Chapter: 78
Layla, where are we?" Sif asked me after I had finished healing her.
That was a good question. We had not ended up back in the desert like I thought we would have. Heimdal was supposed to set us down right outside the town where Thor was staying with Jane. That had not happened. Instead we had landed in some luscious forest in who knows where. I inspected the trees and plants all around us and sighed in relief. I at least recognized all this foliage. That meant we had still landed on Earth–just not where we intended. That wasn't exactly a big deal. I still had my sling ring after all. I could just portal us back to Puente Antiguo. "It seems like Heimdal needs to get his eyes checked." I joked as I reached into my inventory and extracted my sling ring. "Just give me a second and I'll open a portal back to where Thor is." I said to Sif who nodded.
I placed the sling ring on my finger and started rotating it in the air… And then I kept rotating it. Nothing happened. No portal formed in front of me.
[Uh oh… don't panic.]
I felt a bead of sweat roll down my brow. This wasn't good. My sling ring wasn't working. No, it was worse than that! I couldn't access the dimensional energy that powered the ring on my finger at all!
[It's not just you having performance anxiety. Wherever you ended up…there's no dimensional energy around you at all. It just doesn't exist here.]
"…Fuck." I cursed out loud before stowing my ring away. I wasn't even aware there was anywhere on earth these rings didn't work! You could even use them in the Sanctums and those were warded against every single kind of hellish intruder!
"Something wrong?" Sif asked me in concern. I explained to her that the ring on my finger was not working. Wherever we ended up, we were stuck. Sif looked concerned, as she should be. There was dimensional energy even in the pits of space. Where were we that there wasn't any at all around us?
"We should get moving then. It's still light out, but we don't want to spend a night in the woods if we don't have to do we?" She asked me and I agreed. First, I needed to find out where we should even go. I spread my eight black wings wide and took off into the sky. I looked down below and saw forest in every direction, even a few hundred feet high. Wherever we were, it was in the middle of nowhere… I kept flying higher and higher and the air continued to get thinner. Luckily my body could now survive in a vacuum environment. Eventually after a few thousand feet up, I found signs of civilization.
"Is that freaking Kyoto!?"
[Looks like it…although…]
Somehow Heimdal had missed the mark so badly we had ended up in Japan of all places. A country that currently had a kill order on me because I killed the Beast's son and pretty much declared open war on the hand. That was just freaking perfect, wasn't it?
[I don't think you'll have to worry about the Hand showing up anytime soon.]
'Oh yeah? Why is that?'
[That isn't the Marvel Kyoto… It's the DxD one.]
I let that sink in for a moment before I muttered a string of curses towards the sky. Well, wasn't that just awesome? "Since when can the Bifrost punch through the dimensional gap itself!?" At least I knew where we were, but it was arguably one of the most dangerous places possible at the moment. The threat levels in DxD were a lot higher than Marvel… at least on Earth that was.
Now knowing where we were, I started descending downwards to meet back up with Sif. As I dropped a thousand feet my senses picked up a large magical signature approaching her position. It was heading towards her fast. "Dammit!"
CLANG!
I made out the sound of steel clashing against steel. Whoever had approached Sif so rapidly was as hostile as I expected. I flew lower until I could finally make out who she was fighting. It was a Tengu. We'd barely been near Kyoto for a few minutes and the Yokai were already on us! In fact, we weren't even that close to Kyoto really!
[That's some pretty good wide-range detection magic they have.]
"I have no quarrel with you creature! Stand down!" Sif wearing her golden armor and brandishing her sword had just deflected a slash from a Tengus spear.
"Liar! This is Kyoto territory. Yokai territory! How dare you intrude here! I bet you're here to try and kidnap our princess again. You won't succeed!" The Tengu brandished his spear and lunged forward towards Sif again. She successfully paired again before she spun around and slammed the pommel into the Yokais head. The Tengu slumped to the ground unconscious. Sif noticed me descending to the ground right after.
She had a victorious smile on her face. "Layla! I know not what manner of creature this is, but it and its fellow ilk shall think twice the next time it tries to face me!" She sheathed her sword and smiled at me expectantly. Clearly, she was expecting praise of some kind. I opened my mouth to give her some, but another voice cut me off.
"Is that right? Well then, how 'bout the leader of the 'ilk' faces you herself." A woman's voice called out before I felt a massive amount of power crash down around us. Whoever this was they weren't playing around. They were in the peak of ultimate class!
[Name: Layla of the Fallen]
[Title: Angel of Hope]
[Level: 8]
[HP: 4100]
[MP: 850]
[Vigor: 110]
[Strength: 30→35]
[Intelligence: 85→90]
[Luck: 30]
[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: 10]
[Skill Up Point: 0]
I summoned a Lightspear in my hand and dumped 5 points each into Strength and Intelligence to up my speed and power. Whoever this was, had some serious power. This was going to be a tough fight…
XXX
--------------------------------------------------
Read 10+ chapters in advance over on my Pat.reon.
Pat.reon.com/StarWaves (Remove the first .)