Chapter: 57
In the underworld of the alternate Earth, Azazel, the leader of the Fallen Angels, had been conducting tests with his artificial space-time sacred gear to locate Layla. This sacred gear, similar to dimension lost, could teleport almost anywhere, even into the dimensional gap. Unfortunately, it had activated on its own in his lab, sucking Layla through the portal to an unknown location. Needless to say, the other Fallen Angels, who doted on their youngest sister, were not pleased with him.
"Sir! We just got a reading from one of the stray devils we sent through. Subject S-35 has been killed," Azazel's assistant, Penemue, said, examining the readings on the lab equipment in front of her.
"So what?" Azazel replied. "Many of the strays we've sent have been killed."
"Yes, but none died due to Angel Light!" she exclaimed, excitement lighting up her face. Penemue was certain Layla had killed that stray. After over a month, they finally found Layla's location.
Azazel was ecstatic that they had found his missing sister. Now, Gabriel and Michael would stop nagging him, and he could bring Layla home.
"Quick! Enter the coordinates of where we sent S-35! It's time to bring our sister home."
...
"Aggh! LiAr!" The stray screamed in pain as my Lightspear dealt a fatal blow. I no longer had use for the creature, and it was far too dangerous to let go. Azazel had sent it here as a test subject, but he hadn't considered there might be innocent people wherever he sent the creature. It had devoured over nine people, and those deaths were partially on Azazel. I would make sure he made up for them in the future.
[Quest completed! You have leveled up!]
Thor shot me a disapproving look for executing the devil. "You promised to spare it. Not doing so was dishonorable."
"Thor, it was a monster that literally ate people to sustain itself. There was no way I could spare it. And if we're talking about dishonorable acts, there are quite a few tales of your youthful adventures. What about the time you dressed as a bride to get your stolen hammer back from the Giant Thyrm–"
"We do not speak of that incident!" Thor exclaimed, his face red in embarrassment. "How do you even know about such a thing?"
"It's in pretty much every Norse mythology book. Pretty much everyone who studied that history knows…" I said, and his face turned mortified.
"Damn you Loki for telling everyone about that incident!" Thor cursed and shook his fist towards the sky. Heimdal was probably cracking up right now if he was spying on us.
"Anyway… moving on. Help me search for clues around here." I gestured to the rocky desert terrain that the devil had led us to. It claimed that this was where he had been dropped off, so there might be some clues to find." I explained.
"Clues?" Thor asked. "Will more of those beasts appear from here? We must stop them if that is the case! I can't risk Lady Jane being placed in danger!"
"You must really like the girl, huh? Didn't you just meet her?" I asked. The relationship between Thor and Jane was always a bit strange to me. They only knew each other for a few days, yet they were willing to die for each other. I guess when you know you've found the right one… My thoughts once again drifted off to Natasha and whether we simply had a fling or something else. She had been out of contact for a while after all.
"Lady Layla, what is that!?" Thor's voice exclaimed from behind a few boulders. I quickly ran around them, and my eyes widened at what I saw! There was a blue swirling portal forming right in front of us. It was growing wider by the second as arcs of electricity formed around it. I grabbed Thor and pulled us backward in case Azazel was sending another test stray devil through.
That wasn't the case, though, as a familiar pair of Fallen Angels stepped through the arcing blue portal. "Sister Penemue and Brother Azazel!" I exclaimed as I ran forward to greet the pair that had stepped through. They had actually done it! They created a successful portal between our worlds.
"Layla!" Penemue's eyes widened in happiness before she enveloped me in a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay! You had no idea how worried everyone was when the moron over there sent you away!" She said, glaring at Azazel. Penemue was a tall woman with the same features as myself. Out of all the other Fallen, you could honestly say that she and I resembled each other the most except that she was a full head taller than me.
"Hey, I'm sorry, alright. Besides, it looks like Layla is totally fine. If anything, she seems better than fine. Looks like you've gained some wings there, huh?" Azazel said with a smirk, clearly noticing my rise in power. The portal closed behind him, and he stepped forward, giving me a hug after Penemue begrudgingly let me go. "I'm really sorry about everything."
"It's fine; if anything, it finally got me to go outside again and have an adventure!" I exclaimed. I had quite a bit to tell them about.
"Indeed! Nothing beats a good adventure!" Thor boisterously made his presence known from the side.
My two older siblings turned to him.
"Thor!?" Azazel said the man's name in surprise. "What are you doing here? And why do you feel so… weak?"
"Ah, I angered my father by trying to destroy Jotunheim, and he sealed my power and dumped me on Midgard to repent. As Lady Layla would say, it was a whole thing…" The two of them gave him confused looks at his remark, but chose to not comment further.
"Well, thank you for watching out for our little sister, Prince Thor, but we really must be going back before–" Penemue said, turning around toward where the portal had appeared. Her face turned ashen upon not seeing the blue portal there anymore. "Oh, shit…"
Azazel turned around as well. His expression looked a bit grim at the missing portal. "Well… that wasn't supposed to happen."
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"The portal was supposed to last at least an hour before closing… we're stuck here," Azazel said. "Whoops, it appears my calculations were a bit off again. Looks like my gear wasn't quite ready yet." He laughed as he explained the situation. Penemue looked like she wanted to absolutely throttle our faction's leader.
XXX
--------------------------------------------------
Read 10+ chapters in advance over on my Pat.reon.
Pat.reon.com/StarWaves (Remove the .)