"Yes...it's me, Daniel Emberweave..." he began. "Now, General William Moore, would you please surrender before—"
With a screech, General Moore lunged at Daniel, claws and fangs bared in feral glee, consumed by his imagined triumph.
The general's claws were mere inches from Daniel when a punch from a white silhouette sent him flying backwards, crashing into the wreckage of a plane with a deafening boom.
The fuel leak ignited from the impact, causing a massive explosion that blew the hangar roof off. A white figure with three pairs of wings emerged, shielding Daniel. Her holy steel armor gleamed with divine light as she protected her lord. It was Michaela.
"...Things got out of hand," Daniel finished his sentence with a weary sigh. He opened a book titled "How to Be a Good Leader" and scribbled "Is it possible?" above a rule stating, "A good leader strives to negotiate first when there's a problem."
"You see, Michaela," Daniel protested, pointing towards the flames where General Moore had landed, "it's not that I want to be a thug who beats people up first then asks questions later. But didn't you see the problem here? He didn't even want to negotiate!"
"Yes, I understand, My Lord," Michaela replied. "But...no offense, but why did you want to negotiate with that lunatic in the first place?"
"You see..." Daniel began, "After this mess, I need to start a mage organization or something, and before I came here, Envy slipped this damn book into my trench coat! Isn't the meaning clear?" He showed the book "How to Be a Good Leader" to Michaela with a hint of annoyance.
"Um, My Lord, isn't that just Lady Envy trolling you?" Michaela asked.
"Do not ignore me, you wretch!" a roar erupted from the flames as General Moore emerged, unscathed except for his burnt clothes. His body was now covered in thick, lizard-like scales, with a carapace-like armor protecting his chest and abdomen.
General Moore's horns had grown longer, and he was now 80-90% demon, with red bat-like wings and a demonic tail. Only his face retained a semblance of humanity.
The General didn't give up easily. He threw a wild haymaker, but it was blocked by one of the archangel's wings. The cleansing flame engulfed his hand, turning it to ash as it made contact with her fiery wing.
Michaela's fist shot towards General Moore's ribs, cracking them with the first blow, fracturing them with the second, and shattering them completely with the third. By the fourth strike, the ribs pierced his left lung.
General Moore blood and air spurted from his mouth. Michaela's left fist cracked his right jaw while her right fist shattered the already weakened left jaw.
Her next target was his diaphragm. The first fist traumatized it, the second worsened the damage, and by the fourth, instead of a fist, it was her armored boot stomping down.
They fell to the ground with incredible speed, the friction igniting the demonic body of General Moore below. With a resounding crash that shattered the concrete, the archangel stood triumphant, her right foot on the General's diaphragm.
General Moore could no longer utter a word. He could only manage weak breaths from his punctured and useless lung. If not for his demonic form, he would already be dead. It was safe to say that General Moore's ability to shock the world and interrupt Michaela's favorite Korean dramas due to his madness had been "neutralized."
Full physical recovery would take six months. Full psychological recovery, six years.
While Leviathans possessed frightening regenerative abilities, Michaela's cleansing flame had significantly hindered this process, leaving General Moore with a recovery rate no different than a human's.
"Is that guy dead yet?" Daniel slowly walked out of the hangar, only to find Michaela still kicking General Moore's unresponsive body in frustration.
"Oi, he's still breathing, isn't he?" He repeated, bringing Michaela back from her venting session.
"Ah! My lord, don't worry. Even in this state, he could take a bullet to the head and survive," Michaela said, finally stopping her assault on the demonized General.
[Was that supposed to be something an archangel should say?] Daniel retorted within his mind.