D&devils 3: Celestial Artistry: Chapter 8

"Aha... eheh..." I wince, touching my fingers together, trying not to make eye-contact with the blonde woman standing in front of me. "H-Hello Aunt Gabriel!" 

She has her arms crossed, the faintest hint of a frown on her lips. 

"C-Come now!" I beam. "A frown has no place on the face of a beautiful woman such as you!" 

"You know I'm kind of peeved at you, right?" The woman announces as my companions slowly- and VERY carefully walk around the two of us like Moses parting the red sea. 

"Griselda already yelled at me a bunch so I was hoping we could skip that." I mutter, squirming in place. 

A simple sigh leaves Gabriel's lips. "That was dangerous I hope you know..." 

"No it wasn't." I shake my head. "Azazel had no intention of hurting me." 

"You didn't know that." The seraph frowns. 

"I did!" I protest. "I know lots of things." 

The woman raises an eyebrow.  

"I do!" I whine. "You could say I know everything!" 

"..." 

"Eighty percent of the time." I clarify after a moment. 

The corners of her mouth turn upwards as she lets out a small snort. "Luce... what am I going to do with you." 

I give her a weak smile. 

She stares for a long moment. "There's something... different about you since we last met." 

"Mhm?" I hum. 

"It's... kind of familiar..." She taps her chin, gazing over me. 

A quiet gasp leaves her lips. 

"I'm taking Luce! I'll bring him back later!" She beams, then she reaches out. 

FLASH 

I am left blinking the spots from my vision as we seem to wink out of existence and reappear elsewhere. 

"A-Ah..." I quietly whisper. "Would... now be a bad time to admit I have a crippling fear of non-portal based teleportation?" 

"..." Gabriel's face becomes flat as I look to my hands. 

"Am... I still the same person? Or... am I just like... a clone of the old me that was vaporized by your teleportation spell?" 

"Teleportation doesn't work like that, silly." The woman sighs, ruffling my hair. "It's more opening a wormhole to another location." 

"It... is?" I squeak. 

"Yes." She smiles brightly. "A lot of the people who come into the supernatural world have that fear. You don't need to worry!" 

A low breath leaves my lips. "Alright... so... where are we?" 

"Miss Gabriel!" 

Oh. There's Rubideciel. This must be Heaven, then. 

"I took you to heaven to confirm something without allowing rumors to spread~" the woman hums. "May I see your wings, Luce?" 

"Ah... well." I scratch the side of my head.  

Her smile grows as she gives me a knowing look. "They've become a truly interesting color... haven't they?" 

"Whaaat?" I ask with a bright smile. "Preposterous. Can we talk about something else... oh! I know! I've heard that you were picked as the most beautiful woman in the underworld a few years back. How'd you do that? I would think that you wouldn't even have been entered. It seems kind of... unfair, doesn't it?" 

Her smile grows. "I suppose I was just blessed to have a fan in the underworld enter me into the contest. Though you are correct. It was quite unfair. Rubi, could you please get us something to drink... oh! That one coffee place owned by Chasimiel on First Heaven is quite nice! Luce... do you like coffee?" 

"I prefer hot chocolate... if they have it." 

"Hot chocolate it is, then! Here. Some money, and some pocket change! Please take your time." 

"G-Gabriel?" Rubi sputters as she is nudged out the door to this fairly large penthouse-like apartment. 

"..." 

The blonde lets out a long sigh of relief, eventually turning towards me with a pout. "How'd you find out." 

"Find out what?" I ask slowly. "Whatever could you mean, auntie!" 

She continues to pout at me, causing my smile to grow. "To be fair, I think it's really funny! To think that my Aunt shares my hobby!" 

"You've... been messing with Serafall as well?" The woman asks slowly, a small frown on her lips. "That might not be the best idea." 

"That's... kind of hypocritical, Aunty." I point out blandly, causing the woman to pout again. 

"That is... true." She sighs. "I just... don't know if you have what it takes to ride that fine line of infuriating and legitimately insulting. It took me centuries to learn it." 

"So... is constructive criticism for her show sent to her personal email a step too far?" I ponder. 

"You- You know her personal email?" Gabriel gasps, eyes widening. 

She envelops me quickly in a hug, my head pressing between her bust as she zooms through the rooms of this place she seems to live. 

I am placed in front of a computer. "Pleeeease Luce! I need to know it! Oh! Can I read the message you sent her? Please!" 

"If you don't yell at me for my perceived recklessness." I frown up at her. 

"..." 

"Fine..." The woman sighs. "I'll admit... Azazel has changed... somewhat... I'll accept that you... knew... he... hm..." 

She seems to think deeply on something. "Luce... do you sometimes just get flashes of insight? Like the locations of things? Or... visions." 

A weary sigh leaves my lips. "Yes. Yes, I do." 

"..." 

"..." 

"..." 

"Luce. I don't believe you should leave heaven after today..." Gabriel begins quietly, causing me to turn to her with a frown.  

"I'm sorry you think that!" I smile brightly. 

"Luce!" The woman exclaims. "You don't understand... you were in incredible danger today. If Azazel had intended to hurt you, there's nothing I could have done to save you!" 

"Hm." I hum quietly. "If you were watching me closely... you would have seen me open my bag before I went to go speak with him. Take a peek inside of my bag, please. Tell me what you see." 

I pull the sack off my hip and offer it to the woman. 

"Painting? When did you have time to-" 

"This... is Kindness and Chastity." I begin slowly before re-sealing the bag. "I am confident that with the two of them... I could have fought Azazel... or at the very least held him off for an hour or two. More than enough time for you to get there." 

"Wh- Luce. Azazel is no joke. He survived the original great war. Nothing you could possibly paint could protect you for longer than a few seconds." 

"Are you estimating the strength of my paintings on Rubideciel?" I ask slowly. "Because... to be fair to Rubi... she was not painted for conflict. She was painted to give you closure. These two? They were painted to both protect me annnnd make Serafall irritated at me." 

"I get that you are worried for me." I begin as I begin tapping away at the computer. "I get that my powers would make me a target... and-" 

My powers flare briefly. 

"I get that some people down in the church tried to break into my room and steal Tock's original painting- I'm also aware that you took it out to prevent that from happening after the attempt and you can keep it here, just be sure to have someone ferry him down to where he is needed-" I note with a small head tilt. "But. Taking me from my friends. Locking me away here in heaven... it really wouldn't be much of a heaven for me, then, would it? Cause when I'm down there... I can feel myself improving." 

The chair squeaks as I slowly turn it around. "Gabriel. I don't want to be forced to live alone again. Not since I finally made some new friends. Besides! I made a promise to Xenovia and I'm going to keep it!" 

"Anyways, here's what I sent to Serafall. While writing it, I got a few interesting ideas!" 

"We're not done with this conversation." Gabriel frowns before she begins reading the message. 

"Heh heheheh." The seraph quietly laughs to herself. "This must have really bothered her!" 

"Aunty, let's make a show!" I beam suddenly. 

The seraph turns, offering me a confused blink. "A... show?" 

"Mhm!" I nod once. "Just think about how much a competing magical girl show would irritate her! Especially if we get better ratings! I had this big idea to have one of the main villains be a Serafall Expy called 'Sera-thing the embodiment of envy'! Which would be REALLY funny if she got mad that our show was better than hers. And, well, if we make it so the show is widespread in the human world, this has the added benefit of newly reincarnated devils assuming that Serafall is actually a children's cartoon villain which would be even more funny!" 

"I even thought of a general plot. It, of course, had to be a magical girl show as that's what Serafall's show is. The general synopsis is that the world is overtaken by villainy and cruelty, an average every-day girl, Sophie, figures out that she's the inheritor of the virtue of kindness, Asophiel! She is forced to run away from home, leaving behind what she knows in order to protect her family and must go on a quest across the globe to find the other virtues and defeat the fallen eighth virtue, Faith... which had become Idolatry after being tempted by the embodiment of Envy, Sera-thing!" 

"This leads into season two where the group must begin fighting back against the seven sins!"  

"Of course, I know nothing about film production, even if my paintings would allow us to give the entire show an interesting animated style, but I could paint a producer quite easily. Oh! Here's my plans!" 

I reach into my bag and pull out some pieces of paper which house a rough sketch of a girl with sunglasses and a beret, holding a movie clapperboard. 

Gabriel leans forwards slightly. "H-Huh? Why does... she have a minigun?" 

"Why don't YOU have a minigun?!" I shoot back with a beaming smile. "Anyways, her main abilities would be her illusionary magic, which would allow us to cheaply create extras, special effects, and costumes quite easily... and, if I paint correctly, she'd have more than enough skill in producing, scripting, and even song-writing that we could make our show with merely a FRACTION of the money Serafall takes to make hers! Which is even better! As a majority of our profits can go to running charities and church renovations." 

"Oh! And look here. At chastity... I made her look suspiciously like her little sister as a double insult! The first would us having a magical girl that looks like her sister- as she tries absolutely everything she can in order to get her own sister to share her hobbies, and then there's the fact that I made her CHASTITY. When Serafall is known to have an intense incestuous desire for her sister! I'd be slapping that desire in the face by having her desires be 'chastity'! Practically screaming to the world that they'll never happen!" 

"..." 

"You... put a lot of thought into this." The blonde carefully mutters. 

"Of course I did!" I smile brightly. "If it has anything to do with art, I'll put my one hundred and ten percent into it! If I said all that stuff to Serafall and then turned around and made a soul-less cash-grab of a show with the sole purpose to anger her, I'd be nothing more than a hypocrite!" 

"So... can you tell me a little more about this show of yours?" The girl questions. "Oh, and can you fetch me that book on the top shelf over there? I need to check something." 

"Well, I haven't really thought that intently on the plot beyond a... skeleton, really." I admit, turning and walking across the bedroom. "I also plan to do something with the retired sin of Discord and the retired virtue of Concord. But that's more of a season five or six thing. The rough plan was to have all of the virtues aside from Kindness get corrupted by Discord and she inadvertently also becomes the Virtue of Concord and passes the torch of Kindness to a side character that had been in the series for a while at that point." 

I stand on the tips of my toes, reaching up as I continue to speak. "We'd need to plan seasons in advance so we could keep a consistent narrative and fill any potential plot holes that might appear." 

I still can't reach the book. 

My wings extend as I float up to grab the- 

"..." 

"I'm really not pleased with you right now." I deadpan. The woman having tricked me into exposing my now golden wings. Getting me distracted through talking about my passions then asking me to do something so simple that I wouldn't think about. 

She lets out a squeal as I am picked up, my halo blazing slightly and tinging the room in a kaleidoscope of golden lights. 

"This aura! This is a true miracle! Your light feels so... so warm and comforting!" She cheers, twirling around with me safely secured in her grasp. 

I can't believe she tricked me. 

I'm more mad at myself for getting so caught up in my show idea. 

"This is incredible! To think that you would also gain golden wings!" The woman continues, carrying me around the room in a spiral as she floats off the ground. "Oh! I can't wait to tell Michael! Oh! The other seraphs would surely want to meet you!" 

She carries me around like a stuffed animal. She seems to have no real concept of personal space... at least when it comes to me. 

Well, I'm not complaining. Her chest is really soft. 

Azazel wishes. 

Eventually she puts me down, causing me to let out a single breath. "How do I get home." 

"..." 

"I can have someone build a new room here and you could live with me!" The woman beams. 

"Gabriel." I deadpan. "I'm not leaving my friends." 

"But- but you could- people- I don't want to lose you!" The girl sputters. 

"..." 

I tilt my head slightly. 

'I wonder. Would that-' my mythic power surges. 'Huh... that'd certainly make the crafting a little bit harder... but I could probably manage... especially now that I can automatically 'take twenty' on my craft checks. My overall ranks in the skill... and the other buffs I have to it... that makes it... roughly a fifty... perhaps a little lower. That means on average I could paint something with thirty hit-die... twenty-eight, actually. Huh. That's enough to paint most ancient dragons. Heck, most Great Wyrm dragons.' 

'Ah. Get back on track.' 

"I... could be convinced. But you'll need to pay me. I'll paint a self portrait that'll let me shunt my senses into it. But- but I just don't want to lose the only friends I've ever had, Gabriel." 

A pained expression crosses her face.  

"So." I turn. "Train me. Make me stronger. And the second I get... say... eight wings? I'm going back down there and there's nothing you- nor anyone else here- can do to stop me." 

"Besides... while being down on earth is certainly dangerous... it's not like I'll be that much safer up here." I shrug idly. 

Her joyous expression slowly falls into an flat and serious one. Her eyes seem to bore into me. 

"Explain." She request- no demands. 

"Well, there's Cherudiel in the research division. Who's in contact with Satanael of the Grigori, who has been showing an indescribable interest in my paintings in order to create an endless army of spirits to seal within artificial sacred gears." 

"Arinral from the heaven guard is in contact with a few reapers and has been smuggling souls out of third heaven and having them be transferred to the Greek pantheon through purgatory." 

"WHAT?!" The woman snarls. "HOW?! That's the ultimate betrayal of the lord's work! He should have fallen LONG ago." 

"Loopholes... in the heavenly system." I admit with a small shrug. "They believe... with all their heart that what they do is all for the benefit of heaven. The largest issue the angels face... is their declining birth rates and that slowly but surely, we are weakening... as more and more angels fall. Cherudiel is giving out information in the off chance that Satanael MIGHT have a solution to our issues... and that Satanael will give him the results of his research on artificial longinus." 

I turn. "Arinral is bribing the grimm reapers as he wants to keep us away from war." 

"They've self deluded themselves... almost like hypnotizing their very own minds." I finish.  

"Do... Do you have proof?" Gabriel slowly asks. 

My powers flare, my will seemingly reverberating across the room. The shelves briefly shake, a nearby painting tilts slightly Gabriel's face becomes ghastly pale before blooming into a tremendous smile. One that fades after she recalls the situation we are in. 

"Cherudiel keeps numerous volumes of journals for his thoughts, research, and actions. A relevant one would be top shelf of his room. Third book from the right. Pages thirteen, eighty seven, one hundred and twenty two and two hundred and fifty through two hundred and fifty one." 

"As for Arinral... that's a little more difficult to prove. There's no real way to do so. It's not as if he left any notes behind. I suppose the way you could do it is search for the people he's taken from the third heaven. I'll list a couple. These are the more recent ones. Jane Smith, born December first eighteen o-one, died age fifty-three, October eighteen fifty four. Jude Arnie, born march nineteen sixty seven, died age thirty-three January first, two thousand. I could go on, but we'd be here a while." 

Gabriel's lips thin. "I... see... how many souls." 

"It has been going on for a little over two centuries, Gabriel. If I was correct in my counting the number's sitting under twenty thousand but above fifteen thousand." I sigh rubbing my forehead. "Now... I've overused my powers today and I'm kind of spent. I think I'm going to lay down... do you mind if I... uh..." 

I gesture over to the large comfortable looking bed sat nearby. 

"No! Of course! Please rest in my bed, I'll return shortly I just have to... ahaha... take a quick look at some things~" the woman brightly smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. 

I walk over to the bed and flop face first onto it as the woman begins to turn to leave. 

"Oh. And Gabriel..." I begin tiredly. 

"Yes Luce?" The woman hums, turning back to me. 

"Before you go around proclaiming my little... omniscience to everyone. You should be made aware that it is merely flashes of omniscience. I ask myself a question and... eighty percent of the time... I just know. However. Twenty percent of the time... I don't... and I can never ask that question ever again... but it's improving. Slowly but surely. First it was seventy nine percent. Now it's eighty. I'm not using this ability for truly important things until its ninety eight percent or higher." 

"You..." Gabriel whispers. "You know... about our father, then..." 

"Yes." I whisper. "I'm sorry. It must be so painful." 

"It... has gotten better with time." The woman weakly smiles. "I'll let you sleep now. After I take care of some business I'll see if I can't get you those materials you need... Oh! And a phone to call your friends." 

"I'll be back soon!" She waves with a cheerful grin. One that turns into a serious glaring frown as she turns and almost stomps away. Quietly fuming over the injustices I revealed. 

I find my eyes drifting shut. 

'That was... odd... for a moment there it felt like my powers would have failed... but...' 

There's one possible reason as to why my flash pulled through... 

Heaven's System. 

I've had divine inspiration before. Perhaps this was similar? 

The echo of the lord left in the heavenly system trying to correct the wrongs in its own way? 

Hm... 

A quest has been completed! 

Exorcism boot camp: {Ongoing Quest} 
So you want to be an exorcist, huh? Well. It's a tough job. Slaying vampires, werewolves, devils and fallen angels. How do we know that you'll be up to it? Well. Through some grueling training, of course! 

Current days of Training: 72 
Successful Duel Victories (Against Unique Opponents): 4 

Special Objectives: 
First Day of Training: [x] 
Seven Days of Training: [x] 
Two Weeks of Training: [x] 
Thirty One Days of Training: [x] 
Two Months of Training: [x] 
Defeat Xenovia in a duel: [x] 
Defeat Irina in a duel: [x] 
Defeat Griselda in a duel: [-] 
Defeat Sagume In a duel: [x] 
Defeat Lint In a duel: [-] 

Rewards: 
8000 total experience 

Ah... yeah that has come to its conclusion, hasn't it? I'll likely get a seraph training instead- 

A quest has been received 

The Thirteenth Seraph: {Ongoing Quest} 
Heaven has taken note of you. How fun! What's less fun is the fact that they have more or less- nicely- house-arrested you to the confines of heaven. Well, if you really fought for it, you'd probably be able to do what you want. No sense in having you fall, after all. But there's only one real option to put their hearts at ease... TRAIN! Train your ass off! You've got to become stronger! Strong enough that others can't push you around! You've got a hot blue haired girl waiting for you to breed her! You can't let your journey end here! 

Current weeks of Training: 0 

Special Objectives: 
Special Objectives: 
One Month of Training: [ ] 
Three Months of Training: [ ] 
Six Months of Training: [ ] 
One Year of Training: [ ] 
Defeat one of the Seraph in combat: [ ] 
Defeat one of the Great Seraph in combat: [ ] 

Rewards: 
1000 Experience per week of training 

Alright... this is technically an improvement. I can only imagine that the overall difficulty will be increased as well. 

I should probably get some rest before I am sent through the ringer. That plane trip was exhausting. 

[Split] 

A woman with long silky blonde hair stalks forwards with purpose, eyes narrowed slightly as an expertly tempered righteous fury burns in her stomach.  

She wears a smile, but if you truly look closely, you would see the sharp edge to her lips and that her eyes are minutely narrowed. 

She is flanked by another figure. She has long light blue hair, nearly white and blood red eyes, and wears a blue dress. Six white wings rest on her back, but those wings shouldn't deceive you. She is of the five great seraphs. Sariel. The Angel of Death. 

A great seraph with six wings may seem strange... however... 

The wings of an angel are a form of... status... they show to what heights an angel has risen. From the weak guardian angels with only a single pair, to the great seraph with twelve. 

However, the strength of an angel does not necessarily decrease should they lose wings. 

The blonde speaks, pausing in front of a second six-winged angel, this one a legitimate six-winged angel, not a result of battle damage like Sariel. "I need to speak with Arinral." 

"Oh! Of course, my lady!" The angel sputters. "He's resting at the moment, just through that door in the barracks." 

The two women step past, stepping through with purpose. 

Numerous angels mill about the room, some laying on beds, others quietly speaking or reading books, some even pray towards a large cross at the back of the room. 

Their gaze locks onto one of the angels laying in bed as those around the room sputter out whispers of shock. 

"Hello." Gabriel smiles gently. "I'm afraid I need to speak with Arinral. It is vitally important." 

The angel in question sits up, surprise on his face. "What can a lowly one such as I do for you, one of the Great Seraphim?" 

"Please come with me, we have something vitally important to discuss." Gabriel notes, then with a snap of her fingers she forcibly teleports the three of them. 

They reappear in a secluded section of second heaven. Something rarely used in this current day and age. The Tower of Babel. A prison crafted from human hubris and desire to play god. 

Sariel turns, a crackling light spear appearing in her hand as she points it at the weaker four-winged angel, Arinral. 

"W-What- what are you-" 

"Principality Arinral. You have been charged with desecrating the sanctity, purity, safety and disturbing the final rest of souls within third heaven. How do you plead?" 

"W-What?! No- that wasn't- I didn't-" The man sputters. "That wasn't my intention!" 

"Why?" Gabriel whispers. "Those... those poor souls. Why would you do this?" 

"O-Our father was weakened by that final battle, right? S-So much so that he has not been able to do much other than recover. When- when I discovered that our enemies could enter Heaven through Purgatory... I-I was horrified. But... I-I cut a deal with them. I-I just needed to buy time! Once our father is back at full strength- he would have reclaimed them! We just need more time!" 

"Oh Arinral..." Gabriel whispers, sorrow briefly gripping her heart as she wipes a tear. "Why didn't you tell us? Why would you do something so foolish!" 

"I-I... I don't know." The man whispers, head hanging low in shame. 

There's a crack, the glowing halo atop his head shatters, four white wings becoming an inky pitch black. 

Gabriel's voice hitches in her throat. 

She... 

She was aware this might happen. 

He has committed a horrific crime. 

One that by all means should have caused him to fall the FIRST time he did it. 

And yet... 

"N-No..." The man whispers, gazing at his hands in horror.  

Her hand comes to her mouth as tears begin to drip down her cheeks. "Arinral... I- I am so sorry." 

His head hangs down as Gabriel continues to cry. 

Luce was right. 

Heaven... isn't as safe as they believed. 

If reapers can enter heaven through purgatory... what else could?! That is a MASSIVE security risk! 

She turns away, unable to bear to see the fallen angel anymore. Knowing that he will be imprisoned here for... a long time... at least until they can feasibly protect the Third Heaven from incursions via purgatory... they can't cast him out yet because... frankly he knows too much. They cannot afford to let that knowledge get out when they are in such a precarious position. 

"I'm truly sorry." She utters one final time before she takes off with a flap of her wings.