They all looked away in horror as Azrael rolled up her sleeve exposing the stub which was once her left hand.
"And we could all end up with our souls permanently destroyed for good?" Jegudiel whispered horrified as she imagined what it would be like to have her entire existence wiped out an instant would be like or lack there of.
Archangels were not familiar with permanent destruction or permanent disabilities. Both Raphael and Gabriel had tried to miracle her hand back but no avail as she expected. She had allowed them both to do it to show the seriousness of the situation.
"I can not believe our own flesh and blood would turn against us like this." Gabriel scoffed. "I understand some angels from lower angelic hierarchies may be jealous that the Ineffable Plan created by God put them in a lower position but Aziraphale one of my Principalities seems perfectly content and is one of my best workers."
Uriel scoffed beside him.
"Hardly!" She said every word dripping with face-melting acidity. "I was just down on Earth in the Garden of Eden where you had assigned him to color the snakes and guess what I saw him doing? Playing with them! The filthy little creatures! And I saw at least seventeen wrong patterns on the backs of those cursed creatures!"
"Considering the situation at hand we should not be arguing over which angel has which better Principality or who is content and who is not." Sealtiel pipped in nervously brushing his fingers through his messed up hair from the rough and not with very much angelic grace at all. "We have a list of names and we know who these angels...erm-demons are...so we will be ready for if and when they attack."
"Well, if we have the names why do we not just cast these foul beasts out now!" Jerahmeel pipped up tossing her locks of chocolate brown hair behind her. "Just get it over with and not cause a heavenly panic!"
"We must give them time to reconsider their course of action and repent," Micheal answered and then motioned towards Azrael. "Also Azrael sacrificed one of her own limbs just so that we could have access to the ingredients and powers used to make the Hellfire. With that, we can successfully cast out the foul beasts and not cause an entire riot. We have both been working tirelessly and we believe we have found a solution to the current situation we are in."
Gabriel snarled as his eyes flamed a dark flaming purple. "You only are saying that because Azrael betrayed us and thought about joining the other side! How do we know we can trust her! She is no better than any of those disgusting demons!"
"Azrael has been forgiven by the Almighty herself in case you have forgotten because this is the eleventh and last time I will say it to any of you" She shot back attempting to control the waves of anger in her voice. "As I was saying we have come up with a solution and have made three different heavenly weapons which will help us cast out the demons while also permanently corrupting their forms to make them have various qualities of the animal and plant kingdoms the Almighty has so graciously let us use for our punishment. We will also use these weapons to help keep them from ever entering heaven again. Leaving is good but never coming back is even better."
"We should instead make a weapon that destroys the false angels rather than simply corrupting their celestial and physical forms" Scoffed Barachiel. "We must do to them as they plan to do to us if we ever hope to win this war."
"The Holy Water will change their DNA and genetic codes making them an entirely different species from us for the first time it comes into contact with their skin. The second time it will destroy their bodies. But Azrael and I designed it so that only those who take part in Satan's Hellfire baptism in which they will become immune to hellfire but vulnerable to holy water which is why we must wait until they attack us first. We will be safe from the power of the holy water and will be safe because we take part in no such things." Micheal said with proudness in her voice.
"How many of our own are we looking at to betray us?" Raphael asked quietly as he messed with the red curls upon his shoulders.
Azrael looked at Micheal with fear in her eyes but when Micheal gave her a reassuring nod she sucked in her breath and let the truth spill out. "One-third."
Jegudiel placed a hand over her mouth to help silence the escaping gasp. All the archangels fell silent and immediately began thinking of every single angel in their hierarchy and thought of who might have betrayed them. Who wanted to see them be blurred from existence in the most painful way possible. It didn't seem possible that many angels would have those secret violent desires to want to give them an agonizing and cruel death sentence. Wanting to hurt angels was one thing. All the archangels had felt it. But killing was another thing. They could not even imagine in their heads attempting to wipe someone out of existence for good.
"Can we see this list?" Gabriel said breathlessly. He thought the angels were all happy an had everything they could ever want. Apparently he was wrong.
Micheal nodded to the worried expression of Azrael once more and Azrael snapped her fingers to miracle up the lists for all the archangels to hold in their hands.
They flipped through it looking at the names nodding as some were a tad bit obvious based on how they would go on and on about wanting to see every tree in Eden die or how the planet would look so much better on fire or some other crazy psychotic notion. But some were more suddel.
Raphael almost dropped his list when he saw Cassil's name among them and he felt a horrible feeling he had never felt before deep within his stomach. It was an awful but necessary feeling and he wished he had felt it sooner. Guilt. Overwhelming guilt and he couldn't help but blame himself. He had never been nice to Cassil not one stinking day of his entire existence and Cassil had hated it so much he would much rather have preferred to be in a death worshiping cult than live in heaven as his Seraphim for less than a month.
"We should let the lower hierarchies of angels fight for us. We are the archangels and if one of us dies then an entire hierarchy of angels will be without a leader." Uriel said coldly as she looked up from the list. Her eyes showing the opposite of remorse but revenge craving instead.
"No!" Raphael said angerly more at himself than the other archangels. "We caused this so we have to fix it. I won't leave the weaker angels to fend for themselves and pay for the consequences of my actions."
"Your actions?" Uriel scoffed. "Like you ever did anything to tempt these disgusting abominations to become the awful sinners they are now."
"I did. We all did." Raphael said quietly as he looked down at his feet in shame. He heard Gabriel release a sighing sound. Raphael felt anger jump up into his throat once more. "Think about it, Gabriel. You make everyone around you miserable because you always act like this high and mighter prick. Uriel, you always act like this divine judge and you have no empathy for anything or anyone and you are such a perfectionist that it is literally suffocating the angels who work in your hierarchy. And Micheal you act so disgustedly when you talk about demons but honestly, so far I haven't seen much of a difference between you and them as all you like to do is stick your nose up and make every angel around you smaller than they actually are. Sealtiel you just want justice right away or what you think is justice but really it is only vengeance. And Jegudiel stop acting all surprised. When half the angels in your group couldn't hit a high not you went and humiliated them even though you are far from perfect yourself. Oh, and Barachiel cut the I am such a great listener bullshit because we all know you speak your mind before you have half a brain cell to listen to anyone else. Oh and Jerahmeel I saw you hit that Principality and all your Seraphim and Cherubim and all your Dominions, Virtues, and Powers. You treat them all like shit and I am sick of you acting like this great angel when really you are disgusting lowlife who uses power and status to hurt angels below you. And I am no better than any of you. My own Seraphim was in so much pain because of me and now he would rather fall into a boiling pool sulfer rather than be with me. We need to stop acting like we are all these perfect beings who can do no wrong because that obviously isn't true." He motioned his hand towards the list. "Case and point. We can't act like we are above doing wrong because that is keeping us in this same devastating cycle and we are going to end up tearing the world apart over it. "
All the angels stood silent for a moment taking in what was said. Then one of the only ones who didn't get it spoke up.
"Well, we all know someone whose department is all sunshine and rainbows."
"Oh absolutely fuck you, Gabriel!"