Raziel’s question was exactly the answer he wanted.
But—
【You have forgotten many things.】
Raziel had repeated these words once more.
If it were ordinary memory loss, Michael was sure the other would at most laugh at his worsening memory, and would not repeat one point again and again.
His memory stopped at stepping through the door, whereas the future Raziel spoke of was far more than that; from these two points alone, he really had forgotten many things.
However, there are exceptions to everything.
Among those exceptions, memory loss was not the only answer.
Michael lowered his eyes and brushed away the illusion in front of him with his fingers.
Facing the angel in front of him, he said word by word: “I think I may not have lost my memory.”
Raziel’s brows drew together, almost tying in a knot.
The young man sitting opposite him said at his ease: “Why would you think that, after I had already made the key and the lock and safely left that world… anything could still kill me?”
The barrier angel was slightly stunned, his eyes widened bit by bit, and he looked a little helpless.
After a moment, he shook his head lightly: “True, I forgot the point you’re making.”
Michael also understood that this could not all be blamed on Raziel; after all, from when he awakened the memories of the God of Light until everything was settled, all kinds of things happened that he had never even imagined. And the direct effect of those things was to make the three realms feel how strong the enemies from other worlds were, thereby overlooking what kind of existence Michael himself actually was.
“It may sound arrogant to say, but, I truly can’t think who could have killed me without a sound at my peak. I suppose you wouldn’t be able to guess either.”
To this, Raziel indeed could not guess, only that—
“Leave your memory loss aside for now; who do you think caused your rebirth?”
The beautiful archangel sighed lightly and said what seemed a matter of course: “You know, there are many who wanted you dead and many who wanted you to live. And among these beings, the two strongest are one who wanted you dead so the former you could live, and another who would pay any price to keep you.”
“Their obsessions are both extremely strong, and even if one of them really managed to make you reborn, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Michael shook his head with a smile: “Fine, let’s leave aside for now whether I really have memory loss.”
Raziel muttered “you clearly have lost your memory,” but still did not stop the person in front of him from continuing.
The Eighth Heaven was itself rules; as long as the person in this place had power, there was nothing that couldn’t be done.
Michael raised his hand, plucked a star from the sky, and placed it in Raziel’s hand.
Raziel: “?”
Only then did the black-haired young man say, in an extremely calm tone: “Losing memory, and changing something at the cost of memory: these two look the same but are in fact completely different.”
Michael pointed to his own head: “Because I’ve lived too long, I have a habit of storing memories on a schedule. Even if I myself forget something, as long as a backup of the memory exists, I can retrieve what I forgot.”
Raziel was not unfamiliar with this; if the person in front of him stored memories in a container, then he himself used the body he created to receive and transmit memories.
He understood the principle, and even so found Michael’s words odd.
“Then, by what reason do you know that it isn’t as simple as memory loss?”
Michael clapped his hands, no smile in his eyes, and his tone was very cold: “Changing the past requires a price, Raziel. Even though Chaos so wished for me to live, he never tried to change the past and save the first God who chose the road of thought.”
“For someone so obsessive, why do you think he didn’t do that? Because he thought it was too troublesome, or because he actually didn’t care about the first God the way we thought?”
Michael denied these guesses: “It’s because he couldn’t.”
Obsessive, mad ones; if one really looked among so-called angels and demons, a whole pile could be dug up. But if you talk about obsession too deep, then none compares to the god who used the name of a god from myth and legend.
“Clearly, just by going back to the past he could change the source of all the tragedies, and anyone with a bit of brains would choose this road, yet he didn’t do that.”
Raziel did not deny Michael’s words, and asked: “So you think, you paid with your life and burned part of your memory in order to twist time?”
Changing the past was after all too fantastical, and if the young man in front of him hadn’t brought it up, Raziel could not have believed it.
“The ‘me’ who had regained the divine artifact could not die naturally and could not be killed by anyone; unless I chose death myself, there’d be no way to explain such a god falling without any warning.”
Michael tapped his temple, his hand not trembling at his own words: “I killed myself; that is price one.”
“Why is the memory before stepping through the door kept and everything after gone? Because of what happened in the world behind the door; I wasn’t supposed to know it but I do, and it could be used as the secret to open a passage to the past. That is price two.”
“If it was carried out as I said above, I lost my memory and came back to this point, and then everything can be explained. And there is clearly an error in the part where your memory stops, only you haven’t worked it out.”
Raziel was stunned and asked in a low voice: “What?”
Michael: “The destruction of a world cannot be stopped, especially when it has already begun.”
Having said this, he remembered something.
Going back to the past to change the future was something he had done as well, though rather than changing, it was more like adjusting the order, so that the world’s outer layer was reinforced and the destruction itself did not exist.
He had to say that mending the world itself was something he had done by exploiting a loophole.
The divine artifact was made from the first God’s divine bones, so he naturally held absolute control over it, which was why he had a way to operate it.
And he believed that in that future which no longer existed, the method used by that “Michael” was also close to the method he had once tried.
“As for the specifics, I don’t know now.”
As for his own rebirth, or rather, going back to the past, Michael had quietly tested some things, but because he had done those things in other forms, no one knew.
Through those tests, he could roughly guess what had happened. Meeting Raziel now was only for final confirmation, the world was still that world, he and Raziel were the only two variables, and nothing else had changed.
Raziel had vaguely had this guess, but because the idea was too absurd, he hadn’t held to it, and so naturally missed the truth.
Looking at the battle outside on the Third Heaven, Raziel asked: “Since that future has already vanished, then, how do you plan to change this world’s future?”
For the world to perish itself meant Michael had failed.
Whether protecting or sealing, there was already a definite conclusion.
Michael pressed his brow, showing a weary look: “I’ll find a way to search and see at which link the problem began.”
“But before that, there’s one more trouble to solve.”
Raziel frowned and spat out three words: “Chaos.”
Michael nodded, his expression grave: “Because of changes right from the start, Chaos’s existence and whereabouts have become a mystery directly. Back then, he appeared not long after my seal broke, guided me to the human world, and built a connection with me.”
Raziel rubbed his thumb with his right index finger, head half bowed: “And this time you fell right at the start, so he can’t find you, who are not in Heaven; he should take other angels as targets.”
“The angels who are easily tempted and would really help him achieve his goal only leave that one.”
Michael narrowed his eyes: “No, now there are two.”
Raziel: “Who else?”
“Lucifer failed to fall, and many angels were forced to stay, but they also know their position is awkward. It’s wartime now and no one will mention that matter, but once I take the demons of the Abyss and leave Heaven, then—Lucifer will have to face a reality he cannot avoid.”
“What to do with those angels who once followed him, who have not yet fallen but whose wing colors have already been changed…”
Raziel propped his chin on his hand, looking languid: “She would do it by offering to help them stay in return, getting other angels to do things for her.”
“If it’s her, she’d certainly do that.”
While the two archangels were talking, the battle situation on the Third Heaven finally changed.
Only it went in a direction none of them had realized.
Mammon swore he truly had not thought of killing Lucifer.
Baal looked at the familiar vortex and pursed his lips.
Wait, when Michael fell before… wasn’t it exactly this kind of black hole?
The two of them were still calm, but Belial cried out: “Lucifer has fallen?”
The angels: “…”
What was going on? Why had a deep pit suddenly appeared for no reason? Had it directly swallowed their Archangel? And, what had these demons said? Fallen? Could this be the entrance to Hell?
Watching the battle through the window, Michael fell silent.
He couldn’t care about anything now and stood straight up.
Raziel said with a smile: “Which do you think the demons of Hell will choose, you or Lucifer?”
Michael gave a cold laugh: “All I know is that if he falls, this world will fall into chaos.”
His figure vanished from where he stood, and he turned directly into light, rushing from the Eighth Heaven into the Third Heaven.
Belial watched that golden light dash into the darkness and turned to ask the two beside him: “Did I see wrong? Wasn’t that our superior?”
Bael & Baal: “?”
Ah… their superior, who had been missing since the attack on Heaven began, had actually gone off to other levels long ago?