chapters 141-145

chapters 141-145

—In the Underworld—

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–

"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→ 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—I c—can't die here. Im B—Belial! The King of G—Gehenna!" 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