CHAPTER 182: Purgatory and heaven.

A shiver ran over my entire body despite being almost completely immune to holy energy now.

The names of the gods. I had no idea how to describe them. It was like Alice had told me the complete description of the gods in a few words. Their entire being summarised and explained in a mere sentence.

I instinctively knew that I had such a name myself, everything had. I truly wondered if mine would be as great and mystic as those of the gods.

Without saying anything space made a rift to go back to one of the mortal worlds. After that he created another one that led to the mountain of purgatory.

Even if this was a place between heaven and hell it never ceases to amaze me how different it was from the inferno where I was forced to spend a few years. The mountain consisted of seven layers each corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins. Only water surrounded the mountain, yet the view was incredibly beautiful.

Another thing was the sheer number of humans that were present on the mountain.

I knew from the old stories that my father used to tell me that one could only climb the mountain during the day. Given that it was currently night-time, I was grateful that the angels and I could fly. We were even allowed to fly over the gate near the foot of the mountain.

Many people who were forced to stop their climb for the night looked up in confusion after seeing two angels and a demon flying over them.

A few were scared. But since there were angels almost everywhere most did not believe that I could do harm to them even if I tried.

Eventually we reached the top. Here a blue river ran under a gigantic three with fruits shining so bright that they could have been mistaken for stars.

There were a few people resting here amongst the tall green grass littered with flowers.

But we were not about to stick around and see more of purgatory.

Space opened another rift. This time to the nine circles of heaven.

Upon entering I was truly grateful for the addition to my mark. If it were not for that I would surely have burned up and reduced to a speck of dust.

We skipped past the parts were some humans and low-level angels were minding their business to head straight to the centre where presumably the gods resided.

When we passed the third circle an angel, a throne to be exact approached us. Before this we had only encountered verry low angels, some of which could be compared to some very virtuous humans. These would think twice before stopping the two highest angels in their duty. Even if that involved letting them guide a demon trough heaven.

But this one was a bit more certain about its position. And dared to question the two angels.

"May I ask why you have brought a demon to this place?" its voice echoed throughout the seemingly endless space.

I was not even sure how it could speak. To me the angel just looked like two burning rings with eyes.

Alice was the first to respond. "We found this demon protecting a group of mortals and it appears that he is immune to holy energy. Therefore, we decided that we would directly bring him to the gods."

"I'm sure you don't mind him just passing through, right?" Space added. "He cannot harm or disturb anyone here under our strict surveillance. So there truly is no need to worry."

The thrones was still a little sceptical about the situation but ended up letting us trough. Afterall how could the two highest angels plan on doing anything bad with the demon they had brought in?

It should come to no surprise that the remaining circles of heaven looked nothing like the hell I was used to. In contrast to the crooked and noisy landscape of hell the circles of heaven were just empty space. There was nothing to be crooked and all was silent and peaceful. The only difference it had to the void was that in each circle a different kind of angel lived.

As we passed trough the circles more angels came to look at us. Some surprised that these two high angels were passing trough the lower levels of heaven while most questioned about my presence. These angels were a little worried about the fact that a demon was even able to be here in the first place. while others saw it as some sort of sign that some demons could be redeemed and thus be granted access to heaven.

Tough I knew that that probably wasn't the case. When compared to other demons a was extremely kind and patient. I could even care for other beings than just myself, something that most demons that I had met over the years clearly could not. And even then, the only reason that I was not burning up was because space had altered my mark.

Eventually we reached the last and smallest circle. This was where time and space resided. This was the final circle before we reached the gods. We were now so close that I could even feel their presence.