Chapter 20:

Archangel's Power

The Legend of the Pervy Archangel


“Michael!!”

A shout penetrated Michael's mind. His eyes snapped wide open. That was Alice's voice!

With strength he didn't know he possessed, Michael rolled out of the way of Lucifer's attack. The red orb struck the ground, exploding on contact. Rubble and dust and debris was sent flying, kicked up into the air, creating a large screen of dust and smoke.

Michael, ignoring the way his body protested against the quick actions, scrambled to his feet and moved away from the growing smoke screen. He didn't know what Lucifer would do next in this situation, but he wanted to be far enough away that he had some kind of advanced warning. Plus...

“Michael!”

“Alice!”

Michael looked up and saw Alice, wide awake and staring at him and their surroundings with giant, frightened eyes.

“Michael! Where are we? What's going on? And where's Dustin?”

“I don't know if I have time to answer those,” Michael said.

“You're right,” another voice spoke up. “You don't have time. In fact, your time ran up several centuries ago.”

Michael's eyes widened as he was forced to dodge a red sphere of compressed energy. He did so by throwing himself to the ground, allowing it to pass overhead. The red mass of dark matter struck the wall. Violent red energy exploded outwards, tearing that section of the wall apart and sending shrapnel everywhere. Michael had to raise a hand to shield his face, which ended with him wincing as something sharp penetrated his forearm.

“Did you see that?!” Alice shrieked, shocked. “What the hell was that?!”

“Not now, Alice!”

Michael grunted as he pulled the shrapnel from his skin. Copious amounts of crimson liquid ran down his forearm, gushing from the wound. It didn't look like he'd punctured a vein, thank the Lord, but the gash still stung.

The compressed sphere of energy had caused the dust choking the air to be cleared violently. Dustin, or rather, Lucifer, stood exactly where he had been after attacking Michael when he'd been lying helpless on the ground.

“Color me impressed,” he said, his tone mocking. “I didn't think you had any fight left in you.” Michael gnashed his teeth together, which Lucifer must have noticed. “Or are you on your last leg?”

Michael didn't answer, instead he tried to figure out what his options were. There didn't seem to be many of them. He could fight against Lucifer, or he could try to get Alice out of her predicament and escape with her. Neither option could end in anything but failure. If he fought Lucifer, he would die. If tried to free Alice, Lucifer would kill him before he could even get her out from the bonds holding her. Either way, he was dead, and Alice...

He gritted his teeth. If only he had his power! If only...

***

“You shall hereby be stripped of your title as Archangel.”

“WHAT!?”

“The only way for you to regain your title is to prove that you have truly learned your lesson.”
“What lesson am I supposed to be learning here?!”

“Furthermore, you shall henceforth be cast out of Heaven until you have forsaken your libidinous ways.”

“You're sending me out of Heaven!? But all I did was peek on a couple of women!”

“From now on, you shall live on earth as a human. This is my punishment!”

***

Michael's eyes widened. The words rang through his mind, and now that the shock of that declaration had worn off, he realized something.

God never said that he'd been stripped of his power. The only thing God had mentioned was his title as Archangel being taken away from him. He'd just assumed that his powers were gone because God said he would be forced to live his life as a human.

Did that mean his powers were still with him?

“Well, last leg or not, I've grown bored of this little dance between you and I.” The sound of Dustin's voice under Lucifer's control made Michael's attention return to the here and now. “I think it's time I ended this.” Lucifer grinned, another compressed ball of tightly packed energy appearing to hover above his hand. It was a testament to his power that he could generate so much energy while possessing a human. “I'm going to kill you, Michael, but first...” his grin expanded exponentially. “...I'm going to kill the young lady and watch as you fall into despair.”

Michael's eyes widened as Lucifer threw the energy not at him, but at Alice. Everything seemed to slow down. He heard Alice's scream, saw the ball blazing the airspace on it's inevitable path to the woman he cared for, felt his heart hammering away in his chest. Desperation, panic, fear, all these emotions and more swept over him, raging and powerful, like a furious storm, an unending tempest. He'd never felt so afraid in his life.

But he pushed those emotions to side, because beyond all the negativity, the hanging sense of hopeless despair, lied a small ray of hope, one that he grasped with all his might.

Michael dove into himself, into his soul, the very essence of what made him who he was. He'd not done this for several thousand years. The last time he needed to literally go soul searching had been when he'd first fought against Lucifer after the other Angel rebelled against God. Well, he needed to now; he needed to find his power, to bring his full might to bare. And so he searched, he went deep into himself, and there, lying dormant within the core of his being, Michael found it.

The power of The Archangel.