Chapter 2- Fragile

Old life blessed with evil grace,

Darkness now has a new face.

It is time to start my chase,

To get thy final embrace.

Location: Hell

Hidden within the darkness and safe beneath the surface of the world- that’s where he loves to be. No one would suspect to find him here, where he is completely unstoppable and brewing his revenge with the patience of an old scholar. Silence surrounded him, enveloping him in a cocoon of stopped time while the dark slowly inflamed his heart with fretfulness. The time had come at last, the beginning after the end had risen to let him plan his revenge.

Ignoring his excitement for the time being, the sinister man leaned back with a smirk and sipped on his beer. He shut his eyes to enjoy the air of rare secrecy as a low hum escaped his lips. “Everything is going smoothly. I couldn’t be more content,” he uttered with his raspy voice while deep in thoughts. 

Slowly, he peeked his red eyes open and turned his head to glance at the board of unfinished chess on the table next to him. His eerie orbs gleamed in the dark when he leaned forward to move the white queen. A grin formed on his ghostly features as soon as he touched the piece of chess. For a second longer, he let his gentle touch linger on the figure before he moved her through the air like a marionette dancing to his will. With quick yet skilled movements, the white queen moved over the board of chess not once but thrice before coming to a halt right in front of a black knight. Sinister thoughts made his eyes gleam as he flicked his wrist skillfully, causing the white queen to flip the black knight right off the board. His excitement grew to its peak as he watched the black knight fall to the ground. 

As soon as the piece of chess hit the ground, it shattered, causing a chuckle to slip past his dry lips. The low-pitched sound rang through the mostly empty room in a spine-chilling way and bounced off the walls with a soft echo, turning the atmosphere even darker. 

‘One is out of the play~’ he thought in glee, not mourning the fact he had lost one of his figures. ‘The loss of this knight is the least I have to worry about. Oh, the risks you have to take to win are rather exciting.’

With a deranged giggle, Azrael lifted the white queen closer to his face, studying the features of the fragile figure. “Now that you have appeared… The time has come. Waiting for so long was tiring...” The man spoke to the white queen, his malicious intent making the air in the room intense and unbearable.

A slight flick of intense irritation suddenly embarked his eyes, making him throw the white queen against the wall with a loud outcry of anger. The piece of chess broke in half as soon as it hit the wall and bounced to the ground with a soft clunking noise. “Hah. Hahaha hahaha! Ridiculous!” Azrael shouted in a mirthful way while scratching the dry skin of his arms rather aggressively. 

“I have no use for these toys anymore… After all, I don’t need to amuse myself with children's play anymore!” He laughed amused and shook his head as soon as his laughter grew in volume. “Time is up!!” 

Azrael's crazed laughter slowly died down, his hands slipped from his arm and rose to his head to run his fingers through his shaggy-haired purple locks. He cracked his neck to relax the stiff muscles before focusing his eyes. The black pupil in his orbs twitched before it ran down like water, dropping from his eyes like black tears. The rune of death slowly became visible within the glowing redness of his eyes, the temperature of the room dropping to freezing degrees. 

“Just wait for me… Seraphina.” He whispered as a wide creepy grin formed on his lips. He stared at the broken white queen in the corner of his room for the last time and rose to his feet. ‘I’m coming to get you~’

———🕊———

Location: Heaven

‘Paranoia…’ Through a sudden jolt, the big silver-blue eyes of the small angel opened slowly, the baby blinking to clear her blurry sight. It took her a moment to focus her vision, but as soon as she could make out what was happening, a cry in surprise left her lips.

“Oh! She opened her eyes!! Gosh, she is so adorable!! Just look at her pretty eyes!!” Raphael cooed while carefully holding the tiny angel. He was quite awed from seeing their little niece up-close for the first time and couldn’t contain his excitement.

“And her tiny wings too… She’s too precious!!!” The Archangel shouted out happily, feeling like crying because of Sera’s cuteness.

“What?! Show me!” Gabriel suddenly interrupted and snatched Seraphina from him, making Michael pale even more with his entire body freezing up in panic.

“Aww!! Oh my gosh! She is the cutest! Her chubby cheeks are everything!” Gabriel squeaked in high tones, pinching their niece’s cheeks what made Sera’s features scrunch up in slight distaste. 

“I can’t wait for her to grow up!! She is going to be such a magnificent beauty! I need to teach her everything about fashion and how to charm her way into people’s hearts…” They jabbered, gently brushing through Sera’s short silver hair to calm her down from the sudden change of events.

Sadly though, Gabriel seemed rather observed in their musing and missed to notice the growing looming shadow behind them which belonged to a very unhappy father. Both Uriel and Raphael froze when spotting the pissed-off Michael behind their brother, grimacing in uneasiness and panic.

“Oh, she is going to break lots of hearts, just wait for it!! The boys and girls are going to fall for her immediately! She won’t be able to save herself from so much courting~” The Messenger Archangel raved happily only to pause when they looked at their panicking brothers in front of them.

“Huh? What?” They asked with narrowed eyes until a sudden sharp chill of fear ran down their spine. Feeling doom brought upon them, Gabriel slowly turned their head to look right at a triggered Michael towering over them. “Oh…”

“What did you just say about courting…?! I ALLOW NO ONE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT THAT UNTIL SHE IS AT LEAST AS ANCIENT AS I AM!! NO, EVEN BETTER! THEY ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO COURT HER!” The King of Angels exclaimed with fury gleaming in his eyes, clearly not happy to imagine his daughter being courted or even worse... getting married.

Uriel closed his eyes in annoyance after witnessing his brother freak out about something this insignificant. He pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation while Raphael facepalmed in disbelief. 'That is what he was worried about?!’ They both thought, just glad they didn’t get kicked out because of Gabriel’s tendencies. 

Ignoring her uncles completely, Seraphina slowly peeked over Gabriel’s shoulder up to her father. She studied him for a moment, her deep eyes holding almost too much maturity. “... Gah!” The tiny angel called out suddenly, waving one of her small arms.

As soon as Michael spotted her movement, his attention was directed to her. With lightning speed, he snatched her out of his brother’s arms and held her protectively while glaring daggers at Gabriel. A light tug on his shirt from his baby made him reconsider scolding Gabriel. Therefore he decided to focus his full attention on his beautiful daughter.

“Aww! My poor little Princess! Did you miss your dad?” He cried out and kissed her face gently, actual tears gathering in his eyes when Seraphina smiled up to him with joyful noises leaving her lips. “Ah! Don’t worry, daddy missed you too, Sera!!” The King of Angels whispered before suddenly bursting out in tears, crying happily while holding his daughter close to him.

“... What the fuck. That is not the Michael I know,” Gabriel mumbled and turned to their brothers, who both just looked done with everything.

“Let’s just… try to forget whatever cursed material we are witnessing right now,” Uriel replied, deeply regretting not having stayed in the library today. Babies and children were brainless in his opinion and therefore not worth his time, so he didn’t quite understand what the big fuss was about. 

———🕊———

About half an hour later, Raphael sighed as he and his brothers had literally witnessed Michael crying the whole time. ‘Note to myself: Check up on Michael’s mental health later. Or rather… as soon as possible. I feel like he is at a point where he needs sleep or will cry at every little thing…’ He shook his head, wondering how he was supposed to fix this mess.

“Not to interrupt, but may I check up on Sera now, please?” The brown-haired Archangel chimed in, getting restless at the amount of work he saw building up in front of him the longer he stayed.

Michael stopped gushing over his daughter and blinked for a moment, his tears finally stopping. “Huh? Oh- Sure. Make it quick though.” He ordered with slight hesitation and walked over to the white changing table that was graced with fine gold leaf applications. With surprising care and gentleness, the giant of a man placed Sera down on the soft fluffy blanket on top of the table. 

As soon as the baby was properly resting on the furniture, Raphael switched places with his brother and slowly checked up on his niece. His movements were skilled yet gentle as to not hurt the baby. After searching her body or skin for any type of injury, he muttered to himself and placed a fingertip on Seraphina’s forehead. A blue calming glow suddenly erupted from his skin and dusted the baby’s expression in the reflective glow of his healing ability. Sera watched his movements in amazement, very interested in what he was doing. Her eyes especially lit up with fascination as soon as he used his power on her, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the Archangel.

Michael crossed his arms while he firmly stood behind Raphael and looked over his shoulder like a hawk, making his other brothers cringe at the uncomfortable and serious atmosphere.

“Say, Michael? How are things going with Aphrodite?” Gabriel suddenly asked to change the topic. They hoped to distract the way too worried father from making the best Healer of Heaven sweat as if he was a mere novice. However, as soon as that question left one of the countless mouths on their body, the Archangel regretted speaking up without thinking. Even Uriel lost his stern expression for a moment and shot his younger brother a quick panicked glance.

Luckily, Raphael was too focused on looking for internal injuries, diseases, or illnesses within their niece’s body to notice what big mistake Gabriel made. While most angels assumed it was mere rumors that their King had something with the Goddess of Love and Lust, the gods and higher-ranked angels were quite aware of the on and off affair of Michael and Aphrodite.

Michael stiffened as soon as that question sounded through the room, the air around them turning heavy within a few seconds. A chilling sensation rose through the Archangels at the sudden drop in temperature. They watched in dread how Michael’s expression shifted to an emotionless facade that earned him the nickname “Stone-cold Face of Justice”.

“Nothing is happening with her and me. You better not ask again.” He grumbled a loud that sounded quite similar to a growl, even though it was rather mild compared to his usual dark tone.

Just when Gabriel wanted to sigh in relief, Michael looked back to him with anger burning in his golden eyes. “And yes. This was a warning. Do not make me repeat myself.” He muttered coldly, his deep voice rumbling through the room like thunder in the distance.

“Haha haha! Of course! Of course!” Gabriel added nervously before playing with their golden hair to calm down. ‘Geez. What a close call. I better not mention Aphrodite ever again. It’s a pity though, they were so close in the past. Well, I can’t blame my brother for dropping her and marrying someone else. She turned into a complete bitch. Even her unmatched beauty can’t make up for her ugly personality.’  In the end, Michael was better off without her… In Gabriel's opinion at least.

———🕊———