D&devils 3: Celestial Artistry: Chapter 14

"Theeeere we go." I sigh as with one final streak across the canvas... 

I'm done. 

"Hoooh." I sigh, wilting slightly as I wipe sweat from my brow. 

I gaze upon a stunning woman, she has long pink hair that steadily traditions into a greenish color, two large wings, and an unusual almost 'bladed' halo. 

Her eyes are wide, gold and red, with cross-shaped pupils. 

A bright smile is on her face as she holds a book under one arm. 

Her clothes... may pose a slight issue, but I've seen angels wear less around here. 

It's kind of just a tank top and booty shirts- with a skirt. 

"Well..." I mutter.  

Let's do this. 

"Jibril." 

The face twitches and morphs into a bright smile. 

Her face passes through the canvas. "Ah! Mio Master! I was waiting for you to call Moi~ together we will make the plans of all of our enemies go as cattywampus as a scrub hit in the face with a bean gun- errr pea shooter!" 

"Stop!" I demand instantly, pointing at her like I'm disciplining a particularly disobedient dog. "None of that." 

"Mouuuu." The immensely powerful woman pouts. "Master you are no fun." 

"I could feel my brain cells dying." I grumble as I turn and walk away. "Come on, shall we walk? I need to introduce you to some people." 

"But of course!" She hums, hopping out of the painting and falling into line behind me. 

"Oh, you too, Flonne." I call out as Jibril and I walk past a trio of portraits that look almost interconnected. Where the art ends in one, it picks up in another. 

Three near identical blonde heads poke out of the paintings. They all appear to be the same girl, just wearing different styles of clothing. 

"""Okay!""" They all echo at once. 

It is the plan to eventually fill that entire wall with paintings that continue like that. 

Flonne... the hivemind. 

Each one of them possibly holding the power of an entire army because of one little time-wizard archetype built into them. 

Honestly... when I was making them I got that one 'heaven heaven hell' song with the angel and devil stuck in my head and decided to base their powers off of that. I never actually tested them... I hope they're strong. 

[Split] 

I look out over the training field... the one I've been previously beaten across quite frequently, seeing my usual tormentor standing beside a small dark skinned boy with white hair. 

His hands are out in front of him, a large knight in black armor stands there, shadows pooling around its heels. 

Annihilation maker in the flesh.  

The boy is breathing heavily, some sweat on his brow. 

Ah. So, she did revive little Leonardo. 

Or, well, I suppose his name is Otello. 

"You are doing wonderfully." The Great Seraph compliments causing a small smile to appear on the boy's lips and for him to look a little bashful. 

"Yo. Sariel." I wave, causing the woman to look up. 

Her eyes widen upon seeing my entourage, flicking between the three identical girls and Jibril. 

"Luce." She greets. "I suppose you finally finished what you were painting?" 

"That would be I." Jibril waves. "Hello, Hola, Privet, Kon'nichiwa, Nǐ hǎo-" 

I elbow her in the side, causing her to pout slightly. 

"This is Flonne-" I gesture to the three girls, then to the taller woman on my other side. "And Jibril of the flugel. Flonne has been more or less done for a while, but we have no real idea just how strong she is, so I brought her here to spar with you, the same can be said for Jibril." 

"I see..." The seraph mutters. "Very well. I accept. Otello, I believe this is enough for the day, you've improved greatly, you can return to your room or watch on the sidelines if you wish." 

"Y-Yes, Lady Sariel." He bows his head slightly. 

Cute kid. 

At least we got him instead of Cao Cao. 

He quickly makes his way over, looking up at me and the other angels in awe. 

"Hello Otello!" I smile brightly. "I'm happy to see you well!" 

"H-Hello." He stutters shyly. 

"So... who do I fight first?" Sariel asks slowly. 

"One Flonne." I raise a single finger. 

"""But who?""" The three girls ask as one. 

"Oh! We could do rock paper scissors!" One of the three gasp. 

"On shoot!" A second chirps. 

"""Rock""" 

"""Paper""" 

"""Scissors""" 

"""Shoot!""" 

They all play rock. 

"""Shoot!""" 

They all play paper. 

"""Shoot!""" 

All scissors. 

"You know... as a hivemind... you all will probably just pick the same thing, right?" I ask slowly. 

"Hivemind?" Sariel echoes. 

"Oh, it's an experiment, I basically made a bunch of interconnecting paintings that continue where another left off. Now. You." I point to the one in the middle.  

"Me?" The blonde in question points to her face. 

"Yes. You. Go fight Sariel." I gesture forwards. 

"Ooookaaaay!" The girl smiles brightly. 

She skips forwards.  

"Would you care to start us, Luce?" Sariel asks, looking over the blonde girl with a slightly perturbed frown. 

I nod "On go. Three. Two. One. GO!" 

When I shout the command to start, two things happen, the first, Sariel lowers herself slightly, entering a gauarding stance, the other... 

A line of duplicate girls appear, each five feet away from the other. 

In an instant they had cleared the distance... well, not so much 'cleared' as 'was created at'. 

The first clone was merely five feet away from the original. The next? Ten. 

Fifteen. Twenty. Twenty five. Thirty. 

Overall, it appears there are fourteen if you include the original. 

Seventy feet of distance has been cleared in a blink. 

One moment there was empty space, the next, fourteen blonde little girls have filled the battlefield. 

As one they all seem to step in opposite directions, seven going right, six going left and one stepping forwards, a light spear in hand as they go to stab Sariel who flinches back slightly. 

The woman deflects it to the side, narrowly ducking under a kick of one of the clones. 

Glowing lights begin to fill the room as all the other girls summon a light spear... and then throw it, a cascade of streaking lights arcing towards the white haired seraph. 

She takes off with a flap of her wings that causes air to billow out in all dirrections, the two flonne attacking her are ruffled by the gale but don't aren't shoved back or lose their footing. 

The hail of light spears abruptly curve upwards as two more are added to the swarm as the two melee clones hurl their spears skywards. 

"YOU GAVE THEM YOUR VARIANT OF LIGHT SPEARS?!?!" Sariel shouts as with another burst of speed she darts to the side, staying ahead of the seeking spears. 

Multiple clones get in her way as she ducks past the swipe of one, the kick of another, her own lightspear causes the next to dissipate as she cleaves it in half. But the one behind that smashes her fist into the archangel's cheek, snapping her head to the side. 

That brief delay is enough for the spears to reach Sariel's back and slam into it. 

And... 

Do nothing... 

They back up and stab forwards again. 

It's kind of comical, actually. Her light resistance is utterly insane. 

She seems to ignore the spears for now, weaving between clones. Punching kicking, breaking arms. 

It's... a very cool fight. 

All of the clones abruptly speed up, it seems the original flonne- I think, it could have been one of the clones I wasn't really paying attention to their positioning- cast some sort of hastening spell on the group. 

Sariel is surprisingly taking some blows here and there from the sheer overwelming force. 

It appears Flonne is... quite strong. 

Certainly not on Sariel's level, she's absolutely demolishing the girl... but in a one-on fourteen? That's a little more even. 

"Impressive!" The seraph calls out. "You are truly powerful!" 

One of the Flonne's abruptly grab Sariel's arm, locking it to her chest as she is punched in the stomach. 

A blow which would have normally punched through one of the clones... ah... that must be the real one. 

I watch as she shimmers slightly. 

Aaaaand it's not anymore. She swapped. 

I blink twice, looking towards the third flonne who has now reappeared within our group. 

A second clone grab's Sariel's legs, a third getting her in a headlock. 

Thirteen girls dogpile the great angel of heaven as a pillar of purple energy descends on them, they as a large ball fall towards the ground, seemingly under the effects of increased gravity, the clones all speak in unison. """Awww. Thanks! I've been told that... I'm the bomb!""" 

 Jibril behind Otello and I flicks a finger upwards, the stone floor rising into a wall. 

BOOM 

The room rumbles, the stone wall in front of us shudders and shakes, heat briefly washes over us before fading, with another flick, the stone recedes revealing a battlefield covered in smoke. 

Jibril swipes a hand, a brief gale of wind clearing the smoke revealing Sariel stood there, eyes wide as she stands there in her underwear. She seems genuinely stunned. 

"Oh wow." I mutter. 

"Luce!" The angel chastises. 

"Oh? OH! Sorry. I didn't mean anything lewd by that, I meant it as 'Oh wow, Flonne actually managed to take one of your poker lives'." 

With a dull glow her dress reappears. 

Well, I guess she was wearing a dress. No 'shirt' and 'pants' so the system went 'Dress' 'Bra' and 'Panties'. 

"That was... certainly impressive." Sariel admits. "I... never expected one of your paintings to be so... so powerful. How? She managed to take my 'life'... and I am arguably the first or second strongest angel in all of heaven." 

"Well, to be fair, you were swarmed by thirteen clones with each empowering the blast and adding their own to it. When flonne blows up a clone, the longer in its natural lifespan, the bigger the boom and all of those were relatively fresh clones." 

"Mhhhmmmm." The three girls nod sagely. 

"How long could these clones last." 

"Ooh Oooh!" The Flonne who fought raises a hand. "Two minutes... or If I spend double the energy I can make em' last for seven hours! But the seven hour clones aren't as good for booms." 

"What- but you said the longer they have left the bigger the explosion?" Sariel mutters. 

"Oh, the longer lasting clones are built more efficient and stable, they'll have about half the explosion power of a fresh clone, but the thing is, they'll always have half the power. For a two minute clone, if it has under a minute remaining it'll actually be weaker than the longer-lasting clone down to a twentieth of the power at just six seconds remaining." 

"Flonne actually has some others things as well... Flonne... if you would, please show Sariel the fun clone." 

"The fun- OH!" The girls gasp. 

The slightly battle-damaged flonne steps forwards and holds out her hands towards Sariel. "Presto!" 

There's now a second Sariel stood there. 

"WH-" the white haired woman flinches back. 

"What is- is this- is this real?!" 

"This- this could change EVERYTHING!" 

"This has some fairly large limitations, of course." I admit, causing the seraph's eyes to stray to me, seemingly begging me to go on. 

"Firstly. Duration. This is a two minute clone. She can't change that." 

"The amount of damage I could do in just two minutes..." Sariel whispers. "That doesn't make this any less utterly astounding." 

"Drawback two. Durability. She has the same durability as all of Flonne's other clones." 

"That is... slightly bothersome, but if it has my speed, strength and magical abilities durability doesn't mean much. I could just block attacks with magic or dodge." 

"That leads me to drawback three. Yes, they have your strength, speed, magic, heck, even your equipment. But there's one notable downside. Flonne if you would?" 

The clone of Sariel raises a hand and conjures a massive barrier over the seven of us. 

"Oh." The woman mutters. "I see... yes. That's more of an issue, but this could be an advantage if we could- oh... wait a minute..." 

The Sariel clone abruptly disappears. 

"That's the final downside. The clone must be from someone willing and can be dismissed with just a thought from the cloned person. And, in addition to taking your magic to fuel its spells, if you have a one-time-use magic item, like a potion or like... some sort of explosive seal, the clone using it will render your own used. I don't know HOW this works, it just does." 

Sariel seems to think deeply. "Even with these limitations... that ability has the potential to be monstrously powerful." 

"Oh, and I should probably mention one further thing with Flonne." I cut in. 

"Yes?" 

"She is among my only creations which can repair the paint bodies of herself and others." 

The damaged Flonne raises a hand, a glowing clock appearing above it. 

Tick-Tick-Tick-TOCK 

She is now completely uninjured. Her clothes pristine, a bright smile on her face. 

"This... changes everything." I can hear the woman whisper, eyes straying to Jibril. "What about her?" 

"She's... technically stronger than Flonne." 

"Stronger... than flonne." Sariel slowly deadpans. 

"I'm good at killing things for moi master!" The pinkish-green haired angel smiles brightly. 

"She's both a healer and a mage, she's decently strong, but her true power likes in... well... what's basically a curse." 

"A curse." Sariel repeats. "I see..." 

"I can only do the true variant once per day, but I can do a lesser elemental variant quite often." Jibril notes. 

"She's got quite a potent holy immunity. Hit her with the holy version." I nod once. 

"Yes Master!" Jibril smiles as she raises a hand. 

She snaps her fingers. 

A glowing aura crackles around Sariel's body. 

"That... huh... It's kind of powerful I admit, but I don't see-"  

It crackles over her body again causing her to blink. 

Six seconds later it happens again. 

"What is... this?" 

"Every six seconds you are hit by a new wave that is equal in power to the first." Jibril notes. "This curse will last for about three minutes... had I used an element you were not almost immune to... you would almost certainly die. The true variant, Kaustra, is around... four times as powerful, yet it cuts through any and all elemental resistances. Like a brilliant laser through steak."  

"Hot knife through butter, Jibril." I note, silently wondering if she's just doing this to mess with me. 

"Oh. Right. That. That is what I meant." The Flugel offendedly comments. 

"This curse would be quite dangerous to devils." Sariel observes. "It's causing even me to tingle... it may be similar to that spell of yours, Luce... what did you call it, Justice Bolt? But that was more the force of the spell." 

"Now." She continues. "You said that she is also quite strong?" 

Jibril raises her book. 

BOOM 

The spine of the book crashes into Sariel's crossed arms, her eyes widened, her feet slide across the stone floor for a moment before she catches her balance. 

"That- you're almost as strong as Gabriel! And she's an absolute brute in a fight!" 

"Oh that's not a nice thing to say to a lady." Jibril pouts. 

"I think this is enough to show off, yes?" I look between the four paint girls. 

"I-I... yes." Sariel mutters, eyes gaining a calculating glint. 

A small stack of papers appears in my hand, a budgeting table. "Oh. Also here's roughly the cost it takes to paint... I'm also out of painting materials." 

"ALREADY?!" 

"To be fair. Jibril is quite a valuable woman. Most of it went to her" 

"I'm quite extravagant." The construct nods proudly. 

"Now... this is just about everything. I'm going to go back to pester Coco about the show. Bye!" He pats the young wielder of annihilation maker's head then walks off. 

[Split] 

Once more, the five great seraph have gathered. Discussing the operations of heaven. 

"How is young Otello coming along?" Michael smiles. 

"He's growing stronger every day." Sariel smiles warmly before her eyes stray to Raphiel. "What of you, have you asked Dulio to join as a Joker?" 

"Yes... and he accepted." The man nods. 

This is a great relief to the rest of the angels at the table. 

Two Longinus. 

They managed to get two Longinus to join their side in a more permanent manner. 

"And what of Meredith Ordinton and Alphecca Tyrant?" 

"She refused the offer. She is satisfied with her position in the Golden Dawn." Raphiel sighs. "As for the other longinus, Magnus Rose is a member of the sacred gear unit directly under the President of the United States. He is out of our reach. As for the others? Outside of the boosted gear our agents struggle to locate them. We have a... vague... idea where the Grall is, the same can be said for the Star Buster Star Blaster. Shooting Star is quite a unique name, but we haven't been able to track him. He lives in Texas, however he hasn't been back to his residence in a little over a year." 

"And what of the boosted gear?" Michael slowly asks. "I believe that it may be among the more important sacred gears we must sway to our side... knowing what we now know about the wielder of Divine Dividing." 

"Luce has complained about the wielder in passing." Gabriel suddenly sighs. "Saying things like 'that girl is the embodiment of lust' and 'genuinely what is wrong with her all she talks about is boobs and her desire to not die a virgin'." 

"Oh..." Michael whispers. "I- uh- see... what of Luce? Sariel. You said that you had something to say about him?" 

"We have drastically underestimated the strength of his paintings." She frowns, summoning a stack of papers that she passes out. "He compiled a report on his paintings. Such as the cost and their strengths and weaknesses." 

"Hm. How odd. He painted the same one three times-" 

"He spent HOW MUCH?!" Uriel cuts in as he looks down at his own paper. 

"What did you mean by underestimating the strength of his painting ability, sister?" Gabriel tilts her head. 

"I fought two of his creations today... well... I fought one and a second struck me to gauge their strength. The first? I fought one of those duplicate paintings on your sheet, Michael and... she is quite horrifying. She can clone herself thirteen times and has the strength of an eight-winged angel despite the fact she only has one pair of wings." 

"Cloning herself?" Michael scratches his chin. 

"I'd also added a few additional comments to that paper in particular." Sariel nods. 

"Wait." Michael whispers, finally reaching that part of the report. "She can clone... you?!" 

"WHAT?!" The other three seraph shout in unison, a star-struck look on Gabriel's face, a stunned look on Raphiel and a small plotting smirk on Uriel's lips. 

"Oh... that bodes reaaaally well." Uriel huffs. 

"Oh... there are some limitations." Michael observes. "These could possibly be worked around." 

"Yes. But that ability has a low duration, the one that I saw more use would be her extended clones... and the fact that she can explode them. Michael... if I didn't have the failsafe of Luce's Poker System... I likely would have died. I lost my dress." 

"Of course, it took all thirteen exploding at once, but..." Sariel's voice dies off. "A single Flonne is a miniature army in and of itself. Fourteen eight-winged angels with the only thing they lack being durability." 

"What of this highly expensive one?" Uriel taps his document. "Jibril?" 

"She hit me once... with strength just barely under Gabriel's own. Yet she is a mage. A quite potent one." 

"A seraph." Michael breathes. "He made... another seraph." 

"I thought he could only make things of strength reasonably compared to himself?" Uriel whispers. 

"He seems to have improved beyond that. Is it really so far-fetched with his... flashes of knowledge?" Sariel asks. 

"I suppose that's fair." Uriel sighs, running a hand through his hair, he looks tired. "Raphiel. Could you please gather some more materials for his paintings?" 

"Oh, of course, brother." The pretty-boy blonde smiles. "I'll start right on that. And- oh? What is... oh my this is really expensive... this is one of his concepts some sort of... dragon that absorbs holy energy to heal. He simply called it 'Shinryu'. 

The paper he had gotten is quickly passed around. 

"Oh my, this is quite... expensive... can heaven even afford it?" Gabriel mutters. 

Uriel's face is flat. "Haaah, that brat. This would bankrupt heaven." 

Sariel frowns down at the page. "If the cost of his creations is relative to how powerful they are... this would likely be as strong as one of the Dragon Kings if you compare it to Jibril. It even seems to have an outrage mode." 

"Let's... shelve this one for now. I believe Luce should make more of Flonne." Michael admits after a moment. "She seems to be by far the most efficient of his paintings." 

A murmur of agreement is echoed by the other seraphs. 

"Just thinking about what we could do with three..." Uriel sighs, a smile on his face. "There are only fifty two angels in heaven that have more than eight wings. Even with the numerous limitations these clones may have such as their durability... perhaps with them we could FINALLY begin to recover. Get to a position where we won't be forced to make concessions anymore. Get to a point where heaven is no longer seen as a complete joke!" 

"On the topic of... concessions... how is our defense of purgatory coming along?" Raphiel glances to Michael 

"Third Heaven is constantly expanding into purgatory the more souls arrive. Creating defensing will be... difficult... but our researchers are coming up with an idea for some portable barrier pillars that we could steadily move outwards as the resting place expands. The only issue is... making enough to cover what we already have. We don't have enough people skilled in artificy to accomplish this in a timely manner." The seraph answers. 

"Could Luce paint people to assist?" Raphiel continues. 

"That's something we should ask for as well." Uriel agrees. 

"What of that business with that vile devil, Gabriel?" Raphiel turns, a frown on his lips. 

"I have collected everything that I believe I need. I have noted down every single church official who has betrayed those poor girls... and they will all die in time. I just haven't acted quite yet as I am unsure if Diodora Astaroth is still in contact with them. I do not wish to give him any time to realize what is about to happen to him." The amount of venom in Gabriel's voice when she says that name is genuinely surprising. Not something you would expect from such a kind and gentle woman... but she wasn't always like that... perhaps her much older militant side is showing itself. 

The death of their father was hard on them all, but Gabriel was one of the ones who were affected the worst. 

"Good. That filth needs to be made an example of." Uriel growls, halo flickering for a moment before he pauses, takes a deep breath and re-centers himself, clasping his hands together briefly before opening his eyes. "Is there any more matters that we need to discuss?" 

There's a sudden knock at the door causing the five to glance over. 

With a wave of Michael's hand, the locks on it disappear, it slowly swings open. 

"Ah. Jibril was it?" 

"Greetings!" The pink haired woman smiles brightly as she steps into the room. "My master finished something he felt that you all should have as soon as he thought of it." 

"Oh?" Michael smiles. "It must be quite important, then." 

"He explained to me that it was something that should be pushed for in negotiations with the devils. He said that if we were to explain to the world what exactly this is... every pantheon would turn against the devils and it would be a bloodbath." 

The certainty in the constructs words cause a mild unease to enter the five seraph as she places the stack of papers on the table. 

Uriel gets to it first, blinking down at the rows upon rows of runes and letters. "What is this? It's highly complex. Some sort of code... Wait... what's this Luce has labeled it as-" 

His eyes grow wide before he frowns. "Hrm... so Ajuka either lied or just didn't try... I see." 

He passes it to Gabriel.  

"Oh... that is... huh... I can see how this would enrage the many supernatural factions." The woman blinks.  

This... certainly gives them a lot of pressure to place on the devils. Even beyond what their little evil filth has done. 

In fact... here's an idea. 

Perhaps Gabriel could go out and speak to the boundary youkai. Heaven is not on the best of terms with the woman, mainly due to the actions of the church, but... for this meeting... With this? Their goals might be aligned. 

Besides. That woman always likes to take a swing at the devils. Her powers may also be needed to turn the fifteen back to their original states.