Light?
Or in the form of a cage?
At this moment, the angels present did not think about why Michael, who had clearly fallen, could still use the power of light.
The power of the former Archangel and of God collided, stirring up wave after wave of airflow and setting off a raging hurricane all around.
Several of the lighter angels were swept away on the spot by this strange wind, and the somewhat heavier ones had to hold hands with other angels or grab onto something to fix their positions, barely avoiding being blown away.
Gabriel: “…”
To be honest, he would rather swap places with Lucifer right now, so that he could go fight the demons and leave the other one here.
Michael had fallen, true, but he still kept the great power from his time as Archangel; when they first saw him, they hadn’t realized this so keenly.
But—
When this fallen Archangel used his power to contend with their God, this point became especially conspicuous.
Both the dazzling radiance and the scorching power of flame mixed into the ever more violent gale confirmed the new Demon King’s strength.
Michael had originally not meant to involve so many angels.
What he faced was the one and only God of this place; even if the one who had come down now was not the main body, only something like a thought-form or consciousness, that didn’t mean he could handle it easily.
At His peak, it wouldn’t have had so great an effect, but the problem was that his situation was a bit special now.
“I never thought of being your enemy.”
Facing power that was becoming harder and harder to control, Michael finally frowned: “I only came to Heaven to deal with something.”
The golden-haired god said without expression: “In this Heaven, there is no one connected to you.”
Michael: “…”
Wait, was it really good to say that? Even if the two of them tacitly understood the past, there were so many angels around who didn’t know.
A creator, to the angel he created, saying that this Heaven had nothing to do with him.
Just from their earlier standoff, plus these unclear words, Michael felt that in no more than a few days he would hear rumors about himself and God.
And he had no way to stop such rumors.
Sighing inwardly, Michael decided not to waste more time; since he and this god couldn’t get through to each other, he’d stop communicating for now.
Michael pushed the power in his hand out with force, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
“Boom!” With a bang, one of the two who had been facing off had no shadow left, and the colliding torrent instantly exploded.
Gabriel patted his chest, looked at the surroundings now broken into a mess, and searched with his eyes for where Michael was. He was quite sure that Michael had only changed position for the moment and hadn’t left completely.
Just as he was about to use the authority Raziel had given him to go find Michael, he saw the god in front of him sway slightly and turn directly into light.
Uriel: “?”
Gabriel: “Even knowing this wasn’t our God’s main body, it’s still a bit shocking to see Him defeated like this.”
Yes, Michael’s last strike looked casual, but in fact he had advanced by retreating.
He had pulled the light power straight out, leaving only flame and air, and the two touched each other with nothing between them; the result could be imagined.
Michael remembered that he had never given God a lesson in this kind of knowledge, so, caught unprepared, He was of course blown up outright.
If it had been the main body, an explosion of this degree would have had no effect and could not hurt even a hair. But if it was only part of a consciousness, an attack of this degree was enough.
It could be said that Michael had used God’s mercy toward him to set up this trap successfully.
In order to bring him back to the temple, God had to control His world-destroying divine power, so the power He could spare was naturally not much; otherwise, if He carelessly killed the person He wanted to bring back, then why had He ordered Michael captured alive in the first place?
What Michael used was exactly this.
Sensing around, he was sure that God had indeed been sent back to the temple, so he dispelled the illusion on himself and appeared abruptly in front of Gabriel and the others.
His tone was calm, and his smile gentle.
“Your helper is gone. Now, do you still want to keep fighting?”
They couldn’t win.
Gabriel had known this from the start, but if he didn’t fight just because he couldn’t win, then he would be an archangel in vain. Even though God Himself couldn’t do anything about Michael, that didn’t mean they, the angels who were created, could disobey orders.
“We fight. We must fight.”
Gabriel nearly ground his teeth to pieces, forcing himself to bear the pain in his body, and said word by word: “Even if you beat us flat on the ground today, we won’t just let you go.”
Michael: …Oh, that sounds a bit scary.
He hadn’t seen Gabriel this stubborn in a long time, and, honestly, he even felt a bit nostalgic.
If the other had no intention of taking him alive, so much the better.
With a look of appreciation, Michael nodded: “Courage worthy of praise.”
Gabriel was angry; did he think he couldn’t hear the mockery?
Uriel suddenly spoke: “Michael, why did you come back to Heaven?”
Michael looked at his former schoolmate and laughed lightly: “You’ve really asked me a question I can’t answer, Uriel.”
Uriel was puzzled; this shouldn’t have been a hard question to answer.
“I came to Heaven to find an angel, only I don’t know how much I can learn from him.”
Having said this, he paused, then continued: “No, I don’t even know whether I can see him.”
Since being reborn until now, Michael only knew which point in time he had been reborn into, but whether anything before this had changed, he currently had no information.
Gabriel was surprised.
He had thought Michael was like Lucifer, someone who couldn’t speak properly at all, and now seeing him answer every question was especially… unexpected.
Michael caught sight of the archangel’s odd expression and smiled slightly: “Let me satisfy your wish first, Gabriel.”
Gabriel: “…There’s no need to be so polite.”
Having the nerve to shout was one thing; when it came to actually calming down and fighting the Archangel, Gabriel felt he still didn’t have that much courage.
Michael, who knew his colleague well, raised an eyebrow: “How boring.”
Gabriel: “If I weren’t unable to beat you, I’d knock your teeth out right now!”
The black-haired young man looked pitying and wanted to tell the angel in front of him: then you’re finished, you may never beat me.
He just didn’t know whether, if he said so, Gabriel would get so angry that he’d charge over and fight him instead.
Uriel had never been a combat-oriented angel; he had only been summoned by God to be with Gabriel, so even if Michael escaped from in front of him, it was normal that he couldn’t stop him.
Besides, he had no plan to stop him.
Falling was falling, but seeing his former colleague in good mental shape now, Uriel felt it would be fine even if Michael didn’t come back.
Just as Gabriel was about to relay the words to Lucifer and give up entirely, letting Michael leave, he heard the other say, in a very serious tone: “I think it’s not good for you to just let me go like this.”
Gabriel: “?”
Was this guy sick? Didn’t he fight God just to leave? Now that he was ready to let him go, he said it wasn’t good???
Thinking of this, Gabriel’s anger shot up: “Michael, are you out of your damn mind? You’re the one who wants to leave, and you’re the one now saying you won’t! What on earth do you want?”
He got it now; as expected of a child Lucifer had raised, crazy in every way just like him!
Michael reached out, and darkness power gathered in his palm.
Facing the archangel’s terrified look, the god of the Abyss said leisurely: “Nothing, I just want to beat you up.”
Comradely feelings could be set aside for the time being.
In Michael’s view, if he let Gabriel go unharmed like this, Gabriel might be punished by God afterward. So, for everyone’s good, he could only let his colleagues suffer a bit of physical pain, which would be easier to explain to the other angels or to God.
With no intention of explaining, Michael directly used the power of the Abyss and knocked Gabriel and Uriel, along with the angels they had brought, flat all at once.
Looking at the unconscious angels lying on the ground, Michael showed a satisfied expression.
Clapping his hands, his figure vanished.
In the middle of exchanging blasts of power with Aten, he had found the door leading to the Eighth Heaven, and now of course he left directly.
The reason for rushing so was only that he didn’t want to meet the other archangels again.
Especially Lucifer.
It wasn’t that he feared anything; he simply found fighting troublesome and slacked off when he could.
If he had come to Heaven to fight, he wouldn’t have needed to bring along Bael and the other demons as decoys.
Opening the door, Michael arrived directly at the Eighth Heaven.
On the Eighth Heaven of Heaven, few knew of this place’s existence.
Michael wasn’t sure whether Lucifer, as a former Archangel, had been told of this place by God.
Stepping into this level, he was left with only one feeling.
Cold, bone-chilling cold.
Mist curled all around, completely covering the road under his feet, making it impossible to tell the road he had come by or the direction he wanted to go.
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
The voice echoed in the empty space and did not fade for a long time.
But all that answered him was the cold wind and nothing else.
Just as Michael was wondering whether he had come here too early, the mist that had filled the entire level gradually dispersed before his eyes.
Where only drifting fog had been in his view, he could now see every position clearly.
Michael raised his eyes and looked at the sphere of light flickering opposite, not approaching right away.
After waiting a while, he heard a sound like an egg cracking open, and the sphere of light split from the top and broke in two.
A familiar figure appeared faintly, the cold air not yet fully faded.
Looking at the existence opposite, Michael’s expression was full of nostalgia: “It’s been a long time.”