The Nine Heavens no longer had a single place that could be called intact. Everywhere the demons went was bright red, and even the palace where the Archangel lived could not escape. This was the Eighth Heaven, where the palace of Lucifel, the Archangel favored by God, stood. As the master of this palace, Lucifel had raised the banner of revolt against the god he had once longed for most, even at the cost of turning his sword on the colleagues he had once valued most.
In front of the shattered palace, Lucifer raised his eyes.
The archangel standing before him was covered in wounds, without a single good place on his body.
The sash, once gold mixed with red, had been dyed blood red; the spreading color covered most of it, and the original color of the ribbon was almost impossible to tell.
Lucifer’s sword, soaked in the power of darkness, was stained all over with blood.
Among this blood there was that of ordinary angels, and also that of the newly promoted Archangel in front of him.
Michael was a little dazed right now. He couldn’t quite understand everything in front of him.
His memory stopped at a certain point.
In order to restore the other twisted worlds, he had pushed open several doors.
And then—
Was the world in front of him the one behind the door?
When Lucifer looked at him, he also stared back at the other without blinking.
Only, this time there was no extra expression on his face.
This Michael was far too calm.
It was as if… the person who had shown shock not long ago at Lucifer attacking Heaven, and who had demanded an answer because he couldn’t accept such a reality, was not him. Lucifer found that Michael’s eyes now looked less like they were looking at a comrade who had always fought at his side, and more like they were looking at a stranger.
The Archangel’s face was cold and his expression indifferent. He glanced at the former Archangel opposite him, lowered his eyes to look at the sword in his hand, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Lucifer thought the other hadn’t given up on making him turn back, and sneered: “What, even wounded like this, you still want to keep fighting me, Michael?” Opposite him, the Archangel Michael still kept his head down and gave no response.
Lucifer muttered: “He hasn’t lost consciousness, has he?”
Just at this moment, a sudden change occurred! The mist that had seemed to cover the golden-haired angel’s eyes since a moment ago cleared, and the young man suddenly raised his head and swung his sword. His movement showed no hesitation at all, and then, with lightning speed, he drove the sharp sword hard into the body of the person in front of him. “Pfft!” Along with a long sigh, the weapon in his hand was nailed hard into the body of his former superior, and the unfamiliar feeling in his hand seemed to say that it was not only the body that had been hurt, but something else as well. The long sword, carrying the heat of flames, went in through Lucifer’s chest and came out through his shoulder blade, running the other man completely through.
Blood kept dripping from the sword tip, and the violent pain forced Lucifer to face the facts. Standing one step away, he first showed an incredulous look, and then smiled bleakly.
As the power on the sword burst out, the appearance of the former Archangel also changed. That head of dazzling long golden hair lost its original color and turned into deep, dark, pure black.
The owner of the black hair seemed unwilling to believe this result. Indescribable emotions surged in his red eyes, and the tangled feelings, once they reached his lips, were reduced to just three helpless words: “…Michael.”
He was the one who had raised this child and brought him up to now. Even though he had betrayed Heaven, Lucifer had never thought of really hurting Michael, but unfortunately the other did not seem to think so.
Perhaps, in Michael’s heart, he was already an abandoned Demon King? Going by Michael’s usual personality, at this moment he should have asked “Why” no matter what, but obviously he was not in the mood for that now.
This kind of drama of seeming to be abandoned was enough once; more times would get tiresome.
As for why, knowing full well what the situation was now, he still chose to do the same as back then and thrust the sword in his hand into Lucifer’s body… he didn’t really understand it himself.
All he could say was, going with the flow?
He was a bit irritable now, and a little bit resigned to his fate.
He had thought that learning about his sealed power, and being betrayed by his own subordinates, these two things alone were already absurd enough. Who would have thought there was also this ridiculous thing of sending a person back to the past?
Yes, the world behind the door was the past.
Whether there was a problem with the power prepared by the first God of Light, or whether he himself just had the Luck E trait, Michael didn’t know for now.
He had the patience to maneuver against Lucifer, and the experience to oppose God, that was true, but that didn’t mean he wanted everything to start over again.
Even facing a future where everyone could get a happy ending, no one wanted to go through the same thing again; even as an Archangel, he was not exempt. He waved the blood off the sword, recalled what had happened, and gave the correct response.
In Lucifer’s view, the golden-haired, blue-eyed young man in front of him wore a mocking face: “According to the arranged schedule, I should now question you, why did you fall, is that it, Lucifer?” “Wh-what?” He had thought that even if he couldn’t take Michael away today, he could at least make the other feel a little guilty. Now it seemed that this wish was only his own one-sided idea. But then again, who, suddenly given great power, would sacrifice their own future just to give a traitor a way out? The Archangel standing in front of him had no grievance and no anger on his face, which made him feel very unfamiliar.
Michael reached out, held the sword across his chest, lightly stroked the blade with his fingers, and gave a soft laugh.
“This drama of the former Archangel falling, I’m already sick of watching it.”
Lucifer was stunned.
More than the pain in his body, what he could not accept was this attitude of Michael’s.
Indifferent, contemptuous.
Michael seemed to understand the emotion in the Demon King’s eyes.
Of course, the Michael he knew, who was nominally his junior and subordinate, shouldn’t have been able to accept the other’s fall so calmly, right?
The golden-haired Archangel broke the sword in his hand in two and faced the black-haired Demon King… oh, he should be called the future Demon King, since at this time Lucifel only called himself Lucifer and had not yet fallen to Hell. An Archangel who had not reached Hell could not be called a Demon King by any means.
Michael grabbed Lucifer’s collar and, ignoring his badly wounded body, slowly pulled him up close.
The two were so close that he could clearly see the other’s eyelashes trembling slightly.
The golden-haired Archangel looked Lucifer over and thought of an interesting idea: “Lucifer… no, you’d better keep being your Lucifel.”
Whether it was Lucifel or Lucifer, the Michael he knew and was familiar with… that was his past self, and by no means the being in front of him.
While he was stunned, the young man spoke a few words lightly.
“Forcing you to fall for the sake of the balance of light and dark is actually really boring.”
The black-haired Archangel suddenly raised his head, forgetting for a moment the distance between them, and their noses almost collided.
Fortunately, Michael pressed one hand on the other’s shoulder in time, and rubbed his nose with the other hand: “Seriously, there’s no need to be this excited, is there? I thought this was common knowledge.”
If not for their present positions, Lucifer would very much have liked to ask this former subordinate what kind of common knowledge could involve light and dark.
While he was trying to work out what Michael was after, a voice appeared in the sky of this Heaven.
“Michael, do not forget thy duty!”
Lucifer curled up the corner of his lips, about to mock Michael for being unable to break free… wait!
He suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at the Archangel who had let go of him and was quietly gathering power.
“Keep fighting?”
He couldn’t be blamed for asking such a foolish question; otherwise Michael’s behavior would be hard to explain.
The Archangel in the light tilted his head slightly: “No, there’s no point in fighting on.”
He seemed to have already made a decision, and his tone carried a slightly teasing smile: “I said, you just keep being your Archangel.”
Lucifer: “With things having gone as far as I have taken them, do you think that’s still possible?”
What possible or impossible.
When he learned why God insisted on keeping him and sending Lucifer to Hell, Michael felt there was no such thing as a dilemma at all.
Just as he had once misunderstood Lucifel and God, from his standpoint this was a dead knot, a decision with no way to satisfy both sides.
In fact, after stepping back from the matter, one would find that there was nothing hard about it.
“Making you fall was meant to solve the problem of light and dark, and I, who also have the power of light, can do it too. Since a Demon King is needed, then I’ll be the one.”
Gabriel arrived and happened to hear this sentence, and was so frightened that he couldn’t speak.
What Demon King? Did Michael’s words mean what he understood them to mean?
Michael considered himself not a saint of any kind. Everything he had done was done on a whim. Whether it was remaking the Abyss, or leaving this side of the world intact for others, he had done it simply because he wanted to.
Although part of it was also because his previous life had caused everything now, and he, as a reincarnation, was no longer the original him, he still needed to clean up the mess.
There was no grudge between him and Lucifer or God that lasted overnight. Once many things and many words were said openly, that would be that. They should have been standing together in the first place, so why did they have to fight and hurt each other because of this concealment and that?
Michael felt that this was really pointless. It was clearly not a big deal, yet because no one had explained anything, it had turned into a matter of life and death, and had dragged in so many lives across the three realms.
After Gabriel, Metatron also arrived here. He had originally intended to support Michael, but found that the situation was not quite what he had imagined.
Lucifer and Michael stood facing each other, but the distance between them was very delicate, and the two were obviously saying something, not simply fighting as he had thought.
What was going on? He had thought Lucifer and Michael wanted to kill each other, so how could it be this calm?
Metatron looked at Gabriel, who was standing to one side, and asked in a low voice: “What’s going on? Have they already finished fighting?”
Gabriel showed a terrified look, shook his head repeatedly, and said with a trace of fear in his voice: “Metatron, Michael said he… said he’s going to be the Demon King.”
Metatron thought Gabriel wasn’t awake yet, and said irritably: “That should be Lucifer’s plan, shouldn’t it? He’s already brought the demons up to attack the Nine Heavens!”
Whether or not they, the angels who had once been Lucifer’s subordinates, approved of Michael becoming Archangel was something to be considered later. What lay before all the angels now was only one thing: driving back Lucifer and the demons he had brought.
Lucifer was like someone meeting his subordinate Michael for the first time. From the other’s mouth he had learned some things he knew about, and he had thought Michael would approve of him, which was why he had kept silent up to now.
Now it seemed this person was simply a fool dreaming, thinking about impractical things.
Looking over the golden-haired young man in front of him, who looked battered but whose expression was unusually cold, Lucifer sneered: “Michael, talking in your sleep once is enough. You want me to turn back? Do you think that’s possible?”
He pointed at the ground beneath his feet, and at the world in the distance dyed red and black.
The red was the angels’ blood, and the black was the demons’ wings.
“When I brought the demons here today, I never thought of going back to how things were. Why do you think I held back against you? Out of sympathy?”
Lucifer’s tone was full of malice: “No, I just felt there was no reason to do it. Do you think that because God gave you power and made you the new Archangel, you can stand on equal terms with me? Keep dreaming!”
“The only reason I didn’t kill you is that you pose no threat to me, do you understand?”
“The position of Archangel is not one just anyone can sit in. Even if I no longer need it, that doesn’t mean just anyone is qualified to have it.”
Michael had thought he understood Lucifer.
Until just now.
He had never known that this Archangel, so beloved by God, had once had a nasty temper as well.
Yes, no matter what Lucifer became in the future, right now he really was disgusting.
So what should he do? He liked neither Heaven nor this Lucifer in front of him, and he couldn’t just destroy both, could he? Wouldn’t that be a disservice to his previous self?
How to put it, learning for the first time that Lucifer looked down on him for becoming Archangel, his mood did not fluctuate much, and he even felt that this was the real Lucifer.
So that meant, he had really gotten used to the other’s changes?
Michael was not angered by being mocked like this, and simply said in a flat tone: “So I said, the position of Archangel is yours to take back, and I’ll be the Demon King.”
This time, before Lucifer could question him, he had already made his choice.
The Archangel’s sword had already been smashed by him just now.
And the sword that belonged to him as Michael was driven in with a backhand and sank completely into his own body.
Faced with this sudden turn, Metatron had no time to react.
“Wha—?”
The voices were lost all at once, and the two archangels and the former Archangel froze at the same time.
The angel wings behind Michael turned into specks of light.
And beneath his body, a black vortex rolled up.
Apart from his appearance not changing, Michael’s aura had changed completely.
He tilted his head back and let his body fall toward Hell, murmuring: “It really does hurt.”
【Hear my command: all demons withdraw from Heaven at once and follow me back to Hell.】
A majestic voice with some pressure to it echoed in the mind of every demon.
Compared with the wavering of the other demons, the great demons who had followed Lucifer almost failed to react.
The Demon King wasn’t Lucifer?
Belial opened his mouth wide: “That voice just now was… Michael?”
The other angels who had fallen following Lucifer: “…”
Wait a moment, today isn’t April Fools’ Day!