Chapter 85: Trial of the Angels

Near the river across from Mikado, they found Masakado's shrine restored to what it had once been. It stood out among the broken streets and long abandoned buildings as something newer and older than the rest. The interior was even decorated as if it were an active shrine; Flynn felt like it was accurately done even though his knowledge of that was faint in distant memories. From that, he lit a few candles in front of a portrait of Masakado.

Issachar was the only one in the shrine with him now. He brought out the Chalice of Hope and placed it in the center of the candles. In response to the three spirits, the colors of the candles began to shift. "Like that?"

Nodding, Flynn stepped back and bowed respectfully. Issachar followed his lead since he had no knowledge or memory of these rituals. There was a feeling now that this place was separate from the normal world. Drawing out Masakado's katana, Flynn held it out to the portrait. "Lord Masakado, we call upon you as a protector of humanity. We ask for your assistance in freeing the people from the law of a hateful god. With the hope, goodwill, and spite of the people of Tokyo and Mikado, please join us in our battle for freedom."

The spirits and the candles all brightened, turning to a golden glow that gathered together in front of them. It grew and formed into a man with a powerful aura, one who could be called a samurai of a different age. While his eyes retained the golden glow, he had none of the monstrous qualities that his JDSDF form had. "Thank you for restoring me," Masakado said, bowing to them. "As promised, I will lend my hand in overcoming the tyrant god. When you're ready, I'll be able to destroy the chains on the monolith back in Ginza. That will lead us into the realm of that god so that we may reach him."

"Good," Flynn said as Issachar retrieved the Chalice of Hope. "It shouldn't be long now."

"And if everything's gone as we hope, we'll be calling on another ally for humanity now," Issachar said.

"I've heard," Masakado said. "It would normally be a dangerous proposal, but I feel as though things are in your favor."

They headed outside, Flynn thought over these last moves. The Last Crusader was the last unknown element, unless further surprises popped up. Aside from him, there were other potential problems that hadn't come up yet. One of those was Izanami, a goddess that Nanashi usually fought. Did they have enough momentum to end this all smoothly? They should, given that they had an alliance with Lucifer (albeit one that remained suspect), with Masakado (one that was reliable), and now they were going to form one with Satan (there was always a danger with the first angel and penultimate judge, but they should have seen enough now to offer help). Lilith was also on their side, although she was more invested on keeping society balanced and open-minded than in fighting YHVH.

Outside the shrine, their friends were waiting on them. Isabeau, Walter, and Jonathan were talking with each other, along with Marie who'd come along to support them even if all she could do was witness. Nanashi was there too, sitting on the steps into the shrine on his own. Although he kept claiming that he didn't feel comfortable around a lot of people, the way he acted reminded Flynn of himself at times, when he'd tried keeping distant to focus on his plans. But that distance came with an emotional numbness that made it all too easy to become detached to common sense and sympathy. Thinking on that, he knew it was better that Nanashi had insisted on accompanying them. It meant that they could keep him from getting too detached.

Merkabah and Hikaru were there too, apparently caught up in another debate. "It sets boundaries and records truths so they can be passed on to many others," Merkabah said. "Most laws are written down somewhere, even those of the Almighty."

"That's only a limited view on what's possible," Hikaru said. "Dreams and fantasies can be recorded too, as more than just fleeting ideas. So can truths that can't be put into simple words without being easily misunderstood. Such truths can be related with stories that cause others to think and question."

"What are you debating now?" Issachar asked as the others started to gather on seeing them come out with Masakado.

"The merits of writing and literacy," Merkabah said. "I've been considering the matter, and why it was kept so exclusive in Mikado."

"Isn't that because literacy benefits humans the most?" Marie asked. "Because angels and demons are eternal and don't need to learn, while humans are mortal and do need to learn. Reading and learning from books was magical to us Casualry born because it was something we couldn't comprehend. But when literacy was gifted to us, we could break out of the place we were given at birth."

"That is ultimately more true than literacy belonging to law or chaos," Hikaru said, clapping her hands together. "So are we ready to disrupt the established order some more? I am!"

Merkabah sighed. "I wish you would not put it that way. But this is to break falsehoods, so yes, I am as well."

"Yes, we need to break the false order and anarchy forced on the world," Walter said.

Jonathan nodded. "We can't be sure, but I believe that the world will be better off by doing this."

"I don't think this is a perfect solution," Flynn said. "But it's the best one I've seen. Very well, Merkabah, Hikaru, we would have you return to being Satan with your complete self."

Issachar went over and offered the chalice to them. "Yes, we trust that you'll assist humanity this time."

"It'd be silly not to," Hikaru said, smiling warmly. It even looked natural this time. "After all, we've lived among and even as you humans now."

"Indeed," Merkabah said, waving her hand to beckoning the spirits to them. "You have inspired others well. Thus, these spirits of humanity shall be traded for the angelic spirits the three of you have bore longer than you have lived." She then sent the spirits into them, the red spirit of Spite to Walter, the blue spirit of Goodwill to Jonathan, and the golden spirit of Hope to Flynn.

As the trade was made, matching spirits emerged from them. There was a moment of disorientation and lacking in Flynn's mind, much like the time he had trusted his hope to Issachar. It was fine, he told himself. This was a trade to make things right. For now, it'd be strange. Flynn felt reminded of times that his hope had carried him through things that would break a normal person, and the ones that did break him. Issachar noticed and took his hand, right as he was also reminded that he didn't have to carry this all much further.

Meanwhile, the three spirits joined together so that Merkabah and Hikaru could become one whole being. They blurred together into a giant being: red skin, bone armor, horns, a bladed forked tail, mismatched wings… actually a whole mismatched body that somehow blended into one being. After a moment, Satan reformed into something human sized with a simpler form. They bowed their head. "Thank you for restoring me. You three are now fully free of the fate that you were assigned."

"That'd be no more of feeling like I've done something wrong for doing what I want?" Walter asked.

Satan nodded. "Right, that subconscious guide was to keep you within your roles."

"Thank goodness for that," Walter said. Jonathan chuckled, but he nodded in agreement.

"This should also mean that we can't go backwards in time anymore," Satan said, looking at Flynn. "At least not in how it was willed to happen before."

"This is the path we were searching for," Flynn said. "Now we need to break into the angel's fortress and capture the four heralds in charge."

To do that, they first sent Lucifer off to fight against the angel host with his army of demons. It was partly to prove a point. After three hours, their battle had reached a stalemate of both sides able to call up reinforcements but not able to gain an advantage. The barrier around the cocoon hadn't been broken through either. The delay was also so that Flynn felt in good shape after the spirit trade. To break through the barrier without going through the Purgatory domain, they were going to challenge Last Crusader.

They headed out to southern Tokyo as it was mostly uninhabited. At a large crosswalk, Flynn summoned his Trumpeter. "I want you to issue a challenge to Last Crusader with your trumpet. You can handle that."

"Of course I can," Trumpeter said haughtily. "My trumpet can sound over the whole world; it will be simple to reach him."

He glanced over at Nanashi; he was waiting and ready. Issachar was just out of sight to carry out another part of their plan. If Nanashi could do what was needed, it might've been better to send him to not raise suspicions. As it was, this would have to do. "Then send the challenge."

Trumpeter flew up a few feet before blaring a boisterous tune that sounded right, a call to battle. Before even a minute passed, a bright streak appeared across the sky. Last Crusader landed in the intersection. "You fools, you're distracting me from fighting the forces of evil! Prepare to suffer for your arrogance!"

"Can you truly back up those words?" Flynn asked. "Or are you going to hide in that chariot because you have little merit as a warrior?"

"You have no clue what you're suggesting!" the Last Crusader bellowed, spreading his wings of swords before leaping out to stand before them. He then drew a bulky sword of gold from a hidden sheath. "You have abandoned the ways of God and will perish for your sins! I will terminate you!"

"Try it," Flynn said, blocking Crusader's first leaping attack. The heavier sword and the angel's strength might've broke a normal katana; he could feel the blow in his shoulders. Nanashi tried to cut through a gap in Crusader's armor, only to get blocked by the wing blades. While magic might be the way to go about this, sword combat would be a better way to keep his attention away from Issachar.

Once the battle with Crusader began, Issachar hurried over to Crusader's chariot. There were reports from many different sources that the chariot had hidden artillery. That and its speed were part of what made Last Crusader a formidable foe. However, they'd gotten an enchanted bridle off of Jormungandr. Breaking the bridle left the enchantment intact. That allowed the giant snake bridle to be remade into four enchanted horse bridles, just enough for this job.

It had been a while since he'd dealt with horses, but he still remembered how to change the harnesses around. That put the four horses under his control. In the chariot, he found a control panel with strange markings around it. That was solved by using his angel form. Seven sets of canons and guns were spread out in a way that it'd be easier for the driver to have an assistant controlling the artillery. Among all the controls, one set was labeled as armor busters. Issachar activated it; six long barreled cannons emerged from the sides. A small screen gave him targeting information, letting him fire at Last Crusader.

White beams shot out at the angel, shattering parts of his armor. "Hey thief! Get away from my chariot!"

Flynn took the moment to step back and cast Antitchton. "Don't complain when you're a thief too."

"And a terrorist," Nanashi said. "Threatening to end the world for everyone else."

"That is God's orders!" Last Crusader bellowed, spreading his wings at an odd angle to fire all the swords out.

Issachar ducked into the chariot to avoid one of the swords, then fired the armor breaker guns at Crusader again. Fighting fair could be ignored with the future of the world at stake. On making sure enough of the angel's armor was broken, he swapped over to a different set of guns to test out. From the look of things, the chariot didn't need the horses to fly. It did need an angel to get it working.

The guns might've taken out Crusader's armor, but it still took a while to destroy him. Once he was gone, a shaft of light shot into the sky. A signal; it could mean trouble. "Can we use that chariot like we wanted?" Flynn called as he came over with Nanashi.

"Yes, it won't be a problem," he said. "You're going to have to hang on tight; we've seen how fast this thing flies. We can drop the horses off in Mikado since they're just there for looks."

"He stole the horses of the four apocalypse riders just for looks?" Nanashi asked in disbelief.

"As grandiose as he was, that's not surprising to me," Flynn said.

They had to use their authority of samurai to get the horses taken into a stable on the outer ring of Mikado's capitol, in part because the horses looked strange to the stable hands and in part because they had to warn them not to take the bridles off or the horses could be deadly. Since they weren't necessary, it seemed better to keep them out of harm's way so the four fiends didn't end up angry later on. One of the stable owners seemed fine with housing potentially dangerous horses for a short time; Issachar could see he was honest, so they left the horses with him. Then they flew across Tokyo and the forest beyond to reach the transported Shene Duque, all in a matter of seconds. They had to cling onto bars on the inside of the chariot to stay in place. Although there was a back railing, it didn't seem like much protection on a flying chariot.

The angelic domain of Purgatory had a reflective surface. It might help it be hidden on ground level, but the mirroring made it obvious from above. Lowering the chariot to just above the tallest trees, Issachar turned to the others. "There's controls over there that I think will work. It says it's for breaking barriers based on distortions of space, which should include domains like this."

"Which ones?" Flynn asked, running his hand near the various controls.

There wasn't a good way he could describe it to someone who couldn't read angelic language. He just had to wait until Flynn was near it. "That one… right, there. The bottom switch in that column will activate the guns. Then see that odd screen above the panel? That'll show the targeting sights, controlled with that toggle in the middle. The six buttons on top are the triggers."

"Then are all these controls for guns?" Nanashi asked, looking over another set of controls.

"Pretty much," Issachar said. "It's got things from ten thousand small-arms like my pistols to the largest cannon which is called Fire of Gomorrah. It says that one will raze the earth and turn all life to salt, leaving it lifeless for a century."

"It's good they were slow to act," Flynn said before firing off all the barrier breaking cannons at once. There was a powerful blast from all around them; the sound alone was painful. While the barrier rippled trying to bear it, cracks quickly spread out and caused the barrier to shatter. The energy tore through the cocoon for a few seconds before Flynn shut the cannons off to end the din. A gaping hole was left through the cocoon with the edges catching on fire.

Lucifer appeared by the chariot. "Nicely done there. Shall we humiliate them?"

"We can't truly humiliate them unless we capture them," Issachar reminded him.

"I've got that covered," Lucifer said, grinning as he called an icy mist around his hand.

Just as he claimed, he was able to freeze the angels into a helpless state. The thousand gun setting helped to to weaken the heralds greatly. Once they were frozen, Satan transported them away to the chosen trial site. Gabriel tried to escape, but Issachar sent Huang Long to block her from doing so. By the time she was captured, the cocoon was on fire. They had to use Lucifer's ice magic to contain the fire before moving on.

The trial of the angels was set up in Mikado at Obelisk Plaza, since Mikado was the place that they had created and controlled. Lucifer set up four pillars of ice there, freezing the heralds into place straight onto the pillars so they couldn't escape. Before long, crowds of people had gathered just for that spectacle. They didn't come close, though. Satan was there in his normal monstrous appearance, albeit a smaller size in only being nine feet tall. Standing in front of the heralds, he watched over them while they waited on a few people to arrive.

Since this trial involved the angels controlling humanity, they had invited the Mikado royal family, a few of their ministers, and Fujiwara because he led the largest human organization in Tokyo. With the arrival of the guest witnesses, someone unexpected showed up. Aleph came into the square, wearing the attire of a Tokyo demon hunter as well as his own gauntlet. "Excuse me, but I'm here to speak for the heralds."

"What do you mean?" Satan asked. Their deep voice caused the gathered crowd to quiet down.

"You can't speak for us," Michael said spitefully. "You're a fallen Messiah, corrupted by the demons. You can't possibly speak for the servants of God."

"You cannot speak for yourselves properly," Aleph said. "Not without muddling the truth. I am the avatar of the Amala Network, an oracle of truth if you understand that better. That is because you four heralds and your master forced me to learn the entire history of the conflict between Law and Chaos. That conflict is important to understanding what has gone on in this world. However, you cannot speak against your master; your wills are chained to him and you cannot act against him. Therefore, I will speak for you so that the truth can be known."

"You are welcome to speak for yourselves during this trial," Satan said to the four heralds. "But given your nature, the truth will be difficult to ascertain from your testimonies. So we will have Aleph speak the truth for you."

"So you'll make this trial not for justice, but for the results you want?" Gabriel asked sharply.

"The same could be said of your actions in the past," Lucifer said.

"Let's not start the arguments yet," Satan said firmly, getting everyone there to cooperate. "Our goal here is to determine how our world went from a fully civilized population at a digital information age across all landmasses to two halves of one city at disparate levels of civilization and reduced knowledge."

"It was because the human civilization became distant from God and corrupted by demons," Michael said.

"That's too simplistic an explanation to be truth," Lucifer said.

"Truth is to be pure and simple," Gabriel said. "As the world itself should be."

"If the truth were simple, we could be done in a minute more," Aleph said. "But it's not."

"Truth is only simple to the omniscient," Satan said. "Which none of us here are because Aleph is only technically omniscient because he has access to all information. Now, when did you four enter this world?"

"We belong to this world," Michael said.

Satan shook his head. "Your spirits belong to another world, another part of the multiverse. You have supplanted the heralds that should be here. From looking at you now, I can tell that much. What happened?"

"We belong to all worlds," Michael said. "We belong where God calls us."

"We were called to save this world from sin," Uriel said.

Aleph nodded. "That is what you were told, the only thing you could believe. In truth, the major religions of humanity reached a level of bigotry and hate that brought out the face of God who dealt in vengeance, intolerance, and jealousy. This face of God, YHVH, brought in you four in to extinguish all he found wrong in humanity, around a century ago to Tokyo. He gave you no direct contact, simply unconscious directives. He also called upon Satan in order to justify his actions by judging mankind to be nonredeemable."

"I do not remember such judgment," Satan said.

"You judged that only a fraction of humanity was innocent enough to be saved from sin," Michael said. "So we were to take the innocent, erase all sin from them, and give them a blessed land to create the Kingdom of God in."

"That is not what Satan's judgment was," Aleph said. "His judgment was that humans had the capacity for great evil and great good in equal measure. With proper guidance, they could reach enlightenment and make their world greater. But his judgment would have called for no destruction. Thus, YHVH overturned that judgment to follow his plans for destruction."

"God's judgment is absolute," Michael said.

"Satan judged that YHVH's plans were not in line with that of the Creator," Aleph said. "This means that YHVH has become disconnected with the almighty God. Because of that, Satan informed Lucifer of his judgment to allow him to act against YHVH's plan. But before they could act, God tore Satan in two while the four heralds lured Lucifer into a trap to destroy his physical manifestation. Lucifer's spirit was imprisoned in a glacier of the Abyss while his name was taken and given to the chaos half of Satan. The name of Merkabah was given to the law half of Satan; the memories of the conspiracy was erased from all parts of the pair."

"That accounts for what I experienced," Lucifer said.

Aleph continued with, "YHVH then stepped out of directing the conflict, leaving it to the angels and demons to lead humanity to ruin. It was intended that the false Lucifer would be less effective and charismatic, causing humanity to side with the angels. However, the false Lucifer gained a stronger position than expected and the chosen hero of the time opted to not work with either side, instead having faith in the power of humanity. Merkabah also proved uncooperative with the herald's directions, doing nothing in waiting for direct guidance from God."

"We had direct guidance," Michael insisted. However, there was a defensiveness to him and the other heralds that suggested something wasn't right. "We carry out the will of God. That is all we can do, so all that we do is under guidance from God."

Ignoring him once he was done speaking, Aleph continued. "The heralds had already put their plans into motion, to kidnap the innocents they found, which were mostly young children, and place them into protective cocoons to erase their willpower. This erasure of free will would not allow them to make any decisions out of line with YHVH's desires for a compliant humanity. They also adopted extreme measures from their human allies and set all nuclear weapons in the world out to destroy human civilization even at the risk of rendering the whole world dead. While the chosen hero was able to summon Masakado to raise a barrier to protect Tokyo in time, all life in the rest of the world was extinguished with nuclear fire on the decision of these four heralds."

"We did not decide that," Michael said. "We didn't. It was the humans that made the plan to destroy their own world. That proves that humanity was too far gone to be saved."

Raphael added, "We follow orders; we do not decide."

"What were the circumstances of the decision that led multiple nations to deploy nuclear weapons at the risk of mutually assured destruction?" Satan asked Aleph.

Aleph nodded to frozen heralds. "These four knew YHVH's goal was the destruction of the majority of humanity and the erasure of free will in the survivors. As they could not come up with new ideas themselves, they consulted with their human allies. There was a sarcastic reply from one of them that they could always just nuke the demons off the planet. The heralds took that reply seriously, even though a quick correction said that it should be a last resort measure. With that as the greatest destruction they had access to, the heralds decided to go with a nuclear extermination."

"It was God's decision to destroy that rotten civilization, not ours," Michael said, trying to deny it more emphatically.

"It was their decision," Aleph said. "But they had to believe that it was God's decision to not be tormented by their indoctrination."

"That is not true!" Michael insisted.

"It is true," Satan said. "You have no true will aside from God's, with a small allowance for independent action to not leave you paralyzed with indecision. But YHVH has been sitting back and observing once his position as God was established. He has not communicated with his servants and left you to act on your own when you're not capable of doing so. I had already noticed that problem."

"God is infallible," Michael said. "He cannot make mistakes. He is all-knowing, all-seeing."

Ignoring that, Aleph said, "With the unchosen survivors hiding in Tokyo with the demons and their time greatly slowed due to the state of the perpetual reactor there, the angels decided to bring the chosen survivors onto the top of the Firmament while the rest of the world slowly recovered from the nuclear destruction. But their plan for the Kingdom of God kept failing because the survivors from the cocoons were incapable of building a civilization to live in. It was only when a group of survivors from Tokyo broke through the Firmament and chose to stay there were the revived survivors from the cocoons able to survive longer than a couple years and bring forth a new generation. Within three generations, the people of Mikado had regained the natural state of their free will.

"Just as the heralds had decided to purge Mikado of free will once again, an interloper of another rogue face of God came and captured Michael, Uriel, and Raphael. They were imprisoned without any trace of will or identity just as Lucifer was, but in a tower in Tokyo instead. Gabriel was left without them or the guidance of God to lead the people of Mikado. As she could not erase free will on her own, she had to encourage a violent uprising to cut down the human population to a level she could control. And thus, Mikado continued as an incomplete Kingdom of God with regular purges of population and free will for fifteen centuries.

"There was a further problem of the effectiveness of the false Lucifer and the uncontrollable will of Merkabah, but that had been solved before the three heralds were captured. They brought the two puppets together and cut out three traits from their souls: goodwill, spite, and hope. These three traits were sent into the souls of Mikado citizens so that any humans born with them could be led to influence the rest of the population. And thus, the world was brought into the state it was when a new hero was called to decide the fates of Mikado and Tokyo."

"Thus I was divided with my halves were in a state that just Gabriel could control," Satan said. "That allowed her and the other three when they were freed to decide the outcome of this war. However, the chosen Messiah of this generation forged their own path as last time. Did you decide to eliminate humanity entirely because even with all that you did to control the conflict, you could not take control over the world's fate?"

"No, that was God's decision which was handed down to us from Last Crusader," Michael said.

Satan shook his head. "But who is the Last Crusader? He was not a part of the heavenly host as I knew it."

"He is one of us," Gabriel said.

Aleph closed his eyes and put his hand to his cheek in thought. "The Last Crusader… when the three heralds were freed, they were greatly weakened from their imprisonment. Gabriel was insane from loneliness and being denied by those she wanted to control. They blamed the humans and the demons for their suffering and uncertainty, unable to realize that their master YHVH had done nothing for them since calling them into the world and giving them their mission. Thus, the Last Crusader was born from their wishes of the destruction of humans and demons when they were unable to excuse choosing that destruction for the sake of God. They had to have a sign; Last Crusader became their sign."

"Then he was wish fulfillment for the heralds when they became incapable of further actions due to their status as servants of the Face of God YHVH," Issachar said, clearing that up for Flynn. While he had experienced all this, it was still difficult to understand the thoughts of these angels.

Aleph nodded. "Yes, and that's not the first time such things have happened with these particular angels."

"That's not important to this world!" Uriel snapped like that was an embarrassing subject.

"True, but it would be important to knowing you four in particular," Aleph said.

Satan pointed to Uriel since he spoke up. "Yes, and knowing that your spirits are not of this world is important too. You four are capable of making mistakes."

"Yes, because we are not God, merely His servants," Uriel said. "God does not make mistakes."

"Does that include his decision to destroy the free will of humanity when God is the one who gifted them with free will?" Satan asked.

"Humanity had become corrupted," Gabriel said angrily.

"So it was a mistake that God made in giving them the ability to decide matters for themselves?" Satan repeated.

Being forced to confront such a contradiction caused the four heralds a painful agony that was clear in their faces. Even though Flynn didn't like them for all they had put him through, he found it difficult to see them like that. Gabriel started weeping and babbling under her breath, causing further discomfort in the other three. He glanced away and spotted Lucifer with a smile of wicked glee on his face for a moment before he put on a more serious tact. After all this was done, he would still be a problem. But he shouldn't be as much of a problem as YHVH.

After looking at each of the heralds, Satan said, "You four have led to the destruction of the world and humanity. However, you are unable to take full blame for this. You're not designed to work on your own or even as a group apart from God. The blame for this falls upon the rogue Face of God YHVH who left you on your own and decided that humanity should be destroyed.

"While you're still here, I'll let you know that I believe that my prior judgment still stands. I have seen how humans live these days with my own eyes, and in some ways experienced their lives myself. I still believe that they can do better. While things needed to change back then, a near extinction was not needed and in fact was detrimental. We could have done something lesser to alert them to how their actions were making their world worse; now they have much further to go to reach an ideal world. They can still improve and find peace, if the false god YHVH is removed from power.

"As for you four," Satan pointed at them, "leave this world and leave behind the identities of the native heralds so that they can be restored. Do not meddle in the affairs of our world again."

"We were called here," Michael said, "and haven't completed our mission."

"We can't go against our Lord," Raphael said.

"True, but I can bypass the orders of a false god," Satan said. "So get out."

The ice pillars shattered, forcing the heralds to turn into forms of light. They all split in two and took off in different directions. With that, another side of the conflict was finished.

And everything stopped.