Settling in

July 8th, 1610.

A little white haired boy turns in his bed after being knocked unconscious, he whimpers and his face clearly reflects discomfort and fear, he sits up abruptly with a gasp, breathing heavily, his eyes immediately flood "B-enji...Benji are you here" he asks in a small shaky voice.

"I'm right here...Shukumei" replies a voice in his head.

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July 8th, 1598.

Shukumei turns around as he slowly lands on the ground in the hallway he seemed to have flown into, it looks to be perfectly solid and able to hold him up, was Paschar telling him lies then?, he stomps his foot on the ground a couple of times to make sure he won't fall through and then looks ahead when he hears the loud echo this creates, he walks ahead looking around at massive white pillars, tall walls that he cannot seem to spot a ceiling for as they simply stretch until they fade into a white void, everything around making him seem insignificant in comparison.

His wandering comes to a stop when he reaches an enormous white marble statue, it has huge wings spread behind it with the tips almost reaching that white void above, in one hand it has a spear and in the other a scroll, it faces forward without an expression, but when Shukumei looks up at it, it's eyes start to glow white, he tilts his head gazing into the light of its eyes "are you alive?" He asks in confusion.

"This is a judge, the one I sculpted" says Kisoku casually walking behind him.

Shukumei jumps a little startled and looks behind him at his elder brother "Kisoku" blinks feeling a wave of grace gently washing over him before he loses balance and falls back on his rear.

"Interesting, you are an anomaly after all" Kisoku notes looking down at him.

"What did you just do" asks Shukumei curiously as he gets back up to his feet.

"I removed the grace surrounding you, speaking of which you're quite messy with it...regardless I did that because you are the youngest angel to ascend, I thought perhaps you had Paschar cave in and bring you here with his own grace, this seems to not be the case" Kisoku explains, inspecting the little angel.

"You took away the...free surrounding grace? How did you do that" asks Shukumei looking at his hands and wings checking himself over did he lose a wing or an arm maybe? He seems to be intact.

"It is my ability, you will unlock yours by fulfilling your role, I see you did not stay for that part of Paschar's discourse" Says Kisoku leaning back on one of the pillars his arms crossed and his big wings folded behind him.

"I was growing impatient and besides he only speaks lies! He said I would not be able to enter this place but here I am!" Shukumei expresses his irritation.

"He did not lie as I said this is unprecedented, you seem to be a special angel little brother, and that includes more things than your attitude" Kisoku remarks.

"I wish to hear more about these abilities you spoke of" Says Shukumei flying over to his older brother then sitting on his shoulder "do I have one?"

Kisoku looks up to the side looking at him, he's quite the strange little thing this one, already so comfortable with him without any regard for space or Kisoku's dislike for invading said space, he brushes that aside deciding to ignore it like he does most unimportant things "each one of us does, however only by fulfilling your duty do you get closer to unlocking it, being the oldest, my twin and I unlocked ours, Paschar and Parilla are close as well"

"What duty?" Asks the little angel...having seen this gesture before he distractedly brushes his wing against the back of his elder brother's.

"Before he perished, God, our creator....Father, he entrusted a number of things to me for me to pass them to you, my younger brethren....you will learn of them each in due time, and among those is our current job, to harvest human souls when it is their time to pass, do you at least know what humans are?" Says Kisoku looking sideways at their wings then back at the little one.

"Mortal beings with 'souls', cores made of an energy called life force" he answers with a nod, proud of his ability to answer that question, maybe he should have stuck a little longer with Paschar.

"They are God's first creation, his beloved humans, and we exist to maintain order in their existence, doing so through collecting souls prevents their world from becoming infested by corrupt ones, life force does not only make the soul, it is what ties it to it's vessel, and when that force depletes over time, or due to an incident, the soul can no longer remain tied to the vessel, without our role, the souls become exposed outside their vessels, becoming tainted and corrupt, and for that our first duty is to ensure their passage to their correct place of rest, be it heaven or hell, doing so we are able to acquire a small amount of what remains of that life force each time, which is what ultimately unlocks our gifts" explains Kisoku turning to look at nothing in particular, a tad distracted "a reward to ensure that the angels fall in line" he adds almost inaudibly.

"In that case....can't we simply take that life force before it becomes depleted? We will unlock that 'gift' sooner then, correct?" Asks Shukumei, interested, wiggling his feet a little bit.

Kisoku stays silent a little then puts his hand over Shukumei's feet stopping them "no if you acquire too much too quickly it will have a reverse effect, it will deny you that gift forever"

"Oh, God sounds quite intelligent" says Shukumei with a little intrigued smile.

Kisoku eyes him for a bit then picks him up off his shoulder and puts him down "you return to Paschar, The Council Hall is no place for a fledgling such as yourself"

...

Down in The Sea Of Clouds Qadar lands again after her third attempt to fly back up to The Garden, she feels tired and drained and decides to take a rest...drawing her knees closer to her chest she buries her face there and encircle herself with her wings, trying and failing to keep calm, hoping someone will come find her soon "Shukumei" she says lowly.

A few minutes later she looks up hearing the sound of two pairs of wings flapping, before she makes out what she's seeing she gets pushed back by her shoulders by two small hands as Shukumei is kneeling in front of her pushing her back a little to take a look, he looks worried "I heard you call me but I did not know how to come here, are you hurt? Paschar was considered that he lost his connection with you and could not find where you were, I told him and he-" she doesn't let him finish before pulling herself closer to him burying herself in his chest silently.

He stops talking and looks at her, hesitantly puts his wings around her a little confused to as what to do.

Paschar stands behind them looking at them, it's quite bizarre how the moment he left her side she fell into the lower angels' level, not only that but her presence withered so much that he could not even locate her, he turns his eyes to Shukumei, he was able to ascend to the higher level almost immediately after he emerged, it seems as though their split wasn't perfect, one of them got the short end of it.

...

After finding Qadar, Paschar created a connection with her through which he can transfer some grace to her, it isn't perfect since they don't share the same type of grace but it will suffice for now since the angel who shares the same type of grace as her, Shukumei, does not know how to do that yet.

They took her to the tree and Shukumei remained at her side which helped her calm down.

A few minutes later they're joined by some new faces.

"So you must be the new fledglings then" says Krozia, a fierce looking angel with what seems to be her twin standing next to her, she wields a short sword while he wields a long white spear, she turns to look at Paschar "are they in the Council Hall?"

Paschar nods "Krozia, Gavreel" he says in a greeting manner "did you find anything?"

Gavreel'a spear as well as Krozia's sword fade into white light and then fade away, she rests back on the tree as Gaverel walks towards the new little angels "as per usual a pile of sweet nothing, perhaps Zuriel and Yarav are ought to be a little better at their accursed jobs I don't know maybe point us towards something for a change" she replies in visible irritation.

"You know it isn't their fault sister Ramiel has kept us off his tracks for years now at least they are finding something for us to look into" he says turning to look at them then kneels down next to the little ones with a friendly smile "greetings"

"Hello" says Shukumei while Qadar stays silent "who's Ramiel?" He asks curiously.

Gavreel chuckles and ruffles the little one's hair "hasty are we?" He glances at Qadar with the same smile and looks back at Shukumei "he's a demon, the current ruler of hell, following the chaos that ensued after the Horsemen's disappearance he has claimed Death's throne and has been using that to gain more power through forbidden ways, we have been trying to locate him the past few years but it has been rather fruitless thus far, perhaps you angels will aid us once you're big and strong" he says with another chuckle.

Paschar gives Gavreel a sharp look and chimes in "now now it's too early for this kind of talk isn't it brother?" He says the last bit pointedly expecting him to get the hint "you little ones have much to learn before you're even close to concerning yourselves with such matters, by then with any luck all will be resolved and you will not have to worry over these things at all" he adds with a smile looking at the small angels.

Gavreel looks back at him "of course of course I was merely-" he doesn't get the chance to finish as Kisoku lands there interrupting.

"You two seem intact so I gather you did not stumble upon any demons this time?" Kisoku says.

"Tsk, what is that supposed to mean, we're perfectly capable of handling some measly demons we're not.." pauses noticing Zuriel and Yarav walking behind Kisoku "them" she says pointing at the pair.

Yarav blinks and points at herself "eh?"

"Yes you and the other useless feather brain lead us into yet another dead end, exactly what do you do out there other than putting your heads up each oth-" she expresses in irritation only to be interrupted.

"Settle down children this is no way to act around our endearing new siblings now" says Eloa in her ever so calm manner kneeling down in front of said siblings cupping their cheeks in her hands as they simply sit there listening to the argument "why don't you little cuties come with me, away from these savages hmm?"

Qadar nods but Shukumei keeps looking at them since he finds this somewhat amusing, however she ends up taking both of them away from the scene.

"Krozia I've no interest in listening to your complaints for the remainder of the day, you seem to be well rested if you're able to run your mouth with such vigor, head out to your regular duty, The same applies to you Yarav and Zuriel, Parilla you're to stay with me and Gavreel you may commence training the new fledglings" instructs Kisoku in a commanding manner leaving no room for argument, and sure enough following his words a reluctant Krozia leaves followed by Zuriel and Yarav shortly after, Parilla who only just landed remains with him as told.

"Brother don't you think it is perhaps a bit too early to start training the new angels they've only just emerged" Paschar pleas.

"Yes following years of the orb giving us nothing, we're very short handed and their help is vital so we must start making them of use rather quickly" says Kisoku walking away from the tree "Take Shukumei with you when you leave next" adds before taking off not waiting to hear what Paschar has to say about it, Parilla looks at him a little sympathetically before following her older brother.

Paschar sighs and looks in the direction Eloarubi left in with the little ones, he's seen how attached they are to one another, much like all twins, and being so different power wise, he can foresee how they will be handled differently, he worries over what effect this will have on their bond, after all Kisoku already specified that he takes Shukumei only, he turns to look at Gavreel feeling his gaze.

"What has you so troubled brother this is how it has always been, you were the one who trained me when I emerged after all so what's with this change of heart?" Gavreel asks as his spear materialises in his hand.

Paschar looks at the spear then back at Gavreel "it does not matter, I must be a tad fatigued I will take a short rest while you do as Kisoku asked, send Shukumei once you're finished"

Gavreel nods and watches Paschar leave before going after Eloarubi.

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So, I intended to make this one a little longer but I felt like this is a good spot to end it, let me know you're thoughts I sure hope that you enjoyed this chapter!

Make it a great day and I'll see you again in the next chapter.