Darian kicked open the door, his gaze sweeping across the room. In the very center was, shockingly, a small swimming pool.
Angela, whom they were looking for, was floating face up on the water, eyes closed, arms spread naturally, long hair splayed out on the surface. She was hanging motionless in the center of the pool.
[Status: Possessed by Son of Satan]
Sure enough, Angela had become the vessel for the descent of the Son of Satan.
Darian narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to step forward, a white shadow suddenly descended from the sky, landing in front of him and blocking his path.
"As a human, you carry the aura of both Heaven and Hell. Who exactly are you?"
When Darian saw the other's face clearly, his expression became extremely colorful.
This person had blonde hair and golden eyes, with an androgynous appearance that made their gender hard to distinguish. They were dressed in white, with a pair of wings spread behind them, barefoot on the floor tiles, and radiating an inviolable, noble, and holy aura.
But none of that was the main point.
The point was that face, which resembled an old acquaintance he hadn't seen in a long time.
Darian widened his eyes and blurted out: "Holy shit, Sorcerer Ancient One, is that you!?"
[NPC: Gabriel Hornblower]
[Favorability: ???]
[Evaluation: Archangel, Captain of the Heaven Police, C-section doctor for the Son of Satan, the Ancient One with hair]
This person was not the Ancient One Darian knew, but the Archangel Gabriel of Heaven.
Yet, staring at that face, Darian still couldn't help but have the illusion that he was facing that bald Sorcerer Supreme.
"You know me?"
Gabriel felt that Darian's gaze was strange, as if he were very familiar with him.
Darian nodded: "Of course... not."
The game system had long warned that it was normal to encounter NPCs with reused character models across servers; essentially, it was the same template applied to different personas.
Clearly, the Gabriel before him was using the Ancient One's model.
System, hurry up and record this for me, save it, I want full coverage with no blind spots!
Darian chuckled.
The version of the Ancient One with hair—this was rare material that had to be cherished.
"Ahem, let me introduce myself. I am the Sorcerer Supreme, the person in charge of Kamar-Taj, and the Guardian of the human World."
Darian's mischief flared up, and he directly stole the Ancient One's title.
He pointed at Gabriel's familiar face and said righteously: "Ancient One... ah no, Gabriel, you've been caught!"
"I have already discovered that you are secretly assisting the Son of Satan in descending to the human World, intending to drag the human World into destruction. I advise you to stop immediately, lay down your butcher's knife, and turn back to the shore!"
Gabriel had never heard of Kamar-Taj, nor had he heard of the title Sorcerer Supreme, so he was unimpressed.
He smiled gently: "You are mistaken. What I am doing is not destroying humanity; on the contrary, I am saving you."
Darian raised an eyebrow: "Turning the human World into hell, you call that saving?"
"Of course!"
Gabriel nodded, his expression matter-of-fact: "You humans have received a privilege from my Lord. No matter what crimes you commit, as long as you repent, you can receive my Lord's forgiveness."
"From ancient times to the present, looking at all things in the World, apart from humans, no other creature has enjoyed such preferential treatment."
"That is too unfair."
Darian felt that what Gabriel said actually had some truth to it.
In the real World, if those wicked people who committed monstrous crimes could wipe away all their sins just by repenting, it would be absolutely absurd.
Just like that classic saying.
They don't know they are wrong; they just know they are going to die.
For such people, whether to forgive them is God's business; the best method is to send them to meet God.
"If the Lord is merciful and loves you to this extent, then I must naturally check on behalf of the Lord to confirm whether you are worthy of this unconditional great love."
Gabriel continued, his tone carrying a condescending arrogance.
"I have observed humanity for a long time and discovered a common characteristic: only in the face of extreme fear and despair can humans strip away all their hypocritical shells and reveal their true selves."
"Therefore, I have brought pain and fear to humanity."
"Only those humans who have experienced the baptism of hell and can still maintain their original heart and display a noble soul are worthy of receiving my Lord's salvation!"
Darian listened to this extreme rhetoric from Gabriel, paired with the Ancient One's face, and it was just so discordant no matter how he looked at it.
He scoffed: "As an Angel, you actually want to destroy the human World. Gabriel, could it be that you are an undercover agent planted by Hell into Heaven?"
Gabriel remained calm: "The Lord has granted me the authority to cleanse the filth of the human World. I am merely fulfilling my duty, screening out the souls truly worthy of salvation for the Lord. All of this is the Lord's guidance."
Darian rolled his eyes.
If God knew you were using his name to conduct such a purge, he would probably pull off that pair of chicken wings on your back on the spot and make Orleans roasted wings.
Just then, Gabriel looked back toward the swimming pool, his mouth slightly curling up.
"The time has come. The path to salvation will unfold at this moment."
He turned and walked toward Angela.
Suddenly, a ball of lightning, wrapped in blinding blue-white arcs, whistled and blasted toward the back of his head.
Gabriel's wings suddenly flapped, swatting the ball lightning onto the ground, where it exploded into a shower of fine sparks.
He stopped and turned around expressionlessly.
Darian was holding the Universal Hammer, with the hammer head pointed directly at him: "Sorry, humanity doesn't need salvation, especially at the cost of destroying the World."
"Human ignorance never ceases to disappoint me."
Gabriel shook his head, raised his hand in a phantom grip, and a completely transparent light sword condensed in his palm.
His eyes bloomed with golden light, his face cold: "If you insist on blocking the way, then I can only clear the obstacles."
As his words fell, Gabriel's wings shook, his body radiated dazzling white light, and he flashed before Darian in a diving posture in the blink of an eye.
Facing this Archangel, Darian dared not be careless and decisively switched to his strongest suit.
The ultron armor instantly covered his body, the magic white robe draped from behind his shoulders, and the Pig Talisman on the back of his right hand glowed slightly.
Only the head part was not covered, enclosing only the neck and chin, with a magic mask with strange runes on his face. Coupled with the Universal Hammer in his hand, he looked like a futuristic warrior combining magic and technology.
Looking at Darian's inner wear, he was wearing the gantz strengthening suit, a mental protection amulet hung around his neck, and a total of six rings were worn on his left and right hands, the gems on them flashing blindingly.
With the support of skills and magic, Darian's overall attributes soared rapidly.
Bang!!
The Universal Hammer and the light sword collided violently, and a powerful air wave exploded from the point of impact.
"Looking at your face, how can I bear to strike?"
Darian's tone was very conflicted, but his actions were not hesitant at all.
His eyes suddenly shot out two thick yellow electric beams, blasting at Gabriel's face at full power.
Gabriel: "?"
"Why does it feel like this guy has a grudge against me?"
The electric light arrived in an instant; Gabriel tilted his head to dodge, and the beam grazed past his ear.
Seeing Darian's gaze sweep over again, the light sword in Gabriel's hand suddenly erupted with dazzling light, blasting Darian away with one sword strike.
Darian's feet left the ground, and he was sent flying backward. He forcibly twisted his waist and turned in the air, landing with his shoe soles scraping two long marks on the broken bricks, stopping in a half-squat.
Before he could steady himself, Gabriel's light sword turned into a sky full of light shadows and poured down.
The surrounding walls and ground were instantly shattered into dust under the influence of the light shadows, debris flew everywhere, and the entire room turned into a demolition site in the blink of an eye.
Darian immediately activated the Protection Spell, while simultaneously activating the energy shield that came with the Universal Hammer; the two layers of shields were superimposed, hard-resisting Gabriel's offensive.
But the two layers of shields only lasted less than two seconds before they were covered in cracks, ready to shatter at any moment.
Darian slammed the Universal Hammer into the ground, and a shockwave exploded outward with him as the center.
Gabriel was hit head-on by the shockwave, and the offensive in his hand paused.
Even more strangely, he inexplicably felt multiple negative status effects attacking him.
Such as life energy reduction, electric shock, freezing, and even mental attacks.
Taking this opportunity, Darian switched the Universal Hammer to Sif's blade and made a power-up posture.
Gabriel was confused but didn't stop, raising the light sword high and slashing down.
Just as the light sword fell, Darian suddenly raised his sword to parry.
Parry!
The moment the blade collided with the light sword, Gabriel's expression changed slightly.
A strange and powerful backlash poured back along the light sword, acting directly on his body.
His arm was shocked upward, his whole person stumbled backward uncontrollably, and his body fell into a brief state of stiffness.
"What?"
Gabriel was stunned.
He could perceive the essence of most powers in the World, but this backlash was outside his scope of cognition.
It wasn't magic, nor was it any familiar power; it was as if some rule itself was in effect.
How could a human possess such power?
Darian didn't waste this opportunity, put away the blade, clasped Gabriel's head with both hands, and his eyes bloomed with power-up light.
"Look at me, you brat!"
Darian roared, his eyes spraying two yellow electric beams that were a whole circle thicker than before, instantly blasting onto Gabriel's face.
Gabriel was in a state of stiffness, unable to resist, and had to take this set of face-to-face output hard.
The moment the stiffness was about to end, Darian charged his right elbow and smashed it heavily onto Gabriel's face.
Muay Thai Warning!
Bang!!
Gabriel turned into a white light, crashed through the outer wall, and flew out of the psychiatric hospital building.
The next moment, Gabriel's flying figure stopped abruptly in mid-air.
His wings flapped suddenly, and he hovered steadily in the night sky.
At this moment, Gabriel looked very disheveled, his face charred.
Especially that originally dazzling blonde hair, large patches had turned into charcoal, and several places were even bald, revealing a smooth scalp, turning from a holy Angel into a Buddhist monk in the blink of an eye.
"Alike, too alike!"
Darian flew into the air from the hole in the wall, and seeing Gabriel's appearance, he was overjoyed.
Gabriel didn't know what Darian was talking about, but he could clearly feel the malice coming toward him.
The next instant, Gabriel's body burst into a rich holy light, and he was wrapped in a white ball of light.
After the light dissipated, the injuries on his body were wiped away, and even the golden hair on his head grew back, longer and smoother than before, making it even more discordant with that face.
And behind Gabriel, that pair of wings had turned into two pairs, four wings spread out behind him, carrying a holy and powerful sense of oppression.
Darian was shocked: "He can actually perform a magical girl transformation? Shouldn't this be the protagonist's exclusive special effect?"
Gabriel, as an Archangel backed by the friendly faction of Heaven, indeed had some protagonist templates.
Then what was he?
A villain who won't interrupt the protagonist's transformation?
This couldn't be blamed on Darian; Gabriel had no pre-swing action for his transformation.
"Ignorant human, you will pay for your blasphemy."
Gabriel's eyes flowed with golden light, and holy light erupted from his body, instantly dispelling the surrounding night.
Two pairs of pure white wings flapped slowly, his figure rose continuously, looking down at Darian from above, with the indifference of a god overlooking an ant.
"Just you?"
Darian never fell behind others, immediately sprayed energy from his feet, jumped up a section, and looked down at Gabriel in turn.
Darian: (.—.)
Gabriel: (°—°)
Is this guy sick?
Gabriel's mouth twitched, too lazy to waste time with Darian.
Four wings flapped at the same time, bringing up a gust of wind, and in the blink of an eye, he was close to him, the light sword slashing horizontally, bringing up a screen of dazzling sword light.
Gabriel's speed far exceeded expectations.
Darian didn't have time to dodge, and in his haste, he could only hold the Universal Hammer vertically in front of his chest to block.
Boom!
The loud noise of metal clashing was deafening, and Darian was smashed from the sky by this sword, crashing into the psychiatric hospital building.
Dust filled the air, and broken bricks and rubble piled up on the ground.
Darian pushed away the building wreckage on his body, ignored the few unlucky demons under his feet used as pads, looked down at the Universal Hammer in his hand, and there was a clear sword mark on the hammer handle.
This was the technological crystallization of the Kree Empire, yet it was broken in one sword strike; this output was ridiculously high.
"This guy is cheating, right? Wasn't it said that an Angel's strength in the human World would be weakened?"
Darian remembered that the legendary Gabriel was a six-winged Angel.
That meant Gabriel was indeed in a weakened state right now.
Unfortunately, it wasn't daytime, the Sin of Pride couldn't trigger its effect, and he couldn't activate the Kryptonian form.
Unless Gabriel was willing to chase him around half the Earth, run to the other side of the Earth, or rush outside the Universe to fight, then he could bask in the Sun.
But the problem was that Gabriel wasn't stupid; how could he accompany him to change the battlefield?
Darian shouted at Gabriel: "Not in good condition today. If you have the guts, come back to fight tomorrow at noon. Whoever doesn't come is a coward."
Gabriel ignored this.
He flapped his four wings gently, his figure instantly turned into a white light, and he swooped toward Darian.
Darian's eyes suddenly lit up, two yellow electric beams spewed out, blasting straight at the incoming Gabriel.
Zzz—!
The light sword split the two yellow electric beams, Gabriel's speed didn't decrease, and he rushed toward Darian with an unstoppable posture, slashing with his sword.
Seeing this, Darian immediately used an invincible roll, barely dodging Gabriel's light sword, and the ground was instantly split in two.
Before Gabriel could retract his sword, Darian sprayed three energy rays from his chest and palms at the same time, blasting Gabriel away.
Darian didn't take the opportunity to pursue, turned around and sprinted toward the swimming pool in the center of the room.
Gabriel stood up from the ruins, patted the dust off his body, suffered no damage, and searched for Darian's figure with his eyes.
But the next second, he froze.
Two figures walked out of the smoke, Darian grabbed Angela, and raised the blade in his hand to her neck.
"Don't move, the hostage is in my hands now. If you dare to move, I will kill the hostage!"
Gabriel: "?"
"?"
***************************
Thoughts on where the plot is heading? Let me know in the comments! If you're enjoying the ride, please leave a quick review and toss a few Power Stones my way. Every bit of support means the world! 🙌