The Angel Has Fallen (Sad)

Bang!

The deafening crash startled everyone inside the museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Those near the entrance looked over and could only make out what seemed to be something from the statue.

The eerie black rain had already left them on edge. The network was down in the area, and the faint sirens that had sounded from across the water not long ago were only adding to the strain on their fragile nerves.

Bang, bang—bang!

More crashes followed, along with tremors from above. At last, they were sure: the Statue of Liberty was going to collapse!

As soon as someone said it, a few people ignored the danger of the black rain, grabbed whatever they could use as cover, and rushed outside.

The others, already panicking, saw someone take the lead and decided the statue really was about to collapse.

As the tremors grew stronger, more and more people fled outside.

"No, it won't collapse! Come back, all of you! The one leading you is Old Mo. He doesn't understand the glory of America! Americans would never let the Statue of Liberty fall. It can't fall!"

The Asian woman's earlier gentleness vanished. She snarled at the people around her, her face twisted with rage. Some of those who stayed instinctively moved away from her.

Wooo—

A wail came from overhead, but they soon realized it was the sound of steel twisting. Perhaps it could also be taken for the Statue of Liberty's lament.

"Honey, shouldn't we run outside?"

"I don't know about the rest, but I trust how sturdy this base is. Besides, if it does fall, wouldn't a statue this tall have to fall in one direction?"

"Y-yeah, I guess that makes sense!"

"Let's find a corner, like we would during an earthquake."

The dark clouds churned wildly, almost as if they were alive. Lightning snakes danced in celebration of some being's birth.

As the copper plates peeled away from the statue's face, they revealed what lay beneath. What kind of monster was it?

Countless eyes of all sizes clung to a mass of utter darkness. One glance was enough to deal a devastating blow to the mind.

Even through a screen, it was unbearable to look at.

"Commander, give the order! That's no longer the Statue of Liberty we're proud of! It's an abomination!"

"General, please give the order!"

Everyone in the command room looked to Mark's superior. He could read humiliation, anger, and fear on every face.

He made a phone call.

"Mm."

"I understand."

He put down the phone and was about to announce the order when the angel on another screen stirred.

Michael spread his arms. His "bronze" wings shattered in an instant, and flames that seemed destined never to go out rose from the ground, joining his back like a bridge.

A pair of fiery wings gradually took shape—unfurled—expanded—grew beyond all bounds!

Two wings, four wings, six wings!

They were even larger than the giant dragon's wings had been. Unfurled, they seemed to cover the sky. Even the torrential rain couldn't put them out; it could only evaporate against them and hurriedly return to the sky.

From afar, the seraph Michael had become a new sun!

"Let's see how much trouble you are, demon born from so much malice." Shiraishi Wataru was intrigued. At last, he had a worthy opponent.

Even if he had created that opponent himself.

He swung his flaming longsword. His six wings beat once, and a sonic boom burst into being. The next instant, he was already in front of the Statue of Liberty.

He swung his sword!

Bang!

Several deformed hands punched through the copper plates and caught the falling fire sword. Though they were flammable, the hands trapped the flames, keeping them from spreading.

"￥@@!##"

The unintelligible sounds were beyond even Listen to understand.

Shiraishi Wataru suddenly exerted his strength. The flames burst forth, and the demon let out a scream.

"Now you understand."

At last, the Statue of Liberty could no longer withstand the pressure. It exploded with a thunderous roar from the demon, its fragments flying in every direction, some even reaching the opposite shore.

The base, however, held firm. Perhaps it was because no force had been directed that way.

But the people outside without anything to shield them were out of luck.

The shattered copper plates and steel were so dense they spread out in every direction like buckshot, treating every exposed life equally.

The monster before them had fully taken shape.

It had many eyes and many hands, and its long, shifting form writhed like a mass of sludge.

Shiraishi Wataru struck first, unleashing a flurry of wild sword strikes. Flames flew everywhere, making for quite an imposing spectacle.

But the monster seemed to have high fire resistance. It looked battered, but it simply hadn't adapted to Shiraishi Wataru's fighting style yet.

He had a plan. This was probably a demon he couldn't completely destroy for now. In that case, I'll leave it to you—the world's police force, America!

So Shiraishi Wataru started holding back. The flaming wings on his back shrank to just a few meters, as if his membership had expired.

The demon seized the chance to strike back.

It slapped the angel.

The angel crashed heavily into the water, but stubbornly charged again.

The demon was simply enormous, and its strength was clearly terrifying. Even the six-winged angel looked so small beside it.

The angel fell again.

He took flight once more.

Who knew how much time had passed? His fire sword had long since been snapped, and his six wings had been reduced to a tattered single wing by one injury after another. But he was still fighting!

The faithful watching this covered their mouths, their hearts aching.

Enough! You don't have to keep fighting for humanity! God, call Your angel back! Let humanity deal with the demons in this world ourselves!

The angel swung a fist, but the demon caught his arm with a sluggish movement. They struggled against each other, and in the end, the angel lost. His arm was snapped!

The demon threw the angel again—

Huh?

The demon was a little confused. Hadn't it thrown him out to sea? How had the thing curved around and crashed toward the opposite shore?

Unfortunately, it wasn't clever enough to see through Shiraishi Wataru's superb acting.

Rumble.

The angel was buried beneath the collapsing buildings.

This time, he didn't get back up.

But no one dared mock the angel as weak. There was no question about how powerful he was.

"Everyone, though the angel has fallen, humanity has not! His spirit will inspire us forever. We'll fight the devil to the death!"

"Let's blow that hellspawn to pieces!"

"Activate Plan A! Let the devil know the times have changed! Let it feel the power of modern exorcism!" General Mark roared.

One by one, the fighter jets that had been standing ready took off down the runway.

The artillery guns were trained on the demon, and the missile silos stood ready to fire at any moment.

The demon, still unaware that a dense barrage was about to rain down on it, sensed the heavy concentration of human presence across the water. It instinctively headed into the sea and started toward them.

Bang, bang, bang—

The artillery and navy were the first to roar.

The shells lived up to expectations and hit the monster, but only created ripples. Even the explosions seemed to be swallowed up out of nowhere.

As the barrage grew denser and the fighter jets dropped their bombs, explosions rocked the sea around the demon and even Liberty Island.

Yet any explosion that hit the demon vanished without a sound.

After the first round of strikes, the demon emerged from the smoke without a single new wound. Even the injuries the angel had struggled to inflict seemed to have healed. What's more, its body had even grown larger.

Only now did humanity understand just how powerful the angel had been—and just how troublesome the demon before them was!