The Fallen Gamer

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 – if any – 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 – 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!]

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.

...

–Penemue–

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—surprisingly—and 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.

She had a bit of a negative reputation as an annoying fangirl…

Baraqiel immediately came running when news of his daughter appearing in the headquarters spread. She was the only Fallen Angel in existence–Half or otherwise–to have become a devil's slave. She was a lot more famous around here than she thought. The various Fallen Angels around the Headquarters were surprised and happy to see her free from the "Devil's Taint."

The strange thing about Baraqiel was that the guy looked old. That was weird for Fallen Angels considering most of us stopped aging in our physical 20's.

Except for Mittlet, the eternal loli, of course…

Baraqiel looked like he was in his 50's, and it was strange to see a cadre of his stature with tears in his eyes, openly weeping.

"Akeno! I'm so glad you're back!" Baraqiel cried his daughter's name as he embraced her in a loving hug. It was well known that his biggest regret was losing his daughter to the devils all those years ago. He had become a lot more withdrawn after that. And now here he was completely breaking his stoic character with tears in his eyes as he cried in happiness.

This would have been a more heartfelt reunion to watch if I didn't notice that Akeno was openly scowling as her father hugged her. "Get off me!" She shouted and shoved him away.

He let her do that, of course. There's no way she was actually strong enough to budge him if he didnt let her.

She had taken a big hit to her physical and magical strength after losing her queen piece. Akeno was now solidly in Mid-Class powerwise where before she could have been in the Low-Ultimate range if she fully utilized all of her heritage along with her demonic powers from Rias.

The truth about the evil pieces was that they did not automatically make someone stronger just by getting them. The evil pieces drew power from the "King" and siphoned it slowly into the reincarnated devil over time to give the illusion that the evil piece was the source of the reincarnated devil's power.

The much darker truth was that the power came from the souls high-class devils would regularly consume, and then it would pass through the kings to the peerage members. The evil pieces weren't called "evil" for no reason. They were aptly named for what they did…

Despite shoving Baraqiel off of herself, I noticed that Akeno wasn't telling him to outright fuck off and never talk to her again. I took that as a potential sign that she would eventually reconnect with her father. There was plenty of time after all since we were basically ageless. For now though, I figured I'd let them talk alone at their own pace.

Akeno had also chosen to leave with our group after finding out the truth about devils from Grayfia. I highly doubted she'd ever return to the Devils, but "highly doubt" didn't mean 100% sure. I still don't completely trust her. Not quite yet.

I didn't want her seeing any of the things that Azazel had down in his lab. It was an open secret that Azazel was obsessed with sacred gears and was always trying to make his own. What most people didn't know was just how close he was to succeeding. Once he succeeded it was pretty much game over for the devils…

If every Fallen Angel had a sacred gear–even a mediocre one–it would be an insane boost to our strength. The devils might outright declare war against us to prevent that if they knew how close Azazel was.

"Why don't we give the father-daughter pair some time to reconnect? I wanted to check out Azazel's lab," I said to the rest of the group. "Raynare, you can fuck off now, though." I said to her as I made a shooing motion. Sif stifled a small laugh at my actions. Asia gave me a pout—probably for my open swearing.

Raynare glared at me.

"Oh no! I heard that Master Azazel is now missing after he went looking for you! I'm not leaving till I make sure the man I love is safe!" She declared loudly.

Very loudly!

Her declaration turned a bunch of heads nearby. My Fallen Angel siblings all around us started snickering at Raynare. Raynare didn't care, though, as she stood there and gave me a defiant look like I couldn't make her leave.

Yes I could. I could just knock her out and leave her here, but… whatever—it didn't really make a difference whether she came with us or not.

"Fine, you can check out the lab with me, but don't touch anything. Last time I accidentally touched one of Azazel's experiments, it sent me to a graveyard on an alternate earth where I had to fight an evil wizard who just came back from the dead." I said.

Two of my three companions looked at me strangely after I said all that.

I raised my eyebrow at their looks. "What?"

Raynare scoffed. "You're so full of shit! It probably just teleported you to the Arctic or something. And you got lost trying to find your way back. Evil wizards? Yeah, right!"

"Can evil wizards really come back from the dead? I thought only our Lord Jesus could do that?" Asia asked with concern.

"Of course not!" – "Yes, they can." Raynare and I said at the same time. She glared at me again, but I just laughed. She'd find out about the existence of Earth Marvel eventually. She was only around 100 years older than I was, so it was no surprise that she didn't know the truth of our world yet. Plus none of our oldest siblings liked dealing with her because she was so annoying.

…

I led my small group towards Azazel's lab in the base's main basement. Down there, the walls were reinforced with extra magic and concrete in case any of his experiments violently exploded. That was good, because a few of them had.

I placed my hand on the scanner in front of his lab, and the doors swung open for us.

"Welcome, Layla," a robotic voice called out through the intercom as I entered his lab. It was just as cluttered as I figured it would be. Half-finished sacred gears were strewn about across every available surface. Along with that, dozens of old coffee cups that probably hadn't been washed in years could be seen all over the room.

"Seriously though, don't touch anything," I said as I carefully stepped around the piles of sensitive equipment everywhere.

"I thought only the Lord could make sacred gears," Asia said in wonder. "There are so many in this room!" Her eyes were wide as she looked at the literal piles of them all around.

"Azazel is very close to getting a properly working one. I'd say in the next few decades, he'll be able to start pumping them out en masse." I explained.

"Haha! And then the Fallen angels will be unstoppable! We'll use Lord Azazel's Gears to take over the world!" Raynare cheered with a look of rapture.

I'd have to find a way to snap her out of her Fallen Angel supremacy mindset eventually. Maybe I could have Sif train her. Maybe a couple of dozen beatings from the blond goddess would snap some sense into my idiot borderline evil sister…

"Layla, is this it?" Sif called out from where she wandered across the room. She pointed towards a small black and red ball about the size of a baseball.

Yep, that was it. I used [Observe] to check just in case.

[Artificial SpaceTime Sacred Gear - Created by Azazel. This sacred gear is incomplete and is missing a proper focus. It also needs a true wielder to work correctly.]

Missing a focus and a proper wielder, huh? Now how would I go about fixing that?

[I might have an idea on how to get it working.]

There was the system coming in clutch as always.

XXX

"Be careful, Layla." Sif said, her voice filled with concern as I approached the black and red orb. It was strange to think that this little thing had the power to breach the dimensional gap. I wondered what it was built from to achieve that. The scales of Great Red maybe?

'Okay, System. So how exactly do I do this?'

[Sacred gears are known to be able to absorb objects or essences to enhance themselves. You should feed your Sling Ring to the gear before integrating it into yourself.]

My sling ring!? If this doesn't work and I lose it for nothing, the Ancient One is going to be upset with me... I suppose I have no choice, considering the sling ring doesn't even work here due to the dimensional gap blocking out all dimensional energy from this world.

I pulled my sling ring out of my inventory and held it up to the orb. To my surprise, the gear started to glow red before the sling ring floated out of my grip and sped towards the orb.

I had to look away when there was a bright flash of light upon contact.

"Eeeep!" Asia squeaked in fright.

"Fuck, Layla. Do you know what you're doing?" Raynare shouted out. "I don't want that thing teleporting us all into a volcano or something!"

Her concerns were not completely unfounded. Thankfully, though, the sling ring appeared to have been absorbed by the gear with no noticeable detriments to the gear itself.

Now came the dangerous part.

People weren't really meant to have TWO sacred gears. It tended to get... explosive. As in you would literally explode from the power overload.

[You'll be fine. As the Gamer, your body can adapt to any new powers you gain.]

That was about as good an explanation as I was going to get, I supposed. I gently picked up the gear, hoping it wouldn't randomly activate again. I moved it over my chest. The gear glowed again—though not as bright this time—before it moved itself towards my chest. It was a strange feeling as the gear metaphysically slipped inside my very soul.

Everything seemed to go okay; I didn't feel any—

"Ugh!" I grunted in pain as a hot sensation spread throughout my body!

"Layla!" All three girls shouted at once.

Sif ran up to me in concern. "Are you okay?" her voice filled with worry.

I felt like liquid fire was coursing through me! I checked my stats, though, and my HP wasn't going down. I wasn't taking any damage, so I took that as a good sign. The rest of my stats, though—

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed when I saw my stats.

[Name: Layla of the Fallen]

[Title: Angel of Hope]

[Level: 14]

[Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere]

[HP: 4100→8200]

[MP: 900→1800]

[Vigor: 110→220]

[Strength: 35→70]

[Intelligence: 90→180]

[Luck: 40→80]

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

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

[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–is 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

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