New Chapter in Highest Tier (May 2021)

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Archangel Uriel (Flame of God)

First Guardian of the Garden of Four Seasons

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"What brings you here, Lucifer?" Archangel Uriel asked him when they were face to face.

Lucifer's purple wings were soft dark shadows in the night as he stretched them before folding them behind him.

"Just visiting my best friend who is clearly not in the mood to talk." Lucifer replied, his eyes shining silver in the darkness. "It's a shame that you don't seem happy to see me."

"Did you just arrive in this garden?"

"I was about to look for you but I just discovered something else." He replied with a smile as he walked closer to stand beside him at the small plateau overlooking the Garden of the Four Seasons below.

Archangel Uriel returned his gaze to the meadow when Lucifer asked, "If I may ask politely, my fellow Archangel, aren't you supposed to be alone watching the Tree of the Four Seasons?"

"Yes." He said he tried hard not to shift his attention to the direction of the river where Merle was, or Lucifer would find out. "And?"

"Why is there a tent over there?" Lucifer pointed at the makeshift tent Archangel Uriel created for Merle made out of wool and line as ropes, and wooden poles held them up. "I was just about to check what was inside…or who was inside."

With a clenched jaw, he said, "There is no one in there."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm telling you the truth." Archangel Uriel gave him a half-shrug. "Can you sense a creature moving up and about inside that small shelter?"

Lucifer glanced at him sideways, and he could see him smirking in his peripheral vision. "You sound so defensive, Uriel. There must be something in there that you wouldn't want me to see."

"Did you go inside the tent and touched my things?" He kept his tone calm and even.

"No. I don't take what doesn't belong to me so I didn't. This why I am asking you what's in there to spare me the trouble."

Scowling, Archangel Uriel disliked how his best friend became invasive with his questions, making him feel like he was doing something wrong in the eyes of God. "Nothing in particular. I just place my things in there."

"Are they precious?" Lucifer tilted his head to squint at him with both wonder and suspicion. "That's new. Archangels don't have material things that they value except themselves and their loyalty to the Creator." The way he clicked his tongue made Archangel Uriel clench his fist and avert his gaze as much as possible. "Now you are making me interested."

If Lucifer didn't know about Merle yet, then it would be safer for her that he deflect Lucifer's queries.

"It's none of your business, Lucifer. You should learn to respect the boundaries of other Archangels. "Archangel Uriel shot him down so he would stop deriving outrageous conclusions by himself and tell their fellow cherubs about him.

Lucifer was a cherub who is the epitome of perfection, wisdom, and beauty in the Earthly Realms.

From the decades that Archangel Uriel was away from Heaven to stay on the Earthly Realm and fulfil his mission, he might have heard a nasty rumour or two about his friend acting rebellious in the sense that he desired to know every Archangel's secrets by observing them like a hawk as if he could trust nobody, not even him, his best friend.

"I can feel you pushing your luck these decades. Your intense curiosity over things such as power, magic and the origin of Angel Kind made me wary of you. I can sense that discontent had festered into your heart in these past few centuries." Archangel Uriel told him. "Can you tell me why?"

It took Lucifer long seconds to reciprocate a biting response, "I will not answer that question so I will keep my mouth shut and mind my own business so I don't have to deal with it."

His lips curved upward in a victorious grin. "Now, you make me want to be all over your business so that you will know how it felt to be examined by a fellow Archangel."

Archangel Uriel was effective in pissing his best friend off. "Why are you here on Earth instead of watching over the Throne of God?"

"Hmm." Lucifer drawled, "Am I truly the only cherubim who is slacking off his responsibilities?"

"I want you to get back to the throne and watch over the Throne." Archangel Uriel said grimly as his hand gripped Lucifer's forearm, dragging him far from his view of Merle just in case Lucifer could see her bathing in the river after implying that he was alone in the garden. "If you aren't there then who else is keeping an eye on God's holy domai to destroy any presence of sin and corruption?"

'It will be alright." Lucifer replied. "I'm here because there is something I would like to request of you."

"What is it?"

"Can we exchange angelic posts?"

Archangel Uriel was taken aback. "Why?"

"I am sure you would ask." Lucifer frowned. "Can you not ask and just agree?"

Archangel Uriel sighed.

"What am I even agreeing to?" Why would Lucifer think this was going to be easy. "Is there trouble in the Heavens?"

"I was just bored, watching over God's Throne." Lucifer waved his hand in dismissal. "I wanted to oversee the Angelic War happening in the Earthly Realm."

"So this wasn't a mission given by God but a demand of your own making." He concluded.

"When you were assigned to protect the Garden of Eden, you told me that you desired to stay at the Throne of God. What ever changed to that dream of yours? I am giving you a chance to try and do it. Maybe you will like it there. You hated casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after Satan tempted them to eat the fruit of knowledge. Then, you were tasked to stop them and their descendants from re-entering the garden only to search Adam and his dead son's body so that you could bury them back to Eden. Don't you think it's stupid? Aren't you tired of this nonsense?"

"It's not about being tired. I just desired to be alone in my thoughts in nature. So I am contented with watching over gardens if God wanted me to. It's not stupid." Archangel Uriel reasoned out. "You were given so much power and gifts among all the cherubims. Your strong persuasion made me think a thousand times before I accept this sudden offer. Stop forcing me to be tired when you are the one who is bored."

There was an awkward silence.

"Now I know why you are acting like this, Uriel." Archangel Uriel's acute senses became more alert when he followed Lucifer's gaze, strayed dangerously close towards the river. "Is it because of that lady?"

Merle's movement must have caught Lucifer's eye when she rose from the water, naked, as she dried her wet limbs with the fluffy robe and proceeded to wear her dry tunic, oblivious of the angelic stares around her. "Is it a wife in the Earthly Realm you refused to sleep with because you are afraid to turn into a Fallen Angel?"