Chapter 56 – Chaotic Battle

“I won’t allow you to hurt Senna!” Ariel loudly proclaims. As she closely observes her opponents, her body ripples seeing two identical copies of herself. “What?! Why are they me?! Did my yearning finally split off to secretly capture Senna?!”

“Shit! Why are you here?! You should be on the other side of the world right now.” Rachel screams. Her eyes seem as if they will pop out of their socket. Miriel also shows a look of shock, but wisely keeps her mouth closed.

“Hoo……” Ariel quickly calms down hearing their words. She gives them a piercing glare as the atmosphere starts to solidify. “So it’s your fault I haven’t been able to peacefully descend here despite my numerous attempts. You must be the reason I haven’t been able to contact Senna too! Despite my numerous loving messages, I haven’t received a thing back!!” Ariel’s wrath mixes with her magical power causing the ground to cave as her aura surges.

During their argument, Senna attempts to fight against her bindings. Unfortunately, she severely underestimated the severity of her current predicament. The complete lock on her bodily movements prevents her from extracting anything from her [Storage]. The seal also completely locked down her magical power preventing any and all spell usage. Mentally groaning, she continues to try and move her body and deactivate her last resort.

Senna prepared two timed bombs before she the battle, one mechanical, one magical, both with an emphasis on destructive power. Both items are fairly crude, but perform the task of exploding after a certain amount of time. If things truly took a turn for the worst, the damage would be even more catastrophic in an enclosed space like this cavern. However, Ariel’s appearance threw a wrench in her flashy end. Now Senna is stuck trying to stop her bombs before they inflict friendly fire and injure Ariel.

“Just who are you?! Why are you impersonating me and hurting Senna?!” Ariel snarls directly attack Rachel and Miriel. She casts creating 30 swords of light in an instant. She leaves aattacks at full strength aiming to kill them in the first strike.

“Hurry up! We’re leaving!” Miriel shrieks seeing the ballistic Ariel attacking. They’ve already stayed on Remia for too long. At this rate, the other angels will discover the oddity and report them for descending without the proper notice.

“I know!” Rachel yells. She has no desire to fight Ariel who has had special training from birth and unknown magical tools to protect and strengthen her.

Their bodies turn ethereal as try to pass through the walls of the cavern and take some distance from Ariel. Once they can escape her range they can return back to the Heavens and hide their tracks. However, as they dash towards the cavern walls, they crash directly into the wall knocking them backwards returning them to their solid state. “What happened?!” Rachel screams.

“I won’t let you ESCAPE!!!” Ariel shouts redirecting her spell in their direction.

“Shit! She trapped us in!” Miriel quickly strikes the wall discovering a powerful barrier encasing the cavern. Unable to escape, Rachel and Miriel are forced to physically dodge Ariel’s attacks.

Yet, dodging Ariel’s attack is more easily said than done. Ariel shows a high level of control manipulating each of the swords to attack from different angles. Even when they focus purely on evading, two swords successfully stab into each of them. Their injuries increases even further when the magic swords release the energy contained within exploding.

Miriel and Rachel are knocked backwards as their wounds are ripped open from the attack. However, their status as angels provides them with a natural resistance to . Combined with their own affinity with , they quickly heal and recover from the strike.

“Dammit! If you’re going to get in our way, then we’ll just beat you down first!” Rachel cries out readying her weapon.

“Wait!” Miriel cries out trying to stop Rachel from moving, but Rachel has already started attacking Ariel. Miriel grits her teeth seeing no way to back out. “Damn it!!!” She angrily cries out casting her own magic.

Ariel casts another wave of her spell creating a new set of swords. This time, she grabs two of the swords morphing one of them into a shield. The other light swords hang in the air awaiting their order. Ariel meets Rachel’s attack thrusting out her shield diverting the great sword. Ariel thrusts her sword deeply cutting Rachel’s arm. However, the based attack is quickly patched with Rachel’s regenerative abilities.

Clusters of magic form throughout the room as Miriel casts her spell. Ariel notices the spell within milliseconds instantly making her own counterattack. Ariel directs one of the waiting swords towards Miriel while the other swords stab into her opponent’s incomplete spell. The light swords pop the incomplete spell causing them to explode and obliterate the nearby cavern walls.

They reach an unstable stalemate as they continue to exchange attacks. Ariel continues to fire off spells countering Miriel’s attacks while deflecting and defending against Rachel’s brutish physical attacks strikes. Rachel directly strikes without regard to her defense. She ignores any damage she receives allowing her regenerative abilities to repair all of her injuries. Miriel releases one spell after another, but cannot gain the upper hand with Ariel countering every spell before it can fully form. Both sides accumulate injuries, but heal it rapidly enough to prevent any impediment to their performance. In addition to both sides using that angels naturally have a resistance too, they reach this unstable stalemate in their clash.

Miriel soon becomes impatient with the stalemate and throws a hidden weapon concealed in her wings at the restrained Senna. “Senna!” Ariel receives a clean strike from Rachel as her concentration breaks. She shoots a waiting Light sword from her most recent spell, but it gets cut down as Rachel bars her path. “Get out of the way!!” Ariel performs a strong horizontal strike trying to bat Rachel out of the way.

However, Rachel attacks back shattering Ariel’s magically formed blade. She taunts Ariel infuriating her even further. “Make me~” Ariel recklessly strikes again, but Rachel calmly counters the attack. Ariel starts to increasingly panic as the attack approaches the immobile Senna.

The condensed orbs of magic fills Senna’s sight with a strong white light. Mere centimeters away from Senna’s face, a black pyramid shaped barrier forms protecting Senna’s entire body. The condensed light is absorbed forming a black lump on the barrier mixing with the magic before reflecting it back towards the caster. Miriel is forced to dodge as the black light careens through the air at twice its normal speed.

All three of them freeze up at the unexpected counter. They blankly stare at Senna watching the barrier disappear from visible sight. “Shit! She was faking it!” Rachel curses seeing Senna make a fool of her once again. She ignores Ariel aiming to show Senna who’s the superior being.

“Ah!” Ariel quickly chases after Rachel. Neither of them is sure if the barrier is only a single use or still actively waiting around Senna, but one aims to break it regardless while the other tries to protect Senna. As Rachel closes to the distance to a meter, she raises her blade and swings down.

“Nooo!!!” Ariel cries out. She reaches under her shirt and grabs her necklace. It is a special tool able to resurrect and heal the most grievous of injuries. Unfortunately, the necklace is specially constructed and a single use tool given to her by her mother. But with the current situation, she has no qualms in using it to save Senna.

In that moment a black figure appears in front of Rachel kicking her away. Rachel is effortlessly lifted into the air rocketing into the cavern wall.

“Ah!” Ariel cries out. She readies her magic seeing the new participant. “A demon! Get away from Senna!” Ariel leaks out a direct killing intent at the demon standing in front of Senna.

Senna glances at the maid like attire of the new addition. However, with her low position, most of Senna’s sight is filled with the underside of the demon’s skirt and her black lace underwear.

“Unfortunately, I have no intention of moving. This girl is important to the leader’s plan. I must guarantee her safety until then.” The demon stoically responds.

Ariel feels an instinctive chill as the demon maid speaks. Her stance is relaxed and seems to be full of openings, but Ariel intuitively understands that she will be crushed the second she moves against the demon. Ariel quietly gulps as she responds. “So you plan on protecting her…at least for the time being?”

“That is correct. My main concern is the human’s safety. If you heaven dwellers wish to continue fighting, then it’s of no consequence to me.” The demon maid apathetically responds.

“…Fine. I’ll trust in your words.” Ariel reluctantly decides to ignore the new participant for the time being.

“Tch.” The demon maid clicks her tongue disappearing one moment later.

“Hey!’ Ariel swiveling back around. “You’re leaving just like that?! What happened to protecting Senna?!” Her jaw drops seeing her quickly the demon changed her tune.

“JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!” A voice reverberates causing the entire cavern to shake due to the sheer intensity.

The faces of all three angels become sleet white in an instant. Despite their conflict, the three all freeze up with the same thought running through their minds. ‘Oh shit!’

A magically created hand appears through a tear in space answering their fears. Rachel and Miriel are seized before they can escape. Ariel attempts to escape, but the magical hand stretches out snatching her out of the air. The three are pulled into the tear disappearing from the cavern.

Senna mentally curses seeing herself abandoned without a way of breaking through her bindings. Thankfully, her body shines in the next instant as the seal is stripped from her body. Senna falls to the ground slightly disoriented from the sudden return of her bodily’s movement. She closes her eyes taking multiple deep breaths just enjoying the ability to breath again. ‘Magic can be truly twisted to induce such a state.’ She quietly thinks to herself as she composes herself.

Senna sits up and deactivates the explosives on her body. Staring at empty space, she decides to be a bit more productive while she waits for some answers. The lightning sprites are quickly freed as she shatters the binding cage. They happily release sparks of electricity as they fly around Senna thanking her for the help.

“I’m glad I could help. Even if it’s a bit delayed.” Senna gives a light smile as they fly around her. “You should leave before they come back though.” She gives them a warning but the sprites show no intention of leaving. She tries coaxing them once again, but the adamantly stay. Sighing, Senna decides to let them be.

Senna flops back down staring at the ceiling. The battle with Rachel revealed how naive she was about her capability to survive in a battle with stronger lifeforms. With her current arrangements, she could inflict some damage onto her opponent at the cost of her life in the worst case scenario. However, she wouldn’t be able to ensure the safety of allies with such a dangerous maneuver. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to drag an ally down with me. The problem is how to deal with it.”

Senna sits back up and rests her head against her hand. The coarse texture of her hand snaps her out of her reverie. She lets out a long sigh realizing belatedly that she should tend to her injuries and regenerate her arms. Dispersing the limbs created from soil, she gets to work regenerating her flesh and fixing her appearance. She spends about 3 hours conserving her magic as much as possible in case of any other dangerous situation.

“Finally done.” Senna relaxes a little seeing her body return to an optimal state. When she realizes the time, she sees no sign of Ariel or anyone else returning. After some thought, she decides to head back and leave the discussions for another day. She had wanted to try and ask Ariel or Remilia about that lingering question on her mind, but had no chance to. She shakes her head suppressing the urge. If she really asked why, their fragile situation would shatter and make things far more dangerous.

“Heh. Look at me making excuses.” Senna scoffs scolding herself. She stands up and brushes off her clothing. “I’m off.” She says goodbye to the circling sprites before giving a parting bow to the place where Ariel disappeared. Senna turns and leaves preparing herself for the aftermath of Mika and Iris’ rage.

***

“And just what were you thinking?” The Goddess Remilia stands over the three kneeling angels in the middle of the room. Back in the heavens, Remilia immediately starts questioning them.

“We just…….Nothing…” Miriel starts to defend herself, but under Remilia’s gaze, she chooses to quit talking.

“We were just taking our share!” Rachel declares.

“Your share?! Don’t talk about Senna like she’s a piece of meat!” Ariel angrily retorts. Miriel also looks at Rachel wondering if she is truly an idiot.

“What does it matter? It’s just one insignificant human.” Rachel continues talking oblivious of Miriel’s heated gaze to shut her up.

“You!!!” Ariel glares at Rachel. If Remilia wasn’t right in front of them, she would have tried to cut Rachel down for such a blasphemous view of her friend.

“ENOUGH!!!” Remilia yells causing all of the blood in their bodies to churn around uncontrollably. “That human is not to be touched. I will personally punish anyone that interferes with her again.” She turns her gaze to some of the spectating angels peeping into the room. Many of them cry out and hide their head to avoid Remilia’s gaze.

Remilia turns her gaze back to Rachel and Miriel. “As for you two, you will be decommissioned at the Plant.” Every angel nearby becomes sleet white hearing the sentence. Miriel directly faints from shock. The eavesdropping angels immediately escape hearing the severity of the punishment.

The Plant is the name for the Incubation Facility where babies are created and raised. The raising process is extremely tame, but the punishment for being sent to the Plant has a far different meaning. Only angels that are marked as defective get sent to the Plant. The punished angels are broken down to base particles and used as sustenance for the baby angels. The process is strictly controlled allowing zero chance for the punished angel to revive and reform its body.

Rachel trembles hearing her punishment, but her indignation still allows her to argue back. “That’s too much!! We only injured a lowly human. We shouldn’t have to go to the Plant for that!”

Remilia releases a powerful aura leaving Rachel unable to breathe. “That human is an important piece in my plans. Your attack nearly destroyed my hard work. In such a direct form of rebellion against me, sending you to the Plant is the obvious result.”

Rachel’s eyes bulge at the accusation of rebelling, but she remains unable to speak under Remilia’s pressure. Remilia waves her hand teleporting Rachel and Miriel to the Plant. “And you…” She turns to Ariel who has been tensely waiting for punishment. Ariel unconsciously holds her breath at the stern tone. “You will be punished with ten times the normal paperwork.”

“What?! No?! Why?! I didn’t do anything that bad!!!” Ariel cries out at her punishment. She hates dealing with paperwork and always procrastinates dealing with her normal workload. Ten times her normal load means it would be impossible to sneak out for the next month.

“You abused your power to secretly use the teleporter to descend to the human realm. Multiple times! Be grateful I didn’t give you a worse punishment.” Remilia replies repressing her annoyance.

“Ugh…Okay… Can I at least go talk to Senna?” Ariel hesitantly asks.

“No. You have work to do. She’s already left to deal with her own problems. Leave her be until your punishment ends.” Remilia instantly rejects Ariel’s request.

“………..Fine….” Ariel weakly accepts the punishment. She swears to finish her work as fast as possible to go see Senna.