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 eighth and youngest of the archangels created by God, and one of the three 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, Ramiel, 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.

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, sent by the angels to convince the Egyptians to let the Israelites go, but the Egyptian gods assured their people that they would protect them, and lessened the plagues how they could. Secretly, Sariel harbored affection for the Egyptian people, and felt sorrow at their misery. 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 Sariel wept, fleeing 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 Svarga, 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. As a result, Sariel often antagonized Raynare in Heaven, and was the one responsible for the latter's adminstrative review. This hate grew to the point where she descended to Earth to challenge Issei and the ORC, which, after arrogantly fighting with "one hand tied behind her back", she lost. However, she had enough time to make her escape, all the while vowing to defeat the ORC one day.

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. Her attire consists of a white underdress with light-blue collared sleeves, with a big blue frilled apron-like dress over it, complemented with a large blue (sometimes red) neckbow. She also wears long white socks and black, gold-buckled loafers.

Unlike other angels, Sariel's physical appearance seems to change when she astral projects- although her height and body remain the same, her face seems to grow darker and sharper. Pale metal also covers her wing shoulders in this form.

She also carries an ornate scepter that has no obvious function but to be "fancy decor," as she puts it.

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

Personality
"You have an inflated sense of your importance, dragon. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well...how would you feel if a whining, retarded baby sat at your table, in your house, and tried to get smart with you?"

- Sariel to Ddraig For an angel, Sariel appears to be quite human-like, openly expressing emotions such as joy, admiration, disdain, and sympathy. She does not display the arrogance or pettiness that many of her fellow angels have towards humans, devils, fallen angels, monsters, pagan gods, and other beings. She has respect for humans, admiring their inherent free will and their stubbornness when it came to the things they hold dear. Unlike her siblings, Sariel is not socially awkward, being able to easily converse with humans and impress them with her sharp wit, cheerful exterior, and angelic charm. She also has a love for human things such as having a penchant for eating American fast food, owning a house in Malibu and preferring to drive to get around when possible, calling the process "humbling."

However, Sariel can be cruel when pushed; although preferring to appear as a nice and courteous individual, when angered or annoyed she has no qualms with destroying, torturing, and killing to get her point across, as demonstrated when she resolved to destroy Issei Hyoudou, the wielder of Boosted Gear, because his existence could potentially throw a wrench in Heaven's plans.

Sariel also reveals her opinion of humans isn't as high as she originally stated, revealing that although she doesn't despise them, she does find them "chaotic" and "exhausting" due to their endless expression of emotions and desires, and says that humans should know when "enough is enough." She can also be quite petty and capricious, as shown when she brutally beat Raynare in Heaven and left the Dominion lying in a crumpled heap on the floor of her own office, just because "she [Raynare] deserved it." She also gleefully tortured a devil without mercy or remorse, and when the devil reached her breaking point, Sariel callously destroyed her.

Unlike her fellow archangels, however, Sariel doesn't tolerate "mass murder", as she puts it, as shown when she was the sole archangel to vote against supporting the release of the Darkness and the launching of the Apocalypse, for she said that the potential slaughter of millions of humans wasn't "worth it", and there had to be a "better way" to bring about Paradise to Earth. Nevertheless, like her siblings, she made no direct move to stop the Khaos Brigade from releasing Trihexa, and it can be argued that she is one of the beings responsible for the Apocalypse, since, as an archangel, she is one of the leaders of Heaven and (at least) partly responsible for the callous conduct Heaven showed in respect to the millions of lives lost during the Apocalypse.

Powers and Abilities


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. 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. Enochian spells also affected Sariel, despite 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 held a vast supply of immeasurable supernatural power and could change reality, capable of doing and creating things out of thin air in gestures, snap of fingers, winks or even just thoughts. This was 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 in pure power 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."
 * Necrokinesis: 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 more than thirteen 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.
 * Weather Manipulation: Sariel possessed total control over the weather, able to easily summon colossal storms. With a nod of her head she caused severe hurricanes and tornadoes along the Japanese coast.
 * 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.
 * Apporting: Sariel could teleport practically anything to wherever 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.
 * In her mortal form, Sariel's measurements are [B66-W55-H71 cm]. Her height is 148 cm, or 4'11.
 * In Hebrew, Sariel's name means "Command of God."