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 – if not decades – 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 – 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 – 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–His 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 – 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 – 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 – who didn't think me worthy of lifting it – 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–]

"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 – 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→Level 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 – 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 – as they had for thousands of years – 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 – a being thought long extinct by her people – 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 – 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–and when did that happen? – 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 – who held Thor's current affections – 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–much 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 – Azazel as he introduced himself – 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→4100]

[MP: 610→800]

[Vigor: 110]

[Strength: 25→30]

[Intelligence: 61→80]

[Luck: 20→25]

[Skills: Observe 2, Angelic Mastery 3→4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4→5, HP to MP conversion]

[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner]

[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]

[Available Free Stat Points: 30→0]

[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! → You can now bestow angelic blessings onto others!]

[Light Manipulation has leveled up! → You can now reabsorb your light constructs to regain 50% MP!]

[Observe has leveled up! → 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–not 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.