I apologize for posting this so late, but life never goes as expected. I had more or less already reached the end of how useful my already written material was because of the changes I had made to the story as I edited it and for some reason I just wasn't satisfied with the chapter.

Regardless, here is the next chapter of Avoiding Damnation and Other Normal Things

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD

TIME SKIP TWO DAYS

Today I would be visiting Heaven for the first time and would be staying until Sunday night. I was really looking forward to this.

I had lowered how much my magical weights weighed from Thursday because I was being an idiot with going about training and I was still sore today.

I may not have stopped, but I was at least doing it at a safer pace with weights just heavy enough that I can wear them constantly with some effort.

My idea group of Geminis had a couple of ideas that I would definitely be trying out once my body recovered.

By the time the Angel who was going to be picking me up arrived, I was wide awake, packed for the overnight stay, and ready to go.

Asia and Xenovia wished me a good time.

After teaching me how to teleport to Heaven, the Angel teleported us there. I don't think that I am going to need the pickup after today.

I looked out at the sight in front of me. I had never really read far enough into the series to know what Heaven looked like, but so far, I felt a bit underwhelmed. It was until my guide started to inform me about the layers of Heaven that I understood that paradise was only one part of Heaven.

I specifically would be going to the fifth layer where all of the research institutes are.

It was also where the Brave Saint system was being created.

I wasn't nearly as excited for the testing as I was for exploring literal Heaven. If I could, I was definitely going to see if I could visit the afterlife here for a bit after the testing.

I continued to meander forward until we reached the gates. It was there that the gates opened for us and we moved in.

It was only once we had passed the gates that I was taught how to teleport to specific layers. Of course, certain layers are locked off to me like the 6th and 7th.

The fifth layer consists of several large buildings, which I assume are research institutions and the occasional open testing field. I was led to one of the bigger buildings.

Once inside I was guided through the labyrinth of chambers and labs to another lab near the top floor where I met Michael and 3 other Angels, each with 6 wings like me.

There was a table in the center of the room, one that I assumed that I would be laying down upon while they analyzed me.

One of the scientists stepped forward with a hand outstretched. I grabbed his hand and shook it

"Ah, so you must be Adrien!"

The man was genuinely excited.

"I look forward to working with you on saving our race! My name is Ruhiel"

"It's nice to meet you as well, Ruhiel"

After Ruhiel backed off I was then greeted by the next scientist

"Anaiel"

She said, shaking my hand. She didn't really seem like one for many words.

I turned to the last one, who I couldn't really discern the gender of and shook… his? her? hand.

"My name is Cerviel, let us get along"

I nodded at Cerviel in agreement

Their voice did not help with determining which gender they were. I just decided to let it drop.

Michael stepped in.

"Now that everyone has been introduced, Adrien, would you mind releasing you spells on your person so that they do not interfere with the scan before laying on the table?"

"Sure, that is no problem"

I released both my resistance and weight spells. My body felt so much easier to move after I had done so.

I then moved onto the table and laid down.

Ruhiel leaned over me and began to explain what would be happening.

"What is about to happen is something that is going to feel incredibly uncomfortable. Not physically, but spiritually, like somebody is staring at you being and understanding what you are in totality."

That was not reassuring.

"I assure you that we are not doing that but only analyzing your connection with the systems god left behind. The reason you get this feeling is because as an Angel this connection is part of your soul."

I was really hoping for something more reassuring. I was starting to get nervous.

"Try not to move around as much. It will mess up the results and we will have to do this again. We expect the analysis to take upwards of thirty minutes."

I am definitely not moving; I haven't even done the procedure and I was already anxious about it.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I heard Ruhiel walk away.

"Analysis beginning in 3… 2… 1!"

ONE HOUR LATER

I am never doing that again. It was only 45 minutes of the eternity of my life and it will remain something that I will never want to do again.

I would suffer through it again tomorrow so that they have more than one sample. I was going to hate every moment.

Why do I put myself through this?

Ah… right, I want to help people and figure out where my exact limits are.

Ruhiel, Anaiel, and Cerviel let me free for the rest of the day while they went over the data from the analysis.

I would be getting my training a bit later. I was currently trying to recover from the sheer vulnerability that the procedure had made me feel.

I hated feeling vulnerable to strangers. I was fine with Issei and Asia. I wasn't that close with anybody else though…

I really need to get more friends.

I sighed and shook myself from those thoughts and decided to start practicing forming objects out of my light.

I know that we can form constructs out of it, I had mostly made javelins because I was launching them. Not that I had any proficiency with my light in the first place, I had been ignoring it because I wasn't sure if it could be tracked and I was in a very politically dangerous situation.

In a small burst of inspiration, I tried to form armor on myself with the light.

I, for the most part, succeeded.

The armor was crude, mostly from my lack of finesse with what it was made of, but it was a start. Maybe I could layer it with my barriers to provide two layers of varying strength.

I paused. I was a fucking idiot.

I had created my barriers and constructs from scratch when I could have been using my own innate light as a basis because looking back on it and from what I remember in the show, it acts like an object, once made of mana, but still an object.

I immediately started to manipulate the armor I had created and found that I could not alter the light like my barriers, disappointing but not unexpected.

I thought that I was onto something there.

Damnnit.

I sighed and moved onto something else, I would be getting lessons on using and shaping light later along with practice spars only using light constructs in combat.

I sighed again; I was bored.

THE NEXT DAY

I was now standing in a room with the three scientists, they had already informed everyone important about how my connection was different, but now they would finally get around to telling me.

Cerviel look at me for a second

"I assume that you will not want to hear all of the in-depth nuances of how your specific connection to the Heaven system is amazing, so we will just give you a summary"

I am thankful for that, as much as I am interested in magic, this is not my cup of tea.

"So…"

I led on.

"Your type of connection is unique in that it has so many less restrictions while adding a couple of new ones that weren't really covered in the current connections between Angels and the system. Specifically, you are able to feel and experience the full range of emotions and even indulge in sin as long as you don't go over a specific amount. Which is something that we are still calculating"

I already guessed that from the note.

"What is truly amazing is that your connection allows you to have sex without the requisite pure love than we would have to have in order to do so, or risk falling. In fact, if we had your connections earlier the majority of Fallen Angels just wouldn't exist because they wouldn't have fallen."

Well the sex part is good as I didn't want to go through rituals or other special things in order not fall while having sex…

I wonder if they ever tried hypnotism.

"One of the more important parts is that despite the loosened restrictions, the Angel still has to be loyal to Heaven. From what we can tell in comparison, is that our connections have some loopholes in the loyalty portion that your connection would close."

Okay… that is interesting. I can't remember if there were traitors in Heaven, I doubted it because of how stringent the rules they have to follow in order not to fall are.

They did say there were loopholes though, so that might be a possibility

"What your connection does is basically notify the system if you are considering betraying the faction in any shape or form. While normally this would have notified God, in this case, Michael is notified and can prepare for the eventuality of the person turning traitor or even allowing us to set an ambush for said possible traitors. We don't plan on informing anybody about this outside of Michael, you, and whoever he chooses to inform about this."

"Would you be able to create something for the already existing Angels so that they can benefit from this"

This time Ruhiel answered.

"Definitely. With the help that we have when it comes to creating our reincarnation system, we intend to allow it to affect all races much like how the Devil's evil pieces can convert all other races! This means that we can convert normal angels into the newer version with your connection"

I pondered for a couple of seconds.

"Do you still need me to come back?"

I really didn't want to suffer through the scan again.

Ruhiel chuckled

"We still do, while you have provided substantial data and we have your connection for the most part mapped out, we will need further scans to confirm our data to make sure that we didn't miss anything"

I sighed

"It should only be one or two more scans at most,"

That cheered me up for a bit.

"Would you mind if I head back then? I miss my friends and I was hoping to cut my stay here a bit short compared to when I normally would have left."

Anaiel answered to my surprise. I had only heard her speak about three times over the course of my stay in Heaven.

"Go ahead, we won't need you until next weekend"

Ruhiel and Cerviel looked at Anaiel for a second before nodding

Ruhiel made a shooing gesture with his hands

"Go on, shoo"

I did just that and moved to the gates before finally teleporting home.

I had made it home just in time for dinner.

THE NEXT DAY

I was glad to be home, I missed everybody here.

Xenovia had gone off to the church to meet up with her adoptive mother and get some training with Durandal.

Asia had been hanging out with Issei.

Issei had been enjoying his new mansion that had like 6 stories from what I could tell from the outside.

I was a bit jealous, but I have a house that's comfortable and gets the job done.

After another quick conversation with Asia, I found that all of the females of the Occult club were now living with Issei and his family by order of Azazel.

I guess he was helping along Issei's harem plan.

I sat down. We talked a bit about if she is still planning on getting with Issei even if he has other wives.

From what I remember this topic was never really broached, not that I remember much, but it seemed like a good conversation to have at some point and I might as well get it over with earlier rather than later.

Asia was a bit wishy washy on the topic, but she wanted to be with Issei and was willing to try. She seems a bit single minded in her determination about Issei, but who was I to judge? I had my own issues.

I pointed out that she was jealous of when he paid attention to the other girls and she was basically agreeing for that to happen.

She made a counterpoint that as long as he devotes a good amount of time with her, she would be fine.

I wasn't about to stop her, so I asked if she would want to move in with Issei so that she can be on the same playing field as the others.

She was again hesitant possibly because of her thinking that she was abandoning me for Issei.

I told her that I was fine if she went and that she wouldn't be hurting my feelings.

She was also just going to be next door and would be free to visit whenever, I wasn't about to get in between her and her crush.

She said that she would make a decision later and I let the subject go, it would be hypocritical of me to force her to make a decision.

We then switched topics to magic and I started to teach her Gemini. I trusted her more than enough for her to learn this.

I made sure that she was not to teach anybody else this magic without informing me beforehand as this magic would be catastrophic in other hands.

She agreed of course, I had no doubt she would keep this to herself like how she kept me being an Angel to myself.

By teaching her this I would heavily increase her chances of survival if there are decoys of her running around.

Paired with some good healing spells and barrier spells as she would be an incredible person to have on your side.

That and I would be able to teach herself more often so that she will get better. I was planning on introducing her to some elemental Magic's and having a couple of Geminis would do wonders for her learning ability.

I had considered giving out the spell to others. Issei sadly is the only other person I trust enough with the spell, but I doubt he would use it for anything good due to his perversion.

I spent the remainder of the day relaxing while my Gemini worked away at my projects, well... I wasn't just relaxing, I had my weights and resistance spell on, but that is beside the point.

TIME SKIP FOUR DAYS

Asia had decided to move in with Issei on Wednesday. I would miss her, but she was right next door. Issei's parents had given me the invitation to visit anytime because Asia was staying there.

I had already visited and stayed over for dinner most nights, mooching off of their food and snacks.

Yesterday, Xenovia returned and I was expecting some unwanted advances, but instead I got an apology…

… I was definitely not expecting that to happen.

I of course accepted her apology, because why wouldn't I, and moved on. I was thankful to whoever told her to give me some space, because being aggressive about trying to date me does not win any affection from me.

I let her know this as well, I had put up with a couple of attempts and had hoped that my rebuttals would make her realize, but this works as well.

I still wasn't looking for a relationship, but I think that once I feel a bit more stable and grounded, I might be open to one. Assuming she doesn't revert back to her aggressive tendencies when it comes to trying to seduce me, I guess I wouldn't mind giving it a shot.

Asia wasn't here, so I decided to strike up a conversation with Xenovia.

I had asked her about swordsmanship, as while I used a sword, I wasn't good with it considering I had to teach myself everything. When I told her as such, she suggested that she could teach me.

I gladly accepted her suggestion.

With that out of the way, we went to the backyard and she started to teach and correct the mistakes I have been making on my swordsmanship. It was amazing to get some actual instruction with this.

The small amount of training I got in heaven dealt with light weaponry and took a generalist approach of getting to know all sorts of weapons so that you can use our innate light in all sorts of forms with at least some proficiency.

While Xenovia tends to focus on power, she still is a highly skilled swordswoman.

We chatted as she instructed me, and I learned that Xenovia knows how to create a dimensional pocket to store things in…

That would have been so useful so many times.

I asked if she would mind trying to teach me the magic because I need one of those ASAP.

We struggled for a bit before I eventually got it down. I now had a functioning pocket dimension!

I was going to keep my important stuff on me forever, like my Vali materials, my swords and all of my other important creations and materials. That and some pictures of everybody, in what is basically a photo album, I would have to start taking pictures now, but I might as well.

I didn't have any pictures of my family on me when I left, I doubted that I would be leaving this universe at all, but I wasn't going to be without photos now.

The idea had never really been viable to me because of combat and potentially losing or damaging those photos, even if I had them on a phone, they would only last as long as the charge.

I was already forgetting the faces of my family and friends and honestly? That scared me.

I wasn't going to let that happen to anyone I care about here.

The remainder of the day passed calmly enough. I even set aside some time to do some forging personally.

Aside from that, I checked up on the progress of my Gemini on their focuses.

The Gemini had already finished modifying my offensive spells to be more damaging, which is nice when I finally get to use them at range. I mostly fought melee because the spells I use wouldn't be strong enough to harm opponents of the level I have been facing.

My other Gemini groups were also making great progress with me dissipating and spawning them at regular intervals so that all of the information is shared.

My reinforcement magic was coming along well, we are still working on making sure that my body doesn't tear itself apart or cause any imbalances in any of the chemicals of reactions going on in my body.

The improvement for the base flexible barrier is going to take even more time because I had to balance the flexibility of the barrier with the durability and how rigid the barrier needs to be to block attacks without folding around the attack.

The biggest project that I am working on is still the conceptual/ability links and strengthening them as much as we can. We have already improved the links enough for more of a bleed over, but we still could not access the complete concepts or abilities imbued or part of into an object.

The insane regeneration of a Hydra was now about twice as strong as when we first started to create the links but was still slower by a big margin than the monster it originated from.

I was planning on waiting until I could fully link a concept or ability to a different item. This way I should be able to draw as much power as I can from the orbs and metals, I got from Vali's Balance Breaker.

The resulting item should be monstrous because it theoretically should be able to tap into a fraction of Albion's abilities and concepts. Considering that Albion is a Heavenly Dragon, I have high expectations.

I was also planning on bribing Issei at some point to see if I could harvest some materials from his balance breaker as well. If I ended up doing that, I would have a sword for each of the two Heavenly Dragons.

I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to bribe him with though. Probably something to do with boobs as Issei is Issei and Issei loves boobs.

My brain raced with possibilities before deciding upon an idea that I personally found incredibly stupid.

I was going to modify my flexible barriers into shaped boobs. Specifically, I was going to create a spell that would allow Issei to imagine a pair of boots and then the spell would manifest that illusion using his intent and memories of boobs.

It was a stupidly complicated spell for a stupid result, but the materials should hopefully be worth it.

I began to clean up for the night so I could go to sleep. I left behind a couple Gemini to work on the spell.

I made sure to store away my important materials, Ascalon, Excalibur Nightmare, my best magical items and weapons, and my research notes for everything.

THE NEXT DAY

Issei had declared me his best friend solely because of the spell and I honestly wasn't sure how to feel about this. At least he had agreed to let me harvest some materials from his Balance Breaker.

Goal accomplished I guess? I honestly felt unclean for doing this, but I would deal with those feeling later

I quickly stored the metal and orbs I got from his armor in my pocket dimension. I wasn't about to let these materials out of my figurative sight.