Zeke and Isaac were the last to land on the bridge.

Ugo and Naomi were examining the giant arched door and moving their hands across its carved surface. AJ stood focused on her glasses and cleaning them.

Zeke spotted his medical bag near the railing and walked over to it. He peered downward — a floor of angelic sigils was just a few feet below. “I guess there was no way to continue flying down. Are we still far from the garden?”

Isaac gave out a laugh. “We’ll see…”

The bridge quaked as the massive doors creaked open. Everybody wobbled on their feet.

“We got the door to open!” Naomi announced.

The quaking abated, and a new path was revealed.

AJ put her glasses back on. “Let’s move.”

The group walked up to the door, entered, and they found themselves standing on the top step of a wide spiral staircase with no end in sight. Small round windows dotted the walls and descended along the staircase, allowing white light to brighten their singular path.

Isaac plopped onto the next giant step and turned back, cueing them with a mile-wide smile. They started moving.

Just getting to the end of the staircase felt longer than getting to the end of the broken bridge, but nobody was showing discomfort or tedium. Ugo was explaining the intricacies of Role-Playing Games to Naomi — party members and their roles, strategies to take down bosses, and the importance of hoarding special one-use items, the ultimate gamer dilemma, saving the powerful consumables just in case you really need it but never using it because it’s too rare — a classic catch-22. Naomi seemed to be way too intrigued.

AJ was moving down the steps rhythmically and counting under her breath, exerting herself even further than necessary. Using it as a workout. Zeke could never. Just flying on its own was enough exercise for his entire week.

Isaac was staring forward, lost in thought. What kind of thoughts could be going through that special mind of his? Zeke studied him.

A voice disrupted his concentration.

“Hey, what’s stopping Nananiel from just cursing our Mom again after we cure her?” Ugo asked Isaac.

Isaac sprang back into a lucid state and turned to focus on Ugo. “Oh, that’s a good question,” Isaac said. “There’s a fundamental fact about curses. Affecting someone with the same curse, the second time, is not very effective. In fact, the effectiveness is slim to none.”

“Why? Because of antibodies or something?” Zeke said, and then chuckled.

“Oh, yes, that’s a suitable term,” Isaac said. “Antibodies for the soul.”

Zeke gave Isaac a glazed look. “How can you say that with a straight face…?”

“After surviving a curse, the individual gains greater resistance to it, no matter their affinity to Mana, or even purity levels,” Isaac explained. “It’s similar to demon possession. After surviving a possession with the help of a well-done exorcism; their immunity grows, but only if they regulate their purity levels and don’t let it plummet.”

“You’re saying that a person can’t be possessed by a demon twice?” AJ asked.

“A demon rarely goes to possess a human they already did in the past because of the resistances they’ve developed. This is even more true for Minor Demons. Surviving an attack from them can grant you resistance to an entire species,” Isaac rambled. “Maintaining optimal purity levels, and supplements, potions, wards, and sigils can prevent demon attacks on their own.”

Round and round they went as they continued to descend…

AJ added arm stretches to her exercise now and Ugo moved on to telling Naomi about superheroes in comic books. Zeke worried about all the useless information he was filling her head with. Her. Is she actually a female, anyway? Isaac said that angels don’t have genders. Ugo didn’t seem to care about that anymore. Maybe he realized that her not being an angel could mean that she could be a girl. Isaac confirmed Violet’s theory about her being something otherworldly, even more otherworldly than an angel. She just looked like a teenage girl to Zeke, childish and harmless then, he thought back to her first night in the hospital. There was a point she spoke to them with maturity and had an austere air around her. What was that about?

A voice disrupted his thinking again. A scratchy voice.

“Zeke, with all that thinking you do, I find it hard to believe that you still haven’t heard the voice of your Healer’s Garb,” Isaac said.

“Maybe, since it’s all cluttered, that’s why he can’t hear it,” Ugo said.

“And your mind being cluttered with disgusting things,” AJ said, “neither of you may have the chance of ever hearing it.”

“Perhaps, they haven’t faced a challenge perilous enough, yet,” Isaac said. His smile twisted a bit, and it made Zeke nervous.

“Dude, we fought a demon and an angel!” Ugo barked.

“Minor Demon,” Zeke corrected.

“Still a freaking demon!”

“Why don’t you teach them how to use it, Isaac?” Naomi asked innocently.

“No, that’s something they need to hear on their own,” Isaac said.

“Why do I feel like you already know the names of their Healer Garb’s?” AJ muttered while eyeing Isaac.

“Because I do,” Isaac said, “but they must learn to listen on their own.”

Ugo groaned loudly.

Naomi gave him a pat on the back. “You’ll get it.”

Round and round they went as they continued to descend…

###

Human bars were another source of entertainment for Nananiel. They had a sporadic nature to them. One night could follow a monotonous routine while another could feature a harrowing spectacle of hectic group fights, human females tossing beverages into the faces of eager males consecutively, humans in stupor making a fool of themselves. Some nights, he would sit at the counter for hours and listen to stories that reminded him of the telenovelas he never admitted to anybody that he liked to watch occasionally.

He sat alone at a table with a cup of water in his hand and several despondent humans chugging beers and wolfing down greasy, calorie-ridden food around him. It was another boring night at Heath’s Sports Bar. The TV was playing a late night talk show, making the lounging even more tedious.

A female occupied a seat on the other side of the table.

“Sorry, I like to be alone…” Nananiel trailed off. He stared at the woman. He focused on her aura and it was angelic—it was Irin!

“Irin, when did you—?”

“Just now.”

Her singed hair was expelling embers and her face was covered in soot and cracks and half of it was glowing red gently, like magma. She was moments away from imploding out of her Container.

“I searched thousands of Purgatory Realms looking for you!” Nananiel blurted. He paused and then asked, “Did anyone else get out with you?”

“I escaped on my own,” Irin said. “I couldn’t find anyone else in the Limbo. Were you able to escape with anyone?”

“No, just myself. I couldn’t find anyone either…”

“There’s a possibility that some will never return.”

“What?”

“The spell those heathens used. I’ve heard rumors of angel souls can be used to reverse Griffin’s Seal.”

Nananiel shivered, and it wasn’t because of the weather or his faulty Container. “So, the only Major Angels in effect right now on this Realm are me and you. Scary thought.”

“Because of your negligence, Nananiel.”

How long has it been? Thirty seconds and already she was criticizing his leadership skills, but there’s nothing she could say to him that he hasn’t chastised himself for already.

Irin folded her arms and scowled at Nananiel, heat simmering behind her eyes. “To me, it doesn’t look like you seem all that worried, nor does it seem you have been doing much. Here you are enthroned inside of this modern tavern. Unsightly of a Dominion.”

“I’ve been working nonstop since I’ve escaped. Searching Purgatory was getting me nowhere, so I had to focus on retrieving Naomi, and now I am waiting for my scheme to succeed.”

“What does that mean?”

“Naomi has fallen into the hands of two members of the Tainted Generation, they’re keeping her in a Sub-Realm with powerful warding, but here’s the interesting bit, they don’t know how to use magic properly—”

“Yet,” said Irin.

“I planted a multitude of Euphorouses into the mother of one. I am not proud of it, but I had to.”

Irin’s scowl didn’t go away, it blazed up. “That’s your strategy for recovering Naomi?” She said, not amused.

“His name is Ezequias Rosario, and he doesn’t know much. While in the state of panic and confusion, he’ll let the child out and beg for me to lift the curse.”

“Did it ever occur to you that he could just request the help of other members of the Tainted Generation?”

Nananiel went silent. Realizing his blunder, he attempted to salvage himself. “They’re not always on the same terms…”

Irin slammed her fists onto the table. “How can you be this incompetent!” She snapped.

Nananiel thought back to the powerful witch he fought against, Violet Balles, the Neurologist. She was definitely on their side. But, no, the curse was a complicated one to deal with! Yeah, he could say that!

“They won’t find the cure in time…”

Irin smirked, but it was an ill-natured one, mocking his fatuous decisions. “War was all that you saw of the Tainted Generation, but you weren’t directly involved in the smaller scale conflicts we had with every iteration of those devils. They are smart, Nananiel. Resourceful, powerful, and blessed with the most terrifying human trait of them all, determination.”

“This will work.”

“You understand nothing about the Tainted Generation. Underestimating them will lead to your death. What does the First Sphere think of this?”

The First Sphere… the ones powerful enough to resolve all of this, but chose not to, the ones who appointed him as Dominion just a little before Sister Paschar reported the birth of the Fourteenth Tainted Generation, the ones who let him take Naomi out of the cage… Nananiel understood it was immature to think so, but it felt that this whole mess was their fault, in some way, or is he just using it as a scapegoat for his ineffectiveness?

“They have given me an ultimatum…” Nananiel started. “Locate Naomi and fix the Seal. Elgorizel won’t even tell me how much time I have left.”

A burst of cinders sparked out of Irin’s face as she chortled. “Wonderful.”

Nananiel ignored the caustic comment. “How am I supposed to fix the Seal, if the soul of the man who set it up in the first place is nowhere to be found?” Nananiel shifted in his seat. “He could be hiding in a Sub-Realm of Heaven, but I’ve been banished from all Holy Realms.”

Nananiel looked back at Irin and expected to find some hint of pity on her burning face, but no, she was just overjoyed.

“I always ponder upon the stories I heard about your involvement in the Great War. I was hit with a sleeping spell by a coward during my battle with the Thirteenth Damned. By the time I woke up, you defeated him. That always bothered me… did you really do much, Nananiel?”

The Thirteenth Damned was practically dead. But he couldn’t tell Irin that. He couldn’t tell any being that.

Irin got up. “I am going to request an audience with Elgorizel and nominate myself to be your named successor.”

“Or we could just work together to resolve this, Irin.”

“I’ve had enough of your antics, Nananiel. This realm warrants a formidable Dominion Chief entity.”

“What do you know about management, Irin! You’ve been an archangel for centuries before becoming a Power. Death and destruction is all you know.”

Irin glanced at Nananiel and made a soft grunt. “I have a project in development. Once I present the idea to the First Sphere authorities, they’ll take my nomination into consideration.”

“Let me guess, it has something to do with warfare,” Nananiel mocked.

“I hope they don’t exile you and instead, demote you to a regular Dominion.” Irin bared her teeth and her eyes glowed a fiery red. “Then with me being able to command you directly, I can have some real fun with you, Nananiel.”

Nananiel gulped but maintained a stern look. “My plan will work,” he said without a fickle of confidence. “You should be resting. I can sense your Container’s instability.”

“After I speak to the First Sphere, I am going to work on my own to find the abominable child,” Irin declared. “You can continue your frivolous schemes on your own.”

Irin went for the exit.

Nananiel fixated on the cup. He worked for millennia for the position he, not earned, but got, and now he longed for the days of being a regular angel. Perhaps a demotion wouldn’t be that bad, but was the First Sphere really going to let him off with just a demotion? The penance had to be more painful than a status decrease, for sure.

Nananiel fantasized about what happened in tonight’s episode of Hospital General de Anita and wondered if any of his fan theories came true.

He hummed the infectious theme song to himself.

###

The group reached the end of the staircase. A wide, colorless, polished hall greeted them. Zeke looked up at the ribbed vaults and then the rest of the ornate decorations that covered almost every surface. The large stained glass windows filtered the invading white light, making it a sharp gray.

Isaac pointed forward with the assertiveness of a sea captain. “Just a little more, friends!”

They all started moving. Sets of columns lined down the path they ambled through.

Naomi bounced over to Isaac. She stared up at him, wide-eyed, “Isaac, what do you think about angels?”

The air grew heavy as Isaac held her eager stare without saying a word. His expression became eerily wooden. After walking for about twenty seconds, he said, “I have nothing against them, but I do believe they may be incompetent, and that’s okay. I understand. It’s a difficult job.”

“Even the religious-nut thinks so!” AJ cheered.

“I did not expect an answer like that,” Ugo said, “well, do you think you can do a better job, Zach?”

“Hmm…” Isaac raised his arm and looked at the cross hanging off his rosary bead bracelet.

“Well, Vee was right about them being scummy. I’ll tell you that,” Zeke said.

Isaac shot a look at Zeke and smiled. “Do you think she is in the right to hurt them indiscriminately?”

Zeke's brows pinched together as he focused on Isaac.

“I know Violet is the Angel-Killer,” Isaac said. “She tortures them for a while before ending their lives. All in the name of humanity, she says. Isn’t our generation filled with the most colorful and intriguing people? We are so blessed.”

“How did you know that—?”

“I follow all the updates going on in Heaven, Hezekiah,” Isaac said. “I’ve seen Violet’s magic first-hand. With the state those angels’ Containers were left in, it isn’t crazy to make that assumption. And then there’s the fact she admitted it to me when I confronted her.”

Naomi looked over at AJ for clarification. “Your friend is the Angel-Killer? I’ve heard terrible stories about the Angel-Killer… unbelievable scary magic.”

“Indeed,” Isaac agreed. “Inherited spells she augmented and modified herself to hurt angels exclusively. It makes it more fascinating that Hezekiah survived an attack from her and got out unscathed.”

Zeke flinched and glared at Isaac. Damn you, Isaac.

Ugo stepped in front of everybody, turned to them, and yelled, “Whoa, wait!”

They all halted. AJ fixed on Zeke.

“Vee attacked you?” Ugo asked.

Zeke looked down on the stone floor and didn’t answer.

“And you didn’t tell us.” Ugo shrugged and scoffed. “I get it. You said nothing because you were afraid of what we would say. You didn’t want to hear the truth.”

A white hot rage surged deep within Zeke’s chest. He raised his head. “And that would be?”

“Vee isn’t exactly on our side,” Ugo said. “Face it, she’s the villain.”

“You don’t know what you are saying,” Zeke hissed.

“She’s torturing and killing angels. She isn’t showing up to help us save Má, and she attacked you!” Ugo refuted. “You’re blind to Vee’s antics. You always have been!”

Zeke smirked. “Oh, wow, you are accusing me of being blind when it comes to women? That’s hilarious!”

“You put Vee on a pedestal, Mano .”

“And you put every girl you’ve ever met on a pedestal!” Zeke said. “Last year, you went to a concert of a band whom you don’t even listen to just to meet girls, and you had one conversation with a girl that lasted like, what, five seconds—?”

“You weren’t there!”

“I don’t need to be there to know it only lasted five seconds! The next day, you tried to get a belly button piercing from some random guy you found on the internet and ended up with an infection! And at the end of it all, what happened? Oh, yeah! The number she gave you was fake! A Chinese restaurant’s number!” Zeke ranted. He dropped his medical bag, pointed up at Ugo, and enunciated slowly with pure disdain, “You’re just jealous that Violet actually likes me and I had a real chance with her, unlike you with every girl you claimed to be your soulmate.”

“Zeke!” AJ shouted.

Ugo raised a hand. “No, it’s okay.” He folded his arms and chuckled. “He is always like this when someone talks about Vee in a negative light, no scratch that, any mention of Vee gets him riled up. I keep on thinking back to the night when you stood up to Raylan, and defended AJ. I kept asking myself where all that assertiveness came from and I now realized, you only had the courage to because Raylan probably said something about Vee. A harsh comment, or maybe just the mention of her not being there. It’s always Violet with you.”

“Okay, I like her, so what? Do you have something against that?”

“Your mom is dying, and she attacked you! Do I really need to say it again? It’s pissing me off that you’re not pissed off!”

“Stop arguing, please!” Naomi urged.

“Stay out of this!” Zeke and Ugo shouted.

Naomi shrunk back.

“Knowing how smart Vee is and the fact she is so well-versed in this crazy world of magic and monsters. I bet she knows the cure,” Ugo said.

“Oh, she does,” Isaac confirmed.

“Terrific!” Ugo jeered. “I’m curious, Mano. Do you believe there is a good reason she isn’t here to help us now, why she attacked you?”

“She can’t just give me the answer to everything,” Zeke said. “I’m weak and it’s helping me grow.”

Ugo stared blankly at Zeke for almost half a minute. “Man, for someone so smart, you’re really stupid.”

“You’re just jealous she’s looking out for me.”

Ugo pushed him on the shoulder. “Would you stop with that nonsense?”

“Ugo!” AJ shouted, ready to engage, but was pulled back by Isaac.

“Let them resolve this, AJ,” Isaac said.

Zeke glanced at his shoulder and then squinted at Ugo. “Yeah, I guess it’s a bit presumptuous of me to believe that you could be jealous of me with your perfect memory and everything.” Zeke noticed Ugo’s expression crease in confusion but paid no mind to it and continued, “Here I am, wasting hours of my life studying and practising constantly and I don’t even get the highest grades in my class while you can ace anything without effort and yet, you choose not to!”

Ugo stepped back, fuming now and throwing a fit. “Okay, I was wrong! It’s not just Violet, you put everybody on this pedestal! What is wrong with you? Do you really think everybody is better than you? Get your head out of your ass, Mano!”

“You don’t have to work hard for anything. In fact, you chose not and you’ll be perfectly well off, I bet.”

“Do you think I enjoy having a perfect memory? It’s considered a condition for a reason, you asshole!” Ugo badgered. His eyes flashed, and he trembled and slurred, “I can’t forget about anything about my mom. Do you remember how my mom died? She was sick and stuck in the hospital for months! I remember every trip my dad and I took to the hospital and seeing life fade away from her eyes slowly day after day, and you know what finally killed her in the end? A freakin’ medical error! Because some moron made a misdiagnosis and was adamant it was right, he sent her straight into life-support and we pulled the plug! I remember every detail of that doctors’ face! His voice, his mannerisms, the way he enunciated certain words, and weird things he did with his pen when he explained procedures to my parents! I remember it all! Do you have any idea how hard it is to forgive someone when you literally can’t forget anything? I wish I could forget! I wish! But I can’t!”

“Ugo…” Naomi muttered.

“And then my dad marries your mom, and I learn you want to be a doctor. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to bury my feelings and root for you, anyway? Stop assuming that everybody is so happy and fulfilled and blessed.” Ugo took another step and tried to catch his breath.

Zeke paused. He still had something to say. “I’m still right about Violet, though. I know you liked her too…”

Ugo grabbed onto his collar and slammed him back into a column. Gasps filled the air as he lifted him off the floor. “That’s not what’s important here—!”

“I’m not an angel!” Naomi shouted.

Silence took over, and they turned their heads to Naomi at once.