A mad scramble of bodies poured out of the Basilica, the surrounding buildings, and even from where we came from. We have been surrounded in under less than ten seconds by confused and slightly frightened exorcists.
Looks like we got their attention. No angels, though.
"What is the meaning of this?" A gruff voice came from behind the tight line of people, and Mirana immediately whirled her head around in its direction with a look of recognition on her face. I followed her line of sight and saw an older-looking giant of a man who was on so much gear that even his muscles had muscles.
"Long time no see, Vasco Strada." There was a slight tone of anger in her voice when she greeted him, and I don't even have to guess why.
Upon hearing her voice, his face immediately became marred by guilt, and his eyes shook a bit when he saw how she looked. Then, with a confident gait, he walked forward, the human-like splitting before him like the Red Sea.
"S-Sister Mirana? Is that you? How are you here? You— We were told you became a devil…" He stumbled over his words as he tried to ask too many questions at once.
"So you knew, then." That was all she said before springing into action. She blurred and decked him to the side of his head faster than the man could ever hope to follow.
"I PRAYED DESPITE THE PAIN! WHERE WERE YOU?! ANY OF YOU?! HUH?!" She yelled, each word accompanied by another lightning-fast punch. She was playing pinball with the man, and once the others got out of their shock, they too joined the fray.
Well, we can't have that, can we?
"Ah, ah, ah~ You're not gonna ruin this for her." Then I blurred as well, and if you thought Mirana was fast, well, I was obviously faster, and so within a fraction of a second, the charging exorcist turned into a giant pile of broken, groaning bodies. I was even so kind that I left them alive, even if barely, since… You know, I was planning on doing a hostile takeover, and they were going to be my employees.
The culling would come later, as would everything else, because things kinda piled on top of each other today, and my list of stuff to do was growing larger and larger.
"Nobody came to save us… not you, not Doulio, not Francois, not Grisha, NOBODY!" Oh, she was no longer punching him. She was using him as a flail to attack the concrete.
"You left us there with him to rot!" She spat and threw Vasco straight into the obelisk standing in the middle of the square, cracking it in the process. Then she stalked toward his fallen and beaten form, her hands glowing with purple crackling energy.
"Now you rot. Null!" She shouted madly, lunged straight at him, and before I had the chance to see just what kind of an effect her power would have, a giant foot-wide beam of bright golden light, similar to my own, enveloped Vasco Strada.
Archangel Michael has arrived, all twelve golden wings unfurled behind him as he grabbed the man and immediately booked it. And you know what? Didn't work that well.
Mirana saw him, in all his holy glory, supporting the bloodied Vasco, and broke. Not in the crying way, oh no, it was in the I will murder you way.
"Sist—" Whatever he was about to say got cut off by a clawed hand swiping across his face.
"You dare save him?!" She lunged in Michael's direction again, only her attack was not aimed at him, it was aimed at Vasco. Damn, she was really gonna kill the dude.
Michael realized her intentions and just threw Vasco into the giant pile of bodies I made, probably hoping it would not worsen the damage he already sustained. Then he braced himself, and his body started to glow so brightly it was almost blinding, almost. It certainly did not stop Mirana, though. Right now, the woman had a singular goal: making him bleed.
"SISTER MIRANA! CEASE!" He yelled, grabbed the hand that was about to pierce his stomach, and redirected it to the side without sustaining any damage.
Instead of attacking her, Michael tried to subdue her with a burst of Holy Light meant to pacify, but Mirana just flared her power and neutered it before it had the chance to reach her.
"CEASE?! Heaven abandoned me in the deepest pits of hell, and you think a little light show is going to save you?!" She hissed, her voice distorted by rage.
"Sister Mirana died to Diodora Astaroth." She spat his name like a curse. Michael flinched, not from any sort of pain, but from the truth she spoke. He knew it, I knew it, and Mirana definitely knew it.
"I am so sorry. You were one of ours… One of Heaven's finest. I beg you, Mirana Shatarova, please… do not take out your hatred on humans." When she heard that, her eyes went even more wild than I thought possible. Her power became absolutely uncontrollable, and the very air around us was beginning to vanish at a rapid pace.
"Stop Mirana. You're going to destroy the world if you continue at this pace." I kinda had to step in, because if I didn't, the atmosphere was going to disappear, and that was kind of a bad thing, since I generally enjoyed being around humans.
I used a lot of my strength to push everything down, because nothing less would allow her to continue. The buildings cracked, windows shattered, and the already damaged obelisk crumbled like a tower made out of cards.
"YOU PROMISED ME REVENGE! HOW DARE YOU?!" Mirana yelled while her body was pushed hard into the concrete below her. Michael just watched me.
"I did not allow you to destroy my fucking world in the process, now did I? Rest for now." I touched her forehead, making her fall asleep for a while. She won't listen now, and I really don't want her to make the atmosphere disappear. I could fix that, obviously, but the human toll would be immeasurable, and from what Red told me, death gods are a bunch of prickly cunts who love hoarding souls, so I really don't want to have them annoying me because of that.
Because then I would have to kill a bunch of them, and that would inevitably spiral into a whole thing I was not really keen on participating in. So yeah… I'd rather avoid that completely. Still, though, I had to make sure that Michael knew I wasn't interfering on his behalf. Don't get me wrong, I wanted him alive, no doubt about that, but that was because I wanted him to kneel before my Asia and beg for forgiveness for what they did to her.
Fucking pidgeon should take a page out of his daddy's book. Forgiveness was his whole thing, right?
"Hello~ Michael." I towered over him. Then I bent over, grabbed him by his luscious hair, and lifted him up so he could look me in the eyes.
"Asia Argeno. Ring any bells?" Aaaand~ Bingo baby. It rang all the bells in his little head.
"So… mind explaining what the fuck that was all about, you shithead? Or should I let Mirana get up and continue in her righteous crusade against heaven?" I pressed on when a look of recognition mixed with shame appeared on his face.
"Y–you're the one who helped her, correct?"
"Oh? So you've been watching her? Great! Then you must know just how pissed I am on her behalf. I wonder… What should I do, Michael? I want to reeeeally hurt you, you know? But Asia would not want that… no, she is more fucking pure than any of you angels." I tightened the grip on his hair, but if it caused the angel any discomfort, he did not let it show.
"I–I had no other choice… The church would rebel if I had shown lenience to her."
"Excuses. All I hear are fucking excuses, Michael. Are you not the leader of Heaven? Smite the dissenters, you idiot." I smacked him. Just because I felt like it, and it made me feel good. He opened his mouth, as if to retort, but I just closed it back up.
"Naaah~ Let's take this to Heaven, shall we? Then, if your answers really piss me off, I won't accidentally do what Mirana just almost did." I whispered threateningly and focused on his energy.
I wasn't sure exactly where Heaven was located. Red found it so unimportant at the time that he didn't even bother to mention it to me. The only beings he considered a mild threat, well, more of an annoyance, really, were the devils, particularly Sirzechs. That guy was just off, and even Red believed he was an anomaly born once in a world's lifetime.
Anyway, I was focusing on where his energy led to, because that place was where I wanted to go, and it took me no time at all to trace it back to the edge that separated Earth from where Heaven should be.
And once I found it, I immediately grabbed, metaphorically, the edges of this dimension and ripped them apart just enough to make a pathway that would lead me directly there.
"What are you waiting for? Show me what your late father built." I said and threw Michael headfirst into the unstable hole I created.
Then I grabbed Mirana like a sack of potatoes and followed after him. Only, my tearing the fabric of reality apart and tracing the origin might have been too precise, because directly on the other side was an empty room with a goddamn console in the middle of it.
"Wow~ Isn't this great, Michael? I don't even have to beat you up to figure out where the command of heaven is. I found it on my own… Wow, I'm so fucking smart."