The several serving archangels were, in the end, invited out of the temple by the master of the palace.
The archangels standing outside the door gave off a somewhat desolate feeling at this moment.
Gabriel and Metatron exchanged a glance and showed knowing smiles.
How to put it, for this kind of situation they were not unfamiliar with it, and even felt a natural sense of “of course.”
Back then, when Lucifer was not yet the Demon King and was still Lucifel, the pride of Heaven, every time they were asked to go to the temple for a meeting, something much like today’s would happen.
It could be said that, basically, apart from Michael and Lucifel, who could stay until the end, they, the archangels, would be forced to leave midway for one reason or another.
Raphael had thought that this time, since Lord Lucifer was now regarded warily and his status had changed, he could keep him company until the end of the meeting, but who would have thought, in fact the situation was the same as before, without the slightest change.
As soon as a conflict arose between Lucifer and That One, the rest of the conversation would be left to only the two of them, with no room at all for anyone else.
Gabriel had originally thought Lucifer might be put to death.
You have to know, their god looked very tolerant toward them, but He had a bottom line. He never allowed anyone to challenge His majesty, and as long as an angel questioned Him, He would send divine punishment down on that angel. Yet though He was so strict, He made an exception for Lucifel again and again.
He had to say, Lucifel was indeed the angel acknowledged as the most favored by the other.
Thinking of Lucifel’s present situation, they had to talk about the one who had really fallen.
Sariel was a bit jealous: “Lucifel and Michael really are different from us. Even though they once made such mistakes, our God still has no intention of punishing them. One has had the Archangel’s position returned directly, and the other… we’re actually supposed to capture alive. I really don’t know what to say.”
Knowing Sariel had always been at odds with Michael, Metatron didn’t criticize him for these words, since this time what he said was true.
It seemed that as long as Lucifel and Michael were involved, their God would lower His requirements without limit, and the bottom line was simply gone.
Raziel held his dizzy head; the work of the past days had exhausted him in body and mind. Ever since problems kept occurring in Heaven, his workload had suddenly risen to the point of leaving no time to rest. At that god’s order, he had to repair and adjust locally, one by one, the barriers that had been broken or had not yet been touched.
Heaven’s barriers were supposed to be unbreakable, and even if Lucifer knew every detail, it didn’t mean he could easily break through them.
As the barrier angel, Raziel naturally had his own confidence, and even if his opponent was Lucifel, the former Archangel, he didn’t think his barriers would be of no use at all.
As for their god, Raziel thought simply: since it was That One’s request, he would just do it well. Whether it would change anything, whether doing so was of any use, was not something he should consider. He had once been close to Michael, so he knew better than anyone that once Michael wanted to break a barrier, even the strongest barrier he built would be useless. The reason was simple: Michael would tell all the angels of Heaven through action that so-called barriers could not hold him.
Thinking this way, he felt the work in progress was even more boring, and couldn’t help yawning again. When the others’ eyes turned to him, he asked in an extremely bored tone: “The meeting is over, so why can’t we go back to our own domains?”
The other archangels all had a headache over this colleague. Raziel was good at everything, but he was too easily immersed in his own world and rarely paid attention to what happened around him.
Just like now, they had only been “invited” out of the temple, and Lucifer was still inside the temple communicating with That One, and this did not mean the meeting had ended.
“Raziel, wait a little longer.”
The one who spoke was Gabriel. This archangel who commanded several angel armies sighed: “Lucifer is still inside; we need to wait for him to come out before we can confirm the arrangements afterward.”
The talk of arrangements afterward was nothing more than cleaning up Heaven’s mess, such as the angels who had originally been going to fall with Lucifer but had stayed behind.
And also, finding that fallen archangel and bringing him back.
Although they were archangels, they did not know whether an archangel who had already fallen and become a Demon King could really return to his original appearance and personality. They didn’t have to wait long before Lucifer came out.
Who knew what had happened, but his long black hair had returned to its original gold.
The golden-haired, blue-eyed angel, his face dark, pushed open the doors of the temple.
When he closed the doors again, the archangels had already all knelt. Lucifer’s eyes showed no surprise at this.
As repeated countless times before, as their superior he would give them orders.
After regaining power, this Archangel who had nearly fallen announced the final result of the talks in the meeting.
“In two days, Gabriel, you will take five angel armies and go with me once to Hell.”
Even though Hell had been renamed the Abyss, for the angels of Heaven that was only so for the demons. What Hell had changed into, and what new name it had gained, made no difference in essence to Lucifer and the others.
If the demons were willing to call Hell the “Abyss,” that was their business, and the angels of Heaven had no need to cater to them.
Gabriel was slightly stunned: “Attack Hell?”
Lucifer’s emotions, which had been fairly steady, were broken by a single sentence from his subordinate.
That he had not fallen together with the angels he had won over was already outrageous enough. Now what? He was to lead Heaven’s legions to attack Hell? Wouldn’t those former angels who had successfully fallen into demons want to fight to the death when they saw him? What he had promised was something he truly wanted to do, but who would have thought that in the end the quota for falling would be snatched away?
At this moment, Lucifer truly wanted to figure out what Gabriel’s head was stuffed with. Lucifer had only given Gabriel an order; seeing that they had no work to take charge of and had not been asked to do anything on short notice, the other archangels simply went back to their own domains.
Raziel was extremely sleepy, nearly falling asleep standing several times. Hearing that nothing concerned them now, he wanted to go back for a nap and then continue reinforcing the barriers, but was called back by Lucifer.
“Raziel, get ready, and come with us to Hell when the time comes.”
Raziel was taken aback: “I don’t think I can beat Michael, Lucifer.”
Get ready? Get ready for what? An offensive barrier to smash Michael with? No, no, no, that gave him too much credit. He was only a barrier angel; apart from setting barriers, don’t come looking for him for anything else!
Lucifer did not know whether to praise him for knowing the times or for being too timid. No, he had already become an Archangel, and whatever his strength, the abilities that came with this position must be strong.
Even if only in the one area of setting barriers, he said: “Michael can also do barriers. I’m a bit worried that Gabriel’s army will be blocked and unable to enter.”
Raziel was a bit melancholy now and couldn’t help saying to Lucifer: “If you are really worried, Lucifer, that Hell has barriers built by Michael, then it’s the same whether I go or not.”
Lucifer: “What do you mean?”
Raziel looked at Lucifer with his eyes full of surprise: “Michael is good at barriers. In the angel school exams back then, he was first in the whole school.”
Lucifer blinked, and blinked again, almost doubting his ears.
Raziel nearly thought Lucifer hadn’t heard clearly; this one’s reaction was so odd that he really couldn’t understand it.
After some more time passed, he heard this superior, with a bewildered expression, say something truly baffling: “I didn’t know.”
That was what he said. As Michael’s father, Lucifer also knew he had never been devoted enough. But this angel was after all someone he had brought back and adopted, and however busy he was and however hard to find time, he had still tried to stay by the other’s side, just to give that child a little hope.
Lucifel had never created an angel himself, but he understood that these children, like newborns, needed someone at their side to care for them carefully.
In the earliest period, he had indeed gotten along fairly well with his adopted son, and sometimes was so angered by the other’s whimsical ideas that he wanted to hit him with divine arts.
During that time his mind was full of wondering whether something had gone wrong with his way of teaching, to raise such a little angel who didn’t know the heights of heaven.
But such thoughts soon vanished.
Ever since Michael, one day, told God: I want to go to angel school and study with others of my age.
After that, Michael had left him completely.
And from the time the other went to school, he never again had a chance to watch his child grow. What courses were taught at school, Michael did tell him about each time he came home on a rest day. But on other matters, such as other things in school, what friends he had made, how the teachers were, he had never heard the other mention.
Michael never said, so he didn’t ask on his own initiative, knowing only that everything was fine.
No, none of this mattered now. He forced himself not to think too much about the past belonging to “Lucifel.”
If there had been no accident, he should have fallen and become the Demon King. So even if his power had been restored now, he would only be Lucifer, and could not become again the Lucifel familiar to the angels of Heaven.
The reason he had agreed to God’s request was only that Lucifer felt… compared with him, Michael was actually more suited to the side of light.
He had been to Hell and knew it was a barren place where not a blade of grass grew. Frankly, even he found Hell oppressive and uncomfortable, let alone Michael, who carried the power of light.
Thinking of this, Lucifer was very vexed; why had he thought Michael would be free once he left Heaven?
He had to bring Michael back.
And then—Lucifer gazed at the sky of the Seventh Heaven and gently closed his eyes.
He and Michael would each return to their positions, he would be his Demon King, Michael would be his Archangel, and from then on there would be no more talk of who owed whom between them.
“Raziel, my order is unchanged. Even if you don’t trust your talent, you should trust your strength. You are the archangel in charge of barriers, and Michael is not. And this is the judgment given by our God.”
Raziel was slightly lost in thought. He truly didn’t expect… that Lucifer would one day say such a thing.
Having thrown out this sentence, Lucifer, who had nearly become one of the seven deadly sins, spread the wings behind him and flew toward the lower levels. On the First Heaven, the Archangel Remiel was leaning on his sword, standing at the entrance of Heaven.
Unless it was wartime, this archangel could not appear anywhere other than the First Heaven, and when there was no reason or need, the One on the Seventh Heaven would not call on him either.
A figure fell from the sky.
The archangel who had been motionless like a statue moved his fingers slightly on the hilt of the sword, and looked at the angel who had appeared.
As in his memory, that archangel still had a brilliant appearance, with a sword equally dazzling hanging from the two-colored ribbon.
Light and shadow fell on that angel, and the familiar figure walked toward him and softly called his name. “Remiel.”
The faith he had upheld all along collapsed.
**
When Michael said they would attack Heaven in three days, Belial had always thought he was joking and hadn’t taken it seriously. Not only him; most of the other fallen angels thought the same.
They had thought Lucifel would fall, and what they followed was only that angel.
They didn’t care who sat in the Demon King’s seat, but if they had to choose, they would absolutely never take orders from Michael. When the second day came, Belial opened his eyes.
He found something wrong. Even if he had drunk last night, it wouldn’t have left his memory blank to this extent.
The bed he should have been lying on was not there.
The quilt covering his body had turned into a coarse one that could be seen anywhere.
The exquisite wine cup that had been placed at hand had also lost its shadow.
Obviously, where he was now was not the same place where he had gone to sleep.
He turned his head toward other directions and found several familiar faces. And, as luck would have it, all were ones who had earlier refused to follow Michael’s orders.
The fallen angels present were all staring wide-eyed, unable to figure out what had happened. In just one night, how had the sky and earth turned over?
Soon, Bael appeared on the platform, with an extremely firm attitude: “Order from our god: attack Heaven tomorrow. All of you present must immediately count the troops in your hands, and I will come to check the situation in the afternoon.”
This ancient demon seemed to have tied them up and thrown them here just to deliver such an ordinary order?
No, that was just what the other had done!
After saying what he had to say, Bael left his original position and went back from the entrance.
Entrance? Only then did Belial notice that they had been thrown at the entrance of Hell, but the field of view had widened so much that they hadn’t reacted right away.
No wonder, apart from the entrance flattened by Michael before, what other place could be so empty, so empty that they could throw so many fallen angels there without being crowded?
Before Michael came to Hell, Hell had nine main levels, which, apart from the entrance, left eight. And the further down the level, the stronger the residents inside, which truly matched Heaven’s ordering. Only Hell went down, and Heaven went up, just like light and shadow, looking very similar but in fact opposite.
Since he had just arrived and destroyed the level of Hell where the entrance was, Michael naturally had to think of a way to put on a bit of show. That day, Bael and two other great demons had the privilege of seeing what genius was. It was as if with a casual wave of the hand, a transparent barrier completely wrapped up the place called the Abyss. Oh, calling it a barrier was too modest; this was clearly a composite barrier.
He couldn’t tell at all how many parts had been used to build such a barrier! Looking at the barrier that came and went, Bael only wanted to beat up his earlier arrogant self. Serves you right for not knowing the heights of heaven!
However, after signing the contract with Michael, he gradually came to understand. The reason Michael was so strong came precisely from his power of light.
But he had also heard quite a few of the various true and false rumors of Heaven back then, especially those about the relationship between the two Archangels, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
Setting aside the baseless ambiguity, there were also quite a few negative rumors about Michael. “Clearly an Angel of Light, yet never seen using the power of light,” “a title that doesn’t match the reality,” “not worthy of Lord Lucifel’s regard”… sayings like these had all spread from Heaven to Hell. All signs showed that Michael had never used the power of light, otherwise there could not have been these rumors.
Bael had reason to suspect that Michael had hidden it on purpose, which not even those angels knew. And this included the other Archangels, and—Lucifel.
Power is either there or not there; there is no such thing as being unable to use it before and suddenly able to use it now, and so skillfully at that.
If one hadn’t tested oneself against Michael, one would not know how astonishing the other’s control over the fine points of power was.
Bael didn’t believe that power controlled so precisely by Michael had never been used.
Thinking of the things the fallen angels had mentioned in passing, Bael felt that Michael might really be as they thought, merely finding an excuse to leave Heaven. The reason he had landed in Hell was only that he hadn’t thought of where else to go for the time being.
Having conveyed the order Michael had him give, Bael returned to the palace on the second level.
Unlike the several previous Demon Kings, who were scared to death and wished to stuff themselves into the deepest part of Hell, Michael chose the second level, near the entrance.
Entering the temple, Bael finally saw clearly what Michael was doing.
This Demon King, self-proclaimed god of the Abyss, stood with his hands behind his back, and on the table in front of him lay a map.
Bael went closer and saw that the map was covered in symbols.
Before the great demon could speak, Michael said without raising his head: “I plan to go to the human world once. During that time, you will manage the Abyss for me. I’ve already spoken to them, and Baal and Abaddon will assist you.”
Baal was one thing, but when had Abaddon been persuaded?
The more he dealt with this one, the more Bael could sense his decisiveness.
During this period in the Abyss, the way the two got along was basically, when Michael finished something, he would let Bael know with a word, and the exchange was always brief.
On other matters, Bael would not comment, and he also knew there was no possibility of his having a say.
But when it involved human matters, it was not so easy to talk about.
Bael kept his head lowered: “At present the human world has only Adam. Are you going to the human world at this time in order to see him?”
Michael extended his hand, and as if taking something through the air, a stone that had been lying on the map was moved to another position.
“As for humans, there may only be Adam, but as for other creatures… what about that snake?”
Hearing this, Bael felt a chill in his heart, and said with a tremor in his voice: “To tell you the truth, I really forgot about this, it is not that I was unwilling to tell you.”
Michael waved a hand at him, his tone cold: “I won’t care about something at this level. Besides, you’ve already signed the contract with me. If you really wanted to scheme against me, I would certainly know first. Since there’s no warning at all and you haven’t been backlashed for breaking your oath, it shows you truly don’t remember it.”
His gaze stopped at a certain point, and Michael added a sentence.
No, it should be said that this was not a plot aimed at him.
Save Adam or not? No, he didn’t think there was any reason to take action.
As fellow creations of God, Michael didn’t think Adam didn’t know his limits, but once greed exists, it is hard not to care about it, never mind pulling out such desires completely.
Bael still didn’t dare raise his head.
Michael looked at him like this and found it funny.
“Relax, Bael.”
Patting the great demon on the shoulder, Michael said with a smile in his voice: “I signed the contract with you only because I didn’t want to be betrayed. As for the fallen angels, I won’t take them too seriously; even if they’re dissatisfied with me, in the end they wouldn’t do anything out of line.”
Having said this much, he paused before continuing: “You also needn’t be too constrained. As the contract says, as long as you don’t think of betraying me, I won’t move against you.”
If possible, Michael had not planned to use harsh methods to restrain Bael, but he also knew that to make such an ancient demon obedient, it was impossible not to pay some price.
Fortunately, Michael was not someone particularly obsessed with power. He gave Bael a few instructions and sent him off to prepare for tomorrow’s operation.
After Bael left, a figure stepped out from within.
The newcomer had a very bright smile, and the black wings behind him were folded neatly.
Michael only glanced at this demon and looked away: “I wondered who was hiding, and it’s you.”
“Wait, what do you mean, ‘it’s you’? I fell together with you, after all, can’t you pay me a little attention?”
The black-haired, red-eyed god of the Abyss only glanced at the newcomer out of the corner of his eye.
“It really surprises me, Mammon. I thought you’d be waiting in place for Lucifer, and would stay in Heaven once you learned he wasn’t falling.”
The demon addressed as Mammon snorted and walked a few steps to Michael’s side: “You know I hate Heaven, leaving there was only a matter of time. Even without Lucifer, as long as someone could take me away, I wasn’t picky.”
Michael smiled indifferently; that really was giving him face.
Mammon and Lilith were beings he had thought would not appear in this place, and he didn’t expect that one of them had already followed him down.
Out of familiarity with Michael, Mammon leaned back in a chair and looked over the present appearance of the person in front of him.
“It’s strange, you clearly have a Demon King’s looks, but you don’t look anything like a Demon King.”