Chapter 484 (1): Mikhael, He Who Is Like God

The moment he entered Heaven, Auriel’s presence became somewhat stronger. He had already reclaimed his full power back in the human world, so his stronger presence had nothing to do with actual strength, but with mental fortitude. In other words, he was more confident now.

He trusted Mikhael’s power deep down. That also counted as confidence.

A beam of golden light streaked across the distant sky and landed before Auriel. Once the dazzling glow faded, an imposing golden spear was revealed.

It was the Spear of Thorns!

Each of the four Śārim had their personal divine artifact, which represented their command over their respective legions. Auriel’s Spear of Thorns, for example, was a main component of the emblem of his legion, paired with three sets of white wings—a Seraph’s wings.

Hesione also had her exclusive weapon. As her presence surged, she rapidly matched Auriel’s might. A golden light struck and settled into her grip.

Hesione unfurled her six wings. Her holy sword was named ‘Judgment’, shaped like a cross-shaped scale. The moment she grasped the Sword of Judgment, the divine authority of a Śār and a legion commander returned to her, and the stigma on the tip of her tongue blazed anew.

At that moment, Hestia sensed the presence of her superior.

Gulp!

She swallowed quietly, staring at Hesione’s golden radiance and then at Gerar and Vilkul, who were similarly reclaiming their power with quickly escalating presence. Her pupils contracted and then dilated.

The Seven Sacred Virtues were reclaiming their power, and with it, their exclusive divine artifacts. That made sense, but how about the wen—the clergywoman? What was she doing?

Sensing her own power growing stronger, Hestia came to a realization.

A crushing sense of suffocation gripped her heart. Her survival instinct kicked in, prompting her to grab Wayne’s sleeve and implore with a cracking voice, “Śār, you’re spoiling the clergywoman too much! That’s the Sword of Judgment, your personal token and proof of your authority over your legion. How could you hand it to a human?”

She batted her large, misty eyes. Please, Śār, take your sword back. A Throne like me can’t bear this.

“Hestia—no, I should call you Frey in Heaven... But I prefer Hes—”

“Śār, say something!” Hestia panicked.

“I have been saying things the whole time. Also, you interrupted me again.” Wayne brushed her hand off his sleeve and pointed at Hesione. “Repeat after me: He-si-o-ne—”

“...”

“Your silence is deafening. Although you haven’t said anything, I know you repeated it in your mind.” Wayne patted Hestia on the shoulder seriously. “As I said before, I do bear a tiny bit of responsibility for your mistakes, so if you don’t want to die, don’t get out of my sight.”

(꒪⌓꒪;)

So who the heaven are you?

Whoosh!

Following a surge of golden light, the Sword of Judgment came swinging down. Hestia paled, squeezing her eyes shut and silently lamenting her death.

Two seconds later, she cracked her eyes open to see Wayne blocking the Sword of Judgment with his fingers pressed together like a blade. His tall, imposing figure stood firmly between her and Hesione.

“You promised me that you wouldn’t give Hestia trouble, Hesione.”

“Anointed One, her body is far too indecent. She is Lust itself. I won’t allow her to stay by your side.” Hesione spoke matter-of-factly, as if this were purely business and had nothing to do with personal grudges.

“It’s not her fault that she looks indecent. The crime does not warrant the punishment. Let it go.” Wayne pushed the Sword of Judgment aside and pressed his hands together. “Forgive her for my sake. I’ll keep an eye on Lust incarnate from now on. I promise that she won’t be spreading her indecency around.”

Hesione’s eyes twitched. “Anointed One, are you going to redeem Frey the same way you redeemed me?”

“If I am?”

“Die!”

Hesione raised her sword horizontally. It was embarrassing to admit, but she had a feeling that the influence of Hestia’s indecency would take out the Anointed One first. Unacceptable. She would not allow the Anointed One’s purity to be tainted by a Throne!

“Tsk, in Hell, we call this Envy. Or we can go with the latest moniker and call this Clown behavior.”

“...” x2

Hesione silently put away her sword. She admitted that for one brief moment, her killing intent toward Frey had contained a small part of selfish desires. She wasn’t just trying to eliminate the threat of Lust for the Anointed One, but ninety percent of it was her feeling possessive.

Given how indecent Frey was, what if the Anointed One became so obsessed that he stopped getting intimate with Hesione?

The thought was too embarrassing to voice, so Hesione kept her mouth shut and labeled it one symptom of the Seven Deadly Sins virus. Since she couldn’t do anything to Wayne, she settled for glaring daggers at Hestia, warning her not to offend the Anointed One.

Not even when the Anointed One wanted it!

She narrowed her eyes, a thought occurring to her. “She will go to the Spring of Reincarnation. There, Frey can restore her original angelic form.”

The original angelic forms were quite random. With a large eyeball and wings as the base, the angels would run down whatever bizarre path they found themselves on with creative liberty. Reincarnated angels had entered the human world through the Spring of Reincarnation, and once they returned to Heaven, they would once again enter the spring.

It was similar to Pride’s reincarnation altar. The difference was that Pride’s reincarnation wasn’t complete. What was transformed was his replica rather than himself. The angels, on the other hand, had reincarnated fully to bring their main bodies to the human world, becoming human infants.

Once they had reclaimed their full power, reincarnated angels would return to Heaven and soak in the Spring of Reincarnation to restore their original appearances.

But since they had become human, the transformation process was only skin deep. It wouldn’t change the fact that they were of human flesh and blood. Even if Hesione submerged herself in the spring, her filth would remain. What had been reshaped by Wayne would remain in his shape. There was no going back.

That was why Auriel, Gerar, and Vilkul were so furious. Because Hesione had lost her purity, every angel in Heaven had lost theirs. In fact, they had all been reshaped by Wayne.

“Original angelic form...”

Wayne looked around hesitantly, taking in the whole host of bizarre specimens, some with tentacles, some with too many limbs, some with human heads and monstrous faces, and some resembling irregular geometric shapes.

He then looked over at Lust incarnate. She had flowy locks of hair, a stunning face, and a figure that could rival the Lord of Lust. This wasn’t a multiple-choice question, but a freebie with an obvious correct answer.

“Let’s put the Spring of Reincarnation aside for now.” Wayne reached out to pull Hestia behind him. He didn’t mean anything by this. It was just that even if he wasn’t going to make a move on her, she was still nice to look at.

Hesione stepped forward. “Anointed One, to prevent Frey from committing a grave mistake in the future, please allow me to eliminate this risk.”

“Hesione, before you throw Hestia into the spring, answer a question for me.” Wayne raised an eyebrow. “Will you go into the spring yourself?”

“That’s...” Hesione hesitated. Then she answered carefully, “You were born human, Anointed One, so I should remain a human to better assist you in governing Heaven. I won’t be going into the spring.”

“Uh-huh. Is that what you call ‘assisting’? I just don’t want to call you out.”

Wayne waved her off, telling her to stop messing around. As a Śār, her method of eliminating a rival was too rudimentary. She should think of a better excuse next time.

Hesione stepped back with a blush, shooting Hestia a glare.

Hestia looked at her with teary eyes, avoiding Wayne and reaching out to Hesione. “Śār, I—”

“I’m not your Śār.” Hesione sneered. “I’m just a shameless wench who has defiled Purity itself, with no self-respect at all.”

Hestia’s mouth fell open as tears dropped like pearls. She lowered her head and went up to Hesione, begging for forgiveness. She would gladly pay any price for Hesione’s forgiveness, even her own life.

Hesione sighed, patting her blonde hair. “I was the one who caused your mistake. I misled you. The fault isn’t yours.”

“Śār, does that mean you forgive me?” Hestia asked, overjoyed.

“No, I still want to kill you!” Hesione’s expression darkened. Every time she remembered how Hestia had run her mouth, she felt irritated. Moreover, Hestia... looked too lewd.

“Hesione, why don’t you let it go?” Wayne inserted himself into the conversation. “For my sake, forgive her—”

“Shut up. This is all your fault.” Hestia glared at Wayne. Her loyalty belonged to the Śār alone. Without that mantle, Wayne instantly became a random man in her eyes.

“You shut up. Who do you think you’re talking to?!” Hesione snarled, drawing the Sword of Judgment to cut Hestia to pieces.

Hestia closed her eyes and braced for death, while Wayne grabbed Hesione and held her back. Chaos ensued. It was like a circus.

Auriel watched the whole farce coldly. “Vilkul, Gerar, have you recovered your power? How much longer will it take?”

“Just a bit longer...”

The two Virtues looked embarrassed.

Both of them had shameful memories they didn’t want to confront, so keeping their human selves alive would be beneficial to them. The duality, however, left too many impurities inside them, slowing the process of reclaiming their power significantly.

No one paid any attention to Reza. He continued to lament the hardships he had overcome to enter Heaven, head bowed as he wiped his tears.

The Pontiff stood at the Gate of Heaven like a lowly underling.

More and more bizarre beings appeared, most of their appearances beyond ‘creative’. Aside from the main feature of giant eyeballs, their shapes made it difficult to classify the angels as the same species.

Then, at the very moment Hesione finished reclaiming her power, an enormous, bloated, overwhelmingly oppressive existence arrived at the Gate of Heaven. The humanoid being had a human torso and human limbs, but no hands or feet. Where the wrists should be, tentacles extended, and golden bands trailed from the ankles.

The bloated body consisted of piles of sagging folds of white flesh, studded with haphazard eyeballs. When they opened, they were eyes, and when they closed, they were golden runes shaped like eyes. Across a torso that stood a full thirty meters tall, there were easily over a hundred such runes.

Where the head should be, rolling white flesh swirled like boiling water. There were no discernible facial features except for a mouth that kept shifting.

On the back of the mass of flesh, six magnificent wings hung low, each a hundred meters long. The being was able to float without flapping its wings.

Around the wings were even more magnificent rings of golden light, resembling planetary rings. The layers of light numbered more than a few dozen.

With the rings, the being reached a staggering diameter of five hundred meters, dwarfing all the other angels. In his human form, Wayne was insignificant in comparison.

This was Seraph, Śār, the strongest angel, Viceroy of Heaven, and One-Who-Is-Like-God—Mikhael!

Wayne blinked and let go of Hesione, whom he had been grappling. Hearing her huff, he figured out who this massive monstrosity was.

All of his thoughts translated into one word.

“Whoa!”

He waved Hestia over, telling her to stand behind him. Hestia refused. If she was to die, she would die at the sword of the Śār she admired. She insisted on standing behind Hesione, but was driven away by the Sword of Judgment. She tearfully moved to stand behind Wayne.

The Śār didn’t want her anymore.

To someone as fiercely loyal as Hestia was, that was no different from a death sentence. The light went out of her eyes. Nothing mattered at this point.

“Don’t be sad. Here. A little head pat will fix it.” Wayne ruffled her blonde hair and murmured, “Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to bed Hesione into submission. She will not abandon you.”

Hestia glared at him. “Don’t you dare defile the Śār’s purity!”

(￣～￣;)

Then you might as well just die!