Deal with the Devil
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 35: The War for Heaven
- Damien -
I looked at the body for Rizevim who had turned to ashes, scattering into the wind as I waved the True Longinus.
Who knows how many times I had imagined this scenario before this?
To get the chance to rip that bastard's head off and do so slowly… extremely slowly.
But over time, especially after that meeting in Romania, I realised that that was exactly what that bastard wanted.
He wanted attention.
Even if others had to suffer for that, even if he had to burn the world for that, even if he had to die… he wanted to play his damn game.
"But you want to kill me, right? Right? Then you are already playing my game. No take backsies."
Those words had made me realise exactly what he wanted.
He wanted attention.
He wanted to prove himself..
He wanted things to go exactly as he wanted.
And that's why I denied him all that.
That said, this was not the time to be lost in these thoughts.
I looked up and turned towards Satanael and the rest of the intruders who had entered this place.
"I will give you all one and only one chance….Surrender….or Perish."
Many of the attackers looked intimidated and even stepped back, some clenching tighter to their weapons while some shaking even as they pointed their weapons towards me.
"I see. Is this your final choice then?" I asked, turning towards them.
"You don't scare us! We started this fight knowing who we were going to face. We were prepared for it from the very start." Satanael said, a look of hate on his face clear. Actually, I was a bit surprised by the hate on his face though.
I didn't exactly have any memories of Lucifer or Helel doing anything out of the ordinary to him. Well, the occasional beating during the Great War aside but he was saved by Father back then.
The man continued. "Although I will not deny that this…" He pointed towards the True Longinus and my silver wings. "Was a bit unexpected. Then again, you have always been his favourite. The one who was always favoured above others. Others could get kicked out of Heaven for the slightest of mistakes but you… you can argue with him endlessly and still be favoured!" The more he spoke, the louder he got.
Apart from that, I even noticed a miasma around him which was similar to that of Euclid the time I had seen him in Romania.
The angrier he got the more the miasma he exuded.
Without any more warning, I put him under an illusion and dashed towards him, swinging down the True Longinus at him.
Just when my attack was about to reach him, his arm raised automatically, defending him. The power still sent him sliding back, his arm snapping under the force but the next moment, the arm that had snapped was covered in miasma and started regenerating.
I took a moment to observe him. How did he react?
That illusion wouldn't have left any flaws for him to observe?
On looking closer, even Satanael was stunned at the attack so he hadn't reacted on his own. Then was it that other power?
The Melbranche was an autonomous Sacred Gear type artifact.
So they must have senses of their own.
I hadn't put it under an illusion as I didn't know how to do that.
Another thing that I observed was that the Holy Power of the True Longinus was preventing the healing. The miasma was fighting against the Holy Power and only when it had completely dispersed the Holy Power did the wound start healing.
That said, the healing was much… much faster than Euclid's. The aura he was releasing was stronger than Euclid's.
"Wha… What happened? Who attacked me?" Satanael looked around in confusion.
I frowned.
Normally Satanael or any other angel with his level of power would have easily realised what was happening. Satanael was actually one of the smarter ones too.
But his reactions… they were slow.
It was as if his head was muddled.
Suddenly he looked at the place where my illusion was supposed to be.
"You! It was you! How did you…? What did you do?!" The angrier he got, the stronger the miasma became and the more his power rose.
I observed the whole thing with my Archmage Essence power, to know what exactly was going on.
As it turns out, the power was coming from within him, a Sacred Gear like thing, but unlike what I had thought before, the power wasn't rising as he grew angrier… no. That thing… it was actually giving him power.
Just to check my hypothesis, I tried another attack, this time from the back to take his head off and as expected, the attack was defended against.
I stepped back and observed again.
The thing, which was most likely a Melbranche was actually pushing power to heal the wound, even more power but the Holy Power indeed restrained the Demonic Power to some extent.
"Hahahaha see, nothing happened. So what if you learned some new tricks? It won't work on me. Your moves are all useless. I have surpassed you. I have done what even you were afraid to do. I have controlled the power you feared and now… now I am invincible." Satanael laughed. His voice contained a trace of craziness.
I watched as his power erupted suddenly without any warning, sending a wave of dense demonic power throughout the entire floor of Heaven.
Suddenly, a sound of flesh ripping sounded as two more wings erupted from Satanael's back, making twelve wings.
"Hahahahahaha." He continued laughing crazily.
The power was still increasing and I didn't want to see anymore. I wasn't going to play Vegeta.
So without any delay, I rushed towards him, creating a Shadow Clone who slashed from the front while I myself slashed from the back, trying to take down his head in one go.
But this time something crazy happened.
One of Satanael's hands twisted behind his head to defend. It was clear that he wasn't controlling his body as a sick cracking sound was heard, the sound of his bones cracking.
The attack from the True Longinus was still defended and the next moment, all twelve of his wings shot towards me as if they were some kind of claws, releasing a wave of demonic power towards me, I dodged back and slashed the True Longinus dispersing the attack.
A memory came to the front of my mind and I frowned.
This is going to be more troublesome than I thought.
Fucking Rizevim.
Leaving me work even when he is dead.
"Since you are already here, why continue to hide… Alichino?" I called out as I dispelled the illusion.
Yes.
The man in front of us was no longer Satanael.
His body was already taken over by one of the Melbranche, Alichino.
Among the Melbranche, everyone had different characteristics and Alichino… it was like a Harlequin.
Take the Joker from Batman and mash it from the Clown from 'It', make them a hundred times crazier and give them over a million times more power… that's the being known as Alichino.
From the memories I had, it had no pure loyalties. It could even turn against Malacoda who ruled over the rest of the Melbranche as long as something interested it and would go to any extent to entertain itself, even if it meant dying.
That's why, in a way, it was one of the most dangerous Melbranche despite being weaker than more than half of them.
As expected, Satanael's face morphed into a creepy smile that would scare the soul out of Joker.
His body kept morphing as more wings grew from his body but at the same time the black feathers moved to the side revealing mouths full of sharp fangs and a blood red tongue. All these mouths had the same eerie smile on them.
And then it spoke. "It is really you, Lucifer." It hissed. "We were so disappointed when we were awakened only to hear that you had passed away. Such a perfect host… there was simply no other. Even when we woke up hundreds of years later, we sensed powerful devils. Much stronger than you, even stronger than your spawn… and yet… their power didn't have that flavour. Even this body, while better than even your fellow Satans… just isn't comparable to yours. Say… why don't you come to us. You wanted to surpass your Father and his True Longinus, didn't you? With our powers combined, that wouldn't be a dream anymore?"
"Go to you? Don't you mean give up my body for you to take over?" I rolled my eyes.
"It's the same thing. Your wish would be completed. It's a deal, just the kind you like. A fair deal, don't you agree?" It replied with a smile.
"Not interested." I rejected it.
They wanted to get Lucifer's body, probably because they were made from his mother's powers and Lucifer without his Father's light was the one whose Demonic Power was closest to hers, not in amount but in flavour.
I had memories which showed that even the same Malebranche when used by Lucifer were several times stronger than when used by other Satans.
The key was the quality of Demonic Power. The Demonic Power of the Melbranche came directly from the progenitor of Demonic Power. It was the same for Lucifer.
On the other hand, the other Satans as well as other devils, were made by Lucifer and thus had a lower quality of Demonic Power. That's why others had their bodies overwhelmed by the Demonic Power of the Melbranche and their bodies mutated.
Actually, there was another precedent of this and that was when the other Devils were injected with the Blood of the Original Satans which caused mutations in them.
This case was just more extreme.
According to what I know, there were only two people who had Demonic Power comparable to the Melbranche and they were Lucifer himself and Lilith as she was made from the same power, thus they were the best possible hosts for the Melbranche. Actually, maybe Michael could house them too but even thinking about that made me want to vomit as well as send a burning hot rage through my veins.
Even the other Satans couldn't use them for a long period of time or they would have their demonic power overwhelmed by the higher… purer Demonic Power of the Melbranche, causing mutations in them like Satanael was going through right now. As for the rest of the Devils, they would just undergo a mutation like that Beelzebub descendant, Balzac whom Sirzechs was forced to kill using his True Form.
Them being wielded by a Fallen Angel was a first but from what I could see, them turning into eldritch, 'be not afraid', versions of the angels was probably because of the demonic side inside them overwhelming the seal of their light side. Unfortunately, this light side also prevented their bodies from completely breaking apart. Even the sealed Demonic Power inside the Fallen Angels, at least those created by Father came from Mother which meant it was strong and pure enough. These two facts together allowed Satanael's body to house a Melbranche without breaking down.
"Ah, is that spear in your hand making you reject us? Hmm, it's even making your power feel… repulsive. Don't worry, we can talk again after I rip that spear from your hands. I am sure Malacoda wouldn't mind even if I brought you back without limbs." Alichino hissed as his body had completely transformed into a grotesque ball of flesh covered with black feathered wings full of mouths.
Fucking Satanael.
"You can try although you will only be disappointed." I took a stance with the True Longinus.
At the same time another voice sounded inside my head through the Binder Essence's link.
'Emergency. Need Backup.' Sean's voice sounded through the link. 'We have encountered a Super Level threat. I repeat, we have encountered a transcendent level threat.'
Dammit.
Another one?
From what I knew Hades didn't have any Super level fighter or he would have rebelled against Zeus and Poseidon long ago. That only meant that there was another one of the Melbranche.
The Melbranche was in possession of Hades?
As if things couldn't get any worse.
"Lavinia, take Gabriel and go support Sean and the others. They will need more help. Raphael, lend me a hand with the rest. Make a barrier to contain the damage. I am afraid I won't be able to hold back in this fight." I shouted.
At the same time I sent a message to Gretel and the rest who were back at the base to inform Sirzechs and Shemhazai that Hades might actually have Melbranche and they shouldn't take any small disturbance casually or they might get ambushed by the Melbranche.
My voice woke up some of the angels who had been in a daze ever since I entered the place. They looked at each other, not sure if they should follow my words or not.
Dammit, not now.
Thankfully, both Gabriel and Raphael realised the situation and called out to the rest of the angels to obey.
Under their command, the angels finally gathered themselves and hurried over to follow the orders.
As for the Magicians and Fallen Angels who had followed Satanael, they were scurrying to run away or attacking to make a way out.
Thankfully, without Satanael and Rizevim, they weren't much of a match against Raphael, Gabriel and Lavinia.
"Hahahaha, run run. Do your best to make it entertaining." Alichino laughed in Satanael's body.
At the same moment, I saw through my future sight that he was going to attack the angels who were trying to make a barrier around the place.
I quickly created four Shadow Clones and surrounded him from all sides, bombarding him with Light Spears to disturb its spell while my real body rushed to intercept the attack.
Unfortunately I had underestimated the extent it was willing to go.
It completely disregarded the damage to itself and continued with the attack.
Several beams of dense and powerful demonic power shot in all directions from the mouths on its wings.
All my shadow clones let go of their attack and moved in to intercept the beams with all their power, barely managing to do so before getting dispelled. "Hurry with the barrier." I shouted as I contained the attack somehow.
But even with that, the shockwaves between the attacks sent many angels flying.
"Ahahahaha yes yes. That's it. Come. Come at me with everything you have." It shouted gleefully.
Some of his attacks had actually fallen on the magician and the fallen angels who were running away and the fallen angels started mutating too.
Their power rose by almost an entire level but they were turning into a mutated monstrosity like Satanael.
I however wasn't going to let that happen.
Once more Shadow Clones burst into existence but this time, unlike before there were fifty.
They scattered, each summoning a spear of silver black light, a combination of Holy and Demonic Power and started beheading the mutated fallen.
Meanwhile, Raphael had somehow erected a barrier so I began preparing for the big moves too.
I raised the True Longinus and started buffing it. Chakra reinforcement, Armament Haki and finally Conqueror's Haki.
It was when my Conqueror's Haki touched the Spear, something happened that I wasn't expecting.
The entire Spear lit up with a blinding Holy Light as golden and silver lightning started crackling around it.
Alichino was blasting away in all directions but this time it even sensed the attack I was preparing. The main mouth that was on the ball of flesh opened and energy gathered. The process kinda reminded me of the Tailed Beast Bomb.
The next moment, it fired.
I too thrust the spear to match the beam of demonic power and this time, the attack from the True Longinus sliced the beam effortlessly, striking the monster directly in the chest.
Alichino's chest was pierced without any resistance leaving a huge hole which made it look like an eldritch donut of some kind. Even its eyes were wide open, as if in disbelief about how such a thing was possible.
Silver and golden sparks crackled around the wound, preventing it from healing.
But I knew it wouldn't be so easy. Sure, just as I expected, miasma started seeping out from the wound, slowly fighting against the silver and golden sparks filling its wounds again.
This time however I was prepared for it.
I knew that it would be incredibly difficult, nigh impossible to completely kill Alichino or any other Melbranche with my current power.
The difficulty was just as high as breaking the True Longinus. To do so, I would need to be as strong as Father at the very least. So the only option I had right now was to seal it off.
With this in mind, I dashed towards it again and slashed at it with Conqueror's infused True Longinus, cutting off its wings and piling as many wounds on it as I could. Its healing slowed down and now I could actually see a hint of desperation in its eyes as it quickly tried to heal the wounds.
I however was not going to give it the chance to do so.
I raised my hand and used something that had become one of my favourite powers. The clan Trait of the Belial, Worthless.
I had copied it from Diehauser as a kid and it was a perfect match for my Archmage Essence's ability.
This time however, I had purposely prolonged the fight and observed the mechanism of Alichino's healing closely using the Archmage Essence and knew how it worked. That was enough for Worthless to show its magic.
The Miasma it was releasing was dispelled and Satanael's body started returning back to normal.
"Damn you, Lucifer! Malacoda won't let you off. You can't stop us anymore."
The process left Satanael half dead, but I don't think anyone cared about that.
I quickly took the opportunity to throw as many sealing spells as I could on him, first sealing his magic, then his body, his mind, his soul, the Melbranche, and everything I could to make sure that Alichino wouldn't even twitch when I was done. Even my Shadow Clones threw as many seals on it as they could before dispelling.
My proficiency in Sealing Magic was good but not my best. Still, it was more than enough to keep Alichino locked for a while.
After this is over, I will get Gretel and Merlin to put some more seals over this and then use the Balance Breaker of the Dimensional Lost to permanently seal it off in an isolated space where no one will be able to make contact with it.
Only after I could feel no hint of Demonic Power from it that I stopped and took a deep breath. A moment of silence later I turned towards Raphael and nodded and he dropped the barrier.
By that time, Ariel and Asia came to the Fifth Heaven with the rest of the group too.
Raphael and Ariel stepped forward, still warily looking at the sealed body of Satanael. "What in Father's name was that thing?" He asked.
"That's… ask Michael later. We don't have time right now. Uriel is fighting another one of these in the fourth Heaven. We need to go there as soon as we can to support them." I said. "Ariel will stay here and hold fort. Make sure no one steps within a hundred metres of this place." I said pointing towards the seal.
Ariel nodded seriously.
"Send someone to bring the injured here. Asia, heal the injured. Raphael, gather every able bodied angel, especially those proficient in Barrier Magic and Sealing Magic and follow me. We need to hurry up. The longer the fight continues, the worse it will be for Heaven."
- Sean -
He was shot down, crashing into one of the pillars of a collapsed building. He groaned as the air was knocked out of his lungs from that blow.
"This damn thing hits like a freaking train." He growled but at the same moment, he slammed his feet into the ground to roll away as the entire place was blasted by colossal slashes of Demonic Power.
He used the shockwave from the attack to roll and get back on his feet and stepped beside Musashi.
She wasn't doing much better than him. There was some blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.
The monster in front of them however was not bothered in the least.
Its power was ridiculous. It could reflect all their attacks with double the power
Currently, Uriel and Celine were engaging it with their Holy Flames but were barely keeping it occupied.
They clashed once more when Uriel and Celine were thrown back whereas the monster who called itself Goblin took only one or two steps back.
By now, the surrounding area had been reduced to rubble.
This was when they were desperately trying to hold back the damage to the immediate surroundings to avoid this layer of Heaven from completely crumbling apart.
It attacked once more, this time Archangel Uriel tanked the attack and was sent flying.
Musashi jumped to intercept the next attack while Sean jumped to catch Uriel midair.
"Did you find any weakness?" Sean asked as soon as they stepped foot on the ground.
"Nothing. It can reflect any kind of attack at twice the power, whether they are physical or magical attacks. Holy Power does seem to weaken it a bit but the reflected attack doesn't give us any opening to take advantage of it. We cannot go all out or this layer of Heaven will collapse. Where are Helel and the rest?"
"Lavinia said that he has taken care of Rizevim and is engaged with another transcendent class threat, just like this one. It seems they are the Melbranche. One of them took over Satanael's body. It has turned into a monster like the angels who were infected by the Miasma of the Magicians. This one seems to have taken over the body of a Grim Reaper."
"Another one of these?" Uriel asked, his voice an octave higher.
"Another one of wha… oh…" He heard a familiar voice as a teleportation circle appeared behind them and Merlin and Azazel stepped out of it.
"What is that thing?" Azazel asked, looking appalled at the sight in front of him.
"A Melbranche." Sean replied. "It can reflect any physical and magical attack thrown at it with double the power. Be careful when engaging." Sean warned.
"Reflect?" Azazel asked.
And right at that time, Musashi's attack was repelled and she was thrown back too.
"This reflected ability looks a bit like Albion's ability and the Mirror Alice. Does it have a cooldown time?"
"No. Also, sometimes it can store the attacks and release them all at once for a massive attack." Sean added. "I could dodge it with my Future Sight but that would probably take out a section of Heaven so we can only tank it."
"Oh my. This is troublesome. Does it have any weaknesses?" Merlin asked, as he observed the battle from the side.
"High Level Holy Magic seems to slow it down for a bit but we haven't been able to take advantage of that as it fires off indiscriminate attacks when that happens." Uriel replied.
"You guys fight it. Give me some time to think of a plan." Merlin said after a moment of thought. "Actually you know what? Forget about causing damage to Heaven. Go all out. Don't worry about getting injured or dying. I will take care of any damage to Heaven and to you." He added. "Balance Breaker: Avalon."
A ring of golden light spread around Merlin. Wherever that light passed, the collapsed Heaven was restored back to its original form. Even the angels who were injured and unable to fight were healed back to full health.
The sudden change attracted the attention of everyone, including the monster itself.
"You are… a Longinus wielder. Ahahahaha, yes. Yes!. That's what I was waiting for. That spawn of Lucifer was right. Come, show me what you have. Let me prove once and for all that the Melbranche are above any Longinus ever made." The monster roared as he looked at Merlin, releasing an ungodly amount of Demonic Power for the first time since the fight started.
Dammit!
Was this bastard actually holding back against them?
"Attack!" Uriel shouted, taking the lead himself.
The shout brought the angels to their senses as everyone let out a battleroar and charged forward, attacking from all directions.
The monster on the other hand, didn't even dodge, instead it took on all the attacks directly and the next moment, his Death Scythe hummed with power.
"Stop it! Stop its attack!" Uriel shouted as he took the lead himself.
"Don't!" Merlin stopped them. "Let it attack. Ignore the attack and attack it instead. Use everything you have. Don't worry about me."
"Balance Breaker!" Azazel shouted as he was covered in a golden armour, kinda similar to the shorty's White Dragon Emperor Scale Mail and charged forward.
Azazel, Uriel and Celine all attacked with their strongest attacks.
Sean didn't stay behind either and used all his power as his spear crackled with lightning and threw it. Musashi also slashed with all her power.
The attacks from both sides clashed. The Goblin's attack directly shattered the attacks of the mob, as if mowing down grass in a lawn and continued forward towards Merlin.
The next moment, the attacks from both sides landed on their mark.
The places where the Goblin and Merlin stood looked like a site of nuclear explosions… actually, knowing the ones who were attacking, that was probably far… far stronger than any nukes humans had created yet.
It was terrifying.
It was beyond any battles Sean had fought yet and Sean had fought many dangerous beings, including Thor, one of the top ten strongest Gods in the world. But this attack… this attack could have seriously injured even Thor if he took it head on like Goblin or Merlin.
Its shockwaves and the heatwaves were enough to directly shatter and vapourise Angels with less than eight wings, not even leaving a trace of them.
Sean had to use Ancient Runes and Haki to withstand the attack but even then felt his insides being shattered by the shockwaves.
The next moment however, a familiar feeling washed over him as the injured started reverting to normal.
Merlin.
He looked at the place where Merlin had been standing and sure enough, he was fine. In fact, he was unscathed. Although if one looked closer, they could see beads of sweat on his forehead. Even his breathing was slightly laboured.
On the other side, the Goblin actually… injured.
There was a large gash on its skeletal frame, shattering three of its ribs and the cloak that was covering it was now gone. If one looked closer, they could see that there were some cracks on several other bones of the Goblin too. These cracks were covered with Holy Flames.
It was injured.
Fucking bastard was finally injured.
"Just as I expected." He heard Merlin speak up from behind him. "You cannot absorb attacks when you are attacking. Your body, it's like a different dimension of its own. You are absorbing the attacks and storing it in that dimension and then discharging the stored power at will. A very scary power, but not one without flaws. It seems that when you try to release and absorb at the same time, both the attacks clash and injure you. You have been using your healing to ignore that all this time so no one noticed it but now with the Holy Flames slowing down your healing, it's too obvious. Not only that, you even have a maximum limit for the amount of energy you can absorb before you have to release it or you will injure yourself or you would have waited for Uriel, Azazel and Celine's attack instead of attacking just now. You were full, weren't you?" Merlin asked.
Sean looked between the two of them.
Did he see through it so quickly?
They had been fighting that guy for almost an hour but all they had figured out was his ability to reflect attacks.
"Attacks from other angels, while not strong individually, can add up to a large amount. You were probably not expecting the rest of the angels to join the fight or attack without caring for their lives and were forced to keep absorbing, unable to change your stance. How is it? Did I miss anything there?"
"So what? You don't seem to have come out of it unscathed either. What makes you think you ants can take me out?" The Goblin roared.
"That remains to be seen. You want to challenge me, right? Then your defeat will be by my hands." Merlin smirked but in this smirk, Sean saw a very rare side of Merlin, a battle maniac which he rarely if ever showed in front of others.
While they were talking, the angels who had been vapourised had reformed back once more.
Not only that, Sean sensed two more strong presences zoning in on them, one of them was Lavinia while the other seemed to be an Angel similar to Uriel so maybe Gabriel or Raphael.
"Surround it. Make five teams with Uriel, Celine, Sean, Azazel and Musashi as leaders. Each team will alternate attacking and falling back. If it absorbs attacks even once, don't let it revert to the attacking stance. If it attacks despite damage, everyone gang up and attack together. Let's go." Merlin shouted.
All of them quickly took their positions, following the battleplan.
And boy did the method work.
The monster was drowned in a barrage of relentless attacks from all sides. The attacks increased when Gabriel and Lavinia joined in with their own teams.
Whenever it tried to break through the formation, he suffered even more damage.
That was not to say it was easy to take him down.
In the following battle, the angels with six wings and below were completely erased over twelve times. It was only Merlin's absurd Balance Breaker that was keeping the fight going.
But Sean knew that Merlin was under great stress too.
Merlin's magic reserves were among the highest in their group.
Actually, the only people with higher raw magic reserves than him were the Boss, the Boss Lady, Ingvild and equal to that of Celine. But even with so much power, such an insane use of his Balance Breaker was pushing him to his limits.
He was literally carrying the whole battle on his shoulder all this time.
Thankfully, the results were visible too.
The monster looked like it was on its last legs, exhausted.
They only needed to keep their assault until they could overwhelm it.
Finally, with another attack from Celine, it was blown back, crashing down onto the ground. The next moment, everyone started blasting it with all their power.
"Great. Now seal it. That thing will not die. Seal it. Everyone, throw every Sealing Magic. Go all out. Don't hold back." Merlin shouted.
The monster however was not someone who would take all of it lying down.
It let out a roar as dense miasma erupted from its body once more, flooding the area.
Lower Class Angels withered under the miasma, turning into skeletons immediately.
Sean realised that it was actually going for one final attack.
All of its energy was gathering and condensing inside it in one place. Its body was bloating, as demonic power shone with an eerie light.
The bastard was probably trying to do a suicide attack.
The other leaders realised it too and quickly increased their pace of attacks, intending to drown it under their attacks.
The shine of its demonic power reached its peak… and then it just went out.
It just went out… as if someone had turned the power off.
Even the monster was stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Sean noticed a gray aura on the monster's body and looked back to see Merlin, kneeled on the ground, with a hand raised pointing towards the monster and a savage smile on his face.
"I told you, didn't I? That your defeat will be by my hands? It was a bit difficult to analyse your exact magic while I was maintaining the Balance Breaker but I finally got it. All that was needed after that was overcoming it. How does it feel when the power you prided yourself on so much becomes worthless? The best part, it wasn't even the power of a Longinus but a Devil Clan's power, the same ant you looked down on." He laughed even as a trail of blood dripped from the corner of his lips.
The monster's stunned look changed to that of unbridled rage as it let out a loud roar but that roar was soon drowned by the thousands upon thousands of seals that were cast on it.
With the monster finally down, Merlin's Balance Breaker disappeared and he fell on the ground.
Sean dashed towards him, feeding him the last Restoration Potion he had on him.
The battle had caused him to exhaust his entire supply.
Merlin however denied.
"It's fine. I am just exhausted. I will be fine in a few hours… actually make that a day. Yeah, a day of rest."
"Damn, and there are eleven more of those things?"
"Ten. Damien and Raphael sealed another one in the Fifth Heaven."
"Doesn't make it sound that good either." Sean shook his head.
While they were talking, the rest of them had returned back.
Azazel, Uriel, Gabriel, Celine, Musashi and Lavinia were all dead tired while Sean sensed Boss and another Archangel arriving from the other side. The rest of the angels were healing the injured.
Merlin's Balance Breaker had only healed them temporarily and with it gone, they were back to the state they had been in when the Balance Breaker was first invoked.
They would need time to heal.
Azazel crashed down beside him while Boss and Archangel Raphael landed beside them.
Boss actually gave them a nod and went ahead and threw hundreds of more seals on that monster.
Only after that did he come to them.
"How are the casualties?" He asked, the first thing after returning.
"Not many. Merlin prevented the worst. I cannot even imagine how things would have been if not for his Balance Breaker." Uriel shook his head.
"What kind of monster was that? It was like fighting those Heavenly Dragons all over again, just that this one seemed more… controlled and there was no Father to tank their attacks. And there are a dozen of them?" Azazel asked.
"They were made to match the Longinus. What else were you expecting?"
"Even Longinuses are not that strong. I know. I have worked with them for hundreds of years."
"No. Every Longinus has this amount of power. It's just that Father has severely restricted them. In case you forgot, Father never intended the Longiuses to have Balance Breakers. They only appeared after…" Boss paused for a moment. He took a deep breath and then continued. "Even with the problems with Heaven's System and the Balance Breakers becoming more common, they could never completely release the full extent of the Longinus' potential. For example, even in the Juggernaut Drive state, the Boosted Gear and the Divine Dividing are not even a quarter of the original power of the Heavenly Dragons. The Melbranche however don't have any such restrictions. Instead of fighting against twelve Longinus wielders, think of it as fighting twelve beings who were sealed inside the Longinus." He added with a frown.
Azazel's mouth opened and closed as he looked appalled at the thought but couldn't word out anything.
"That's impossible. How could… The True Longinus contains the power of Father himself. Other weapons couldn't hope to match its power." Raphael protested.
Gabriel nodded too and Sean observed that Uriel just winced at the words.
Finally, not being able to contain himself, Uriel put a hand on the shoulders of the two Archangels and shook his head, leaving them confused.
"Why? Why didn't you add any restrictions?" Azazel asked, ignoring the communication between the three Archangels.
"You think we didn't want to? We couldn't. Those things, especially Malacoda… their power is just insane so we did the best we could and sealed them away. We didn't use them even when the other alternative was death because we were afraid of that very power."
"But now they are all out so we have to make a plan to take them down. If the power shown by these two is any indication, we are in for a very arduous battle ahead of us." Michael said as he appeared from a Magic Circle.
Archangel Michael hadn't participated in any battles because he was busy keeping the Heaven's System from collapsing from the damage to Heaven all this time.
"Well, look at the bright side. With Rizevim gone, we can find the other Melbranche easily, right?" Sean asked.
No one answered.
Yeah… he was being overly optimistic.
"What we have to do now is heal and gather our forces to prepare for any attacks." Michael sensed the depressed mood and tried to be the voice of reason.
His words were however interrupted by someone else.
"No." The one who spoke was Azazel, making everyone look at him. "We need to do something else before that." He said as he stood up and faced the Boss.
Musashi's hand went on her sword and others tensed at his actions too but Boss himself didn't look bothered.
"You gave me your word. It's time to keep it. You will tell me everything about her… now."
Michael and Uriel looked sad while Gabriel and Raphael were confused by the sudden topic.
Boss however, just nodded. "Alright."
He turned towards Michael, who let out a sigh.
"Call for a meeting of every Seraph and above class Angel and Fallen Angel. Since we are doing it, let's do this properly." The boss said. "By the way, did you find the wielder of the Incinerate Anthem?" He asked.
"She's not here." Merlin replied. "She was apparently in the backup group for the party which attacked us. Her Holy Flames were supposed to be a trump card against you. Unfortunately, she was left outside after the place was sealed by us. They must have realised that it was an ambush and fled."
Sean's lips twitched at the sudden reveal.
Even the Boss frowned but then shook his head. "No. In a way, we were lucky. If I had made contact with it, I would probably be out for a day or two and Heaven would have suffered heavy damage by then. That could never be allowed."
"No need to sound so down. We didn't find her here, but we did get her location." Merlin replied. "We can bring her in soon."
This caused a bit of light return to the faces of all the Archangel and even Boss.
- Sirzechs -
"How was it?" He asked Shemhazai who was on a call with Michael.
They had returned to the Lucifer castle directly after their talk with Hades.
Currently the other three Satans were all on high alert to tackle any threats or possible attacks on the Underworld.
Falbium was already deploying the troops to the borders.
Ajuka was contacting every connection and spy of his for the same purpose.
Serafall was coordinating with other factions to relay about the attack by Hades on Heaven so that in case a war does break out, people would know how things started.
Grayfia was working with Damien's subordinates to escort the prisoners to the Underworld prisons.
They had places in their faction too but since the prisoners were of all three factions and they were temporarily working together against the current threat, it was decided that the prisoners would be brought to the Underworld to be kept under a joint watch.
"Bad." The man shook his head. "Things are quite bad out there."
"Did…" he wanted to ask but the man already anticipated his question and shook his head.
"No. It was lucky that Helel and the rest went there with them. Had it been Michael and Uriel alone, they would probably have died. Even Gabriel only barely survived due to Helel's timely arrival. That bastard Rizevim…" The man gritted his teeth in anger but after a moment took a deep breath to calm himself down. "He wanted to kill Gabriel and destroy Heaven to taunt Damien just like he had done before his death last time. Too bad he didn't expect the retaliation this time."
Sirzechs noticed that he was addressing Damien, not with his current name or even Lucifer but as Helel.
He remembered what Azazel and Shemhazai had told them about Lucifer's past before he fell, as the angel most beloved by their Father and possibly next King of Heaven. The shift in his tone was quite evident.
"What happened to Rizevim?" Sirzechs asked, changing the topic. He was still understanding the dynamics between the Angels and Lucifer.
Unfortunately there was very little time and information.
Right now there were more important things to consider.
The insane son of Lucifer had left a very deep impression on his mind. That person embodied the very definition of insanity. For centuries after the Civil War, after having his ears filled with stories about the first Super Devil, Sirzechs had thought that he had understood Rizevim Livan Lucifer well and even prepared for him.
But as time had proved, that was just wishful thinking on his part.
While it was true that he was stronger than Rizevim in terms of raw power, he now understood that he would probably never match that man in terms of insanity.
Even Shemhazai frowned at his name but then a stoic look came on his face. "Rizevim is dead."
"What?!"
"Rizevim is dead. Helel killed him." Semhazai repeated in a cold tone.
His mind blanked for a moment as he tried to process the words.
"Is he really dead?" He asked again, still finding the whole thing a bit unbelievable.
"He had his limbs cut off and his head pierced by the True Longinus. His entire body was turned to ash. I don't think a devil can be more dead than that."
…
…
…
…
Sirzechs had heard that Damien's team member, the one called Sean Collins, the reincarnation of Cu Chullain, had the True Longinus but to think he could do something like that…
"Wait, couldn't Rizevim negate the effects of Sacred Gears? Even Longinuses? Then how?" He asked.
"He never saw it coming. Helel didn't give him any chance. He was trapped under an illusion by Helel the moment they met and killed before he could make any moves. From what Michael says, Helel said he wasn't worth wasting time over."
…
"What else happened?" He asked.
Shemhazai nodded and repeated everything he had heard.
The more he heard, the more headache he got.
Especially the news that Rizevim had actually brought Melbranche to the battle and the power they were capable of displaying.
"It's insane. From what Michael says, the power of those two were quite similar to the Heavenly Dragons that we faced during the Great War and those two…" Shemazai shivered.
Sirzechs himself had only heard the legends of the two dragons but could understand the man's feelings regarding the matter.
"It took the combined efforts of Uriel, Gabriel, Azazel, Celine, Merlin, Sean and Lavinia and thousands of angels to barely seal one while Helel and Raphael with hundreds of angels managed to seal the other. No wonder he was so tense about these Melbranche." Shemhazai said softly.
That is indeed troublesome.
By this estimate, each of these Melbranche were a Super Level threat with special powers of their own.
And there were ten of them still left.
Ten beings of such level… no wonder he said that they would have won the Great War if they had used these Melbranche but knowing what happened to Satanael, and remembering what had happened to Balzac Beelzebub, he also understood why even in death, they never used this power.
These things should have never seen the light of the day ever.
"This is indeed a serious matter. Do they have any idea where the rest of the Melbranche could be?" he asked.
"Not yet. There are some captives but they haven't been interrogated yet. As for the main ringleaders, both Rizevim and Satanael are dead."
"That's another dead end then."
"Hmm."
"Anyways, please stay alert. Michael has called for a meeting of all angels of Seraph and above rank and all Fallen Angels with Cadre rank or above. I guess they are planning to talk about that." The man said, his voice carrying a complex feeling.
Perhaps even Shemhazai himself didn't know what he was feeling at this moment.
The revelations must have been world shattering for them.
At least, Sirzechs had never ever seen or even dreamed of Azazel behaving like that in his entire life and he was one of the calmest people in Grigori.
Compared to that, most other Grigori cadres were… yeah… He was glad he wasn't called in that meeting.
He didn't want to be anywhere near that place when the talks happened.
As for the truth, Damien had promised them that he would reveal everything, and Sirzechs would be a fool if he doubted the promises made by the Devil himself.
"Hmm." He nodded at the man.
"Just keep an eye out. We don't know where the remaining Melbranches are. You don't want to be caught unprepared in case one attacks. Be prepared for any potential ambushes." Shemhazai warned him.
"Hmm. Thank you for your worries. We will take care. Go and take care of… your family matters first.
"Thank you."
With that said, Shemhazai headed towards the door.
But just as he was about to open the door, the door was opened from the other side.
In case Serafall looks pale as ice.
"What happened?"
"It's Hades. Hades has attacked Olympus."
"What?!"