Chapter 5: Laying Down The Law
Sean left his apartment in his school uniform, backpack over his shoulder, and started going toward the Academy. He decided to not listen to music with everything that's been happening the past few days. Both Fallen Angels and Devils in Kuoh learning of his existence, being attacked because of what he had, Rias's constant and intrusive badgering in school AND his workplace.
When he arrived at his home after his shift, Sean was completely stressed when all the irritation he felt from Rias's presence at the café. Though after settling down with a shower and some video games, he quickly put it out of his mind. Playing video games was always a good way for Sean to mellow out. The breathing techniques he learned from Yama were effective, but only in the moment.
But now, he just wanted to try and get through a school day without any of the Devils bothering him for whatever reason. A nice, quiet day of learning, working part-time at the manga café, a little training to keep his strength up and resting at home.
"Speaking of training, you should make some time for it today." Heimdall suddenly said. "The 16 vs 1 scenario may helped in your training, but you need to avoid becoming complacent."
The faux Devil peerage was a step in the right direction for Sean's training. The drastic disadvantage in numbers gave the human a challenge in that session. The dummies got a few solid hits in, especially the Rook dummies. Sean also got a few burns from some magic blasts from the Bishop dummies that he didn't notice while fighting the others.
However, the most difficult obstacles were the Queen and King. At that point, Sean destroyed most of the dummies, so it was just him, the Queen and the King. The combination of the Knight's speed, the Rook's strength, and the Bishop's magical aptitude made the Queen the toughest out of the entire peerage and the one Sean made was no exception.
The King himself wasn't a spectator in the fight either. While mostly a strategist throughout the battle, he would fight if he was forced to. And seeing his teammates fall against their creator was enough to convince him to take up arms.
It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end, Sean managed to emerge victorious. Acknowledging its defeat, the King bowed in respect to its creator and Sean used the Reality Stone to disintegrate the entire faux-peerage with a wave of his hand back into the dirt they came from.
"Alright. What do you think?"
"You can have Izanagi increase your personal gravity for some additional resistance training." Thoth suggested. "You should also consider improving your reflexes to avoid letting your opponents through your defenses."
"Got it. Actually..." Sean trailed off to look around for any other bystanders in his vicinity. There were a few people outside, so Sean took off his backpack to open it and stuck his left arm inside to make it look like he was searching for something.
Instead, he was really concealing the Infinity Gauntlet as it appeared on his arm. The Reality Stone started to shine its scarlet hue and Sean felt his body get heavier, causing his knees to buckle slightly under the sudden shift.
"Ah, there we go." Sean commented. He dismissed his Gauntlet and took his arm out of his backpack. Throwing the satchel over his shoulder, he continued his trek to school.
"That should be enough for now." Thoth mentioned. "Just don't overexert yourself or else you'll regret it later."
"I got it, Thoth." Sean groaned from the Egyptian god's concerned reminder. He also rolled his eyes as he turned at a corner of the road, which made him miss something hitting him in the face and obstructing your vision.
"Hey!" a voice called out to him. Sean grabbed the offending material and yanked it off of his face, revealing that the voice belonged to Issei, running toward him.
"Harris?! What are you doing here?" Issei asked, surprised at the American's sudden arrival.
"Going to school, duh." Sean replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Issei just furrowed his brow in annoyance. "Anyway, I need that." he said, pointing at the cloth in Sean's hand.
Sean raised his eyebrow and looked behind Issei to see a young blonde girl who was getting up off the ground and dusting out her outfit, which looked like a dark teal nun's attire with brown boots secured by black straps in an X-shaped pattern. He also noticed that the girl wore a silver cross necklace and a brown satchel that was lying on the ground.
"Issei's helping out a nun?" Sean thought in astonishment.
"Looking at the girl, I'd say he's most likely doing it out of his perverted lust." Izanami deduced, disgust evident in her tone.
Sean shook his head, internally agreeing with the destruction goddess. He handed the cloth to Issei and the Devil snatched it right out of Sean's hand.
"Rude." Izanami curtly chided Issei's actions.
Sean said nothing as he watched Issei return the cloth to the blonde girl. She accepted it graciously with an innocent smile and properly adorned it back on her head. The girl also noticed Sean from behind Issei, who had just started to walk past them and away from the scene.
"Wait!" she called out to him. Sean stopped to face the holy girl.
"Thank you so much for catching my veil!" she bowed in gratitude.
"Well, I didn't catch it so much as it flew right into my face." Sean responded flatly. "But you're welcome."
The girl stood straight back up and smiled at Sean. Issei, meanwhile, could only fume at Sean for stealing the girl's attention away from him. He was trying to make a good first impression on such a cute girl that seemingly showed up in front of him with her pure white panties on display and now the American was hogging in on such a rare opportunity.
"Thank you both for helping me." she said to the two boys, still in her shy tone. Issei snapped out of his internal jealous rage and rubbed the back of his hand while Sean just had his hand in his pocket while the other still held his backpack over his shoulder.
"It was nothing." Issei replied for the both them. Sean shared his sentiment and started to think about the situation he was in. A perverted Devil talking to a girl of the Church. If there was a more ironic event that was happening right now, he couldn't think of one.
"Sean, I sense some power coming from her." Morrigan told her host.
"Really? Her? She doesn't seem like she would harm a fly." Sean said with mild disbelief. This girl seemed like that she would never harm anyone or anything, even if she was being harmed.
"Yes, but it isn't anything harmful. It feels more like a warm light. Gentle, just like her."
Sean acknowledged the Celtic goddess' input as Issei was having a conversation with the sister. But judging from the expression on his face, he was bombing pretty badly.
"Um...I'm sorry, but I was trying to find the church in this town and I got lost. Can you help me, please?" the nun sheepishly asked with a light blush of embarrassment as she poked her fingers together. Issei and Sean looked at each other, thinking about what to do. Issei was a bit unsure, considering the nun's affliation with the church. But he decided to go ahead and help her.
"Sure, I don't mind." Issei said.
"She may be a part of the church, but she doesn't seem dangerous at all. What's the harm?" Issei reasonably thought.
"Well, we do have time before school starts... Eh, why not?" Sean agreed as well.
"Oh, thank you both so much!" the sister said with joy. She gathered her scattered clothes and packed them into her briefcase and the two boys started guiding the nun towards the church.
XXXXX
Sean, Issei, and the nun were walking towards the church on the far end of town. Issei showed some remarkable progress in self-control. Sean thought that most of the credit went to the girl being a nun. You'd have to be seriously fucked up to try and make a move on a girl who pledged her life to God.
"So are you a tourist?" Issei asked the sister. Sean just gave an "are you serious?" look.
"Come on, Issei. You think a nun is just going to come here for tourism?" Sean asked with a deadpan tone. Issei just got annoyed at his remark and wanted to tell him off, but refrained because of the aforementioned nun.
"No, I'm not here as a tourist. As a matter of fact, I was just assigned to the church in this town." she informed the two boys.
"Yeah, that makes more sense." Issei admitted. He felt kind of stupid for asking his previous question now.
"I'm so glad to run into such kind people here." the pious servant of God said. She then face Sean and Issei with a closed-eyed smile. "I guess someone is looking out for me!"
"Yeah!" Issei chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. Sean just smiled at the positivity of the sister as they kept walking to their destination. Issei then got nervous at the sight of the cross that dangled around the nun's neck.
"I'm surprised that he's keeping it together like he is." Sean thought.
The nun noticed his worried face as he turned his head away from her. "Is everything OK?" she asked with concern.
Issei forced a smile on his face to reassure her. "Yeah, I'm fine." He then thought about the feeling he got just now.
The trio heard the sound of a child crying close by. The nun put down her briefcase and went to the source of the wailing, which was a small boy that was on the ground with a scrape on his knee. She knelt down to the child's level as she patted his head.
"A big boy like you shouldn't cry over a scrape. Don't worry, you're going to be fine." she soothed the child. She held her hands over the boy's knee and a faint green glow started to emanate from them. Sean and Issei went for a closer look and saw a pair of rings appear on the sister's hand, one on each of them. The rings were colored blue and silver with a blue-green gem on each of them. As the glow encompassed the child's wound, it soon began to vanish, as if it was never there.
"It's Twilight Healing." Thoth suddenly said in Sean's head.
"Twilight Healing?" Sean repeated.
"Yes. It's also known as the Smile of the Holy Mother. It's a Sacred Gear that takes the form of the pair of rings on her hands and allow the user to heal any injury. Though it doesn't regenerate lost limbs, reduce exhaustion, or cure sickness; just physical wounds. And it doesn't just heal humans. It can heal Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils as well." the knowledge god explained. Having an all-knowing god in your head sure does its perks. Sean marveled at the Gear the sister possessed.
"So she just healed someone she didn't know without a second thought? This girl really is innocent." Sean thought, touched by the nun's kindness.
"Yes. She has such a pure soul. It's like being in the presence of an Angel." Yama said.
"Wow! She healed him!" Issei said. He then had a grimace on his face as he felt a surge of pain coming from his left hand. Sean noticed this.
"Hey, you OK?" he asked, curiously. Issei felt the pain was gone and looked at Sean.
"Yeah, but it was weird. My hand just started hurting all of a sudden. It's gone now." Issei told Sean. Issei didn't know what to make of it. His hand never did anything like that before.
The glow coming from the nun's hands dissipated and the Sacred Gear was gone too. She put on a kind smile for the small boy. "See? You're all better now. No need to cry." she said to the child as he got off the ground went back to his parents.
The sister looked at the two teenage boys. "All done now. Sorry for making you wait on me." she said as she playfully stuck her tongue out to them. She got off the ground, grabbed her briefcase again and the nun, the Devil, and the human went back on their way to the church.
XXXXX
The three teenagers were approaching the church as Sean saw it in the distance. Issei kept thinking about his hand when the sister healed the child's wound earlier. This caused a bit of silence to go on for a few minutes, so Sean decided to break it.
"That's got quite the power you've got!" he said. The nun looked at the American as she heard his voice.
"Thank you! I consider it to be a gift and a blessing!" she thanked with, what Sean could tell, was a forced smile. She then face forward again with her smile turning somber. "Really, it's wonderful." she softly added. Sean wondered how someone like her would be sad about a gift that could help heal people.
"You don't seem that happy about it. It's not that you're ungrateful, more like sad that you have it. Like it's more of a burden than a gift." Sean hypothesized on the sister's sudden change of expression.
"Well... that's..." the nun tried to explain. But Sean just shook his head.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." he dismissed.
"It's fine! Really, I forgive you!" she quickly tried to amend the supposed offence that Sean thought he committed. Sean let out a small sigh in relief.
After seeing her heal the hurt child from before, Sean didn't want to offend the nun in some way. He was used to the duplicity of others, so it came as a shock to see that she had a genuinely kind heart and gentle demeanor. He wouldn't feel right if he had upset her in some way.
"There it is!" the nun said happily. They all stopped to see the large church among the trees in the distance. Sean would see the building when he went on his early morning jogs, but he never really gave it much thought. He was never really much of a religious person. Not that he didn't believe in God, he just thought religion made some things more complicated than they should be. Plus, sometimes there are people who are religious and judge others on their own life choices. He didn't want to be around people like that.
Issei, who had been quiet since the sister's healing, just got a chill up his spine as he saw the religious establishment. Every fiber of his being went nuts as he kept looking toward the church. He felt that he should leave as quickly as possible.
"It's weird. I've never seen a single person up there. I didn't think anyone would be called to there." Issei said. The sister walked a little bit ahead of the two boys and turned to faced them.
"Allow me to thank you both for your kindness. Won't you please come inside with me for some tea?" the nun offered. Issei started to sweat a little as his left hand started to shake. Sean decided to save the situation.
"Actually, we have to get to school. Don't want to be late and get in trouble." he said. Issei relaxed a little at the American's quick thinking. The nun looked a little dejected about her new friends having to leave.
"I see. That's alright. Thank you both again for your help!" she sadly then gratefully said. The sister realized that she never introduced herself to the kind souls that took time out of the day to assist her. "My name is Asia Argento."
"My name is Issei Hyoudou and you're very welcome." the pervert mentioned.
"And I'm Sean Harris, nice to meet you." the American returned the introduction.
"Issei and Sean? Well, it was a blessing meeting you both and I'm sure I won't forget this. I hope that we see each other again." Asia told the boys with a sincere smile. Issei got sheepish at her honest opinion of her meeting with the two boys.
"Yeah, me too." Issei shared her thoughts as he rubbed the back of his head. Sean just nodded in return with a small smile.
"If either of you are bored or in the neighborhood, come by the church. That's where I'll be." she offered to the two boys. Issei wanted to take her up on her offer, but didn't feel safe around the church. Sean would've taken her up on her offer, but didn't want to endanger her on the off chance that the Fallen Angels would attack him again.
"Sounds great! We'll see you soon!" Issei said for both him and Sean. The American just waved to her as the two boys turned and started walking toward the Academy again.
"Thanks! Bye!" Asia waved at us as she turned in the opposite direction and went toward the church. Sean looked over his shoulder to see Asia shrinking in the distance.
"I have to admit, I'm amazed that you actually managed to control yourself." Sean said, mildly impressed. However, he didn't get a response from the Devil. Issei simply increased his pace a bit as Sean spoke.
"You OK?" Sean asked as he caught up to the Devil. Issei nodded as he tried to forget about the feeling he got from his close proximity of the church.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just when I saw the church, I felt like I was going to be killed if I got any closer to it." Issei explained. Sean nodded as he could understand why Issei would feel like that.
"That's not surprising. I mean, you're a Devil walking towards a holy place. Basically, you were approaching enemy territory." Sean elaborated. Issei had a look of comprehension after he thought about it more.
"Yeah, that makes sense." Issei said, saddened at not being able to see Asia again.
"Actually, why did you come with us in the first place, Harris?" he asked the American. "You always seem to not care about what goes on around here."
"Yeah, well, I just went with you two to make sure you didn't take advantage of her." Sean simply explained.
Issei's expression morphed into one of shock and indignation. "Hey! I wouldn't do that to her!"
Sean raised an eyebrow at the pervert. "Hyoudou, you're an outspoken pervert that constantly proclaims his love of boobs and dreams of having a harem. Someone had to make sure you didn't cross all the lines in that situation."
Issei could only sulk in defeat as Sean had a point. Anyone that knew about Issei would definitely make that assumption. But that wasn't the case. Before Sean found them, he had helped out Asia: helping off the ground after she tripped and trying to get her veil back after the wind blew away and hit Sean's face. Issei stood up straight, watching as Sean was walking away.
"Harris!" he shouted, causing the human to stop in his tracks. Issei then ran in front of Sean to face him, his face expressed determination.
"I know that I'm a pervert, but..." Issei points his finger directly at Sean's face. "I won't hide or be ashamed of my desires! And I won't force any girls to be with me! After all..." The Devil brings his pointing hand back at jabs his thumb towards himself, smiling proudly. "I'm gonna be a Harem King!"
The absurdity of what Issei just said only caused Sean to sweatdrop. When Sean first became a teenager, Izanagi told his host about how it wasn't unusual for some supernatural men to have harems with a vast number of mistresses. Yet, with how Issei just proclaimed his dream and aspiring to be a "Harem King", just sounded ridiculous to the human. Not only that, but he felt like one of those people that have been on the receiving end of a shounen protagonist's speech, which only made the situation even more annoying to him.
"If you say so." he sighed tiredly while shaking his head and walked past the Devil and towards the Academy.
Issei only got irritated by Sean's lighthearted dismissal of his declaration. "Hey! I'm being serious here!" he irritably shouted while stamping his foot on the ground before running after him to the Academy.
XXXXX
The school day went by in a flash. The sun had already set and was replaced by the moon amid the night sky as Sean left the manga café. He was surprised to see that Rias hadn't shown up. Sean just ruled it off as her dealing with Devil business and left it at that. He was currently walking back home, hoping to get some sleep.
"Sean, I'm sensing something again." Morrigan told her host. Sean immediately got his guard up, expecting someone to attack him at any moment.
"Is it the Fallen Angels?" he asked.
"No. It feels more like a Devil."
"Rias, then?" Sean tensed up at the thought of running into the redheaded Devil again.
"No, it's not her or her servants. This Devil signature is more wild than theirs." Sean quirked an eyebrow and scratched his head, feeling like he heard that term some time ago.
"Stray Devil." Sean deduced.
"You got a lock on its location, Morrigan?" he asked the Celtic goddess. She nodded as his question.
"Yes, it's not far. Please Sean, be careful." she told him in worry.
"Don't worry. That's why you're all here with me!" Sean told them with pride. He summoned the Infinity Gauntlet and activated the Space Stone. Just like before, he punched the air in front of him and created a portal to the Stray Devil's location.
Sean walked through the portal and it disappeared. He looked to see that he stood in front of the entrance to an abandoned house. He kept the Gauntlet active in case of an ambush.
Entering the building, Sean was immediately bombarded with the smell of blood and death, making his pinch his nose to block it out. Using the Mind Stone, his eyesight became more acclimated to the darkness and saw corpses littered around the interior. Although for some, they looked as if they had been chewed up, with limbs removed and pieces bitten off.
"Now, what could this smell be?" an ominous voice announced but stopped as there was also the sound of something sniffing the air.
"This scent! It's so divine! It's best thing I've ever smelled in my life! I bet whatever it is tastes even better! I have to have it!" the voice said joy, hunger, and even a bit of lust. A figure appeared out of the shadows and revealed itself to be the naked upper body of a beautiful woman with long black hair and grey eyes. She looked human from her head to her waist. Her hands had long, sharp fingernails that were painted red and looked like they would rip people to shreds.
She took notice of Sean standing near the only exit of the building. After a few experimental whiffs of air in his general direction, she licked her lips with sensuality and hunger.
"Well, well! It seems like it's my lucky night. What a delectable looking morsel you are!" the Stray smiled at Sean, which looked somewhere between sultry and predatory.
"How about we have some fun before I get a little taste of you?" Viser offered herself to the human while grabbing her breasts and massaging them, showcasing her lust to her soon-to-be prey.
"Who does this whore think she is?! Trying to seduce Sean like that?!" Morrigan shouted in outrage. "She's lucky I'm stuck in this Stone, or else I'd turn her into nothing but a bloody stain on the ground!"
"Jeez, Morrigan." Chronos flinched at Morrigan's sudden outburst. "Usually, it's Izanami that's the angry one."
"Yeah? I wonder who's fault do you think that is?" Izanami retorted, turning her gaze to her husband who held his arms up placatingly.
Sean, after seeing the rest of her body from within the shadows, shuddered as he was horrified at the thought of even thinking of being anywhere near the abomination consumed by her lust. She looked like a centaur from the waist down. A horse-like body with her front legs in the shape of large humanoid arms with sharp claws glowing in the same color as her nails and a snake for a tail.
Izanagi also shuddered as he saw the grotesque Stray. "Oh man, that is one way to kill your dreams, huh?"
The human ignored the Shinto god's remark and simply used his index fingers and put them together, perpendicular to each other in the form of a cross.
"Begone." he said in the flattest tone he could muster. Viser froze in shock and stared at the human that rejected her. The shock soon turned into rage as her face began to change. Her ears became pointed, the sclera went from white to black, but the most prominent change was her teeth becoming razor-sharp much like a piranha's.
"Then I'll just kill you and eat your corpse!" Viser screamed as she prepared to charge at Sean.
And what did Sean do in the midst of this attack? He simply smirked and stood his ground while holding out his left hand open towards the incoming Stray.
XXXXX
A red glowing circle shined from the ground in front of the abandoned building. With a brief flash, Rias and her peerage appeared, standing inside the circle before it disappeared. Rias had just received word that a Stray Devil was luring unsuspecting humans to this place before devouring them. A truly atrocious act, deserving of the harshest of punishments.
However, there was something that was bothering her. She couldn't sense the Stray inside the building. That must be how it survived for as long as it did: sealing its presence while it rested and fed.
But she put that thought out of her mind when she focused on her secondary objective for this task. This marked Issei's first Stray Devil encounter and she needed to instruct him on peerage members and their roles as well as his own.
"Issei?" Rias said.
"Yes, Miss President?!" Issei suddenly blurted, his nerves getting the better of him.
When he learned what they were doing tonight, the thought of dealing with something like a Stray Devil made him scared beyond belief. Especially due to the fact that if he wasn't careful, he might end up on the Stray's menu.
Rias giggled at Issei's nervous response. "This will be a good chance for you to know how we fight."
Shock was plain to see on Issei's face. "Are you serious?! I'd be totally useless!"
"Yes, that is true." she agreed without hesitation, making Issei feel sad.
"That being said, you'll be watching everyone else fight right here with me." Issei's depression was soon turned to relief when Rias told him about his job tonight.
"I smell blood." Koneko said with a grimace, covering her nose with her shirt as everyone approached the Stray's lair. Issei took a few sniffs in the air, but didn't smell anything.
"Issei, before we go in, I need to tell you about peerages and how they are made." Rias told him.
Rias began giving Issei the rundown about how the Three Factions: Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels, were caught in an eternal three-sided war. Eventually, they claimed a ceasefire centuries ago after their numbers were severely reduced. To combat this, the Devils created the Evil Piece system, which would reincarnate beings into Devils to serve under their King, the leader.
She also explained that the Evil Pieces apply specific traits to the newly reincarnated Devils, depending on which piece is used. And after their development, Devils created a game that let them compete against other Devils and their peerages, much like chess, called "Rating Games".
"Since I'm not a mature Devil yet, I can't take part in any official Rating Games. And we won't be able to for a while." Issei nodded at her explanation.
Taking in all this information, Issei's preconceptions of Devils were completely shattered. He originally thought of them as evil and scary, but now he realized that he was wrong. Although, he was still ignorant about the world of Devils. But thinking back to what she said about Evil Pieces, a question popped up in his mind.
"Miss President, what Piece am I?" he asked, pointing at himself.
"You're a-"
"Sorry for intruding, Miss President, but something's not right here." Akeno suddenly said, interrupting her leader.
Rias looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, the barrier. I noticed it when we first arrived."
"It's not just that. The barrier is preventing us from sensing the Stray, but it doesn't seem to be preventing anyone from entering or leaving. I think it's also functioning as a soundproofing barrier."
"The Stray must be feeding on someone right now. Get that door open!" Rias ordered. Koneko, her nose out of her shirt, rushed to the door and kicked it right off its hinges. As soon as the doors flew open and into the building, the soundproof barrier was rendered inert.
And when it was...
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" a horrible, bloodcurdling scream echoed out from inside the building. The trepidation that Issei felt came back worse than before.
However, this feeling was also mixed with confusion and curiosity, because the screaming wasn't the only sound to be heard. "Is that... music?" Kiba asked out loud.
There was indeed music coming from inside as well. The song that was playing was "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealer's Wheel and the volume made it just loud enough to be distinguishable from the screaming. But that wasn't the most unexpected thing from the whole situation.
"Hold still!" a male voice shouted. They went deeper inside and saw Sean Harris, standing in front of the Stray Devil, Viser. Sean was standing to the side of Viser's head, doing... something; his body was blocking their view.
"I SAID 'HOLD STILL', BITCH!" Sean shouted again. But whatever it was must be extremely painful, judging from Viser's nonstop screaming. It was a good thing that the building was located away from the more populous parts of town. Otherwise, there would've been plenty of humans looking into the source of the screaming.
While they couldn't see what Sean was doing, they could see what he had done. Viser's body was horribly mangled. Her limbs snapped or bent in the wrong direction, bones sticking through her skin from various places, her teeth reduced to tiny bone chips in her mouth that were now incapable of chewing through anything.
With one last shrill shriek of pain, Viser finally had calmed down, although she was now softly crying. Sean backed away from the Stray and they got a better look at what looked like a session of torture. The Devils were all stunned to see that Sean was pulling one of Viser's ears away from her. He had just cut off her entire ear!
"What's going on? You hear that?" Sean spoke into the severed appendage as a cruel joke to Viser. She could only whimper in agony as the sadistic human laughed at her pain and threw away her lost ear.
After that, Sean walked up to the mutilated Stray and wiped off her blood on his hands against her tear-stained face in a nonchalant fashion, remorseless at the torment he had just caused.
"Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back." he said to Viser and turned to walk away. He took one step before realizing that they weren't alone, Rias and her entire peerage were just standing there with various expressions on their faces. They were mostly the same throughout the group, shock and disgust by the human's actions.
Issei's was the most expressive with his face going green and covering his mouth with his hands, resisting the urge to vomit. Rias and Kiba were disturbed but they managed to keep their composure for the most part. Koneko seemed to be the most stone-faced of the group. She merely her wrinkled her nose at the sight. However, Akeno's was the most unusual out of everyone. Her expression said that she was neither disgusted nor shocked. Rather, her cheeks were rosy, her hand raised to her mouth and she licked one of her fingers at the sight. But what Sean didn't notice was the ravenette subtly rubbing her thighs together.
"Oh hey." Sean casually greeted the Devils as he turned off the music. "When did you guys get here?"
Issei finally felt his puking urge pass and pointed at Sean. "Seriously?! That's all you have to say?!"
Sean shrugged in response. "What do you expect me to say?"
"I don't know!" Issei shouted.
"Issei!" Rias said with an authoritative tone. Issei suddenly clammed up and stayed silent.
Rias turned to Sean. "I'm surprised to see you here, Harris. Did you sense this Stray here?"
"Yeah. Figured that I should take care of it before-" Sean stopped to cover his mouth and let out a long yawn. "it killed anyone else. Man, what time is it?" Sean dug into his pocket and took out his phone. He turned it on to see the clock.
"Midnight?! Damn, it's that late?!" Sean shouted.
"How long have you been here?" Kiba asked.
"I don't know the exact time, but... a few hours?" Sean guessed. The group was once again surprised by his response.
"You've been doing this for hours?!" Issei exclaimed.
"Apparently so, yeah." Sean dismissed the perv's yelling.
"Well, I think that's pretty hot." Akeno commented. Sean whipped his head towards the ravenette Devil, astonished by what she just said.
"Did I just hear that right?" Sean asked to no one in particular.
"Yes, you did." Rias answered. "The thing is, Akeno's really into S&M." The girl in question only giggled in response as she admired Sean's handiwork on Viser.
"Well, alright then."
"It's still alive." Koneko simply mentioned.
Everyone looked toward the Stray Devil in question and saw that despite all the injuries she sustained, she was very much alive, but barely. Her tears staining her disfigured monstrous face as she laid in a heap.
"Yeah, I was planning on dragging it out a bit longer. But it's gotten really late, so I should finish this up." Sean said. "But first," he turned and walked over to the destroyed doors. "I need to reset that barrier you guys ruined."
"So you also set up the barrier?" Rias questioned.
"That's right." Sean confirmed, activating the Power Stone and grabbing both doors in each hand. "Can't risk having any late-night strollers walking in on this."
As he explained himself, he brought the doors back to their frame and propped them upright to their open position. However, while he was doing this, he felt a faint energy signature outside.
"This feels familiar. More Fallen Angels?"
"Yes. Although, this one feels different from Kalawarner's." Morrigan replied.
"In any case, I don't think you have to worry about it. They seem to be keeping their distance because of the Devils." Thoth added.
"But you shouldn't dismiss them entirely. They'll follow you back home, if you do." Heimdall said. The human nodded in response and continued to work on the doors.
Meanwhile, the Devils just watched Sean from where they stood. It was an unusual situation they found themselves in tonight. They were all ready to deal with the Stray, yet they found Sean, a human, completely and mercilessly dominating it like it was nothing.
"Pleath!" The ORC looked over to see Viser, her words came out in a lisp due to her broken teeth, tears flowing down like waterfalls from her eyes. "Kill me! I can'n thake id anymore! Juth do ith before he comth back!"
"OK! Time to wrap this up!" Sean says aloud as he approached Viser, the now closed doors fully repaired and the soundproof barrier restored by the Reality Stone.
"Wait, Harris!" Rias called out. "I am the one overseeing this town. It's my responsibility to put this Stray down."
Sean looked back while still walking towards Viser. "Don't care. I don't like leaving my jobs half-finished." He turned his attention back to Viser and stopped right in front of her. She was downright terrified of this human.
"Pleath!" Viser desperately pleaded. "No more! Juth kill me already!"
"Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh." Sean shushed the Stray with his index finger against his lips.
"Oh, I will kill you. But you still don't fully understand what you've done." The ORC became confused by Sean's words.
"But don't worry," he told her with a soft, calm voice. Although, to Viser, it only inspired horror. "you're about to."
Sean walked backwards with the Reality Stone glowing while the ORC watched in curiosity. Then, solid red circles began to appear on the floor, surrounding Viser. The circles faded just as soon as they came, yet nothing happened.
However, the ground began to morph into a mound and extend upwards in a cylindrical shape. The shape curled towards Viser and the end of it started to separate and revealed a mouth, complete with teeth and tongue. More of the same constructs began to sprout from the ground where the red circles were placed and they all were facing Viser.
These worm-like creatures didn't move and seemingly "eyed" Viser; their mouths drooling with their tongues out as if they staring at a delicious meal. Viser had her head on a swivel, looking at each worm in fear of what might happen.
The Reality Stone stopped shining and Sean held his arms out as if he was showcasing Viser to the worms. "Well then, snacktime boys!" he shouted.
All of the worms lunged at Viser, opening their mouths as wide as they could and biting into the Stray's flesh. Viser screamed as the worms put more force into their bite and one managed to tear out a piece of her flesh and ate it.
The ORC were shocked that the human could come up with something so bizarre and revolting. Each of them watched with varying degrees of disgust, however after one of the worms bit off one of Viser's breasts, it became too much for Issei and so he covered his mouth and ran to the corner behind him to retch out the contents of his stomach.
Viser's screams began to lose intensity the more the worms fed on her body. Eventually, the screaming stopped and she finally laid dead on the floor, allowing the worms to continue devouring her without resistance. And finally, the last of Viser's body was devoured and now the worms were licking the Stray's blood from the floor.
Sean just stood there and watched as the Stray Devil was devoured by his own sickening creations until he used the Reality Stone to dismiss the worms by making them recede into the ground. The ORC, Issei included after he finished vomiting, were dumbfounded at the human's brutality. However, Koneko was the first to break the silence.
"Disgusting." With that, Rias recovered from her shocked daze first and walked up to Sean.
"What were those things?" Rias said.
"Gorger Worms. Creatures with an unending capacity for gluttony." Sean explained. "Hell, they'd eat you if you get too close to them." A shiver went down the Devil's spine at the thought of being on the receiving end of what she just witnessed.
"Was all of that really necessary?" Issei grumbled. "Couldn't you have just killed it without doing something like that?"
"I figured it was fitting." Sean answered with a shrug. "A Stray Devil that eats people being eaten themselves. A kind of poetic justice, don't you think?"
"Gross justice, maybe." Issei replied before covering his mouth again, the urge to regurgitate returning.
"Yeah, well, get used to it. This is your life now."
"But I'm a bit disappointed. I was looking forward to having some fun with that Stray." Akeno sighed.
"Hey. First come, first serve."
"In any case, thank you for your assistance, Harris." Rias said before turning to Issei. "Unfortunately, this means we'll have to save the Evil Piece introduction for another time, Issei."
"Uh, OK." Issei nodded.
"Everyone, let's take our leave." Rias conjured a transportation circle near the exit and everyone gathered around to join her inside. However, Issei realized something before all of the Stray insanity happened.
"Wait, Miss President!"
"Yes, Issei?"
"Uh, earlier you were going to say which Piece I was, but I never got an answer."
Rias placed a finger on her chin and looked up in thought. She then smiled when she figured that he was right. And she might as well tell him now, so that he would better know his capabilities.
She smiled at Issei as she answered. "You're a Pawn."
Issei himself felt a bit disappointed at finding out his position in his master's peerage. A Pawn? One of the small pieces that were sacrificed? The now-realized Pawn just fell to his knees with a cloud of despair hanging over him.
"Hurry up." Koneko called out to the sulking pervert.
"Coming!" Issei replied as he got up on his feet and ran to join the others. Once inside the circle, it shined brightly as well as its occupants and a few moments later, they all disappeared. Sean, meanwhile, let out a small yawn and exited the building through its doors.
XXXXX
Earlier, night had just fallen in Kuoh and Mittelt was wandering around, taking in whatever sights the town had to offer. She went out to find the human that Kalawarner had failed to kill, proving her superiority over her fellow Fallen Angel. However, after his run-in with her, the human has been more cautious and hard to find. Because of that, she decided to bide her time and wait for him to slip up and reveal himself to her. And when he did, she would end him and rub it in Kalawarner's face.
In the meantime, she went on a trip of sorts to different places throughout Kuoh. Trying on clothes at the mall for a long while as a start. Of course, her favorite outfit would be gothic lolita, but it never hurt to change her look from time to time. When she left, she was carrying a few bags in her arms and discreetly transported them back to the church hideout.
Then, she went to the restaurant that Raynare took that human she went on a date with. After that thought, the blonde Fallen Angel couldn't help but laugh at the poor human that Raynare went out with. From what she said about him, he was a shameless pervert and his antics were well-known to the locals.
Although, during their date, Raynare found his awkward restraint somewhat amusing yet completely insulting. Especially on how in the restaurant he was ogling her breasts with zero sense of subtlety. She giggled at him trying to look anywhere besides his primary focus. But on the inside, she could only cringe in revulsion. The only man she would want to leer at her in such a way would be their leader, Azazel.
Other than that, She mentioned that the restaurant had delicious parfaits that she liked. Seeing as she had some free time to herself, Mittelt decided to try the treat herself. And Raynare was right! The blonde lolita enjoyed the rich, sweet dessert so much that she emptied the glass container it was in.
"Compared to that crappy little hovel of a church, this is like a five-star vacation!" Mittelt thought in jubilation. She felt like nothing could ruin this moment.
Unfortunately, as if she received punishment for tempting fate, her palm was faintly glowing with a magic circle rotating, signaling an incoming transmission. Seeing no one in sight, Mittelt opened her black wings and flew up to the roof of the building next to her. After landing, she opened the palm that had the transmission circle and placed it next to her ear.
"Yeah?" Mittelt said into the circle.
"Report. Have you found the human yet?"
"Tch! Is that really why you called me?!" Mittelt replied in irritation. "I told you I'd take care of it, Dohnaseek!"
"So you haven't found him." Dohnaseek stated, as if he already knew.
An angry tic mark popped up on Mittelt's forehead from hearing her superior's tone. "Yeah, well, it's not my fault that he's on guard!"
"I don't want to hear excuses, Mittelt. I thought you said you were going to show us how a real Fallen Angel gets their job done. Or is it too much for you?"
Mittelt started grinding her teeth so hard that sparks would start flickering from the force. She was about to go off on Dohnaseek when she felt a strong power fluctuating from the outskirts of the town. But this didn't feel like demonic energy and she was the only one of her allies that was out patrolling.
"Which can only mean..." Mittelt thought before smirking.
"Well, well, Dohnaseek, seems like you're about to get your wish. I just found that human."
"About time." the male Fallen grumbled. "Kill him and report back to the church. We still need to set up the preparations for the ceremony."
"Yeah, yeah." Mittelt dismissed and the communication circle faded away.
The blonde Fallen Angel brought out her wings and took to the sky and flew straight towards the human's location. As she flew closer to her destination, she couldn't help the growing smirk on her face. Not only would she show up Kalawarner, but she now had the added benefit of shutting up Dohnaseek after she completed her mission.
But when she finally arrived at the building where the power felt the strongest, she then sensed a fainter power, at least compared to the first one. Unfortunately, this one was a power she was more familiar with: demonic energy. It was the Gremory girl and her servants, walking inside the building with the doors missing.
She also sensed another demonic energy signature that was already inside, but it was so weak that she almost didn't notice. But it was a bit more unstable than the Gremory Devils. It was most likely a Stray, but that was neither here nor there for the blonde Fallen Angel.
"Dammit! I finally found this human and now thanks to those stupid Devils, I've gotta wait for him to show himself! I hate waiting!" she grumbles in thought.
Mittelt decided to scope out the place and waited for the Devils to leave, so she hid amongst the trees, where she had a clear vantage point of the building and held her position. After a short while, she saw her target in the middle of the empty doorway. He was actually dragging the large doors by hand and propping them against the inner walls.
She kept an eye on him as he seemed to be fixing the doors as they were before. Seeing him in plain view made her a bit fidgety from her impatience and contemplated taking a shot at him at that moment. But she decided against it, because she didn't want to make the same mistake as Kalawarner did. Besides, with the Devils around, they'd probably heal him and they would have more of a chance to acquire
But before she could make a move, Mittelt saw that the human was looking towards her general direction.
"Oh crap! Did he notice me?" Mittelt wondered in suspicion. She moved to hide herself behind the leaves and waited to see what the human would do.
The Fallen Angel was still able to faintly see her target through the leaves. Only to see him finish repairing the doors and closed them. And as soon as he did, his power completely vanished from her senses! And not just his; she couldn't even sense the Devils inside either!
"He must have put up a barrier. That could be why I couldn't have found him sooner." Mittelt surmised as she relaxed from her hiding place.
Minutes went by and Mittelt could only furrow her brow in annoyance from waiting, sitting on a sturdy branch and kicking her legs from her impatience; a habit she developed in her life.
Thankfully, it wasn't long before Mittelt's attention was brought back towards the building when she felt the human's power again. The blonde looked through the leaves again to see her target exiting the building and walking away.
"Finally!" Mittelt smirked maliciously as she made her move.
XXXXX
Sean let out yet another yawn, this one longer and louder than the earlier ones, right before shaking his head to keep himself awake. Instead of using the Space Stone to just walk into his bedroom, as much as he wanted to, he chose to walk home as a way of drawing out the unwanted tagalong.
"It's too late in the night to be dealing with this." Sean groaned in his mind.
"Yeah, that's unfortunate." Izanami said. "Well, good night!"
"Hey!"
"Oh, Izanami. Don't be so mean to Sean." Morrigan chided the Shinto goddess.
"What? Just because he has to stay awake because of some Fallen Angel, doesn't mean that I have to."
"Well, it's not fair to Sean. At least stay up long enough to when he gets home."
"Besides, you should be setting an example." Heimdall added. "Even if one of us is enough, we should all be vigilant for any surprises that could be in store." Izanami pouted at the Norse guardian's reasoning.
Back when Sean was first able to properly communicate with the gods in his Sacred Gear, they had an unspoken rule to remain active until Sean went to sleep. By doing that, they would better protect their host from any unseen dangers. But any time after Sean went to sleep, they would be free to do anything at their own leisure. It was their own way of caring for the human that looked to them as his own family.
"Yes, wouldn't it be considered rude to go to sleep before anyone else like this?" Thoth brought up. Izanami's pouting only intensified out of stubbornness.
"Oh c'mon, Izanami." Izanagi pleaded to his wife. "Tell you what. What if you stay up and..." Sean couldn't hear what the Shinto god was saying after that, only muffled whispers.
Izanami, on the other hand, listened to every word of her husband's proposal. And with each one, her pout soon turned into a smile with a small gasp midway through.
"Izanagi~" she giggled out.
"Oh brother." Sean sighed out.
"They're just showing their love, Sean." Morrigan told her host. "There's nothing shameful about that."
"With how Izanagi seems to stare at one attractive girl to the next, I didn't think there was any left."
"Hey! That's not true!" Izanagi shouted in indignation, making Sean flinch in surprise,
"Of course I love my wife! I just wish I could build my own harem. Of course, I can't have that now, but a god can dream." The Shinto god hugged Izanami's waist from behind. "And besides, I may want concubines, but I'll always love my dear wife." Touched by his endearing sentiment, Izanami leaned her head back to give her husband an affectionate peck on the cheek.
"Speaking of love~..." Morrigan's tone changed to a teasing one.
"Well, look who I found!" a female voice said. Sean stopped where he was and looked to see that the sky had turned purple, a barrier to prevent outside interference.
"Never thought I'd say this, but 'Yay! Someone's trying to kill me!" Sean thought in faux exuberance.
As he kept looking toward the sky, he saw another Fallen Angel. She was different from Kalawarner. She was a petite blonde girl in a Gothic Lolita dress. her eyes gleamed with sadistic mischief as she brandished a pink-colored light spear.
"Well, aren't you a lucky one?" she said in glee. "You get to be killed by me, Mittelt, the best Fallen Angel you'll ever see!"
As she went on and on about herself, Sean just looked at her with dumbstruck confusion. "Is she for real? She's even worse than- what was the other one's name again?"
"That hag Kalawarner was really pissed when she found out you were alive. But our leader decided that I should kill you." Mittelt told him, her eyes closed with arrogance.
"Oh, that was her name."
"It's about time that I found you!" Mittelt berated Sean. "Ugh! I don't know how you were hiding, but you won't be able to run from me now. Now get ready to-" She prepared to throw her spear, only to notice the human wasn't there anymore. She blinked owlishly as she realized her prey disappeared and looked around to find him walking away for her.
"Hey!" she yelled in ire. She flew down in front of him, crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground. The human stopped as she did with his head down, shadows covering his eyes.
"It's incredibly rude to ignore someone, especially when giving you a grand entrance like I was!" she indignantly shouted in Sean's face. "The least you could is-"
"Do you know how late it is?" Sean suddenly asked, interrupting her tirade and confusing her in turn.
"What?" Mittelt asked, her befuddlement caused her to lose focus, which made her subconsciously dismiss her light spear.
"Do you have any idea what time it is, right now?" Sean asked as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion.
"Wha-? You think I care about that?! I'm about to kill you and you're worried about what time it is?!"
"Why should I be concerned about you killing me?"
Mittelt was flabbergasted from the causal disregard from the human. How dare anyone, least of all a human, not take her seriously! Her shock soon turned to anger until her face turned as red as Rias's hair. Sean looked at her and snickered. He thought if she got any angrier, her head would explode.
"THAT'S IT!" she roared, jumping back from Sean and summoned the light spear back into existence . Its glow illuminated the area around them and made Sean raise his right arm to shield his eyes.
"I'll teach you not to take me lightly!" Mittelt wound up her spear-wielding arm and threw it at her human target.
Sean's brow just furrowed in annoyance. He didn't even try to move out of the way like he did with Kalawarner. All he did was summon his Gauntlet, the Time Stone already glowing as the light spear got closer.
From Sean's perspective, the light spear began to slow down until it was at a snail's pace. Moving closer to the human inch-by-inch until Sean simply reached out and grabbed the spear right out of the air.
The Time Stone dimmed and everything went back to its normal speed. Unaware of the phenomenon that just occurred, Mittelt simply watched in disbelief.
"What the-? How the hell did he catch it?" she asked herself, trying to comprehend the seemingly impossible feat from the human.
Sean, on the other hand, just stabbed the light spear into the ground at an angle and the weapon just disappeared.
"Alright, I'm not dealing with this." he thought. He reached out his Gauntlet hand towards Mittelt, the Mind Stone now active, and clenched his hand into fist.
Mittelt was about to resume her assault when she suddenly found herself unable to move. She tried willing her body to move, but to no avail. She could only stare at the human in anger while he stood there with a bored look on his face, his fist still pointed in her direction.
It didn't last long as Sean moved his hand in a beckoning gesture. Mittelt then felt her body being drawn to the human by some unknown force. As soon as she got within arm's length of Sean, her body stopped in its tracks, face to face with the human.
"Did you get a good look earlier?" Sean suddenly asked.
"What?" Mittelt asked, perturbed.
"Don't play dumb. I know you were spying on me back at that building where that Stray Devil was."
Mittelt only grimaced at how the human knew of her presence from before. "Fine! Yeah, I was there. But I didn't get a good look at... whatever you're talking about."
Sean feigned a look of surprise. "Oh! So you didn't see anything?" He soon smirked at the Fallen Angel.
"Well then, how about I show you?" Sean reached out to Mittelt with his Gauntlet, the Mind Stone still shimmering.
Mittelt didn't know what to think as she saw the human's hand approach her face. She tried getting out of the bizarre stasis that she was in, but she could only struggle in vain as she wriggled in place. Her attempts at freedom abruptly stopped when she felt the human's fingers touching her head.
After that, her thoughts were bombarded with visions of a horrendously ugly monster. Mittelt could only assume that this was the Stray Devil that she sensed from before.
"Then I'll just kill you and eat your corpse!" the Stray Devil screamed.
The Stray then started running towards her, ready to devour her. But she saw a hand that wasn't hers in front of her. Rather, it was the hand that touched her head right before she started seeing this vision. She was seeing all of this from the human's eyes.
From her peripheral vision, one of the jewels on the human's hand began to glow. It was the same yellow gem that shined right before she was restrained. The Stray Devil lunged right at the human and as it did, the hand clenched into a fist. And right then, just like she is now, the Stray was frozen in place mid-air. Mittelt saw the fist being reared back and punched forward towards the Stray Devil. In reaction to this, the Stray was sent flying back towards the far wall.
The human approached the downed Stray and from then on, there was nothing but blood, broken bones and painful screaming. Mittelt could only wince in reaction to every time this human break the Stray's bones one at a time by stomping, jerking its limbs further than naturally possible, or even snapping them like twigs by pantomiming the action with his hands. He even kept punching the Stray in its lipless mouth until its teeth were completely shattered.
While the Stray was losing its teeth, it met the human's eyes, and Mittelt could only see fear in them. The Fallen Angel noticed a reflection from them when this happened. She could see the human's face looking back at her. He was completely expressionless, not even blinking as he continued to beat down the Stray or when its blood splattered across his visage.
Seeing this kind of brutality from a human reminded Mittelt of a priest that was under her and her fellow Fallen's direction. However, while the human's look in her vision was cold and apathetic, the priest usually was erratic and deranged; doing unspeakable acts with glee and his tongue openly wagging. She shuddered in revulsion as she put the insane human out of her mind.
Eventually, the human decided to play music as he resumed his torture session as well as created a knife from the ground. From what he was saying, he was inspired by a movie to play the song. And when it started, he seemed to even dance along with it, right before using the knife in his hand to slice off one of the Stray's ears.
It was at that point that the Gremory Devils entered the picture. The human repaired the doors and he looked in Mittelt's direction. After returning, the Stray was crying and begging, but Sean just ignored its pleas and back away while giant worms emerged from the ground. A few moments later, she felt bile rising up from her stomach as the worms all started eating the Stray piece by piece. They even started licking up the blood on the floor melding back into the ground.
The vision finally ended after what seemed like hours to Mittelt. She brought her hands to her head and shook it when her head started pounding from the mental pictures that bombarded her mind.
"Now..." she stopped trying to clear her head when she heard the human's voice, now flat and cold.
The Fallen Angel looked up to see that the human had the same look on his face when she saw his reflection in the Stray's eyes. She couldn't help the fear that built up as he only stared at her with his lifeless eyes.
"With everything that you've just witnessed..." his gauntlet hand quickly grabbed hold of Mittelt's throat. He started applying great pressure and started choking her. He lifted her off the ground with ease, like she weighed nothing to him.
Mittelt couldn't breathe and she flew into a frenzy, trying to pry the hand off her to free her airways. She created a spear and tried to stab him in the shoulder connecting the arm that held her up. But the spear was destroyed as soon as it touched him, like he was indestructible. Her eyes widened at her failure and tried to rip his fingers off of her. She couldn't even make them budge. She kicked at his body to try and get him to back off, but it didn't seem to faze him. Her desperate gasps for air started to weaken as did her life. Her vision started turning hazy from the asphyxiation and her struggling slowed to a stop.
However, right before she passed out, Mittelt felt the grip on her neck loosen up. She began taking big gulps of air to try and regain her full consciousness. Confused from the sudden restraint, she looked down at the human holding her up. He then lowered her back down to his eye level and brought her close to him. His eye were shut, but then he slowly opened them. And when they were fully open...
They were colored completely black while his irises now glowed a sinister purple. Not only that, a massive surge of killing intent was rolling off of him like giant waves crashing in a hurricane. Mittelt felt like she was about to be struck down by God.
"Do you really wanna start shit with me?"
Those words were so full of malice that Mittelt felt like she was going to pass out from absolute fright. Looking into the human's eyes, she thought if she showed even an ounce of defiance, she would face certain death. She frantically nodded her head in hopes of him releasing her from his unbreakable grip.
"Good." He curtly said. "Just one last thing..." With that, his unbreakable grip soon tightened even more than before and Mittelt's hands went right towards the human's in reaction. She was then brought close to the human, so he could whisper in her ear.
"If any of you try to ambush me like this again, I won't hesitate to kill you." Mittelt was now eye to eye with the human, his eyes still in its unusually fear-inducing black and purple.
"Understand?" he said with finality. His grip loosened once again as well as Mittelt regaining her ability to breathe.
"Yes!" she replied in desperation, hoarse and in-between coughs. "Yes, I understand!" Her eyes were now welling with unshed tears.
"Just please don't kill me!" she begged weakly, her pride broken at this point. Sean seemed satisfied by her response as his eyes returned to his normal white/blue color scheme.
After making himself clear to the Fallen Angel, he threw her straight into a nearby tree. She flew through the air faster than she could on her own wings and broke the tree clean in half. She slid harshly on the ground, scarring it. The tree itself started to fall and struck the ground and onto the street.
"Hmm. Can't leave that tree like that." Sean thought. People would see it and think something had happened. He knew that no one would pin it on him or the Fallen Angel, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
He stuck his left arm out and summoned the Infinity Gauntlet. The Time Stone on his thumb started to glow. He motioned his hand, rotating it to its left while closing his fist and the tree started to move. As if it was on a movie in rewind, the tree started moving in reverse, exactly how it played out but backwards and the damage it caused was fixed as if nothing ever happened.
When it was finished, Sean noticed that the Fallen Angel was gone and the sky returned to its normal color. Seeing the "threat" had been abated, Sean went back on his way home. Hoping that the Fallen Angels would take the warning seriously and that this would be the last he heard of them.
XXXXX
Hey guys! It's been a while, I know. Why was I so late for this update?
The usual. Full-time job, exhaustion, family obligations, new video game releases, COVID. That's right, I got COVID about a month ago. I'm feeling fine now, obviously. On the bright side, it gave me some time off to do some writing. Not enough, though.
One last thing, I'm actually moving soon. Don't worry, I'm gonna be moving to live on my own, so family bullshit won't matter anymore. Yay!
Anyway, you all know the drill:
Follow/Fav/Review
See you next time! And Happy Halloween!
EDIT (11/5/2021): I noticed that I left some paragraphs half-finished when I posted the chapter. So I decided to fill them out because they were annoying me.
Also, THIS STORY HAS REACHED 100,000 VIEWS! Thank you so much for your support!
