I'm The Devil

Chapter 369: Brothers At War

The first clash sounded wrong.

Not loud.

Wrong.

Like two laws had struck each other and the world hadn't decided which one to obey.

Lucifer's blade came in low and vicious, angling for Michael's ribs. Michael turned his own sword just enough to catch it, pale gold grinding against dark steel. Sparks didn't fly. Light bent. The floor beneath them cracked in a perfect line.

Then both of them vanished.

Gabriel stood up without realizing it. "No…"

Ariel's good hand clenched against her knee. "I can't even track them."

Exousia narrowed her eyes. "Watch the fractures."

Khaos didn't speak.

Lines started appearing through the stage. Thin at first. Then deeper. Then spreading.

Lucifer reappeared first, already mid-swing. He drove his sword down hard enough to split the place Michael had just left, but Michael was already above him, blade coming down in a clean arc aimed straight for the neck.

Lucifer caught it with the flat of his own weapon. Their faces were inches apart.

Michael pushed.

Lucifer pushed back harder.

Their swords screamed.

Lucifer shifted his left foot, broke the lock, and drove his shoulder into Michael's chest. Michael slid back half a step. Lucifer followed with a thrust, sharp and mean, going for the heart.

Michael turned his body just enough. The blade cut through cloth, skin, and a thin line of flesh.

Blood.

Gabriel's breath caught.

Michael's eyes sharpened, and he answered with a strike so fast Ariel only saw the afterimage. Lucifer twisted, but not fully. Michael's blade cut across his cheek and left a bright red line there.

Lucifer smiled.

That was the first bad sign.

They crashed together again.

No speech. No sermon. No old wounds thrown into words.

Just steel.

Lucifer attacked like he meant to carve years out of Michael's body. His blade came from ugly angles, low to high, side to throat, backhand to knee, then sudden reversals that would have gutted anyone else. He fought like someone who'd spent too long with monsters and picked up things heaven never taught.

Michael answered with precision so sharp it looked inhuman. Every strike was clean. No wasted motion. No flourish. Every defense was also an attack. Every block turned into pressure. Every retreat stole space on purpose.

Same face.

Different war.

Lucifer slashed across the centerline. Michael parried and riposted in one breath. Lucifer moved his wrist, caught the returning edge, stepped inside, and punched Michael in the mouth with his free hand.

Michael's head snapped sideways.

Lucifer brought the sword back around toward the throat.

Michael ducked under it and drove his elbow into Lucifer's ribs.

A crack.

Lucifer hissed.

Michael didn't stop there. He turned with the hit and cut upward. The pale blade tore through Lucifer's side and opened him from hip to chest.

Ariel sucked in a breath. "That should've dropped him."

Khaos spoke quietly. "Not him."

Lucifer staggered one step, looked down at the wound, then swung harder.

He didn't even bother pretending pain mattered.

Michael blocked again, but the force of the strike drove him backward this time. Lucifer pressed, blade hammering down once, twice, three times, each hit heavier than the last. Michael met all of them, but on the fourth his arm bent too far and his knee hit the ground.

Lucifer's sword came for the head.

Michael released one hand from his hilt, caught Lucifer's wrist, and twisted so hard the next strike went wide and carved a canyon through the stage instead.

Stone exploded.

Gabriel flinched.

Exousia stood now too. "They're going to tear this place apart."

"They already are," Ariel muttered.

Michael kicked Lucifer off him and rose in the same motion. His blade flashed in a short, brutal line across Lucifer's stomach. Lucifer answered by stabbing straight through Michael's shoulder.

Both hits landed.

Both men froze for half a second, too close, blades buried, blood running.

Then they moved again.

Lucifer ripped his sword free first and slashed for the eyes. Michael leaned back and missed blindness by a breath. Michael tore his own sword free and slammed the pommel into Lucifer's jaw. Lucifer bit through the blood in his mouth and headbutted him hard enough to crack bone.

They separated.

Not far.

Just enough to do it again.

The stage groaned.

A web of fractures spread beneath them so fast Gabriel took a step back.

Then the center collapsed.

Not under one of them.

Under both.

But neither fell.

They ran across the breaking stone like it was still whole, using pieces of the crumbling floor as steps. Lucifer jumped from one floating slab to another, came down with both hands on the sword, and tried to split Michael from crown to spine. Michael caught the blow overhead, feet digging into a platform already falling apart under him.

Their swords locked.

Michael's voice finally came out, short and harsh. "Still angry."

Lucifer shoved harder. "Still breathing."

Michael kicked the slab out from under Lucifer.

Lucifer dropped, twisted mid-fall, and stabbed his sword into a drifting chunk of broken stage. He swung himself around it and came up under Michael, slashing across both legs.

Michael pulled back just enough to save the tendons, but not enough to avoid the cut entirely. Blood ran down his shins.

Lucifer landed and came again.

Michael answered.

Now it was faster. Meaner. Less controlled.

Michael's calm was still there, but it had sharpened into something harder, closer to what he used to be before heaven taught him how to wear patience like skin.

Lucifer could see it.

He liked it.

Michael wasn't judging him now. He was fighting him.

Good.

That made this honest.

Lucifer's sword flashed dark through a dozen killing lines. Michael slipped through some, blocked others, answered with cuts that were narrower but somehow more dangerous. One wrong read and either of them would lose a hand, a throat, a future.

Michael went high.

Lucifer met it.

Michael went low.

Lucifer barely caught that one.

Then Michael vanished.

Not quite as fast as Lucifer moved. Different. Cleaner. He reappeared behind him and drove his blade down toward the spine.

Lucifer spun.

Too late to avoid it cleanly.

The pale edge went through his shoulder and out the front.

Ariel stood up. "Michael!"

Gabriel's face tightened.

Lucifer looked at the blade sticking through him, then at Michael.

Then he grabbed Michael's arm so he couldn't pull back and punched him in the chest hard enough to send both of them flying apart.

Michael tore his sword free in the air.

A/N

To Be Continued