--Selaphiel--

Selaphiel thoughtfully looked outside the window. He was currently inside the monastery of Eichstätt, a castle-like structure enthroned on a small hill and almost entirely surrounded by water. Its location was inside a river loop, which bestowed it with natural defenses on three sides. However, all these strategic plannings had been done before the descent of the angels who had made any mortal defense facilities futile.

The grand castle was naturally gifted to the heavenly forces after the submission of the mortals and turned into a holy site. Now, the one and only use of the building brought was the far-reaching view when watching through one of its windows.

With a perception easily surpassing any mortal beings Selaphiel could discern every single detail happening in the city below him. How those measly humans crawled like tiny ants through the streets, not realizing their own pointless existence. They lived and they died but none of them exerted even the smallest impact in the world. Even a single hair strand on an angel’s head would be of greater importance.

Selaphiel hated humans. Their unendurable smell, their awkward movements, and their mouths would never stop spitting out meaningless words. Selaphiel despised everything about those petty creatures.

If it wasn’t for the commandments in the holy scripture he would have annihilated any trace of them long ago. Selaphiel would have loved to raze every city on the planet to the ground, disintegrating all extant atoms to nothingness. Even after all these measures, he wasn’t sure if their unbearable stench would finally disappear.

However, the rules written in this one book prevented him from these actions. These commandments had been written by God himself and the thrones pursued their compliance by all means.

Thrones belonged to the highest order inside the heavenly forces, yet one could not argue rationally with them. Like emotionless mechanical dolls, they kept the order of the universe, even punishing angels if they ever broke the rules. This had brought up many controversies in the holy city above the clouds as their foe should only be the demons creeping up from hell.

While it was certainly possible for the divine court to annihilate all the thrones it would bring heavy casualties to the heavenly forces. Additionally, the thrones possessed great powers themselves, and as long as their aim coincided it was better to strategically acknowledge their values. Therefore, the throne's pursuit of these outdated laws from God was silently accepted.

Meanwhile, he had to live through torture worse than death, coexisting in the same world with these dirty insects. Selaphiel would rather burn in the depths of hell than to see another day on this sullied planet.

“I am an archangel, for god’s sake!” He growled through gritted teeth, damning his creator to a thousand painful deaths. Sadly, God had already vanished and the only thing he could do was slamming his fist into the wall.

A crack appeared on the glass of the window. Like a spider web, it expanded until the broken shards clattered on the marbled floor. A cool gust of wind drifted into the room and tousled his blond hair.

Only then did Selaphiel regain his composure. With the flick of a finger, the glass fragments lifted themselves up again and flew back to the window frame. They each returned to their original place reminding one of an impossible jigsaw puzzle consisting of more than a thousand pieces.

Next, Selaphiel reconstructed the few grounded buildings that had been destroyed by a much stronger shockwave of his fist. As all of them belonged to the monastery he didn’t have to concern himself with the wrath of the thrones because he had accidentally and unjustly killed a human. And no angel would be injured by such a sluggish attack.

The last thing the flick of his finger caused was to comb back his hair to their previous position.

Just as everything had been restored to its initial state Selaphiel felt the gathering of energy in the room. He turned his attention to the source, which had become a glowing orb hovering at the center of the room.

The white sphere expanded until it took the form of a humanoid creature.

“My lowly self greets Zadkiel, leader of the dominions,” Selaphiel immediately greeted in a humble manner as soon as the other person had manifested completely. No trace of the prior arrogance could be seen on Selaphiel’s face and he even lowered his head respectfully.

The angel called Zadkiel wore a stoic expression, as he silently unfurled his white wings which had been folded to his body during the teleportation.

Selaphiel himself didn’t seem to mind the disregarding attitude towards him. To put it another way, he wasn’t able to. Zadkiel was the leader of the dominions, an angel race of the second sphere. Their power and influence in the heavenly forces was something lowly archangels could only dream of.

Dominions had received the authority as messengers between the first and the third sphere. Angels belonging to the first sphere rarely left the holy city in the heavens if you excluded the single-minded thrones. Therefore, they passed their orders to the dominions who put them into practice. Naturally, dominions never had to converse with humans but only commanded the countless angels from behind the scene.

“If I may ask, what gives me the pleasure of your presence?” Selaphiel continued cautiously.

He had already received notice of Zadkiel’s arrival and was mentally prepared. Half an hour ago, Selaphiel had visited a human crime scene that was possibly connected to a demon terrorist attack. However, before he could lead any investigations he got the message of Zadkiel’s coming.

The leader of the dominions finally raised his voice.

“The artifact has left the city.”

This one sentence left Selaphiel dumbfounded. While slowly processing each word he began to sweat. How is that possible?

Eichstätt was the town he supervised. It was already his carelessness to lose the artifact to the demons. However, as long as they had stayed inside the city Selaphiel wouldn’t need to worry about the retrieval.

Selaphiel somehow had been able to convince the divine court that the loss of the artifact was a strategic move to uncover the demons in the city. Eichstätt was near the warfront to the enemy side, therefore many evil forces gathered in the shadows of the buildings. Selaphiel let his negligence appear as if he was trying to smoke out these rats by baiting them with an invaluable artifact.

With thrones guarding each gate leading out of the city, none of the demons would escape and Selaphiel himself had nearly caught a perpetrator himself. He was sure that he wouldn’t have needed more than a few days to apprehend all these vermins.

“Are you sure?” Selaphiel couldn’t help and unintentionally asked this question loudly. His face had turned white like a sheet of paper, huge shock written over it. Naturally, he soon regained partially his composure again and realized his mistake. One mustn’t doubt his superiors.

However, Zadkiel didn’t seem to care and continued.

“The case was opened shortly after it got out of the city. Before we could pinpoint its exact location, the holy seal had been broken in less than fifteen seconds.”

Selaphiel immediately got into a froth again. This information was even more appalling than the one before. A holy seal had been cast onto the casket containing the artifact. It was in the form of a bubble of holy water, enveloping the artifact as a whole.

While the seal was a harmlessly looking liquid surrounding Lucifer’s heritage, its powers were devastating. Magical inscriptions had been diluted into the holy water which would constantly send the approximate location of the casket. With this, it was possible to ascertain if the artifact was inside the city. Additionally, the exact position of the artifact would immediately be transmitted once the lid was moved. If one ever tried to open Pandora's box and attempt to break the seal he would suffer from heavy backlash attacking the body and mind.

To create this seal of holy water it needed the strength of a thousand angels over the period of one hundred days, a power that nobody could ever hope to withstand. The demons would need at least the same number of casters and roughly the same amount of time to remove all these complex magical inscriptions. Yet, somebody had annulled the seal in a matter of seconds.

Selaphiel couldn’t reply with any excuses as all opportunities to retrieve the artifact had been lost. He only could lower his head and stare onto the floor. Zadkiel disregarded this shameful silence and instead chose to explain his real purpose.

“You’ve been inexcusably negligent to lose this precious artifact. However, there seems to exist an unknown power that hasn’t been on our radar up to now. The identification of this enormous force is currently our top priority. See this as your last chance to regain your honor.”

Selaphiel hopefully raised his head. He actually received an opportunity to keep his current authority. However, at the same time, it sent shivers down his spine as he could imagine the risks this mission held. The seal contained countless traps and incomprehensible pitfalls if one ever tried to tamper with its inscriptions. A person who was able to remove the holy water seal must possess unrivaled power and ability, maybe even approaching the might of the one true god.

What type of monster would he have to stand up against to regain his dignity from his adversities?