A few minutes after the announcement.
Eve and Adam were walking down the red carpet of the golden corridor with walls adorned with portrait.
They were talking to each other about how to proceed in the future, in order to start the tournament with no delay.
The expression of Eve, with her purple skirt and white shirt, face lost all traces of sadness, instead remained worry and relief.
"You told me to start in a week, how can we know who want to participate ? My puppets are limited."
Adam, with his dark blue and white outfit, became really quiet, something he rarely is, thinking about the different necessary steps to proceed.
"I already informed Gabriel about the entire tournament, he said he was gonna do it."
Eve sighed before putting her hand on Adam's shoulder and looked at him.
"I'm gonna force you to take a break if I need to. Father died and you've been running around non stop trying to honor his dying wish, you need a pause or you're gonna break down, its normal to grief."
Adam looked back at her, his eyes focused on the ground, not daring to confront Eve
"I'm not gonna be able to do much during the wait. I'll take the time to think about everything then."
The hand on his shoulder lost its grasp and he looked back in front of him
Eve looked at the wall to her side, the painting of a faceless entity, with a single sun replacing his head, smiting down rays of light upon monstrous purplish and black creatures with sharp claws and teeth, could be seen attached to it
"I wish you would take more care of yourself sometimes."
Adam walked silently for a moment, still in thought, before responding
"It's not simple to change who you are."
Eve turned back her head to look in front of her
"Yeah. Times are changing faster than us."
Adam took a step closer to her and put his hand on her right shoulder, embrassing her from the back with her arm
"I'm sure it's for the better of the world. Father is smarter than anybody else, he has a reason for all of this."
Eve moved her head to the side, feeling an increased sense of worry
"But his position was not part of his will. Are you sure it's fine to give it away ?"
Adam closed his eyes for a moment before explaining himself.
"They needed a reason to participate. We need stakes to make so everyone watches it."
He turned his head toward the ground, as if embarassed about something
"But I have a bad feeling about this decision. I'm starting to think I overreacted."
Then he felt something on his left shoulder, Eve's hand, who copied Adam's motion to comfort him
"What's done is done. We can't come back, so if your worry become true, we will fix it ourselves. I'm sure there's not much we can't do if we work together."
Thus they continued for a few minutes to talk and walk until they reached the end of the giant corridor.
This corridor was called the Siddhartha tunnel, holding the door to the 1287 realms of heaven, and was the only way to go from one realm to another, if they aren't adjacent to each other.
Every painting was a secret door to one of the realm and, in each paintings, was hidden the number of the corresponding realm.
Every realm of heaven hold the after life and reincarnation process of multiple of multiple thousand, if not million, of universes, and were infinite in size, with clouds and golden temples and buildings
One side of the Siddhartha tunnel hold the door to the Akhashic record. The other half was the Alpha world, the current destination of Adam and Eve.
After a long walk and various discussion, they reached the end of the Siddhartha tunnel.
Before the door to the Alpha world, they instantly noticed a man standing with his arms crosses.
The man had long golden hair, eyes closed but they knew were orange, a white and blue coat with golden trinkets, a tie and blue pants. From his back sprouted 8 yellow wings, each glowing as bright as a sun.
He silently stood there, without even looking at the duo before him, yet the air suddenly grew heavy.
As much calm as Adam and Eve wanted to stay and look, they couldn't help but sweat from their forehead for they knew the angel who was facing them.
His titles, multiple, The first Archangel, The night feller, Bane of the abyss, The golden sun, angel of redemption.
But he called himself only one : Angel of Salvation Michael.
From his aura alone, Adam and Eve knew he was not here out of kindness nor to encourage them.
Adam knew he would have intervened at some point, the later the better, he believed Michael was the only person that could prevent the Battle of the divine throne from starting.
He was standing in front of the door of the room of the Alpha world, silently, waiting for them to engage the conversation, not even looking at them.
Eve was stunned for a moment before resolving herself, understanding the gravity of the situation, letting Adam start the confrontation, knowing he would be better than her at handling it.
Adam approached Michael who was still ignoring them until he was right in front of him, looking up at his face, clearly showing that, despite his fear, he was not gonna let it stop him.
The radiant angel continued to stand still and silently, like a statue, not reacting despite Adam standing right in front him
"Don't look down at me like that, I'm not gonna explain anything if you continue. Look me in the eye and ask me what's the problem."
The radiant angel eyes finally oppened to face Adam, looking down on at his figure, and talked for the first time, his voice carrying the same aura as his stature.
"After hundreds of thousands of years, Father decide to retract his decision of making every universes being separate entity who cannot interact with each other, in order to organize a tournament."
The angel of Salvation eyes alternated between looking at the blue haired Adam or the winged Eve, piercing through any attempt at concealing something.
"This tournament involve the strongest entities between every universes who will kill each other instead of helping dealing with the Abyss who lead to his death."
Michael deployed his wings and 10 balls of light, each of them as bright and as hot as the sun, composed of energy condensed enough that it would shatter anything it touched, being sustained with such precision that their size never changes.
His face not changing, still showing the same calmness and indifference despite his showcase of hostility.
"Insulting the name of Father is the highest level of blasphemy an angel can do. Eve, Adam, explain yourselves before I smite you down right here !"
Eve conjured multiple wood manequin like puppet the size of a hand, then infused each of them with a deep purplish-pink energy. They grew in size, becoming about the same as her, some smaller, some taller, with various style of clothes from different time of history and universes, but still faceless
Each puppets stood ground beside her, ready to react if Michael decide to attack
Meanwhile, Adam took 2 step back, giving more opportunity to react in case of emergency, before responding, still looking the golden angel in the eyes despite the tense situation
"This was truly the wish that Father inscribed in his will. I could show it to you. We have, and would never insult Father. I don't yet ...
"Ah Ah Ah !"
Before Adam could continue his sentence, Michael started laughing, as if he couldn't contain himself
"You have never insulted father you say. Then what was the Garden of Eden's situation then ? A walk in the park ? A tasty meal ?"
He then pointed at Eve
"You would be the type to get revenge on Father by tarnishing his name. You needed to wait for his death beceause you fear his punishement."
One of the puppet Eve's conjured, who was wearing a doctor's white robe, went behind her and put its hand. This had the effect if reducing her stress and fear, in order to face Michael with confidence
"It's been 816 754 years since the Garden of Eden's incident. It's insulting for you to think that we haven't learned from it, and that we would hold a grudge for so long against someone that nobody believed would ever die."
Adam smiled to the Golden Sun's face
"Eve's right. Also, how is announcing a tournament putting Father's name in dirt. If anything, his position being the reward make him more impressing in the eyes of his children."
Michael turned back his head to face the smiling blue haired man before clicking his tongue
"You see, that's the problem. You're treating Father's position like an object that can be tossed around. His throne if to much authority, do you want to risk the possiblity of everything that he fought for being under the rule of a tyrant ? Do you want the existence of us angel to be looked down beceause we need a leader, a figure, to do things, to fight ?"
Adam's smile retracted before he responded
"What I want is not a leader, it is a beacon. It's been one day since Father's death and I already see thousands of angel being worried about the future. Father was leading the war against the Abyss, you should know it the most out of everybody since you were also his right hand for it. You should know how fearsome the Abyss is."
He took a step, coming close to Michael, confronting him further
"You know that they need hope. With Father gone, the Abyss will have a easier time spreading. The only reason it wasn't attacking the universes was beceause Father's omniscience prevented it. Using the IUP, its spread could be prevented quickly. With it out of the picture, it will start to spread in a way that will be almost invisible."
Now back to being right in front of Michael, he continued
"This is what us, angels, fear, a corruption of the universes making the Abyss to strong to fight. Us angels, have the responsability to fight the Abyss. Yes, I don't care if people think we are weak beceause we need a leader. Why ? Beceause that is the case, we need a leader. We have never been without Father, so we don't know how to act when we don't have him."
Michael looked back at Adam and crouched to see him eyes to eyes, his face showing not a single hint of anger or panic, only a still calmness
"Then why not just design one ? Do you really need to make the most beloved creation of Father kill each other, and then assign a person we, angel, barely knows as our great leader ? Do you really think anyone can be a leader ?"
Eve approached Adam to make sure she could react in time to protect him in case something goes wrong
In Adam's mind, gear were turning fast to make sure he said the right thing to not anger Michael, he knew that despite the calm expression on the golden angel's face, he wanted nothing more than destroy the two blasphemer in front of him.
However, Michael was the Angel of Salvation and of Redemption, it was his nature to give a chance for other to redeem themselves, to repent for their sins. He was someone who was always putting other's interest before his own.
However, he was also the angel closest to God, working as his right hand man against the eternal fight against the Abyss.
Thus, he did not accepted anything that would slander his image. God's death happened only day ago, not giving him any time to grieve for his Father and best friend.
Today, he was the least reasonable he has ever been, he could kill anybody for any sligth disrepect toward this man.
However, he remain the Angel of Salvation at hearth, the most forgiving angel and living thing to have and who will ever exist.
As long as Adam would not disrepect directly God, they would not die. However, Michael not accepting the battle of the divine throne to be held is another story
Adam couldn't prove that the tournament was written in the will of the father of creation since him and Eve received the request through a telepathic message at the same time of God's death. At least that is what they believe due to not being present at the final battlefield
So, in order to ensure its completion, Adam took a gamble
"It doesn't matter whether the tournament was in Father's will or not. Now that is has been announced, it might as well be. Not making it start, and not assuring is completion is what would an insult to Father. We need to see it through."
This gamble was to use Michael's ideology and mental state
"What you are doing is insulting, what is now, Father's name in the eyes of every of his creation"
By insulting them directly. By turning them against him
After that sentence Michael fell silent for a few second. He standed back up and lifted his head to look at the ceilling, his expression couldn't be seen by any of them
The room fell silent for a moment, Adam and Eve's tension rised by the unusual silence displayed by the Angel of Salvation
This silence was broken by a small chuckle coming from Michael, who resonated with an almost unperceivable sadness coming with it
"I hate you."
All of a sudden a wave of invisible energy was conjured by Michael, sending both Adam and Eve backward through the long corridor, instantly reaching and crashing into the wall that concealed the Akhashic record, the other end of the Siddhartha tunnel
He followed the couple who was sent flying and descended to the ground with grace, his behaviour reverted back to the one he had at the start of the encounter
Both angel couldn't react to the attack and fell down to the ground after colliding with the wall
"Forgive me for my rashness but I needed to smack both of you."
At this point Adam knew his stratagem worked, if he wanted to kill them, they would taken worse injuries by now
"You make good point though and that's why I hate you. The gears are turning and the only way to save Father's image is to organize your god damn tournament."
Michael turned his back to both inferior angels and started to walk back
"But just so you know. I don't agree with any of your method nor belief, so I will participate in your stupid battle and win the position of Father, to make sure that it doesn't fall under bad hands. You're to narrow-minded and I'm gonna make sure that's not a problem."
Thus, the battle of the divine throne had recruted its first participant.