Archive 1: Not everything that glitters is gold

On one particular day, Magnus had been preparing his troupe for training, when he was suddenly summoned by Being X. 

As he scrolled through his virtual watch, he heard two chimes indicating his Master was summoning him.

He quickly pulled Uriel, his second in command to the side to let him know that he was being summoned and that he needed to take charge of the others while he was away. As Magnus left the training hall, he made his way to the holy tubes.

He inserted his golden bracelet into the compartment and heard the tub making its descent. A golden glow enveloped the tube as soon as it arrived, and its doors were unlocked shortly thereafter.

Magnus made his way inside and heard the automated voice. 

[Grand Chief Magnus, where would you like to go?]

 Magnus couldn't help but flinch a little.

Every single time he heard the automated voice it made him want to rip his own ears off. The voice was so grating and unpleasant, it made you want to run for the hills. He once heard a rumour that the voice wasn't always this annoying.

Apparently the engineer who created these tubes purposely changed the voice so that it would be unbearable to to listen to. This would work as a tactic to encourage angels to utilize their own two feet or wings to get to their destinations.

It was a known fact that angels had become lazy after the invention of the empyrean tubes. However, it couldn't be helped. This contraption was much quicker and saved everyone a lot of time so of course most angels would opt for this method instead.

Usually Magnus didn't mind flying or walking but since he had been summoned and he didn't want to keep his Master waiting, he decided to endure the voice and take them.

He quickly inputed his destination and the machine calculated the time it would take to get there. 

[You have inputed Highest Realm, Throne Alpha. Is this the correct destination?] 

He quickly replied with yes. 

[The estimated time is… 0.1 light seconds.]

 As soon as the message was done, the tube closed and locked itself and ascended at the speed of light. In the mere seconds it took for him to blink, Magnus had arrived.

The automated voice spoke again. 

[You have arrived at your destination. May Being X be with you.] 

The tube opened its doors and he got out. As soon as his left leg left the device, it quickly closed and left. He was glad he wouldn't have to hear that aggravating voice for awhile.

Seeing the pearly Grand Gates, Magnus was awestruck by the sight before him. His eyes still couldn't believe what he was seeing, no matter how many times he had been summoned here.

In contrast to the Mesial Realm he had just left, the air around him was richer, clearer, and the energy was otherworldly, making him tremble unconsciously.

He could feel his Master's spiritual energy even without opening the gates. After taking a deep breath, he turned his attention towards the celestial detector.

Machine approval was required for entry. The machine would detect whether or not you were welcomed here by imbuing it with one's holy power. In spite of the fact that the machine was effective, it was only a formality or front in a sense.

The reason being that if you weren't welcomed into the High Realm, you were immediately thrown out, so there was no chance an intruder could enter.

It was still necessary to follow protocol because it allowed people of the High Court to identify the person before they arrived. And so he imbued his holy power and heard a ding soon after. The device had activated and it started to display his information.

Name: Magnus 

Race: Angel (Cherubim)

Rank: Chief (Grand)

Role: Leader of the legions of Angels 

Power: Cannot be measured

A voice could be heard after the machine had finished its analysis. This time it wasn't automated but was the voice of Rael, a Throne. 

"Welcome to Throne Alpha, please come inside." 

And with that the gates opened. The throne in all of its glory came into sight and it was an even more marvellous sight than the Grand Gates.

Magnus feared that it was beyond his authority to describe what the Throne looked like. To put it simply, it was too holy for the eyes of a mere mortal to comprehend. 

 Magnus made his way up the golden steps that lead to the throne room and knocked.

He then heard a deep voice say, "you may enter." And so he did. 

Sitting before him was his Master, he looked as bright and as blinding as ever. There were no words that could be used to describe him except one. Perfection. He didn't have the time to marvel at Him and quickly got on one knee. 

"Master, you called?"

Being X got up and stood before him. He then put His hand on Magnus' head and even though he couldn't see his Master's face, he could feel that he was smiling. 

"Yes, I have a mission for you young Magnus. One that I believe only you can fulfill."

Upon hearing this, his heart stopped beating for a millisecond and he could feel the nerves he had been trying to suppress take over his body, although he felt immensely anxious, he also felt euphoric and patiently waited for his Master's assignment in anticipation.

What could Master have in store for him? What kind of mission could it be that only he could accomplish. Magnus thought to himself. 

"Now, now child, no need to be so excited, I will let you know about the mission in due time." He said with look of amusement on his face. 

"Right, I apologize Master." He quickly regained my composure. 

"Worry not. Now rise quickly, and let us take a look at the monthly report." 

"Yes Master." 

"Raziel quickly pull out the Deiform's." Being X said in an authoritative tone. 

"Yes Master."

Raziel who had been standing on the side quickly lifted his hands and then appeared a virtual screen that showed the paradisiacal numbers of each division.

This included the Powers, Virtues and Dominions. Since the screen took over a third of the throne room, the status report that included numbers, graphs and the like could be seen by everyone in the room, Magnus included. Raziel per instructed started his report. 

"Starting with the Virtues, there have been a mixed of rainy seasons and dry seasons on Earth, more dry seasons in the Eastern factions of Earth and rainier seasons in the Southern factions.

As for the number of natural disasters, not as many as the last month. Overall, there is an equal balance within the elements. Not much else to report on that.

Now for the Dominions, unfortunately, due to power struggles in the Western factions as well as the Northern factions, as seen on the map right here, a large percentage of these parts have been affected by wars or threats of wars.

Now of course these issues are nothing new, since the threats of wars have been going on for the last decade or so, but it has become more severe because the various leaders of both factions have started to act on their threats.

The Dominion Team have been trying their best to defuse the situation by sending out various emissaries, but it looks like the humans are being very stubborn this time around.

If this dispute continues, war will break out in neighbouring factions and and could start affecting the more neutral factions as well. And based off the report I received from the Dominion team, there hasn't been a solution to this problem yet.

Lastly, the Powers have been doing their jobs quite well, all internal disputes, and threats of war surrounding other Realms have been contained and there's relative peace among the High Court, Mesial Court and Nether Court. That is all."

Raziel finished, and waved his hand, dispelling the virtual screen. 

"Hmm, thank you Raziel that'll be all." 

"Yes Master." He bowed his head and went back to his post. 

Upon looking at the report, Magnus couldn't mask the happiness he felt when looking at his numbers and results.

His team had done a good job this month and he couldn't help but be proud. Sensing his excitement once again, God smiled at him. But after looking at the numbers for his Dominions, that smile soon left his face and was replaced with a frown.

"Magnus." 

Magnus broke out of his reverie and faced his Master properly. He could tell just by the change of his Master's demeanour that things weren't looking very good, and he knew exactly why. 

Although the Dominions had rule and control over large factions, they couldn't directly interfere when it came to human conflicts.

Unless it was directly threatening the stability of the world, they had no direct power over them.

Why you may ask?

Because acting as they wished would mean taking the will of humans.

They would lose their ability to think and act for themselves which made this situation very difficult because it would take away their autonomy.

All they could do was persuade the humans or guide them to choose different paths, but ultimately the last decision laid on the humans. 

Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, but because other factions could be targeted and innocent lives could be lost, this situation needed to be handled delicately but also swiftly in order to avoid any repercussions.

Even though the Dominions had a lot of man power and could handle most crises with ease, the way things were going, it looked like another Division would need to intervene. And Magnus could guess that in this particular case, their power would be needed. 

" I see that you already get the gist of the situation child. You are as bright as ever." His Master couldn't help but smile.

 He felt proud of Magnus and all the good deeds he had accomplished. Now God didn't have many favourites, but it didn't take a wise guy to know that Magnus was highly favoured by Master.

He trusted him completely, and it was the reason why he appointed him as leader of the legions of angels.

Even though Magnus was technically a Cherubim, meaning that he was apart of the High Court and his duties were to stay close to Being X, his Master could tell that even though Magnus was an intelligent angel, his real strength lied in his ability to properly analyze situations and come up with the best strategies regardless of the outcome.

Hence the reason why he gave him complete control over all the combat angels. Magnus was honoured to get this positions, however he didn't want control over the Dominion who already had a Chief.

He proposed instead to have his own army of combat angels that would be assigned cases too difficult for the Dominion to control. He would still be the leader of the Dominion, but more of a in the shadows leader.

This decision was accepted by everyone else and the Chief of Dominions was satisfied with the outcome as well. Since things, weren't looking too good, it was now his turn to take over. 

"Right, I understand the situation. How would you like me to proceed?" Being X looked at his pupil, and took note of his determined stance.

This reassured him even more, and he didn't waste a single second and let him know of his plans for him. 

"You will be going down to the Human Realm."