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–

BOOM!

[Quest Complete... You have gained the title: Death's Favored!]

Lady Death's Favored → 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.

...

–Heaven's Most Beautiful Angel–

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–but. "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]