1 Chapter 1 - Drowning in the first heaven

He was losing the strength in his arms and legs, fighting against a storm that felt not only violent but targeted to him. Waves were raising as tall as 10 to 15 feets in case he was able to escape to the surface, but was mainly trapped underwater in rolling swirls of water that would trap him and surround his body. The only way to understand where to swim was to keep his eyes wide open seeking for the reflection of the sun. Obviously, this plan wouldn't work if it was dark outside, but there was a big shining sun. It was late in the afternoon, if he had to stay there for a couple of hours, it would be the end of it.

He didn't know how to swim so he would move as if he was trying to climb a mountain, but the frustration of not being able to gran anything kept his mind busy in multiple thoughts that came to his mind.

The feeling of being grabbed by the water caused him to fight against this awkward evil power; he switched to shake arms and legs in a brutal way as if he wanted to kill every wave crashing on him. Every time he did this, he would get freedom from his bindings, and suddenly go up to the surface. Unfortunately, waves preparing for the opportunity would burst as soon as he would go up. With enough time to inhale some air, waves would crash on him redirecting him to the depths of darkness and death.

After a few minutes of struggle underwater, there wasn't a possible way to breath, so he couldn't resist and had to let the air go, and only a few seconds later, he allowed the salty water to get inside his lungs, or that's what he thought. This happened multiple times, but going up to the surface would reset everything once again for some reason.

At some point, his body got separated from his spirit, he couldn't feel the water or the need to breath anymore, and just 1 feet away, he could stare at his body, but something didn't make sense, his body kept fighting as if he hadn't left it, as if he was no longer necessary. And he didn't even question if he was dead or alive.

At the age of 15, Ab-El was about to finish High school. He studied 2 years in 1 to finish early, as he wanted to be a professional before turning 20. Time had become something important for him. But currently his entire day was only spent training for the basketball final, he only had 1 week to train for a challenging game against the favorites of the city. His body was trained to endure the current struggle but 30 minutes was just the limit. He no longer had strength to resist. Not only body, but also soul and spirit were very weak at this point.

This wasn't the first time he experienced being out of his body, but it was definitely the first time Ab-El saw himself dying. Staring at his own body trying to swim and even doing a better job was weird. Survival instinct was better teacher at swimming than his previous failed attempts to go to the surface.

For a moment he raised his sight to the sky just to see in a pause of time thousands for warriors with swords and spears fighting. Winds and thunders roaring in the sky, causing the sea to freak out.

"Can that be my imagination?! Can God see me here if something THAT relevant is actually happening outside?!"

Suddenly, his spirit got dragged again to his body. He was back and totally forgot what he just witnessed.

Desperate, he tried to reach the surface to take some air, and he was able to do so for the 30th or 40th time, tired and with eyes wide open, he could only think on one thing "Hope".

"Maybe waves will stop fighting against me and I will be able to float until someone comes to the rescue. Maybe someone from my family will get to me, after all, I've been drowning for at least 30 minutes, someone must be on its way to save me. It's just a matter of time. I can keep fighting. God will send some help for me."

---

12 Hours before this, a group of fishermen were already struggling with strong winds that felt like coming from a hurricane. Winter had started 2 months ago, but hurricanes were not a thing in the pacific ocean, so it didn't make sense that they were experiencing such a terrible storm. They lost their fishing nets and looked for them for hours without success. So they decided to go back and have some rest at home.

After having a nice lunch very early, they felt sleepy. That's when three of them had some scary dreams. They were still in the boat, but this time they could see the fishing nets clearly, but there was something weird, the storm was still raging, the wind was trying to sink the boat, but they had the conviction that they could retrieve the net and escape from that place to the shore. But even though they were able to grab the net, it was impossible to get the net inside the boat. A big wave crashed on the boat forcing the fishermen to lose the nets again, but they tried to surf the waves to return where the nets where floating whipped by the sea. Finally, they were able to grab the nets once again, but once again, they couldn't take them inside the boat, while they were struggling, they talked to the nets:

"you need to get it! we can't get you inside!".

These dream was repeating over and over again in their subconscious until they woke up. By the moment they woke up, they didn't even remember they were dreaming.

An invisible angelical being was inside their house. Dreams and visions are some of the languages used in heavens, and these men were about to play an important role that day.

The angelical being said: "Since I woke up, I haven't been able to understand many things about the Sovereign's Wisdom, and this is one of them. Why to fight a battle over 1 human that lives in a forgotten place like this"

Seen from the sky, "Lion City" looked majestic, it was in the middle of the American Continent, but the reality was, this city looked abandoned. The beach of "Big Salt" wasn't known as a touristic place, instead, it was just a poor place from where people were getting salt for the City of "Lion". A big principality was reigning in "Lion City", and the city was in constant poverty without hope of a change.

Fishermen woke up, they were convinced that they would recover the nets, so they decided to go back to the sea at 12pm.

---

It was 4:30pm already, Ab-El was being tormented by the suffering, constantly suffocating, his soul got tired and his spirit started to think in the possibility of ending the suffering by stopping the fight. Every time he was about to die, he would take fresh air that would help him renew his strength.

It was totally unexpected, but waves stopped moving. He started floating in the middle of nowhere, and could breath multiple times as he couldn't do for the last 30 minutes. He even said to himself:

"This is it! I have finally reached a place where there aren't waves no more, I can remain floating here until someone comes to save me!"

Big waves started gathering around Ab-El and the storm was just getting started for round 2. But this time was even worse.

When Ab-El started drowning 30 before this time, he wasn't alone, an uncle and a cousin were with him. Both tried to help him, but the waves, and the winds didn't allow the rescue. Instead, it dragged the three of them.

Ab-El received help of his uncle in the first couple of minutes, but then his cousin was also being dragged, so his uncle had to try helping both. Unfortunately, he was completely lost after that, and didn't get to see any of them anymore. He thought he was alone.

His cousin Mervyn found him, they were both experiencing the same torture, same situation. But when Ab-El was able to touch Mervyn, the body instinct did what is natural and started grabbing Mervyn and pushing him down so he could go up. Ab-El's mind was clear, he knew he was killing his cousin and dying at the same time. In his mind, he thought, I might survive, if I kill him, but if I die afterwards, I'll be going to hell for killing my cousin. The hesitation was unnecessary, being that his body was doing this without his consent. He didn't want to kill his cousin, but it was inevitable. He was able to feel how his cousin also grabbed him from his foot and started returning the fight. They were both trying to drag each other to get to the surface.

Ab-El cried out in the spirit to the heavens: "HOW COME YOU ARE ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN!?"

Mervyn, found some strength to remove his t-shirt and was able to escape from Ab-El. While keeping Mervyn by the t-shirt, Ab-El exhausted his strength and air and started taking more water into his lungs.

Ab-El: "It's heavier that air"

It's all he could think of, but at the same time he started to notice that he couldn't move his arms and legs. Suddenly, he lost his sight, and was surrounded in darkness.

---

In the Third Heaven, God Almighty in his throne with Great Glory said: "Gabriel, get ready. Take a legion to Lion City", we won't fight the Principality of Lion, instead, witness everything that happens with Ab-El in the ocean, you will see his Faith dying with him, and fight only once he dies.

Thanks to a Vision that came straight to Gabriel's mind. He was able to get the details of the mission. The fight between angels and fallen angels was about to start. The Prince of Lion City was strong. And that principality had been waiting for this fight for a long time already. Only one piece was missing, that piece was a few seconds away from dying.