"So, Mikey~! I'm gonna call you Mikey, okay? It might seem to you like I have an unreasonable hateboner for heaven, right? Because surely, eight people cannot warrant all of this, right? That's where you'd be wrong, Mikey." I was monologuing, for the first time ever, while I walked around the sparse room where the heaven control panel was. The only other thing here was a wicker chair, without a cushion, and a small table beside it.
"You're a big picture kinda guy, and you'd do anything to keep your daddy's dying empire alive. Even if it means cutting off and abandoning people like Asia, Mirana, or the other Holy maidens I found in hell not even two hours ago. The few sacrificed for the masses." I stopped pacing and turned to face the control panel, fingers hovering just above its surface.
"Today, I killed Zekram Bael, maimed Zeoticus Gremory, and eviscerated Diodora Astaroth. All in the span of like three hours. You wanna know why? Because each of those dipshits thought that they could touch the people I like, and I took great offense to that." I said evenly and sat down in the chair, and all Michael could do was to watch with a look of horror as I continued to apply pressure on him with my power.
"Y–You think I don't mourn them?! That I don't carry their names like stones in my heart?" He ground out, and divine energy burst out of his body. His hands twitched, his fingers digging into the stone floor, and with slow, unsteady movements, Michael managed to prop himself up into a sitting position.
"Asia prayed every night for the souls of those who hurt her. Mirana prayed until her faith ran dry. And the others… they clung to hope for as long as they could." He whispered, his voice filled with hopeless rage.
"Yeah, right. Faith in a dead god is fucking useless, isn't it?" I said mockingly, and Michael flinched, as the words were swords cutting deep into his flesh. Whatever fight surged within the man a moment ago suddenly left him, and he slumped back down.
"Why are you here…?"
"I take things way too personally. And I got pretty mad, though my anger pales in comparison with Mirana's over here. See, Mikey, I made them an offer when I freed them from Diodora, and you wanna know something? Only she and Franczeska Stohl chose to continue their lives. The rest? Straight up death or rebirth."
"I don't fucking like that. You could— No, you should have acted, Michael. It should have been you storming Diodora's mansion ages ago."
"*sigh* But you didn't, and now I'm about to do something that's either very stupid or the best idea I've ever had." The gates I constructed to keep my power at bay swung open, and the divine power that once commanded this room flooded it once again.
This room could withstand it, I knew that as soon as a mere wisp of it touched it. Michael's eyes shot open, two shaking pupils bore directly into my soul. Understanding, longing, sadness, and happiness all flickered across his face one after another.
"F–Father?" It was not the voice of the most powerful angel that came out of his mouth. No, this was the trembling voice of a son. A son who wanted nothing more than to see his father once more.
It almost sounded like a long-forgotten prayer.
"Nope. I'm a bit higher on the totem pole than He was. Now shush, this whole thing is in Enochian, and that language is pretty annoying to read." I waved him off for now as I had to concentrate on the console itself.
I wasn't kidding in the slightest. Enochian was kinda like Shakespearean English, like sure, I understood it, but it didn't make it any less annoying to read. Gotta switch it to Japanese, because if I don't, I fear that I'm gonna start speaking like that, and nobody wants that.
The control panel flickered under my silent command, and the script began to shift into crisp, beautiful modern Japanese. No thee's and thou's, no thank you, good sir.
"Ugh— Now I don't have to sound like an old British ghost."
"W–What are you?" He asked, and his desperate need to know was evident to both of us.
"What do you think? What sort of creature in this world could have the power to usurp heaven? I'm a Dragon God, Mikey, and unlike your Father, who merely used the concepts of creation and life, I amthem." His face paled as the once stagnant divine energy began to flow throughout the Heaven once more. Then it settled on something I definitely didn't expect: a resignation.
"Ah… so this is how it ends." Michael murmured, his golden wings, once radiant and proud, drooped down like dying flower petals.
"The fuck you mean? Nothing's ending, dumbass. You're just under new management." I gave him a strange look.
—-
Michael looked at the unknown Dragon God sitting on his father's chair, with conflicted feelings swirling within him.
On one hand, Heaven was thrumming with more power than it had in centuries. On the other hand, the source of it was an outsider, a Dragon God, the source of His folly.
Michael was the only other person besides his father who knew the whole truth about his demise and what truly caused it. It was the main reason Father made him unable to fall. He saw that he was not infallible, that he was not the perfect being he claimed to be. No, he was as flawed as the rest of them. He just hid it better.
Father had always warned him about them, about the Dragon Gods. Not directly, but in cryptic, veiled prophecies. That was why he did what he did. Because at the end of the day, even He was afraid of these things, if one could even call them that. All of this neatly summarized why he barely fought back. He simply couldn't.
And as he continued to gaze up at the woman, unable to move due to the pressure pressing down on him, he couldn't help but wonder what she was planning to do. Was she going to punish them for their transgressions against those she cared about? Or was she going to completely alter the millennia-old hierarchy established by their father?
One thing was certain, though. Heaven was responding to her the way it used to respond to Father. He sensed that the laws binding him and his family were shifting in some manner, but he didn't fully understand what that meant. He was no longer connected to the system, and any changes would have to be communicated to him, just as they used to be.
"Hmm~ That should do for now." She nodded to herself, and the pressure bearing down on him vanished, and the thing that replaced it was the warm and comforting feeling of divinity. Maybe if he closed his eyes and let his mind wander, it would be like Father never left.
"Now, Mikey, tell me, who is the nicest and the most compassionate Archangel?" She asked with curiosity, and he got the feeling that his days as the leader of Angels were numbered.
"Why do you want to know that?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Dude… I just took over, and you're sure as shit not going to be my second-in-command. So you better tell me, because if I step beyond this door, pandemonium will ensue, and I don't know about you, but I don't reeeally want to deal with more annoying things today. " So he was truly being replaced, but then again, maybe Gabriel would do a better job than he ever could. Their sister was the kindest and the most loving among all of the angels.
She also took the whole situation with Asia Argento and the kidnapped Holy maidens the hardest, and it was only upon his insistence and an all-out order that she didn't show her wrath to the parties responsible. Because his sister sure had plenty of that, especially after the whole Holy Sword project came to light.
"Gabriel then. She is the one you seek."
"Wait. Gabriel is a woman? Huh… Yeah, go get her and bring her in." Her eyes widened a bit, and Michael had to wonder just how someone like her did not know that bit of information. It was a well-known fact, especially in the supernatural world. It was only the ordinary humans, with their mistranslated Bibles, who did not know that.
"Very well."
—-
Pleased with my first issued order, I watched as Michael opened the door leading to the lower heavens and slowly descended the stairs. Now that I was fully connected to the system, I could sense the presence of everyone in heaven. Let me tell you, it wasn't a large number of people, especially compared to the devils. It looked like there might be one angel for every hundred devils.
Anyway, I already tweaked a few things here and there. Mainly, the frankly ridiculous restrictions placed on angels. I honestly did not give a single shit about them being pure and all that nonsense. After all, I was not pure, nor were my intentions holy and selfless in any way.
I should probably send somebody to talk to the fallen, right? I mean… I just pretty much waved away most of the things that made them fall in the first place. Like, I'm sorry, but I don't think you deserve to fall just because you want to fuck, you know? That was the leading cause for most of them.
But that problem would be dumped on Gabriel, because I definitely wasn't going to do that personally.
Speaking of Gabriel, I sensed them slowly approaching. Way too slowly, for what the situation should warrant, honestly. Though I could chalk it up to him giving her a warning.
"You!" The beautiful blonde angel shouted at the top of her lungs as soon as her head appeared in the doorway, and let me tell you, I was confused.
"Me?" I pointed at myself dumbly.
"Yes, you! You took Asia!" Well, that's one way to diffuse what would otherwise be a tense situation.
She ran toward me with quite an angry pout. Yep, a pout. The woman was actually sulking. All I could do was look at Michael questioningly, and the man was doing his utmost best to look anywhere but at me.
"*sigh* Gabby… this is a serious situation."
"I know! And had you let me leave Heaven when I asked you, it would not be happening, y-you knucklehead! I would have fixed everything."