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  “They finally managed to decide something?” Seraphiel asked Edirah, who stepped out of the council chambers.

  “In a way. They finally managed to come to the conclusion that no, you’re not going to be made Light’s Champion. Mostly because I finally got bored enough to tell them that you’re already a Champion. The Angels didn’t take that well. Or I should correct that at first, they assumed they'd gained the support of another god before one of your friends pointed out that Charlotte has not shown any interest in anyone other than you. That's the part they didn't take well. Unsurprisingly.” Edirah was clearly letting her dislike of the Angel politics show.

  "Bloody figures," Yoruichi muttered.

  “Did they finally manage to get into strategy discussions?” Seraphiel followed up with another question, not all that surprised by the previous answer. She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to this one either. Politicians everywhere were similar, and living eternally didn’t really make that better. Just made them more selfish.

  “To summarize, they’d like you to deal with it.” Edirah was equally unenthused.

  “You have my official permission to tell them to fuck off.” Seraphiel retorted.

  “I may have intimated as much, though in more polite terms. They didn’t trust me, so here I am, confirming what I already knew.” Edirah shook her head in disgust. It hadn’t been just the Angels that had tried to rely on Seraphiel, even if the Draenei had been less obtuse about it.

  "Tell them to fuck off harder," Seraphiel stated firmly. "Both Angels and Draenei have multiple high-level people. Put them to work. I just dealt with an entire front on my own and the southern bastion no longer needs to be manned. Use those forces. You have my permission to also hire the rest of my crew to help, but make it clear to everyone that if you try to endanger my people on purpose, I will have the heads of anyone stupid enough to try.”

  “Yeah, somehow, I could see some of the Angels trying something stupid like that. I’ll make sure we hire them and not the Angels.” Edirah nodded. “I’ll relay your message verbatim.” She went back inside.

  “I can see why you’re not willing to be the crutch for everyone. Are they always like that? I mean in the other universes?” Yoruichi asked.

  “Not always, but too often. It’s not like I can’t understand. If the choice is between relying on me or a bloody war that might see thousands, maybe even millions, of your own people killed, which would most choose?” Seraphiel shrugged. “That’s the problem with saviors. It allows people to not face the consequences and the price of their own decisions and actions. That it also eliminates the chance for growth and improvement is something people rarely consider.”

  Yoruichi looked thoughtful even if her tone was teasing. “Is that why you always seemed to try and push all the work on others when you were in the Soul Society? I mean, it sort of worked. Your division was always the most well-trained and the strongest. It also had the highest number of exceptional individuals graduate into captains of other divisions."

  “Part of it. The lives where I didn’t have access to my real body and real powers required me to take a different approach to things, but as you can infer from the Draenei, that didn’t always end with all that different results. The reason my division did so well was the combination of training and hard work giving those under me the right tools, while I then gave them enough responsibilities to allow them to blossom. Also, I am somewhat lazy, so there is no escaping that. I didn’t have to feign that part. Proper delegation is the key to effective leadership! Most of the Shinigami always promoted based on personal power, but they overlooked other qualities as a result. You don’t need power to run an effective system. You don’t need power to do paperwork. You don’t need power to run an investigation. You don’t need power to be effective at logistics and management. That sort of thing.” She explained. “All of those duties just fell to seated officers automatically in other divisions, whether they were suited to the job or not.”

  “Fair enough. I suppose the research and development division was the exception with Urahara.” Yoruichi speculated.

  “Not as much as you’d think. They just replaced personal power with the rather abstract notion of scientific brilliance. Otherwise, Mayuri would never have been promoted. I wouldn't say Hiyori was super effective at her job either, though she at least tried to keep the division focused and on task. She simply had too much of a temper.” Seraphiel was reminded of the old days within the Soul Society.

  “So, what are we going to do with the Burning Legion and the Locusts?” Yoruichi decided to switch topics.

  “Exactly what I said. Let the Angels and Draenei deal with them. You can help if they give a good enough price, and I’ll keep an eye out just in case something goes wrong. I suggest helping the Draenei though, as they’re less likely to just use you. They tend to be noble to a fault. The Legion are old enemies, and no one is more effective at fighting them than the Draenei. There will be lives lost, but I refuse to bear any responsibility for them. If anyone suggests otherwise, you can tell them that they should’ve prepared better if they’re not happy with the results.”

  ---------

  It was a weird experience for Seraphiel to stand by when others marched for war. It wasn’t the first time, as she’d often been thrown into a universe to act as a support for the ‘real’ hero. Still, even in those cases, she would usually be ‘supporting’ right there in the middle of the battle. It was extremely rare for her to completely stand on the sidelines. It had happened before, but extremely rarely, and mostly as a protest to Father’s wishes. He had wanted her to interfere, sometimes it didn’t even matter on which side as long as the war ended, and she had refused.

  Although the high-level individuals with high mobility among both Angels and Draenei left quickly to harry the Demonic forces and to pick off any stragglers, it took a lot longer to mobilize and transport the main bulk of their fighting forces, partially because the distance between the two forces was rather significant. The first units of regular troops started reaching the front lines after a couple of weeks, and those were mostly in charge of building a base camp and securing supply lines. The real battles took almost a month to truly begin.

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  Seraphiel’s friends on the other hand were among the first to arrive, and they had no problem making rather daring sorties into the Demon-controlled areas. The Legion were not exactly experts in building fortifications, but they had a race called the Mo’arg among them that were sort of crazed Demonic smiths and engineers that excelled at building weapons and demented contraptions. Turrets that spewed Fel fire and explosives were just some of the tricks they’d erected in preparation. Seraphiel’s friends didn’t really push deep into the kingdom the Demons controlled, but they did push in deep enough to start wrecking those defenses and clearing the way for those that would come after.

  Seraphiel’s conviction to stay out of the fighting lasted until her friends got into danger. Even when they did, her help was very subtle, buffing her allies and causing misfortune to their enemies. Everything seemed to go right for her friends, while luck really wasn’t on their enemies’ side. It was like she was using a souped-up version of the Skill she’d had earlier, [Doom], which wasn’t entirely wrong. Just that she was no longer limited by the System in the effects it could cause.

  She could also keep an eye on several battles at the same time, as her Draenei friends eventually also joined the battle. Edirah, Yrel, and Akama were among the first, while Velen and Maraad stayed to secure their home just in case someone tried to take advantage of the Draenei and Angels moving out.

  It had to be said that the two races were very impressive in battle once they finally did manage to engage the enemy. The power of Light was on their side, and there was no army more secure in their defensive and healing spells than theirs. Almost no one died on their side, and even the few that did could be resurrected almost immediately by the Paladins and Priests adept at battlefield reviving. This was why the two races had been willing to wage an eternal war at the southern bastion against Chaos Demons, and it was a style they’d mastered over countless years.

  The downside was that their way of fighting was very defensive and grinding in nature, and didn't exactly make quick progress. The Angel Seraphim forces made lightning strikes at the enemy backlines, but those were not aimed at the heart of the enemy territory, still shrouded by magic. And the Legion wasn't exactly running out of forces to throw into the grinder to keep the two races busy. Progress was being made, but the lack of losses was countered by the snail's pace of advancement.

  What had Seraphiel worried was the fact that the Legion seemed all too happy to engage in such grinding warfare. They were constantly losing forces, even if only until they were revived in the Twisting Nether, and they were constantly losing ground, even if slowly. The only thing they were winning was time. It was rather obvious they were using that time for some sort of nefarious purpose. There was an obvious scheme being hatched, she just didn’t know what.

  She finally decided that even if she wasn’t participating in the fight itself, she could allow herself to gather information. That would be her contribution to the war effort. She flew directly into the enemy territory, her glowing form piercing through the darkness suffusing the territory. She could see a multitude of green portals spewing forth more Demons to be thrown into the frontlines, which wasn’t great but not exactly unexpected. All those Demons had to come from somewhere.

  As she flew deeper, she could sense the illusions and charms of the Nathrezim trying to take hold of her mind, but she brushed those attempts aside with ease. That was the one thing she had absolute confidence in now that she had her old self back. Inevitably her flight took her to the center of the kingdom. All signs of civilization were now nothing but ruins, and even the ground itself was turned into blackened ash. The rivers ran green with Fel energies, and nothing natural lived there anymore.

  At the heart of the kingdom, she could sense a large-scale ritual being conducted. She could sense living beings getting sacrificed, likely civilians that used to live in this kingdom, and those the Demons had captured from the neighboring nations. Those sacrifices weren't really being used to power something. Instead, they were used to corrupt the natural ley lines of the land. As a sort of a Core World, this planet had plentiful natural energy, and that now tainted energy was being directed towards a large-scale ritual at the heart of the kingdom.

  That was the thing though. The power was just being gathered. The Demons conducting the ritual had not started forming the ritual circle to direct the energy yet. They were keeping their options open. It could be used for some grand summoning, or it could be used as a devastating attack on the approaching Angels and Draenei. Or at least that’s what it seemed. There were dozens of potential uses for such power.

  As she flew down to get a better look, a dark and ominous figure suddenly appeared in front of her. “I think that’s close enough.” The figure was formless but radiated quiet and dark power. She was rather confident she was facing the avatar of whatever power was now behind the Legion. Or at least one of them.

  “And you believe you are qualified to stop me?” She asked with a confident voice.

  “By myself? Maybe not. You could probably face any single dark god in direct battle. Even if it might be disastrous to this entire world. But could you fight several at the same time? And even if you could, what do you think would happen to your precious friends and allies?” The voice asked insidiously.

  “Three things. It seems rather bold of you to assume several dark gods could suddenly start interfering in matters so directly without backlash from your counterparts. If you get involved, what’s stopping other gods from supporting me? Secondly, you can’t really threaten me with my friends ending up as collateral damage, when at the same time you’re gathering power for something that would obviously end up with the same result. Thirdly, I would absolutely fuck up any number of dark gods that stood against me. Try me.” She wasn’t too intimidated.

  She brought her hands together to alter reality and disperse the power being gathered. Even better if it also happened to take out a chunk of the Demon forces. However, as she did, nothing happened.

  “Yeah, incidentally, we’ve seen that trick enough times now that anyone opposing you will spend a considerable amount of power on enforcing the current reality. As it happens, keeping the current reality as is takes a lot less effort than altering it. Imagine that. To your first point, you’re underestimating the threat you suddenly pose to the status quo. You’re right that the light gods may not let us do everything we want, but they’re not going to rush to aid you either. It would be to their benefit if you were taken down a notch. As for your other points, we’ll just have to see, won’t we?” The voice got a really malicious undertone.

  “You ‘counter’ one of my tricks, and I used the word very liberally, and you think you have me all figured out. For other gods, you forget that I am the Champion of a very particular one, and She's all I need, should I require support. The others could all burn for all I care. However, I think I should show you the error of your ways personally, just to show how little you actually understand." She wasn't having any of the dark being's threats.

  She reached deep inside herself, touching the spark of true divinity that her Father had given her. She rarely tapped into that power, mostly because she didn’t need to. This time she wanted to make an example though. She had other methods, but she wanted to prove to everyone that was potentially watching that this little ‘counter’ was less so than they assumed. She didn’t rely on just that power though. The Demons had made a mistake in their preparations.

  The reason the power was so far undirected was likely at least partially so that the dark being could use it against her. Her alteration was very simple as she seized control of that power. All that power was suddenly sucked into a tall green flame floating above her hand. A wave of energy radiated outwards from the flame, like the beat of a heart, and the tiny little flame almost felt alive. It also felt hungry. The shadowy figure was frozen in place, suddenly confronted with the change in situation.

  “See, I have very little experience with controlling the Fel. However, you used the blood and lives of innocents to taint the natural power of the land. And blood magic is something I'm very, very familiar with. You really shouldn't have done that." She gloated a bit before the tiny flame floated towards the dark figure.

  The darkness shrouding the being was blown away first, revealing the being of pure darkness and void beneath. The being was an amalgamation of what would be called an Old God in the universe the Draenei had come from, and what would be called a Void Lord, the dark counterpart of the Naaru. Critically though, the being was not an embodiment of the Fel, which meant the tiny little flame was more than capable of hurting it. And hurt it, the flame did.

  The entire being was engulfed in the Fel flame, and it released a horrible screech of unimaginable suffering before it fled. The being had instinctively used all its power to flee the force holding it in place. Seraphiel might have been able to stop it, but as she sensed the being was not fleeing anywhere on this world, she didn’t really care and let it go. As it vanished, it took the Fel energy with it. Idly, Seraphiel wondered what the result would be of a being like that taking such a distilled essence of Fel into its home dimension. Probably nothing good for either party. Not that she cared.

  She had, for the moment, stymied the plan of the Legion. That was enough for her. The rest was for the Angels and Draenei to deal with.