By personality, Michael did not calculate everything without fail; in this respect he was completely different from the very first god. No, it should be said that his experiences as a human influenced him too much, so that even when his soul drifted into this world and lost its memories from his time as a human, and he learned what kind of world this was, so different from myth, he still did as he pleased. And as for scheming, he looked like he had schemed against both Lucifer and God, but that was a judgment made on the basis of understanding their situations.
He had thought that in Heaven it was seeing those colleagues, and their attitudes so different from his memories, that made him a bit irritable and in a bad mood.
But he had forgotten that separating the main body from the consciousness itself made the mental state unstable.
Moreover, in the form of a consciousness body, he had scooped back Lucifer, who had almost fallen.
Because of this, the power he had forcibly reversed returned to its original state.
Golden hair and blue eyes, the standard look of the angels of Heaven, came back to him once more.
When he saw Lucifer’s head of golden hair, Michael understood that the other must have had his power’s attributes forcibly changed by God with the power of purification, otherwise he couldn’t have returned to this look. The reason he knew how Lucifer had regained angel power was that he had used a similar method.
Only he had converted light into darkness.
Apart from Raziel’s main body on the Eighth Heaven, only three demons in the Abyss knew that he had not succeeded in falling: Bael, Baal and Mammon.
If Michael wished, he could return to the camp of light at any time.
Lucifer and the others thought Michael had used the teleportation circle to show off his unmatched power. In fact, after scooping Lucifer back, his state was not very stable, and if it hadn’t been for his temperament of becoming calmer the worse the situation got, those angels of Heaven would have found an opening in him.
And after that, Michael could no longer suppress the power of light at all.
The moment the teleportation circle activated, his consciousness body had already returned to the Abyss; he told Bael everything that needed handling, then hid his form and cast several more barriers.
Bael knew where he was because Michael had told him through the contract.
Looking at the contractor kneeling before him, Michael said softly: “Get up, Bael.”
Bael stood up.
“How will Mammon’s matter be handled?”
Michael thought for a moment: “I saw when Mammon used that move.”
At that time he was not at the scene, and by reason shouldn’t have been able to see it. Perhaps he had learned what Mammon did by some other means, but he was firm that it was “seeing.”
It was precisely because he saw that he was sure Mammon himself had been baffled by the move.
No, Michael was sure Mammon had not used the wrong power, yet even so something had nearly gone wrong with Lucifer.
What did this show? It showed that something really was vaguely manipulating the world, and moreover it required “Lucifer falling” as a premise.
Remembering the extremely complicated expression on the golden-haired Archangel’s face as he fell, Michael sighed slightly.
Bael hesitated for a while: “Then what do you plan to do?”
The problem was not Mammon, but the actual situation was not so easy to explain.
After a brief think, Michael gave Bael an order: “Have Mammon come see me on the Eighth Level.”
He had thought it over: since Mammon and the others helped him govern the Abyss on the grounds of being level lords, there were things they also needed to know.
On this chessboard called resurrection and destruction, only the fallen angels other than Lucifer could go beyond the originally set plan.
Bael was stunned: “The Eighth Level?”
Michael nodded lightly and hid his form.
It wasn’t to show off or anything; it was truly that this appearance of his now was not suitable for appearing in the Abyss, and even with a great demon like Bael there, it didn’t mean the Abyss’s subjects would listen to an angel of the light camp.
Originally, Michael had thought of staying in the Abyss only for a while, but later found that the human world had not yet developed, and even if he wanted to do something, he would need time to transition. In that case, the Abyss was a good place to hang… cough, rest.
Bael accepted the order and set off to find Mammon.
For an ancient demon like him, whether the one he served was of the light side or the dark side didn’t matter, as long as it could arouse his interest; even if the other were a human, it would be fine.
So even when he saw that Michael had returned to his original look, he did not ask the reason.
Ever since returning to the Abyss, Mammon had been holed up in his own territory.
Nor was he idle; he grabbed the two fallen angels Baal and Belial and had them help him look for books on spells.
Baal had at first thought Mammon probably wanted to escape reality and so was doing things that didn’t fit his personality.
Belial thought so too.
When Mammon led the two of them to the room and they saw row upon row of bookshelves, Baal showed a terrified look.
The veins on Mammon’s forehead popped: “Don’t look at me like that, Michael gave me all of these.”
“…Wait, where did Michael find so many books?”
The books alone were one thing, but the problem was that these were all within the scope of high-level divine arts. Had Michael emptied his palace in Heaven?
Belial yawned; he wasn’t as shocked as Baal, having after all seen Michael’s frantic studying.
“It probably wasn’t Michael who found them.”
Baal turned his head to his companion: “Mammon, what does that mean? If they weren’t brought from outside, did Michael write them himself?”
He had only said it casually, but who would have thought Mammon would nod directly: “Yes, Michael memorized all the points of knowledge, and he recited while I wrote, which is how there came to be so many books.”
The two fallen angels fell silent at the same time.
After a while, Belial said dryly: “I thought he would restrain himself a bit after leaving Heaven, but in this respect he’s still this insane.”
He still remembered that once an angel who didn’t accept Michael as team leader had tried to make things hard for him with a pile of questions, and instead was stumped by the young angel he looked down on.
From then on, no one ever challenged Michael on knowledge again.
Those who had challenged before either cried to their friends or went to high-rank angels to complain.
Baal mused for a while: “Lucifer was also pained by this back then. He said that in the name of practice yielding true knowledge, Michael didn’t even spare the bathing pool and planted it full of all kinds of strange plants.”
Mammon was shocked: “And Lucifer didn’t beat him for that?”
Baal: “…Lucifer wanted to, but was stopped.”
Mammon blinked: “Someone could actually stop Lucifer?”
On a whim of curiosity he asked again: “Which archangel was it?”
At this question the two who knew the story had extremely odd expressions, and Belial said with a smile that wasn’t a smile: “It was so long ago, how could we remember. Anyway, because of that, Lucifer had us train for whole months.”
Mammon chewed his nails and very much wanted to ask whether that counted as using public office for private revenge. And the target was wrong, too.
“You have time to gossip about Michael and Lucifer, why not think about how to explain the matter of using the wrong power?”
Mammon: “…Can we change the subject?”
Baal raised an eyebrow: “I advise you not to try to smooth things over. The seriousness of this kind of thing needs no telling from us; you already understand it yourself.”
Why had Lucifer failed to fall? Because of Michael. In others’ eyes, Mammon’s behavior today was dissatisfaction with Michael and wanting Lucifer to become the Demon King of Hell.
Belial, for once on the same side as Baal: “On this you can only hope for the best, we truly can’t help you.”
Having said this, he swept his eyes over the rows of bookshelves and pointed: “You brought us here, so is it that you’re looking for some book to rescue your impression in Michael’s mind?”
Mammon rolled his eyes: “As if.”
He thought simply about many things, but in this matter he too knew the seriousness, and knew that besides apologizing and admitting fault there was something else to be done.
But, well, he really felt his memory was pretty good and he shouldn’t have gotten the power wrong.
Never mind anything else, as a teacher Michael really was qualified, perfect in every way with nothing to say, the type who answered every question on knowledge.
Michael had taught him so seriously, and even set him a midterm and a final test, and he had gotten good results each time, so he shouldn’t have made a mistake in this matter.
“Help me find the books on attack spells, all of them.”
Baal and Belial had been present then too, so Mammon hoped they would help; having nothing else to do, they planned to help look.
The result—
“All of them?”
Pointing at row after row of tall bookshelves, Belial twitched the corner of his lips, his eyes full of disbelief: “Look me in the eye and say it again, what books?”
Mammon thought he hadn’t heard clearly and repeated it: “All the books about attack spells.”
Baal: “…He’s in a miserable enough state already, let’s just help him look.”
Seeing Belial about to blow up, Baal hurriedly held him down, soothing him like this.
When Bael came to find Mammon, the latter had already found the corresponding book and read through the contents.
Just as he was wondering why, when he hadn’t used the wrong spell, it had gone out of control… he learned that Michael wanted to see him.
Learning of the existence of the Eighth Level, Mammon was also startled but did not question it.
Taking the bead Bael gave him, he lightly crushed it.
The Abyss’s Eighth Level.
Unlike the other levels, the Eighth Level was somewhat too bright, almost rivaling Heaven.
Mammon frowned: “I read through the books you gave me before.”
Michael said with a smile: “You didn’t use the wrong spell.”
Mammon asked in surprise: “You know?”
Michael: “But judging by the power that came out, you used the wrong spell.”
Mammon: ???
“So this matter can only be known by you and me; there can be no third person who knows.”
…So he meant for him to take the blame?