Chapter: 65
Sif didn't know how to feel right now. She was watching a being she thought extinct face off against her realm's greatest weapon. Not only that, but the not-extinct winged woman was holding her own against the Destroyer.
"Woo! Go Layla!" "Kick that evil robot's ass!" "Layla-Layla-Layla!"
Then there were all the mortals who were cheering loudly as they watched the fight. At least they had the sense to stand further back lest a stray blast hit them. Although that may also have been the twelve-winged angel's doing. She could sense him casting some kind of boundary ward that kept the mundane people from getting any closer to the dangerous fight in front of her. Although, Sif was starting to question just how dangerous this fight truly was. Especially when the other two angels with even more wings than the one facing off against the destroyer didn't seem to be worried for their friend at all as she fiercely battled.
A few hours earlier, Sif was training with the Warriors Three when Loki of all Gods appeared before them and asked for their help. They were all skeptical, of course – as they should have been, but then he mentioned the help was for Thor. According to Loki, Thor was powerless on Midgard and was in the process of being taken advantage of by the mortals there who were supposedly attempting to glean all of Asgard's secrets from him. In their haste, they didn't even question his words and rushed off to save their crown prince. It was only upon landing and seeing the crowds of Midgardians celebrating in the streets and openly worshiping their prince – as they had for thousands of years – that Sif realized Loki had tricked them. She had no idea why he wanted to do such a thing until a bit after they arrived; the destroyer followed after them. From the path it took, it was heading right towards them. Loki had somehow gained control of Asgard's weapon and sent it after them! Was he trying to kill his own brother!?
That was when the most unexpected thing happened before Sif's eyes. A Fallen Angel of all things – a being thought long extinct by her people – appeared before the destroyer and started fighting it. Not only that, but they were evenly matched. Such a thing shouldn't have been possible, for it was a weapon designed to kill gods – at least that's what she'd been told. Now, as she watched the six-winged Fallen Angel deliver a powerful spear-stab to the destroyer's torso, Sif was not quite sure what to think.
"Nice, it's been a while since I've seen any of Asgard's famous war golems in the field. They might not be very powerful, but they sure do look cool. Gotta hand it to Buri, the guy really had the taste of a true mecha otaku." The twelve-winged Fallen Angel commented. Sif only understood some of those words, yet from what she just gleaned, the Destroyer was created by King Odin's grandfather, King Buri. She was not aware of that fact. He also seemed to be under the impression that Asgard had more of them for some reason when everyone knew the destroyer was one of a kind…
BOOM!
Across the distance, the now EIGHT-winged angel–and when did that happen? – Summoned forth a massive spear-like construct of dark purple light! Layla flew above the destroyer, dodging its powerful heat blasts before slamming the spear down right on top of the war golem! The ensuing blast was so powerful that all the sand within dozens of meters was turned to glass.
"Our little Layla certainly has gotten stronger. Who'd have thought she'd advance to high class in a little over a month. That kind of speed is almost unheard of!" The ten-winged angel stated. "And to think she gained another pair of wings mid battle too!"
"Damn straight!" Azazel added. "That was some crazy anime powerup shit right there!" He laughed out loud.
"High class? What's that?" Sif heard the human female – who held Thor's current affections – ask. Sif wanted to hate the woman for stealing away Thor, but she knew the truth for a long time now. Thor just plain wasn't interested in her. They had tried courting a few hundred years ago, but he quickly lost interest, and their relationship never went anywhere meaningful–much to her and his parents' disappointment. After all, Sif had basically been raised in the palace to be Asgard's next queen. Frigga herself had given her many lessons on ruling and court politics. All that turned out to be for naught though, as it seemed Asgard's future queen might end up being a mortal woman…
"I would like to know what high class is as well." Thor said. The twelve-winged Fallen – Azazel as he introduced himself – gave Thor a troubled look. One he shared with the other female Fallen, Penemue, who looked to Sif to be the older sister of Layla.
"You don't remember power ranking class designations?" Penemue asked. "They were pretty much universal though…" She trailed off.
"Thor, I have a question for you," Sif heard Azazel say. "Do you know who I am?" He asked Thor with a serious look.
Thor nodded in confusion. "Of course. You are Azazel, Layla's older brother. You are also the leader of the fallen angels, according to her." Thor said, to Sif's surprise. He was king of the fallen angels? But he acted so casually with everyone! Sif was surprised at how different Azazel was from the hard and stoic King Odin. Sif also noticed that Thor's answer did not satisfy Azazel.
"Yes, Thor. Layla is correct, but you and I have met a bunch of times before now, you know. Don't you remember that time 1100 years ago!? We both got drunk and decided to do a panty raid of Vanaheim's royal palace?" Azazel said.
"What!?" Sif exclaimed in shock.
"Thor! You absolute dog you. I didn't know you had it in you, my good man!" Fandral commented. Sif was also unaware of such an event ever transpiring. Although her memories of events from such a long time ago were… fuzzy for some reason.
"We did!?" Thor asked in surprise. "I feel like I should have remembered that…"
Sif didn't like the frown Azazel was sporting as he seemed to be examining Thor closely. "Yes you should remember that. Especially, considering the beating we got from the goddess Freya when we'd been caught. We almost started a new war! Man, your sister Hela was absolutely pissed... How is she anyway? That woman had legs that went for days…"
Sif's confusion hit a peak. Who was Hela? What was Azazel talking about?
"I say, my good man. Are you sure you have the right Thor?" Fandral said.
"That's right." "Hmph." Hogan and Volstagg added.
"I don't have a sister." Thor said with a confused look.
Sif noticed Azazel was going to comment, but it was surprisingly the mortal Jane who spoke first. "What do you mean, Thor? Hela, the goddess of death, is really famous in Norse lore. I knew Loki apparently spread a bunch of lies, but there's no way he made up an entire goddess, right? She's supposed to rule over Helheim after all." She finished. Sif felt her head start to throb in pain as she listened to the mortal's words. Thor along with the warriors three looked the same.
…
"Damn, this thing can really take a beating." I muttered as I impaled the Destroyer with another light spear. It barely seemed to do any damage. In fact, I think the Destroyer was absorbing the magic in my spears to heal itself, as they were quickly fading away every time I stabbed the thing. I used 'Observe' on the knockoff 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' mecha.
[Destroyer - LvL 16. One of many magic golems created by King Buri of Asgard to fill the ranks of his armies. This is a generic model with no special modifications.]
What the hell did that even mean? Generic model? There were more of these things in Asgard? I thought they only had the one. My pondering was interrupted as its faceplate once again lowered, and I had to dive out of the way to dodge another heat blast. The beam missed as it veered off into the desert and turned all sand it hit into glass. I whistled at the power of that blast. It was easily in the lower ranges of high class in power. The only thing that held this robot back from being truly dangerous was how slow it was. It barely moved faster than the average human could. It sure could take a pounding, though. I had been fighting against it for almost ten minutes ago and not really doing any permanent damage. I figured this was as good a time as any for my 'unexpected' power-up.
[Name: Layla of the Fallen]
[Title: Angel of Hope]
[Level: 7]
[HP: 3100→4100]
[MP: 610→800]
[Vigor: 110]
[Strength: 25→30]
[Intelligence: 61→80]
[Luck: 20→25]
[Skills: Observe 2, Angelic Mastery 3→4, Acting 3, Light Manipulation 4→5, HP to MP conversion]
[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Mana Siphoner]
[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]
[Available Free Stat Points: 30→0]
[Skill Up Point: +1]
I used all of my available free stat points and raised my strength and luck by 5 points respectively and my intelligence by 19. That was enough to push my MP finally to 800! I felt a rush of power flow through me as I once again underwent a familiar evolution. Another pair of wings sprouted from my back as I reached the peak of high class with a set of 8 wings to show for it!
[Angelic Mastery has leveled up to 4! → You can now bestow angelic blessings onto others!]
[Light Manipulation has leveled up! → You can now reabsorb your light constructs to regain 50% MP!]
[Observe has leveled up! → You can now see HP and MP of targets!]
I dismissed the prompts even as I smiled at all of them. They all seemed incredibly useful! For now though, I still had a fight to win and could get back to them later. I used my upgraded observe on the destroyer to try and figure out what was going on with it. I had impaled with over 20 Lightspears at this point with nothing to show for it. It was incredibly irritating–not knowing if I was doing any real damage or not!
[Destroyer -HP: 5000/5000-
-MP: 3400/4000-]
That was annoying information. The damn thing was absorbing the magic from my light spears to heal itself! It seemed like if I wanted to take this thing out, I'd have to do it in one shot! At least I had the power and mana to do that now. I called forth what I would have previously considered to be a titanic amount of power as I spent 200 MP and summoned a light spear that was bigger than ten of me put together. It must have been a comical sight to the onlookers to see a girl like myself hefting a light spear the size of a minivan over my head. I dodged the latest slow-moving blast from the robot before returning the favor and hurling my gigantic light spear at the damn thing! The ensuing blast was truly something to behold!
BOOOOOOMMM!
[-500 HP!]
I was a little too close for comfort when all that compressed Light magic ended up exploding nearby. I was sent hurtling into the now completely glass landscape around me! I didn't care though, as I was too busy laughing from that awesome explosion! I just wiped out a whole football field's worth of area with a single attack! Let's see the robot bastard survive that!
[Destroyer Defeated! You have leveled up!]
XXX
A/N: What infinity stones did Odin have when the Celestials attacked in my story? Power, Space and Mind. None of those would have allowed him to restore Asgard as only Time or Reality could do that. Odin didn't know where either of those, or the Soul Stone were.
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