Goosebumps were the first to prickle my skin as the tension between the three Gods began to distort the realm. Zariel's expression was colder than usual. Lucifer was still smiling as if he could do no wrong. The same could be said for Moloch, who seemed happy, nearly like a child.
Metatron however… I didn't understand. Insulting him was fun, but his actions confused me. He should have perceived such an outcome. Even the dumbest strategist knew this was a bad move.
So why?
Why did he target me to ask a favor? Was it just to acquire Mephisto's assistance through me? Was it to threaten my children?
"F~O~O~D," A fiendish voice descended.
With a gulp, I surveyed my surrounding. The Weave within my eyes directed me to the far west, a few hundred miles away within a volcano. My heart palpated as I saw a home decorated by the intestines of hundreds.
Blood that rotted and pooled against the ground, similar to that of a carpet laid, while the rotting bodies of hundreds of thousands of women and men, children, and elderly lay sprawled about, arms and legs bound, while their mouths stood gagged. Their lifeless bodies were filled with maggots and pestilence that ate away at their eyes.
"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR~"
Hearing the shriek again, Aurelia placed her arm on my shoulder and flashed in the air as hundreds of dreadful arcs of enigmatic light exploded from the earth.
Flames, unlike anything I've ever felt before, bleeding an intense hatred, melted the surface of my skin like hot cheese before I became aware of it. A grunting sensation wormed its way out my throat as we weaved through the air, dodging these monstrous beams of unholy light.
"Gadreel!" Metatron growled, his bloodshot eyes aflame in recognition. Weaving through the arcs of hellish light, he shouted: "He who uses the Sin of Wrath as a weapon."
A weapon?
"The Undying Flame of Hatred," Aurelia said grimly." That's why it harmed you; It's not a flame but a sin."
Staring at Lucifer, the only one who didn't bother to dodge, I frowned as he opened his palm. Wielding a ball of scarlet light, I felt something in my stomach drop.
The orb in his palm was the very same aura Gadreel just released.
"Look carefully." Said Aurelia vigilantly. "What you are about to see is one of the Three God Realm Techniques to exist. The very same rank as your Black Sabbath."I looked at her, and she smiled: "Father created it observing the Forsaken… My Mother's people."
The world trembled as Lucifer closed his fist, crushing the Orb. His body began to glow hot like an abyss of fire, and in that moment, the Undying Flames of Hatred cloaked his body.
"I don't know the mechanics as I wasn't compatible: But Father is able to absorb both Physical, Magical, and Concepts, turning them into his power. It's an impossible technique that he created for Mother."
"What's it called?" I muttered, feeling Lucifer's state of existence being pushed to such a greater height my bones grew weak in his presence.
Aurelia shook her head: ' No idea. He never told me. He's never told anyone. But said that this technique anyone can acquire but few can wield."
"What does that mean?"
She looked at me oddly, ready to speak when Moloch's booming voice resounded sarcastically: "Oh, King of The Nines, has thee decided to kill thy Eldest?"
"Piss off," Spat Lucifer coldly.
I frowned, feeling the ground shutter even more, quaking with such force brimstone rained from the skies, painting our skin ashen.
"Shit!" Aurelia shouted, pivoting with me off the air. When a golden black sword flashed into her palm, twisting the realm. Embers of radiance blinded my eyes as a bloodstained bone spear that would have impaled us zoomed past us, arriving at Metatron, who easily caught the bone.
"Look what you've become… Brother," The Archangel whispered, the torn in his voice the most genuine it had ever been in my presence.
Catching sight of a ghastly figure rise from the earth carrying two ashen horns, wielding seven mini pupils within a single iris. He was naked, yet the blood staining his ashen skin felt more like cloth than anything else.
Gadreel stared for a while, silencing the scene. None dared to speak as they all stared at the monstrosity before them. Many drew cold breaths as they stared at the entity that had fallen both physically and mentally.
No more did he wield a human appearance but rather something stranger. His arms and legs were elongated, carrying talons capable of shredding gods to stardust. In contrast, the veins upon his ashen skin glowed like magma.
"My Lord," Lucifer muttered." I… Didn't think a Fallen could look like this. Is he truly an angel?"
"There isn't a shred of humanity." Moloch warned, frowning: " And those… Pupils. What are they?"
"WAR!!!!" The Fallen Beast Gadreel howled.
And before my eyes, I felt the very abyss shudder as if called upon. I could feel the horsemen of war galloping around his spear as his inhuman eyes and boney face shifted his stare to me.
This thing smiled, and in a flash, he was upon us. But I was ready, and so too was Aurelia.
"Eldritch Slash," Aurelia said coldly, flickering her wrist surrounded by a golden radiance.
While I drew on everything my spear could wield, I struck, applying a shadow Slash to my thrust. I watched as my entire right arm exploded in a pool of blood that didn't even have the time to wet my body as it was disintegrated by the flames of Hadred pooling around this Beast.
But to our surprise, Gadreel didn't even look phase as two attacks landed, carving apart his flesh like nothing. He was whole in the blink of an eye. His injuries gone like they never existed.
"B~r~o~t~h~e~r," The Monster said.
"..."
"..."
Pointing to myself, somewhat confused at what Gadreel had just said, my shaky voice echoed: "Sure…."
"Brother~," Gadreel said once again happily. Moving past me, he looked up at Metatron, and my jaw simply dropped.
"What the hell?" Muttered Aurelia. "You banging him or something? Why'd he just…."
"What?" I snapped. " I'm going to take the high ground on what you just said. But I've no idea why he just called me brother. Maybe it's the sweetness. The bitches do love me."
"... Yeah. I don't think that's it."
"Aurelia… Look at me. I'm a twenty out of ten." I told her with the purest sense of confidence I could muster when a thought came.
War… He mentioned war.
"That earlier feeling.. could it be the Horseman of War. Are the Horseman Gate somehow involved?"