The quiet bubble of the slumbering Seraph was burst open, an ethereal warm glow nearly blinding him as he became aware of the senseless time and undefined space of his mind. He has awoken within a dream to find himself confoundingly dizzy and sick - an odd sensation for one to have, felt in body, while lucid dreaming.

The cause of the nausea became glaringly obvious as the pirouetting flaming rings, dotted with wings and eyes, terrifying in presence, glowered at the Seraph from high on above. Uriel’s many eyes flickered in multicolored spectral shows of light, colors that mortal eyes were not meant to see.

“Jonah had not felt the ocean’s gait for some two weeks before God visited him. I gave you only two days. You get no more time.”

“I am not subject to the whim of a false prophet, never mind the knock-off grinding wheel whom supposedly had a hand in trying to deliver the souls of said prophets to annihilation.” Hoffmann replied in fire. He had little patience for this.

Uriel’s rings flared and spun rapidly.

“It is simple, Nathaniel. You shall either do as we plead, or you will plead for your life while we atomize you from the cosmos. I shall put it in terms a human-lived such as yourself will understand; You work for-.”

“Try it. There is nothing you can do to me because you need me. That’s why you waited to see if I would crack, right? You’re dealing with - no no, let me finish, I don’t think you really get what is going on here. You’re dealing with an old man in a profession where men die young and clean of mind. I have a mind of grunge and mud and iron soot in the lungs, and I have fought a war on every continent, shot a bullet at every color of uniform and put my blade to work making widows of weeping wives for centuries. I do not have the power to remove you from the equation, yet, but if you continue to trouble me, you will no longer be a factor, even if I have to die in the process.

You need me. I am your salvation, or I am your ruination. Pick one. Its your move. But whatever decision you make, make it now and don’t look back. I want to get some fucking sleep tonight, and if you decide I should sleep forever, let me know so I can plan my morning around raiding churches and BURNING THEM TO THE FUCKING GROUND!”

Uriel’s rings halted in place as the many eyes went dead and cold, regarding the crumb of humanity below him. His voice ethereally echoed about them as Hoffmann felt warm blood sink into his boots, the smell permeating his nose. The voice that met his ears rumbled coldly. The white expanse has become an ocean of putrid blood.

“So be it...human. You will be done in as Job, coming up short everywhere you go. You cannot be twisted, but you shall be defamed, always seeking friends and finding enemies. Your life shall become your own Hell, and it was of your choosing.”

“Really? Because according to you it was never my choice to begin with. You said that the first time around. Had a change of heart, did we?”