"At least we won't have to worry about him." Lane said the moment we heard the elevator doors shut.
"The fact he literally can't die still rings itself through my mind." Glenn sighed. "He doesn't need his army. He only needs himself."
"In more ways then one." I added. Unfortunately, this served as a reminder of my presence, and the attention shifted back towards me.
"So. You blew up the tunnels, huh? You killed thousands of innocents today you know." Glenn said.
"We should kill him ourselves." Stacy offered.
"No, that's not a good idea." Kell said. "Michael would likely be annoyed if we did that."
"So would the public. They'd need to hear his full confession before they accepted him as being at fault. If we just showed up with a dead body and called him criminal, we'd have a riot on our hands." Lane said.
"So... you guys can't kill me. So it's good. No need to talk it over any furth-"
"Actually, we might as well film him confessing- I mean, not everyone will go for it, but we might as well. Then we can send him over to Michael to get killed, and the problem is entirely over." Glenn suggested.
"People will think we forced him to say it as a scapegoat. It'd be more solid if we had him do it with a podium in front of a crowd- the sort of secure event that makes it seem more realistic. A personal video in a dark room reeks of suspicion." Kell said.
"Everyone did see him in the sky though. He's not some random civilian. I'd bet a lot of people are suspicious of him to begin with- he had a bunch of cults obsessed with him and everything."
"It would be better than nothing. Even if we never use the video. We might as well gather what we can while he's still alive." Lane said.
"It's our best bet." I couldn't help but notice how quiet Stacy had been- besides the one genuine burst of emotion when dealing with Michael, he had been keeping silent and sticking to basic phrases of bland fact. If I hadn't already known he was guilty, I would have been able to guess it.
An agreement had been reached, though The Few were yet to put all of their effort in any one task- all would pause to check their phones or the news every few minutes.
Still, a script was ironed out for me. I was forced to write out a statement as well- the first time was in English, but my handwriting was so despicable they opted for me to write it in angelic as well.
Glenn's small computer phone was used as the camera. For the sake of making it look 'not forced', I was seated with my back to The Few- they were to look generally busy in the background while I spoke. Lane was also at my side, evidently holding me down.
My script was written by Glenn, but she barely knew the details of what had happened, so it was mostly filled with parentheses reading 'insert reason for attack here' and such.
Glenn actually stood across from me, holding up pieces of paper for me to read off of.
"Hello." I started. "My name is Michael Castellano-" Her card actually read 'Nichael' but I decided I was going to be honest- "And I am not an angel. A few hours ago, I hacked into the main sky network frame and said some things. They were incorrect. No angels were or are coming to Hell."
Reading off her cards was still sort of hard, even with my ever improving literacy, so I was talking fairly slow. "Then I exploded the tunnels. In these tunnels were a bunch of cults who worshipped me. I pretended to be an angel so they'd do this. I am not though. I killed a lot of demons today. I did this because I thought I was an angel. I'm not. Anyways, The Few are going to execute me for my crimes of mass murder pretty soon. Bye."
"There. So that takes care of that." Glenn seemed pretty proud of herself. "This will convince people fine. He even looks guilty, all blustery and red-faced."
"What do we do with him now?" Stacy asked with a measured tone of voice.
"Uh. Michael will be back eventually."
"We don't exactly want Michael prancing around Hell though. Why don't we just tie him up near the entrance? It'll save us from having to deal with him again." Glenn suggested.
"It'll also let him return to Heaven sooner." Lane reminded.
"We'll be done by then, right?" Asked Glenn, and I realized for the first time that, utterly unseen to me, the army of Hell had likely already departed to begin their assault. Maybe the attack was even underway. But it wasn't like they had days to plan this out- especially now that Michael and his brothers were at risk to appear any moment.
It was kind of disappointing to be missing all the action though. Glenn had resigned herself to be my personal escort, and she picked me up to lead me out of Hell. I would like to add an 'again' here, but it seems to go without saying at this point.
Glenn was sort of angry at me, but I was under the impression she was mostly seeking a reaction. Whenever we passed rubble being cleared away or injured people on stretchers, she'd turn over and watch my face. I didn't know what to say or how to look.
The alternate elevator- the one with only three buttons- was mostly being used to transport people out of Wrath, but Glenn managed to secure us a ride. A silent one, of course. Sometimes she'd check her phone, but after a few minutes she stopped.
She left me on the present Earth's hellmouth, still in handcuffs. But she tied up my legs as well before leaving.
I wasn't actually stuck to anything though, just mostly immobile. I could roll and scoot myself around without much effort, and so I begun my journey.
Well, it didn't really feel like a journey. It felt a bit humiliating actually. I could barely move, I kept hitting rocks under the leaves, and I'm sure I looked ridiculous.
But I managed to roll for quite a while anyways. My feet were bound with simple rope, and I managed to find myself a solid enough rock to loosen it with. Once I freed my legs, I stopped feeling so silly and got to simply walking my way towards Heaven.
My motivation was unclear even to me. But I guess I just wanted to see Heaven fight off Hell one last time. Michael would find me eventually anyways, so it's not like I really had to worry there.
I heard the gunfire before I saw the guns, as typical. And when I did come in sight of Heaven, it was nothing too surprising- though certainly shocking to the part of me that still called its walls home.
There were a lot of demons- like, tons. They were everywhere. Most of the angels seemed content to stay inside, or else try to elongate their blades and strike from the walls. A number of soldier angels had gone past the gates: willing to die in a blood-soaked blaze of glory, they leapt from kill to kill like acrobats.
And the demons had a lot of guns. And a good few, I saw, had found blades as well- and didn't see much repulsive about cutting some skin off an angel if it meant they got to wield a much stronger weapon.
The demons had swarmed on all sides, leaving me little way in, especially in handcuffs. And while a good number of the soldiers here probably had yet to be informed what had happened in Hell today, they still probably wouldn't trust me on principle alone.
I stuck to the woods with caution, aware of several skirmishes happening inside them, and made my way to the back of Heaven. Here there were very few demons, and the three angels on the walls were fast to take them down.
When the section closest to me was completely clear, I ran forward shouting "Brothers! Brothers! Hold your blades, please. I have been trapped by the demons, but I am back now."
The middle angel climbed down to see me. "You're a fallen. You have no right to be this close to Heaven."
"I just need your assistance. Please, cut off these hand prisons and I can leave again."
"You're a fallen. We have no right to assist you."
One of the other angels climbed down as well. "I'll do it." I recognized him to be Dohn. Though I suppose after how much I had changed, I might as well stick to calling him by his full name.
"Dohniel. Thank you."
"...I will take Michael's wrath when it comes. But these are demon traps, that is true, and I believe you should have a proper chance to run."
"Have the Brothers arrived yet?" I asked as he sliced slowly through my handcuffs.
He shook his head grimly. "They disappeared a few hours before the attack. I am loyal, but we all hold a small core of doubt somewhere in our hearts..."
"They will be here soon." I reassured, but I did not believe it. I just wanted Dohniel to feel better. "I promise not to bother you again."
I ran back into the woods and again made my way to a spot where I could see the full battle. It wasn't quite clear who was winning- after all, there were a hell of a ton of demons. But it was likely a good amount of angels were still waiting inside Heaven itself, and there among the streets they would have an even stronger advantage.
As I tried fiddling with the cuffs still on my wrists, I drew some unexpected blood- unexpected because it did not hurt in the slightest. I just moved the cuff a little bit and blood started to gather.
Out of curiosity, I ran a finger down the rest of my arm, and a similar thing occurred- one or two spots on my shoulder turned cherry red and looked quite suddenly like dried over scabs.
Glenn had said my face looked red earlier. Thinking about it did not seem to help it though, and I felt something hot pool on my upper lip. More blood.
This was not going to be pleasant. I wanted something reflective so I could see what I looked like, but I was at the edge of the forest. I ran deeper in though, looking for familiar landmarks until I at last came across a dark green pool dangerously close to the fighting. If I strained my eyes, I could see movement not far away.
I leaned over, and before I could really grasp what was happening to me, a droplet of blood fell from my eye and hit the water, distorting the reflection. Then another drop fell- maybe this time from my nose. The water was too full of ripples for me to recognize and I fainted, falling into the pond.
I was woken a moment later when I hit the freezing water, of course, but it was barely a wake. There was a serene second where I opened my eyes and saw just the grey light above me of the water mixed with my own blood, yellow and red and green coming together like fireworks.
And then the water flooded my nostrils and throat and I came to the surface hacking and coughing and still bleeding everywhere. I pulled myself up by my hands until I was half on the mossy shore and threw up watery blood.
Someone had heard me, I realized. Or maybe multiple people had? But I could hear one person's footsteps either ways, and they walked over to me and I watched their feet.
I was too dizzy to understand their speech, but I knew it was angelic. And as I watched my blood paint the moss in front of me, I knew what I was going to have to do.
But it was more reassuring to me to think of it like this: I knew what Michael Castellano was going to do. Michael Castellano, after all, had just killed thousands of demons. And he surely had no qualms with killing an angel- after all, he wasn't one.
So I, or him, or whoever, managed to very slowly stand with the help of the angel. And I- or we, or whatever- bared my teeth and got ready to attack.
And then I saw his face. And then he said "I thought I should follow you."
So I threw up my blood on Dohniel instead of killing him.
"Aren't you afraid of Michael?"
"I just thought I should follow you. You look... very ill."
"I am." I said. "Can I drink your blood?"
"What? Don't you have enough of your own?" He said defensively. Then he looked around. "You are losing a lot of it. But I am still not letting you have mine."
"I need your Grace."
"You're fallen. I shouldn't even be talking with you right now."
"I'm going to die if I don't get any Grace..."
"What's your new name?" He said, ignoring me.
"Michael Castellano. I am Michael Castellano now."
Dohniel seemed repulsed by my choice of name. I took this time to bite into his leg. "What the-" He said, rightfully alarmed as he fell into the lake.
I fell right with him, of course, and I didn't end up with even a droplet of his blood in my mouth before the water made it impossible to bite without drowning. I swam up to the surface again, looked at Dohniel and blushed, and ran away ashamed.
But I was starting to fall apart, and honestly if it hadn't been Dohn who had found me, I would have killed him. It horrified me. But I would have pushed him down and ripped at his vitals until his death. Then I would have found a way to suck him dry of blood- and hopefully in that blood, Grace.
Because I was fearing it wouldn't be long before one of my arms fell off.
I ran back towards the battlefield- not far away- and indeed my left leg was starting to feel less like a leg and more like a cushion. I started limping with it, afraid putting too much pressure would cause it to... burst, I suppose. I wasn't sure what was happening, but my body was clearly quite resentful to be alive.
I stumbled slowly forward. I could heard Dohniel still following me, but he was keeping his distance from my lumbering self. Eventually, I fell to the ground again- but unfortunately, I had planned this. I had used up the last of my energy to make it this far, and now I collapsed on the body of a dead angel.
Lveniev. That was his name. But I had to remember that Michael Castellano didn't know this fact. Didn't know about his name. Would have called him 'Le-ven-e-av' if he had to guess.
He had been shot several times in the head and chest, but like most angels did not bleed as easily as he should have. I didn't want to make new marks on his flesh, so I extracted one of the bullets from his chest and I just-
I sucked as much blood as I could get from his dead tissue and swallowed it with a sense of illness. The iron seemed to cut at my throat like I was swallowing metal shards, and the moment I felt it hit my stomach- and I could feel it alright, slow and steady- I was ready to throw up.
But I needed Grace. I needed to keep myself alive. So that Michael could kill me.
I paused. And by pause I mean I sat up, wiped the blood off my lips, and took a moment. Michael was going to kill me. I knew this because he had told me it. But if I was going to die anyways- a mere scientific fact at this point- why did it matter so much for Michael to do it? Why was I going around acting like a maniac just to sustain myself long enough for someone else to kill me?
Michael Castellano would never have stood for it. He'd have- well, I only knew few things about him. He killed a lot of people without any conscious, and he taught astronomy at a community college. But somehow I doubted he would have wanted Michael Lexington to be the one to kill him. Well. Maybe once he had come to the point in his life where he joined Michael's cult. Then he'd probably have loved it.
But the Michael Castellano that I had become would seek a little more dignity when it came to death.
I was feeling a little bit heavier if not better- in fact, I really wasn't feeling much better at all. But I stood up like I was wearing snow boots, and it took me a moment to realize I had help in the endeavor- Dohn had been sitting next to me for some time now.
I looked over at him. "I'm Graceless."
"I had... figured as much."
"And I'm going to need a little more blood."
"What? Another corpse? I swear, you're not the sort of person I would have pegged for straight up cannibalism, Castell."
"It will come in bottles. And I know just where to find it."