Kasrel squeezed Salba's hand slightly as she went on with her explanation, "Remember when we told you about the key of creation? Well one day, Lucifer had earned that honor, and God allowed her to pick a world to introduce life into. Lucifer was overjoyed and spent six hundred and sixty six years to find the perfect world. And when she found it and cast the gifts of creation upon it, she christened it..."

Salba cut in, she was quite familiar with the name, "Inferus" Kasrel hummed: "Or the Underworld. It was so called because it was at the edge of the known universe on the direct opposing end in relation to Deva. If you can place the worlds in terms of time and space, Earth will be in the absolute center, Deva will be in the top at the time of eternity and Inferus will be at the bottom, close to the first days of time."

Phasarel nodded, a slight smile upon his face, "Right. Well, the planet at least, when she first created it, it was purely physical and followed the laws of the universe to the tee."

Kasrel sighed with the weight of reminiscence, "I was one of the first to see it. It had pyres of beautiful fire and the first seeds of creation bore the creatures that affectionately came to be known as the Hellspawn, their hides were thick and acclimated easily to the interchanging extremities of searing heat and freezing cold of the planet. Another thing that made it even more beautiful were the violet rays of its star, which Lucifer named after herself."

Phasarel perked a brow as he piped up, "When the world was inaugurated, Lucifer invited the host to take it up as their home in the physical realm. Only a hundred out of the several million angels accepted the invitation, the rest refused."

Salba was taken aback by this information, her facial features contorting into confusion, "That is so rude. Why would they do so?"

Kasrel shrugged with non-commitment, her voice still holding a hint of memory, "Some say, although hard to believe, that the first seeds of jealousy were being sowed. Others think that the angels feared they would marvel at the world so much that they may, even for a split second, idolize Lucifer, which was an unimaginable thing, so they chose to refrain. For us, we just didn't care, and it was definitely worth our time. We immediately took a liking to the place and asked Lucifer to set us up with a permanent city for us to live in, whenever we decided to venture into the physical realm."

Salba pointed downwards as she gave her response, "Dis, right?"

Phasarel nodded. "Kasrel gifted Lucifer a palace beneath the surface of the planet, where her fiery light would illuminate the depths of hell as she sat on her throne and looked upon her beloved world."

Salba shook her head, a piece of the puzzle still not quite fitting into the whole. "I still don't understand how she fell."

Kasrel grinned, amused by the girl's impatience, "We're getting to it, my dear. You need to understand the past to understand the present, because none of us would be here without the past. You see, as Lucifer sat on the throne of Dis, another angel, whose great wisdom impressed God had earned the keys of creation and was chosen to create another planet that would be capable of sustaining intelligent life."

Salba finally began to see how everything fit together, "Raziel?" Kasrel and Phasarel nodded. "So this planet was earth." She concluded.

Phasarel responded with a certain gravity held in the undertone of his voice. "Yes, Earth. Unlike Lucifer who picked a world that was dry in order to sustain the element of fire, Raziel picked a world that was wet in order to sustain the element of earth. Together with his sister, they patiently prepared earth over the course of a few million earth years and then with God's permission, cast the seeds of creation on the planet."

Kasrel raised her finger to garner Salba's attention, "Now we come to the crucial part of this story. God ordered Raziel to fashion an element that will be able to sustain within its walls, the very essence of God."

Salba's eyes widened in shock, "What was this element?"

"It was called, A'dam," Kasrel explained, "which meant 'of mud'. This element was to be placed inside a host creature evolved into a stature capable of sustaining conventional animal functions but at the same time be capable of divine tasks like seeking knowledge, perfection and of course, praising its own creator."

"Now, back to this creation process..." Phasarel interjected, "Lucifer suggested that God use the Hellspawn to host A'dam, for it was strong and fearsome. However, God refused and instead chose Raziel's world to be the host. The host chosen was an evolved humanoid creature, despite the fact that this race wasn't as strong as the Hellspawn; for although they had a modest stature, they nevertheless possessed a complex mental capacity capable of sustaining the divine subconscious required to subdue and control the animal, or carnal subconscious."

Finally, the tale was beginning to clear to the young child. "So this world was earth..." Salba thought out loud as they nodded, "And Lucifer got jealous?"

Phasarel let out a dry chuckle, "You must understand that the creation of earth was no issue to Lucifer, but it was the fact that Raziel's world was chosen over her own magnificent dominion to be the host of A'dam is what angered her. So God fashioned Adam out of the mud of Earth and ordered each of the members of the Gifts of God to bestow a gift onto Man."

He took a small pause as he glanced towards Kasrel before continuing along, "The first was Raziel, he bestowed Man with wisdom, and then it was Tetra who gave man Age. Next came the Archangels. Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Israfel, who each gave man Strength, Health, Thought, Ambivalence and so on. But when it was turn for man to be given the gift of Inner light, rather than Lucifer being chosen to give the light, Neria was."

Salba shook her head as she looked at Phasarel with a perked brow, "Why is that? Lucifer was Neria's teacher. She would've been capable of giving man the best inner light."

Phasarel smiled through the interruption, "Ah. But God didn't want man to be perfect; he wanted him to have only part of the light to give him a sense of wanting to fill the void with learning, love and perfection. That, of course, was the primary purpose of creating mankind."

"You mean he wanted to see who was strong and who was weak amongst mankind? Like a competition?" Salba asked.

Kasrel nodded slightly as she formed a response, "It's more complicated than that but yes, you do have the right idea."

Salba, flustered, added firmly, "So Lucifer became angry."

Phasarel shook his head as he began searching his mind for the correct phrase, "The day that man was inaugurated, Adam, taught by Raziel surprised the angels by naming every species on earth, and all the angels in heaven; the knowledge of which only Raziel and God had. Man demonstrated a unique capability that no other being in the universe had: A boundless memory. With this, God made a point that man would be ranked higher than the angels and ordered them to bow to Adam."

Salba widened her eyes in bewilderment, "Bow to Adam??? As in worship him?"

Kasrel frowned at the girl's words as she reciprocated, "No, as in an oath of respect and allegiance to the race of mankind. We all bowed to Adam, of course, most of us had no choice because our will was tied with that of God's"

Phasarel acquiesced as he added to the tale, "Except Lucifer, who had a consciousness of her own. And she chose not to bow."

Salba's eyes widened with a mixture of fear and admiration, "She defied God?"

Kasrel nodded, "Indeed she did. She had shocked the entire angelic race (much to the joy of the demons, themselves beings succumbed to the darkness) and argued that she was created out of Fire, and man was created out of mud, and if she wished it, she could burn man and turn him into stone and thus could not be of a higher rank than herself. So you see, she was overcome by vanity."

Salba thought on this for a few moments, "But God singled Lucifer out, so she had the right to defy him."

Phasarel and Kasrel looked at each other and sighed, "Actually, that's what we said. And our hearts were sided with Lucifer, the hundred of us that had seen his world and were sympathetic towards her. Our hearts questioned God's infinite balance and justice."

"So what happened?" Salba questioned, attempting to rush the tale further ahead.

Kasrel shrugged, "Nothing at first..." She held a slight pause before adding, "Until Lucifer decided to use her own power to destroy the earth."

Salba's eyes widened, mystified, "And did she succeed?"

Phasarel and Kasrel both shook their heads in response. Kasrel was the first to answer, "No. God for a fleeting moment had allowed all the angels to choose a side in the war. This was only the second time in existence that the angels were given the power to choose a side on their own self. We took Lucifer's and the rest of the host took Michael's. We tried to reason with both sides, but the war was inevitable. It was fought across the cosmos: Thousands of worlds were ripped to pieces in the process, with Lucifer and her ten children of chaos spewing fire and destruction from their fearsome mouths like an ancient angry Dragon. And in the wake of this conflagration was Earth. Michael stood his ground on the very skies of earth as he refused Lucifer the power to wreak destruction on the planet... And while he did so, the last two humanoids left alive, one male and one female were taken to a cave high in a mountain in what is now called Africa and Raziel and Tetra sat in that cave with them and guarded them. They were two creatures that had no mental capacity to understand what was going on, the very creatures that would inevitably become the hosts of Adam and Eve."

Phasarel sighed, his voice filled with reprieve, "What Lucifer did was horrible, she had cast thousands of fireballs onto the surface of the planet, killing almost every living creature in a fearsome apocalypse, but with Tetra subduing the earth-quakes and Raziel keeping the towering ocean waves at bay, the two humanoids were safe. Michael dealt the final blow with the Sword of Honor, and Lucifer was cut down into two pieces and fell on the earth with one last engulfing fireball, tearing the ground asunder. Her blood filled that crack as she disintegrated; turning the surrounding land into barren desert and thus, according to legend, this crack became the Red Sea."

Salba's lips became agape, "What do... you mean... She was cut down?"

Kasrel sighed with a hint of agony, "She was no more. And irony of ironies for a pure angel to kill another creature, but yet, he was given the permission to do so, and was the only way Lucifer could be stopped."

Salba quietly augmented, with a hint of disappointment: "And the war was over..."

Kasrel nodded, the rest of the story, such as their banishment to these planes, was a well-known and documented tale. Salba's lower lip trembled as she let out quietly, "I still can't believe Lucifer... Is gone..."

Phasarel hesitated for a moment as he searched for the most honest answer he could give, "As far as we know, she became no more. Some believe that her body was assimilated onto the earth and became one with nature as part of reconciliation with God. But personally, I am not so sure about that theory. What we do know, is that the first fallen angel Beel'zebul, who later took up Lilith as his wife and queen had assumed the throne of the Devil beyond the seventh circle and continued the oath that Lucifer herself promised: to break the balance of God's "experiment" by making mankind truly understand the choices that they are up against: Carnality and indulgence vis-à-vis asceticism and abstinence. They tipped the scales on earth to be closer to the right side of the auric spectrum, towards War, Greed, Individuality and Indulgence, rather than Peace, Honor, Community and Abstinence. King Beel'zebul kept true the oath of the devil by teaching an elite class of demons who had grasps of the Unholy Magikal arts, taught by Lilith, the powers of deception, taught by Beelzebub and the skills of discord, taught by Eris. These demons were collectively called Satan and they ushered those who followed the ways of Satan into their own empire where simply, their every dream and wish could come true."

Salba's mind was left in a state of disarray, "So.... I don't understand... What is heaven then that these shades always talk about?"

Phasarel nodded as he spoke: "Heaven is also part of the dream world, like the lower regions of Inferus. However, Heaven is a repository for those who are of the left spectrum, not the right. The sad thing is that these people have to go through mindless and needless suppression of emotions and their own inner carnal desires in order to achieve so-called enlightment. A depressingly naive method of ushering "good people" to a lightly populated city of Edenim. And trust me, it is VERY lightly populated. No wonder, since few people are stupid enough to give up the pleasures of life in return for eternality in a state of unwilled, unadulterated light."

Kasrel motioned for Phasarel to pipe down then turned back towards Salba and said: "Don't take much heed to him, little Salba. He always gets this way when he talks about heaven."

Salba perked a brow, her voice filled with inquiry, "But… Hiding feelings? How can one become happy if you're hiding the feelings inside?"

Kasrel replied in earnest, "You can't. But somehow, few people do. We don't understand how it works. Raziel was more involved in the region of human psyche than we were. However we do know that those who've indulged in their own feelings of greed, pure lust, power and the other so-called deadly sins have ended up in the lower levels of Inferus where they continue to enjoy themselves eternally with those desires. Beelzebub has cleverly taken advantage to the fact that Inferus is the repository of what he calls "heavy" souls by eternally giving them what they truly desire. Supposedly people come here to be cleansed of sins, and after their incarceration, are taken to Edenim, but that is just a myth. The shades that come here don't realize their deaths and have to go through each level from Purgatory to the seventh realizing their true potentials and succumbing to the inevitability of eternal pleasures."

Salba gave a slow nod as she began to relate, "Yes, that does sound like Inferus. I am learning so much from you. But, can you explain more about the Adam? And how he fell from heaven? If, that is, those stories are true."

"Well, we do know that Beelzebub's first devious quest was to use Lilith's knowledge of the coordinates of Edenim to go there and trick Adam and Eve into eating from the tree of life ahead of schedule." Kasrel explained as her brows furrowed involuntarily, "Therefore, causing the descent of Adam and Eve into their humanoid hosts on the Earth without first learning enough to be able to set off into the world without Godly guidance. Beelzebub then employed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to sin and kill each other. Of course, their death would make their souls far too heavy to float to Edenim, so they would have to float downwards towards Inferus, thus winning the war against heaven and simultaneously stopping the human race from being formed. That is when God formed the Devic kingdom, lead by four angels, the King, Queen, Prince or Princess and Ace of Deva who had only two purposes: Protect mankind from evil and ensure they do not forget about their connection with God. The first dynasty was ruled by Raziel and Tetra, the princess was Neria and the Ace was Sachael and they sustained and nourished the growth of the first seeds of humanity and helped them in their spiritual growth."

With a quiet hum, the young girl began to speculate upon the nature of her home, "So those who died on earth in sin come here to Inferus?"

"Not exactly..." Kasrel began to explain, "A single soul is given a number of chances to retry life in case he or she "fails". No one knows how many reincarnations a human being is allowed, but we do know that that some of the punishment that would've been given on earth is deferred to the next life-time, in a way, a karmic retribution for sins committed in the past, therefore, reducing the incarceration time in "hell" by suffering, or being treated unjustly in the next lifetime..."

Salba was silent. "Oh... I never knew all those things."

The others nodded, the silent ones seemed to exclaim an immense sigh as if wondering whether or not they would redo their history all over again.

Salba looked around her then gasped as ten immensely hideous and gigantic creatures loomed towards her. Kasrel placed a comforting hand upon Salba's shoulder, "Don't fear, little one. Those are the Chaos. In this plane, you don't have consciousness unless you have willingly walked into the bottomless pit. Consider them to be asleep."

The Chaos creatures stirred. Kasrel looked at Phasarel with a puzzled look.

Salba turned towards Kasrel with a frightened pitch entering into her voice. "Whh... What is wrong with them?"

Suddenly, one of the Chaos creatures screamed a deafening and blood-curdling wail as Salba screamed. "Salba! Silence!" Kasrel shouted. Salba stopped, suddenly the fiery being was silent. Salba looked at her pouch and saw a green light pulsating from within. She opened her pouch and the Ten Chaos creatures growled, they lined up around the angels and Salba then bowed.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Kasrel shouted.

Salba held up the stone high up in the air and it shone thousands of green rays across the plane of blankness, she shut her eyes as a strangely fulfilling feeling filled her fragile silver veins.

Phasarel pointed at the stone as he turned towards Kasrel, "That stone. It has the power to subdue the spawn?"

Kasrel nodded quickly, "There's only one way to find out." She floated towards Salba and grabbed the stone.

"NO!" Salba shouted. Suddenly, Kasrel screamed as three of the Chaos creatures sprinted towards Kasrel with their hideous jaws open wide and fearsome fire spewing from within.

Phasarel wielded a double-bladed pike and the blades turned into a burning violet element. He sprinted towards one of the monsters and hit it with the blades. A fourth Chaos creature darted towards him as he desperately tried to fend off the two monstrous fire-spawns. They were going to maul her into nothingness.

Kasrel screamed as she turned her head just slightly enough to look towards the young woman, "Salba! You control them! You have the power to stop them! Order it! NOW!"

Salba shouted, "STOP!" And the fire-spawns immediately stopped in their tracks with absolute obedience.

Phasarel threw a glowing white object towards Salba and a door opened where she stood, pulling her into another plane.

Salba fell with a loud thud on the red rock. Kasrel and Phasarel, reverted to their "elderly human" figure stood behind her. "Who did you say gave you that stone?" Salba looked around, recognizing this place as the fourth circle of darkness and the unmistakable river of Sulphur and fire, Tartarus.

She shook her head: "My mother. Before she was killed by two demons."

"Demons?" Phasarel wondered. "What would they want with material objects like that, save for demeaning the human spirit, of course."

Kasrel held silent for a few moments before finally speaking, "Unless those particular demons weren't Satan but were actually sent by a fallen one."

"Can't be one of us, our group is a tightly knit family." Phasarel said through a sigh, "Must be a secondary-age fallen angel."

"Neria." Kasrel declared. "Then the rumors are true. She has fallen after three thousand years of being confined in Inferus."

Phasarel nodded as his voice took on the weight of responsibility, "We will have to travel to the second circle of Inferus and find out how much they know and why she'd want control of this token."

Kasrel searched his eyes as she spoke softly, "My love, do not tell me that you wish to join the ranks of the foul one. His name of which I refuse to pronounce."

Phasarel perked a brow as he examined the expression of his partner, "Of course not. Are you daft? We are primeval; we saw the book of fate being written even beyond what the rest of the universe knows. We know who wins the final war."

Kasrel remained in her emotional state as the words continued to pass from her lips, "So how are we going to find her, in case we manage to leave Inferus? We have never set foot on earth in our entire lives."

"We will find a way to ascend from Inferus," Phasarel spoke with a serious undertone, "If Neria and Locan succeeded, so shall we."

(Continued...)