A Fate worse than Death

"I only went to sleep for a while and the world changed," Michael thought in a smile of melancholy, missing the serene and peaceful heavens in eternal dawn,

"The arch daemon of Sloth and that daemon architect, it must be their doing, why did end up so quick in evolution, wasn't he a sloth? doesn't he know quicker a world will grow, quicker it will end, sigh..." Michael continued his melancholic blabbering with a smile of the same emotions,

"Well, it is indeed my fault to sleep over 80 years, but was it necessary for that guy to place me in a coffin," Michael accused Helel of the prank or joke played on him,

Michael turned back and saw a shining white coffin beside him, well, if you ask where was he currently, the answer is, on the rooftop of the academy,

standing on the cross at the top of the extravagantly decorated school building with its new design, to enjoy the scenery of the heavens after so long,

Don't ask why did he bring the coffin to the rooftop after waking up,

As for what was the reason for this guy's sad tone, like he lost his home forever without saying goodbye, is the scene in front of him,

Advanced steam machinery everywhere, rune engraved artifacts, skyscrapers, elevators, a steam engine running around the whole city,, buildings stacked over buildings forming a hill of sorts leaning over a cliff's depression,

The intoxicating smell of steam and grease, the feeling of congestion and suffocation in a crowd,

All these feelings might be uncomfortable for this city's everyday residents but it was kind of exciting for Michael,

'It was a good idea after all,'

The atmosphere gave the feeling of modern yet overdeveloped machinery,

As for how that cliff formed,

Ask God, Michael was asleep for a long time,

"Wait, I can't find it anywhere around here," Michael said in a casual tone trying to find the signature crystal top of his twin's palace,

"Welp, Not here,"

Michael said after not finding the palace,

He did not worry too much as there were too many high buildings in the current 'era' to look for a pointed structure,

And his academy also got displaced so, it might be somewhere else, after all he was not like his brother to have eyes everywhere,

He then flew at a high speed towards the sky,

And after reaching a certain height above thick orange clouds, he observed the whole grounds of the Heavens through the cloudy fog which from a distance looked like clouds themselves,

"Holy shit!" That were the only words that came out of his mouth after seeing the scenario of heavens,

It was left up to a mad inspiration-filled architect to design the open grounds of whole heavens so, this is what happened,

The high heavens turned into a giant overwhelming maze of various scenes of forests, towns, cities, boulevards, train tracks, roads, playgrounds, arcades, shops, a hospital, stores and etc.

There was no space left open in the heavens but even so, it looked overwhelmingly wonderful to live in,

Hmm, there was one space left around the temple,

The temple was surrounded by a garden-like ground with a wooden fenced perimeter leaving only one side of the temple,

It had heaven's signature illuminating beautiful flowers and open ground preserved in its previous state,

The ground also had Gabriel's previously white tree which now had many colors on it, not just reflecting them like previously,

It had various colored enerticules floating around it, and there were also a few fairies and spirits around it,

It looked like the garden of the temple,

There was another strange thing he noticed, the garden was in place of Helel's palace previously and he still could not find his twin's palace,

"So, what happened, either earth ate it or the sky swallowed it,"

Michael tried to make a joke and console himself after not finding his brother's palace,

His breathing was becoming more and more ragged as the time passed,

He was worried shitless for his brother,

He thought of a possibility and that scared him even further,

'Maybe he rebelled against God, no no no, he can't be a heretic he just is weird and can be either too open or sometimes strictly forbidden to some orders, Maybe he refused an order of God and needed time to think about it and they misunderstood him, and...'

Michael's thoughts were in a fray due to overthinking,

Then he thought of another preposterous possibility,

'Maybe someone among Ashuras or daemons or even angels grew too powerful and overthrew him,'

Michael was a brother loving archangel, His brother was his life, the only moment he can find peace without his brother was sleeping, otherwise, he would go insane, and maybe fall to a point he can never return from,

Michael's thoughts were interrupted by a huge shadow cast over him,

He felt a chill course through his skin,

He, the great archangel Michael, the chancellor of heavens, felt afraid of just a shadow,

His pride took over his humility and hayware state of mind and then, he looked above him,

His eyes opened wide and a look of shock and despair appeared on his face,

What he saw above him was a horrendous monster with a brown colossal and disgusting city-sized body, and its aura being equal to Michael,

What made him feel despaired and shocked him weren't the appearance or aura of the monster but, it's features,

There were eyes all over its body observing the whole heavens,

No one can see that ugly thing spying over the whole heavens due to the cloudy fog giving him cover,

It was colossal almost as big as three cities of heavens combined,

It may be a city itself on its above surface,

But, Michael now could not imagine any of that,

In his mind there was only one legend repeating, told to him by God,

'Heavens gave everyone an equal to rise to the top at the beginning, everyone can ascend to the throne of heavens, there is an equal chance, just defeat the king to be the new king,'

'But, there is a certain case, Michael do you know the greatest innate ability of angels that you all possess,'

'No, I have never heard of anything like that,'

The light molded into a man just smiled and patted the head of the cute kid Michael who closed his eyes after feeling the touch,

'I will tell you but never tell your brother, Every angel has the ability to swallow anything and have its ability, just like a mime, to explain it better to gain its ability by swallowing the energy core inside it,'

'The angel later assimilates the core inside him thus, having the following ability, but, there is a pinch here, There is a limit to the quantity of energy an angel can hold, just like the limit of the quantity of aether a body can hold before improving it, so he can't hold an unlimited number of energy cores or an energy core too powerful for his capacity, they explode leaving behind only blood and guts spread around and the energy core dispersed if they try to force it,'

'Do you know what will happen to other races if they try to pull the same stunt as the angels,'

God inquired leaving Michael with a shaking head,

'If they can't assimilate the energy inside of them then, they will have the same ending, exceptions are the beings like Midgard serpents who can hold an unlimited amount of energy in them by growing in size but they can not have the ability core as it breaks down,'

'There are some abilities in this world that should or would never perish, like your brother's and many others, do you know what happens to the angels or beings who try to force such an ability inside them beyond their capacity, they don't die but they indeed have a worse fate,'