Chapter Ten - It’s Always The Church

At the very end of the alleyway after gathering up his subordinates the man in the fedora stepped into a limo and fell into the comfortable seats with a satisfied expression. As he sat down he crossed his legs, and he took off his fedora letting his dark silver hair free and his face shimmered a bit as an illusion spell fell off of him.

Slowly he brought his hand up from out of his pocket revealing a golden ring with a single inscription on it. Stroking his beard he smiled to himself as he thought about his encounter with Gabriel's daughter.

(How strange, she takes after her father far more than her mother in both her appearance and her powers.) If more Miracle Children were born perhaps the man could try researching it unfortunately Cebrail was the only one born in a very long time. It was due to the restrictions placed on the Angels by God, he didn't want such imperfect beings overpopulating, that was what the silver haired man thought at least. (Angels were only ever meant to be tools, after all, at least that's something both them and the Devils have in common. Both slaves to the whim of their creators.)

Soon after he had this thought his white haired Dragon companion followed him into the limo. "Rizevim, I know how much you love humans but-"

"That was not a part of the plan." He interrupted her already knowing what she was going to say. "My men were supposed to capture that Valkyrie so that we'd have an appetizer product for the final product. I never expected that Gabriel's daughter would be there to intervene."

(It seems as though Odin hasn't gone senile just yet.) Rizevim thought taking a wine glass from his retainer. Soon wine was pouring by itself into it.

"That doesn't really mean you should be giving her advice. The two of you are king candidates, that means you'll be up against each other sooner or later. And giving her a ticket to the auction? What were you thinking?" The white dragon was extraordinarily agitated, she always had to deal with Rizevim's whims and clean up after him and so she knew this would lead to yet another mess. If only she could just kill him! Unfortunately she was bound by Solomon's Ring as his retainer, his closest follower and Dragon partner, unless she was stronger than her king she could never be free. Though it wasn't as if she actually felt like she wasn't free, it's just she wished she could take a break sometimes.

Rizevim, feeling his retainer's clear annoyance, smirked slightly, "Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"Thanking you? Do you seriously believe that?" She gave him an incredulous look as he sipped on his wine before snatching the whole battle which had been floating and setting it down.

"By giving her that ticket you've just earned a vacation."

"I'm not following."

"During the month of the auction you can do as you please, as long as you don't cause too much trouble of course."

The white dragon was shocked by this statement as she was almost certain that would be the busiest time for her, "You don't need me at the auction?"

"The auction will likely be attacked by the Stray Devil Faction, however with Gabriel's daughter there that's free security."

"What? Why are you so sure she'll fight against the strays? Maybe she isn't as prejudiced as her mother."

"She isn't, though she knew I was a Devil she didn't care at all."

"Then..."

"The Stray Devil Faction is very much a 'shoot first ask questions later' kind of group, the moment they see someone else with Solomon's ring there they'll attack them."

"Ah I see, they'll probably think they can help their leader win by killing her huh? They probably won't be strong enough and even if they are they'll incur the wrath of the entirety of the Angel Faction!" The white haired dragon was quite excited by this prospect, she would be getting an entire month off! How thrilling, the things she could do!

"Indeed It will be a win either way~"

Despite his words the son of Lucifer had one final thought as he sipped his wine. (Though I doubt either her mother or father would ever actually let her be killed.)

–

"Err... Cebrail, aren't you indulging a bit too much?" Reginleif questioned as she and Cebrail were walking through a small town somewhere in the United Kingdom.

"What do you mean?" Cebrail responded digging into her grocery bag and pulling out a chocolate bar. The bag was already full of wrappers from the candy she had been eating before. She had gotten all the candy from helping people around the town.

"I mean isn't it bad for an Angel to be indulging in sweets like that? Aren't you afraid of falling down?"

"Don't be stupid, I'm not a low-class Angel even if I do only have one set of wings." Cebrail shot down this idea immediately.

"Even high-class Angels can fall though, like Azazel the leader of Grigori, in fact he has twelve wings too, putting him around the same level as the Seraph." Reginleif argues back.

"...Azazel...hmmm~" Cebrail thinks a bit while taking a bite out of her chocolate bar, and instead of responding properly she asks a question of her own, "Why do you think Angels fall?"

"Well various reasons really. Impure thoughts, and evil actions are probably the biggest reasons I'd say."

"My mother is a racist that has likely killed thousands of devils and created the flood which nearly wiped out humanity... she's still a Seraph living in Heaven carefree~" Cebrail turns her body a bit towards her Valkyrie companion and points at her with her chocolate bar in an almost chastising manner. "The reason for that is because Angels only fall when they believe they've 'defied God's will.' They were created to be tools used by him so it was a fail safe of sorts I'd guess."

"I don't really get what the difference is."Reginleif responded honestly while readjusting her glasses.

"To put it more simply, Angels only fall when they believe what they're doing is bad. By doubting the purity of their actions they fall." Cebrail breaks off a small piece of her chocolate and gives it to Reginleif as the two girls take a left and spot the church they came here for atop a hill.

"Azazel was the same, you know. He gave humans knowledge they shouldn't have, and with it they created science. When God told him the consequences of what he had done the man fell into despair and fell down with a vow to never grant knowledge to humans again." Cebrail always found Azazel's story to be somewhat tragic in a way.

He fell in love with a human woman and granted the humans knowledge in her honor, but didn't even realize he was merely speeding up the death of God. In the end without ever intending to, he helped Lucifer eliminate God once and for all.

It was a well known story in Heaven and with Lucifer gone the only one left to take the blame was of course the scapegoat, Azazel. Truly he didn't deserve the hate he got, Cebrail could do nothing but respect him for taking it in stride. He even often jokes about falling because he was obsessed with boobs. It was the truth in a sense, but mostly just a lie.

"As a wise man once said, 'God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.' though I don't think he meant it in such a literal way." Cebrail mumbled to herself just low enough for Reginleif not to hear.

"That makes sense I guess, I always found it strange when I tried to study up on the history of Christianity and whatnot, since killing is a sin and yet so much blood is often spilled in God's name."

"Indeed, my mother once told me this, 'killing is a sin unless it's for God,' and that's the kind of mentality Angels live by." The two girls stopped in their tracks as not only did their conversation on the topic conclude but also their journey.

"I'll check for traps and other things." Reginleif said and quickly moved to the wall of the church leaving Cebrail to look around.

The church wasn't particularly big and wasn't particularly flashy. In fact it was a bit run down with one of its windows gone, holes in the outer wall, and weeds growing all over as the grass hadn't been cut in a very long time.

While Cebrail munched on her chocolate and inspected the ground for a while, "And there it is."

Cebrail spotted exactly what she was looking for, three sets of heavy footprints still in the dirt.

(Three people, and based on the depth they're probably all men. All with an average but somewhat muscular build.) She was already able to guess it before however this completely cemented the fact that they were likely in for a fight.

"I found a barrier around this place to keep people out and detect intruders." Reginleif informed Cebrail upon then regrouping at the front gate of the decrepit outer wall.

"So they already know we're here?" Cebrail asks, setting her sweets down and putting her chocolate wrapper into it.

(As a wise man once said, 'littering is a sin.')

"No they won't until we actually enter the church." Reginleif confirmed, she seemed quite proud of herself as she pushed up her glasses bombastically with her head held high.

(I've done it! She definitely wont-) Reginleif didn't get to finish her thoughts as another voice interrupted her inner gloating.

"It's not very often you see a Valkyrie and a human poking around a church." A man's voice called from the church's main entrance.

The man had a very serious expression and a slightly aged face with brown hair that seemed to be on the verge of greying. He wore a standard priest outfit with his hands behind his back.

"Didn't you say they wouldn't detect us until we entered the church?"

Reginleif pouted a bit in annoyance, "My bad..."

"What the hell? It's just two kids!" Another man yelled in a gruff voice as he stepped up next to his companion. He was a rougher looking man with a scar over one of his eyes and a square jaw.

"Indeed it is." The older priest flexed his wrist slightly and instantly a thin handle fell into his right hand. "Leave now or-"

The whip of Rance flew at him far faster than he could finish his words forcing him to release the light power contained within the sword hilt producing a beam sword to block the attack.

(He's not half bad, as expected of a geezer.)

"Mark, that's a holy weapon, be careful." The older man warns the younger before stepping down from the front door and staring down Cebrail.

"Whatever old man, a heretic is still a heretic, it doesn't matter what weapon they use."

Reginleif took a deep breath and released it, her palms were sweaty and suddenly she felt a bit afraid. Before against the thugs she hadn't even had a chance to defend herself however this would be her first real fight other than sparring.

Would her magic be fast enough? Would she end up being held captive again? Would she... die?

She looked towards Cebrail who stood next to her with utmost confidence and couldn't help but feel a bit safer, she felt like if push came to shove Cebrail would not let her die.