D&devils 3: Celestial Artistry: Chapter 13

A low breath leaves my lips as I sag on the couch. Meeting Rias and Sona was frankly exhausting then there was... her... 

I swear that girl is like the embodiment of lust. What is even her deal? 

I might have enabled her by lifting my shirt slightly, but what sort of freak asks a guy about their dick length point blank... and why was Xenovia so interested?! 

Well, I mean, I know why. But STILL! 

"Luce~" Gabriel practically flings herself at me, wrapping me in a hug. 

"Oh, hello Gabriel!" I smile brightly as she rubs her face against my cheek. "Long day?" 

"Mhm." The woman sighs. "I spent all day collecting evidence." 

"Oh. The Diodora thing?" I asks. 

"Yes." She frowns. "I have scheduled a meeting with Serafall soon. We will get these girls back." 

"What do you plan on doing with them?" I ask. 

The woman is silent for a long moment.  

"There are ways to remove a devil's evil piece and save their souls. There was quite a large disturbance a few years ago when the Boundary Youkai broke into hell, whisked away every single youkai that had been taken from their homes, then turned them back into pure youkai... but she isn't on... very good terms with the church and by extension heaven." 

"Heaven has a method as well, however... it... would result in their death... but their souls will be saved. They will go to third heaven where all the other deceased humans reside. So... I'm asking you this, but... do... do you think they'd prefer to be dead after all they suffered through?" 

"..." 

"There are probably ways that I could get around that. I'd need to think on that. I'm not sure if I should waste my power on it when it could mess up." 

The woman lets out a hum of acknowledgement as we fall into silence. 

"So, did you have fun with your friends?" She questions 

"Oh! Yes I did." I nod once. "I also met Serafall's sister... that was an experience." 

"Well, actually she was entirely professional. Very serious. It was the Gremory girl that really whipped Xenovia up into a frenzy as she asked me if I wanted to join her peerage." 

"..." Gabriel's eyes sharpen slightly "A devil... asked a pure blooded angel if they'd want to become a devil..." 

"Well, I did comment on how I spent the first fourteen years of my life being berated and abused by the church to calm Isaiah." I shrug. 

"Oh! Right... the second survivor of... that..." The woman frowns for a moment, eyes narrowing before brightening up. "How is he?" 

"He's doing a lot better. He's with friends who care for him. The main thing is that he kind of pushed aside his own problems and was seconds away from making an excuse to attack us. the letters I gave him calmed him down a little bit. I pray that he is able to work through his demons." 

"Yes. I as well." Gabriel nods twice. "A terrible thing was done to him." 

"One that was caused by the church." I deadpan. 

"..." 

"Not to sound like a broken record, Gabriel, but things need to be done before they stab us in the back~" I smile brightly. "I asked myself a question a while back. 'Would the church in its current state rebel against heaven should we make peace with the fallen and devils?'. And do you want to know what I got back?" 

"Half." I glare. "Half of them." 

"Two thirds if we have to make any large concessions to them, such as handing over one of our holy relics or allowing them to freely make deals in the towns around our most important locations." I cross my arms. "But even if we make perfect peace. As in, we ensure the devils no longer revive humans without consent, and we deal with the... problematic... devils and fallen angels, still thirty percent would rebel. Not because 'we are betraying them by allying with the race which has caused so much suffering', but because 'they are trying to stop us from killing devils'." 

She wilts under my stare. 

"Luce... we need to be careful about these things." She sighs. 

"We NEEDED to be careful about these things." I correct. "I'm here now. We have my paintings. The Flugel, and most importantly the Brave Saints." 

A weary sigh leaves my lips as I cross my arms. "I still need to show you the abilities of Flonne..." 

"As for brave saints... should... I revive my friends?" I question. "I am aware that Heaven wants to keep the knowledge of Brave Saints a secret for a time. Would me reviving Xenovia, Irina, and the others reveal our hand too soon?" 

"I am not sure." The seraph admits. "Kuoh is going to be... closely watched by the devils as the little siblings of two of the four satans reside there. There are no shortage of devils who would see an angel outside of heaven and would target them simply out of spite. Most amongst the old satan faction, but I have no doubts that there are a few within the new government." 

"That's true. Very well. I'll wait until they return from their mission." 

"But then again, Sariel and the others have already begun seeking out members for their suits." She cocks her head to the side. "I believe she spoke about getting the wielder of annihilation maker before the church can twist him to their views. There has been talks of making Dulio a Joker as well." 

"But on the topic of brave saints." The woman begins slowly. "You mentioned some more aspects to our Brave Saints and Michael and the others were curious. You didn't really mention them after you finished talking about the 'poker' thing..." 

"Oh. I was trying to be mysterious like Ajuka was. Buuuut I suppose I could tell you a bit more. First off, it can revive the recently deceased like evil pieces can, the limit is about thirty minutes. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Next, some of the powers that work while you aren't a part of a 'deck', firstly High-Card still functions. Allowing it to be extended over your entire suit. It may only be five percent of the strongest, but for ace and Joker cards, five percent might bring low class up to high class, or high class to ultimate class." 

"Then, there's the whole 'reincarnate into an angel' thing. They're given the ability to manipulate holy light, heal, gain more wings as they grow stronger... you know, classic angel things. Then there's a special quality called 'Blackjack' where if you use a number of cards adding up to twenty-one, they can all combine their magical power and strength in order to use more powerful magic, be it shielding, attacking, healing, or some sort of enhancement magic. 

"An example of this would be using a ten, a nine, and a two. Or a three, five, Ace, and two. Aces in Blackjack are counted as either one or eleven, whichever is more convenient, while Queens, Jacks, and even you as the king all count as ten." 

"Oh! That's interesting! So their strength is added together? That could be really useful!" The woman beams. "Is there anything random about it like with the Deck ability?" 

"Nope. You can just pick and choose when you activate it and which cards are included. I could have made it randomly select one of your cards, but then I'd be forced to add a 'bust' effect which would... not be good. Weakening you and your allies if you went over twenty one." I cross my arms, letting out a small sigh. "The power would have been greatly increased had I used the 'random' blackjack, but the cost was too great. I didn't think the twenty-one times boost to the magic's potency on a perfect twenty one was worth the forty percent weakness if you ever went above it." 

"Though, it was worthy of note that you could have activated Blackjack when you weren't on a perfect twenty-one, as long as you were lower than that number. With the power of the magic increasing the closer you got to twenty-one. But it wasn't much. A times five for twenty and it only went down from there. In fact, fourteen and below it actually would have been weaker than it is now." Her hands begin to brush through my hair as I continue to speak, I lean into her touch, eyes closing. 

"You made a good decision, Luce." The woman soothes. "It would have been a double-edged sword. It would have likely gotten many good men and women slain if they accidentally went over. Like this we have much more control now. We can designate groups to power barriers, others to attack. Is there anything else of note?" 

"I may have messed around with the 'luck' of the draws somewhat. If your in a fight for morally good reasons, you both have faith in yourselves and the stakes are high, the better chance you get to gain better hands with the 'deck ability'. I like to call this ability 'heart of the cards'." 

"Then... there is... uh... one more thing." I admit slowly. "Buuuut... you'll probably get a little mad at me." 

The stunning woman blinks twice, tilting her head slightly. "Oh? Why?" 

"Have... you ever heard of strip-poker?" I weakly begin, peering over to the woman. 

Her face falls flat, a small disappointed frown on her lips. "Luce..." 

"No! No hear me out. That just makes it sound worse than it is!" I protest. 

"..." 

"Well?" She questions. 

"In strip poker, when you lose a hand, you are required to take off a piece of clothing." Her stare intensifies, a disapproving frown slowly worming its way across her lips. 

"SO- in... kind of... accordance with those rules... shaped by human belief... I added a... kind of hidden effect to the cards... if someone within a heavenly suit takes a lethal blow..." 

Her eyes widen as she rockets to her feet, her eyes sparkle brightly. "Wh- if they take a lethal blow it will only extend to their clothes?!"  

"Ah... with some caveats." I continue weakly. "Each suit angel- and I suppose even us as we are technically 'kings' is given three additional lives. Shirt. Pants. Underwear. Now, let me just preface this by saying that these 'lives' aren't all-powerful. Some attacks- should they be strong enough- might take more than one life. They might even cut through all the lives and just kill you flat out. The 'Life' of someone is more or less calculated by what their body could take. So a full powered magical blast of a high-class devil may take two lives from a low-class angel, but against you, it wouldn't even make a dent even if you left yourself completely unguarded." 

I rotate my hand. "It's just... a little insurance to protect our reincarnated angels. But it comes at a certain perverted cost." 

"What happens when someone loses these lives?" Gabriel asks, eyes full of light. She seems quite pleased with the new power I revealed.  

"Ah, they'd need to wait at least a week before they regain a 'life', but they'll eventually come back... and they can put clothes back on at any point they want, even if they don't have spare lives so it's not like they're required to be nude if they lose all their extra lives." I shrug. "You're not... mad?" 

"Hm? No! It's Better to be naked than dead!" She grins, hovering off the ground briefly, her hands coming to her heart. "It brings me so much joy that our new angels will have a modicum of protection against the cruelty of this world. It may be a bit... indecent. However! When father created humanity... we were all there... we all saw how human imagination shaped with world... giving power to deities... creating youkai. Making use of this trait is something that most races strive for! But doing so will inevitably have some... rules... to it. We angels didn't used to look like this. We had... ah... unique appearances." 

"Biblically accurate?" I question. 

"Indeed! But some of us took a human form, and the more we spoke to humans the more rumors spread. Thus over time all of the angels became more and more like we are today. Human imagination can shape many things. It's why you see most female youkai take a human-like form while the males have a more bestial body type." 

"It was a brilliant idea to use human imagination this way!" The woman beams. 

I scratch the back of my head under her praise. 

"Well... I'm going to go paint, I guess." I mutter.  

[Split] 

"Guuah-" I grunt, sliding across the floor. 

"Good, good. You're really getting it." The woman in front of me smiles. 

My slash with a blade of light is parried, a swipe from her own weapon burning my skin even through my own light resistance. 

I'm losing... 

Well, of course I'm losing. My opponent is the freaking angel of DEATH! 

An upward swipe is knocked aside. A stab is parried, a fist rockets towards my face- 

I turn hand coming up as I let go of my weapon as I feel mythic power surging throughout my body. My speed increases, light explodes around my knuckles as my fist meets her own offhanded punch. 'Holy... SEAL!' 

CRACK 

her eyes widen, her fist is shoved back. She stumbles slightly, but in that moment of surprise she made one critical error. 

Vmmm 

My light blade struck true in that time. 

Her eyes remain wide in shock, my light sword sticking out of her throat. 

"..." 

Well, resting against her throat. Buzzing and hissing angrily as it tries to get over her sheer resistance- or immunity- to light. 

"What-" she whispers, reaching up and grasping my light sword. 

She pulls it back, the blade lengthening as it is pulled 'out' of her neck. 

She clenches her fist, causing the spear to disappear into motes of light. 

"That- What was that?" She whispers. 

"Hah! I finally won!" I cheer, fists pumping. 

The Thirteenth Seraph: {Ongoing Quest} 

Current weeks of Training: 6 

Special Objectives: 
Special Objectives: 
One Month of Training: [x] 
Three Months of Training: [ ] 
Six Months of Training: [ ] 
One Year of Training: [ ] 
Defeat one of the Seraph in combat: [x] 
Defeat one of the Great Seraph in combat: [x] 

Rewards: 
1000 Experience per week of training. (6000 Total) 

Bonus Reward 1: 
20,000 Experience, Weapon Specialization Feat (Longsword) +2 to physical stats lower than 25, +5 to Maximum Mp Pool 

Bonus Reward 5: 
80,000 Experience, 'Heaven's Next Generation' Achievement, +1 'Mythic Trial'. 

Bonus Reward 6: 
150,000 Experience, An Additional Pair of Wings, +3 Mythic Trials,  

Energy wells up inside of me, my eyes widening slightly. 

It surges higher and higher. 

You Have Leveled Up 

You Have Leveled Up 

You Have Leveled Up 

Three level-ups in an instant... and yet... 

You have unlocked an additional pair of wings upon reaching level 12. 

Two wings appear on my back. 

Delaying Quest Reward, 'Additional Pair of Wings' to prevent excess suspicion. 

You have ascended to Mythic Rank 6 

Heaven's Next Generation: 
Well, you beat one of the Seraph. Even if it was a bit of a cheap shot and she wasn't trying her hardest. Regardless, the insurmountable seraph, who heaven places all of their faith in, if you managed to beat one, surely you must be one. Or at the very least WILL be one quite soon. 

+10 to all social checks with those aligned with Heaven (Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Etc~) 

My hands quiver briefly as I stand there rooted in shock. 

"-ce" 

"Luce." A hand is placed on my shoulder snapping me out of my stupor. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah... I just... I think I just had an epiphany." 

All of this was calculated. I hid my mythic spellcasting ability to land one singular 'killing' blow on the seraph, using her instant of surprise to technically complete my quest's bonus objectives. 

I did similar to Xenovia when we fought... yet this time instead of sand, I just hit her with arguably the most powerful holy spell I've ever seen. 

I mean, clearly. My light spear just kind of sizzled on her, but my 'Justice Bolt' actually caused her to recoil for a moment. 

"Are you okay? You're zoning out again." The woman crouches down slightly, a look of concern on her face. 

"O-Oh! Sorry... I'm just thinking about my new capabilities." I admit as I scratch the back of my head.  

A quest has been completed! 

"Can... uh... Can I go back to Gabriel's now? I think I need some time to re-evaluate myself." 

The woman seems to glance to the side, towards a large glowing orb. "We're cutting it slightly short, but very well, you've reached a tremendous milestone today. I'm really proud of you!" 

She wraps me into a brief hug, which I return. "Thank you, Sariel!" 

"Now go and surprise Gabriel! That new mess with the devils has really made her troubled. She needs some joy." The corners of her mouth turn upwards into a faint smile. 

"Yess Ma'am! Bye Sariel!" I turn and quickly rush off, giving the woman a wave over my shoulder. 

So. 

Three levels to pick out. 

From nine to twelve in an instant... plus I need to figure out what having six wings does for me... and my sixth Mythic trial and- 

Ascension to the throne (Part 2): 
The first step. The first step of many. You're gazed up at the heavens and have made them your goal 
Objectives: 
Reach Level 10: (10/10) [x] 
Reach Mythic Tier 5: (5/5) [x] 
Unlock either the 'Flash of Omniscience' or 'Divine Source' Mythic Ability: [x] 
(Unique Objective)*  
Change someone's life for the better: (10/10) [x] 

Reward: 50,000 Experience, Skill Unlock: Heavenly System Coding, 

I rub my forehead 'alright. This is going to be a lot to work through... 

After around five minutes of briskly making my way through seventh heaven, I come across Gabriel's room.  

I toss the door open. "I'm back early!" 

"Luce!" Gabriel cries, quickly grabbing and hugging me like some sort of emotional support animal. The seraph likes her snuggles apparently. 

She's bemoaned that none of the other seraphs allow her to do anything like this. 

"Guess what!" I beam. 

"What?" The seraph blinks. 

Six golden wings pop out of my back. "Surprise!" 

There's a beat of silence as Gabriel stares. 

"EEEEEE!" Then a high-pitched squeal of excitement leaves her lips. 

[Split] 

Well. I'm reaching that point... 

The point where each level up requires hundreds of thousands of experience. 

The total experience I need practically doubles every two levels. I need about fifty thousand more to get up to level thirteen... 

Regardless, Twelve is good enough for now. 

With it... and my mythic tier combined... I now can cast ninth level spells. 

The best of the best- excluding mythic tenth level spells 

My spellcasting is probably nigh-unmatched in heaven because of all the esoteric nonsense I can apply to all my magic. 

Empowered Justice Bolt REAAAALLY sings to me, frankly. And because it's a holy spell, my race improves its power naturally! 

Let's take a brief look back over my choices... eighth level, I got the 'Vigor' mage talent, meaning my healing spells grant some temporary health, ninth level I got the 'Empower Spell' metamagic feat, increased the caster level of all of my 'holy' spells by one and increased the 'difficulty class' of them by one as well. 

Tenth? Boisterous healing, allowing me to mildly 'over heal' someone, granting them some temporary health that stacks with 'Vigor'. Eleventh allows me to paralyze evil creatures with my 'daylight' spells, and for twelfth? I got 'Advanced Mage Talents' primarily the 'Return to Life' ability which allows me to double the time limit for revival spells. 

So for instance, 'Raise' the fourth level spell has a time limit of six seconds per caster level. That would double to twelve seconds per caster level. 

Useful. Definitely useful. 

Then there's my mythic. 

Mythic rank four, Mythic Spellcasting, giving me a boost to some of the base pathfinder spells that my 'Mythic Path' granted me. Fifth? Display of Intelligence, just REALY ensuring that I could paint anything I ever wanted, allowing me to spend a mythic power to increase the next 'Intelligence' skill check I make by twenty. 

Mythic rank six gave me probably my strongest ability. 

'Enduring Spells'. Any spell I cast that last longer than an hour, but shorter than twenty-four hours now lasts twenty four hours. 

So. 

My power has spiked considerably. 

I feel... actually kind of secure in my current power. 

Like, I'm not 'the strongest in the universe', but if Rizevim or whatever shows up to attack me, I know that one of my empowered 'Justice Storm's- the ranged area of effect version of 'Justice Bolt' would probably fuck him up really badly. Might not kill but more of a 'holy shit I should probably get out of the way of that'. giving me time to run away like a little sissy baby. 

Race: Six-Winged Angel 
A child of god's light. Quite powerful amongst the angels, roughly half-way through their ascension a six-winged angel is fully capable of great feats with light and healing. 

Ability Score Modifiers: +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +8 Constitution, +10 Charisma 
Type: Angels are Outsiders with the 'Native' subtype. 
Size: Angels are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. 
Base Speed: Angels have a base speed of 40 feet, and have a Flight speed of 100. (Good maneuverability) 
Languages: Angels begin play speaking Celestial. Angels with high Intelligence scores can choose an additional language for each point of their Intelligence Modifier 

Defensive Racial Traits: 
Celestial Resistance: Six-Winged Angels have Holy resistance 20, meaning they must take 21 holy damage before even a single point of holy damage hurts them. 

Light magic (Average): 
You are granted a pool of magical energy equal to your (Level+Charisma Modifier)*2. Using a number of points equal to the spell level of one of the following abilities, you may cast 'Cure', 'Light', 'Dia', 'Cure 2', 'Light 2', 'Holy Weapon', 'Cure 3', 'Light 3', or 'Dia 3' as a spell-like-ability with a caster level equal to your hit-die.  
Special: If you are a White Mage, you may instead convert this energy into MP at a 1-1 Ratio 

Overall, my strength, constitution, dexterity, and charisma all improved by four from what they were as a four-winged angel. 

Anyways, that plus twenty I can add to my craft check... it's got me thinking. 

What if I paint arguably my strongest creation to date? 

I have a general... outline for her. 

All I need to do now is paint... 

Paint and paint and paint. 

My rough calculations have me painting for at least seventeen days. Plus it'll blow through like... all of my current painting budget. 

A smile blooms across my lips, slightly impish and mischievous. 

I wonder what the Seraph will say when I'm done? 

This will be like... a step beyond my normal paintings. 

Maybe I should paint Goku first? 

Mn... 

Nah... 

 Goku isn't a hot woman. 

Though... I mean... he could be? 

I shake my head, rising from my spot on the couch, then turn and make my way towards my art studio. 

My eyes briefly stray over my stat sheet, before nodding once. 

Name: Luce 

Level: 12 

Class: White Mage (Holy Warden) 

Race: Six-Winged Angel 

Stats: 

Health 170/170 
MP: 149/149 
AC 17 

STR: 23 
DEX: 25 
CON: 25 
INT: 12 
WIS: 25 
CHA: 25 

I'm technically counted as an eighteenth level caster, so have all the MP a level eighteen would. A normal level twelve might have like... probably a little under half of that mana. 

Mythic being added to my caster level has definitely improved my strength quite a bit. 

The door clicks shut behind me as I gaze over to where numerous man-sized paintings reside, I make a slight mental note to ask Sariel if I can postpone my training briefly until I complete my next work. 

I lift one of the canvasses and begin to sketch out a profile for who I wish to create. 

The devils have 'Super Devils', so... perhaps it's time we gain something similar. 

Or at the very least, another seraph! 

I still haven't exactly 'combat tested' my other creations yet. Maybe I should speak to Sariel about that. see how the flugel, Flonne, stands up against the Seraph.