When was it that they realized God’s change in attitude? God, who was supposed to look after and take care of all worlds, was aiming for something beyond that. When was it that they realized it? The only concrete fact was that Gabriel was the first to talk about it.
[This won’t do.]
[Did you see something again?]
Michael, who didn’t like Gabriel’s foreknowledge so much, but still believed it with certainty, creased his brows and asked him. The ‘five’, that were known as the strongest Archangels who got along with each other, all returned from their duties and had met up in a moment of impossible coincidence.
Of course, Gabriel probably gathered them here precisely because they were all off duty.
Gabriel saw that everyone had gathered and glanced at one man.
[……Luciel, please.]
[I am Lucifer. Do not address me with the name that God gave me.]
[Yes, you are right. Lucifer. Please.]
[……Fuu, you annoy me.]
At their level and league, they could reason freely without being interfered by God, but if they were somehow heard by God, and God misunderstood them, that would be bad. However, what allowed them to do here was Luciel, or rather, Lucifer.
He was the most exceptional of the five, had the least reliance on God, and even twisted God’s power with his own ability. It was natural for him to create a gap in time that was outside God’s knowledge.
[It’s fine now. Speak of whatever you have in mind.]
[Fuu…… I did not want to doubt him, but I’m sure now. I could see it.]
[Mr. fortune-teller, please get back on track.]
Uriel, who didn’t even have the slightest intention to hide the fact that she liked Gabriel, poked his cheek and urged him on. Michael and Raphael felt awkward while looking at that, Gabriel, who had the power to see the future, but had zero wits and delicacy, continued on with a serious voice.
[God is looking at somewhere else.]
[I am staring at your cheeks right now. They look really ripe for a beating.]
[He is looking for something that does not exist. He wishes to become the Creator.]
Michael widened his eyes and retorted.
[He is already the Creator.]
[No.]
[That isn’t true.]
Lucifer and Gabriel denied that simultaneously.
[The things he creates are twisted. They cannot become whole, and are close to destruction upon birth.]
[Everything has an end, but he makes things without looking at their end so they can only be twisted. He cannot become the Creator.]
[You guys, are you denying God!]
[In fact, I wish I could. However, the problem is that he IS God and is an extremely strong being.]
Gabriel’s voice deepened even further.
[At this rate, everything will be over. It won’t be long before then, and it will happen for sure. All worlds will come to an end.]
[Exactly why?]
[Because he is trying to destroy every existence and to fill it anew.]
[…….]
Michael became speechless. He wanted to deny Gabriel’s words, but he couldn’t do it so easily since he heard something similar during his conversations with God.
He groaned while palming his forehead. Gabriel spoke once again as he saw that Michael was hesitating.
[He needs to be killed.]
[How, how would we dare kill the Lord? Our Father!]
[Lucifer, can we do it?]
[We won’t know until we try.]
Replied Lucifer nonchalantly and flapped the five pairs of wings behind his back. While he was pondering, the wings flickered between black and white. He was already capable of easily escaping God’s domain of influence.
He stayed like that for an unknown amount of time, before a small smile hung on his lips.
[But that sounds very interesting. Let’s do it. No, I’m going to do it. Even if any you disagree, I’m going to do it.]
[I wish it could be fun for us as well…….]
[Gabriel, I will help you. As I always have. Everyone else will too, right?]
[E, even Uriel…… then I guess I can’t help it.]
Gabriel succeeded in persuading Lucifer, and Uriel, who was going to follow Gabriel in anything he did, persuaded the others, so Raphael, who was weak to her smile, ended up nodding. Their gazes now headed to Michael.
[Michael, please help. This would be impossible without your help.]
[You guys, really…… We’ll really……?]
[Michael.]
Gabriel looked at him head on and asked. The eyes that saw through into the impurity of Michael’s heart. Michael hated those eyes.
[Do you still think that he is in the right?]
[I…… no.]
Michael bit his lips.
He did not think that. In fact, he thought that something was wrong all this time. Alarm bells had been going off in his head all this while.
That the God he was looking up to shouldn’t be like this, that the one who had to stand whole, could not show such a side.
[But…… please let me watch for a little more.]
[Do as you wish. Nothing will change though. Gabriel, then let’s go back now. I’m already thinking of what I need to prepare for that.]
[Do not get found out because you act cocky, Lucifer.]
[When I get found out, it will be my time to ‘go against Heaven’.]
Laughed Lucifer as he dispelled his magic. The four angels headed to their positions with a sigh, but only Michael remained in place and pondered over it.
‘Does…… Does God really have the qualifications to be the creator?’
Michael observed God’s state after that. He watched as God dispatched angels to look over lower worlds, widen Heaven’s domain by going to worlds that were ready to leap into the higher realm, and as he managed the worlds.
And one day.
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[……It is unsatisfactory.]
[Father, what is it?]
[Mana is too irregular. The Akashic Record doesn’t have a standard, and life always carries a threat with it.]
[Isn’t that the result of you loving the world?]
[Yes, indeed, it was.]
God nodded his head before clicking his tongue.
[It seems there is a need to set it right.]
[……I follow your orders.]
[Michael, my adorable son. Go back for now. I shall call you to my side the day I need you.]
It was that moment that Michael decided to go against Heaven.
He immediately looked for Lucifer and Gabriel. Lucifer laughed his heart out, while Gabriel met him with a dejected smile.
[The core members are you and me.]
Uttered Lucifer in arrogance.
[I’m going to make God unable to control us. His restriction is not perfect, and is also merely a portion of the Akashic Record. Once you know that, escaping him is almost as easy as pie.]
[After that?]
[Only then can we stand in the ring. Even after all that, the cold hard truth is that he is still tremendously powerful…… so, as the strongest among us, I shall defend against him.]
Lucifer’s fingers that pointed at himself until now, now pointed to Michael.
[Meanwhile, the source of God’s power, his league, and his records have to be stolen. By you.]
[……I cannot manage such a thing.]
[You just need to share it with all of us. Dividing it by five should be possible.]
Michael urged him on while clenching his teeth.
[Then, next……?]
[We need to kill him.]
Spoke Gabriel.
[This will not be over unless we kill him. Unless he dies, the world will encounter the same fate once again. So, we need to put an end to all of this.]
His voice entered Michael’s ears like thunder.
[Kill God, and we shall manage all the worlds ourselves.]
[We, manage, all, worlds…… right, properly.]
That was the moment a burning passion and a dirty desire blossomed in Michael’s heart. Lucifer realized that and laughed.
[Ooh, Michael. I quite like the expression that you’re making.]
[Shut up, Lucifer…… I only came to a realization. That the God I was looking up to did not exist in the first place; and that I need to attain what I wish for by myself.]
[Good, splendid attitude. I always liked that part about you.]
Like, what meaning did that have? Michael wanted to ask Lucifer about it, but there was no time for that right now.
[……Let us go, everyone. To kill God.]
Gabriel stood at the front. The Great prophet and the sacrifice; the man at the center of all of them despite the fact that he could not top anyone in terms of physical might. The man who made even the arrogant Lucifer listen to him.
However, Michael did not hesitate in being swept by the flow even while clenching his teeth. Since he realized that he had to make what he wanted with his own hands, he was only going to carry it out now.
***
The plan succeeded only halfway. Lucifer successfully pulled the group out of God’s domain of influence, and Michael also successfully expropriated God’s power and shared it between the five of them. However, they had failed in slaying God.
God escaped in a pitiful state, while Lucifer headed somewhere else while laughing. Michael, the one who possessed the most of God’s power among the five, referred the ‘four’ remaining as the Four Great Archangels and became the de-facto leader.
Michael made it look like only Lucifer had gone against God, and hid as much of God’s disappearance as possible. And the four all started acting like they still believed in God.
That was the end of the era where Heaven’s Army was the only higher existence organization.
Having changed his name to Satan, Lucifer eventually became a higher existence on his own and created the Army of Brilliant Light, while the Destruction Demon Army, a group of monsters that only aimed for total and utter destruction, formed not long after, and the ever-mysterious Garden of Sunset formed silently.
Everything fell into chaos, and Michael lamented. Then, he started dreaming of becoming the sole God. Wishing that he will become God and will set everything straight, he proceeded forward.
Like that, with countless years having gone past, he became similar to God. To be exact, the power he absorbed from God had changed him from the inside.
He managed the worlds, widened Heaven’s domain, slew all kinds of different beings, calling them heretics, picked new angels, and pulled out the roots of all that threatened Heaven.
He met with Yu IlHan, and was even humiliated by him, but in the end, he still became God. Now, this was the time he was waiting for, so all he had to do now was to eradicate all heresy and create his ideal world.
He thought that he would be able to do that.
[But how……?]
Michael asked the one in front of him – Greed, at the same time as being God.
[How can you be here! How can you be here right now!]
[Did you not notice? I was using the power I have stolen from you.]
[Stolen from me? Just what…….]
Michael naturally realized midway.
Yes. Michael had never met a being that used the same power as him before meeting Greed. He realized that his power wasn’t the only one capable of depriving others’ with the rise of Greed, but that wasn’t actually the case.
Powers were unique.
However, in ‘compensation’ for acquiring God’s power, his own power split and flowed into God.
[That is the restriction I have cast when I received you as my subordinates. Lucifer also struggled to escape that, but failed. Michael, my son. Were you aware of that?]
[I…… was not.]
[Yes, you were ignorant.. and still are.]
God made a merciful smile.
However, the magic power that pressured Michael from all sides was not merciful at all.
He spoke firmly. As if scolding his son that has made a mistake.
[So you need to be punished.]