In all fairness, Bael had seen few arrogant beings.
There were angels, demons, and some humans, but none of them, of whichever kind, was as arrogant as this new Demon King in front of him.
Heaven’s previous Archangel, Lucifel, had been told to kneel to the Son of God, the Messiah, and had become dissatisfied with God. Later, under God’s blows all the way, he had walked into a dead end.
He cast off everything of Heaven and dyed everything of himself black.
“I am willing to be king in Hell.”
Even with such a rebellious streak, all he had done was intend to become the Demon King in Hell.
And even that position had been intercepted.
Calling himself the equal of God and renaming Hell the Abyss: he had thought these were the demands of Michael, this new Demon King. But who could have known that this one’s thoughts were so hard to guess; he was not only going to do what Lucifer had said, “be king in Hell,” but also what Lucifer had never thought of, become a god in the Abyss.
Such words sounded absurd, and also laughable.
Under the stunned gazes of Baal and Belial, Bael only smiled slightly: “Everything will be as you wish, my god.”
The other native demons of Hell: …As expected of an ancient great demon, able to bend and stretch. This Demon King was clearly so defiant of Heaven, and he could still go along with his words. It really made them, admire him!
With Bael taking the lead, the low-rank and mid-rank demons who had not been cooperating and had only been thinking of fishing out some benefit all began to flatter the new king.
“You are right, my god.”
“God of the Abyss, this title is really nice, I am trembling because of it.”
“Our god, what do you plan to do next?”
……
Very soon, these demons had surrounded Michael.
Baal… was already too tired to comment.
Belial was dumbstruck: “Wait… I didn’t know these guys were so good with words. So their toughness toward us before was, an act?”
Having accidentally learned some of the truth, Belial now felt extremely wronged and only wanted to beat up this group of demons who had embarrassed him earlier, to vent the discontent in his heart.
This scene was actually somewhat familiar to Michael.
He still remembered that after he had remade the Abyss, when he went to explain matters about living there, he had also been surrounded three layers deep and three layers out like this. The first time it happened, it really worried him for a long time. These were people he could neither hit nor scold, all his own subjects.
Only at times like this did he understand why God treated everyone evenly, and showed no favoritism even to His beloved Archangel Lucifel.
With so many people crowding up together, if you were the slightest bit unfair, wouldn’t they raise the roof?
Pressing down the extremely nostalgic feeling, Michael answered these people’s words patiently but very coldly.
As for the wording, it’s fine for a superior to be brief and to the point, right?
He cast his eyes on the two great demons not far away, who were whispering into each other’s ears and not looking his way, and a scheme came to him.
“I have become the god of the Abyss, so the next step, naturally is attacking Heaven.”
An unsurprising plan; it made the demons who had still wanted to hear something new disperse.
As native residents of Hell, these people should originally have been governed by someone. But out of a wish to give the new Demon King a rude welcome, those in charge of these demons had not evacuated the old and young right away, and like Bael before, had hidden to one side to watch the show.
Now, seeing there would be no particularly big change, one of them simply came out.
He respectfully addressed the black-haired young man as: “My god.”
Michael made a soft “mm,” let his gaze wander among the crowd of demons, and then began to ask the person in charge in front of him in careful detail: “How do you plan to settle these people?”
This high-rank demon knelt again to Michael: “Originally, these demons were arranged by other high-rank demons according to status and rank, but now that Lucifel has betrayed our agreement, the arrangements for these demons may need to change.”
Michael thought for a moment, then said slightly pensively: “Clear out one level of space to house these demons temporarily.”
High-rank demon: “Yes.”
Having received orders from his new superior, this demon hurried to drive the scattered, disorganized, undisciplined demons together, urging them to go gather at the side at once.
“This is the new leader’s instruction, so don’t you make trouble for me for no reason.”
Under his orderly work, the demons who had earlier been giving him a show of defiance gradually left the field of view.
Perhaps out of fear of Michael, the gazes full of different emotions that had come from all over Hell scattered at once.
This left only the three great demons by Michael’s side.
Baal and Belial he was not worried about.
As long as these two weren’t too stupid and understood they were in the same boat, they wouldn’t expose anything on their own.
The rest was probably the most troublesome one.
Michael looked around and found a quiet, out-of-the-way place.
“Bael, come with me.”
Bael glanced into the distance and pressed down the corners of his lips, which had been rising: “Yes.”
Baal watched his former colleague, now nominally his superior, lead Bael off to an empty place, then pulled the little one next to him over and asked in a low voice: “Belial, don’t you think… the relationship between Michael and Bael is very—”
After racking his brains for a while, he produced a passably reliable modifier: “…subtle?”
Belial: “I think, under normal circumstances, no one would really believe Bael had simply been won over by him. Right? Do you really think Bael truly values Michael? No way. Baal, you can’t be this stupid.”
As he spoke, he used his hand to twist the head of the fallen angel in front of him.
Baal, annoyed, slapped away the hindering hand with one palm: “Shut up, Belial.”
Belial glanced into the distance.
He wasn’t stupid either.
Or rather, anyone who had reached the level of a high-rank angel could only be so stupid and so naive.
Even so, he still didn’t understand Michael’s choice.
Was falling in Lucifer’s place really just to be a god in the Abyss, Michael?
On the other side, as soon as Bael left everyone’s sight, he went straight for Michael.
Flame power was released all around, lighting up Hell like daytime in Heaven.
Just as Bael thought he had succeeded, he heard the mocking voice of the black-haired god of the Abyss: “Don’t move, Bael.”
Then, slowly, he added a line: “If you don’t want to die.”
Regarding the so-called ancient demons, Michael had never thought he could gain their approval so easily.
In his previous life, Lucifer had also only persuaded Bael to serve him on the grounds of benefits.
And that was only for attacking Heaven.
More often, this great demon gave no one’s face at all.
That was why, back then, when Lucifer was dragged into the Chaotic Abyss by Michael’s scheme, Bael had still returned to Hell without caring.
Michael considered that if it was something even Lucifer hadn’t managed with demons, it would truly be laughable if he could manage it.
On the barrier built from his own converted power, flames from the Abyss filled the surface.
Flames hot enough to burn an angel’s soul to ash had become a sharp sword aimed straight at the great demon Bael.
Having his purpose seen through first, Bael was not angry either.
His expression was leisurely, and he looked over this barrier aimed at him with considerable interest.
“I’m really surprised, Michael.”
Facing the god of the Abyss, whose face had only coldness left, Bael laughed lightly and pointed to a spot on the barrier: “Where does your confidence come from, thinking that a newborn angel like you can trap an ancient great demon like me with a barrier? When I was born, you were still playing with eggs in Heaven, weren’t you?”
Michael watched with his own eyes.
Bael easily broke the barrier that had been built.
The great demon’s words did not stop: “See, such a simple thing.”
As a demon born long, long ago, Bael of course would not let anyone know his weaknesses.
No, it should be said that even if someone did know his weakness, no one could do anything about him.
Michael crossed his arms over his chest, calm and composed: “I remember, Bael, you are extremely bad at breaking barriers.”
Bael was not surprised.
He had understood long ago that from the time Lucifer arrived in Hell and made the agreement with him, some things could no longer be hidden.
What shocked him was that Lucifer had even told Michael this.
Back then, hearing about the relationship between Lucifel and Michael in Heaven, Bael had found it outrageous. A light angel took a flame angel as an adopted son, and trained him together with God, and in the end this became the biggest cause of Lucifer’s failure.
It was outrageous just to hear.
Not to mention that when Lucifel became Lucifer, Michael had been absent-minded every day and several times had almost come straight to Hell.
Bael wasn’t a gossip, but he was still curious about the love and hate between these two Archangels.
“Lucifer really told you everything.”
Hearing this, Michael was left with only a belly full of puzzlement.
He humbly asked Bael for advice: “What do you mean by that?”
Bael didn’t think there was anything wrong with his words, and said it outright without dressing it up: “Lucifer really did like you, but unfortunately the two of you have no future.”
Michael… was shocked.
Wait! This was already the second playthrough, he had already made choices different from the first playthrough, so how could anyone still misunderstand the relationship between him and Lucifer?
For a moment, Michael’s emotions ran high.
“I’m genuinely baffled, where did you all get this conclusion from?”
Bael blinked: “You all? So it’s true?”
What answered him was a chain of killing moves from a seraph.