Lucifer was speechless for a moment, not because he was stunned by Michael’s words, but because the other’s terrible acting unconsciously reminded him of several thousand years ago.
At that time, Michael was still in his childhood and studied all kinds of knowledge every day. Unlike ordinary little angels, he learned a mix of many things, and especially liked to put them into practice right after learning.
For a while he took a liking to hymns, and even dragged Lucifer along to ask other angels about them.
Faced with a child’s thirst for knowledge, even though Lucifer was entirely unwilling, he still met this nominal son’s request and took him to see several hymns.
And then every afternoon he would see Michael’s vivid, outrageously exaggerated, clumsy imitations.
He had once said to Michael about this: “If you don’t have enough sincerity, it’s better not to sing the hymn at all.”
That time, Michael only looked at him with an odd look for a while, then smiled.
Watching the black-haired Demon King, who was backing away while making little gestures, Lucifer’s face darkened.
Looking at it now, Michael had already been completely different from what he’d imagined at that time.
For angels like them, longing for God came first from start to finish, whereas Michael, from beginning to end, had never treated that so-called “my God” as the most important existence.
Perhaps because Belial had known from the start the secret of Michael’s failed fall, he and Baal were not as respectful toward this new superior as the others. When the other angels wavered over Michael’s sentence, he even dared to slowly complain to him: “If you ask me, you really have no acting talent, so you’d better stop acting.”
In some sense Bael admired Belial very much; he truly had great courage, daring to speak to the god of the Abyss like this about anything.
Michael, by contrast, seemed to have plenty of patience for these fellow fallen angels; hearing this he only glanced at the other and raised his hand.
“You’re right.”
His figure blurred, turning into a deep purple halo that covered the subordinates who had attacked Heaven.
A magic circle lit up beneath their feet.
Raziel reached out: “Not good!”
He had long known that Michael’s talent for barriers was frighteningly strong, but had never really seen how many barriers he had used.
The last time Lucifer had asked for his help, though he had said with his mouth that he was no match for Michael in barriers, in fact he had thought it was only a matter of theory; as for actual barrier setting, he was sure Michael surely was no match for him.
Who would have thought this belief would be crushed right now.
Michael indicated nothing, didn’t mock any angel, and didn’t say anything especially infuriating.
Just a composite magic circle, and one linked to a teleportation circle at that.
Merely by making such a barrier, he completely destroyed the confidence of Raziel, the proud barrier angel.
In fact Michael hadn’t thought of hurting him like this, even though this barrier angel was only a split of Raziel and not his real main body; there was still a causal connection in the end.
No, based just on his relationship with the barrier angel on the Eighth Heaven, he could not, given a choice, hurt an archangel who knew nothing.
However, with Lucifer waking, Michael had no other means.
It wasn’t that he feared Lucifer, the Archangel; it was truly that he wasn’t in the mood to fight him now. Having seen the angels’ differing treatment one after another, it was impossible for his mood not to change at all, and acting in a terrible mood… forgive his frankness, he really was afraid of killing Lucifer.
Under cover of the barrier, the teleportation circle activated.
In the blink of an eye, at the edge of Heaven, only Lucifer and the angel armies remained, with no trace of the Abyss’s people.
Metatron supported the swaying Raziel and looked at Lucifer.
Whoever now held command of the angel armies, the golden-haired Archangel in front of them was Heaven’s deputy ruler, holding half the control of Heaven.
Lucifer’s gaze swept across the angels one by one.
“You have successfully protected Heaven, and this deed should be praised.”
Metatron was baffled, while Sariel understood at once.
Although this guy kept saying uncomfortable things, when it came to understanding Lucifer, no one could match him.
Sariel: “This time Hell attacked Heaven and we didn’t let them get in front of our God, which means we have won. Moreover, the leader on their side, Michael, didn’t dare face the Archangel head-on, which also proves that we are indeed stronger than they are.”
His words could not be counted as wrong.
It was only that the two archangels who had just arrived to join up, knowing about the secret of the other’s silent entry to the Fifth Heaven, had very interesting expressions.
Uriel stood a bit off to the side: “If Sariel knew that Michael not only attacked the upper levels but also defeated God… I wonder how he would feel.”
Gabriel’s face was livid.
Although the words were a bit excessive, since what Michael defeated was God but not His main body, even so, the fact that the other possessed strength to oppose God still frightened him.
You have to know, when Lucifer attacked Heaven before, the strength Michael had shown was not nearly this strong.
Gabriel pondered: “Before leaving Heaven, Michael’s power wasn’t this strong. Did he run into some special existence in Hell and suddenly become stronger?”
Uriel moved his lips, but in the end did not say the words that had come to his lips.
In the end, nobody still knew the reason for Michael’s rebellion, but during his time as Archangel, he had always kept mercy toward his fellow angels and had never really struck to kill. Even facing Lucifer, who had betrayed them, he had only attacked in a way meant to keep the other here as much as possible.
And the result of doing so was that he never showed his real strength, so it was easy for the other angels to doubt him.
Uriel had once been to the rifts of time with Michael; the monsters inside were so strong they were suffocating, and that experience let him see Michael’s madness and the other’s terrifyingly formidable combat power that made one’s hair stand on end.
It was only that Michael had told him to keep this secret, so he hadn’t told the other angels.
Thinking about it now, Uriel found that colleague of his had really been looking after the so-called archangels’ face all along, never stepping on their self-esteem.
After the war Heaven was in a mess; Gabriel was busy exchanging intelligence with his deputy general, and also had to communicate with Lucifer and ask whether to attack Hell next.
This time it looked like Hell had attacked Heaven, but in fact neither side had used much strength; too much had happened. Especially Lucifer almost falling, which made the angels who had meant to encircle Bael and the other demons stop their hands without agreeing to.
The angel armies were basically intact now, while Hell’s side was hard to say; they should have struck them by surprise while they were retreating to their own territory.
Lucifer spoke, but what he said was: “No, you rest first. I will go explain to our God the situation at this moment.”
After throwing out this sentence, Lucifer took Raphael and went to the Seventh Heaven.
Gabriel belatedly thought of our God’s present situation, and asked Uriel: “Do you think our God will see Lucifer now?”
The other angels who didn’t know the situation all felt that their angel armies commander’s question was too strange; after all, Lucifer was the angel God had doted on most. Even if there had been friction between them, that was already in the past, and whatever they had thought before should be let go.
Uriel, however, understood Gabriel’s meaning.
It was only that he didn’t know much about the situation of their God either.
When that God’s identity was exposed, all they had known was that it was not the main body, but as for the specific makeup, probably only He Himself knew.
No, Michael being so confident at that time must have known the real situation too.
Whatever Gabriel and the others thought, Lucifer had left.
In the Abyss, the group was sent to the First Level, but Michael was nowhere to be seen.
Mammon knew he had made a big mistake and had no thought of leaving, simply waiting for Michael to punish him.
Today was not like the past: Michael was their king, the one they should be loyal to, and naturally they could not just act cute and be done with it.
Michael needed to establish authority, and they didn’t mind helping him.
Bael said to Mammon: “You don’t really think our god is afraid of Lucifer, do you?”
Mammon knew Michael’s identity and of course didn’t think so.
“Lord Bael, I’m not that stupid. His Majesty never feared Lucifer even in Heaven, so now it’s even less possible.”
After thinking, he asked: “I only want to know, His Majesty clearly came down with us, so why is there no trace of him now?”
Bael glanced at him: “Count the people you took, ask logistics if you need anything, and don’t concern yourself with the rest. As for your offense, our god will decide.”
In rank Bael and Mammon were about equal, only that each of them had a different degree of dealings with Michael, which made for differences in closeness.
Seeing Bael say this, Mammon thought Michael might have left alone, and remembering the other’s casual way of opening that door, disappearing silently right under their noses would also be easy.
Mammon and Baal and the others took their respective subordinates to different levels.
Seeing that nearly everyone had dispersed, Bael only then walked behind the rocks.
There, a golden-haired archangel was looking at him expressionlessly.
The ancient demon knelt before him: “My god.”