Sariel (A Most Sensational Trial)

"The last person in Heaven you want as your enemy is me, Ddraig, and I'll tell you why- Michael may be God, and Gabriel may be absolute, but I'm.... petty."

- - Sariel, addressing Ddraig

Sariel, also known as Death, is the eleventh and youngest of the archangels created by God, and one of the two females among that number. In A Most Sensational Trial, Sariel is the last archangel to appear.

Eons ago, Sariel was created alongside Michael, Helel, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Sandalphon, Raguel, Ramiel, Raziel, and Metatron to fight for God against the Darkness. After doing so, the archangels filled in the echelons of leadership of Heaven, ruling their lesser brothers and sisters in their Father's name. Along with Raphael and Uriel, Sariel found herself without a role in the Host of Heaven. Whilst Raphael and Uriel accepted their status with unwavering loyalty and acceptance, Sariel was unhappy with her station.

After the War in Heaven, the angels began to take an interest in mortal affairs, speaking to the mortal plane through the Israelites. The beings that would become the other gods were jealous of this, and spurred their followers to cast out the Israelites wherever they went. This culminated in the Egyptian slavery over the Israelites. Then followed the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Secretly, Sariel harbored affection for the Egyptian people, and pitied them. When the final Tenth Plague was declared in Heaven- the slaughter of the firstborn of Egypt- God found out about his daughter's love of the Egyptians, and bade that she would slaughter them, for she loved them, and she knew them best.

And so Sariel did. By herself, the Archangel slaughtered every firstborn child in Egypt, passing over the blood-marked doors of the Israelites. For this, she was stained with the blood of innocents, and all Heaven recoiled at what she had done, despite the fact that it was a direct commandment of their Lord. Sariel wept, and fled into the Egyptian desert, certain that any moment now, her wings would turn as black as a Fallen's. But God found her in the desert, and wiped the blood off Sariel's shoulders, saying that she had finally proved herself worthy. From that day onward, Sariel would be the Archangel of Death, bringer of darkness upon all who would offend Heaven and its Lord. The Scythe of Heaven, they called her, and all the gods, even the mighty Indra in his own version of Heaven, would learn to fear the coming of Sariel, the Dark Angel of the Morning.

When God died, none was as hurt as Sariel, for she had felt his impending death and could do nothing to stop it. Once more the archangel attempted to flee her responsibilties, and was only stopped by Gabriel, who accused Sariel of heresy and cast her into the prisons of Second Heaven. Nevertheless, when Michael took leadership of the Host of Heaven as the new Lord, Sariel was reinstated as the Archangel of Death and the Scythe of Heaven.

After the end of the Great War, the Archangel of Death found an unlikely friend in the Greek God of Death, Hades. Even he was in awe of the archangel, and the two quickly bonded over their roles and despair and isolation from the rest of their pantheon. Eventually, Hades plotted to control all the dead, and with Sariel's backing, Hades became the God of All Death- while the faithful would go to their respective Heavens- the Lord of the Dead would receive everyone else. Sariel would be the one recording down every death, and originally intended to collect every soul herself- at least until the Grim Reapers, Hades' servants, took to the job. Therefore Death became an unholy trinity- the Archangel Sariel, Hades, and his Grim Reapers.

Sariel attended the Great Meeting between humanity and the Three Factions, appearing in a flash of darkness. She watched over the events with interest, and was in the process of registering the death of James Bradley when Raynare revived him, which instantly made Sariel hate the newly promoted Dominion. Following these events, Sariel made occasional appearances on Earth, messing around with Issei and the ORC and claiming that she would reap his soul one day, which ended in disastrous failure when Issei defeated the archangel in a fight.

Appearance
As with all angels, Sariel's natural form is pure light. In her human form, she appears as a petite young girl with pure white hair and red eyes. She has parted bangs in her human form, and often wears a white-sleeved and collared purple dress with a lightning sigil emblazoned in the middle. Sariel refuses to wear the pure white suit preferred by other angels, stating that it is too "tacky" for her tastes; she also disdains her archangel armor, which Gabriel wears with pride.

As an archangel, Sariel possesses six pairs of white wings.

Personality
"See, in order to make an omelette, you've got to break a few eggs. Then again, eggs are good by themselves..."

- Sariel on her conflicting like and disdain for humanity At a casual glance, Sariel appears as lazy and incompetent, which is exemplified by her love of humanity. The archangel is actually rather fond of humanity, owning a nice Colonial in one of the wealthier neighborhoods of Malibu, where she spends most of her time. In all her appearances, she has shown up sipping various wines. At the Three Factions-Human Competitive Sporting Event, Sariel drove a Bugatti Veyron to the games, as opposed to her fellow angels who simply teleported there. Also, unlike most angels, Sariel is aware of and often utilizes sarcasm, something which confuses both her fellow angels and humans who expect angels to all be good, holy, and pure. Unlike other angels, Sariel openly displays anger, jealousy, pride, and various other "human" feelings ( but not to the point of excess. ) Again, this confuses her fellow angels and said humans. This "lazy" demeanor does not fool any supernatural being worth their salt, however. In the past, Sariel was famed for her ruthlessness. After all, it was she who slew the firstborn of Egypt during the Plagues of Egypt. Sariel also doesn't care much for anyone or anything, as shown when she casually rips apart an Ultimate-class devil just for not cooperation with her interrogation. This extends to her fellow angels as well- despite the fact that Sariel obviously doesn't kill other angels, she often viciously berates any lower angels that have failed tasks that she sent them on, such as the time when Sariel sent Irina to get her some English breakfast, only for the latter to return with some American breakfast instead, prompting the archangel to mercilessly shout and curse at the hapless reincarnated angel. It is implied that Sariel does the same to her fellow archangels if given the opportunity, and it is also mentioned that they are the only ones who can "shut her up."

Sariel also is rather intolerant and holds no compassion towards people who she believes are wrong, as she brutally beats Raynare and leaves her lying bloody on the floor of Raynare's very own Department, just because Sariel "watched some television show about an archangel beating up an angel and leaving him bloody in his favorite corner of Heaven." ( i.e. Supernatural ). This was done, however, because at the time, Sariel viewed the newly returned angel with distrust, as did practically every other angel in Heaven. Even after Raynare proved her worth to Heaven, Sariel refused to forgive the Dominion. Sariel was also cruel when pushed; although preferring to appear a nice person, when angered or annoyed she had no qualms with destroying, torturing or killing to get her point across.

The reason why Sariel hasn't Fallen from Heaven, however, is probably because of the fact that all her actions ( while being considered atrocities otherwise ) were done with the intention of preserving Heaven's stability. This is confirmed when Gabriel calls Sariel "one of Heaven's most loyal and devout soldiers," which explains why Sariel was able to commit such merciless and ruthless acts without reprisal from Heaven.

Powers and Abilities
"You know what I hate about dragons? They think they're so powerful, that they're better than everyone else. [Giggles.] Well, time to show them that they're wrong."

- - Sariel, just before her fight with Issei.



Despite being the youngest archangel created by God, Sariel was still one of the oldest and most powerful beings in existence, able to call upon a incredibly vast supply of power. She was so powerful that Rias Gremory could not bear to be in her presence, calling it "too much of a holy thing." Sariel was also able to cause Asia immense pain just by touching her ( and doing nothing else. ) During the fight between Issei and Sariel, the archangel was able to effortlessly match Issei blow for blow, all while fighting fellow angels Raynare, Irina, Xenovia, and the entire ORC at the same time.

However, being the youngest archangel does also have its weaknesses. As with the other six "regular" Seraphs, Sariel was far weaker than her older Great Seraph brethren. Described as "a wide power gap, maybe even two, or three", this put Sariel at a disadvantage when compared to the Four Great Seraphs. Ddraig mentioned to Issei that at full power, the Heavenly Dragon Emperor's power would allow Issei to potentially defeat the Archangel, though not without grievous damage to Ddraig and Issei's death. It is assumed that the Hindu God Shiva could defeat Sariel with moderate effort, and that the Four Great Seraphs could destroy Sariel easily ( but not without effort. ) And it goes without saying that the Great Red, Ophis ( even in her weakened state ) and Trihexa could effortlessly annihilate Sariel. As a final note, the Archangel Weapons and the True Longinus could also defeat Sariel, though Sariel is more resistant to the latter, due to her status as an Archangel.

Here are all the powers that Sariel has demonstrated in A Most Sensational Trial:
 * Lower Tier Nigh-Omnipotence: Being an archangel, Sariel possesses a vast amount of power, as shown when she sends an entire army of Ultimate-class devils to the Asteroid Belt just by giving them the middle finger. She was only somewhat weaker than Ddraig, one of the Heavenly Dragon Emperors.
 * Immense Light Projection: Like all angels, Sariel can generate immense qualities of light, and use it to blast her enemies into oblivion. She can also use this to form weapons of light with ease.
 * Immense Strength: As an archangel, Sariel possessed enormous physical strength, being able to win the javelin-throwing contest with ease. She also used her strength to easily counter all of Issei's attacks, stating that Ddraig was a "trifle" to deal with.
 * Immense Stamina: Like all angels, Sariel can go indefinitely without sustenance, and can never get tired.
 * Nigh-Omniscience: Being around for billions of years, Sariel, like her fellow archangels, possesses vast knowledge and awareness about many things on a truly epic level. She was able to know what Sona Sitri had said about Serafall Leviathan being able to destory Japan several times over, and was also able to recall Sean Bradley's last words to his family before he died. She also negated Issei's Dress Break with a snap of her fingers when the latter attempted to use his ability on the Archangel.
 * Molecular Combustion: Sariel killed an Ultimate-class devil by ripping her apart at the subatomic level.
 * Telepathy: Sariel read Issei's mind and found it "disgusting in levels beyond mortal comprehension."
 * Control over Death: A power unique to Sariel and the Grim Reapers; it is explained by Sariel as feeling a small jolt just a few seconds before someone dies. In war, these jolts increase exponentially, due to the amount of people dying, as does it in times of great sickness. She then writes the name of the person about to die in the Book of the Dead with the Quill of Reaping, which instantly notifies any available Grim Reapers to seek that person and reap them. She can also write names in the Book without previous notification, though this is against the Book's way of working, and subsequently, the Book will hurt  Sariel in accordance to the relevance that said person would have had before being slain. Powerful supernatural beings like gods, Satan-class devils, strong monsters, and the like, as well as historically pivotal humans, fall into this category. It is assumed that writing the names of those beings  would kill Sariel; hence the reason why she has not used the Book in a genocidal manner... yet.
 * Immortality: Being an angel, Sariel is not subject to disease or old age; she was eleven billion years old as of A Most Sensational Trial. 
 * Electrokinesis- Sariel was able to generate and manipulate electricity, as shown when she used lightning as a weapon against the Juggernaut Drive-empowered Issei.
 * Astral Projection: Sariel could partially display her true form to intimidate others; it was visualized by her eyes glowing intensely and her mortal form emanating an intense white light that was harmful to devils, monsters, and humans.
 * Reality Warping: Sariel generated an entire pocket dimension for her to fight Issei, the ORC, and their associates.
 * Healing: Sariel could heal wounds with a touch, thought, or simple glance.
 * Teleportation: Sariel could appear and disappear almost anywhere she wanted.
 * Telekinesis: Sariel could move things using only her mind.
 * Flight: Being an angel, Sariel is able to fly using her wings.

Trivia

 * Sariel's appearance is based on Sariel from the Touhou games.
 * An alternate name for Sariel is Azrael, which the archangel also goes by.
 * Sariel enjoys human music, and has expressed a desire to conduct a concert band.
 * Sariel's theme is I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons.
 * Sariel is one of two angels to have red eyes ( the other being Helel ) and the only "pure" Angel to have them.