It wasn't easy to see God's design in a plan, Azazel noted.
Usually it can only be seen after an event had taken place.
Like right now.
"Azazel," Shemhazai spoke as he entered the Grigori's Governor General's office. "Still rewatching that battle? It's been days."
"We're missing something." Azazel said, as recording magical device replayed a hologram of the battle from the vantage point of the Fallen that were there at the time, and those that stayed and hid to gather information.
The recording reached the point where the Banishment was cast, only for the hologram just turned white, and after a minute turned back to show Raguel's death and resurrection.
And then God arriving to rob Zeus blind.
"You've already seen it like a hundred times." Shemhazai sighed as he took a seat.
"A hundred sixty nine times." Azazel said back mindlessly.
"Nice."
"Thanks."
The two looked at each other before chuckling for a moment.
"We didn't suffer the worst," Shemhazai said once they calmed down.
"Oh yeah, Lucifer's fuuuucked." Azazel said with glee, taking pleasure in that knowledge. "Of course, if Lilith sticks around instead of becoming a vegetable again--Seriously Dad dammit Lucy, that's a level of self-destruct even I wouldn't be aroused by--then they might actually have a chance to pick themselves up."
"What can they do?" Shemhazai asked in disbelief. "I mean yeah, they can rebuild quick. Lilith can make a million devils a day, any command structure they have is wrecked beyond belief. And Heaven isn't gonna wait for them." He pointed out. "I suspect our Three Factions is to be Two in the near future."
"Hmm... No," Azazel said in relaxed tone, shaking his head after thinking about for a moment.
"...Okay, how?" Shemhazai wondered with wide eyes.
"There is a way to get a grace period but Lucifer won't go for it. As in, he will rip his own wings off before he considers doing it." Azazel explained. "Of course, if Lilith is there, she can just make him, but that will have it's own complication." He shook his head. "Point is the Devils are going to suffer a lot from this, and while it's a good idea to capitalize on it, we're gonna need to focus on Heaven."
"And the Devils? What, we're just gonna leave them alone?" Shemhazai raised an eyebrow.
"Nah, we'll defend the territories we took. If anyone encounters a devil, fight like normal. No," Azazel looked back to the recording as it started from the beginning from when Azazel and his army arrived to Orkney. "Heaven and Olympus are likely to enter an alliance now. Probably nothing big, unless they accept becoming subordinate to Heaven, integrating into it, but I can't see Zeus going for that. Likely Father will offer to help revive the dead gods for material for his Sacred Gears."
Shemhazai groaned. "Fuck. We're gonna see news ones, aren't we?"
"Better start cataloguing again!" Azazel said with a cheerful smile. Then his smile gained an edge to it. "One of the gods to be reformed soon would be Hades. That ol' bones is definitely gonna have a bone to pick with Lucifer." Shemhazai groaned at the pun. "So he will at least keep the Devils occupied."
"And what are we gonna do?" Shemhazai asked.
Azazel looked at the recording showing Raguel's speech and then Michael's Keter and the results from it.
"He needs to die." Azazel paused the recording on the youngest Archangel's face.
"Sure I guess. I'll have a couple of assassin squads--"
"No." The seriousness in Azazel's tone, pulled at Shemhazai's attention. "It's a pain in the ass trying to parse through Dad's plans, and usually dealing with a direct issue works best." Azazel looked to his second in command, while pointing at the hologram. "Ever since he was created, the minor stuff that he does ends up building up till it came to this. I'm very sure that while the big four, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel are the main structure and combat force to Heaven, like Raziel, Raguel makes things work in-between, but he's been too effective at it."
"So...what? The entirety of the Grigori are changing their goal to focus on killing one Archangel?" Shemhazai asked with an incredulous chuckle.
"No..." Azazel held his chin in thought, then his eyes widened as an idea came to him. "The Summer Fae Court and the Aesir." He said snapping his fingers and pointing at Shemhazai.
Shemhazai looking aside, thinking for a moment. "The Summer Court's power and influence is mainly in Briton. The Saxons and other Germanian tribes are invading the British Isle. Meaning the Norse Gods are likely to pay attention to that area."
"That's right." Azazel said with a smirk. "By the way, what brought you here again?"
"Ah," Shemhazai made a noise remembering. "We got some samples like you wanted. Not many, as the Angels were pretty through in not leaving equipment behind, but a few enough to reverse engineer." He explained. "The Holy Swords are...odd though. They're all practically the same, obviously produced en masse, but with that quality? It shouldn't have been possible to make so many so fast." He sighed and shook his head at the absurdity of it all. "We did get the Demon Sword fragment from the battle between the Lady of the Lake and Lilith."
Shemhazai moved to head to the main labs, with Azazel going with to experiment on the new Magic Swords.
Azazel scowled deeply at the mention of the Christian Winter Fae. "It's not fair."
Shemhazai sighed. "Azazel...just let it go."
"It's not fucking fair that he's got a cute, sexy, stoic wife that can lose her expression and blush heavily at a compliment from the husband she loves. And Father just straight up wed them Himself, basically giving full approval without remorse for that, that...just fuck. It's not fair." Azazel whined. "And not only that, but she's a scary battle wife too! I want that!"
"Are we seriously going to focus all the Grigori's resources to kill Raguel, just because you're jealous?" Shemhazai asked with a disbelieving look.
"I'm not jealous! This is a well thought out, wise tactical decision!"