The moment the swords appeared, the atmosphere around them changed with them. Even though God’s attack was aimed at Michael, the fallen one in front of Him, His very existence carried a deterrent force.
Never mind anything else, the two archangels who had only been called to His side both felt as if their bodies were being pressed toward the ground by a heavy weight, an indescribable heaviness.
Before, Gabriel and Uriel had drawn up a plan to surround and capture him; now they felt that just managing to stay standing was already good, that merely bearing the pressure from God was already difficult, and that there was no way they had strength left for anything else.
If the angels who had only been dragged in were like this, what must it be like for the person himself, who stood in the midst of the divine power?
Uriel’s own power carried judgment, and he adapted much better than Gabriel. When he held up his heavy body and looked toward Michael, he found things were not as he had imagined at all.
Under the blades formed from that divine power, Michael’s expression was as relaxed as ever, and his body showed no sign of being crushed. Not only that, he even had the leisure to look up at the swords, and suddenly came out with a sentence.
“Hey, isn’t this just a pillar of light?”
At first glance they were swords, but in fact it was just a pillar of light with a bit of a sharp triangle added to the outside; if you didn’t look carefully you wouldn’t notice.
As soon as he said this, the power that was poised and materialized wavered, then stopped.
Michael withdrew his gaze from the power and looked again at the expressionless god opposite, smiled slightly, and asked: “A rain of arrows doesn’t look like this.”
The golden-haired god’s expression changed slightly, and all at once He seemed to have feelings: “You—”
The pressure from before vanished in an instant, without a trace.
Gabriel and the angel armies he had brought only then recovered from the impact, and before they could even see what was happening opposite, they heard that even their God’s way of addressing him had changed.
No longer “thou,” but—”you.”
Gabriel looked over this Michael, whom he had not seen since the fall.
If the reason for Lucifel’s fall was anger and dissatisfaction with God’s attitude toward him and the Messiah, then Michael’s fall was very thought-provoking.
Some had wondered whether it was because Lucifel had abandoned Michael, driving him to give up on himself and simply leave Heaven.
It was not the first time Michael had gone to Hell because of Lucifer.
Gabriel remembered vividly how things had been the previous time.
The rumor in Heaven that “Michael loves Lucifer but cannot have him” had started right when Lucifer betrayed Heaven. And not long after that, Michael took over Lucifel’s position and became the second Archangel.
Becoming Archangel should have been something to celebrate, but because of the special circumstances, Heaven had suddenly lost a great general, and what the future would be was still unknown. At such a time, no one wanted to celebrate at all.
Even so, at least a simple banquet could have been held.
But after the investiture ceremony, the new Archangel had vanished. No one would have thought that on the very day he became Archangel, Michael would rush to Hell, wanting to bring Lucifer back.
At that time, when Michael went to Hell, he was swept into a dimensional space; he had just been through a bitter battle, his wounds were not yet bandaged, and his mental state was extremely bad.
Outnumbered, and in an extremely seriously wounded state, Michael was bound to lose. For some reason, facing this angel commander who had delivered himself to the door, Lucifer did not deal a deathblow to this Archangel.
Michael was beaten half to death by Lucifer and the demons under him, and thrown to the edge of Hell.
When the Archangel went missing, it was impossible for no one to care. After searching for Michael for several days and nights, several archangels finally found him on the border between Hell and Heaven.
When they found Michael, he was sitting on a rock, covered in wounds, his white robe soaked through with blood and turned red. Those bright eyes had darkened, as if covered by something.
Several archangels spoke to him, but all they heard was him repeating “so it was all fake after all.”
The archangels: …Had the Archangel gone mad?
The temple where God was lay on the Seventh Heaven, and archangels who were not the Archangel could only fly there one level at a time.
The archangels bringing the dazed Michael along naturally could not hide it from the angels who saw them along the way.
Only six levels, yet enough for rumors to brew and burst everywhere.
When Michael was healed and appeared before everyone again, he was like a different person, which made those angels believe the earlier rumors even more.
This was no recovery; it was clearly a heart turned to dead ashes.
Although Michael said little during his time as Archangel, in his youth he had in fact been very talkative. Michael had seen several times that Uriel was a little annoyed by the noise, and so asked the other what he thought of Lucifel.
The youth seemed to show a very puzzled expression, but still answered him: “A very serious and responsible… angel?”
Gabriel had once very much wanted to ask him why he deliberately stressed the word “angel.”
Remembering this, and thinking of the answer Michael had given him in person earlier, Gabriel realized… perhaps they had gotten something wrong from the very start.
Completely unaware of the danger hanging over his head, Michael was still patiently explaining to the god opposite: “The so-called rain of arrows isn’t the ‘sword’ you understand… I remember I seem to have told you about this difference, so why have you forgotten again?”
God’s figure swayed for a moment, but soon steadied again.
Gabriel rubbed his eyes and nudged Uriel beside him: “I think I saw our God unable to stand steady, is that an illusion?”
Uriel wanted to tell him: it’s not an illusion.
Then he thought, whether it was or not didn’t matter at all.
What mattered was Michael and God, whether the relationship between them was a bit too strange?
Even Lucifel had never shown this difference, yet now it appeared in Michael.
“They always said our God doted on Michael, but apart from giving him the Archangel’s position, I could basically not see it.”
Gabriel’s sentence reminded Uriel of some past events: “I once asked Michael why he was so good at barriers, whether he had a talent for it, and he answered that someone had given him a pile of lessons during make-up classes.”
“Raziel taught him? That’s not right, even he found Michael’s barrier skill surprising.”
Looking at the two in front of him, clearly facing off yet feeling like friends chatting, Uriel pondered: “Could it be God?”
Gabriel was stunned, then snorted: “Are you joking? Even Lucifel never got that treatment, and Michael is singled out by our God just because he’s Lucifel’s adopted son?”
Uriel did not refute this, but said: “But… Lucifel could never have talked like what we see now.”
To this, Gabriel truly had no reply.
It was indeed very strange.
Both Michael’s familiar attitude and God’s indescribable fluctuations of power left them unable to figure it out.
As if a long time had passed, the god standing opposite Michael finally said, in an extremely slow pace, word by word: “You. Re-mem-ber.”
“Part of the seal has been lifted, you should be very clear about that.”
From start to finish, Michael had never addressed the god with an honorific, but called Him “you.”
It was not on purpose.
It was only that in his previous life he had been used to calling the other by the name he had given, and now, facing the one in front of him, he did not know how to address Him, so he could only keep calling Him that.
With a sigh, the god’s cold voice seemed to carry a bit of warmth: “Stay here, Michael.”
The pillars of light that had already lost their killing intent were slowly filled with divine power and seemed about to fall.
Even if these pillars of light made from divine power pierced Michael’s body, they could not do him great harm.
Gabriel and Uriel could both see this clearly, and how could Michael himself not know.
Sensing the power above, the smile on Michael’s face vanished.
“I see, this is to reinforce the seal.”
Michael had reconciled with the god of the past, reconciled with his past self, and reconciled with Lucifer, the mortal enemy who came after his former idol.
But—
He still couldn’t accept this world’s god and Lucifer right now.
Just like the present, it looked as if He wanted to kill him, but in fact He only wanted to seal him and keep him… Michael simply could not condone such behavior.
The god he had once named Aten, meaning light.
He had once tried to understand this god’s obsession with him, and in the end it was only one reason: Aten was too lonely, and wanted someone he had not created to keep him company.
So Michael did not understand Him, but felt no hatred for Him.
It was just that learning the seal had been lifted, He wanted to seal him again… all one could say was, as expected of a god who has no self without being given a name!
Sighing silently, Michael raised his hand.
Light was released from his palm and turned into a cage.
Golden threads, as if alive, pounced toward the god opposite.
“You have your ideas and I have my persistence. Since our ideas differ, there’s naturally no reason to stay in Heaven.”
The golden-haired god also raised His hand, and the pillars of light fell at once.
“Michael—!”
Even knowing his former colleague would be fine, Gabriel couldn’t help worrying a little.
It was after all a direct attack from God; back then, when Lucifel did wrong, he had taken an attack of this degree and could not have come out unharmed.
What was more, now Michael was facing God’s pressure and attack head-on?
Michael closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them, and a hurricane rolled up from the power around him!