Chapter 260:
I took a deep breath as I watched the body of Mephisto's avatar fall into the empty streets below. Taking his head off had been surprisingly cathartic. I took one last look at the Asauchi in my right hand before storing it in my inventory. I would need to get a proper sheathe for it later.
[You've really come a long way, host. You beat Mephisto with almost no effort!]
I chuckled at the System's enthusiasm. "That's not quite true. I put a lot of effort into my acting. From the start of that fight I had to make it seem like he was much stronger than me. I needed him to think he could beat me without going all out." I explained. We were fighting in the heart of New York City after all. There were millions of people nearby that would have been caught up in the crossfire if Mephisto and I started throwing out devastatingly powerful attacks at each other.
[You did good work regardless. Here's your reward!]
{Congratulations! You have leveled up x3! You have reached level 100! On top of Free Stat Points, every Stat will now increase by 100 every time you level up!}
{You have been rewarded with the Ultimate Skill–Lustful Queen!}
{Lustful Queen: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 1000x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse. You will also receive random Stat Point Increases after every "session."}
By the time I finished reading, my smile had turned into a deadpan…
My new Ultimate Skill was seriously called Lustful Queen? "...Really, System?"
[You have to admit that it fits you. You now have a way to quickly replace the Faith Energy you've lost. You can also get stronger now just by…you know…doing the one thing you really enjoy and do almost every night with your Harem.]
"So…My Ultimate Skill is basically just a more powerful and lewder version of Vali's Divine Dividing?" I asked bluntly. That's kind of what it felt like to me.
[Kind of… yeah. Divine Dividing isn't permanent though. Vali loses his buffs over time but you don't!]
I was still a bit skeptical, but I figured I would withhold my judgment until I could properly test out the ability. I saw a Level 14 Imp flying in the sky nearby. It must have been extra stupid to not flee immediately like the rest of the nearby demons did when Mephisto and I started our fight a few minutes ago.
I flashed over towards the Imp and grabbed it by the throat. The demon's eyes widened in fear when it realized it was caught. "Gaaah! M–Mercy…" it begged me while trying to scratch my arms with its claws. Of course, it was too weak to even leave marks on my perfect skin.
"Not a chance." I replied and tightened my squeeze around its throat. I activated Lustful Queen and started draining every speck of the foul creature's Demonic Power. The demon's red skin quickly started to turn black as I literally drained the life out of him.
{+1358 Faith Energy!}
Huh, not bad.
"That's actually pretty useful." I said to myself as the Imp crumbled to ash in my grip. I didn't feel a trace of its foul Demonic Energy at all. All I felt was pure Faith Energy flowing into me. If this skill was 1000 times more effective in the bedroom, then I could regain a huge portion of my reserves in only a week or so! I would obviously have to be careful not to take too much power from my lovers, but if there was one thing they all had in common it was that they all had plenty of power to spare!
A lewd giggle escaped my lips…
"What are you laughing about?" a voice asked curiously from behind me.
"Eeep!" I quickly spun around. Carol was hovering right next to me. I had been a bit distracted and didn't sense her approach. Carol was covered in Demon blood, but she still looked absolutely radiant. I loved women who were strong and beautiful.
Carol turned her head to the side to hide her blush. I realized I had actually just said all of that out loud. "Thank you for the compliment…I think you're quite beautiful as well. I really enjoyed our date… Up until the forces of Hell decided to show up and ruin it."
"I'm really sorry about that. I would tell you this doesn't happen to me often, but that would honestly be a lie. Crazy stuff like this happens to me all the time," I said.
Carol smiled at me and laughed. "You're certainly not the only one."
"I guess that's true. You'll have to tell me more stories of your adventures in space on our next date," I told her with a wink.
Carol smiled at me coyly. "Oh…? You're already expecting a "next" date, are you?"
"Damn right I am," I told her without hesitation, causing her to get embarrassed. The key to flirting with powerful and confident women was to be forward and direct with them.
"W–Well then, I look forward to our next date as well." Carol told me before she decided to change the subject. "There's still quite a few Demons flying around the city, but they're numbers are finally starting to drop. Did you take out their leader?" she asked me.
I nodded. "It was only an Avatar, but Mephisto has been dealt with. Now we just need to find a way to permanently close the portal between Earth and Hell," I explained to the space hero.
"M–Mephisto!?" Carol practically sputtered his name! "You beat Mephisto!?" she asked again in shock.
"I don't know why you're surprised. I took down Arishem already. Mephisto is nothing compared to him," I bragged proudly while placing my hands on my hips. I hovered closer towards her. "Did you forget about that already?" I asked.
Carol blushed again. "To be honest, it still hasn't quite sunk in that you actually beat him. You saw how quickly the most powerful empires in the galaxy fled the second Arishem show'd up to confront you. He was basically the boogeyman of the Galaxy. A lot of alien civilizations didn't even think he was real until then. They probably wouldn't have thought Mephisto was real either," Carol added as an afterthought.
"That's fair," I said while glancing up into the sky. Michael and Gabriel were both doing amazing jobs of mopping up the remaining Demon's. It would be rude of me to leave everything to them while Carol and I chatted in the sky. "We should get back to it. There's still plenty of Demons left to clean up," I said and Carol nodded at me. A golden cosmic aura surrounded her as she rocketed off into a swarm of Demons a few blocks away. They could barely let out a few shrieks before her aura incinerated them all.
It was pretty hot to watch.
With that thought, I started cleaning up the skies as well. I couldn't kill Demons nearly as efficiently as my older Angelic siblings, but I could certainly keep up with Carol. I started putting up some real numbers when I really worked for them. I was fast after all, very fast. 100 demons, 500 demons, 1000, 10000, I honestly lost count after that.
I flew back and forth across the same streets and skies dozens–hundreds of times in only a few minutes. The dual Lightspears must have looked like blurs as I repeatedly lashed out over and over. I was glad I couldn't get physically tired because I must have swung both of my spears over ten thousand times by the time we had mopped up 99% of the invaders.
I landed back on the new top floor of the Baxter building once we had mopped up every Demon we could find. Carol, Gabriel and Michael landed next to me.
"How's it going, Reed?" I asked the man, who was still chained up.
"Fuck you!" He immediately cursed and glared at me like this whole situation was somehow my fault.
That was just plain rude. I waved my hand and put up a small silencing ward around him. He could now curse all he wanted but no one would be able to hear him.
"That was quite a work out," Gabriel said while wiping her brow. "I might be a bit out of shape, it's been a while since I've had to lay waste to the legions of Hell like that." She was just joking to lighten the mood of course, Archangels couldn't actually get out of shape.
"Thank you both so much for helping." I ran forwards and hugged Gabriel and than Michael once again.
Michael patted me on the back. "Of course we would help. Even if it wasn't you who had requested our aid. The forces of Hell are not allowed to set foot on Earth." Michael let me go and his smile turned into a small frown. "How did they even get here in the first place?"
I tilted my head. That was something I had been pondering as well. Reed Richards had clearly fucked up with his portal, but was this entire screw up all on him? There was a–slight–possibility that this could have been a teeny bit my fault. Only a teeny bit though…
[How so?]
'Lady Death did warn me that my final move against Arishem disrupted Space and Time across this Universe,' I replied.
[Nah, you're definitely responsible for bringing the Doomslayer here, but the portal wasn't on you. That's not how science works. This was definitely all on Reed Richards.]
To be honest, I didn't think the System knew how the "science" worked either but I decided to put it out of my head. At the end of the day, Reed was the one who made the crazy portal. If we hadn't been invaded by the forces of Hell, then it would have been the inhabitants of the Negative Zone or whatever crazy other dimensions he'd eventually discover. At some point, he was bound to screw up and cause an invasion of some kind. That was pretty much inevitable for a guy like Reed Richards. Incredibly smart, yet completely lacking in common sense at the same time.
"What do we do now?" Carol asked us.
"With the Demons gone, it won't be long until the emergency services start arriving. We stopped the invasion incredibly quickly, but there will still be hundreds–maybe thousands of people who were injured in the initial chaos. I'll be visiting all the nearby hospitals to heal as many people as I can." Gabriel told us as she spread her wings and started flying towards the nearest hospital. She didn't need directions, as an Archangel she could sense people's pain.
"What about you, Michael?" I asked him.
"Hmmm," he pondered for a moment. "I suppose I should go and explain the situation to the local authorities. This is a good opportunity for me to get to know them and properly introduce myself. Things are currently peaceful in Heaven so I can afford to be away for a few hours." Michael explained. He wanted to meet up with the Mayor of the City along with any representatives SHIELD was sure to have out here soon. I wish I could go with him just to see all of their reactions, but I had other business to take care of.
Such as reprimanding my daughter and niece who were currently hiding behind the door to our left…
"I know you're there, Heather and Asia. Would you mind explaining to me why the two of you happen to be at ground zero during a Demonic invasion?" I called out to them both.
The door slowly opened. Heather and Asia both sheepishly walked out. "H–Hey mom, what a coincidence? What are you doing here?" Heather asked me. She was trying to be nonchalant, but I knew that she knew that she was in trouble…
I appreciated the two of them trying to help, but they were both only two winged Angels. Heather might be on the verge of evolving into a four winged Fallen Angel, but she wasn't quite there yet. They both could have easily died here. If Mephisto had emerged before I'd arrived, then he would have absolutely recognized Heather and taken her hostage to use against me.
And then there was Asia. She was a "pure" Angel. Mephisto wouldn't have hesitated in trying to break her just for the fun of it. She would have been powerless to stop him as well.
It was harsh, but I explained all of this to both of them. Carol was next to me nodding along with my explanation.
"I'm sorry…" Asia said with tears in her eyes. "I just wanted to help, John. I'd never seen someone who had endured so much pain and was still so nice. He saved a bunch of people." Asia told us.
"I only really realized I was out of my league once we reached this building," Heather added as well. She understood she could have died here. "It was easy taking out a handful of Imps, but the Hellhounds and larger Demons were a lot scarier. If John wasn't with us we would have been in trouble. I'm pretty sure he saved us like a bunch of times!" Heather finished.
"Is John the Doom Slayer's name?" I asked and they both nodded. Huh…he had the same name as the Master Chief. That was just lazy writing in my opinion, but it was what it was. "Where is he now?" I asked while looking around the rooftop. I didn't see him or Jezebel. Also, I feel like someone else was missing as well.
"He beat up the evil Demon lady and then he leapt inside the portal to Hell!" Heather said while pointing above our heads. The green portal was still going strong, but no more demons had emerged from it for a while now. Was the Doom Slayer waging a one man war against them in their own dimension. Was that why they stopped coming through!? I thought it was because I took down Mephisto, but maybe that wasn't the case.
[Fuck yeah he is!]
"He took Jezebel with him. He wants to shut down the portal from the other side," Asia explained. They were hiding behind the door while the Doom Slayer fought Mephisto's daughter in an epic one on one battle.
"I don't know who this Doom Slayer is. Should we follow after him and help?" Carol asked me. She was justifiably concerned, but I waved her off.
"Nah, I'm sure he'll be fine. Mephisto and Jezebel are both out of commission. He's probably raising all kinds of hell…in Hell," I said with a smirk.
"Booo!" Heather scrunched her face and booed at my "Mom joke."
"Miss Layla…that was bad." Even Asia tried to criticize me.
I ignored the teenagers' opinions though because I managed to make Carol laugh. "Why don't we all head back home for now. I'll leave a Shadow Clone here to keep an eye on the portal and wait for John to return," I suggested to everyone. They all thought that sounded like a good idea as well. I turned around to grab Reed Richards so we could leave.
I paused…
Standing next to the tied up Reed Richards…were TWO other Reed Richards. They looked slightly different in outfit and appearance, but their faces were damn near identical to the tied up man in between them both. They had both popped out of nowhere!
"What. The. Fuck?" I asked out loud.
"You are not worthy to pass Judgment on this man! The Council of Reeds will not allow inferior minds to ever stand above one of our own!" One of the Reeds said to me condescendingly.
"We will return in the future to pass judgment on you all!" the other Reed added, just as condescending as the first. Except, this one was also glaring at all of us lecherously…
A split second later, a portal popped up behind them. The two of them dragged my Universes Reed through the portal with them. I probably could have stopped them, but I was completely caught off guard by the absurdity of what I had just witnessed.
"Did I just get talked down to by two Rick and Morty knock offs!?" I huffed indignantly.
[Technically Rick and Morty was parodying the Council of Reeds…]
'I don't care. This Council is now on my shit list.'
XXX