Checkpoint - Part 3

"Everyone! Surround him!" Hadraniel instructs all of the shielded Angels to form a circle around Lucifer, who has gone berserk after being taunted by him.

As they all run past Michael, who is still kneeling in defeat on the ground, they lock Lucifer in a shield prison. They create a structure not just on the ground but also a couple of layers above their friends.

In a sense, they completely trap Lucifer in the shield prison they have created. The scenery inside turns to match the gloomy forest that is also encompassing Heaven. To resemble Heaven, an unbreachable fortress, the Angels brace themselves and prove that they can contain Lucifer.

"We're not letting you go!" One brave Angel from the group remarks while assessing Lucifer's next move. In all honesty, he is traumatized by the sight of a fully formed Archdemon. "Come on, guys! We can do..."

[Grasp!]

Before he can finish his sentence, Lucifer is already in front of him with his right hand choking the life out of the Angel. He does not find any cracks or slits big enough for his hand to slip through but breaks the shield by making a hole to execute his current action.

Disappointingly, Lucifer does not break his neck but pulls him so hard and tosses him onto the Angel that is holding the barricade, forming an escape route. Wasting not a single second, he dashes out and confronts Hadraniel.

Caught off guard, Hadraniel does not anticipate Lucifer's quick breakout from the technique that the Angels perfected and deemed to be impenetrable. Still, his experience and skill help him counter Lucifer's charge by blocking it with the sides of his twin blades.

However, the power behind the impact forces Hadraniel from holding his ground and pushes him backwards. To regain his stability, he has to call out his wings and suppress the pressure, only to be greeted again by Lucifer.

"Wait!?"

[Slam!]

Lucifer grabs Hadraniel's head and bangs it to the ground with an immeasurable force that drives the dirt and pebbles off the ground at a speed comparable to sound. Moreover, the crash is so powerful that it creates a shockwave and rustles the nearby leaves.

"I guess it's time to say goodbye to the afterworld, Hadraniel," Lucifer pulls his hook as far as he can and triggers it for a finisher yet gets disrupted by the other Angels who are finally able to react to their failed plan.

"Protect our leader!" The Angel leading this charge commands some of his comrades to heed Hadraniel's safety.

"Get out of my way!" Lucifer, who still has the momentum for his blow, switches his target and dumps it on this Angel. If before he pierced the shield, this time he shatters the whole thing while also sending the Angel away from the battleground.

"Everyone, don't falter!" Another Angel tries to raise his team's morale as he continues with a follow-up attack. Of course, they can predict what happens next as Lucifer unchallengedly defeats him.

As if this thing has a pattern, one by one the Angels oppose Lucifer and only have their asses kicked. Some of them are smart enough to increase their numbers before confronting him, though the result is always the same. Lucifer has yet to lift his feet from the ground where he slammed Hadraniel.

At the same time, three Angels carry the body of their unconscious leader to a safer spot. Their hearts bicker in the uncertainty of whether Hadraniel will wake up or not after seeing the strength of the blow he took. Thankfully, their worry changes to relief when he abruptly opens his eyes.

"What happened?" Hadraniel sharply asks while standing and losing his balance since his brain is in a daze. Before he flops again, one of the Angels who accompanied him manages to catch him.

"Captain Hadraniel, with all due respect, we suggest you step out of this fight while we try our best to apprehend the Demon," the Angel attempts to reason with his leader.

"No! Not in a million years!" Hadraniel retorts while holding his head that won't stop spinning in pain. "It will be a total annihilation for all of you."

"Do you think that we hadn't known about this?" The second Angel retorts.

"Huh?"

"With you in this current state, plus failing to even get Archangel Michael on our side, our chances for victory are negative at this point," the third Angel adds. It's not just these three Angels who think this way; every other Angel present in this battle also feels the same way.

"So, is this the end of the journey?" Hadraniel asks for the opinion of his comrades. "Won't a miracle appear after all the time we spent praying to God?"

"He brought back to us the monster that we were afraid of. Isn't that miraculous enough?" The first Angel jokes, and as if it was in cue, the nightmarish figure manifests in their sight.

[Drap!]

"Found you..." Lucifer, with an eerie tone, slowly approaches them with a broken shield he snatched from one of the Angels he silenced.

"You two, take Captain Hadraniel away from here," the first Angel readies himself and forms his trusted sword. "I'll stall him for as long as I can."

"Don't be an idiot," the second Angel positions himself next to him, simultaneously pulling out an axe.

"We are all in this mess together, aren't we?" The third Angel supports and joins his friend, making the three of them stand against the one mad Archdemon. "I'd rather stick to this end than not know what else will befall me."

"You guys." Hadraniel eagerly wants to help them, but not a single cell of his muscles will listen to his order as they freeze, rendering him useless. "The one he's targeting is me, so please... save yourselves. Captain's order..."

"Sorry, captain," the Angels cut off Hadraniel's demand with a saying of their own. "We quit."

With that, they begin a synchronized assault on Lucifer. They stick close to each other, forming a line coming straight at him. The axe at the front, the sword in the middle, and the weapon-we-have-yet-to-see one at the end.

Instead of waiting for them to come closer, Lucifer initiates the first contact by throwing the battered shield. He doubts it would be of any use to him, so why not try his luck?

[Clang!]

Astonishingly, the Angel cuts through the shield with ease, as if it were a sheet of paper. Lucifer thinks differently, though, as he deduces the shield to already be frail enough that even if an ant decides to walk on it, it would fall apart. Besides, his action manages to stop the Angel from advancing.

Nonetheless, his two friends use the opportunity to close their distance with Lucifer as they dart in between the splitting shield and recommence their ambush. When they reach close enough, they thrust the sword with all of their might, attempting to strike Lucifer's left chest.

"Take this!"

[Snap!]

Lucifer busts the blade with his left hand as soon as it gets into his proximity. Half a second before that, he also tugs on the sword to bring the Angel closer to him. Now, he straightens all of the fingers on his right hand to act as a dagger and shoves it into the Angel.

[Pierce!]

Without notice, the last Angel comes in to save the day as he brings out a shield to block Lucifer's counterattack. The shield gets impaled as a result, which is no longer surprising. To be fair, they all are envious of the material used to form his gauntlet.

[Kick and Bam!]

Lucifer boots the shield, just wanting to release his hand that was stuck there, but he earns a prize alongside it when the shield bumps into both Angels, taking them out. Plus, the other Angel who was about to follow up behind them also gets swayed in the process.

"No way," Hadraniel can only watch this one-sided attempt in vain as the bodies of the Angels sag ahead of him. He still has some trouble trying to stand but moving around in terms of crawling, he can manage that much.

With all the energy he has left in his body, Hadraniel inches closer to his fallen comrades while Lucifer also stalks nearby. Before he can get to them, Lucifer is waiting patiently for him to arrive.

"Michael, that's your cue!"

[Grapple!]

Out of nowhere, Malique sneaks onto Lucifer's back and restricts his movement using his body. Inattentively, Lucifer cannot find any means to escape this hold, leaving him vulnerable. However, it won't last long once he finds an error in Malique's technique.

"I know this isn't the real you, Lucifer," Michael, who pops up in front of Lucifer, strangles the mask that is covering his face and jerks it away as it dissipates into the air afterwards. "Come back to your senses."

And just like that, our two duos restore Lucifer to his cool stature. He no longer tries to shake Malique off, and the symbol representing him as the Sin of Pride in his eyes slowly disappears.