The One in Heaven also knew that forcing Lucifel to fall would make him dislike, even hate, Him. In fact, from the moment Lucifel opposed Him and He promoted Michael to be the new Archangel, the fate of all three of them had already been settled.
Originally, Lucifer was supposed to fall into Hell and exist as the Demon King of the balance of light and dark. And Michael would, as the corresponding light, continue the rest of his life as Archangel in Heaven, forever standing opposite the Demon King.
Although Lucifer and Michael were both light, He had chosen the former as the reason for falling to become the Demon King, and actually it was also because of the latter’s identity.
Apart from Him, no angel knew, that the original body of the angel called Michael had already died at the very moment of birth, leaving behind only a body with no self. And He happened to like one existence’s soul very much, and so stuffed that gradually fading soul into the empty shell.
And this was the Michael of today.
It could be said that He had not taken into account the original owner’s real identity, and when He later sensed the strong power of light, He realized, that the seemingly fading soul had in fact already been chosen by another world as the God of Light. His act could be counted as snatching a person halfway.
It was only that this person… oh, this god had already been snatched by Him, and sending him back was out of the question.
So He simply carried the matter through, applied several seals to the angel called Michael, and sent him to the lowest level of Heaven, so as not to let him appear before the eyes of any high-rank angel. But who could have known that Lucifel would find this angel by accident and adopt him. As a god who especially doted on Lucifel, He naturally had no reason to refuse the Archangel’s request, and only used the reason “I also like this little angel very much” to take a hand in Michael’s growth.
It could be said that all of Michael’s absurd affairs in his youth were tacitly allowed by Him. For that, Lucifel back then had not lacked complaints to his creator, but in the end it all came to nothing.
Just to hide Michael’s identity, He could not let him fall into Hell, because Hell was extremely close to the Chaotic Abyss. If He remembered correctly, within the Chaotic Abyss was the door leading to other worlds.
But the most important thing was still Michael’s identity as the God of Light.
However much He doted on Lucifel, He could not let another god, a god of the light divinity at that, fall into darkness forever.
Unfortunately, as if to get revenge on Him for forcibly keeping a god from another world, reality mocked Him fiercely.
In the middle of fighting Lucifer, Michael suddenly seemed to turn into another existence; the light power that went berserk around him in an instant was too obvious, and He, who had been nearby, was thrown some distance away by the aftershock.
After that, this current Archangel, saying words no one could understand, destroyed his own angel body and fell into Hell under the incredulous gaze of the other angels.
If it had been only this, He might not have done anything.
But before long after Michael fell into Hell, Heaven learned that Hell had been renamed the Abyss. The other angels did not understand what this meant, but how could He not.
Obviously, the seal on Michael had loosened, he had remembered something, and so he had chosen to go to Hell.
That was why He had given Lucifer the order to bring Michael back.
With only part of the seal damaged, He still had the possibility of repairing it. If Michael were left in Hell, this Archangel of His might really be lost like this.
In the matters He arranged for Lucifer, He was extremely easy to talk to, basically granting every request.
Except for Raziel.
He knew very well that Raziel was an ordinary archangel on the surface, but his true body was sealed and currently slept somewhere in Heaven. The location of that place was something even He was not allowed to know.
With Michael, an Archangel whose seal had had a problem, already having appeared, He could hardly guarantee that Raziel’s original seal would not also loosen from being too close to Hell.
He had selfish feelings toward Michael, so He hoped the other could return, whereas Raziel concerned the safety of all Heaven and could not be used for trial and error under any circumstances. If it failed, at best Heaven would be dragged in, and if something worse happened, everything would be unknown.
Even He did not have the courage to stake a whole world on a bet.
Faced with Lucifer’s questioning about Raziel, He only kept His mouth shut.
Neither admitting nor denying.
What Lucifer hated most about their God was this: ask Him anything, and He basically would not tell the truth.
Never mind, he didn’t expect Heaven to still have a place for him anyway.
Leaving the temple, Lucifer listened expressionlessly to the situation Raphael reported, unsurprised at the other angels’ attitude toward him now. It was true he had attacked Heaven, and it was also right that he wanted to deal with this one and only God; the only slip… was better left unmentioned.
Just as Gabriel had mustered the troops in order and was preparing to follow Lucifer to attack Hell, he was told the other side had attacked first.
Metatron: “…Wait, does attacking have an order of precedence?”
Although he knew Hell would certainly attack Heaven, why did it have to be exactly when Lucifer was about to set out?
In the conference room on the Third Heaven where the archangels held meetings, apart from the comatose Raziel and Remiel, who had not arrived, all the others had come.
And the golden-haired Archangel sitting in the head seat just smiled coldly.
Yes, why had he chosen this day to attack?
Because they were damned twin angels!
If not for an accident that let Lucifel learn that his adopted son was actually his twin, he would not have been at odds with Michael over everything afterward. To be honest, he could allow his child to be rebellious, and could allow him to be especially close to Him.
But, he could not tolerate the fact that this so-called adopted son, an angel he had personally brought back… was his twin angel.
It was ridiculous. He had thought he was the only one, and who would have guessed that Michael was the one special to God?
So when he attacked Heaven, knowing full well that it would make Michael’s situation difficult, he had struck without mercy all the same.
Counted this way, Michael had tricked him once, so he wasn’t wronged.
After all, the original Archangel was the truly innocent one; though who knew what had happened to him, he truly remembered nothing.
Had he remembered, it wouldn’t have been that only Lucifel had been God’s sole favorite for over ten thousand years with no trace of the other angel at all.
Lucifer had not experienced the benefits of being twins, but the drawbacks were real.
Just the fact that the attack times the two had set were so close showed that the twin angels’ influence was not small.
Although he was a bit sorry for those fallen angels, since Lucifer now stood on Heaven’s side, he would absolutely not be polite when he struck.
He ordered Gabriel: “Our angel armies happen to be fully prepared, just right to deal with those clans of darkness from Hell.”
At these words, Raphael and Sariel looked at him at the same time, with very interesting expressions.
They had long heard that Lucifel showed no mercy to enemies, but didn’t expect it to be the same toward former colleagues; he was still the Archangel who overawed Heaven.
When Lucifer was still Lucifel, he was extremely good at hiding his emotions, so even when he disagreed with their God in all respects, people couldn’t tell whether he was angry because of it. Precisely because of this, when he launched his surprise attack, Heaven fell into a panic and lost many mid- and high-rank fighters.
Who would have thought that an angel beaming one second would, the next second, point his weapon straight at his own side?
This time was the same.
No one knew Lucifer’s real thoughts, and thought he truly intended to attack those fallen angels.
The fallen angels who called themselves the Abyss’s people, after Mammon quietly told them some things, had very subtle expressions at once.
They had always known that Michael, as an archangel, embodied both justice and goodness, only that his warmth and loyalty were always hidden deep, which made people feel he was extremely cold.
It could be said that most angels and demons’ understanding of Michael was like the source of his power, burning.
So if Lucifer were to lure away an angel, the fallen angels were unanimous that it couldn’t be Michael.
Yes, until Mammon told them that matter, they had all thought so.
“…I thought the Chaotic Abyss was only a legend? It actually exists?”
A persuaded fallen angel, face blank, murmured to himself.
“If you ask me, the fact that many demons and fallen angels did not object to Michael renaming Hell… already says a lot. Never mind the other demons, someone like Bael, an ancient great demon, couldn’t possibly not have known about such a place. They clearly wanted to watch Michael’s show, yet said nothing, and even did the sly thing of pretending to submit while actually scheming.”
Having said this much, this fallen angel looked at Mammon: “I heard you say before that Bael attacked Michael, right?”
Mammon had already been through the fact of being provoked by Michael in various ways, and was numb by now.
Hearing this fallen angel, he quickly nodded: “When Bael’s and Michael’s powers collided, it was hard to pretend not to know. As for the result, just look at how Bael obeys our god of the Abyss in everything now, and you can tell he lost, and lost badly.”
A fallen angel with a girl’s appearance smoothed her hair, frowning: “After all, Michael is light, and even if he has fallen, he still has flames.”
Yes, that Michael was looked down on was in itself a sign of the demons’ arrogance.
“Lord Bael has ordered all fallen angels and high-rank demons to assemble.”
Mammon leaned over and asked the demon who had delivered the notice: “Did Lord Bael say what it’s about?”
“He didn’t say specifically, only that it’s time to march.”
Michael’s ideas were wildly imaginative, and most of the time left people baffled, truly doing things on a whim. In the past, angels would have reported him by now.
But Bael was different; he counted as the last piece in Michael’s way of doing things.
Seeing that the Abyss’s subordinates had mostly arrived, Michael nodded at Bael: “You take the vanguard.”
“Mammon will command the fallen angels.”