chapters 206-210

"Hello my former lawyer, fancy seeing you here." I said as Matt Murdock groggily sat up with his eyes closed.

He clutched his head. "Layla? What am I doing out here?" He asked without looking around.

"You got mind controlled by a B-Rate supervillain rapist who wanted to use you to capture me." I said.

When I mentioned the R-word Matt had a look of panic on his face. He reached down towards his own butt…

I laughed at his expression. "Relax. He only went after women." I told him.

I think…

Matt sighed out in relief. "Thank you for freeing me…What happened to the villain?"

I shrugged. "No idea. Hestia and Frigga took him away with them." I said honestly. Those two had taken off, after the scuffle, and headed back home. I asked Frigga to pick up the girls after school so I was free for the rest of the day!

[Weren't you going to talk to Heather about the whole 'mom' thing? You're just having Frigga pick them up to put off that conversation aren't you?]

'...No…' How could the System think I would do something like that? I'm a powerful Fallen Angel who has faced down zombie armies and even killed a Demon King! How could I be nervous about motherhood!?

[Uh huh.]

'Whatever! We'll talk about this later! Matt's looking at me weird because I'm talking to you in my head!' I thought and ended the conversation with the System.

"Frigga and Hestia? OK then…" Matt said in confusion. He had no idea who Frigga or Hestia were obviously. "What's with the other three people?" He asked while pointing to Jessica, Danny and Luke still passed out on the ground nearby.

I told him that I know he wants to keep his secret identity so I woke him up separately from the rest of them.

He thanked me for that. "I think I'll be heading back home now." Matt said while standing up. "Thanks for not going too hard on me when I was mind controlled."

I waved him off. "Oh no, I did. You had a solid concussion and a broken hand. I had to heal you before I woke you up. You should be good as new! Good as new everywhere in fact!" I bragged while placing my hands on my hips. All of his aches and pains from fighting and training over the years should be healed as well.

My Purger of Darkness was awesome like that!

Matt chuckled. "Good as knew huh?" He flexed his hand. "I feel pretty good actually. I'll see you around, Layla." He said.

"Was that a blind joke?" I asked with a giggle.

Matt laughed as well. "I suppose it was." For the first time so far he opened his eyes. I'd never actually seen his eyes before since he always wore sunglasses over them. They didn't look clouded at all. In fact, they looked perfectly fine.

[Uh, oh…]

Matt paused for a second. He was looking directly at my face for some reason…

A look of shock overcame him! "I–I can see!"

"WHAT!?"

[Well, you certainly made him 'good as new' everywhere…]

I accidentally cured his blindness, didn't I…

"I can see!" He repeated in shock! Matt started to rapidly hyperventilate. His now working eyes became a flurry of movement as they rapidly moved everywhere, taking in every single sight around him. His panicked breathing picked up before his eyes finally settled back on my face. "...You're beautiful…" He mumbled before his eyes rolled backwards and he collapsed.

I ran forwards and caught him before his head smacked against the hard concrete under us. "Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not into guys." I sighed as I set him back down on the ground.

[He's unconscious again. Back to square one.]

I was not expecting that to happen. When I was healing his concussion, I had honestly completely forgotten about the possibility of my Sacred Gear being able to heal his blindness.

[He didn't seem to lose his other powers though. He was still able to recognize you with his eyes closed at first.]

That was a good thing at least. I'd hate for him to have to stab his new eyes out again just to have his powers back. That would have been a morbid sight…

With Matt once again passed out, I decided to just portal him back to his home.

Where was that again?

[Do you even know where he lives?]

'Why would I know where he lives?'

[Just send him back to his Law Office then. Foggy will take care of him.]

'Good idea, System.' I thought. I opened a portal to Nelson and Murdock and nonchalantly tossed Matt inside before closing the portal. No doubt, Foggy will be incredibly confused when he finds his friend passed out with his blindness cure.

That wasn't my problem though.

I looked back down at the three remaining people. Now I had to deal with the other three B-Team heroes…

Honestly, I did not want to…

Jessica was a raging alcoholic with tons of issues. Danny was some weird cultural appropriation fake monk. And Luke…actually he was pretty chill. I remember liking his show a lot in my past life. I would be fine talking with him–if the other two weren't here too.

[No one said you have to deal with them personally. You already did your part and saved them. You can always dump the clean up on someone else now!]

I smiled connivingly. The system was right! I could dump the problem on someone else. A certain one eyed man–who's blindness I could also cure now that I thought about it. I'd bring it up to him later in the future.

I opened a portal to SHIELD'S HQ! More specifically, Fury's office. One by one, I dumped the three people through my portal before closing it again.

I dusted off my hands. "That was a job well done if I do say so myself! Now then, what should I do with the rest of my free day?" I wondered out loud.

XXX

"Hey, Penemue! How's our company going?" I asked as I stepped out of a portal into her private office.

"Our company is doing fine. Our stock is high and our margins look good this term." Penemue was sitting behind her desk and a familiar hot blond woman was standing in front of her holding a stack of papers. She set them down and turned around.

"Hi, Emma? Have you upped your flirting game yet?" I asked her teasingly. She had tried to seduce me to help her when we first met, but I was far too experienced to fall for that.

Emma scoffed. "Hmph, I'll have you know that my flirting skills are amazing! Maybe one day your skills might even match mine if you practice." She said confidently.

"Layla already has her own harem…" Penemue said bluntly to her.

Emma spun around and gaped at my sister before turning back to me. "A–a harem!? For real?" She asked in genuine surprise.

I smirked at her while nodding. "Yep! I have two Goddesses, A Youkai Queen, the world's sexiest and deadliest spy, and one other perfect woman I won't mention." I listed off with my fingers.

I only used one hand to count…I would have to up my game! 'What kind of respectable harem only has five women in it?'

[You are a degenerate…]

'I'm just kidding. I care about all of my harem members.' I won't say that I love them all equally just yet, because I haven't been able to spend enough time with all of them. I'd only met Lady Death twice after all in person.

"Five women!? And two of them are Goddesses?" She asked in surprise. "Other Gods are real?"

I was going to answer her but my sister interrupted first. "Speaking of Gods? How did your little scuffle with Olympus go?" Penemue asked me.

"It went pretty good. Zeus is now very dead. Hestia is now the den mother of my home, and Artemis is my maid." I replied nonchalantly.

Penemue nodded calmly to my statement. I guessed that she was completely used to the craziness that was my life at this point. Me announcing the death of a God like Zeus would usually draw a bigger reaction from someone.

"W–wait!? You killed Zeus! Like–The Zeus!?" Emma asked in shock. "Isn't that like a big deal!?"

Like that.

Once again I was going to answer her but Penemue cut me off again. This time it was with a sly little grin. She absolutely knew what she was doing. "So what brings you here today, little sister? Are you here to actually manage your own company?" Penemue asked me. "There's quite a bit of paperwork I could use your help with if you're interested?" She waved her hand over her desk and a pile of papers two feet tall manifested in front of her! "This is all the paperwork that needs to be looked over by the end of the day."

Emma stopped her foot and pouted cutely at being ignored.

I blanched at all the papers on Penemue's desk. I didn't know if those were real or not and I didn't want to stick around long enough to find out! I started backing away slowly. "I actually came to tell you that I was planning on visiting Earth DxD and seeing Azazel. I wanted to know if you wanted to go back there for a while?" I asked her. This was going to be his final healing session and then he'd be good as new!

Penemue pondered for a second before she sadly shook her head. "I'd love to go see Azazel, but things here are just too hectic right now. We just let go of a bunch of our useless divisions and I'm in the process of replacing them with actual competent scientists."

"Azazel!?" Emma asked out loud again. "He works for Shaw! Why would you want to see him?"

Penemue waved her hand flippantly. "Different Azazel. My Azazel is obviously more handsome and cool than some poser fake devil who's only power is teleporting." She said dismissively.

"Teleporting is a really dangerous power…" Emma muttered to herself mostly.

"Not really for us. Every single Angel learns to teleport at some point." I said to her before turning to Penemue. I started backing away slowly while eyeing all that horrible paperwork warily. "...I'll just leave the paperwork to you. You look like you've got it all covered. Is everything good with the other major shareholders?"

Penemue told me that everything was fine on that front. Apparently, we had been invited to Wakanda and Latveria as special guests. We had an open invitation to go whenever we wanted. We hadn't heard back from whoever Mr Li's employer was yet though.

"Before you go, why don't you take Emma with you. She's supposed to be YOUR new secretary after all." Penemue pointed out to me.

Emma looked excited. "I've heard about the other Earth from Penemue. I'd love to see it!" She said.

I shrugged and told her it was fine if she wanted to come. She should get to know Grigori if she has decided to work for me. I didn't expect this trip to be anywhere near as exciting as she was thinking it would be though.

I was about to open a portal directly to Azazel's lab–because where else would he be?

Before I did, my phone in my inventory went off. Someone had sent me a message. I pulled it out to check. I blanched when I saw the aggressive message I had gotten from Fury. He did not seem happy that I had given him Jessica, Luke, and Danny.

ONE EYE-PIRATE: You Motha F******! Why the F*** Did you dump 3 enhanced people in the middle of my office!?

I started texting back my response.

ME: I didn't feel like dealing with them…they were too annoying. BTW Killgrave has been handled. You're welcome! :(

ONE EYE-PIRATE: WHO THE F*** IS KILLGRAVE!? And why is this white kid talking in riddles like he's some kind of Chinese drama actor? He told me that I shouldn't be so angry because it will give me bad Chi! The f*** is bad Chi?

[He's obviously talking about Danny there.]

ME: His brain has problems… His super power is also really lame but I'm sure you'll figure something out from him. And try to ask him what's going on with The Hand! He's supposed to be their arch nemesis or some shit!

ONE EYE-PIRATE: This weird kid is the arch nemesis of a thousand year old hidden organization that spans the globe and took over an entire country secretly!?

ME: …Yes.

ONE EYE-PIRATE: $ ^#$^%# $%!

I slipped my phone back into my inventory. I'd check his other replies later once he'd calmed down…

XXX

I stepped out of my portal directly into Azazel's lab. And there he was working on something on a workbench in the corner. Emma exited the portal right after me.

Azazel was looking at the two of us strangely. I figured it was because I brought Emma here with me.

"Hey there, Azazel. I'm here for our final session. Take your shirt off and let's get to it." I said.

Azazel snapped out of his confusion and smirked at the two of us. "You got it!"

"Why is he undressing?" Emma whispered to me in concern.

"He was hurt by a death star sized Eldritch Abomination and I've been slowly healing him." I told her.

Emma scrunched her face at my comment before she sighed in resignation. That was good. She'd learn soon enough to get used to my level of crazy!

"Alright ladies! I am ready for you!" Azazel said with a suave grin. He spread his arms out to show off his torso.

I tilted my head in confusion when I saw his bare chest. The lingering tainted wounds were all gone!

He was fully healed? How!? Did he find some way to heal himself without my Purger of Darkness?

Azazel still had his arms spread wide but tilted his head in confusion. "What's the matter ladies? There's enough of me here for everyone." He said to us both flirtily.

He was trying to flirt with me now!? He had never done that before!

[Something is strange here. Try using your Observe on him.]

I followed the System's advice and did so. Something was wrong here!

Azazel - Leader of the Grigori - Level 79

My Observe told me that this was Azazel, but my Azazel was level 85! This person was weaker. Did they have some kind of magic to fool my Observe? That wasn't unheard of. The Ancient One and Mephisto were able to do it before.

I glared at the shirtless imposter in front of us.

His smile disappeared and he put his arms down. "Um…is everything alright, beautiful?"

I held out my hand and conjured a Purple Lightspear. I pointed it towards him. "Everything's not alright, imposter! I don't know who you are, but how dare you impersonate my brother! He would never try to flirt with me!" I reeled my arm backwards and hurled the Lightspear directly at him!

"Oh shit…" He yelled while dodging out of the way. My spear hit the reinforced walls behind him and melted through them like a hot knife through butter.

Emma shifted into her diamond form next to me and charged forward. She tried to punch him in the face but he easily dodged out of the way.

"Woah! Diamond body? Is that an undiscovered Sacred Gear? It's pretty cool!" The imposter Azazel muttered as he dodged another kick from Emma.

I appreciated her help, but she was clearly not ready to fight against a guy of this level.

I was barely ready to fight someone like this!

[Layla of the Fallen: Angel of Hope, Death's Favored]

[Level: 57]

[Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Anywhere]

[HP: 13000]

[MP: 10000]

[Faith Energy: 23]

[Vigor: 800]

[Strength: 170]

[Intelligence: 1000]

[Luck: 150]

[Skills: Observe 4, Angelic Mastery 4, Acting 4, Light Manipulation 7, HP to MP Conversion, Mana Burst, Senjutsu 2, Six Paths, Susanoo 1]

[Perks: Never Tell Me the Odds, Lucky Shot, Mana Replenisher, ]

[Drawbacks: Sin of Lust]

[Available Free Stat Points: 10]

[Skill Up Point: 0]

I dumped my 10 Free Stat points into Luck and prepared myself for a hard fight. I needed to get this guy out of this building before we really started going at it. A high level fight in the heart of the Grigori Headquarters could result in a lot of my other siblings dying.

My outfit changed to Death's dress and my 10 black wings manifested behind me!

The imposter Azazel grabbed Emma by the arm and casually tossed her over his shoulder towards the other side of the lab. His eyes widened when they fell upon me. "Whoa! An unknown Cadre? I guess things really are different around here." He said.

12 black wings burst out behind his own naked back and I felt a wave of power release from him.

I grimaced. I was going to have to burn a lot of MP to even the Odds here.

"Mana Burs–"

THAWCK!

"OW!" I clutched my head in pain and spun around to see who had just smacked me! It was… Another Azazel! He had just stopped me from powering up.

Azazel - Leader of the Grigori - Level 85

It was my Azazel!

"What the hell, Azazel? Why'd you stop me from attacking this imposter?" I complained while pointing at his still shirtless counterpart.

"He's not an imposter." Azazel replied. "He's another me from a different universe."

I paused for a second to let that sink in. "…HUH?"

XXX

Emma was sitting next to me pouting. "I can't believe I got beaten so easily. I couldn't even hit him once…" She whined while glaring at the Alternate Azazel. When he tossed her across the room earlier, she landed on her head and got KO'd… I had to heal her once we all calmed down.

"Heh! You're a few hundred years too early to try and take me on, Blondy. And stop trying to read my mind! You're not going to get through my defenses." He replied to her with a smirk.

Emma crossed her arms and scowled at him. "Hmph!"

I turned towards my Azazel who was sitting on a swivel chair next to his counterpart. "So what's going on here, Azazel. Why are there two of you?"

"Do you remember when I was trying to find you when you got transported to Earth Marvel?" Azazel asked me.

"Yeah?"

Azazel Alter spoke up. "Well it just so happens that one of the dimensions he sent a stray devil to was mine! I was very curious how a stray devil seemed to manifest right in the heart of my Grigori. We captured and interrogated the stray. A few months later here we are." He said.

"So, what… you traced back the dimensional energy and opened a portal here?" I asked Azazel Alter.

He snapped his fingers and grinned. "You bet I did! Of course I would wanted to meet another version of myself! Especially a genius who managed to breach into other Universes before even I could!" He said while complimenting my brother.

"Oh stop…you handsome flatterer! You're too kind!" Azazel said while grinning.

"Oh no, the handsome one here is clearly you!" Azazel Alter responded.

"I think we're both amazingly handsome now that I think about it!"

"You know, I can't help but agree with you there!"

"Naruhodo! You're a true man of culture…"

"As are you…"

[Oh god! There's literally two of them! Make them stop!]

I snapped my finger and a small sized portal appeared over both of their heads. Water from the Arctic Ocean spilled out and completely soaked both of them before they gave me a migraine. The freezing waters shut them both up real quickly.

Emma sighed in relief next to me. "You know, I was almost wishing the evil mutant Azazel was the one we were talking to there. He would have somehow been less annoying."

Both Azazels were sputtering in indignation and were shivering for a second until their Supernatural bodies naturally adjusted to the freezing temperatures.

"Rude, Littlest Sister. Very rude…" Azazel muttered as he used some magic to dry himself off. "Anyway, where were we? Oh right!" Azazel explained how he was in his lab a few days ago when a portal, similar to my own, manifested. At first, he thought it was me coming through. He was surprised when he saw it was another version of himself. The two of them naturally hit it off because they were literally the same person.

"So, are there any differences between our two universes?" I asked curiously?

Azazel and Alter turned and looked at each other sheepishly. "Uh… We didn't really talk about any of that." Azazel said. "We've just been doing science and Sacred Gear experiments these past few days."

I facepalmed. My brother meets an alternate version of himself and instead of asking each other any important questions, they just decided to play together for days on end…

"Well, now that your Littlest Sister has brought it up, I am a bit curious." Azazel Alter said. "Tell me something interesting about your world." He said to me.

"Father was scared of the Celestials, after they destroyed planet Asgard, so he ripped the world in two. With the help of a few other Gods, he sealed half of the world away beyond the dimensional gap. We're currently in the Underworld of that sealed world." I said.

Azazel Alter was gaping at me in shock. "Father did what!? Ripped the world in two!? How? Why? How!?"

"You asked how twice." Emma said.

"Because it deserves to be asked twice! How the hell does he rip the planet in two without killing everyone on it!? And then he sealed it beyond the dimensional gap? What about Great Red or Ophis? Wouldn't they have a problem with that?" He asked again.

"Them?" Azazel said. "I don't know what happened to them. No one's seen hide nor hair of either of those two for…1000 years now that I think about it. Huh? Isn't that a coincidence?" He asked himself out loud.

Now that I thought about it, I'd never heard about those two Super Dragons either. Their existence just never came up. Clearly they existed in my Universe though according to Azazel. Did the ritual Father used end up doing something to the two of them? I suppose we would only be able to find out once the world's were merged again.

Azazel Alter rubbed his head. "Wow… that's certainly something. I guess our two worlds might be a bit more different than I would have thought. I have no idea what a Celestial even is. Anything else?" He asked.

"Do your Universe's Devil's eat human souls routinely?" I asked. I was starting to wonder if he was from a Universe close to canon.

His eyes widened in shock! "What!? Of course not! D–do they do that here?" He asked with a bit of trepidation.

Me and Azazel's collective grimaces were enough to answer that question.

"Wow, your Universe is a lot more dangerous apparently. We're actually in the process of forming a peace treaty with the Devil's. I don't think we could do that if they still did that though…" Azazel Alter trailed off.

Azazel nodded. "Yeah, we're drafting a peace treaty with them as well. In reality, we're just building up our strength to the point where we can crush them! We're already allied with Heaven, thanks to Layla's existence here, but a battle between us all would still be too close for comfort at this time."

Azazel Alter looked at me in surprise when my brother mentioned how we were allied with Heaven already.

We spent the next few minutes discussing the differences between our two Universes. And while Azazel Alter was growing increasingly horrified by all the Marvel things I mentioned, I was growing more excited. He was describing a DxD world that sounded incredibly similar to Canon. I really wanted to see it!

"Can we go to your Universe?" I asked him.

"What!?" Emma turned to me. "We just traveled to an alternate dimension and now you want to run off to another Universe? I thought you were going to show me around this dimension?"

I waved her off. "We can do that anytime. How often does an opportunity like this come up?" I asked her.

"Pretty often for you because your Orb of Anywhere can let you travel across Universes whenever you want. You're welcome for that by the way…" Azazel muttered. He was still a bit miffed that he hadn't been able to recreate the Orb without the Eye of that Eldritch Being.

"Cmon. Let's go! It sounds fun!" I said excitedly. I could finally meet sexy Devil's that weren't pure evil!

[And there's the real reason you want to go…]

'I have other reasons!' I thought defensively!

[Do any of them involve avoiding Heather?]

'I'm not avoiding her!'

[Sure you're not…]

I wasn't going to take that from my own System. I'd prove it wrong. 'You know what, it's the weekend anyway, I'll pull her and Asia out of school and they can come with us!' I came to a decision.

Heather seemed to like my last adventure and I knew that Asia was feeling left out since she hadn't been on one yet.

Now that I thought about it, I was liking this idea more and more. I'll bring them over right now!

[Wait Host! They're still in class!]

I opened up two portals in the air nearby. Two teenage girls ended up falling through them and landing on their butts nearby.

"Eeeeep!"

"What the hell!"

Asia and Heather exclaimed at the same time. Heather immediately stood up and had her wand out–ready to fight. "Alright you bastards! You want to kidnap me, in the middle of class! I won't go down without a fight–oh it's you…" Heather trailed off when she saw me smiling at her awkwardly.

"Miss Layla? Why are we back in the Grigori?" Asia asked while taking in the familiar sights. She turned to Azazel and gave him a polite bow. She then bowed to the second Azazel without missing a beat or even questioning his existence.

[She's too nice and accepting for this world.]

Is that the church's Holy Maiden?" Azazel Alter asked us. "Why is she with you?" He asked me.

I shrugged. "It's a long story that ends in the Devils are bastards."

He nodded in acceptance of that answer. "That tells me nothing and everything at the same time. You want to bring them with us?" He asked.

"Bring us where?" Heather asked demandingly. "Do you realize that you just teleported us out of the middle of class. You probably just caused a panic!"

[I tried to warn you, Host.]

"It's fine. I'll leave Natasha a note and she can explain it to your teachers. SHIELD pretty much runs Baxter High anyway." I said casually.

"What!?" Heather squeaked in surprise. "The school is run by a secret spy agency!?"

"It's the only public High School in the country that openly accepts mutant students. Of course it's secretly run by SHIELD. All of your teachers are probably trained agents." I said.

Heather scrunched her face. "You know…Our math teacher is in really good shape now that I think about it."

"Our English teacher knows Kung Fu!" Asia said excitedly!

"He does? How did you find that out?" Heather asked her.

"I asked him." Asia replied.

"Why would you just randomly ask her–you know what, nevermind." Heather sighed.

The girls I turned back to Azazel Alter with a grin. "OK, the girls are on board–"

"We still don't know where we're going!" Heather cut in!

"–When can we go?" I finished asking him.

He scratched his cheek. "Um… We can go whenever. I suppose that I have been away for a few days and Penemue is probably going to throw a fit if I stay away any longer."

He reached into a pocket space and pulled out a small round object. It resembled the original form of my Orb, but I could feel that it was much weaker. I didn't know what he used as the Gear's core, but it definitely wasn't the same as my own. I'd ask him about it later.

"So who is coming with?" He asked everyone.

"Hmmm. I'm afraid I'll pass for now. His Gear has given me some inspiration to finally finish recreating Layla's Orb. It'd be nice to be able to travel without having to rely on her all the time." My Azazel said.

"I'd rather not run off to a new Universe either. I don't even have any supplies…" Emma said. "I'm technically supposed to be meeting members of the Grigori anyway, since I'm going to be your secretary, Layla. I'll be staying here, if that's alright?" She asked Azazel.

"It's fine with me. I've wanted to check out a mutant anyway. I wonder what makes the X-Gene tick?" Azazel said while checking out Emma. Not in the sexual way though.

I smacked Azazel on the shoulder. "No dangerous experimenting on my super hot blond secretary!" I told him.

Emma blushed at my outburst.

Azazel laughed at my defensiveness. "Relax, all I need's a small blood sample. And only if she's fine with it?"

Emma shrugged and said that she didn't mind either way.

So it was just me, Heather and Asia going to check out DxD canon. Asia was incredibly excited that I remembered to take her with me this time. Heather was trying to be a typical teenage girl and act indifferent, but I could tell she was also excited by her small grin.

XXX