Michael didn't move.
Neither did Lucifer.
For a while, it looked like the trial itself had stopped to watch.
Gabriel stood off to the side, quiet now, tired in a way that had nothing to do with bruises. Ariel sat with blood on her face and one arm hanging wrong, but her eyes were open, fixed on the center. Exousia remained still. Khaos said nothing. Even Bariel stayed silent for once.
It was just them now.
Lucifer and Michael.
The first rebel and the first blade.
The same face.
The same origin.
The same hands, almost.
But not the same story.
Michael's expression was hard to read. He stood straight, shoulders squared, hands relaxed at his sides, but nothing about him was relaxed. He looked like someone holding a mountain together with posture alone.
Lucifer looked back at him and smiled faintly.
Not warmly.
Not cruelly.
Just like a man who had finally reached the part of the road he'd been expecting the whole time.
Michael spoke first.
"So this is how it ends."
