Chapter: 59
'This joke wasn't funny the first time, system, and it's not funny now.'
[This time it's not a joke. I have mentioned to you before about the possibility of universal intruders. One of them just entered the diner…]
"Is something wrong, Layla?" Penemue asked me. "You seem to have gotten distracted all of a sudden."
My attention turned back to my two siblings, who were looking at me in concern. This wasn't exactly something I was expecting to happen anytime soon. The system told me I wouldn't get any of these annoying pets for a few years yet.
[I said you probably wouldn't be getting any anytime soon... Beings from outside your universe are outside of my control. This is where I'd read you the disclaimer if the Gamer System actually had one.]
"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Azazel said. "Out with it."
I momentarily glanced back at Jane, who was now exuberantly talking with a now slightly confused Thor. She was actually hanging off his arm with looks of almost rapture as he started to look more and more uncomfortable. That was not the Jane I remembered from the movies. This girl was acting like a total fangirl. Jane was supposed to be a lot more stoic and never cared about Thor's boasting. That was part of the reason he fell for her after all.
"That girl who just walked in and is now clinging to Prince Thor… I think she's an imposter or something," I explained to the two of them. I didn't want to risk using Observe on her in case she could detect it. Whoever that was clinging to Thor, it wasn't Jane.
"Hm…" Azazel glanced over at her and his eyes glowed golden for a moment. He was using Soul Sight – an angel ability that my Angelic Mastery skill had not unlocked yet. I had heard about it in passing. It allows an angel to view a mortal's soul. It was an ability for angels to see whether or not a human was a sinner. "Oh, yeah. There are two souls in that body. It looks like one of the souls is suppressing the other."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Penemue answered for him. "This is actually not a completely uncommon occurrence. A lot of older human magicians with failing bodies, due to aging, try to send their souls into younger bodies to take them over. It's an evil practice that is banned by most magical organizations. A body can only house two souls for so long before it just can't take it anymore, and one of the souls gets sent 'onward.'" She explained to me.
So basically, we'd have to save Jane from whoever is possessing her soon, or she'll die and this intruder will take over her body. "Is this other soul powerful or something?"
"Azazel's eyes stopped glowing gold before he turned back to me. Nope, it's just an ordinary human soul. That's kind of weird honestly. Usually magician souls are – bigger, for lack of a better word, on account of their magical power."
"Are you feeling alright, Lady Jane? You seem to be acting a bit… strange," Thor said. "You didn't hit your head, did you?" I could hear him asking her as I walked over to the pair. 'Jane' immediately halted her pining for Thor before she turned to me.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" She said to me callously. "Some fangirl of Thor's? Piss off; he doesn't need anyone else besides me." She added with a glare.
Once again, silence swept across the room after everyone gasped at what she just said to me. The audacity of this bitch…
Thor looked completely taken aback. "Lady Jane, how could you be so crass!? This is my newest acquaintance, Lady Layla. Together we went to battle and slew a fearsome evil beast that was plaguing this town!"
"..."
"There was a fearsome beast plaguing this town!?" A diner patron shouted out in fright. Hushed wary murmurings began circulating all around the diner. I decided to get us out of here before Thor caused a full-blown panic. I'm pretty sure Coulson had to do quite a bit of work to temporarily cover up those stray devil attacks, and now it was all for not. I pulled my sling ring out of my inventory before opening up a portal to the same outcropping where Azazel and Penemue arrived.
"Thank you everyone for your hospitality, but I'm afraid we must be off now.," I said as I stepped through the portal. Azazel and Penemue followed after me, along with Thor and a reluctant 'Jane.' Upon seeing my portal and sling ring, a haughty expression reappeared on her.
"So you're just some generic sorcerer bitch? Big deal. I'll have you know that I'm going to be the future queen of Asgard!" Jane glared at my orange portal before it closed. "Doctor Strange 2 sucked, by the way, and sorcery is lame!" I hated whoever this girl was inside so much right now. I did agree with her about Doctor Strange 2 sucking, though… I didn't bother responding to her though as she wasn't going to be around much longer if I had any say about it.
"What is Doctor Strange?" Thor asked. I also wanted to facepalm at this obvious reincarnator dropping future knowledge willy-nilly. It was a good thing Thor was kind of an idiot and would never remember the little details like this.
"Who even knows…" I lied before turning to Azazel now that our group was alone. "So what do we do now? How do we save the original Jane?"
"The original Jane!?" "What!?"
Thor and 'Jane' asked at the same time. The latter had a hint of panic in her voice.
"What are you talking about? I don't need any saving. I'm perfectly fine." She lied so blatantly that even Thor himself didn't look like he believed her.
Thor was angry. "Who are you to take over Lady Jane's body? Is that you in there, Amora!? I told you, Enchantress, that I will never marry you!"
Penemue leaned down and whispered in my ear. "Amora was a big problem for the nine realms before Father broke us off. He targeted all the powerful handsome men and tried to build her own reverse harem army of love slaves. She even almost got Michael himself to fall but thankfully Gabriel slapped her into outer space before it happened." Penemue explained. Damn, all this stuff happened over a thousand years ago. My siblings were really old…
[Says the Fallen with hundreds of years of memories herself…]
"It's not her," Azazel explained. "It's been over a thousand years, but I still remember that particular woman. I'm surprised she's still kicking, to be honest, considering how many men she pissed off with her forced love magic."
"My father banished her from the Nine Realms on pain of death, but I wouldn't put it past her to try and return some day." Thor said. "If it's not her, then who is possessing Lady Jane?"
We all turned to stare at the girl who was now squirming where she stood. Thor's glare was particularly intimidating.
"Ok—OK! I'm not Jane, alright…" She said before she went on to tell us her story. It wasn't a very long one. Apparently, she had died—which was not a surprise as that's how all isekai stories start. Then she met a beautiful goddess who claimed that she would send her to live out her dream if she did the 'goddess' one simple favor. That favor was reporting everything she found about this world back to that 'goddess' through prayer.
'System, that sounds pretty bad!' I thought in a panic. I apparently had some super powerful being already poking their nose in my universe. I wasn't nearly powerful enough to fight off someone like that yet.
[It's not as bad as it may seem. This was obviously just a small feeler. This girl was literally a nobody after all. Just some generic marvel fangirl who the 'goddess' took advantage of.]
'So what does that mean for me?'
[If anything, this will actually work out in your favor. This girl's weak soul has been here barely a few hours and she was already found out and caught by you. The 'goddess' of that universe, who is probably an ex-gamer, will think twice before sending any more probes out of fear for your obvious 'power.']
'Wait, she thinks I'm super powerful because, by luck, I managed to be in the right place at the right time to spot this intruder?' What kind of Mary Sue bullshit was that!?
[Pretty much, yeah.]
"There, I told you all what you wanted to know. So please let me go," The girl pleaded. I did kind of feel bad for her as she was sort of tricked, but then again she still had no qualms about stealing Jane's body. She also had way to much future knowledge that i didnt want to risk getting out. She had to go.
"Get rid of her bro…" I said to Azazel.
"No problem," Azazel replied as he held up his hand to her face. She gulped in fear and tried to escape but it was far too late for that. There was a flash of golden light followed by a scream before Jane stumbled and almost fell over. She clutched her head and started hyperventilating.
"Holy shit, that was so weird! It was like I was in my body, but it was walking and talking on its own!" The real Jane said. "I didn't think The Exorcist was a real thing! I'm a woman of science!" She shouted angrily to no one in particular. She actually seemed relatively fine, all things considered.
"I'm not exactly sure what just happened, but thank you for your help, Sir Azazel," Thor said as he genuinely bowed to my brother. Azazel waved him off, saying it was no trouble.
"Those damn celestials… always causing trouble. It looks like one of them peered into the future and decided to target your future bride, Thor," Azazel explained.
…What? Is that what Azazel thought happened just now?
"Figures it was them. They're the only beings I know of that would try something like that. There was a reason even father feared them." Penemue further added on to Azazel's misunderstanding of the situation…
You know what? I'll take it. Explaining the gamer system and alternate universes is a can of worms I'm not opening for a long time. Thor also seemed to accept their explanation as he let out a few choice expletives targeted at the celestials. Celestials must be just complete assholes in this universe.
[Ego did try to devour hundreds of worlds at once …or should I say is going to try?]
Oh right. You should give me a quest for that before it happens. I want to be the one to kill that guy. The quest rewards would be pretty good I imagine.
[You got it.]
"Future bride!?" Jane exclaimed with a red face. It took her a moment to register what was even going on and then what Azazel had said. "I just met Thor yesterday! I'm not marrying him!" She declared. Thor was looking excited at hearing he would one day marry 'Lady Jane' before he slumped down in sadness at hearing her declaration.
…
[Emergency Quest completed! You have leveled up! You have gained a skill-up point. You can use it to raise any of your skills by one level.]
Nice! I now had a lot of free stat points available to me. I'm pretty sure I was sitting on 30 after not using them from three relatively quick level-ups.
[Name: Layla of the Fallen]
[Title: Angel of Hope]
[Level: 7]
[HP: 3100]
[MP: 610]
[Vigor: 110]
[Strength: 25]
[Intelligence: 61]
[Luck: 20]
[Skills: Observe 1, Angelic Mastery 3, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4, HP to MP conversion]
[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner]
[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]
[Available Free Stat Points: 30]
[Skill Up Point: +1]
/////
A/N: I wasn't planning on having a reincarnator Jane. I just wanted a potential set up for possible future arcs.
/////
XXX
--------------------------------------------------
Read 10+ chapters in advance over on my Pat.reon.
Pat.reon.com/StarWaves (Remove the .)