Sariel, holding Harry under his left arm, shot webbing with his right hand, trying to swing.
But it seemed to be his first time, so he struggled with the web-swinging.
"WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!!!" Harry pointed ahead, where a billboard of a baby eating porridge loomed.
"I'M TRYING!"
Then both of them crashed into the billboard and went into free fall.
"AGHHHHH!!!"
Hearing Harry's scream, Sariel tried to shoot webbing toward him with one hand and at the billboard with the other.
Luckily, the webbing caught Harry, not as unfortunate as Amazing Gwen.
"Phew…" Sariel wiped his sweat (how?), struggling with his first time using spider powers, even though he was becoming Peter.
"Hey… Are you Ghost Spider?" Harry asked, slightly scared as he looked down from over 50 meters high.
"What? No! I'm… Sorry, I can't tell you, just think of this as my power, not Peter's."
"Huh? What do you mean—UWAHHH!"
Sariel pulled Harry, tucked him under his left arm again, and continued shooting webs.
As time passed, both landed in front of Peter's house.
Sariel looked at his house… No, Peter's house, with anxiety.
He… He didn't want to face them.
"Hey, has this place been replaced by your kind yet? Peter?"
"You don't have to call me Peter, I'm not him."
"Nah, you're exactly like Peter, just more emotional. It's hard to call you anything else."
"…Thanks. This place hasn't been replaced yet."
"Great."
Sariel took a deep breath and widened his eyes.
"Harry, if I get… too emotional, make sure to calm me down."
"Kay, crybaby Peter!"
Sariel slowly opened the door and saw both of them doing their own things.
"Hm? Oh! Peter's back? And he brought a friend!" Uncle Ben turned to them, smiling as he stood up and turned off the TV.
"Huh? Where's Gwen, Peter?" Aunt May put down the plate she'd just wiped, asking.
"Uncle Ben, Aunt May—"
And yeah, a flood of Peter's memories about them hit Sariel in the most brutal way possible.
Seeing Sariel about to collapse, Harry caught him.
"What's wrong?!" Both Aunt May and Uncle Ben were startled and approached Sariel with concern.
Sariel hugged them tightly, tears streaming down his face.
"Please… Don't leave me."
Both were surprised and looked at Harry.
Harry scratched his head, unsure whether to say the person in front of them wasn't Peter.
"Aunt May, Uncle Ben! You both need to leave with me! This place isn't safe anymore!"
"Huh? What do you mean—"
Suddenly, Harry saw the shadows of the two start to rise, distorting horribly before slowly forming into two human-like figures.
"Umm, guys? Can we leave now?"
"RIGHT NOW!!"
Sariel grabbed both of their hands, confusing them, and along with Harry, they fled the house.
Right after, the house was engulfed in darkness and transformed into an alternate version.
"W-What the hell is going on?" Uncle Ben sweated, watching everything unfold.
At the same time, the surrounding areas began transforming rapidly at an alarming rate.
"They've caught up! Too fast!" Harry panicked.
Sariel shot his webbing, startling both of them.
"P-Peter??"
"I'll explain later! Hold on to me!"
So Aunt May, Uncle Ben, and Harry clung to Sariel as he swung away on his webs.
"Now I need to find… Gwen!"
***
All four of them stopped at a familiar location: Peter and Harry's school.
"…Hey, why here?" Harry asked.
"Gwen is here. My kind can share information through the leader, and the leader is Gabriel."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Aunt May asked.
"Uncle Ben, Aunt May, please find a place to hide and don't follow me. I'll find Gwen."
"I'll go—"
"Harry, no."
Sariel looked at the three of them with a worried expression.
"When I save Gwen, we'll escape the U.S."
"What?!" All three were confused.
Sariel didn't answer and headed straight into the school.
Inside, he noticed the place was eerily empty, not a single soul in sight.
For some reason, the light from outside didn't penetrate the building, making the school terrifyingly dark.
Sariel walked straight ahead as if he knew exactly where Gwen was.
After a while, he reached the gymnasium and saw Gwen lying unconscious on the stage.
He approached, checking to see if she was okay.
"…She's fine."
Sariel smiled with relief, trying to carry Gwen on his back.
…Only to realize a statue was standing in front of him.
"…"
Sariel slowly looked up, his hands trembling.
"Gabriel…"
The statue of a benevolent-looking angelic man… or it would have been, if it were just a statue.
"Sariel."
A distorted, chaotic voice spoke, causing Sariel to step back.
"Thank you, you've done your task well."
"…What?"
Sariel realized something and looked down at the floor below the stage.
There, he saw all the students, teachers, and school staff.
Among them were Harry, Uncle Ben, and Aunt May.
All of them were unconscious.
"…No… No, no, no, no…"
"Sariel, it seems the memories of humans have overtaken you, giving you humanity. I'm disappointed," the statue of Gabriel said as the environment around them gradually turned pitch black.
"…Why? Why did it come to this?" Sariel collapsed, his eyes devoid of hope.
"Sariel, have you forgotten the power of angels? Wherever we are, that place is automatically replaced."
"And the reason you came here—our kind always instinctively follows the leader's orders. Your coming here was part of my plan."
"It only went slightly off course when you suddenly developed humanity, but that doesn't matter much since it doesn't change anything."
"Come now, Sariel. The others are waiting for us to use this human named Gwen Stacy to share her power with all our kind."
So… everything I did… saving the three people I know… was I unknowingly leading them into hell?
…Is it my fault? No matter what I tried to do?
Gradually, Sariel reverted to his original form—a statue of an angel with a face different from Gabriel's.
Tears streamed from Sariel's eyes.
Both descended, and other angelic statues appeared:
Michael, Raphael, Sedakiel, Sarathael, and Ananael.
Together with Gabriel and Sariel, the seven angels representing the seven virtues were assembled.
They formed a circle, with humans as the sacrificial offering and Gwen placed in the center.
"Gabriel… Why does it have to be Gwen Stacy?"
"Sariel, it's not by chance that I chose her. For some reason, she possesses a powerful force she herself doesn't know about. That's the perfect thing for us to use to fully replace this world of sheep."
"…"
"Oh, Sariel, if you were as wise as Uriel, you wouldn't have experienced these mundane human emotions. Uriel chose you before he died, so I trusted you, but you're still too naive."
The light from the seven of them glowed, and the sheep merged to form seven holy books.
The books surrounded Gwen Stacy, attempting to draw something out of her.
Sariel stood there, helpless, tears streaming down his face.
Suddenly, the seven books malfunctioned.
"?"
The six angels looked at the books in confusion as they suddenly glowed and transformed into notebooks of seven different colors.
"What?"
Then Gwen Stacy emitted some kind of energy, spreading throughout the entire school.
The surrounding environment changed drastically, becoming brighter.
The six angels were affected, transforming completely into bizarre forms.
Sariel watched in horror, and finally, it was his turn.
His entire body morphed into a strange sock with two eyes.
The entire school… had been transformed by Gwen Stacy.
*****
Sariel (Suriel, Seriel)
The guardian angel, sometimes guiding and healing.
Often mistaken for Uriel, so I decided to make Sariel the successor of Uriel.