Book 8 - Waning of the Moon Chapter 72

Angelic Battle

Michael growled like a primordial beast as he began a blitzing attack, but Richard managed to deflect every one of his slashes with minimal effort. The powerful celestial who could destroy any number of Midrens felt challenged by the youth, a fact that left him greatly confused. He was born to eliminate the heretics! Even if strength wasn't his strongest suit, he was still on par with dragons! There was another realisation he made as well; his combat abilities were far below those of Richard.

Having dedicated one of his minds to a constant analysis of the martial arts of the Eternal Dragon for decades, Richard had reached a point where there was almost no way to improve his battle skill significantly. While some of that skill had been lost for a while as he got used to his newfound strength, that problem was now mostly behind him.

"What? Annoyed that your strength can't compare? Don't worry, there'll be other things to feel bad about soon," he laughed at the angel's anger and confusion before pulling the Judge out of its sheath, "Why is it that I find you winged worms annoying?"

The aura of the Judge changed with these accusational words, the blade lengthening to almost two metres as its jagged edge turned from unorderly to regular. A faint black aura started dancing around the blade, an aura from the hells!

Although they were both beings of order, devils were the nemeses of angels. Each side was quite powerful against the other, their attacks amplified to a great degree. The bishops and paladins of the Church of Glory shuddered as they felt the aura of the sword, an aura that they certainly considered the worst of sins.

"How dare you deal with the devils, here— AAHH!" Michael screamed as the Judge swept past one of his wings, the black aura destroying much of the golden barrier and dismembering it in the process. Only the root of the wing was left behind, a significant change compared to the small cut the sword would have left in its earlier form.

The celestial staggered backwards, his domain shrinking further to only fifty metres around him. The Judge itself continued to squirm, trying its best to digest all the light that it had just absorbed. That dark energy continued to strengthen in the process.

Richard pointed his weapon forward once more, "Saw that? The gods didn't give you strength for you to flaunt it."

"A MERE MAGGOT FROM A LOWLY PLANE DARE HURTS A DIVINE BEING? YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE PLANE WILL PAY FOR YOUR SINS, YOU DESPICABLE CREATURE!"

Richard's eye twitched, but so did those of the other side. Everyone from the Church here was considered a servant of the Radiant Lord, and there was supposed to be no hierarchical difference between the different races serving him. While the bishops and cardinals could only look annoyed, however, Richard laughed, "Then let this maggot teach you a lesson."

Bright light started radiating from the silver and crimson armour, turning Richard into a blood-red meteor that threw itself at Michael in an instant. The sky exploded in a display of red, black, blue, and gold, and amidst the flashes of light Michael was struck repeatedly while his own attacks were all blocked. His blazing sword was a weapon from the Celestial Plane that was considered divine even there; the Judge was clearly a weaker class of blade, but he had only broken three of its sawteeth and Moonlight actually managed to keep up with no damage at all! Richard had quickly learnt and started using the green sword as his main blocking weapon, reserving the Judge for ambush attacks from time to time.

Michael's expression was a mixture of shock and anger. The Judge stole a portion of his light every time it swept past him, and this light was just as much a part of himself as his physical body. Richard could just cut the air and hurt him greatly, while he had no way to really retaliate.

Amidst the fierce battle, Richard suddenly flashed a smile. Michael felt an extreme sense of danger and tried to fly away, but it was far too late. A blood-red sphere erupted in the sky even as another mournful scream rang out, with Richard being thrown out a few dozen metres before stabilising. Golden flames raged all over his body, but they were quickly extinguished by Midren's power and his smile hadn't been broken in the slightest.

When the sphere of light dissipated, the cardinals gasped at the sight. Another wing had been ripped off Michael's back!

Celestials used their wings of light as a source of energy, considering them a symbol of status and prestige. Six-winged angels were supreme beings, which was why Midren's battle edition had so many as well. However, Richard had withdrawn these wings at the start of the battle to aid in his mobility, while Michael had kept his active. Now, agony was the only thing on the angel's face as his golden radiance was flickering even at a mere ten metres all around him.

The celestial suddenly turned to the pope, "Give me all your power!"

The cardinals recoiled in shock, but the pope remained calm and raised his staff high. Golden light was pulled from Archbishop Ruford and all the cardinals in moments, gathering at the tip. Ruford suddenly realised that the divine grace he had accumulated for years was starting to burn without control, going away at a rate that would turn him into a powerless human within minutes.

"NO! STOP!" the Archbishop screamed, while the rest of the cardinals just stared in paralysed shock.

Wary of what would happen, Richard disengaged from Michael and went into a defensive stance. Martin flew over at the same time, "It was said that the Radiant Lord did not possess enough power when he first tried to light his godspark. His worshippers willingly offered their own light to the Lord, allowing him to ascend to his divine throne. This staff must have gained that function."

"Willingly, you say?" Richard stared straight at the masses of stunned clerics, thinking otherwise, "Is there a record of this in your holy book?"

"No, it was a secret circulated between the popes and the divine children."

"No wonder."

A beam of light shot out from the tip of the pope's staff, forming a golden barrier around Michael and starting to heal his wings that had just been destroyed in battle. However, Martin just glanced at the Judge in Richard's hands with a complicated expression before warning, "Michael's a tough one. You be careful."

The black aura was rapidly healing the damage to the judge, restoring the teeth that had been destroyed. Such weapons were rare even in the hells; given his identity as a divine child, Martin felt extremely uncomfortable in its presence. However, Richard brandished the weapon the moment it restored itself and grinned, "Well, I don't feel like just waiting around here."

All six of Midren's wings spread out, turning Richard into a bolt of red lightning that charged towards the four other enemy angels on the battlefield. Crimson spheres of light exploded in quick succession, dropping all four of them one by one. The bodies within the Heaven's Armour were thoroughly crushed, blood and flesh devoured by the black mist until the rune set itself split apart, and as the individual armour pieces struck the ground they sent out rings of explosive power that injured swathes of paladins and other enemy soldiers. Cracks appeared all over the metal as they were almost completely destroyed.