II.

Angels, Dragons, and…

"Now, hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?" —Romans 8:24

Time passed, too many millennia to count.

Now, Heaven was being massacred.

Cotton fluffed clouds were painted blood red as angels stubbornly held their ground against the enemy. Dozens of the heavenly beings were thrown aside as the pearly gates were ripped apart and flung into them! The others who saw this retaliated, but were dragged down by the overwhelming number of the abominations bursting through the first realm of heaven. False dragons, they were called, yet the sheer animalistic rage was nothing short from the monster they were modeled after.

Dragons. These were horrifying creatures who bowed down to no external will but their own, no reason but for themselves. They were embodiments of freedom and power.

These failures to imitate the unparalleled power of a True Dragon were enraged, full of hate, and held no quarter. Sheer numbers proved no less effective as these fakes were enough to trample down the first line of angelic defense. It was a war of flames and light. More of the angels summoned their weapons of light, but the false dragons had literal walls of bodies to throw against it; meat shields, from freshly killed draconic kin were used by the enemy as makeshift battering rams and walls as more of the dragons burned through friend and foe alike. Angels were experienced fighters in their own right, veterans of an old war that torn the heavens asunder before. But there was the reality of numbers, and this reality was whittling them down.

Gabriel flinched as he saw her brothers and sisters destroyed in droves. It had been millennia already since Gabriel battled, but when she heard the news of these enemies threatening her family, she took arms from the sixth realm of heaven down into the front lines. The Seraph's ornate golden armor sheened against heaven's bright light, made even brighter as the strongest woman in heaven summoned a thousand spears of light and rained it against the false dragon army!

"Lady Gabriel!" "You have come to save us!?" "Don't let the enemy take quarter, we have our sister at our side!"

Morale was in no threat of faltering. Despite the heavy blow initially dealt, the angels were quick to remember their experiences of war.

"Brothers! Sisters!" Gabriel commanded. "I will keep them at bay, drive them off our gates!"

A cheer sounded, echoing throughout the realm! They sounded nothing like a choir of angels; theirs were the screams that felled the walls of Jericho, the very cries that the Four Great Satans heard before they were destroyed so long ago.

But another roar rivalled them.

And it was from a beast whose arms slammed Heaven's walls down in response to the angels' cries. It towered Gabriel a thousandfold, its two pairs of arms grasped the scarlet clouds of heaven as it crawled closer. Its feet, thicker than its arms combined, trampled upon the mountains of dead, painting its soles red as it roared louder, making the dragon army halt and shudder at its mere presence. The ones that did not were picked up like ants, speared through its many horns, and ripped apart by its seven heads, fighting over the carcasses like rabid dogs. Its tails waved and another hundred of the false dragon army were decimated like mosquitoes, its body was covered in jet black fine 'fur' of thin scales.

"W-what manner of thing is that…" Gabriel heard one of her siblings utter.

"Trihexa," She said and immediately felt gazes locked her way.

"The beast…" "-the one Father had sealed!?" "How-"

This was the beast at the end of the world, the one the God of the Bible, their Father, sealed away. A malignant force unsealed this monstrosity and had the audacity to unleash this unto heaven!

Gabriel scowled at the creature. "I will not let this set foot any closer."

With a wave of her hand, she summoned a golden sword and, with another scream, led her brothers and sisters against the Beast and its false dragon army.

Without any warning, the Beast spiraled its necks close, coiling its seven heads together and breathed fire!

Gabriel wanted to charge through it, but her instincts were well honed— In an act of desperation, Gabriel flew to her nearest siblings shielded them with her wings!

"Sister!" "Gabriel!" "No—!"

There were from more than a few dozen of her siblings she shielded right before they were hit by the intense torrent of flame! Gabriel was swept up by the sheer force of the attack that lasted for only a few seconds. Those few seconds were agony! When the blast finally subsided, Gabriel could see through the shield she made using her wings.

"Oh no…" "Sister…I…"

The most beautiful angel in heaven lost half of her wings.

Gabriel, a single tear drawling down her flush cheeks, smiled at them. "Are you all alright?"

Some nodded, and the rest helped her up.

She bit her lower lip as she tried to stand, her arm over one of her sibling's shoulders. If it weren't for the seething pain across the angel's back, she would have fainted from the force of the flames alone.

The angels looked around the damage caused by the attack. Everything was scorched! Flames and blood, scattered across the heavens. The third realm was in plain view, while the end of the first realm and the entirety of the second? Reduced to ashes. She could see the Tree of Life, the edges of purgatory, and even the entrance towards now mortal-less Garden of Eden. The flames did not only incinerate both the armies of false dragons and angels, but incinerated trough the conceptual tears between each heavenly realm!

Gabriel looked at the monster before her in horror.

"Sister—!" Gabriel felt a warm light, it was from an angel who survived the blast without being shielded by her. His face had been split in two, but he was coherent enough to talk. "The Three Factions… they need to know!"

"No! Please, brother, don't!"

The angel looked at the others; Gabriel's heart sank when they all nodded together.

"Let me stay and fight—!"

Before she could finish, the angel had finished his spell: a transport spell.

Not even a breath later, Gabriel was falling. Trails of tears were left as the Seraph was thrown out of Heaven. Another breath left her lips and Gabriel was now looking at nothingness of the dimensional gap, feeling nothing but shame and helplessness towards the family she was forced to abandon.

"…Father…" She managed to croak.

Suddenly, the nothingness morphed into the familiar sky of Earth and the Seraph was now looking at the clouds of the mortal realm slowly getting farther and father as she fell. Gabriel crashed in the middle of a city, forced into unconsciousness as she saw people slowly flock towards her.

Gabriel could hear voices.

"Oh? And here I thought you wanted nothing but a coward's life." It was a voice of a female; it sounded stern, stiff, and very apathetic.

"I just felt a presence in there, alright? I thought it was his so I fished it out— heh, turned out to be one fortunate mistake. Damn, this demon's more stacked than you are…!" The second voice was from a young man; it had a breezy tone to it, almost removed to whatever problem was in front of them.

Gabriel managed to speak softly. "I…"

"Who are you? What master do you serve?" The female voice asked coldly.

The Seraph couldn't see who these people were, she could barely keep herself conscious. "Heaven…invaded…beast…"

"Heaven? I did feel something unsettling since yesterday, so that's what it was." The male voice said.

The female voice shrugged. "Get rid of it and spare the rest of us the trouble."

"What's up with you and just off-ing people in your way?"

"You make it sound like you haven't done something similar."

"Tch—screw you."

"Heh, send her back where she came from then if you're so adamant of keeping."

"And risk putting myself on the radar? No thanks."

"You're pathetic—very well, send me."

"What, itching for a fight all of a sudden?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't."

"Psycho."

The seraph heard a very eerie sound, then the first person's presence vanished.

"I really thought it'd be you that'll pop up, Kashima." The male voice sighed. "This is starting to piss me off."

…

The voice said nothing.

…

"Shit, sending her out there was a bad idea, wasn't it?" The second voice muttered. "She'll just burn the whole place down at this rate…!"

With a final 'damn' the second voice was over lapped by the eerie sound and Gabriel was suddenly alone, wherever this place was. Nothing but the sounds of the city letting her know she was still in the mortal realm. She couldn't open her eyes the entire time, there was an unspeakably aching pain in her body she could barely keep herself conscious.

Not a moment later the angel slumped and was knocked out cold.

Michael looked at heaven and cried.

The house his father built was being destroyed. His brothers and sisters lay dead in droves; the scent of their blood, it was the smell he only had the misfortune of catching back in the Great War. This was permeating as intensely as how the Seraph had been sensing their souls dip back and forth from existence to nonexistence. Even Gabriel, his closest sibling, had gone and fought while he fortified the highest realm of heaven. Now, he couldn't feel a spec of her presence! Heavy is the head that wears the crown—as it were, and since their father died, Michael had been keeping God's system stable. Hours had past and now, the only line of notable defense left was Michael, Raphael and Uriel.

The rest of the angels Michael sent into the highest realm for safety. Yes, it was one of the most civilian things the Seraph had planned. But he knew only he and his Seraph brothers were strong enough to fight the Beast. Anyone else, well, there were already three realms of dead angels proving him right.

Michael was still crying, but he was far from doing nothing.

His sword clashed the Beast's scales as his tears burned through his unblinking emerald eyes. Michael's chest felt hot, and his teeth gnashed at every ounce of strength he could muster against the bastard that attacked his family!

"How dare you desecrate my father's house!" He roared as he raised his blade and cut one of the Beast's many heads.

There was an unseen desperation in his strikes. Even as the Beast relentlessly threw more of its titanic fists to him, Michael could only barely dodge them. It wasn't a matter of strength; it was only a simple matter of existence.

Their nature, their role in fate.

Was Michael losing faith? The sheer thought made him shudder as the Seraph left a cut on the Beast's arm. Had creation really only had this up its sleeve? A monster to trample upon the work their family had built? For millennia they nurtured freedom and its seeds, now it was the same freedom biting its caretakers' hands. Literally.

Ha-ha-ha. I think this is all I have…

Michael failed to dodge a single attack and he was thrown across the realm. As he tried to limp upright, trying to stand, he found Raphael and Uriel beside each other barely staying alive. One just lost an eye and the other his leg.

…Father…

Ever since the Great War, there were few angels left in heaven who wished for conflict. Sure, there were grudges—mostly to the fallen, there were close brothers and sisters which had left them for Azazel's cause. But hatred is born from love, not its opposite. Michael knew he was outmatched against the Beast since the beginning. His sword had been dulled by the weight of the blood of the fallen angels he killed millennia ago. Michael never wished war against anyone ever again, but knew one day he would come to regret it.

I don't think I have anything left to give. Michael smiled. Father, you said to me once: 'should you have a wish, pray'. I have never once prayed for anything, nor wished for anything. My life with my brothers and sisters were fantastic, there was nothing to more desire…!

…

Well, I lied.

There was one wish— that being, your wish not being fulfilled, Father.

"So, with my life's sole prayer." Michael whispered. "Please, before this Beast destroy everything we have built. Let my father's parent witness his deeds…"

His enemy coiled its heads together, its mouths slowly illuminated. The Beast was ready to raise its final blow.

"Let him see all he has given to creation and let him be proud of my father…"

The Beast roared as its breath let loose, the same breath that burned through three of heaven's realms.

"—let him be as proud as I am to the life God lived!"

The system listened. It heard the Seraph's desire. It heard very same desire God had commanded into it. It knew heaven's turmoil.

It knew it was time.

It knew God will not last long enough to fulfill his duty to fend off the upcoming invasion; it was created because of such a limitation. It was created by God because he so loved the world and his children, he wanted to protect them, even with the restrictions he had over himself. It knew it was time to act. It heeded its most crucial function.

The system called upon God's father.