Sariel (A Most Sensational Trial)

"You cannot become Death, Issei Hyoudou, for it stands in front of you."

- - Sariel to Issei Hyoudou, just before their fight

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- the angels were ready to fall upon that country and kill every child there. But Sariel stood up and declared that she would do it. The other angels took this as a sign of her loyalty to Heaven, since Sariel had been brooding and antisocial until late.

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, casually messing around with Issei 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
"So what if I like working away from the office?"

- - Sariel to Raynare when the latter brings up Sariel's frequent absences from Heaven

Sariel is a very odd angel, perhaps the most human of angels, even more so than Raynare. Sariel often shirked her tenure in Heaven and preferred to perform her responsibilities on Earth. As a result she picked up many human things, most notably a sense of sardonic wit, as well as a love of human cuisine and culture, something which angels don't usually possess. In all of her appearances, Sariel can be seen sipping expensive wines from wineglasses. As a result, she is seen as lazy and incompetent by many angels in Heaven. She even drives a Bugatti Veyron to the Three Factions-human Competitive Sporting Event, which draws the heads of many. Sariel is also petty, getting upset when Raynare revived James Bradley, because in the archangel's eyes, "you just forced me to erase his name!"

Despite her human eccentricities, Sariel is still a loyal and responsible angel, diligently performing her duties despite having an air of extreme laziness. She is also feared by practically every mythology, and even makes her fellow angels uncomfortable, due to her past as the most ruthless and amoral of Heaven's angels.

Sariel also relishes a challenge, as proven when she challenges Issei Hyoudou to a purely physical fight, without any of her powers. She also has a sense of honor, as shown when she humbly accepts her defeat at his hands.

Powers and Abilities
"[Giggles] I'm the Archangel of Death, kiddo. Do you think I bring good health, long life, and prosperity with me?"

- - Sariel to James, when the latter expresses outrage at the disasters that have accompanied Sariel's descent

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. Sariel's descent from Heaven caused widespread crop failure and livestock death across the globe, as well as a rise in infectious diseases like ebola, AIDS, and SARS. She was so powerful that Rias Gremory could not bear to be in her presence, calling it "too much of a holy thing." Despite this might, Sariel was still far outclassed by her fellow primordial beings, as well by the Hindu Gods ( who are famed for their immense might ). For example, Ddraig mercilessly insults Sariel, stating that the Archangel of Death is "nothing" compared to her peers, which implies that Ddraig could defeat Sariel in combat. It is mentioned that Shiva or Indra could destroy Sariel with moderate effort. The Four Great Seraphs could easily destroy Sariel ( though not effortlessly ). The Great Red, Ophis, and Trihexa could effortlessly annihilate Sariel. The Archangel Weapons, a set of weapons created by the Great Seraphs for their personal use, could also kill Sariel, as could the Longinuses.
 * Immense Angelic Power: 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.
 * Immense Light Projection: Like all angels, Sariel can channel her true essence in the form of white 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.
 * 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.
 * Teleportation: Sariel could appear and disappear almost anywhere she wanted.
 * 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.