Hell… no, it should now be called the Abyss.
The closer to the entrance of the Abyss, the more the ground was covered in black, and every fallen angel familiar with power was astonished by it.
Belial sniffed: “This isn’t ordinary dark power, and this black… isn’t the essence of power either. Hm? Why is there a burnt smell?”
Bael: “…Stop dwelling on it, this is the materialization of Michael’s power.”
The younger demon slowly lifted his head and looked at his companion, his eyes full of puzzlement: “The problem is that the consequences of Michael’s power go far beyond just this, don’t they?”
Yes.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t suspected that this phenomenon was caused by Michael.
It was—Michael’s flames were absolutely not only this level.
Power weakened after falling into the Abyss? And so the power of the flames withered bit by bit?
No. If he hadn’t watched those flames rise with his own eyes, and been scorched himself until he was almost nothing but a bit of ash… Bael could never have believed, that Michael’s power was so strong.
Perhaps because he was turning grief and indignation into strength, Michael, while roasting Bael, even had the leisure to think about how to make the other abandon that ridiculous belief.
A joke. Although the relationship between him and Lucifer was complicated, that did not mean it had to go in the direction of that rumor.
In fact, at first Michael hadn’t been this angry; the truth was that he had given a chance, and Bael was no use.
When he was startled by the rumor, Michael had still kept a sense of proportion in his attack, only increasing the heat of the flames, without adding any light power into them.
When the fight began, he and Bael had had one exchange like this.
Michael floated in midair, calm and composed, and behind him were endless layers upon layers of barriers.
Yes, plural barriers.
A moment before, Bael had been laughing at Michael for being naive, thinking he couldn’t break such a simple barrier.
—Until he saw that the barrier he had broken shattered and behind it was another layer of barrier, and his expression cracked right then.
Whose barrier-setting piles on barriers as if they cost nothing?
No, rather than this, what Bael found even more incredible was that Michael could build such an intricate barrier. Just as this new god of the Abyss in front of him had said, he really wasn’t good at barriers; the reason he had been able to break the first layer was that he had lived long enough and knew enough, and even for the thing he was worst at, if he studied it a bit longer he would certainly understand.
The reason he had been able to destroy the first layer of barrier so quickly was only that Bael was sure it was the most basic kind of angel barrier. He had seen it many times, and had heard about this from other great demons.
He had thought that once the barrier in front of him was destroyed, he would see Michael’s face deathly gray.
He didn’t expect—
The second layer of barrier, let alone having seen it, he had never even heard of it!
The first layer used the most common barrier, and the second directly built a new barrier… Bael could now almost be sure—Michael had done it on purpose!
Thinking of this, he said with a dark face: “You knew all along that I would destroy the first layer of barrier!”
Michael had calmed down by now.
He had watched for a while as Bael smugly assumed he would prepare only one layer of barrier.
In fact, Michael had always been curious whether his impression of innocence was just too deeply rooted, or whether he really had never shown any other talents, so that the other archangels and great demons felt he was really easy to handle.
Facing angels who had made mistakes, he still held a bit of pity and would not strike too hard. One reason was that they were colleagues after all, seeing each other every day, and leaving some leeway in everything was good for everyone; the other was… angels were actually very fragile, and apart from high-rank angels, most angels had nothing special compared with humans other than a longer lifespan.
For comrades, and for hostile people who regarded him as a threat, his attitude was naturally worlds apart.
After drifting off in thought for a long time, Michael heard Bael’s words and asked back in a very puzzled tone: “Even so, I was once an Archangel. Bael, you are an ancient great demon, so why did you think I could only do this one insignificant basic barrier? Or do you really think that very few people know that you are bad at barriers but can break some low-rank ones?”
Actually, if he hadn’t experienced the first playthrough in which Lucifer led Bael to break through Heaven, Michael wouldn’t have known… that this great demon actually knew something about barriers, and had even found a way to break them.
The demon wings behind Bael spread, and he showed Michael a hideous smile: “Good, very good. I’ve actually been looked down on by a reckless brat.”
The sound of bones twisting made one’s teeth ache.
As the wings grew out of the skeleton and the fangs in his mouth kept lengthening, Bael formally returned for the first time to the appearance proper to a great demon.
Michael felt he might have overplayed it, but there was still a way to save it.
Whatever happened, in the first playthrough, even when Bael nearly killed Raziel, the other had not released the power seal to the level in front of him.
Michael watched the great demon who was continually gathering the power of darkness and murmured: “It seems there’s no other way.”
Let’s add a bit of light energy into the attack.
He had only tried it with an experimental mindset, but when those attacks landed on Bael and the other had no power to resist at all, Michael became certain that his power had a very great effect on ancient great demons.
That was good news, wasn’t it?
Archangels of Heaven had been replaced generation after generation, and the rulers of Hell had gone through changes of power, yet these ancient great demons had still not suffered any loss and could still live safely in the Abyss. To put it plainly, they were strong and very tough, which was how they had survived to now without missing an arm or a leg.
Just one thing Michael wasn’t sure of.
When Lucifer led the demons and angels in attacking Heaven back then, had Bael stayed in Hell as a precaution, or had he not yet acknowledged the new Demon King at that time?
Precisely because the great demons were all strong, when Michael attacked, he had worried whether the meager power of light… could really harm the other.
Fortunately, the result was a delight.
Most importantly, because the power of light was only that tiny bit, Bael couldn’t detect its existence at all, and naturally wouldn’t think, that this black-haired, red-eyed god of the Abyss in front of him still kept the power and strength of his time as Archangel of Heaven.
He had to say, not changing appearance after falling was for Michael both a potential danger and a card to surprise people with. Because of this card, Bael did not guard against him the way he would guard against an Archangel of Heaven, which allowed him to break through the other’s defenses easily and strike straight at his vital point.
Bael covered the pierced part of his body with his fingers, letting bright red blood flow out along his fingertips, and was filled with shock inside.
“Im-impossible—!”
The reason he hadn’t acknowledged Michael was that all the demons had accepted Lucifer as the new Demon King, because they had been defeated at his hands.
Whatever mishap had happened in the battle of Heaven that led to Michael falling in Lucifer’s place and becoming the new ruler here, it had nothing to do with them, the great demons.
They were selfish, and also protective of their own.
They had acknowledged Lucifer, so naturally they would reject any ruler other than Lucifer.
Bael was actually the easier one to get along with among these great demons, otherwise he wouldn’t have feigned allegiance and thereby given Michael a chance to scheme against him.
Yes, this chance was one he had sent out himself.
Reviewing the whole course of the fight, Bael found that he had been led by the nose by Michael from beginning to end, and had not realized in the slightest that anything was wrong, thinking only that it was what he himself wanted to do.
By now, he had to admit it.
Michael, as expected of Lucifer’s successor, no wonder he had become the new Archangel.
To scheme this well, if someone said it wasn’t intentional, he would find that laughable.
After being burned by the flame power for a while, Bael’s whole body had turned scorched black.
The ground where he was had deep black scorched earth and the pungent smell left after flames had burned.
As a great demon who had existed since ancient times, Bael had pride that belonged to him alone, and was unwilling to admit defeat easily.
No matter how many Demon Kings Hell, now the Abyss, had changed through, they had never acknowledged any of them.
Until Lucifer appeared.
And now, Michael as well.
Taking several deep breaths, Bael lowered his proud head.
“I concede, my god.”
Unlike earlier, when he had addressed Michael with a slightly frivolous title mixed with some teasing.
This time, Bael sincerely acknowledged Michael’s status in this Abyss.
Flames, just flames, were already hard for him to withstand, let alone the other’s barriers, whose end he couldn’t see and whose number he couldn’t guess.
Michael was a little surprised, and also felt it was as expected.
Back then, through a conversation with Metatron, he had understood that most angels did not know the saying about elemental counters. No, it should be said they knew, but few of them would really take it seriously.
Among the seven archangels, the ones clearly having power with an attribute were only Lucifel’s light and Michael’s flame; the other archangels’ power leaned more toward everyday kinds.
This being so, no one cared about the advantages and disadvantages that different attributes might produce against each other.
Michael was, after all, not too naive, and his voice was without ripple: “Swear allegiance to me, Great Demon Bael.”
To fully control this old fellow in front of him, Michael naturally chose the surest oath. An oath, regardless of race, region or standing, comes true as long as it is spoken, and if the sworn oath is violated, there will be endless punishment.
Bael was instinctively unwilling to do this, but he really had been defeated.
In this Abyss, it is the carnival of the strong.
The ancient demon reached out and swore the most vicious oath: “From this moment on, I am willing to revere Michael as the one I am loyal to, and will never change. If I violate this oath, I will fall on the spot and turn to dust.”
A mark of flame floated from Michael’s forehead, landed on Bael’s forehead, and then vanished.
Michael lowered his eyes and looked at the great demon, so badly wounded he had almost no strength left: “The oath is established.”
The instant his words fell, the wounds on Bael’s body began to heal slowly, and soon he was as good as new.
At that spot, only a set of clothes burst apart and a ground full of scorched earth remained.
Bael lifted his head at an extremely slow speed and looked at the god he had sworn loyalty to: “My god, this is—”
“You have become my subordinate, with a life-and-death contract at that. So, you can now directly feel what the power hidden in my body is.”
Bael could of course sense it.
The problem was—
What he sensed was clearly the power of light!
Having been beaten flat with this power by Lucifel, who hadn’t yet completely fallen, Bael knew it very well.
If before he hadn’t known how he had been defeated by mere flames, now, having signed the contract with Michael, he completely understood.
But this raised a new problem.
He lifted his head with difficulty, looked at his superior, who was smiling at him, and said word by word: “There is something I don’t understand, and I hope you, my god, can answer it for me.”
Michael had just subdued a great demon and was in a fairly good mood, so he paid no attention to the other’s feelings at that moment and nodded, agreeing to Bael’s request.
Bael weighed his words, and then spoke unhurriedly: “Just now, the flames you used against me while we sparred… did they have the power of light in them?”
The look of sudden realization on Michael’s face gave him a bad feeling.
And his feeling was indeed right.
All he heard was this god of the Abyss say, in a very blunt tone: “Actually, I feel I’m not very compatible with this Abyss. I’ve clearly fallen, but I still kept my original power, hey, Bael, are you all right?”
Michael thought about it and still reached out to support his new contractor, who looked unsteady.
Bael only felt his head spinning.
If he had known from the start that Michael still had the power from his time as Archangel, he would absolutely never have provoked him so recklessly.
You want to ask him why?
Beaten once with angel power by Lucifer, anyone would learn their lesson; it wasn’t as if he didn’t know his limits!
When Michael brought Bael back from elsewhere, Baal and Belial finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, this Archangel hadn’t killed the strongest demon.
Why not the other way around? A joke; archangels naturally counter demons, otherwise God wouldn’t have had the Archangel govern the other archangels.
Belial glanced at Lord Bael, who had his head lowered and wasn’t looking at them, and threw Michael a look: What did you do to him?
Michael’s eyes were innocent: Nothing.
Belial: …Watch me believe what you say.
Not intending to keep exchanging looks with this child in front of him, Michael coughed lightly and gave Baal his first order: “Attack Heaven in three days.”
Today isn’t… forget it, Baal was tired of saying that.
“Michael, I’ll be blunt. This attack on Heaven failed, and Lucifer also didn’t fall… those two things alone have already made the other fallen angels very dissatisfied. And you also understand that, compared with Lucifer, your standing among the angels is really much lower.”
Michael was not displeased by Baal’s words; he simply crossed his arms over his chest and gave a cold laugh: “So?”
Baal was stunned for a moment: “They won’t obey your orders.”
“They won’t obey orders…”
Murmuring this, the black-haired young man fell into thought.
**
The news that Hell had been officially renamed the Abyss was soon known to the angels of Heaven.
Michael’s sudden fall caught people even more off guard than Lucifel suddenly wanting to attack Heaven. As the only two archangels who knew anything, and who had been present at the scene, Metatron and Gabriel could only tell God the parts they knew.
In the temple on the Seventh Heaven, the archangels all knelt on one knee, not daring to say a word.
From what Metatron and Gabriel said, Michael’s fall had been sudden, without giving anyone any time to prepare. On this point, even Lucifer, who might have fallen, had been completely baffled, and it was precisely because the other was unguarded that they had been able to seize him easily and confine him in prison.
What troubled them was that Lucifer’s fall had looked like it was forced by circumstances, yet God had said nothing about it. Michael’s willful decision, on the other hand, seemed to have touched this god’s inverse scale.
For a very long time after Michael fell, the weather in Heaven was always overcast with dark clouds, and occasionally there was thunder. Because of the changeable climate, quite a few angels were struck directly by lightning and fell to the ground badly hurt. For this, Raphael was kept busy running around for a while, treating the affected angels in various angel legions.
Afterward, the weather gradually stabilized, and the climate no longer kept changing, and the angels felt they had finally pulled through.
Just then, God summoned all the archangels to the temple.
On the way there, Gabriel and Metatron, as the archangels who had been present at the time, were repeatedly asked by the other archangels: “Why on earth did Michael choose to fall? Is it really because of Lucifer?”
Hearing that name, the expressions of several archangels were not good, but they could not give a definite answer either.
As for Michael’s concern for Lucifer, they truly knew it better than anyone. To be honest, many high-rank angels had chosen to become fallen angels for Lucifer’s sake, but they had always believed Michael was different; as the one given the name of Archangel, he could not possibly casually abandon his duty and willfully do something that left all the angels stunned.
Yet Michael had really left Heaven and gone through the ritual of falling, forcing them to accept the fact that both the former and current Archangels had betrayed God.
Absurd, but it had to be admitted, it was really funny.
Gabriel glanced at the archangel who had asked: “Raphael, Michael’s fall should be a good thing for you, shouldn’t it? Everyone knows how you feel about Lucifer.”
Raphael, having his thoughts exposed, was not very angry, and said in a very calm tone: “Lord Lucifer staying in Heaven does make me happy. But as Michael’s former subordinate, I don’t think this outcome has anything to be happy about either.”
What all six archangels found ironic was that Lucifer had stayed, but they had lost Michael.
Sariel gave a snort: “If you ask me, if one’s heart weren’t full of darkness, who would really fall?”
Metatron glared at him fiercely: “Sariel, watch your words!”
Ignoring his colleague’s rebuke, Sariel continued speaking in his own way: “Then, Metatron, you tell me, Michael is called the Angel of Light, so where is this power of light of his?”
Metatron smiled bitterly: “This—”
This question he truly could not answer.
In fact, as early as when Lucifel adopted Michael, and the latter was named an Angel of Light by God, countless angels had had this question.
Some doubted that Michael’s title was undeserved, saying he was clearly only an ordinary angel yet held the title “Light,” and believed he was a fake.
“Just be flame, why drag in light? Even if it’s light, it’s divided into natural and manual.”
Mocking voices like this had spread quietly through every level without Michael knowing.
It was only that the Archangel then was Lucifel, who swept away every opponent for God and also paved a safe road for Michael’s growth. To do so, he had used private authority more than a few times, no fewer than Michael’s absurd behaviors in his youth, if anything more.
Faced with Sariel’s questioning, none of the other archangels present could say anything more.
Indeed, it was not a groundless accusation.
Michael, as the Angel of Light, had never exercised the power of light, so he already did not live up to his name, and after becoming Archangel he was looked down on all the more. It was only because it was wartime that no one settled this account with him.
After all, no one could have predicted that before they could settle accounts, this Archangel would run off by himself.
And right in front of the one who intended to become the Demon King.
Raphael had little interest in Sariel’s words, and just sighed: “It’s true I’m relieved that Lord Lucifer stayed, but he himself will probably be very angry.”
The other archangels: “…”
Who said otherwise?
Leading demons and fallen angels up to Heaven with all his passion, he had been blocked by his own subordinate and had no choice but to fight tangled up with him.
That was fine too, each serving their own master, nothing to criticize.
The problem was elsewhere!
The one who led the enemy to attack Heaven was the former Archangel, but the one who left Heaven after the battle’s failure was the current Archangel.
Anyone would be shocked by such a situation.
Lucifer was no exception.
Locked in the prison of the Seventh Heaven, the black-haired man’s face was cold, his crimson eyes full of anger.
If someone had been there, they could have heard him calling a person’s name.
“Michael.”
With some gritted teeth, and a little helplessness besides.
On the day all the archangels gathered, Lucifer was also taken to the temple.
Unlike what they thought.
The weather change caused by God’s rage that day was like an illusion.
Coming to the temple again, they were given only two directives.
God: “Restore Archangel Lucifer’s authority.”
And—
“Bring Michael back alive.”
The first could be said to have let everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
They actually weren’t that dissatisfied with Lucifer’s existence, since they too had once thought God would not abandon this Archangel.
But now, after having made him kneel to Adam, would this one really obey this order?
Sure enough, Lucifel gave a cold smile, his voice as if stained with frost: “Restore my identity as Archangel? Do You truly not know what I want?”
What he wanted, he did not believe this god in front of him didn’t know.
It was precisely because he knew this god knew what he sought that he was so furious at the order given before.
His pride, his dignity of never bowing to anything, had been ground to pieces by the one he cared about most and longed for most. Not only that, not long after trampling his dignity, God had used his adopted son to deal him a second heavy blow.
Archangel? Hah, anyone could serve as one if this one wanted it.
From above came a faint, seemingly present sigh: “Luci.”
Lucifer showed a look of disgust and said sharply: “Enough!”
Gabriel and the others still lowered their heads, not daring to look up.
Lucifel dared treat the One above like this because he was the angel the other had once cared about most. He dared speak so arrogantly because he truly had the capital to.
And these archangels had never possessed such an honor, so naturally they couldn’t speak in this kind of attitude to their only superior.
God was silent for a while, and then conveyed a new directive.
“Luci, bring Michael back.”
Lucifer’s face was full of sarcasm: “Oh, so now it’s Michael You care about most.”
This time, the other gave no reply.
Lucifer was very angry, almost angry enough to laugh.
Time after time, he could never get an answer from this one.
Michael or God, they both liked to oppose him!
Right now he especially wanted to know whether, after becoming the Demon King, Michael had really become king in Hell as he wished. If so, then even as the other’s former adoptive father and superior, on what grounds should he bring back the child who had already gained freedom? Make him return to the cage again, to be lower than others for all eternity?
“Without a reasonable reason, I will not do as You say.”
During the days he was held in prison, Lucifer had also completely calmed down. Apart from still not understanding what Michael was thinking, he didn’t hate the one in front of him as much as at first.
Love has a time limit, and so does hate.
He had already somewhat forgotten why exactly he hated this one so much.
It couldn’t have become what it was now just over the matter of kneeling.
All he could say was that Lucifer had been wrong from the start.
This lofty god had no individual in His eyes.