Raphael's Delay
Raphael. Raphael was late. He should have descended immediately from the start. Dropping his legions first wasn't due to any disturbance—it was necessity. The Lord of Hell had interfered.
Satan. Deception. Interference. Domination. Falsehood. A authority that pierces through anything he desires to enact. If he wishes to deceive, he will surely deceive. If he wishes to obstruct, he creates an opening in some form or another. Supremacy over all things in Hell. Subtle meddling that seeps even into the human world. And the power of falsehood that deceives wholesale even the angels' prized discernment of truth and detection of lies.
Deception | Interference | Domination | Falsehood
That power was blocking Raphael's descent. The coordinates for Raphael's drop from the heavens kept shifting. What he thought was a purified zone still harbored demonic souls, and the clean passage he was certain of suddenly erupted with Hell's poison. Even the moment Satan seemed to have annihilated himself was merely a cunning illusion draped over reality. Satan had staged a 'play' in the heavenly gaze: himself as dead, Hell's core as empty. He twisted Raphael's path of manifestation between the passages. The result was Raphael's delay.
Raphael had to descend eventually. But he couldn't do so right away. He sent his units ahead first to carve open the battlefield, upend Hell's structure, and scout passages. By the time Raphael finally broke through, Satan had already vanished, hiding his authority deeper in Hell's very heart. Like a heart cooling to red, a small but certain pulse remained—a deception so thorough that everyone mistook it for an 'empty place.' The master not fully extinguished. The being who had drawn the veil of deception and falsehood, clutching the remnants of domination, seated once more at Hell's center. That was Satan now.
Raphael's late descent was because he'd been deceived. And in that gap, I kept devouring.
Flies. Crawling over dead flesh. Burrowing into rotting blood and entrails. Pitiful things no one spares a glance for.
The first thing I swallowed was a swarm of those flies. In that instant, their wings, vision, and senses crawled wholesale into me.
The flies scattered at his command. Ceilings. Cracks. Piles of corpses. Pools of blood. Eyes numbering hundreds of thousands to millions embedded throughout Hell. I could see through all those fields of vision, borrowing them whenever needed. I flew along the flies' trajectories, crafting wings of black fly-like form through Gluttony to mercilessly slaughter and absorb the angels in the air.
The first gains from Gluttony were Vision and Flight. Next came Monstrous Strength. The more I tore off and devoured demons and angels piece by piece, the thicker my bones grew, the denser my muscles compressed, the faster my speed became. Gluttony's range kept expanding. At first, just a single corpse at my feet. Soon, everywhere my vision touched. Now, an entire Hellish city. I believed someday I could encompass all of Hell within Gluttony's domain.
I couldn't use the angels' light itself. Its structure was different—straight, orderly, repulsively pure. But if I shattered that light and mixed it into myself, Gluttony's authority sank deeper, heavier. Light as light, darkness as darkness. All devoured for me.
A massive ring of light blanketing the sky. The belatedly completed form of manifestation. Six layers of wings. White armor. Light sigils floating like constellations. And at its center, the one who stood.
Raphael. A face unmarred by wound or blood splatter. Eyes so serenely gentle, as befits an angel.
"You're late," I said from atop the crumbled ramparts, amid pools of blood left from absorbed demons and angels. A swarm of flies settled on my shoulders and arms, then scattered like black dust.
"There was a fool blocking the way," Raphael replied.
Hell's core throbbed faintly. Behind the layered veils of falsehood and deception, the presence of a heart not yet extinguished.
The surrounding air grew soaked in black. Remnants of fallen demons. Shredded angel corpses. Even pillars of lingering light. All slowly drawn toward me at the center.
A city's worth of corpses and debris swirled into a pitch-black vortex, absorbed into me.
Raphael's eyes swept over the sight, as if counting.
"You've eaten quite a lot."
"Excessive. That power will only ruin the world further."
"So you came to kill me?"
My lips curled slightly.
Raphael nodded faintly.
"No."
"This is mercy. Removing a fool writhing in agony is always the greatest mercy."
In that instant, an excruciating noise rang out. A shrill sound that seemed to cleave all things.
Invisible blades of wind surged toward me in a flash. I didn't dodge. I simply invoked my authority.
Thick darkness spread through the air, devouring the approaching winds.
Shiiiek─────
The sharp currents blackened and contaminated, losing speed. Some still sliced my flesh. Blood sprayed from my chest, shoulder, and arm. But even that blood, before touching the ground, seeped black and returned to me.
Raphael lowered his eyelids ever so slightly.
"Pitiful."
"To turn even your own corpses into power. You didn't need to become so grotesque."
"So what."
I shrugged.
"If I hadn't eaten, I'd have been wiped out by you lot. But because I did, I killed more of you. Win-win, right?"
Raphael fell silent for a moment.
"You must be removed after all."
He raised his hand. The sky's light sigils rotated and overlapped.
"Regroup."
Raphael's voice was low.
"All ranks, no retreat. The wounded, recover immediately. The fallen, rise again."
Light spread across the entire battlefield. Severed arms of dead angels regenerated, pierced chests mended, crumpled wings unfurled anew. Raphael overwrote the status and emotions of every angel at once. Fear of death. Regret. Hesitation. All negative sentiments erased from the field.
"All units, advance on the Demon of Gluttony."
Light sigils embedded beneath the angels' feet. Winds accelerated them, light barriers deflected attacks. Perfect support.
"Interesting authority."
Black mist rose from the ground into the air, seeping between the light sigils and wind flows.
I reached out and clenched the empty air. Faintly visible: threads of healing light Raphael had laid, linking angels' hearts to him. Flies crawled along those lines. Gluttony-formed flies ate those lines.
I couldn't erase the light streams entirely. But biting into parts of the connections distorted their form. Raphael's authorities of 'healing,' 'restoration,' and 'support' began to creak subtly from that moment. Wounds meant to heal closed only halfway; pitch-black Corruption seeped into the gaps of mended flesh.
"Cease this."
Raphael's voice cracked slightly. For the first time, anger mingled in.
"Why should I."
I sneered.
"You think I'd fall for such obvious tricks."
Raphael played his next card. All sound died for a moment. A light sigil rose even beneath my feet. Raphael's prayer descended straight.
"I advise surrender. I will restore your body and authority to the form I deem right. Resist not, and it ends without pain."
"Why should I fit your standards."
I invoked the lingering Gluttony authority in my flesh to devour myself.
Wood-crack───Kwachak!!!
I chewed through the light gripping my heart, pulverized and swallowed the Raphael's authorities embedded throughout my body, forcibly shattering them. Raphael's restoration slid off me without adhering.
"To ruin yourself to that extent."
Raphael said softly.
"Regrettable. Had you been a bit more obedient, you wouldn't have suffered."
"Obedient? Bullshit."
I said, feeling my Gluttony-reconstituted body.
"I'd rather die once than let you collar me."
"Is that so."
Raphael said quietly.
"Then die a bit more."
The sky flipped. From all directions came a eardrum-shattering screech of sharp winds.
Whiiiiiing───────!!!
Heavenly sigils spun in layers, forming a massive whirlwind. White storm of fused light and wind authority. A grinder that pulverized all.
Angels rode its edges, raining light arrows and spears. Raphael stood at the center, controlling every gust.
"Even your Gluttony can't handle this."
I looked up at the storm. And laughed.
"That so?"
Gluttony surged from my feet. Black maw, razor teeth—shapes of ashen demons and angels converged, lunging at the storm's base.
I didn't leap in myself. I shaped the entire authority into one 'mouth.'
The black-toothed Gluttony split top and bottom, jaws gaping brutishly to clamp the white whirlwind's underside.
Chiiiik─────!!!
Gluttony seemed ground by the wind, but chunks of the vortex tore free, blackened, and were swallowed. I couldn't eat it all. But the base shaved away threw off its balance. Light spears lost trajectory, ricocheting; some angels were shredded by the winds and fell.
Raphael furrowed his brow.
"Not good."
"You gathered it so nicely. Made it easy to eat."
Raphael dispersed the whirlwind and descended. To midway between sky and earth, my eye level. Two layers of wind, three of light. An inescapable defensive barrier around him, shredding any assault first.
"Bell."
Raphael calling my name sounded like a death sentence.
"Let's end this here. No longer mercy—judgment now."
"Still hungry."
I clenched my fist.
"Let me eat a bit more."
In that instant, we moved simultaneously. Winds sliced my shoulder and side; a light sword pierced toward my heart. I seized his wrist.
Holy light seared my flesh.
I shattered the repulsive light into scraps.
The sword extending from Raphael's hand crumbled halfway, twisting black.
Angels behind swallowed hard. Raphael said curtly,
"Quick adaptation."
I twisted the gripped arm.
───Wood-crack!
Flesh mangled, bone snapped. Raphael's face twisted ever so faintly. I headbutted into the gap.
Bam───!
Cracks spiderwebbed his light barrier. Raphael was pushed back. Winds buoyed him from touching ground, but for that instant, the entire battlefield clearly saw Raphael repelled.
One high angel unwittingly gulped.
"...Lord Raphael—"
"Silence."
A serene but razor-sharp rebuke. All mouths shut.
Raphael raised his head again. In those eyes, for the first time, true killing intent gleamed.
"Bell."
"What."
"Your mere existence disrupts the world's balance. Not good for anyone. So, I'll end it."
His six wings unfurled at once. Countless light sigils overlapped behind him. Over the battlefield. High, mid, low angels—all ranks. Weapons, authorities, reinforcements descending from the torn sky. Raphael grasped them all at once.
"In heaven's name."
His voice resounded across the field.
"Here, I erase the Demon of Gluttony completely."
The legions of light moved in unison. Ramparts, sky, ground, fissures. From every direction, light and wind, holy spears and hymns converged. Raphael tested no more. He unleashed every means in grand spectacle, solely to kill me alone.
Gluttony spread thicker, blacker.
"Good."
I twisted my lips.
"Now this is a proper fight."