DxD: Gambling With Fate

"...Did something happen during your Holy Power lesson?" Dulio asked Noa as he saw Noa scooping up his food with no thoughts in mind.

Noa was in the middle of wondering why Gabriel had kissed his forehead.

As a natural overthinker, there was multiple reasons why he assumed why Gabriel had kissed his forehead.

First. It was the emotion of a parent kissing a child goodbye. This made the most sense. First off, it was because he was, I don't know, 9?

Second. It was with the emotion of thankfulness, and she did it on the spot. This also made a decent amount of sense.

The one that made the least amount of sense was that Gabriel had fallen in love with him.

Noa completely ruled this out because it made zero sense.

First off. 

Noa was a human. Gabriel was an Angel.

Second.

Noa was 9. Gabriel was in the generation with Adam. That was thousands of years older than him. Some people say if the age gap is over 1000, age doesn't matter.

Hold up.

That's not romance, it's a Yellow Brick Road straight to Prison.

Third.

Gabriel didn't seem like the type to fall in love. Rather she seemed so ignorant that it was rather incomprehensible to him to see Gabriel falling in love.

Or rather falling into sin.

Hmm...

Well, Noa was a pussy when it came to romance so he'd shove that shit show out of his mind for now. Or would he?

"Guys."

As it was the first thing Noa had said that meal, it got the attention of both Lavinia and Dulio.

""...What?""

Noa crossed his fingers and rested his chin on them in a thinking pose, closing his eyes in thought. Sometimes the truth is weirder than a lie. Noa believed in such a statement.

"If an Angel kissed someone, what would the reason behind why the Angel kissed that someone?"

That made Dulio and Lavinia pause. The thought of Noa having gotten kissed by an angel didn't even register in their heads. They assumed that something happened during his lesson that led him to this multilayered question.

This would test the theological knowledge that Lavinia had learned over the past two weeks.

First, necessary information for the scenario was important.

"What is the age of the 'someone'?" Dulio asked, mimicking Noa's position, having finished his meal.

"Let's say a child."

"Hmm..." Dulio hummed in thought. That didn't sound good.

"Where was the kiss initiated?" Lavinia asked.

"The forehead."

""Hmm..."" That changed things. The forehead as a location was a very ambiguous area to figure out the meaning behind a kiss.

"Gender of the child."

"Male."

"Gender of the Angel?"

"Female."

""Hmm...""

Now this was finicky. With some scriptures having an ambiguous meaning behind homosexuality, specifically Leviticus, Lavinia and Dulio just assumed that Angels wouldn't participate in homosexual activities for the sake of the argument.

But if the genders were Male and Female, it was a bit ambiguous.

"Did the Angel fall after the kiss?"

"...No." With Gabriel's kaleidoscopic wings, Noa didn't know how it would look if it fell, but Noa just assumed she didn't. 

"Dulio, that wasn't a good question. If it's pure love and not lust, the Angel wouldn't fall." Lavinia argued.

"But at least we can tell the Angel didn't have lust in mind when kissing him." Dulio explained.

"But wouldn't Angels have pure love in mind at all times?"

"...That's true."

"Herrm... This is pretty hard without context..." Lavinia complained.

Well, there's no way Noa was going to give context to a hypothetical question. Noa just shrugged. "Well, it's probable that the Angel sees the human as more like a child, right? Look at the age gap."

"That's true... but if Fallen Angels happen occasionally, doesn't that mean they don't care?" Dulio asked.

That was true...

"But since Angels don't age, wouldn't they stay stagnant?" Lavinia asked. Woah, you're straying into dangerous territory here...

With no clear answer in mind, the three ended the debate with an ambiguous conclusion and headed off to the Training Ground.

.

..

...

[You have defeated the wielder of Absolute Demise, the Ice Princess [Lavinia Reni]. You have obtained the Rare Achievement [Princess Coup d'état] - +5 Free Pulls]

--+--

Gabriel entered the Sixth Heaven, where Michael had finished his mini investigation.

Because even approaching the Seventh Heaven wasn't possible unless you were a Seraph, there were only ten possible culprits, so the investigation didn't last very long.

Michael had found out the loophole of not falling while in Heaven existed, but seeing as all the Seraphs occasionally left Heaven to do their own things, so just knowing that they didn't fall when they left was enough to know that it wasn't the Ten Seraphs.

This meant that the origin of this issue wasn't internal.

So it led to the conclusion that there was an entirely different third party that was able to siphon off God's Faith, which by all definition, is impossible. It could be likened to trying to scoop up air with only your bare hands.

While siphoning off the Faith was basically impossible by itself, using the Faith how it was wouldn't be possible either, because compatibility also factored in. For example, even the Chief Deity of the Greek Pantheon Zeus wouldn't be able to use God's Faith because it was generated by the populace to go to God, not Zeus.

What Michael didn't know was that [Protection of the Faith] was bypassing this by using God's Original Directive regarding [Protection of the Faith], creating Blessings that had an effect on Noa. It also functioned as changing the designation of the Faith from God to a neutral state to create the Blessings, in which Noa gave the neutral state he didn't use to Gabriel through worship.

However, while the siphoning of the Faith was worrying, ironically, it actually made Michael's job much easier. Previously, the surplus that he couldn't use constantly overflowed, creating Faith Dense areas where it was hard to be active in.

Because the God's Faith was so pure, it was volatile and corroding to the touch even to Angels, and couldn't even be used directly by Michael. It was like radioactive sludge. You couldn't throw it away and it was hard to store.

This new controllable amount of energy let Michael fix some bugs for once. Instead of constantly scrambling to maintain the hardware, he could now change the software.

While the Power Supply is of a lower strength meaning the potency was lowered, because it didn't make the system overheat, it increased the smoothness of operating the system.

Michael even inwardly thanked the unknown force that took the energy.

So Michael, happily fixing the bugs in the System, was disturbed by his sister Gabriel.

"Michael I'm back!"

"Did you have fun?" Michael didn't know how long this siphon would last so he would take the opportunity to fix as many issues as possible. It was hard to pay attention to Gabriel because of this.

"Mhm! I found a follower!"

"Hm? Of Father?"

"Nope! Me!"

"Is that so? I'm happy for you... wait, what?" That made Michael pause. That wasn't normal in anyway.

Because Angels in essence were created to represent God's words, it was extremely difficult to find a group who explicitly followed an Angel. Normally, when an Angel attempted to generate their own Faith, it typically went to God, their Creator and Father.

Michael turned around in confusion, but laid eyes on Gabriel's appearance.

7 Black Trumpets. 7 White Trumpets. 12 Kaleidoscopic Wings, intaking the bright surroundings of the Seventh Heaven and returning a prismatic light.

What happened during the short time she was on the Surface?

"...What happened while you were on the Surface?"

Gabriel blinked innocently, then glanced at her own wings and trumpets, as if even she was surprised. As a being who lived stagnant for so long, even the smallest changes were hard to get used to.

But her entire look had changed.

Looking at the Trumpets, Michael could infer the meaning behind the 7 Black Trumpets.

The Trumpets of the Apocalypse.

Written in the Book of Revelation, it is a series of Divine Judgements and finishes with the Establishment of God's Kingdom.

Michael didn't know if the 7 White Trumpets signified the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, or the Seven Seals.

Or he was completely wrong and they signified the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues.

"How did this happen?" Did this negatively effect Gabriel in anyway?

"My believer! He prayed to me and this happened!" She gestured towards herself.

"Does it hurt? Are you uncomfortable in anyway? Is there any side effects? How did he do it?"

That made Gabriel shut her mouth. As an Angel, Gabriel preferred not to lie, and thankfully, Michael easily caught on.

"So you made a covenant to keep it confidential then?"

Gabriel gave a small nod in response.

"...Well, if it doesn't harm you in anyway, there's no justification for me to dislike this change..." Michael reasoned. Michael assumed that the person who changed Gabriel was the same person who was siphoning off God's Faith.

It was fairly obvious to tell what happened. One day the Faith was gone, and soon after, Gabriel comes home, supercharged with Faith and evolved.

While he didn't know how Gabriel's Believer changed the target of the Faith from God to Gabriel, everything Gabriel's believer did actually helped Heaven.

He helped with the smoothness of God's System and even empowered his Sister. Both helped increase the general safety of Heaven.

There was no negatives from this event at all. While it was originally concerning that God's Faith was getting siphoned off, if it was getting transferred to Gabriel then that was perfectly fine.

Rather, he should thank the person who was able to make this possible.

Gabriel smiled in relief and replied with a soft voice. "Thank you, Older Brother."

"No need to thank me in particular," Michael responded with a smile. "What Brother would I be if I didn't wish for the safety of his siblings? You should thank the person who made this possible."

"...I did." Gabriel's smile of relief now revealed a hint of bashfulness, her soft voice having a more demure vibe.

Michael paused as he looked at Gabriel's change in tone and atmosphere.

Did he see that correctly?

Gabriel, the Chief Angel of Chasity, one of the Heavenly Virtues, was shyly blushing like a girl in... love?

Michael knew that Chasity could be interpreted in two different ways. While it meant not engaging in sexual activity, there was an exception: if the person had a spouse.

Was Gabriel looking for a spouse?

...Was that even possible?

...Well, the impossible seemed to be happening in front of him right now.

If Gabriel did, Michael would... well Michael didn't know what to do. It would be heartless of him to prevent her Sister from participating in romantical activities like falling in love, even more so if he was both her and Heaven's Benefactor.

But... this was still a delicate time.

While there was an unspoken armistice, the Great War hadn't technically ended officially. No Treaty was written, no Armistice.

It seemed Gabriel hadn't explicitly realized her feelings regarding Heaven's Benefactor, so Michael could rest easy for now, but if in the future she wanted Michael's assistance...

Well, if Heaven's Benefactor wanted to get her sister, she would have to go through her Siblings first.

--+--

A/N: here's the daily chapter. I know we hit 1100 PS. The chapter for that one is coming tomorrow. I already wrote 3 chapters today gimme a break. Please slow down. I was lowkey thinking of limiting the amount of extra chaps per week or increase the gap between PS, but since the support's so crazy, I'll just keep it as is.

Also it sucks that I'm lowkey doing a lot more research on christianity more than I would like to for this fanfic. This was a more of a Heaven world building chapter. I'll build more on the world when the three are greenlit to go to missions.

But it is a sort of slice of life so don't get mad if it's kinda slow.

Since a lot of characters are younger and their enviornment is different, it's probably fine for some personality changes. I think I said this before tho.

--+--

We have Powerstone Goals!!!

I don't have confidence for my first book so doing this for fun.

500 Power Stones in the beginning for an Extra Chapter and then every 300 Power Stones for another chapter after that!

So...

500 PS - Extra Chapter (Complete)

800 PS - Extra Chapter (Complete)

1100 PS - Extra Chapter (Writing in Progress)

1400 PS - Extra Chapter

And so on.

Extra chapters will be released the day after the goal is reached, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM KST cause that's when I'm free. They'll also be generally shorter than normal chapters.

Normal Chapters will be released every day during the times from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM KST cause I normally get inspo throughout the day.

Also, comments, powerstones, and reviews are always appreciated.