Chapter 75

[|||| =LEVEL 21= ||||]

Mount Olympus was one of those magical sites that was absolutely stuffed with magic. As I climbed it I actually felt a little choked by the ambient mana. I normally kept the house a little magically barren for Ophis so such a change was a bit much for me. I had to take a break while looking down over the national park to get used to the energy. I even got the opportunity for a small picnic.

Obviously being such a public place, travellers climbed Mount Olympus all the time for photos, outings, or just the memories. There was an enchantment over the whole part that kept the higher parts of the mountain out of mortal eyes. When you thought you were at the peak you were only really three quarters of the way up. For me and other magicians powerful enough the enchantment just slid right off.

And as I climbed higher and higher I started to see how the mountain bled into a city. It started with marbling and some small houses, though they were more like villas, really. I saw a few pretty women, some human-ish and some clearly nonhuman; dryads, nymphs, satyrs, and a naiad. A few uses of observe revealed how the humans were all descendents of the greek gods, sometimes distantly.

It was all very… exclusive. I felt a little bit like an outsider by how some of the people looked at me. A few who recognized me were quick to whisper with their neighbors. I didn't like the attention. I would have to disguise myself next time if I wanted to tour the city in peace.

Higher up there were less villas and more infrastructure. There was a lot more marble and glass than a normal city and quite a lot of random murals on walls (marble, of course. The Greeks seemed to love that) but overall the city seemed pretty normal. I saw a satyr in a business suit rushing to a meeting, a coffee shop with a half devil flirting with a customer, teens smoking on a corner, and even a tram. It was all modern and updated, kind of like a strange reflection of the Percy Jackson series. A true modern magical society. Some parts of it could be improved - they didn't need power lines when magical teleportation was commonplace - but I liked it for the most part.

After two hours of wandering the city I was eating some fruit and relaxing near a playground. I wasn't in a rush to go anywhere.

"Back off Polyphemus! My majesty belongs to the people of Greece!" one lean kid yelled. He waved a stick menacingly. The other kid, who only had one eye, laughed mockingly.

"Ah, poor silly Odysseus! You landed on my island! That makes you my food!"

"I granted you xenia!"

"… What's that?" The one-eyed kid looked confused.

"Uh dad explained it yesterday. It means like… guest rights. Giving gifts and stuff as thanks for hospitaliby… hospitality." The hero explained, scowling briefly as he mispronounced a word.

"Hah! As if I would respect the rights of some mere mortal! You owe me ten times the offerings provided to even be able to look upon my visage!" The other kid boasted. One other girl noticed the two being silly from some monkey bars at that point.

"Polyphemus didn't know Odysseus' name!" she called. "Odysseus told him his name was Nobody!"

"Shutup, Sam!" the kid playing Odysseus said, annoyed. "We're trying to play Odyssey!"

"Dude, don't be mean to Sam. Not cool," the cycloptic kid said. The other one pouted and lowered his stick.

"Cute, right?" Somebody slid next to me. I glanced at them. A pretty lady in a poofy coat was sitting next to me. She had green eyes and curly black hair that tumbled down to her neck. She smelled a little like perfume and grapes. "Which one's yours?"

"I don't have one. Yet. One on the way, though. Have you got one?"

"Mhm." She nodded and pointed at two kids sitting in a tree, both dark haired with pale skin, a boy and a girl. They were about six or seven by my guess, and muttering while looking at a leather bound book. "Twins. They want to be magicians when they grow up. I told them to go outside so they grabbed a book from my library and came out here."

"That's an advanced book on hydromancy. I don't think they actually understand that." Judging by their furrowed brows and bitten lips they absolutely didn't. The lady grinned.

"They totally don't. But they like to pretend that they do. Elena's able to make some water float and act like a mirror, which is more than most kids her age, but Basil can't do much that's practical. He's better at theory. I keep telling him to try some other elements but he's stubborn and wants to be better than his sister."

"That reminds me of my sister, though we had the positions reversed," I said in reminiscence. "I was better at elemental stuff and had a knack for portals. She was better at martial combat. She's still out hunting for monsters to slay, I think." The lady giggled.

"Tough job these days. Not many monsters to slay."

"Ah, there's plenty if you know where to look. Stray devils are always in season if nothing else. I tried my hand at it but the whole hunting thing never really stuck with me. I prefer studying magic, though that's more of a hobby at this point. I'm more in the management business, the good kind where I leave the details to others."

"Big business, then? You don't look like a businessman." She eyed me over critically, noting my cargo pants and hoodie.

"People can't see you through a cell phone. And there's always illusion magic. Who's going to call me out on it?" She nodded, amused.

"I'd thought that there was more yelling and line graphs."

"The word 'press conference' means to send a representative and have them send me a written report," I said wryly. "And you? You mentioned a library. A mage?"

"Grandaughter of Dionysus, daughter of Aphrodite. My name's Melody. I work in cosmetics and charm magic," she gave me a beautiful smile, one that showed off pearly teeth and high cheekbones. "And you are?"

"Abyss Mavros. I'm something of a god." I smiled back at her and she froze in shock.

"Oh, um, I'm-"

"Don't worry about the whole formality thing. The rumors of me smiting my enemies are greatly exaggerated," I calmed her down. She looked a bit overwhelmed. "I wouldn't be at a kids playground if I wanted praise and admiration. I hear enough of that from prayers."

"Then… You didn't hold off the Satans, Azazel, Michael, and a half dozen other devils effortlessly?" she asked nervously.

"Sirzechs wasn't really trying. Just keeping me at bay. I was more concerned with kicking Vali's ass, the White Dragon Emperor, I mean." She stopped for a moment and chuckled, sounding a little choked.

"Right, right… I guess you showed up to one conference, then. Couldn't defeat the Satans by cellphone, right?" I laughed breezily at her bad joke, more to set her at ease than out of humor.

"If only. The best I can do through a cell phone now is sic my wife on them. Not exactly the stuff that earns respect." Melody rolled her eyes.

"Throwing the Infinite Dragon God at the Satans wouldn't earn you any respect… of course… you live a strange life, Lord Mavros."

"Hey, none of that lord stuff. At most I'm a Mister Mavros and I hardly act respectable enough to be called that." Melody smiled wryly.

"Please forgive this mere commoner, milord. How might I repent for my transgressions?"

"Think you could point me towards wherever Zeus is? I'm a little lost. Olympus doesn't exactly have planned streets." Melody nodded.

"Mind if I come with you? I don't get to see my mother too often. Having an excuse to see her again would be nice." I shrugged and she got up and walked over to her kids.

"Hey kids, I'm going to be gone for a few hours to see grandma, alright?"

"You're summoned?" the girl, Elena, asked in surprise. Basil looked over towards me curiously, the smart kid.

"Ahh, kind of. I'm helping out a friend who can get me in."

"That guy over there?" Basil asked, looking at me. I waved. Melody's smile turned sheepish.

"Abyss is-"

"Abyss? Like Abyss Mavros?" Elena perked up.

"Who's that?" Basil asked.

"The new god, the kitty guy."

"The one that grabbed Serafall and Gabriel's boobs at the same time?" I hid a wince. That damn video.

"Yeah, him… that's him?! Where's his ears?" Elena got excited again.

"Um, he's a god, sweetheart."

"… Okay." Elena grabbed her brother's hand and jumped off the tree branch. Her brother stumbled a little and she steadied him before running towards me.

"Wha-Elena… damnit," Melody swore under her breath. Elena and her brother, stars in their eyes, looked up at me. I was a little uncomfortable but just raised an eyebrow at the two.

"Are you really a god?" she asked.

"Yup. Are you really a human?" Elena frowned. Melody walked up to her two kids and looked a little grumpy that her kids just ran up to me. Or maybe she was just really impatient to see her mother.

"I'm a legacy! Grandma's Aphrodite, Dionysus is great granddad but we've never met him. Could you show us a spell?" I smiled at the two and raised my right hand. The two's eyes stared at it with laser focus. I snapped my fingers and a bird, an illusion made out of hardlight, was suddenly there.

"Whoah… that's it?" Elena looked a bit disappointed. Basil frowned beside her, though he looked at the little bird even closer, as though he would divine some sort of secret from it if he squinted.

"What do you mean that's it? Look around." She and Basil raised their heads and gasped. I hadn't done anything but a small spell with mind magic. I linked my ability to sense magic and basically plugged their ability to see into it, though there were some complex bits to make it safe and not fry their minds.

"Whoah… what is it?" Basil asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Magic, kid. What you're seeing is something I feel all the time. Seeing it is a bit of a crutch but if I showed you everything you would… well it wouldn't be pretty."

"All mages see like this?" she asked, awed. "Look, Sam's all bright blue and… watery!"

"She's a nymph… her magic's watery?"

"A water affinity," I explained. "Look at each other." The twins stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Oh, that's why you suck at water magic! You have a… something affinity! Um, Mister Mavros what's his affinity?" Elena stared at her brother in thought.

"Wood affinity. If you look closer you can see that he has an air affinity too but it's weaker. Most people have more but his are pretty strong compared to normal mages."

"Hear that, sis? I've got talent!" he boasted. "But what are those other ones you've got, then? One's water… is that fire?"

"Lava and gravity," I told him.

"What's gravity?" Elena asked.

"The stuff that makes us stick to the ground," Basil told her.

"Close enough. It really sticks everything together. There's not a whole lot of spells that use gravity. There really should be but it's too new. Gravity wasn't really discovered until Newton. Three centuries isn't enough to let a magical discipline develop."

"… What could a gravity mage do?" she wondered.

"Make people fall upwards, make time shift and curve in ways most people don't understand, have telekinesis, make anything lighter or heavier, and stick stuff together. If you're really, REALLY powerful with gravity you could make a black hole that would eat the world! … Please don't do that. I like it here." Basil was looking kind of disappointed at how I described gravity, which had put a smile on Elena's face. That wouldn't do.

"I'd say that wood is pretty impressive, though," I said thoughtfully, pretending to think out loud. Basil's attention snapped to me. "Ever heard of Hashirama Senju?" Basil shook his head. Melody gave me a flat look, clearly recognizing the name. "He made a whole forest and, because he made the wood, he could put a whole enchantment on it easily. His people, the villagers of a place called Konoha, lived in peace for a long time because of the forest he made. He was considered one of their most powerful wizards. He didn't even get into the more esoteric stuff wood can do. There's a lot of nature gods out there. Being in touch with nature and trees, a living thing, means that you can do a lot of interesting stuff. Try talking to a tree sometime. You'd be surprised what they know." Basil looked thoughtful now, probably plotting ways to use his magic.

"… Can you teach us?" Elena asked hopefully.

"Nope. If you get powerful enough to be worth my time, say as powerful as a six winged angel, I'll consider it."

"Wha - that's impossible!" Basil said in disbelief.

"Liar," I said immediately. "When I first started magic I could bend sunlight and make some ice. You're not as good as I was but you have more at your fingertips. Grimoires and teachers I didn't have, not to mention the power your godly blood affords you. Given enough time and determination anyone could be where I am. Most people just don't work hard or don't have the talent. You have some talent. If you worked hard you could be the new Merlin. Better, actually, considering the godly blood in your veins. I'm surprised neither of you have an affinity for beauty or wine or love, honestly." The two looked at each other.

"I wanna be a gravity mage." Elena said proudly.

"I don't wanna be a druid… enchantments sound cool, though. And talking to trees and nature stuff too." Basil seemed interested but not as determined as his sister.

"Magic comes from the soul, kids. Reach for the power within and do what feels right. With practice it should come naturally." I pulled a little light to my fingertips and made a halo. I twirled it a little and let it fade into the sunlight while I stood up. "Anyways, I've got to go. I hope to see you two in high places. You seem like bright kids. I'd hate to see your talents go to waste." Melody glanced down a street and I walked that way. She walked beside me while her kids started muttering with each other.

Maybe they would eventually realize that they had left their mother's book in the tree.

[|||| =-= ||||]

I split up from Melody when we reached the palace, which looked like a gargantuan version of the White House mixed in with some greek style statues, marble of course, and a few decorative pillars and fountains. I got us through the gate just by proving my identity and she made some excuse to run off and find her mother, wherever she was.

I wasn't given anyone to escort me so I considered just walking around again but I was pretty sure that I would only find more marble decorations and maybe run into a god or goddess. Instead I sank into my void affinity and opened my senses. The gaping hole in reality, sloppily patched over with some space magic that was rapidly decaying, was pretty easy to find. I went straight for it.

I passed a few servants, who were strangely enough wearing togas and those headbands that looked like they were made of leaves, though theirs were gold and silver. They tended to move to the sides of the hall and bow whenever I passed, trying to look as insignificant as possible.

Blegh, so many people were afraid of gods. What was I going to do, smite them if my drink wasn't chilled enough? … Actually, some gods might do that. I'd heard bad things about the Greeks, mostly decadence and abuse of power. Still, they were the second strongest western pantheon even with the christian god dead, which made them worth not being a jerk to.

The last door to the dimensional tear was guarded by two huge guys in heavy armor, long spears in hand with much shorter spears in a holster on their backs. They bowed their heads to me and opened the two heavy doors in sync. I immediately heard people talking loudly, almost on the verge of yelling really.

Two people were facing each other angrily, both looking frustrated. Three more people were standing aside just watching the argument play out. One woman wearing a lab coat and an owl T-shirt gave me a short wave as I entered. She was the only one to notice me.

"And what do you want me to do, Zeus?! I deal with magic and mages, not dimensional abominations!" The woman yelling looked like she had walked straight out of Harry Potter. The robes might have been authentic witch's robes for all I knew.

"Just close the damn portal, Hecate! Any fool can open and close a tear to the gap!" The other participant in the argument, an older man in a tailored suit with a thick beard, had his arms crossed and a snarl on his face.

"The top percentile of magic users might be able to open a portal to the gap given years of study and proper conditions. Any fool can slip through dimensions. It's like tearing a curtain apart and walking around one! Worlds of difference when it comes to effort and completely different effects!" She looked incredibly frustrated.

"And not even given a week can you bother to pull the sides together?!"

"Fucking hell, this is the seventh time I've explained this to you you blundering foo-!" The older man's hand immediately smacked the woman across the face hard enough to make her stumble. My opinion of the older man dropped like a stone.

"You will not speak to me that way you charlatan of a goddess!" he hissed, face red with fury. I sighed quietly and just walked closer to the portal, not bothering to wait for a greeting. The other two people noticed me then. Another elderly man, who looked almost like a fisherman, nearly asleep on a trident, somehow not stabbing his face or hand on it and a man who was literally skeletal and actually looked a lot like Ainz with some wispy hair. Hades and Poseidon if I had to guess. That would make the older man Zeus. I already heard Hecate's name and the labcoat woman was probably Athena judging by the owl on her shirt.

"Oh, you're here," Poseidon said, still a bit sleepy. "Took you long enough." Zeus turned from Hecate and glared at me, the new direction of his fury.

"YOU!" he boomed. I actually heard a rumble of thunder in his voice. The air was charged with storm affinity and the god's aura. "You were supposed to be here seven hours ago!"

"It's two o'clock," I said in confusion. "Oh, you meant two pm Greek time?"

"You UTTER FOOL!" he roared. I scowled at him.

"If you're angry blame whoever sent the call. They should have been more clear about the-"

"HOW DARE YOU!"

"By speaking. Look, I'm really jsut here to fix your portal. Shouting at me is as effective as yelling at the TV repair guy. I just don't really care," I shrugged. Zeus glared at me like I had murdered his dog. I got to the portal and just looked at it for a moment. A flick of void against it was enough to draw a conclusion. "Yeah, this sucker is being held open from the other side."

"One of your pets daring to attack us?" Zeus asked hostilely.

"No, I'd never let them be that dumb with my power. Also, this is an extradimensional portal as Hecate has already figured out." She glared at Zeus. He didn't even notice, too busy looking at me hawkishly. "I keep my followers from shifting to other dimensions. It's too risky that they'd draw invasions back to this world or that they'd try and conquer some other plane or cause some other problem. Anyways, this might not have been made by someone but rather something. Like a void elemental who's curious about this dimension. How was this made, exactly?"

"Athena was toying with the dimensional gap," he told me.

"Could you be more specific?" I looked at Athena.

"I was trying to create a phenomenon similar to the Nordic rainbow bridge," she explained. "I attempted an altered variant of a basic portal spell used to traverse between adjacent dimensions and thought some primordial energy would be enough to create a stable connection between here and a more distant dimension. I was searching for something relatively similar to our dimension if not exactly the same."

"What sort of safeguards did you have?" I began tracing the connection of the portal and the other dimension. I arrived at a weird little cluster of dimensions, not something I'd normally travel to, and took a look inside.

"A full runic array for suppressing magical or mundane energies around the portal as well as the standard elemental protections, a forcefield reinforced spatially, and a luck enchantment."

"First of all, the luck enchantment does nothing across the magical void. Luck, or at least the altered kind prevalent around here, is something like the weight of fate. One person can have more than another. Against a magical and literal void there is no fate and thus no luck. Normally that luck enchantment would be great but it's not effective at all when you're dealing with magical voids. The runic arrays and forcefield are alright too and useful if anything nasty comes out this end but by protections I meant anything on the spell itself. Anything to stop you from accidentally reaching into a hell dimension or waking some eldritch abomination or something worse."

"Worse?" she sounded curious.

"Please don't ask that. Anyways, don't reach into other dimensions. Just don't. You have enough trouble in this dimensional cluster as is and you might poke Great Red or something. Also, I've reached across the portal. It seems like you lucked out or maybe I did. You hit a world a lot like yours except that the apocalypse happened and everyone died except for some scattered remnants of humanity. One and a half million people isn't enough to sustain gods, though, especially when most of the earth is a charred wasteland."

"I forgot to account for time. Damn." Athena scowled.

"Yeah, look, I'm going to have to stop you here. No way in hell you're going to just reach across dimensions to see what you get. I don't like to play dimension police but if I see you reach across dimensions again I'll reach into your mind and rip the knowledge of how to do so out of it." She looked angry at me.

"I'm not an idiot," she snapped. "I'm not going to open a portal to Gaia knows where to see what happens."

"I'd like to think that you won't. Anyways, the only thing keeping this portal open is what looks like a last ditch effort by some gods who hid in heaven. With the world dead there just wasn't enough mana to sustain gods. People designed a ritual to reach across to a more abundant dimension like their own but they died before it completed. They vastly underestimated the mana required to reach across dimensions. They just didn't have enough. Recently enough ambient mana was generated by the new inheritors of the earth, dead as it is, to finish the ritual."

"So you can close the portal?" Zeus asked impatiently.

"Sure," I made a surge of motion affinity and an explosion occurred on the other side of the portal. The complex assortment of runes and magical crystals keeping the portal open collapsed and with it the portal. "Done. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be going home." Zeus snorted like the ass he was and Poseidon… was asleep. Hades was staring vacantly into space. On another look it seemed like the skeleton might actually be an avatar of the god that he could possess and leave at will. Hecate seemed too pissed off to say anything.

"I'll archive this project," Athena said, sounding disappointed.

"Look on the bright side: at least you know you can do it. If I ever keel over and you're still around you can use it as much as you like. Hopefully my kids or whatever void mages are left will be sane enough or powerful enough to stop you." She scowled at me. I didn't really care. And with that I strolled out of the room, hoping to never have to deal with the Greeks ever again.

Still, though, how the hell did they manage to find a warped version of Fallout? I love that game but I'd never actually go to its universe.

[|||| =-= ||||]

It seemed like I had finally gotten a break for a week. Ainz was slowly spreading his forces through his world, mostly gathering information, Taylor was spending time with her friends being as normal a teenager as she could be, Esdeath was busy enough working in the Dragon Kingdom. All I had to do was a little adventuring and a few house calls for the cult, and by house calls I mean divine interventions. They were practically the same thing for me.

I was out and about in Italy at the moment. Some bishop in the Roman Catholic church - the real one that knew magic was real - was trying to start a crusade against me, claiming that I was 'corrupting' Gabriel and that my association with the 'barbaric' yokai and depraved Leviathan was proof enough, though the lies he made up about me and my followers helped him out. It also wasn't much trouble to call the powers my followers wielded blasphemous. Destroying souls was surprisingly difficult, normally only possible for those specializing in soul magic or holding dominion over death. Equating that facet of my powers with necromancy was all too easy.

Normally batting down some religious man holding the idiot ball was grunt work, something Elsyria would assign to an assassin. Not to kill him but to collect or make some evidence to be 'leaked' that would ruin his reputation and break the cause. That had been attempted and it failed somehow, either due to luck or some hidden competence in the bishop.

The man had immediately doubled down on his inquisition after the failed operation, pulling everything he could from everywhere he could reach in the efforts of smiting my cult. It was getting to the point that the pope might have to step in to either back or disapprove of the endeavor publicly. Neither would be good for either of us.

Normally a situation like this was where Akame or Irisai might step in or one of Yasaka's more capable subordinates. However, all of mine were busy with tasks I had assigned to them and the one assassin who tried to defame the bishop was crippled.

At any rate, I had a job to do because anyone competent enough to handle it was occupied with something I assigned to them. It was either handle it myself or ask Yasaka for help, which would only escalate the conflict to international levels if whoever she sent to handle the mess failed. Better to just have me dismantle the entire inquisition quietly before it got ugly.

Because the bishop was working from within the Vatican I first had to get inside. The whole country was wreathed in enchantments and barriers, denying anybody supernatural from access. Too much mana or one of the banned affinities, ones like corruption, demon, cruelty, or others, and you weren't allowed inside. The enchantments were ancient, too, reinforced with millennia of magical power stockpiled to prevent anyone access. It was a holy ground, one of the few places nobody could break into. Not even Sirzechs could break into the place… not quickly, anyways.

I had a purity affinity, though, so I just walked in through the front door. I was basically a saint magically speaking. I also had the demonic affinity but so long as I kept that pushed deep inside my soul, nestled inside my void affinity, it wasn't detected by the wards.

I wandered around for a little and found that I might as well have the keys to the kingdom. The level of purity affinity I had was enormous compared to your average blessed human. I was around the level of a four-winged angel if I had to guess. All the privileges I had just because of my holy-ness was a good incentive to work on the affinity. I neglected it since it was so useless outside of demonic threats, which were as weak to getting their souls torn asunder as any other living thing. Maybe it would give me some ins with the angels?

I grew bored of the churches pretty quickly. They were pretty but they didn't really compare to some of the things I had seen. I preferred magic to pretty architecture anyways.

I cast my soul outwards and took stock of the people in the tiny country. The guy I was looking for was named Joseph Ruiz. I already knew that he was a bishop partially because he had a holy element in his soul, meaning a purity affinity. Of all the several thousand people in the Vatican a whole five hundred ninety six had a purity affinity.

I rapidly teleported to each and every one, hidden under invisibility. None of them noticed me and I was gone in under a second each time, observing the person I saw for their name and immediately leaving. After four hundred teleports and observations I found Joseph.

… Now what? I hadn't exactly planned this far.

"This is why we must fight the Apostle, brothers!" he said with finality, probably the end of an argument. The two men in front of him, an older and a younger priest, looked at him attentively.

"Eldritch powers and an association with the unholy is a disturbing combination, especially given the scope of it," the older priest said calmly. "Yet you claim to desire to fight one akin to a god. I believe in only one god yet I have seen beings powerful enough to claim such a title. They are beyond the comprehension of men. He is in the hands of the angels."

"The angels do not fight. It is our duty as defenders of the righteous faith to give them our aid," Joseph argued.

"You speak like we are paladins, Joseph. We are priests, not warriors."

"We are possessors of a spark of god, a holy element! Surely this means that we are to enact his will and stop the spread of this false faith? The Apostle has a following of thousands now. When will we defend ourselves? When he has tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? If we do not make efforts to slow this dangerous faith the Apostle will only grow stronger and lead more astray! Do we not cull stray devils and dark sorcerers? Why do we stay our hand when there is yet more at stake?"

"Joseph…"

"I agree," the younger priest said quietly. "I agree that something needs to be done but as father Murray says we are not paladins. Have you tried speech, brother Joseph? Have you tried understanding? If this Apostle is unreasonable and violent then we certainly should muster a response. But blind inquisitions are something the church has outgrown since the old days."

"He spreads and deceives, brother Tom. I understand that violence is not something we should use often or without due thought but this is not a matter to be met with empathy and an attempt to understand. This is a matter of urgency to be seen with alertness and wariness! We live in an age of understanding and enlightenment… please, brother Tom, father Murray, we must make a decision, and soon. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear a response from you both posthaste." Joseph bowed out then while the other two priests muttered among themselves. I idly wondered if priests always talked like that. I'd run into a few exorcists and they seemed pretty normal. Was it just the cardinals?

I waited until Joseph was alone, walking through the quiet halls of a church, and warped space. When he turned a corner to go through a quiet mass hall I was sitting on a pew waiting for him.

"Joseph," I greeted him.

"Brother," he greeted in turn. A flicker of uncertainty entered his eyes. "My apologies, I do not know your name."

"You do, actually. At least I would hope that you do considering how you've been raising your fellows against me." Joseph frowned.

"If this is a joke it's in poor taste." I let my aura flicker around me, a red glow filling the air. Frost collected on the seats of the pews but I made sure to not ruin anything, especially the bibles. I wasn't going to desecrate a church in the heart of the Vatican or anything. I had a certain respect for churches and quiet, peaceful places. There was an air to them that I liked.

"… Heretic god," he said in quiet horror. His face tightened. "Are you here to kill me? In a house of god?"

"I'm here to talk. I don't intend to kill anyone unless I have to. You should listen to that old priest, father Murray. We can come to an understanding, you know?"

"When you steal from God's flock? Those people you have enthralled deserve Heaven but will be denied because they follow your path."

"Those people will live their lives as they please. You have no right or understanding of what happens after death to those outside the christian faith."

"They are misguided. I want to help them."

"For following a different religion than you? I would think that you'd be more concerned with Islam in that case."

"You tempt your followers with gifts! It corrupts their souls!" he exclaimed.

"The void?" He nodded angrily. "That's not theirs. It's my power and it stays mine. It's more like my soul touches theirs and I can share a bit of my power with them. It's part of the reason I've been growing my following slowly. If I grow too quickly everyone gets very little. I have to grow my power to accommodate more people without weakening myself."

"You hoard your power?"

"Power I've worked to accumulate myself, yes."

"Lies!" Oh, dust, he's not really listening to me, is he? "I've heard enough. You seem to have listened to my discourse with father Murray and brother Tom. Leave this place, heretic god, and-" He was interrupted by a small flash of power. I looked for just a moment before recognizing the soul. Kindness radiated off of her softly, a gentle radiance like fluffy blankets. Large white wings stretched behind her, a shimmery white dress falling down near her feet.

"Gabriel?" I asked, not expecting her.

"Hello, Abyss," she smiled at me for a moment. "Joseph."

"I-… Lady Gabriel." Joseph fell to his knees, his priest's robes bunching around his knees.

"No need to kneel, Joseph. I already know the depth of your faith. Proving it is unnecessary." He hesitated a moment before rising. "If you're wondering why I'm here it's fairly simple. I want you to stop your inquisition." Joseph seemed honestly surprised.

"Lady Gabriel, I… I want to help. This god, he has been leading the faithful astray. He-"

"Joseph," she said softly. "Is this something you know or something you tell yourself to be true?"

"I…" He seemed to think about this for a moment. "I believe that the christian path is the righteous path. The best path. I don't wish for anyone to suffer because of the actions of people like the Apostle."

"That is good," she said encouragingly. "But there isn't any best path, Joseph. When people of shinto faith die they go to one of their underworlds or are reincarnated. When people of buddist faith die their souls are wiped clean and scattered over humanity to live on in the next generation. When Abyss' followers die they give themselves to Abyss and their fellows in a similar way. This is something they all know and accept. When you die and the same goes for many of your fellow christians, you will ascend to heaven where you are granted a peaceful life for as long as you please. There is no right way of living but the one you believe best for you. You act out of kindness but remember that it's their choice to live as they please."

"But how can I know that they'll be happy? That they won't regret their decisions?" he asked.

"Trust in God. Trust in your fellow man to not be led astray but to be faithful and kind and lastly, trust in me. I know Abyss and I know that he isn't a cruel man. He wishes the best for those who commit themselves to him. If it eases your mind then I will personally make sure that he stays to the course."

"… Thank you, Lady Gabriel… I'm sorry to be a nuisance." Joseph looked downwards, tears welling in his eyes.

"Oh, Joseph… you wanted to help and you tried your best. Everyone forgets sometimes. You tried too hard to help. That alone could never be a sin." She stepped up to him and hugged him, seeming motherly and… kind. Really kind.

It was her aura… yes, definitely her aura. She really was that kind but when it was practically shoved into people's faces how kind she was they were certain to be a lot more generous with her. I wasn't sure how honest that was.

"… Thank you," Joseph said, stepping away from the angel. Gabriel locked eyes with me and in a soft glow faded away. I took that look to be an invitation and found a small tear in space, the sign of a sloppy teleport or an open doorway to anyone with the knowledge to use it. I opened the tear and slipped through it, sealing it properly behind me.

A glance around showed a shore in… Maryland? There was a small building close by and a dock not far from it with boats tied down. Gabriel was dressed completely differently, a checkered skirt under a black shirt with white sleeves. Long boots, white of course, finished up the bottom of the outfit.

"I was hoping that you'd call me," she pouted.

"Did I wait too long? I didn't want to seem clingy."

"You called Serafall."

"I needed some cheering up a week ago. I had a bad day. I could have gone with either one of you, really, but I needed energy more than kindness." She nodded understandingly.

"I would have called you too… but I didn't want to seem clingy." She seemed more embarrassed than me. I flashed a grin reassuringly.

"It's fine. We're in the same boat, then." She giggled.

"Funny that you say that… welcome to the maritime museum of Annapolis. Maryland."

"What made you pick this place?"

"Nothing in particular. I didn't want to pick somewhere crowded and I like this museum. Everyone knows about the Smithsonian or the monuments. Smaller museums like this one are normally overlooked, sometimes for good reason. This one is one of the good ones."

"I have nothing else to do right now and I did want to spend more time with you. But do you mind if I ask something first?"

"Of course, so long as it's reasonable. I can't tell you anything secret, even if you won't do anything awful with it." I moved to sit down on the bench with her and she scooted aside.

"I wanted to ask about purity affinity, or as it's called around here, holy element." Gabriel's smile fell a little.

"Much of the inner workings of that, I'm afraid, are secrets of Heaven, though to be honest Azazel and the Fallen know most of the information on the element."

"I don't need to know too much. I already have it, you see." I held out my hand palm upwards and made a small orb of purity affinity. It glowed a bright white just above my palm.

"Ah, so that's how you entered the Vatican. I assumed that it was void once more," she muttered. A little concern showed in her eyes. She really wore her heart on her sleeve, didn't she? At least away from Serafall.

"I wanted to ask about the difference between angels and the fallen specifically. I've asked around a little bit and I know that God set up a system to handle much of his work and that Michael has been handling most of the prayers with it. I just want to know, are the limitations that angels follow to keep pure confined to that system? Like a line of code saying how you must not fall to lust."

"That… isn't restricted information from Heaven but it is also something most angels would not know about or want to talk about." Gabriel chewed on her lip a little, which looked pretty cute for her. I doubted that she realized that it had that effect, or at least she wasn't intending for it. "I suppose knowledge on the system isn't harmful. If you're trying to make your own, most angels would be glad to allow you to study the system of our creator given that you do no harm to it."

"I'm not trying to sabotage anything or search for weaknesses. I'm not even asking this to prepare for anything. I'm asking mostly out of a desire for understanding and as a way to potentially fix some of the issues your faction has. I promise, if that makes you feel any better about it." Gabriel nodded.

"It does. Father's system is a terminal for faith. I've noticed that your soul is connected to your followers. It's quite similar to that, though I don't know how it goes about answering prayers or differentiating them from each other. I myself hear any prayers addressed directly to me and get hundreds a day, occasionally over a thousand. It took years of practice to get used to the strain of having so many voices reaching out to me. I don't know how you handle it."

"I have my ways, most not reproducible," I said mysteriously. Gabriel rolled her eyes and quickly acted innocent when I made eye contact. Psh, angels. "Anyways, I'd guess that you have a connection from your soul to the system. That's severed when you violate a tenet, which is recorded and defined in the system. Judging by what I've heard about the effectiveness of fallen angel spears versus pure angel spears on devils I'd say that the system provides you with purity affinity, which is mostly kept in your wings, which is why they're a pure white and why your attacks are more dense with holy element."

Gabriel stared at me. "Well… yes." She sounded a little uncertain. The intricacies of magical systems weren't really her forte, I was guessing.

"Then I just want to know: is the christian god's system based on runes or enchantments? More specifically, which type of rune. Islamic? Oriental? Nordic?" I kept my voice in the same tone but some of my suspicions still slipped out. "Maybe something more exotic?" Gabriel froze. It wasn't physical but it was something about how her eyes hardened and that air of kindness around her receded a little. I had hit on something important.

"That, unfortunately, is information restricted to seraphs only." She said. VERY important. And apparently the specific type of magic was important. I found myself dimly hoping that my more paranoid suspicions were just that.

"Both, then, runes and enchantments. And the runes?" Her hands tensed just a little bit. It was telling enough. You would think that an angel would be harder to read but that's what millennia of complete honesty gives a person.

"Abyss…"

"Fine, fine. I'll stop," I smiled again but it wasn't returned. Gabriel, for the first time since I had seen her, didn't look too happy, kind, or caring. She looked like a general and she was looking at me like I was about to figure out a state secret. I wasn't somebody she knew and was interested in getting to know. I was a potential threat. "Want to go see the museum now? I really am interested in what makes this place so special to you."

Gabriel let the expression on her face melt away but it was just a little too smooth. A little too loose. She nodded, looking relieved to let the topic drop. I wasn't sure that it was really gone.

"Alright. Let's go see. I was actually there for a few of these shipwrecks ferrying souls to Heaven…"

The trip was a bit spoiled by my questions at the beginning. By the end of it I had had a nice time. If I hadn't had a curiosity in me about God's system I would have called it a great time. Instead there were too many questions in me. The angels were hiding something and I wanted to know what it was.

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