had sensed before. Vegeta narrowed his eyes. ¡°Who the hell is that fighting Three-Eyes?¡± ¡°It feels like a woman,¡± Goku muttered. He focused harder for a second, trying to gauge her power level. It was hard to tell. She was suppressing it or something. But still... ¡°Wow, she¡¯s strong...and Tien¡¯s getting his but kicked.¡± Vegeta growled. ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake. Right before the tournament too...¡± Beerus flicked his chopsticks onto the table, clearly annoyed. ¡°Goku, you better check it out. We can¡¯t lose another member or we¡¯ll be disqualified!¡± Goku chuckled nervously and wiped his mouth. He pushed his chair back and stood up, patting his stomach to settle all the food he¡¯d devoured. ¡°I guess I have to,¡± he said, scratching the back of his head. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go see what¡¯s happening. Don¡¯t eat all the rest without me, okay?¡± Vegeta rolled his eyes, and Beerus snorted. Whis gave a slight, amused smile. Goku tuned out the rest of the chatter, focusing on Tien¡¯s energy. Once he had a clear lock, Goku raised two fingers to his forehead. ¡°See you guys in a minute,¡± he said, and with a quick burst of Instant Transmission, he vanished from Bulma¡¯s house to find out what was going on over at Tien¡¯s place. XXX chapter 333 chapter 333 Chapter 333: ¨C Layla ¨C Tien took a deep breath and clenched his fists, glaring at me with clear annoyance. He obviously didn''t appreciate me calling him weak¡ªbut hey, I was just being honest. White ki erupted from his body, surrounding him like a blazing aura as the ground cracked under his feet. Veins bulged on his muscles as his aura grew brighter and hotter. I arched an eyebrow at his little display, trying not to smirk. ¡°Impressive,¡± I teased. ¡°But are you planning to actually fight, or just stand there flexing?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me!¡± Tien shouted angrily as he launched himself toward me. He blurred forward, moving far faster than any regular human could. It probably would have looked impressive to anyone else. Unfortunately for Tien, I was way beyond being impressed. His fist shot out, aimed squarely at my face. I barely had to move, casually smacking his attack aside with my right hand. His eyes widened in shock for a split second¡ªbut he didn''t get the chance to recover. My left fist shot out immediately after, slamming into his gut with enough force to knock the wind right out of him. Sure, my technique was definitely sloppy compared to his. He was clearly a martial arts expert who¡¯d spent decades perfecting his style. But none of that mattered when the gap between our power levels was so ridiculously massive. Even while holding back¡ªa lot¡ªI was faster and stronger than he could ever hope to match. Tien wheezed painfully, eyes bulging as my punch folded him over my fist. His body rocketed backward like he''d been hit by a truck, skipping violently across the ground and kicking up clouds of dust. He crashed hard into the stone wall of his dojo, punching straight through it with a loud crunching sound. ¡°Oops,¡± I muttered, shaking my hand out absently. Not because the hit actually hurt me¡ªhis body had felt like punching a pillow¡ªbut because it just felt right. I winced as bits of broken wall and dust settled around the hole. ¡°Sorry about your dojo,¡± I called out, genuinely feeling a little bad. ¡°But hey, if you can¡¯t handle that punch, there¡¯s no way you¡¯re ready for the Tournament of Power.¡± For a second I wondered if he¡¯d just stay down and accept defeat. Honestly, it¡¯d probably save him from more humiliation if he did. But just as I was about to turn away, I heard a furious roar erupt from inside the rubble. ¡°Oh?¡± I perked up, curiosity piqued. ¡°Maybe you¡¯ve got some fight left after all¡ª¡± Tien burst from the shattered wall, pieces of stone and wood falling away from his body. But now, instead of just two arms, he had six¡ªall muscular and flexing powerfully as his energy spiked even higher. He glared at me, his three eyes burning with stubborn determination as he dropped into an aggressive fighting stance, fists clenched and ready for round two. ¡°Alright then,¡± I laughed, excitedly getting into my own loose stance. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re finally getting serious. Good. Show me everything you¡¯ve got, big guy.¡± Tien charged again, his six muscular arms blurring as they unleashed a dizzying barrage of punches. White-hot ki surged around his body, making him look fierce as hell. He was clearly giving this everything he had left. My eyes flicked rapidly from side to side, tracking each individual limb. Damn, the way he fought was efficient and actually kind of confusing¡ªeach of his fists attacking in a perfectly synchronized rhythm. I had to admit, this technique was impressive as fuck, even if his power wasn''t nearly enough to threaten me. "Not bad, Tien!" I called out, genuinely impressed. "This six-arm thing is a pretty neat trick!" He growled in response, sweat dripping down his forehead as he intensified his assault. ¡°I¡¯m not finished yet!¡± We traded blows furiously, my casual amusement slipping just a bit as I tried to keep pace. To my surprise, he actually managed to land a few punches. I felt his fists connect¡ªa hit on my shoulder, another grazing my cheek¡ªbut honestly, they felt more like gentle taps than actual strikes. Still, the fact he landed anything at all made me respect him a bit more. "You know," I said conversationally, ducking underneath three of his punches in rapid succession, "You might actually stand a chance against most opponents. It¡¯s just your bad luck you ran into me." He grit his teeth, frustration clear in his eyes. "I¡¯m not backing down. Not when the universe¡¯s fate is on the line!" Fair enough. I respected that stubborn determination. But playtime was over. Time to get serious¡ªor at least, a little bit more serious. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s step it up a notch, big guy.¡± I winked at him. Pushing just a tiny fraction more energy into my movements, I instantly became faster and stronger. Suddenly, Tien''s coordinated strikes seemed slower, his attacks becoming easy to predict. My punches slipped past his guard again and again, each blow carefully placed to avoid serious damage. I didn¡¯t want to cripple the poor guy, after all. His frustration grew visibly with each passing second, his expression turning desperate as he realized just how wide the gap was between us. "Impossible," he grunted, eyes wide in disbelief. "How are you doing this? What kind of training have you done?" I flashed a playful grin. "Oh, just your standard stuff. Nothing too special." [You have done exactly zero physical training...Unless we¡¯re counting all that sex you have.] ¡®Well he doesn''t know that!¡¯ Tien growled again, forcing himself forward, refusing to give up despite the obvious disadvantage. I admired his spirit¡ªeven as I easily dodged around his six flying fists. Finally, after allowing him a few more punches just for the sake of his pride, I ducked beneath his arms, pivoted behind him, and delivered a firm but gentle chop right at the back of his neck. Tien staggered forward, choking out a gasp as his legs buckled beneath him. He crashed to his knees, breathing heavily, sweat dripping down his muscular frame. Slowly, he turned his head and glared up at me, frustration and resignation mixing in his three eyes. "You win..." he muttered bitterly. "Damn it." I let out a sigh, reaching down and patting his shoulder reassuringly. "Don¡¯t beat yourself up too much. Seriously, you¡¯re one tough bastard for a human. It was a decent fight." He nodded grudgingly, the tension easing out of his shoulders just a bit. "You''d better be able to win the tournament after this, whoever you are. Because I¡¯m holding you responsible for the universe¡¯s survival now." I laughed gently, standing up straight and stretching out my arms. "Don¡¯t worry. Saving universes is kinda my whole deal. I''ll handle this. Promise." Just as I started to relax, my senses caught a sudden surge of powerful energy materializing right behind me. My muscles instantly tensed. Someone else had arrived¡ªand they were on a completely different level than Tien. I turned slowly, pulse quickening again as I faced the newcomer. "Oh, shit," I said, unable to stop a grin from spreading across my face as my eyes met the surprised gaze of the man who''d just appeared out of nowhere. "Hey there, Goku!¡± Goku eyed me curiously, tilting his head slightly as his dark eyes studied my face. He obviously had no idea who I was. After a moment, he turned toward Tien, concern visible on his face. "You alright, Tien?" he asked, walking over and offering him a hand. "You look pretty beat up." Tien sighed heavily, accepting Goku¡¯s help and standing slowly. He dusted debris off his torn gi and shook his head, looking frustrated. "I''m fine, Goku. Just pissed that I lost." Goku blinked, clearly confused. "Lost? To her?" He glanced back at me, raising an eyebrow. "No offense, but who are you, exactly? And why were you two fighting anyway?" I felt a massive grin spread across my face. Holy shit, I was really talking to Goku. I quickly cleared my throat, struggling not to completely geek out. ¡°Oh, I''m Layla of the Fallen,¡± I said, practically beaming. "And I was fighting Tien for his spot in the Tournament of Power!" "Layla, huh? Nice to meet you." He paused, scratching his head in confusion. "But how did you know my name?" I laughed lightly, trying to play it cool. ¡°Are you kidding? I''m a huge fan of yours! Who doesn¡¯t know about the legendary Goku?¡± He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head again and looking genuinely embarrassed. ¡°Aw, seriously? Well, I do get recognized sometimes, especially around the city near Capsule Corp. Guess my old martial arts tournaments made me a little famous, huh...?¡± "Yeah, something like that," I agreed easily, deciding not to mention I was actually from another multiverse entirely. That''d probably just confuse him even more. Goku glanced back at Tien, frowning slightly again. ¡°Tien, are you really okay with giving up your spot? You trained really hard to get ready.¡± Tien grimaced, clearly unhappy, but he nodded firmly. "She beat me fair and square, Goku. It wasn¡¯t even close. I can''t honestly say I deserve a place more than she does¡ªnot when the whole universe is at stake." Goku considered that for a moment, then gave Tien an understanding smile. "Well, if you¡¯re sure about it. I trust your judgment. You did your best, and that¡¯s what counts." Tien returned a wry smile, nodding slowly. "Thanks, Goku. I appreciate that. Guess it just means I need to train even harder now." I smiled, giving Tien a respectful nod. "That¡¯s a great attitude to have, Tien. Remember, there are no limits you can''t surpass if you keep pushing yourself." [And an awesome System to make everything 1000x easier...] Tien chuckled softly and shook his head, turning away to head back toward his partially wrecked dojo. "Yeah. I''ll keep that in mind. Good luck, Layla¡ªyou''re gonna need it against those other fighters from different universes." "I appreciate it," I called after him as he stepped through the rubble-strewn hole in his dojo wall, already preparing to patch himself up. And then, just like that, I was alone with Goku. I practically vibrated with excitement, resisting the urge to jump up and down. Goku turned back toward me, giving me another friendly but curious stare. "So, Layla of the Fallen, huh? I''ve never sensed anyone with energy quite like yours before." "Yeah, I get that a lot," I said. "I''m just excited to help out in the tournament. Fighting alongside you guys is going to be amazing!" Goku laughed cheerfully. "Wow, you''re really pumped up about this, aren''t you?" "Are you kidding? This is gonna be awesome!" I admitted honestly. [Just don¡¯t forget about your mission while you¡¯re fangirling.] I definitely wouldn¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t sense another Gamer on the planet, which meant he was part of a team from another Universe. And the best part was he wouldn¡¯t be able to detect my System because it was currently weakened even when the tournament started. [No doubt he¡¯s gonna be very confused when he sees someone else in Tien¡¯s place though...] Goku blinked again. Then burst out laughing. "You''re funny, Layla. I like you already!" I smiled. Warmth spread through me at his easy acceptance. "So," he said, "How about we head back to Capsule Corp and let the others know we have a new teammate?" My heart sped up even more. Holy shit¡ªI was going to Capsule Corp, and I was gonna meet Bulma, Vegeta, Beerus, and Whis. "Lead the way," I said eagerly, struggling to keep my voice steady. "I can''t wait!" Goku reached out and lightly touched my shoulder, his fingers warm and calloused from training. "Alright, hold tight," he said cheerfully. "Instant Transmission can be a little disorienting if you''re not used to it." I was fine of course, far used to teleportation by now. We appeared instantly in a sleek, futuristic kitchen. The first thing that struck me was how bright and spacious everything looked. Polished metallic surfaces gleamed everywhere, and there was some kind of advanced-looking robot quietly cleaning dishes in the corner. This definitely had to be Capsule Corp. I¡¯d watched enough Dragon Ball episodes to recognize Bulma¡¯s tastes anywhere. Before I could properly admire the setup, my eyes caught movement from a table across the room. Holy shit. Sitting right there were Vegeta, Beerus, and Whis¡ªall staring at me and Goku with obvious curiosity. "Hey everyone, I''m back! And I brought our new teammate! This is Layla of the Fallen!" Goku introduced me! Vegeta was immediately on his feet, arms crossed and scowling at me suspiciously. "Who the hell is this, Kakarot? And what happened to the Cyclops?" I resisted the urge to squeal in excitement. Vegeta was even cooler up close, all surly and intense just like I''d hoped! Goku chuckled, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Well, funny story... she actually beat Tien in a fight, fair and square. Now she''s taking his spot in the tournament." Vegeta''s frown deepened. "What? That weakling lost to some unknown fighter right before the tournament?" He glanced me up and down, obviously skeptical. "And why have I never sensed your energy before? Who are you?" Before I could reply, I felt Beerus¡¯ piercing stare on me, narrowing his golden eyes. He studied me carefully, his tail flicking back and forth behind him. Next to him, Whis first looked surprised, then quickly composed himself, a small giggle escaping him as his eyes twinkled mischievously. "Well, now this is unexpected," Whis said lightly, a playful smile on his lips. "I wasn¡¯t aware that an unknown goddess, unaffiliated with the Kais or any divine hierarchy we know, had sprung into existence." Goku''s eyes widened in surprise, and even Vegeta looked genuinely startled. "A goddess?" Goku echoed, tilting his head to stare at me again. "Wait¡ªI thought gods weren¡¯t allowed to compete in the Tournament of Power?" Whis tapped a finger thoughtfully against his chin. "Ah, a common misunderstanding. Actually, only Kais and Gods of Destruction are specifically prohibited from participating. Other types of divine beings aren¡¯t explicitly banned. After all, Piccolo was once technically the Kami¡ªthe god¡ªof Earth, yet he''s still permitted to fight." Goku blinked, processing that slowly, while Vegeta continued to eye me warily. He obviously wasn¡¯t convinced yet. Beerus finally leaned forward, frowning deeply as he spoke in a low, serious voice. "Alright then, ¡®Layla of the Fallen¡¯ was it? Where exactly did you come from? If someone with your strength existed in this universe, I¡¯d have known about you by now." I hesitated briefly, realizing I needed a believable explanation. "Ah, that¡¯s because I''m... not exactly from around here," I admitted cautiously, trying to remain vague. "You could say I''m from somewhere pretty far away..." Goku scratched his head curiously, turning to Beerus. "Lord Beerus, can you actually sense Layla''s power level? How strong is she anyway?" Beerus didn¡¯t take his eyes off me, his expression still tense and thoughtful. After a brief pause, he reluctantly answered, "She''s strong¡ªvery strong. In fact, she¡¯s almost as powerful as I am." I instantly pouted at his evaluation. "Almost as strong?" [Don¡¯t get cocky, Host. Remember, this guy¡¯s got thousands of years of pure combat experience. He probably has forgotten more fighting moves than you¡¯ve ever learned.] ¡®Yeah, yeah, I know,¡¯ I thought back grudgingly. But secretly, I bet I could still take him... Beerus¡¯ eyes narrowed a bit more as if he¡¯d caught my brief burst of confidence. He raised a skeptical eyebrow, his voice edged with amusement and warning. "You disagree, do you? Care to test that theory sometime?" I swallowed, momentarily caught off guard by his sharp instincts. Quickly composing myself, I gave him a confident grin. "Maybe after we win the tournament. First things first." He stared silently at me for a long, tense moment, then gave a begrudging nod. "Fine. We''ll talk more about your mysterious origins later. For now, if you¡¯re as strong as you seem, you''ll be a useful addition to the team at the very least..." Vegeta narrowed his eyes, still glaring suspiciously at me. "Kakarot, is this the mysterious tenth fighter you haven¡¯t bothered to tell us about yet?" Goku shook his head, flashing Vegeta a sly grin. "Nope. Layla¡¯s just here to replace Tien. Don''t worry, I''ve still got someone else in mind for our tenth member. But I¡¯m gonna need Lord Beerus and Whis to help me convince him." I immediately knew who he meant¡ªFrieza, of course. It was obvious, especially considering the timeline. And judging by the amused smirk on Whis¡¯ face, I guessed he had a good idea too. The blue angel giggled quietly, clearly entertained by Goku¡¯s little secret. Vegeta rolled his eyes impatiently and growled at Goku. "Well then hurry the hell up, Kakarot. We¡¯ve only got a few hours left before the damn tournament starts. You''d better not screw this up." Goku chuckled easily, giving a carefree shrug. "Relax, Vegeta! Everything will be fine. Trust me!" "Tch," Vegeta scoffed, clearly not convinced. Without another word, he sat back down heavily at the kitchen table. Ignoring everyone, he resumed eating from a massive spread of food in front of him, shoving dish after dish into his mouth like some grumpy eating machine. I felt a small pang of disappointment. I''d hoped to chat more with Vegeta¡ªbut it was obvious he wasn¡¯t in the mood for small talk right now. Still, I had to admit, seeing him in his natural grouchy element was pretty entertaining. Just then, Goku turned cheerfully toward Beerus and Whis. "Alright, you guys ready to go? We need to hurry." Beerus sighed heavily, looking thoroughly unenthusiastic about whatever Goku had planned. "Fine, let¡¯s get this over with. But this had better be worth my time, Saiyan." Whis giggled again, clearly amused. "Oh, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find it quite interesting, Lord Beerus." With a quick nod to me, Goku placed a hand on Whis'' shoulder, and in a blink, the three of them vanished from the kitchen, leaving me alone with Vegeta. I stood there awkwardly for a second, glancing around the futuristic kitchen. Vegeta continued to pointedly ignore me, stuffing his face at impressive speeds. "So... um..." I began hesitantly, breaking the awkward silence. "Mind if I look around Capsule Corp for a bit?" Vegeta glanced up briefly, chewing aggressively. He swallowed, then gave a dismissive snort. "Do whatever you want, just don''t break anything or cause trouble. I''ve got better things to do than babysit." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his grumpy attitude. "Sure, thanks," I replied cheerfully instead, deciding not to antagonize him any further. Vegeta grunted in reply and returned to eating. Shrugging to myself, I wandered off, letting my senses expand across the large building. If I was gonna explore Capsule Corp, there was one person I absolutely had to meet first: Bulma Briefs herself! I followed what I figured was Bulma¡¯s energy signature outside Capsule Corp, stepping into the grassy front yard. My attention immediately locked onto Bulma herself¡ªcurrently bent over and absorbed in tinkering with some complicated-looking machine. I paused, blinking in surprise. Damn. Bulma definitely had one of the nicest asses I''d ever seen¡ªand she was easily over forty. Dragon Ball¡¯s best girl indeed. Whatever workout routine she did, it was clearly paying off big-time. I momentarily lost track of my original intentions and just stared appreciatively. After a few seconds, Bulma cleared her throat loudly, not even turning around. ¡°You planning on staring at my ass all day, or did you actually want to talk to me?¡± I felt my cheeks warm a bit in embarrassment. ¡°Ah¡ªsorry about that,¡± I chuckled, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. ¡°Couldn¡¯t help it. You''ve got a really nice¡ªuh¡ªfigure.¡± Bulma finally turned around to face me, amusement twinkling in her bright blue eyes as she flashed me a playful smirk. "Flattery will get you everywhere, honey," she teased lightly. She glanced over me curiously, placing a wrench down onto a nearby workbench. ¡°Though I haven¡¯t seen you around here before. You a friend of Vegeta or Goku?¡± I took a breath, steadying my excitement as I offered her a bright smile. ¡°I¡¯m Layla of the Fallen,¡± I introduced myself enthusiastically. ¡°And I guess you could say I''m the newest member of Universe Seven¡¯s team for the Tournament of Power.¡± Bulma¡¯s perfectly shaped eyebrows shot upward at that revelation, and she immediately gave me another thorough once-over, skepticism clear in her gaze. Her eyes lingered pointedly on my chest as she folded her arms thoughtfully. ¡°Hmmm. Really? You honestly don¡¯t look much like a fighter to me. Actually, you seem pretty soft,¡± she commented bluntly, smirking slightly as her eyes stayed locked onto my cleavage. I laughed lightly, not the least bit offended. Bulma was exactly as direct as I¡¯d hoped. ¡°Looks can be deceiving,¡± I replied playfully, tossing her a casual wink. ¡°Trust me, I can handle myself just fine.¡± Bulma chuckled softly at that, seemingly satisfied with my confidence. ¡°Fair enough, Layla. Well, it''s nice to meet you either way. Any particular reason you came looking for me, or were you just here to enjoy the view?¡± She gestured dramatically at her body, clearly joking. I snorted a bit, then stepped closer and peered at the complex-looking machinery she¡¯d been working on moments before. ¡°Actually, I was just curious what you were up to. It looked pretty interesting.¡± She glanced casually over her shoulder at the half-disassembled contraption, shrugging as though it was no big deal. ¡°Oh, nothing much. Just trying to create a smaller, more portable version of the time machine. You know, so I can visit my alternate-future son occasionally. Regular mom stuff.¡± I nearly choked at her casual admission. Right. Bulma fucking Briefs, casually reinventing time travel in her backyard workshop. No big deal. She glanced at me curiously again, tilting her head. ¡°Anyway, was there anything specific you needed from me, Layla?¡± I shrugged slightly, suddenly feeling just a little shy. ¡°Honestly, I mostly just wanted to meet you. Like I said, I¡¯m kind of a huge fan.¡± I paused, then added with a hopeful grin, ¡°And maybe I was also a little curious about Capsule technology.¡± We had Pym tech in my world, but Capsule Corp tech was way cooler in my opinion. Bulma smiled knowingly, wagging her finger at me. ¡°Flattery again, huh? Well, meeting fans is always fun, but Capsule Corp¡¯s tech is a secret. Sorry, sweetie¡ªI¡¯m not about to spill all my patented secrets to someone I just met.¡± I raised an eyebrow, smirking playfully as an idea popped into my head. ¡°Oh? Not even if I could offer you eternal youth and beauty?¡± I batted my eyelashes at her dramatically, keeping my expression innocent. Bulma froze instantly, eyes widening in shock and intrigue. For a long second, she just stared at me, clearly tempted. Finally, she shook her head and gave me a shameless, eager grin. ¡°If you can genuinely do that, I will literally hand over every corporate secret I know¡ªpatents, blueprints, whatever the hell you want!¡± she declared shamelessly! ¡°Hey guys, what are you talking about?¡± Bulma and I both turned at the same time to see Gohan walking toward us. He looked just a little nerdier than I was expecting, especially with the oversized glasses and baggy dad-clothes he wore. But I could still tell immediately that underneath the dorky exterior, he was built like a tank. He might¡¯ve dressed like a total suburban dad now, but clearly all those years of Saiyan training hadn¡¯t been forgotten. ¡°Oh, hey Gohan,¡± Bulma greeted him easily. ¡°Just chatting with Layla here. She¡¯s apparently your newest teammate.¡± ¡°Hi!¡± I said quickly, offering him a bright grin. ¡°I¡¯m Layla of the Fallen. It¡¯s awesome to finally meet you, Gohan.¡± He smiled warmly back, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. ¡°Nice to meet you too, Layla.¡± He gave me a quick, curious look, probably wondering who the hell I was. ¡°So, you¡¯re joining us in the Tournament of Power, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, took Tien¡¯s spot,¡± I confirmed cheerfully. Then, unable to help myself, I blurted out, ¡°So, quick question¡ªwhy exactly are you wearing glasses? Seems a little weird for someone like you.¡± He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. ¡°Oh, that... uh, I¡¯m actually near-sighted now. Too many late nights studying, I guess.¡± I blinked at him, genuinely surprised. The Saiyans could fight gods and blow up planets, but apparently they weren¡¯t immune to crappy eyesight. Who knew? ¡°Seriously? Well, we can¡¯t have that. Glasses are definitely gonna be a liability during the tournament,¡± I said decisively. ¡°Want me to fix your vision? It¡¯ll only take a second.¡± Bulma¡¯s eyes widened in shock as she stared at me, mouth hanging open. ¡°Wait, hold on¡ªyou can actually do that? I thought you were just bullshitting about the whole eternal youth thing to mess with me!¡± I flashed Bulma a confident grin. ¡°Nope. I wasn¡¯t joking at all. Healing stuff like bad eyesight is nothing to me. And yes¡ªI really can make someone young and beautiful forever if I want to.¡± Bulma gasped, her eyes practically sparkling with greed and excitement. ¡°Holy crap¡ªnot even the Dragon Balls can actually do that! They can restore youth temporarily, sure, but permanent eternal youth? No way.¡± I winked playfully at her. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just better than the dragon.¡± Before either of them could respond, I reached out, gently but firmly placing my palm just above Gohan¡¯s eyes without waiting for his permission. He flinched slightly in surprise, but I ignored it, sending a quick pulse of healing magic straight into his optic nerves. ¡°Hey¡ªwhat are you doing?¡± Gohan stammered, startled. ¡°Just hold still for a second,¡± I told him calmly, smiling reassuringly. ¡°Trust me, you¡¯ll like this.¡± He hesitated, staying frozen in place for a moment longer. Then, slowly, he pulled off his glasses. His eyes immediately widened in shock and amazement. ¡°Oh, wow...!¡± Gohan blinked repeatedly, glancing around in disbelief. ¡°Everything¡ªit¡¯s crystal clear! I haven¡¯t seen this clearly since I was a kid!¡± Bulma watched the scene unfold with an almost awed expression. ¡°Well, shit. You really weren¡¯t kidding, Layla. You¡¯ve got some serious abilities.¡± ¡°Told you,¡± I said smugly. Bulma chuckled, clearly both intrigued and impressed. ¡°Alright, you officially have my undivided attention. We are definitely gonna talk more about this after you guys come back from the tournament.¡± Gohan laughed lightly, still glancing around in awe at the world around him. ¡°Thanks, Layla. That¡¯s incredible.¡± ¡°No worries,¡± I said cheerfully, giving him a friendly pat on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m just happy to help. After all, we need you at your best for this tournament.¡± ¡°The others are starting to arrive if you want to meet them too?¡± Gohan offered. I grinned. ¡°Absolutely!¡± XXX chapter 334 chapter 334 Chapter 334: ¨C Layla ¨C Gohan led me across the Capsule Corp compound, and I could feel my excitement building with every step. I hadn¡¯t seen the rest of the team yet, but I could sense them nearby¡ªPowerful energy signatures all clustered together! I was so ready! We turned a corner and stepped into the large training courtyard out back. My eyes immediately scanned the group waiting there. Android 18 was the first one I spotted¡ªleaning against a railing with her arms crossed, looking effortlessly cool and drop-dead gorgeous. The tight black top and blue jeans? Yeah, she was sexy as hell, no question. Her vibe screamed ¡°don¡¯t fuck with me,¡± and I respected the hell out of it. Next to her stood Android 17, who looked... well, kind of emo if I was being honest. The long hair, black shirt, the brooding posture¡ªit all added up. He gave me a glance but didn¡¯t say anything. Krillin stood nearby with his arms crossed, his eyes narrowed as he watched me. He was already giving off weirdly protective vibes, and I couldn¡¯t tell if it was a ¡°who the hell are you¡± look or a ¡°why is my wife staring at your chest¡± look. Possibly both. We''d get back to that second one later... Then there was Piccolo, standing off to the side, arms also crossed¨Cwhat was it with this team and folding their arms¨Cand eyes locked on me like I was some kind of puzzle he didn¡¯t quite trust. His whole posture screamed paranoia. And finally, Master Roshi. He had a nosebleed... ¡°Wowzers!¡± Roshi practically shouted, his eyes bugging out as they trailed down my body like an old-school cartoon. ¡°That¡¯s a nice pair of tits you got there!¡± Gohan froze beside me. The entire group collectively groaned or sighed in unison. 18 rolled her eyes and muttered something that sounded like ¡°gross.¡± Piccolo just muttered, ¡°Unbelievable.¡± Krillin facepalmed. Gohan looked over at me with a slightly panicked expression, clearly expecting me to be pissed off. But honestly? I just giggled. Everyone turned to look at me like I¡¯d lost my damn mind. What...? I would¡¯ve been seriously disappointed if Master Roshi didn¡¯t say something to me of all people. ¡°Thanks,¡± I added, reaching up and giving my chest a little proud fondling. ¡°I like them a lot too!¡± Roshi immediately perked up. ¡°A woman of culture!? I thought the myths had been false all these centuries!¡± Android 18 groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. ¡°Oh my god. There¡¯s a female version of him.¡± ¡°Hey,¡± I said, smirking. ¡°There are worse things to be than a pervert...¡± With that, I turned to address the group more formally. ¡°Anyway, nice to meet all of you. I¡¯m Layla of the Fallen. I¡¯ll be joining you guys for the Tournament of Power. I¡¯m replacing Tien.¡± That didn¡¯t sit well with Krillin. He took a step forward, frowning. ¡°Why? Tien¡¯s a great teammate. Why replace him?¡± Gohan rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. ¡°Layla challenged him. It was a fair fight... and she won.¡± Krillin¡¯s eyes narrowed. He didn¡¯t say anything else, but his arms crossed even tighter across his chest. I looked at him, then glanced toward Android 18, hoping maybe she could clue me in on what his issue was. But nope¡ªshe was just staring at me too. And not in a friendly way. Her gaze dropped to my hips, then my chest, and her jaw tightened. I sighed. Loudly. Women... Like, wasn¡¯t she already married happily with a kid? What was she getting all jealous for.... ¡°Well,¡± I said, clapping my hands together, ¡°as fun as the tension is, I¡¯m really looking forward to fighting beside all of you. Promise I¡¯m not here to steal anyone¡¯s spotlight. Just wanna help us win.¡± Nobody responded immediately. Then 17, still leaning silently against a tree, finally said, ¡°Let¡¯s hope you¡¯re not all talk...¡± I smirked. ¡°Guess we¡¯ll find out soon enough.¡± ...I sensed Goku pop back into the compound with Whis and Beerus. Those three felt like miniature suns to my senses¡ªdense, radiant power wrapped in very different personalities. Back in my own multiverse, sensing beings on that level was rare. And they weren¡¯t alone. There was a fourth energy signature walking with them... and that one definitely wasn¡¯t human. Alien was a better word. Cold, sharp, icy¡ªit reminded me of knives dipped in liquid nitrogen. Just brushing against it sent a flicker of caution up my spine. The others around me felt it too. Krillin¡¯s jaw tensed. Android 18 narrowed her eyes. Even 17 pushed off the tree he was leaning on. Piccolo¡¯s frown deepened, and Roshi stopped mid-leer to mutter, ¡°Oh, hell no.¡± I turned toward the approaching figures just as Goku beamed and called out, ¡°Hey everyone! I¡¯m back¡ªand I brought our final teammate!¡± There he was. Frieza. Walking like he owned the place, his long tail swaying behind him and that smug little grin already tugging at his lips. He hadn¡¯t even said a word yet, and I could already tell he was the type to cause problems on purpose. The tension in the air skyrocketed instantly. ¡°You brought him?¡± Krillin snapped, glaring at Goku. ¡°Are you out of your mind?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t exactly have many options!¡± Goku replied, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. ¡°He¡¯s really strong¡ªand we need ten people.¡± ¡°Frieza is a genocidal maniac,¡± Piccolo growled. ¡°And that¡¯s on a good day.¡± Frieza¡¯s grin widened. ¡°Oh, please. Let¡¯s not dredge up ancient history. I¡¯ve already been promised a wish from the Super Dragon Balls if we win. And I assure you all...¡± He gave them the most insincere look of mock innocence I¡¯d ever seen. ¡°I¡¯m not going to turn on the team. Probably.¡± Gohan facepalmed. Android 18 looked like she wanted to kick him through a wall. Even Roshi looked deeply uncomfortable¡ªand that man slept in discomfort. I was the only one who didn¡¯t seem bothered. I just gave Frieza a little wave from across the courtyard. His red eyes locked onto me for the first time. He tilted his head slightly, clearly confused by my lack of hostility. ¡°And who exactly are you?¡± he asked, voice smooth and cool. ¡°Layla of the Fallen,¡± I said simply. ¡°I¡¯m the one who beat up your three-eyed buddy and took his place.¡± Frieza blinked once. ¡°Huh...?¡± Then, surprisingly, he moved on. Maybe he just didn¡¯t know what to do with someone who wasn¡¯t immediately hostile. ¡°Alright!¡± Goku clapped his hands together. ¡°Now that we¡¯re all here, why don¡¯t we talk about some basic strategy?¡± ¡°Fuck no,¡± Vegeta huffed from across the yard. He hadn¡¯t even stood up from his spot on a training bench. ¡°I¡¯m not sitting through some half-assed plan. I already told you¡ªstay out of my way, and I¡¯ll win the whole thing for us.¡± Goku visibly deflated. ¡°Come on, Vegeta...¡± Piccolo crossed his arms¡ªagain. ¡°I¡¯ll be doing my own thing as well. I know how to handle myself.¡± ¡°I plan to crush the other universes,¡± Frieza added, voice dripping with ego. ¡°Strategizing implies they¡¯re on my level. They aren¡¯t.¡± Android 18 rolled her eyes. ¡°This is going to go great.¡± ¡°It already is great!¡± Roshi declared while still ogling me. Krillin muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ¡°We¡¯re all gonna die.¡± I stood there watching the dynamic unfold, resisting the urge to laugh. Wow. The team chemistry was incredible. "Truly," I said dryly, "we are one of the teams of all time..." No one even looked at me. ¨C Beerus ¨C Beerus didn¡¯t like it. That Layla woman had shown up out of nowhere¡ªliterally hours before the Tournament of Power¡ªand immediately beat the crap out of one of his universe¡¯s champions. Three-eyed bald guy. Ten, or Tim, or something with a ¡°T.¡± He could never remember the names of the weaker fighters. Still, he was technically one of their ten. And now she¡¯d just claimed his spot like it was a damn open casting call? Beerus sat on one of Capsule Corp¡¯s patio chairs with a bowl of ice cream in his lap, tail flicking agitatedly. He didn¡¯t even care that Whis had gotten him the really expensive kind, with imported fruit toppings and ultra-whipped cream. It just didn¡¯t sit right. She felt... off. Whis stood beside him, calm as always, sipping a drink through a neon blue straw like he didn¡¯t have a care in the world. ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± Beerus grumbled, jabbing his spoon halfheartedly into the dessert. ¡°That Layla woman. She feels wrong.¡± Whis raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly. ¡°Wrong? Oh come now, Lord Beerus. I¡¯d say she¡¯s quite fascinating.¡± ¡°Fascinating?!¡± Beerus snapped, jerking around to face his attendant. ¡°She came out of nowhere and flattened one of our fighters. You call that fascinating? Her energy feels... strange. Like a mortal trying to pretend they¡¯re a god.¡± Whis chuckled behind his glass. ¡°That would be because she is technically also an angel.¡± Beerus choked. Not on his words¡ªon his damn ice cream! He coughed violently, clutching the bowl as a chunk of frozen mango slid down the wrong pipe. ¡°What?¡± he gasped between sputters. ¡°What the fuck did you just say? ¡± Whis nodded, as if this were all perfectly normal. ¡°A goddess and an angel.¡± Beerus stared at him, stunned. ¡°There¡¯s no way that¡¯s allowed. No way. Angels can¡¯t compete in the tournament. We can¡¯t compete in the tournament! If the Grand Priest finds out, we¡¯re screwed! Our whole universe is screwed!¡± ¡°Calm down, Lord Beerus,¡± Whis said pleasantly, sipping again. ¡°I¡¯ve already spoken to my father about it.¡± Beerus paled. His tail froze mid-sway. His pupils narrowed. ¡°You what?¡± he whispered. Whis blinked innocently. ¡°I messaged the Grand Priest a moment ago. I figured it was best to get ahead of any misunderstandings.¡± Beerus stared at him, completely horrified. ¡°You contacted your father without telling me?¡± ¡°He responded within seconds,¡± Whis continued breezily. ¡°Said he already knew about Layla¡¯s presence. Apparently Lord Zeno and the other Zeno both find her very interesting. They already knew about her at the very least...¡± Beerus''s mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again. ¡°They allowed her to join?¡± he asked incredulously. ¡°They approved of a literal angel being on our team?¡± Whis smiled. ¡°They even said it would ¡®make things more fun.¡¯¡± Beerus sat back, mind spinning. A goddess. An angel. On his team. He hadn¡¯t even gotten to vet her. What if she had an agenda? What if she snapped halfway through the tournament and turned on them? What if she got them erased for doing something forbidden? But then again... He looked out across the courtyard, catching a glimpse of Layla playfully bantering with Master Roshi and making Android 18 mutter obscenities under her breath. She didn¡¯t feel like the stuck-up divine types Beerus usually had to deal with. Slowly, a grin tugged at the corner of Beerus¡¯s mouth. He leaned back in his chair and scooped another spoonful of ice cream. ¡°Well, well... looks like we¡¯ve got an ace in the deck after all.¡± He started cackling. ¡°Let the other universes bring their best. We¡¯ve got a fucking angel on our side. We¡¯re gonna win this thing for sure now.¡± Whis chuckled beside him, watching his God of Destruction bask in the newfound smugness. ¡°I do admire your optimism,¡± Whis said. ¨C Layla ¨C Finally, it was time! After all the build-up¡ªafter beating up Tien, healing Gohan¡¯s eyes, and awkwardly NOT bonding with a group of emotionally stunted Z¨Cfighters. The Tournament of Power was actually about to begin. We were all gathered in Capsule Corp¡¯s courtyard. Everyone had finished suiting up, stretching, posturing, or in Roshi¡¯s case, ogling. Now it was down to the final goodbyes. I watched from a few feet away as the family members showed up. It was kind of sweet, honestly. Chi-Chi immediately made a beeline for Goku and started yelling at him at full volume. ¡°You better not screw this up, Goku! You hear me? This is your fault in the first place! You better win dammit!¡± She jabbed a finger into his chest over and over, while Goten tried¨Cand failed¨Cto get her to calm down. Goku just laughed sheepishly like this happened every time he left the house. Off to the side, Bulma was with Vegeta¡ªand surprisingly, she wasn¡¯t giving him a hard time. In fact, she was being... soft. She was fussing over the collar of his armor like she was trying to adjust it, even though it didn¡¯t need adjusting. Vegeta kept grumbling under his breath and refusing to meet her eyes, but he wasn¡¯t pulling away either. Adorable tsundere Saiyan behavior. Bulma finally turned to me and gave me a sharp, knowing smile. ¡°Good luck, Layla. And don¡¯t think I¡¯ve forgotten our little conversation. We¡¯ll definitely be talking more after this!¡± I grinned at her. ¡°Looking forward to it, Bulma.¡± Whis clapped his hands together lightly, drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°If you would all please gather in the center. It¡¯s time.¡± The group slowly assembled in a loose circle, everyone stepping in without much complaint. Well, except Vegeta, who took his sweet time finishing whatever snack he¡¯d grabbed on the way out of the kitchen. As Whis raised his staff, a shimmering dome of translucent energy formed around us. It felt like standing inside a soap bubble, only this one crackled with divine power. Goku stepped in beside me and shot me an excited look, like a kid getting on a roller coaster. ¡°Here we go!¡± The dome flashed¡ªand just like that, we were gone. ... We reappeared in something. Some kind of artificial void that defied normal spatial logic. The Grand Arena was suspended in an endless cosmic black lit by twisting galaxies, floating crystalline debris, and raw light. It was gorgeous¡ªand weirdly trippy. My senses immediately went haywire. My body adjusted, but my mind was still trying to map this space in a way that made sense. It didn¡¯t help that there were so many insane energy signatures all around us. I felt the other universes'' teams standing on floating platforms nearby. I also felt their gods. Each and every one of them radiated power like dying stars. But none of that was what caught my full attention. No. That honor went to the three figures hovering above everyone. My eyes drifted past the gods of destruction, past the angels, and locked onto the central floating throne. There they were. The Grand Priest. And behind him? The two Zen-Ohs. I¡¯d seen pictures, clips, fan art. I knew what they looked like. But feeling them in person? That was something else. They didn¡¯t just radiate power¡ªthey were power. Cosmic, elemental, reality-splitting force stuffed into two tiny, adorable alien children. And then they looked at me. Both of them. Their eyes locked onto mine with eerie synchronicity, and a second later, their voices echoed in my head¡ªtwo overlapping, high-pitched tones like children whispering from inside a dream. ¡°Who are you? Why are you here? Are you here to play?¡± ¡°Why are you in our multiverse?¡± I stiffened slightly but kept my posture casual. I didn¡¯t respond out loud. Just reached out with my mind. ¡®I¡¯m here to play, yeah... but also here to deal with an intruder. He plans to use the Super Dragon Balls to steal Zen-Oh¡¯s¨Cer¨Cyour power...¡¯ There was a long pause. A very long pause. Then the two tiny gods tilted their heads in perfect unison. ¡°Oh... we didn¡¯t think someone would try that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s bad!¡± the other added cheerfully. ¡°Thank you! You¡¯re gonna help us, so we should be friends after you ascend to be like us!¡± I blinked. Still, I gave a polite mental nod. ¡°Sure... friends. Sounds great.¡± To be honest, Zen-Oh¡¯s casual, whimsical nature freaked me out a bit. The way they viewed mortals¡¯ lives as toys on a table? Not my vibe. When I eventually ascended to that level¡ªand I would¡ªI¡¯d be a much more hands-off kind of goddess. Chill. Immortal. Mostly spending time with my family and future harem. Let the mortals do their own thing without freaking them out too much... But for now? I had a mission. Somewhere on one of those platforms was another Gamer. And they were here to steal power that didn¡¯t belong to them. I was going to kill them. Well... that was the plan. ¡°No killing in the tournament!¡± both Zen-Ohs said suddenly in my mind. ¡°That breaks the rules. You¡¯ll be disqualified!¡± ...Of course it did. I sighed internally. ¡®Fine. I¡¯ll deal with him after!¡¯ ¡°Yay!¡± they both cheered, still telepathically. I really hoped he/they didn¡¯t plan on talking to me the entire tournament... XXX Thanks for reading!!! You can check out more of my stories on my profile. Wanna read more of my stuff ahead of regular release? You can Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 335-339 The Blood Queen 52 The Fox Hole 96 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 16 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 15 The Fox Hole 95 The Blood Queen 51 Thunder and Black Wings 26 The Fox Hole 94 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 14 The Blood Queen 50 The Fox Hole 93 The blood Queen 49 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 13 The fox hole 92 Thunder and Black Wings 25 chapter 335 chapter 335 Chapter 335: ¨C Layla ¨C The air around me practically vibrated with tension as our group was suddenly teleported onto the arena platform. The transition was instant, a blink-and-you¡¯ll-miss-it flash of surreal light, and then we were there, standing in a floating, gravity-defying arena suspended amidst swirling galaxies, strange multicolored stars, and distant cosmic debris. It was magnificent¡ªand also slightly dizzying. Even with my eyes. I still thought Lady Death¡¯s realm was better though. [That¡¯s just because every time you visit there, you get sex...] ¡®You know what? Fair...¡¯ All around us, the competing teams appeared simultaneously on their own separate sections of the sprawling, floating stage. Some teams looked fierce, immediately tensed for combat. Others appeared uncertain, exchanging nervous glances. My eyes scanned them quickly before settling back onto my own teammates. Gohan stood to my right, visibly tense, swallowing nervously and clenching his fists at his sides. His face was set in determination, but I could sense the anxiety pulsing beneath his bravado. Krillin was no better¡ªhis gaze darted rapidly from opponent to opponent, already trying to calculate the safest way to avoid getting immediately crushed. And Roshi... Master Roshi just stood there, adjusting his sunglasses and muttering quietly about hoping there''d be ¡°female fighters¡± from other universes... Not that I blamed them for their anxieties. If I hadn¡¯t already ascended into goddess-tier, gamer-powered bullshit levels of strength, I¡¯d probably be nervous too. I mean, shit, this was the Tournament of Power! The stakes couldn¡¯t be higher¡ªuniversal survival. But damn if this wasn¡¯t exciting as hell. My heartbeat quickened just a bit as anticipation buzzed through me. I loved every second of this. My gaze flicked to my left. Android 17 and Android 18 stood close together, cool and composed, expressions blankly neutral. If they felt anything at all about facing down literal universal destruction, it didn¡¯t show. Piccolo was next to them, equally stoic and unreadable, arms crossed, green face impassive and calm. The guy was a rock, even now. Respect. Goku bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, fists clenched, smiling like he was about to open the best damn birthday present of his life. Vegeta stood stiffly, but his eyes gleamed fiercely with the hunger for battle. And Frieza... he wore a smirk of cold, sinister delight, scarlet eyes locked onto our opponents like a predator deciding which prey looked most delicious. I took a slow breath, stretching my arms out lightly as the Grand Priest¡¯s clear, melodic voice suddenly echoed from above, filling the entire cosmic void. ¡°Fighters, please listen closely as I explain the rules.¡± All eyes rose toward the floating central platform where the tiny figure of the Grand Priest hovered serenely, hands clasped behind his back. ¡°There shall be no killing,¡± he began. ¡°No intentional flight either¡ªthough jumping and propelling yourselves using your strength or energy is permitted. If you fall or are knocked off the fighting stage, you are eliminated. If your entire team is eliminated, your universe will be erased immediately.¡± Krillin audibly gulped next to me. The Grand Priest continued, expression perfectly neutral. ¡°The last team standing will earn the privilege of using the Super Dragon Balls to have any one wish granted. Fighters, you have exactly forty-eight minutes until the tournament concludes. Good luck to you all.¡± Forty-eight minutes... I smiled to myself and snapped my fingers, sending a tiny ripple of creation energy through my outfit. My casual clothing instantly transformed into a sleek chinese inspired female martial arts uniform. All black, silk-like fabric perfectly hugging my curves, contrasting elegantly against my pale skin and long black hair. It felt comfortable, was practical, but most importantly¡ªit looked good! If I was going into one of my all-time favorite tournaments, I was gonna look damn fine doing it. Next to me, Krillin¡¯s eyes nearly popped out of his head. ¡°Whoa,¡± he breathed, blushing hard as his eyes noticed how my new outfit made my chest pop. ¡°Uh, n-nice outfit, Layla...¡± Android 18 immediately elbowed him in the ribs, scowling sharply. ¡°Eyes front, Krillin,¡± she muttered icily. The Grand Priest¡¯s voice rang out again. ¡°Now, let the Tournament of Power begin!¡± Instantly, chaos erupted! Goku and Vegeta raced off in two separate directions, plunging eagerly into the first available fights. Frieza laughed coldly, shouting arrogantly as he dashed past with tail whipping behind him. ¡°Just stay out of my way!¡± That left me with the rest of the team. I felt their gazes turning toward me questioningly. Finally, Piccolo narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked bluntly, ¡°So? What exactly is your plan here, Layla?¡± I met his gaze casually, smiling softly. ¡°Honestly?¡± I shrugged lightly. ¡°I¡¯m in this tournament because there¡¯s someone I have to kill.¡± Their eyes widened in unison. Gohan looked horrified. Krillin¡¯s jaw dropped. Even 17 and 18 stared at me as if I¡¯d grown another head. Piccolo¡¯s eyes narrowed further, clearly mistrustful of my intentions. I quickly raised my hand, clarifying. ¡°Not you guys! Relax.¡± I waved dismissively. ¡°Since killing isn¡¯t allowed here, I¡¯ll just knock this asshole out, win the tournament, and finish him off afterwards.¡± I tilted my head thoughtfully, smiling encouragingly at my stunned teammates. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I believe in you guys¡ªyou¡¯ll totally win this tournament once I handle that.¡± They stared silently at me, mouths still hanging slightly open, utterly stunned into silence. Clearly, my plan hadn¡¯t quite calmed their nerves. ¡°Oh, come on,¡± I laughed gently. ¡°We¡¯ve got this.¡± Not waiting for their reaction, I smoothly turned, flexing my legs briefly before leaping straight upward, landing gracefully atop one of the tallest rectangular pillars nearby. The view from here was excellent, giving me a clear vantage of the crzay battlefield unfolding below. I focused my divine senses. Something about this place was strange. The air was thick, saturated with exotic energies that played tricks on my senses. Normally, I¡¯d have pinpointed my target¡¯s energy instantly. Here, though? It felt scrambled, distorted. I scowled slightly, tapping my chin thoughtfully. They had to be doing this intentionally¡ªmessing with our senses to make this harder. Clever little bastards. ¡°¡°Thank you!¡±¡± Both Zen-Oh¡¯s laughed in my head... I sighed... I perched casually atop my vantage point, eyes scanning the swirling chaos unfolding across the tournament arena. Battles erupted in every direction, explosions of energy and light splintering through the void-like environment. Honestly, the spectacle was amazing¡ªbut right now I wasn''t here to just spectate. I was here to hunt. Where are you, you sneaky little bastard? My senses stretched outward carefully. I knew there was another Gamer hiding somewhere among these teams. And Zen-Oh was making it harder for me to find them on purpose... [Despite the fact that you¡¯re here to save him, too...] ¡°¡°Cheating is bad!¡±¡± Distracted again, I almost missed the spike of aggressive intent behind me. Almost, but not quite. My head tilted lazily to the side just as a bright yellow energy blast streaked past my ear. My long black hair fluttered as it whipped by. It zipped harmlessly by and slammed into a distant chunk of floating rubble, detonating loudly. I turned around slowly, curious, a single eyebrow arched in mild amusement. Standing on a nearby pillar, looking determined, was a Saiyan from Universe 6. Short, slender, messy spiked black hair... and, wow, was he tiny or what? Cute, in a slightly awkward teenage warrior kind of way. I squinted slightly, trying to recall his name. Vegetables... Vegetables... All Saiyans were named after them, what was his again? "Cabbage?" I muttered thoughtfully. Wait, no. That didn''t sound quite right. The young Saiyan stared at me blankly. He blinked, clearly confused. "Excuse me?" I waved my hand dismissively. "Nothing, nothing. Just trying to remember your name. It''s some vegetable, right?" He blinked again, still confused. "Uh... It¡¯s Cabba," he said hesitantly. "My name is Cabba..." I snapped my fingers. "That''s it! Cabba! Right, sorry about that. So, Cabba," I said, grinning at him curiously. "Mind explaining why you just threw a big ol'' ki blast at my head?" Cabba looked faintly embarrassed, shifting uncomfortably. He cleared his throat and suddenly straightened his posture, trying to appear formal and warrior-like. "Sorry for the rude introduction. I''m from Universe 6," he said respectfully, almost politely. "You''re from Universe 7, right? I''m here to challenge you to a fight!" I stared at him for a second, mouth quirking upward into a slight smile. Did this kid seriously just politely request a fight in a battle royale of cosmic stakes? My lips parted slightly, and I burst out laughing softly, shaking my head in amusement. "You''re adorable," I said, making him blush furiously. "Cabba, right? Look, I appreciate the politeness, but I''m not interested." His shoulders slumped slightly, confusion flickering across his earnest face. "You''re... not interested? But... this is a fighting tournament. Aren''t we supposed to battle!?" I sighed gently, feeling momentarily guilty. He reminded me of a puppy being told he couldn''t play fetch. I flashed him a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, we are, but... I''ve got bigger fish to fry. I''m hunting down someone really nasty. Seriously evil. If they win, everyone¡¯s screwed. You get it?" ¡°...Not really...?¡± Cabba shifted uncertainly. ¡°They¡¯ll use their wish for evil!¡± I explained again. ¡°Oh...¡± His eyes filled with conflicted emotions, brows drawing together thoughtfully. Finally, he exhaled softly, looking straight at me again. "Stopping someone like that sounds noble and important, but..." He took a deep breath, fists tightening at his sides. "I have to fight for my universe''s survival too! I''m really sorry, but I can''t just walk away. I have to do my best." Something inside him shifted then. I felt it¡ªa sudden, intense surge of power coiling within him, ready to erupt. My curiosity flared instantly, excitement dancing through my chest. Wait... was he about to¡ª? And then it happened! His eyes flashed teal, his black hair turned radiant gold, and a blazing golden aura exploded outward, wrapping him in brilliant light. For the first time in real life, I witnessed a Saiyan going Super Saiyan right in front of my eyes. "Oh, holy shit," I breathed, eyes widening in genuine awe. "That is so fucking cool!" Cabba looked surprised by my reaction but quickly focused, determination burning fiercely in his eyes. He crouched slightly, golden aura crackling like flames, before launching himself straight at me. He moved fast¡ªvery fast. Faster than most people could even perceive. But I wasn''t most people. He blurred into striking range, fists and feet flying toward me in rapid, disciplined sequences. Punches and kicks rained down furiously, each strike powerful enough to shatter mountains. But... they never connected. I moved fluidly, my body responding instinctively, stepping back, tilting sideways, and deflecting his blows easily with open palms and gentle nudges of my forearm. Cabba grunted in frustration, pressing his attack harder. I was using the martial arts knowledge I¡¯d gained from Tien earlier against Cabba. Basically I was just blatantly ripping off Tien¡¯s technique that my eyes had memorized... I¡¯d never actually faced a master super powered martial artist before him after all. "Wow, you''re pretty good," I teased lightly, smoothly evading another flurry of blows. "Seriously impressive speed, Cabba." He scowled, concentration deepening. "You''re blocking every single hit!" "Yeah, I know," I said with gentle amusement. "Look, you''re really impressive. But there''s just one problem." He hesitated mid-swing, uncertain. "Problem?" I smiled apologetically. "You''re leagues below me in power. Sorry, little bro. It''s not personal." Before he could blink, I stepped forward sharply, fist thrusting out in one precise, powerful strike directly to his stomach. He folded around my fist immediately, eyes wide and shocked as all the air expelled from his lungs in a strangled, wheezing gasp. His golden aura vanished instantly, hair fading back to black, as he dropped limply to one knee, desperately clutching at his midsection, struggling to breathe. Ah, shit¡ªI might have hit him a little too hard. Concern flickered through me as I quickly dropped beside him, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Easy there, kid," I murmured softly. I instinctively started reaching for my sacred gear''s healing magic¡ªbut remembered the rule against tools at the last second. Damn it. Well, I had my own divine powers as backup, at least... A gentle glow of warm, golden divine light radiated softly from my palm, washing gently over Cabba''s trembling frame. He inhaled sharply, breath slowly stabilizing as the pain and shock faded. He stared at me with a mixture of gratitude and bewilderment. "You... healed me?" he asked, clearly stunned. I shrugged lightly. "Look, like I said, I''m here to stop a real evil villain. Not going after anyone else." Soloing the entire tournament would be a last resort, but I had feeling Zen-Oh would not like it if I did. I probably shouldn¡¯t knock out anyone but my target... His eyes lit up, practically glowing with admiration. "Thank you, Lady Layla. You''re truly noble¡ªI''m glad I got to meet someone like you." Aw, hell, now he was making me blush. Damn wholesome Saiyans. I chuckled softly, nudging him gently. "You''re sweet, Cabba. Good luck out there, okay?" He nodded firmly, expression turning determined again as he hopped back to his feet. "You too!" he said sincerely. Then, with one last respectful glance at me, he bounded off into the distance to find another opponent. I stood back up, brushing some dust off my martial arts uniform. I continued hopping lightly across the towering, floating platforms, enjoying my little sightseeing tour of epic, chaotic battles erupting below. Fighters from all these universes clashing violently. A massive burst of power exploded nearby, grabbing my attention instantly. I spotted Goku below¡ªfully transformed into his blazing Super Saiyan Blue form. His fierce turquoise aura surged brightly as he squared off against... ...A giant furry? I wrinkled my nose, quickly looking away with a small shudder. "Yeah, that''s a nope," I muttered. Moving on, I next saw Frieza¡ªwho seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. The ruthless little bastard was methodically bullying some smaller fighters clad in flamboyant pink-and-purple costumes, clearly from that "love universe." He cackled cruelly, taking delight in their terrified expressions. ¡°Scream for me more, you peons!¡± At least he was having fun... I shifted again, sensing another familiar energy signature. Gohan was locked in battle with a purple-skinned fighter sporting rabbit ears¡ªDyspo, if I remembered correctly. The rabbit-alien zipped around at impressive speeds as he launched lightning-fast attacks. But Gohan matched him easily thanks to the fact that I fixed his eyes. And then... I felt a monstrously powerful energy signature nearby. Whoever this was, their power wasn''t just strong they were multiverse-level strong. Of course I had to go and see who it was. Although, I already had a hunch! My curiosity piqued, I hopped off my platform immediately, dropping gracefully downward. I landed with effortless precision in front of the towering figure standing alone, quietly observing the fights with stoic, unreadable eyes. My breath hitched slightly. I recognized him instantly¡ªtall, broad-shouldered, his physique absurdly muscular beneath his tight, black-and-red Pride Trooper uniform. Bald head, solemn expression, huge black eyes calmly taking everything in. There was only one guy matching this description in the Tournament of Power. "Hey," I greeted cheerfully, folding my arms casually across my chest. "You''re Jiren, right?" His huge eyes slowly shifted downward, meeting mine impassively. Clearly, I wasn''t impressive enough at first glance, because he seemed instantly dismissive. "Move along," he rumbled quietly, voice deep and commanding, his gaze shifting pointedly away. Oh, ouch. Okay, rude. But understandable. From his perspective, I probably didn''t look like much¡ªa petite, pretty woman, relaxed posture, amused expression. Nothing obviously threatening. But appearances could deceive. Smirking playfully, I relaxed my hold on my overwhelming power slightly¡ªjust a fraction¡ªand allowed a tiny sliver of my true strength to leak out. The staggering power I''d absorbed from the six Infinity Stones instantly bled outward. Beneath my feet, the reinforced arena flooring shattered instantly, spiderweb cracks radiating outward violently in all directions. A rush of cosmic force whipped softly around my body, swirling tendrils of color and energy momentarily wrapping my frame before dissipating. Jiren''s eyes widened, black pupils dilating sharply in shock and cautious reassessment. His dismissive posture vanished instantly, muscles tightening, full attention locking onto me now. "Who... are you?" he rumbled softly, deep voice edged with quiet awe and intense suspicion. I smiled warmly, relaxing my aura immediately. "I''m Layla," I replied smoothly. "And trust me, big guy, I''d love nothing more than a proper fight with someone as strong as you¡ªbut I''ve got another target in mind." I turned to leave, intent on continuing my search, but his voice stopped me cold, filled with quiet curiosity and sudden interest... "Wait." I paused, glancing back curiously. Jiren was now staring directly at me, arms dropping to his sides as he took a measured step forward. "It''s been a long time since I''ve encountered anyone truly worthy," he stated quietly. "Even the God of Destruction from my own universe no longer provides a proper challenge." He hesitated briefly, as if struggling internally. Finally, he nodded toward me respectfully. "If you don''t wish to truly fight yet, I understand. But perhaps we could spar briefly. I''d be interested to experience your strength firsthand." I blinked in surprise, momentarily taken aback. Honestly, he''d never been this talkative in canon. I''d always pegged him as the "strong-and-silent" type, practically allergic to conversation. Clearly, I''d underestimated how intriguing he found genuine power. I glanced around quickly. Luckily, most battles had drifted away from us, leaving our little spot surprisingly isolated. Smiling slowly, I rolled my shoulders. "Alright," I conceded playfully. "A quick spar sounds fun. Just don''t blame me if I bruise your ego..." There was a glimmer of something like amusement in those black eyes. He took a half-step back, dropping smoothly into a simple combat stance, power swelling slowly around his body. Without another word, we moved. Jiren lunged forward in a blur of motion, speed and strength surging impossibly. [This guy is built different!] His huge fist rocketed toward my face, distorting the air around it. My own body moved on instinct, ducking gracefully underneath the devastating punch and smoothly pivoting behind him. I lashed out quickly, fingers flattened and striking sharply toward his neck. He blocked swiftly, massive forearm intercepting my blow with bone-rattling force. The shockwave of our collision rippled outward in all directions, shaking the entire arena violently. I grinned widely¡ªdamn, he was seriously strong. "Impressive," Jiren murmured softly, clearly intrigued, shifting fluidly back into position. "You''re not so bad yourself," I teased playfully. He pressed forward relentlessly, launching blow after brutal blow in disciplined, precision attacks. I matched him smoothly, feeling genuine exhilaration surging inside my chest as I deflected, evaded, and retaliated fluidly. Each thunderous collision shook the arena. His eyes glinted fiercely, excitement finally breaking through his stoicism. "You''re holding back," he growled, ducking sharply beneath my spinning kick. "Show me more!" I laughed freely, delighted. "Careful what you wish for!" Pushing slightly harder, I surged forward, letting a small taste more of my true strength flow outward. Space briefly warped around us, the air shuddering and rippling as we collided again and again. To anyone else watching, we must''ve looked like two colliding supernovas! After a furious exchange, we leaped apart simultaneously, landing smoothly across from each other. His broad chest rose and fell steadily, eyes glowing with newfound respect. "You''re exceptional," he admitted softly, clearly surprised by my strength. "We''ll settle this properly once you''ve dealt with your target." I chuckled softly, winking playfully as I turned away. "Unless someone else takes you down before that..." That would be Goku of course. Jiren simply snorted as he walked away, clearly not believing anyone else in this tournament was capable of fighting him but me. Another powerful explosion echoed on the other side of the arena. Something about the echoing energy signature felt different than everyone else I¡¯d seen so far. A sinister smile formed on my lips... ¡°Found you, fellow Gamer...¡± XXX chapter 336 chapter 336 Chapter 336: ¨C Layla ¨C And there he was, my target¡ªstanding confidently amidst a small group of opponents. My eyes narrowed slightly as I examined him. He was on Jiren¡¯s team, dressed in the same red and black Pride Trooper uniform. That was unexpected. Had he tricked them somehow into thinking he was one of the good guys? Interesting. As I looked him over more closely, I had to stifle a small laugh. This guy practically screamed "self-insert." He had bright pink skin that looked soft but firm, sharply defined muscles, wild spiky white hair, and a Saiyan tail wrapped casually around his waist. He looked exactly like a male version of Android 21 if she were part Saiyan. [You¡¯re one to talk...] I rolled my eyes at my system''s teasing jab. ¡®Come on, I didn¡¯t actually choose my new body. You know that.¡¯ The Gamer down below was currently engaged in combat with three weaker fighters from another universe. He wore a cocky, heroic grin, showing perfectly white teeth as he easily dodged their strikes. He moved swiftly and fluidly, his expression smugly confident as he delivered a precise punch to the stomach of one fighter, sending the poor guy sprawling. ¡°You fought bravely,¡± he announced loudly, his voice dripping with fake sympathy. ¡°But justice always prevails. It had to end this way¡ªI¡¯m sorry.¡± He wasn''t sorry. Not at all. I could hear the forced sincerity in his voice. Every word sounded rehearsed, as though he¡¯d practiced delivering these cheesy lines in front of a mirror. The Gamer easily grabbed each stunned fighter by the collar of their uniforms and casually hurled them off the edge of the arena, smirking in satisfaction as their screams of despair faded. I sighed. This guy was clearly enjoying himself. Something about his false humility and melodramatic manner made me itch to punch him. After a brief glance around, I silently hopped down from my vantage point, landing softly a few feet behind him. He didn¡¯t react. Strange¡ªhad he seriously not sensed me at all? [He might still be new to this body and his powers. Maybe he hasn¡¯t figured out how to properly sense energy yet.] That was possible, but if so, he was even more of an idiot for joining a multiversal tournament. I cleared my throat loudly. Instantly, he spun around, and I caught a split-second glimpse of a snarl on his pink face before it was swiftly replaced by surprise¡ªand then obvious appreciation¡ªas his bright blue eyes looked me over from head to toe. ¡°Oh, shit. Hello there,¡± he said smoothly, his voice dropping to a deeper, flirtatious tone as he flashed me a winning smile. He winked obnoxiously, giving me another quick scan from head to toe, openly admiring my body. ¡°And just what universe are you from, beautiful? I feel like I should¡¯ve spotted you immediately.¡± Gross. Was he seriously hitting on me mid-tournament? I forced a polite smile onto my face, choosing to ignore his leering stare. ¡°Universe 7,¡± I lied smoothly. He flinched at that, his smug expression cracking immediately. ¡°Universe... 7?¡± he muttered under his breath, clearly unsettled by the revelation. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t even be possible...¡± I raised an eyebrow calmly. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked, playing innocent. ¡°You seem nervous.¡± The Gamer shook his head quickly, trying and failing to regain his composure. ¡°N-no, not nervous at all. Just surprised! Thought I knew everyone from Universe 7 already.¡± He chuckled awkwardly, trying to mask his discomfort. ¡°You must be new.¡± ¡°Something like that,¡± I replied easily, offering nothing more. He stepped forward casually, arms crossed confidently over his chest. ¡°Well, lucky me, then. Meeting someone like you is definitely the highlight of this tournament so far.¡± I fought back a grimace. Was this guy serious? ¡°You¡¯re very flattering,¡± I replied dryly, studying his face closely. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± He straightened proudly, puffing out his muscular chest and putting one hand dramatically on his hip. ¡°You can call me Zaiko,¡± he announced proudly, clearly hoping for a reaction from me. When I gave none, he faltered a bit. ¡°What¡¯s yours, beautiful?¡± ¡°Layla,¡± I said simply. ¡°Nice outfit, by the way. Pride Trooper?¡± He looked down at himself quickly, nodding with a fake air of modesty. ¡°Yeah, they took me in as one of their own. Recognized my strength and justice immediately.¡± Justice again? Really? I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± I said lightly. ¡°They seem like good people.¡± ¡°They are the best!¡± Zaiko agreed eagerly. ¡°We¡¯re definitely going to win, too. With me on their side, Universe 11¡¯s victory is guaranteed.¡± He winked at me. I tilted my head slightly. ¡°You seem pretty confident about that.¡± He grinned cockily, flexing his muscular arms. ¡°Well, can you blame me?¡± he bragged. ¡°I¡¯m basically unstoppable.¡± Wow. It took serious effort not to laugh in his face. The guy was so full of himself it was almost impressive. Zaiko paused, tilting his head curiously as he studied me more closely. A flicker of doubt appeared in his eyes. ¡°Hold up... How do you even know about Pride Troopers, anyway?¡± I shrugged casually, feigning nonchalance. ¡°Oh, I ran into Jiren a little earlier. Nice guy¡ªpretty strong, too. Not quite up to my level, though.¡± The cocky grin vanished from his face instantly. For the first time since I¡¯d laid eyes on him, he actually looked uncertain. The muscles in his jaw visibly tightened, his tail twitching nervously around his waist. ¡°Wait... what did you just say?¡± he asked carefully. His tone sounded strained, uncertain. ¡°You fought Jiren... and won?¡± ¡°Well, it was just a quick spar,¡± I replied breezily. ¡°But yeah, I definitely came out on top. Wouldn''t mind a more serious fight with him later on.¡± Zaiko blinked rapidly, disbelief flashing through his bright blue eyes. He bit down anxiously on his lower lip, turning his head away slightly. For a second, it seemed like he forgot I was even standing in front of him. He muttered something quietly under his breath, frustration creeping into his expression. ¡°...That can¡¯t be right. Someone named Layla doesn¡¯t exist in canon...¡± [Wow. This guy¡¯s an idiot.] I silently agreed with my system¡¯s observation, watching the wheels turning inside Zaiko¡¯s head. He was practically broadcasting his thoughts openly, completely oblivious that I was still there. I cleared my throat sharply again. Zaiko jumped slightly, startled out of his internal monologue. Slowly, his gaze drifted back toward me. To make sure I had his full attention, I deliberately crossed my arms just beneath my chest, emphasizing my assets prominently. His eyes dropped blatantly to my chest, unable to help himself. Good, I had him refocused. ¡°So,¡± I purred sweetly, enjoying his reaction, ¡°what exactly are you planning on wishing for if you win?¡± Zaiko visibly flinched at the question, clearly caught off guard. A conflicted look spread across his face, his eyes flickering nervously to the side as he scrambled for an answer. After a moment¡¯s hesitation, he forced a heroic, earnest look onto his face. He squared his shoulders, puffing out his chest proudly again. ¡°Obviously, I¡¯ll wish for all the erased universes to be restored,¡± he declared boldly, his voice thick with feigned sincerity. ¡°As a hero, it¡¯s the only right thing to do.¡± ¡°Oh, really?¡± I drawled slowly, allowing clear skepticism into my tone. ¡°Huh. That¡¯s interesting.¡± His confident expression faltered slightly. He narrowed his eyes warily at me, suspicion creeping in. ¡°Why? What exactly would you wish for, Layla?¡± I smirked deliberately, tilting my chin upward to look him straight in the eyes. It was my turn to lie¡ªand do it better. ¡°Oh, nothing much,¡± I said casually, tossing my dark hair back lightly over my shoulder. ¡°I was planning to wish for Zen-Oh¡¯s powers. I figure the Supreme Queen of the multiverse has a nice ring to it, right...?¡± Zaiko¡¯s reaction was immediate and explosive. ¡°That was MY plan, you bitch!¡± he snapped furiously, all traces of fake heroism vanishing in an instant. His pink face darkened in anger, blue eyes burning as he glared at me. Then he froze. Realization flooded his expression as he realized exactly what he had just blurted out. His jaw dropped open slightly, panic swiftly overtaking the anger on his features. I watched his mental state rapidly spiral downward, clearly furious with himself for losing his cool so openly. My smile widened into a satisfied grin. I raised an eyebrow mockingly. ¡°...So, you¡¯re all about justice, huh?¡± I chuckled dryly, emphasizing the word sarcastically. ¡°Funny, I wasn¡¯t really getting that impression.¡± Zaiko¡¯s eyes narrowed sharply, his posture shifting abruptly. His fists clenched tightly at his sides, a vibrant, bright pink aura of power crackling to life around his muscular form. He took a threatening step toward me, his tone shifting dangerously. ¡°You might be hot as fuck, Layla, but you just heard something you definitely shouldn¡¯t have,¡± he growled, voice low and dangerous. ¡°Now I¡¯ve got no choice but to take you out of the tournament right here. And obviously you were lying about fighting Jiren, too. No way someone like you could handle him.¡± I couldn¡¯t help it¡ªI laughed openly at his audacity, thoroughly amused by his pathetic attempt at intimidation. His sudden aggression didn¡¯t scare me¡ªit excited me. After dealing with this clown¡¯s fake bravado, I was looking forward to knocking him down a peg. ¡°Oh?¡± I giggled softly, gracefully sliding my body into a casual fighting stance. I raised one hand, beckoning playfully with my fingers. ¡°If you¡¯re so sure I¡¯m lying... why don¡¯t you come and find out for yourself?¡± Zaiko snarled in frustration, losing all composure as he charged straight at me. His pink aura flared violently around him, the arena shaking under his sudden burst of power. He cocked back his fist, screaming as he swung a heavy punch aimed right for my head. He was strong, but nowhere near Jiren strong. Still, it was nice to finally get a direct power-level comparison. I easily raised one hand, my palm open, and casually blocked his punch. The force of his blow sent a shockwave rippling outward, shaking the floating arena beneath our feet¡ªbut my arm didn''t even tremble. Zaiko¡¯s eyes widened sharply in disbelief, clearly caught off guard by my casual defense. Before he could recover, I swiftly pivoted on my heel, turning my body fluidly, and drove a sharp kick straight into the side of his face. My foot smashed brutally into his jaw, his entire head jerking violently backward from the sheer impact. Damn. That actually made me feel like a real martial artist for once. Zaiko staggered backward, his boots skidding across the arena floor. But he quickly shook his head, snarling furiously. Being part Majin clearly meant he could endure heavy hits. The kick had left a deep indentation on his cheek, yet his bright pink skin rapidly bounced back into shape. I grinned, excitement rushing through me. If he was that durable, I didn''t need to hold back nearly as much as usual. Without hesitation, I darted forward, raining down a relentless barrage of punches. My fists moved swiftly and precisely, hammering into Zaiko''s torso, chest, and face again and again. Each hit landed brutally with a satisfying thud. The arena floor trembled with every strike. Zaiko cried out in pain, desperately trying to defend himself, but I was simply too fast and too strong for him. His pink flesh distorted grotesquely beneath the onslaught, denting deeply with each crushing impact. Blood and spit flew from his mouth, staining his once-pristine Pride Trooper uniform. I pulled my right fist back, muscles tensed, and then slammed it forward with ruthless force directly into his torso. Zaiko¡¯s entire chest caved inward, his eyes bulging from their sockets as all the air was violently expelled from his lungs. A strangled, gurgling scream escaped his throat. The force of my punch sent him flying backward like he''d been fired from a cannon. His battered body shot through the air, smashing through several massive stone pillars lining the tournament arena. Each pillar exploded in a spectacular shower of debris and dust. Immediately, I jumped after him, leaping effortlessly from pillar to pillar, keeping pace with his tumbling form. Finally, Zaiko crashed into one last thick pillar, embedding himself deeply into its surface. Spider-web cracks radiated outward from his broken body. I landed gracefully on the pillar, calmly glancing downward. Beneath us stood a trio of stunned Saiyans from Universe 6, all staring upward with mouths slightly agape. "Hey, Cabba," I said cheerfully, giving the young Saiyan a friendly nod as I dropped down lightly beside him. Cabba quickly recovered from his initial shock, smiling warmly in recognition. "Oh! Hey, Layla!" Cabba said, relaxing visibly. He glanced at his companions, quickly holding up his hands to calm them down. "It''s alright. She¡¯s nice..." The two female Saiyans¡ªCaulifla and Kale¡ªstared at me warily, clearly skeptical. Caulifla''s sharp eyes narrowed suspiciously, while Kale nervously hid slightly behind her. [Of course, you remember the names of the female Saiyans...] Above us, a loud cracking sound echoed out. We all quickly glanced upward as Zaiko''s limp form finally slid out of the crater he''d made in the pillar, plummeting straight down to land heavily at our feet. He hit the ground hard, a small cloud of dust puffing up around his battered, bloodied form. His limbs twitched weakly as he coughed, bright pink blood dripping from his mouth. Cabba looked down at Zaiko. "Is... is this the evil person you were hunting, Layla?" he asked me carefully. Caulifla snapped her head toward Cabba, glaring openly. "What the hell are you talking about? Evil? Cabba, start making sense!" Kale peeked at me nervously, hiding partially behind Caulifla. Her big eyes flicked toward Zaiko¡¯s battered form on the ground and then quickly away. I sighed and nudged Zaiko''s twitching body lightly with my boot. "This guy here is a fraud. He''s been tricking his team into believing he''s some kind of hero of justice." Caulifla raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Ok...? Why does that matter?" I nodded. "He''s planning on using the wish to make himself emperor of the multiverse or some dumb shit like that." Caulifla snorted loudly, clearly amused. "Emperor of the multiverse? What a dumbass." Cabba frowned slightly. "That''s awful. It¡¯s a good thing you¡¯re here to stop him." Zaiko suddenly stirred, coughing violently. He shakily pushed himself onto his knees, blood dripping from his lips as he glared up hatefully at me. His voice rasped with fury. "Shut your fucking mouth, you bitch. I don''t know who you are, but you''re not ruining my plans!" With a growl, he jammed his hand into a small black hole that opened directly in front of him. [Wow. Just blatantly reaching into his inventory in front of everyone, huh?] He yanked out a bright red potion, uncorked it hurriedly, and downed it in one long gulp right there in front of the four of us. I raised an eyebrow, glancing toward the Grand Priest. Using recovery items in this tournament was definitely cheating, right? But the Grand Priest remained silent, watching calmly from the stands. Clearly, Zen-Oh found this entertaining enough not to intervene. ¡°¡°Beat him up more!¡±¡± Yep... Just as I thought... Immediately, Zaiko¡¯s battered body began healing itself visibly. Bruises faded, cuts sealed shut, and his muscles rippled as he stood confidently once more. A fresh aura of power erupted around him, his eyes blazing with manic excitement. He laughed loudly, completely losing himself in the moment. "Hahahaha! God, I fucking love Zenkai boosts! That''s exactly why I made myself half-Saiyan¡ªfor easy power-ups!" Caulifla shot me a confused, slightly irritated look. "The fuck is he talking about now?" I shook my head slowly. "Just ignore him. He¡¯s evil, crazy, and a complete idiot." "It''s okay," Kale murmured softly from behind Caulifla. "We deal with people like him all the time..." Cabba eyed Zaiko nervously, glancing toward me. "Layla, he''s really powerful now after that Zenkai boost... Do you want help dealing with him?" Ah, he was sweet to ask. But I was fine. I smiled gently, cracking my knuckles casually. Was Zaiko actually stronger now? Funny, I didn''t notice a difference. "Nah, I''ve got it covered. You three should focus on your own fights. Good luck in the tournament." With that, I blitzed forward faster than any of them could see. Zaiko was still laughing maniacally as my hand shot out, wrapping firmly around his throat. His laughter cut off abruptly, replaced by a strangled choking sound. I smirked at the panic flashing in his eyes, tightening my grip slightly as I slammed his head forcefully backward into the damaged pillar. The pillar immediately shattered, collapsing completely around us in a loud crash of debris and dust. XXX She¡¯s having fun bullying the other Gamer... Thanks for reading!!! You can check out more of my stories on my profile. Wanna read more of my stuff ahead of regular release? You can Support me on Pat-reon.-com / Starwaves Here is the list of Current Advanced Chapters on there: The Fallen Gamer ch 337-341 Thunder and Black Wings 29 The Fox Hole 99 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 19 The Blood Queen 53 The Fox Hole 98 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 18 Thunder and Black Wings 28 The Fox Hole 97 Thunder and Black Wings 27 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 17 The Blood Queen 52 The Fox Hole 96 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 16 A Systematic Tale: The Hero 15 The Fox Hole 95 chapter 337 chapter 337 Chapter 337: ¨C Layla ¨C I casually brushed the dust off my shoulder, watching with faint amusement as Zaiko pulled himself out of the rubble. The remains of the stone pillar scattered around him, chunks tumbling off his muscular frame. His face twisted with rage, his pink skin darkening to an angry shade of red. He locked eyes with me, panting heavily as veins bulged on his forehead. ¡°Who the fuck are you?!¡± he snarled, his voice cracking with frustration. ¡°Where the hell did you come from, and why the fuck are you trying to ruin my plans?¡± I tilted my head slightly, placing one hand on my hip. ¡°Maybe you should figure it out yourself...scrub.¡± He figured it out with that one word. Zaiko¡¯s mouth opened and closed silently as he struggled to process what was happening. His angry expression slowly shifted to shock, then disbelief. His eyes widened dramatically, realization dawning across his face. ¡°What the fuck?¡± he hissed incredulously. ¡°I thought only one Gamer was allowed per multiverse! How are you even here?!¡± ¡°Sorry, buddy. That¡¯s a whole lot of nunya business.¡± Zaiko¡¯s jaw clenched visibly. His eyes flashed dangerously as his aura exploded outward again, rippling the air around him with sheer rage. His lips twisted into a hateful snarl. ¡°No holds barred, then!¡± he shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. ¡°I¡¯m going to fucking kill you, you bitch!¡± He reached frantically into that black hole in front of him again, blatantly pulling another item from his inventory. This time, he yanked out a wicked-looking sword, black and crimson, with jagged razor-sharp edges. Probably from some other anime I didn¡¯t immediately recognize. Zaiko swung it toward my head in a vicious slash. Okay, now I was pretty sure this was blatantly cheating. Weapons? Really? I dipped my head easily to the side, effortlessly dodging the sword¡¯s deadly arc. I shot a quick glance toward the Grand Priest, silently asking if he was seriously going to allow this shit...? The Grand Priest simply smiled serenely back at me, utterly unbothered. Figures. It looked like they wouldn¡¯t disqualify Zaiko until I properly kicked his ass and tossed him from the arena. Honestly, that was already my plan anyway. Zaiko was ranting furiously, screaming hateful obscenities as he desperately swung the sword at me over and over. I tuned him out completely, lost briefly in my own thoughts, absently dodging every strike. My lack of response clearly enraged him even further¡ªhis voice grew shrill and frantic, his slashes becoming increasingly wild and uncontrolled. ¡°Fucking die already!¡± he screamed at me, eyes bulging as he swung downward in a clumsy attempt to bisect me from shoulder to hip. Sighing softly, I lifted my right hand, casually manifesting a purple lightspear directly into my grip. With practiced ease, I blocked his sword, the two weapons colliding with a loud ringing sound that echoed sharply through the area. Zaiko stumbled backward, eyes wide with shock. ¡°Nani!?¡± he sputtered. ¡°Is that a fucking lightspear from DxD!?¡± I didn¡¯t bother answering him. Instead, I easily parried a few more of his desperate blows, waiting patiently for an opening that I didn¡¯t even really need. But I was having fun. I didn¡¯t usually get to exercise my sadistic side very often. I''m sure my niece Akeno would be proud if she found out... Zaiko was fully panicked now, swinging the sword wildly with no real technique. After a final parry, I stepped swiftly forward, cocking back my fist and slamming it directly into his chest. The sheer force of my punch created a satisfying crunch beneath my knuckles, Zaiko¡¯s ribs giving way instantly as he was blasted off his feet. He shot violently backward, streaking through the air until his back crashed brutally into the far side of the arena, shattering another massive stone structure into pieces. I twirled the purple lightspear lazily in my hand, calmly strolling forward to finish the job. Honestly, I''d expected a bit more from another Gamer. But at least this was entertaining. ¨C Jiren ¨C Jiren grunted quietly, his feet skidding back slightly as the Saiyan named Goku from Universe 7 landed another annoyingly effective blow directly into his chest. Jiren''s red-and-black Pride Trooper uniform rippled slightly from the impact, but the actual damage was minimal. Still, he had to give the Saiyan some credit. Jiren genuinely hadn''t expected anyone besides Layla to land even a single clean strike on him in this tournament. The Saiyan warrior had been no real threat at all until just moments before, when suddenly, in a burst of silver-white light, his hair changed color completely. This new form made Goku impossibly slippery. He dodged attacks that Jiren had expected to easily land, and effortlessly deflected punches that would normally crush an opponent. Although Goku''s hits weren''t powerful enough to genuinely harm Jiren, they were annoying¡ªand rapidly increasing in frequency. Jiren frowned, his massive fists clenched in frustration as he swung again. His powerful punches cut through the air, creating shockwaves from sheer force, but again the silver-haired Saiyan slipped around them smoothly. Every attack Jiren made seemed to slide harmlessly past Goku. This whole experience was beginning to genuinely irritate him. Just as he prepared another strike, a shrill, frantic scream suddenly echoed toward them from across the arena. Jiren paused mid-motion, quickly glancing over in confusion. Goku also halted his movements, following Jiren''s gaze curiously. In that instant, Jiren''s teammate Zaiko came violently crashing down, hitting the ground directly between them with a loud, thunderous impact. The pink-skinned hybrid''s body slammed brutally into the arena floor, forming a sizable crater in the reinforced surface. Bits of stone and dust scattered in every direction. Bizarrely, Zaiko was clutching a large, jagged sword tightly in one trembling hand. Jiren narrowed his eyes in silent annoyance. The fool was clearly going to get himself disqualified. Weapons were expressly forbidden, after all. Slowly and painfully, Zaiko struggled back onto his feet, blood dripping from his mouth. His Pride Trooper uniform was shredded in multiple places, dirt and blood staining his formerly pristine clothing. He leaned heavily against the strange sword, using it as a crutch to support his weight as his knees shook beneath him. Zaiko''s eyes finally lifted, landing on Jiren. Immediately, his expression changed from dazed pain to frantic desperation. "Jiren! You gotta help me!" Zaiko screamed desperately. He pointed back over his shoulder with one trembling finger. "This evil bitch is insane! She''s going to use the wish to steal Zen-Oh''s powers and make herself queen of the whole fucking multiverse!" Beside them, Goku scratched his head in open confusion. "Huh? Wait¡ªwho exactly are you talking about?" "Probably me," came a smooth female voice from behind them. In a blink, Layla suddenly appeared standing casually nearby. An amused smile curving her lips as she calmly observed the battered Zaiko. Jiren''s trained eyes widened slightly. Even with his extraordinary senses, he had barely managed to track her movements just now! She was clearly holding back significantly earlier in their brief spar. ...He hadn''t even realized she''d been hiding this much strength. Jiren glanced quickly between Layla and Zaiko, clearly putting two and two together. "Zaiko is your evil target, then?" he asked Layla. "Yep!" Layla answered cheerfully. Zaiko sputtered indignantly, furious panic evident on his face. "What?!" he hissed incredulously. "I''m not evil, damn it! She is!" Jiren openly scoffed at the claim. He had personally traded blows with Layla¡ªand when two powerful warriors truly fought one another, their true nature inevitably came through clearly. Jiren had felt absolutely no evil intentions emanating from her. Quite the opposite. There had been genuine respect and honesty in the way she fought. On the other hand, Jiren had never properly sparred with Zaiko. The pink-skinned warrior had been a last-minute addition to Universe 11''s team, recommended based purely on his supposedly impressive power. Now, seeing Zaiko desperately flail around and scream, Jiren was beginning to regret allowing him to join at all. Goku scratched his head again, clearly still confused. He glanced uncertainly between Zaiko and Layla. "I''m really lost right now," he admitted to Layla. Layla waved her hand dismissively, giving Goku a reassuring smile. "Don''t worry about it. You two can just get back to your fight. Ignore us." "I won''t be ignored!" Zaiko screamed, his voice cracking with a manic edge. "This universe was supposed to be my playground! I''m the chosen one!" Jiren''s eyes narrowed. Zaiko, apparently no longer caring about subtlety or survival, lunged recklessly forward, red-and-black blade raised, and swung directly toward Goku. The Saiyan fighter''s eyes widened in surprise, clearly caught off guard! His white hair had already turned black again. Acting on pure instinct, Jiren stepped in front of Goku, raising his right forearm to intercept the attack. The jagged sword slammed against his arm, slicing a shallow gash into Jiren''s tough skin. Despite being just skin-deep, a sharp, searing pain erupted from the cut almost immediately! Jiren frowned, glancing down at his arm in confusion. The flesh surrounding the small wound was already blackening, veins around it visibly darkening and spreading outward like poison. He grimaced slightly, resisting the sudden, intense pain radiating through his muscles. Zaiko laughed hysterically. "Hahaha! My blade is cursed to corrode and kill anyone it cuts¡ªeven a tiny scratch is enough! All of you will fucking di¡ª" Zaiko''s words abruptly ended in a strangled choking sound. A spear of purple energy flew from Layla''s outstretched hand, piercing straight through his chest. Before he could utter another sound, his entire body rapidly disintegrated into dust. Layla didn''t even spare a glance toward the pile of ashes. Instead, she swiftly stepped over toward Jiren, placing her hands gently above his festering wound. Warm golden light radiated from her palms, washing over his infected arm. Jiren felt the searing agony recede slightly, but the spreading black corrosion stubbornly remained in place, slowly inching along his veins. "Annoying bullshit," Layla muttered irritably under her breath. Jiren watched with mild curiosity as a pair of bracelets materialized around her slender wrists. She focused again on healing him. This time, the soothing sensation intensified dramatically. The black rot rapidly shrank backward, fading completely as healthy skin and muscle knitted seamlessly back into place beneath her touch. Layla sighed in relief, lowering her hands and offering Jiren a quick, satisfied nod. "Whoa, that was really dangerous!" Goku spoke up, staring in surprise at Layla and then back toward Jiren. "Thanks for saving me there, big guy!" Jiren sighed quietly, shaking his head. He offered Layla a silent, respectful nod of gratitude. Turning his attention briefly toward Goku, he bowed his head slightly. "My apologies for my... teammate''s... actions." Goku waved off his apology casually. "Ah, don''t worry about it!" Before Jiren could respond, the Grand Priest''s voice rang out clearly across the entire arena. "The contestant Layla, from Universe 7, has been disqualified for killing an opponent." "You''ve gotta be shitting me!" she shouted incredulously, throwing her hands up into the air. Before she could protest further, her form shimmered and disappeared, instantly teleporting her up into the spectator seats above. Jiren stared at the spot where she had been standing moments earlier, conflicted feelings swirling inside him. On the one hand, a powerful warrior like her being removed from the tournament significantly improved Universe 11¡¯s odds of victory. But Layla had been disqualified specifically for ending Zaiko''s rampage¡ªand she had healed him from Zaiko''s deadly attack, likely saving his arm, if not his life. He couldn''t deny a pang of regret over how it had turned out. It didn''t sit right with him. Plus he didn¡¯t get the chance to truly face her... "Aw, man, Layla''s out? That sucks," Goku whined loudly, snapping Jiren''s attention back to the Saiyan. A cheerful grin spread across Goku¡¯s face as he dropped smoothly back into his combat stance. "Well, you ready for round two, Jiren?" Jiren took a deep, steadying breath. He settled firmly into his own stance, muscles tensed in preparation, and offered a respectful nod toward his opponent. "Let''s continue." ¨C Layla ¨C ¡°¡°You were supposed to beat him up more, not kill him so quickly!¡±¡± Both Zen-Ohs'' voices echoed inside my mind, sounding equal parts disappointed and whiny. I rolled my eyes hard. With a frustrated sigh, I folded my arms under my chest, leaned back in my new seat in the spectator stands, and tried to ignore their childish pouting. Krillin and Master Roshi, sitting a short distance away, both shot me shit-eating grins¡ªthe kind that practically screamed "third one eliminated, huh?" Oh, fuck off, guys... ...I''d seen Zaiko going for Goku with a blatantly lethal strike, and I''d simply reacted. I hadn''t even paused to consider whether the pink-skinned jackass could handle a single shot from my lightspear. Seriously, I had assumed another Gamer could at least survive one measly attack. But no¡ªthe dumbass got himself vaporized instantly. Talk about pathetic. [I don''t think he even has the ability to bring himself back to life, either. He won''t revive unless someone wastes their wish on the Super Dragon Balls for him. And that probably won''t happen. Without a resurrection, his system will abandon him completely, and his soul will fall back into this multiverse''s reincarnation cycle. He''ll lose every memory, his sense of self¡ªeverything.] Wow. Sucks to suck, Zaiko. Zen-Oh pouted even harder in my head when I refused to reply or acknowledge them further. What did they expect? If they wanted more entertainment, then maybe they shouldn''t have kicked me out of the tournament so quickly. After all, I only killed a guy who''d already blatantly cheated multiple times. ¡ª I shifted in my seat, watching intently as the Tournament of Power barreled toward its dramatic conclusion. Now that I wasn''t in the thick of things, I had to admit to myself it was pretty damn exciting to sit back and enjoy the epic battles firsthand. Not every day I got to witness such high-level fights play out right in front of me, after all. It turned out, things were proceeding remarkably close to what I remembered from the original show. Well, almost. Gohan was still putting up one hell of a fight¡ªthose eyes I''d upgraded for him were clearly making a difference. He''d held his ground impressively, lasting way longer than expected, and even outlasting Vegeta, which definitely hadn''t been part of canon. Seeing the Prince of all Saiyans'' disgruntled expression after getting knocked off before Gohan was amusing as hell. Eventually, though, it all played out in the familiar way I knew it would. Jiren''s overwhelming strength forced Goku, Android 17, and Frieza into a desperate three-on-one struggle. Every spectator on the edge of their seat as the final seconds ticked away. It was crazy to see Goku and Frieza cooperating, sacrificing themselves in that epic final charge just to take Jiren down. Damn, seeing it in person was way more impressive than watching on a TV screen. Finally, the dust settled. Android 17 stood alone in the arena. Universe 7 emerged victorious! The Grand Priest raised his hands dramatically, the colossal Super Dragon Balls shimmering as their power surged. The huge golden dragon appeared, towering over everything. Android 17 stepped forward calmly, looking up at the massive dragon without the slightest hint of hesitation. The dragon''s booming voice echoed throughout the entire Void. "Speak now¡ªwhat is your wish?" the Dragon asked in perfect English. Which was a bit surprising. Here it was. Time for the big, dramatic wish to restore all the erased universes. I leaned forward eagerly, already smiling, fully ready to bask in the wholesome moment¡ª 17 took a deep breath. ¡°...MAKE ME THE NEW OMNI-KING!¡± A shocked silence swept across the arena. Wait...what? ¡°¡°Oh no!¡±¡± both Zen-Ohs'' frantic voices shrieked in my head, sounding genuinely alarmed. And then I watched in shock as they both disappeared before my eyes... My jaw dropped open slightly, my brain failing to immediately process what I''d just heard. The fuck did 17 just say? I quickly glanced around to see if anyone else was as stunned as me¡ªsure enough, every single person was frozen, staring wide-eyed with open mouths. What...the actual fuck? The Grand Priest looked utterly furious. His usually composed expression twisted in a mask of raw anger, eyes blazing fiercely as he glared down at Android 17 from his hovering position above. "You!" His voice boomed with anger, echoing sharply across the arena. Before any of us had a chance to process it, he surged forward, energy exploding around him. It was my first time seeing an Angel from Dragon Ball seriously pissed off! But 17 just stood there calmly, eyebrows slightly raised in faint amusement, watching the Grand Priest''s furious approach with absolutely zero fear. Then, casually, 17 lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the Grand Priest vanished. No dramatic explosion, no scream. He was simply gone. Erased from existence entirely. Fuck. The strongest Angel in this universe had just been deleted like he was nothing. Beerus and Whis stared in stunned silence. Beerus was looking terrified. Next to me, Krillin visibly paled, trembling slightly, clearly terrified. Master Roshi, Piccolo, . all the rest of our little group stood frozen, unsure how to even react. 18 especially looked shaken. "17... what have you done?" she whispered hoarsely. Krillin gulped nervously. "S-so...what happens now?" Android 17 rose slowly from the arena floor, gliding over to our section. His expression wasn''t hostile. Just calm. "Nothing happens," he told Krillin simply. "I don''t trust Zen-Oh. They erased entire universes without a second thought. Just because they were weak. Someone like that shouldn''t rule over all existence..." he said with a grimace. Before anyone could reply, 17 snapped his fingers again. For a second, nothing seemed to happen. Then suddenly, the entire tournament area rippled and flickered. Dozens of fighters who had vanished previously began appearing all around us, gasping and looking around in confusion. Holy shit, he''d just brought everyone back. The erased teams, their universes¡ªeverything restored in an instant! 17 exhaled slowly, looking visibly drained from the effort. Then his eyes landed directly on me, and he gave a small, amused smirk. "I suppose I should thank you for this, Layla. I was there¨Chiding nearby¨Cwhen you confronted that Majin. Hearing you two talk about usurping Zen-Oh gave me the idea¡ªjust in case I ended up winning." I blinked. Well shit... That was some butterfly effect cosmic shit right there. "Uh..." I scratched my cheek awkwardly. "Well... congrats, I guess. Just, uh...try not to become an evil supreme overlord, okay?" What else was I supposed to say? 17 snorted softly. "Relax. I''ll take my new position much more seriously than those alien children ever did." I chuckled and gave him a hesitant thumbs-up. ...And then, without warning, the entire multiversal tournament scene simply dissolved around me! My vision blurred briefly, and suddenly I found myself back in the familiar, ominously comforting surroundings of Lady Death''s throne room. Damn. Teleported again without so much as a warning... Lady Death herself sat upon the throne, her dark dress draped elegantly around her slender form. She rested comfortably, legs crossed casually, chin propped on her delicate hand, an amused, affectionate smile gracing her full lips. Off to the side stood the beautiful, fiery-haired Phoenix, watching me closely with approval. "Congratulations on a job well done, Layla," the Phoenix said smoothly, tilting her head with a small smile. "Though, admittedly, the ending was quite unexpected." Ah. Shit. Right. Time to address that awkward little detail... "Um...yeah," I started sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Sorry about that, honestly. The Omni-Kings kinda... ended up dying anyway." I glanced awkwardly between Lady Death and the Phoenix, bracing myself for their disappointment. Surprisingly, they both simply shrugged. Lady Death gave me an unconcerned smile. "It''s fine, dear. He was killed and usurped by a mortal from his own universe. That''s simply how these things go sometimes." The Phoenix nodded gracefully in agreement. "Indeed. Fate takes many unpredictable turns...." Lady Death leaned forward slightly, her lips curling into an amused grin. "Run from it, hide from it, death arrives all the same for everyone..." she said dramatically, pausing briefly before adding playfully, "Except for us, of course, my beloved." I stared blankly at her for a moment, eyebrows raised slightly. Did... did she just misquote Thanos at me? I sighed heavily, shaking my head with a faint chuckle. Of course she did. Rolling my eyes fondly, I approached the throne, stopping directly in front of Lady Death. She patted her thigh invitingly. I couldn''t resist. With a playful sigh, I climbed into her lap, settling comfortably against her as she wrapped her arms gently around my waist. Lady Death held me securely, leaning forward slightly to whisper into my ear. "Good job killing that annoying Gamer and completing the Phoenix''s task, my dear Layla," she murmured softly, her cool breath sending pleasant chills down my spine. Then, slowly and deliberately, she placed several tender, lingering kisses against the sensitive skin at the back of my neck. Damn, I shivered beneath her touch. The Phoenix approached us, lifting one open hand. In her open palm rested a glowing white stone. It practically radiated life itself... which made sense considering what it obviously was! Its power felt immense. "This is yours now, Layla," the Phoenix said. XXX