Chapter 41 - Successor Flame

"I've been set to be your opponent Puriel, please take care of me." Gadreel said upon stepping out of the shadows to confront his best friend a bow of Light Power in his hand.

"Gadreel… I guess it was only a matter of time before the two of us fought huh!" Puriel said a bit excitedly. She hadn't ever fought Gadreel nor ever considered it before, he looked weak, he acted weak, and overall he was a good weak little kid. Well honestly perhaps he was just a normal kid instead rather than seemingly a weak one.

However the look he was giving Puriel really made her shiver. It was nothing like Cebrail's look. The white haired Angel always looked bored or unwilling rather than fierce or strong. Gadreel's sharper gaze was without the normal shy and non confrontational attitude he usually adopted to make sure she didn't cause trouble. Though Puriel didn't know if she could call it a strong look just yet.

"Come on, come at me Gadreel!"

Gadreel raises his Light Power bow and notches three arrows of light before firing them. When fired their speed makes them almost resemble beams of light and all of them manage to hit Puriel in her torso and legs.

Puriel falters for a moment but stands her ground with a smile before charging at Gadreel with her bat raised high into the air. He wasn't very far away so she quite quickly managed to get close enough to hit him though his speed far surpassed her and before she could even complete her swing Gadreel vanished as though he had teleported.

Puriel's hit completely missed, causing her to stumble, leaving an opening for Gadreel to fire another arrow hitting the lavender haired girl's side.

"Ugh!" Puriel turned to find herself being pelted with even more light arrows forcing her to raise her hands to defend herself. "You! Stop spamming the same attack and fight me properly! Like a man!"

After Puriel shouted this the barrage of arrows stopped and Puriel lowered her arms to take a peek at her friend only to see that he was actually charging up a far bigger and stronger arrow.

"Oh s*it!" As the arrow which in truth was more like a powerful blast of Light Power sped towards her Puriel just barely dodged it by leaning her body to the side.

Gadreel grabbing his bow with both hands separated them into two blazing blades of light and he charged Puriel much to her excitement.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Puriel regained her balance and readied herself gripping her bat with both hands tightly.

"Return." Gadreel said simply and jumped into the air spreading his six wings for an extra boost.

"HUH!?! Why would you-" Puriel questioned but a sudden light distracted her from the corner of her eye and turning around, what she found was a huge ball of Light Power headed straight for her.

Due to the proximity and the size of the attack Puriel had no chance to dodge and took it straight on causing an explosion of pure yellow light.

"I keep telling you Puriel, you shouldn't believe your opponents so readily!" Gadreel scolded from up above. Puriel was far too hard headed and simple minded for her own good, that's why even when they went to school together he was always keeping her out of trouble.

"Right back at you Gadreel!" Puriel yelled and a baseball sized blast of light power headed straight towards the brown haired boy unfazed though he merely cut it in half with his Light Powered swords. The blast now in two exploded behind him against the ceiling producing a flash of light.

(For some reason Puriel never uses her wings, so if I stay up here I'll be able to keep her pretty under wraps.) Puriel thought unfortunately his plans would be made impossible by Puriel's next move.

Pointing at him with her bat a ring of Light Power appeared over Gadreel's head and the gravity above him increased so much that it instantly forced him to the ground creating a cloud of dust.

He attempted to push himself up using his Light Power swords but found struggling to be rather futile as he could barely even push up the upper half of his body.

"Hahahahaha!" Puriel laughed arrogantly to the sky with her hands on either side of her hips. "Now where's your flag Gadreel?"

"..." Gadreel refused to respond instead trying to think of some way to escape. He had said he could hold off Puriel so he had too, an Angel is only as good as their word after all.

"Come on Gadreel!" Puriel points her bat at him once again creating a second ring of Light Power pushing him down further and cracking the ground underneath him. "I plan on winning this game, you know! Then I'll rub it in Cebrail's stupid face! Don't you think seeing her surprised would be a really funny experience?"

(All abilities have rules. There must be some kind of trick to it.) Gadreel thought not really listening to Puriel and gritting his teeth. The gravity wasn't painful as much as it was oppressive. Having his movements restricted in such a way made him feel almost powerless, it was a rather fitting ability for his friend. (Every time she uses it she points her bat at me. Is it to establish a target? If so…)

Gadreel, using all of his strength, raised his hand and fired a blast of Light Power towards Puriel's face. It was far slower than his previous ones so Puriel just scoffed.

She was about to say something but suddenly the ball exploded producing a bright flash blinding Puriel and forcing her to cover her eyes.

As soon as she did so the rings of Light Power vanished from above Gadreel's head giving him back his freedom to move and taking the opportunity he created another two blazing Light Powered swords and rushed towards the lavender haired Angel.

Puriel, recovering from her sudden bout of blindness, blocked his sword swings with her bat however upon coming into contact with the blazing blades, the metal bat began melting instantly.

"Holy flames?!?!" Puriel exclaimed as she backed up being forced to let go of her trusty bat her green eyes flashing with surprise.

Gadreel, not wanting to give her any space, threw his swords at her and vanished into thin air.

Uriel had taken a personal interest in Gadreel when he was quite young. Born from an experiment testing if a modified Angel could produce a child with a regular Angel he was set to be something of an irregularity. However he came out unexpectedly normal creating a bit of disinterest in Raphael who enjoyed discovering and achieving new and interesting things.

Since Michael could already create new Angels from the remnants and names of the ones that died long ago due to Angels being spiritual beings over physical ones, Raphael handed Gadreel off to Uriel who was curious about Gadreel's existence.

Gadreel was very normal after all and the Seraph of The Holy Flame didn't think that such a normal being could come out of one of Raphael's experiments. Of course Uriel adored the miracle of life and childbirth as well so he found that the experiment could prove useful in making Angels more human.

Uriel had trained Gadreel from the ground up and even blessed him the power to use the holy flames despite his relatively normal levels of Light Power. He taught Gadreel how to be more Human instead of Angel.

Gadreel hadn't wanted to disappoint the Great Seraph so he trained and trained. Far harder than any of the others. So much so that out of the Novice Four there could be no doubt that he was the most skilled in Angel techniques.

He could construct any weapon from Light Power upon seeing it once.

He began mastering unique Angel techniques as well such as "Flash" which used Light Power to enhance one's speed by up to ten times what it is normally. This was the technique stronger Angels like the Four Great Seraphs used to travel as fast or even faster than the speed of light. An overwhelming ability both in offense and defense.

Puriel couldn't recognize it when she saw him vanish, as she wasn't well versed at all in Angelic techniques, and looked around wildly as she dodged his thrown swords.

Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough to react in time when he appeared directly behind her with a new set of swords and cut down into her back producing an X shaped burn mark.

He wasn't done however as while Puriel was falling forward in surprise he directed his previous blade which had been thrown to come back around and slash at her once again before he backed off.

Puriel fell to the ground but Gadreel didn't put his guard down. He knew Puriel's durability was far too high for him to take her out like that. Plus all Angels are heavily resistant to all holy based powers, including of course Gadreel's strongest weapon the holy flames.

This is why he wasn't surprised at all when she stood back up with an almost crazed look in her eyes and slowly she reached into her dimensional storage and pulled out her large spiked club.

It seems she was really taking Gadreel seriously now.

–

"Oh ho? Holy fire huh? That's rather dangerous indeed. Such fire is absolutely merciless when up against sinners and Devils. And his control over Light Power is rather superb." Roygun comments though she wasn't exactly sure he could beat Puriel.

This was rather simply because of Puriel's resistance to holy powers, its unlikely he'd have anything that could really properly defeat her. His arsenal simply wasn't made for combating other Angels and like most normal Angels he didn't use a physical weapon.

Puriel on the other hand was an anomaly similarly to Cebrail. While she doesn't fight like a Human she fights with such force and physical strength that her simply tanking through his attacks while disregarding his speed was a likely possibility. Combining that with her gravity manipulation and simply catching him one more time would mean his defeat.

Though when Roygun looked over at Rias and Sona she thought that perhaps that battle wouldn't even get that far.