Years passed and Haniel studied as hard as he could for as long as he could. He watched a green eyed angel and a grey eyed angel walk past outside his window as he lay in bed. That was the only way to tell each angel apart aside from their height, their eye color. Every angel had cropped, blond hair the same as every other angel before, each  dressed in a grey dress like robe.

Haniel hopped up out of bed and ran to take a shower, this holy light was the time he was sure of it! The Heaven was slowly being built into a fine kingdom after 900 years and only those angels who toiled for God were allowed to return as her royal knights. He was excited to line up for the selection of his class, training long and hard to one day be placed in the Axia, the angel word which he did not know the meaning of.

He raced through the streets, jumping over a paperboy, his mind was racing with different thoughts.mOther angels were gathering in the city square, some whispering to each other. One tall teenaged angel, Dagiel, stood watching the crowd. The shorter angel walked over and gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Hello Haniel.” Dag said this as he smiled at his best friend.

 He stood next to Dagiel, watching the other angels line up around them. “Say, Hani, you wanna go throw sheets all over Gabriel’s house? I hate that wader, they say his Metflet is Jophiel"

"Jophiel? Didn’t she get Mulciber, the angel who crafted all the architectural structures in The Heaven, killed during The Fall?" Haniel pulled out his trading card collection from his bag, a card with Jophiel holding a sword in her grip met his gaze as he shuffled through it.

"Yea, that was her, I'd never seen a female angel up close that wasn't our teacher. She's absolutely terrifying, she looks like what I imagine God would if she had a two legged form" Dagiel said this as they stood there while the line turned into a crowd.

Haniel thought about it for a long time and looked at him, “Lucky if we get selected you won't have to run into her again for a long time. We have to get going for the Axia selection today.” he pointed out as he looked back over the large crowd that had now gathered. Dagiel shrugged and wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter. We will make it back in time, besides, did you know Asta the Titan used to sheet people’s houses?” he snickered as he said this. Haniel stared at him wide eyed, pulling out his Asta trading card.

“Asta the Titan did? He uses his immense strength to create the river paths! Ok fine let’s go sheet Gabriel’s house.” Sheeting someone’s house was taking a bunch of bed sheets and tossing it over their home. The prankster would then tie it all off on a tree and run away. He smiled as he thought about his heroes and walked with Dagiel to Gabriel’s house. They were all defined by their special abilities, and he knew every move they could do. The trading cards he was looking at were a trading card game called Angel's Axia.

They soon reached Gab's home orb. Dagiel had brought a bag with him and he opened it pulling out a bunch of sheets and he handed a bundle to Haniel. They giggled as they began to throw the sheets over Gabriel’s house. “So you really like those guys right? You think going to earth is going to be fun?” Dagiel asked this as he looked at him.

“I’m not sure but I really hope so!” hours passed and Dagiel grew tired, Haniel waved at him as he headed home. Haniel went home as well and curled up in his bed. He honestly hoped he could see one of them when he was finally selected.

The next day the Axia selection was still going strong, “Heya Dag!” he said while digging in his ear, he had arrived early. He looked at the crowd as it grew larger, smiling at Dagiel as the merangel walked over to the non aquatic angel. 

Haniel’s gaze flickered from Dagiel to the high ranking angel calling out those selected for the Axia.

The names were continued to be called, Haniel had his fingers crossed as each name was shouted. “I hope we get picked and get to go together!” he laughed when the younger angel ruffled his hair.

“I hope so too. I hope we’re in the same flock.” Dag said this as his name was called.

Haniel watched him walk away, “Wait Dag!” he ran over and hugged Dagiel tightly before letting him go. “I hope I get to go with you!” he said this excitedly as Dagiel nodded and walked with the other angels into the airship that was waiting for them. It looked like a massive grey and brown blimp with a basket at the ends of it.

Once the last name was called, Haniel frowned as he watched the last angels, Cassiel and Uriel enter. Alongside their best friend Gabriel, who glared at Dagiel having some clue that he was behind the sheeting of his house. Gabriel was staring smugly at the crowd. He was making kissing noises at the crowd as if he was some kind of Axia celebrity already. Someone threw a piece of fruit at him. “Get going you suck up!” another person yelled.

“Come on Gab don’t listen to the negativity. You’re perfect.” Uriel comforted him as they entered the airship.

“Looks like I didn’t make the cut again this year...and now Dag’s gone.” he trudged back through a now empty street. He walked back into the circular pea like dome that was his home. He flopped down into his bed and stared at the ceiling. He was feeling down about not getting picked for the Axia but he closed his eyes as he tried to sleep. He decided that if he kept studying about earth, he would eventually be worthy enough to get picked. He woke up after a few hours, getting up to sit at his desk. He took a book from inside his desk, and began to study.

---

6 years later

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He studied nonstop for hours on end everyday, finally being permitted to take the Axia test again.

This lasted on into the next year, when the Axia was called again. This time, “Haniel.” his studying had paid off! He ran over to board the airship with a wide, proud grin. Little did he know, that he would come to both rejoice in and regret his decision at being such a model student…

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Earth

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For fourty days and forty nights for forty years did God want her Axia angels to work. To break their backs and lose their sense of time in the sweltering heat of the day light. To fall prey to beasts they create during the nighttime. All while working to build and build and build her heavenly kingdom on earth. It was harsh work building such a thing and the first object the Axia angels were tasked with was building a palace.

It ended up becoming a large castle and many of the angels lost their lives to its construction.

This was of no consequence to God, who merely replaced every lost angel with a new Axia selection the following month. But, after the palace was finished, no more angels were created from God’s body pus. And no more Axia callings were ever made again.

God did not take pity on the remaining angels. Instead it began setting the Axia angels to work even harder. Relentlessly making them mine the sky away from heaven and spread out the land from the seas. It, she, forced the angels into hard labor, making them work well into the long nights it had created.

“God is tormenting us with this madness!” one of the angels cried, throwing it’s plow down.

“We’ve been doing this for years now, how long must we toil while God sits and spits on us?!” another shouted, it had been tied to a mechanism that God had created to sow seeds into the earth. Three straps clung to the long white haired angel’s head, covering it’s once beautiful eyes.

It and the other angels, once vast in number and beautiful beyond imagining, had become dirty, twisted and stained by their struggles. Fewer were being created by God, as the wilds they worked hard to bring into existence began to hunt them. The angels, once coddled and babied by God, were not strong enough in their beauty to defend themselves. Defend themselves from the wild beasts and the prototype, unstable, humans that had also begun to attack them as well. These were known as Proto-Men and they were violent and savage monsters.

One night, a group of the Axia angels were sitting around a campfire, bruised and battered from their hard day’s labor. “What are we going to do?”, one of them, Duma, said this as he pulled twigs from his mangled and ruined golden locks.The others grumbled as they picked various bugs and other vegetation out of their orifices, not allowed to wear clothing once on earth. All were save Lucifer who was banished. The once bright eyed angel had stepped into a pile of animal droppings when the airship had landed on his first day on Earth. Haniel had shaken it off, trying to make the best of the situation. When a bird released it’s bowels on his head as he started work on crafting vegetation, he sighed. He continued to work alongside the other angels diligently nonetheless.

Tonight was his second night on the job and Haniel sighed as he crossed his legs. He was with a few of the other Axia Angels as they sat in front of the firepit. His first day had been more than annoying, from the bird bowels to the fact he fell into a mud pit and had to get the help of several other angels to get out. He’d not found or met up Dagiel yet and it made him feel even worse. He went to sleep that night with a bad attitude.

It was the next morning that he caught a glimpse of Dagiel near the rocks by the beach. He spent the day watching him but didn’t speak. He then spent the rest of the day growing plants. It was now the depths of the night and the angels were gathered around a large campfire in the middle of the makeshift tents they lived in. He frowned as he looked over at Lucifer, his number one idol. Lucifer was asleep beside the giant machine he was attached to, way out in the field.

Whatever he had done to anger God it made Haniel horribly sad. He then looked at his other two idols and their mannerisms made him feel odd.Asta sat around the fire kicking one of the other angels that had gotten in his way in the ass. Maze was laying next to him, Haniel couldn’t get over how odd they both looked. They were nothing like their shining trading cards. Maze had long red hair that flowed down around him like blood. Asta had deep blue hair that hit the light just right to shine like the ocean. He even noticed that Asta had a bone piercing through his nose and Maze had earrings made from bone that dangled from his ears.

Asta never bothered to use his abilities to do anything, he had other angels digging the rivers for him. Maze slept most of the time and Lucifer was hooked up to that machine so he could no longer make animals, only crops. He looked around at those angels he had once idolized and sighed in discontent. Haniel was starting to think that his ideals of the Axia were going up in smoke.

Not only that, as a newer Axia Angel he’d not been allowed to work on the palace. Something he’d been dreaming about since it started to be worked on when he was a kid. He’d watched it being built and listened to the screams in the middle of the night. He’d never set foot near the palace but he marveled at its beauty when it was finished on his second night in the camp.

But, just like his heroes the palace was not all that it was cracked up to be. He realized that the Proto-Men were the only ones allowed within it. Sitting next to the campfire staring at the other angels, some going out to gather water, some sitting by their tents mending the holes in the skins. The angels did not harm the animals for these skins, as was god’s law.

They used the skins from already dead animals that they had to search for. It took a long time to fix their tents, mixing in reeds and long grass.

They didn’t have the knowledge to do anything else, save Asta and Maze.

Asta and Maze killed animals to fix their tent, not caring about the strange looks they got from the other angels. Haniel found their ways of doing things appalling. He sighed loudly as he stared at the two.The others stared at Haniel, not paying any mind to the conflicting thoughts and disappointment plastered all over his face.

Gabriel put a hand out to poke Haniel in the forehead. Haniel grew annoyed as this something that only close angels were to usually do. “We need a plan. Why don’t you repeat the laws and get God to take pity on us with how pathetic you are?”

Haniel smacked his hand away, his annoyance evident by now, “Don’t touch me Gabriel. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I always thought that the Axia was something to be proud of.” He looked forlornly at how unmotivated and lazy Asta and Maze seemingly were.

“ I’d looked up to you all since I was a fucking baby! I don’t like this, I don’t like that we are going through all this. I don’t like what God is doing to us anymore than any of you do!”

Asta glared at him, “Shut up kid, you don’t know what it’s like out here, you’ve been here two days and your acting like some fantastic shit is supposed to be going on. Live out here long enough and you’ll fucking see the truth. This isn’t all school flock and happy dreams n shit kid, it’s reality.”

Gabriel snorted, “Calm your tits Hani, we’re all on the same side. Tough shit, so they were your heroes and it turns out that they’re a bunch of degenerates, big fucking whoop. You gunna cry about it ya fucking pussy?” Haniel frowned and turned away from the foul mouthed angel. Gabriel scoffed in distaste.

“You’re a fucking moron. Keep the fire lit bright” he hissed at the shorter angel before he walked off. A few of the angels found that working in the depths of the night helped protect them from some of the more dangerous creatures during the day. Some of them found that the nighttime was easier on their skin as the sunlight wounded them.

They slept inside tent like huts made from animal skin and bones during the day. God had an issue with this and forced the angels to work twice as hard before the next day dawned. Gabriel shouted as he chased a racoon out of his tent. “Haniel didn’t I tell you to keep the fire burning brighter?! Can’t your lame ass do anything right?!”

Haniel frowned and hid behind his wings. Suddenly, Dagiel appeared in front of him, moving to push his feathers aside and looked at him with a smile. “I don’t know, but ignore that slimy two-faced Axia exam cheating tell the sensei the test results bitch, he’s just pissy because he forgot leave his tent flap closed!” He shouted loud enough for Gabriel to hear.

Gabriel flipped Dagiel off as he walked away. “Fuck you starfish bitch!”

“Up yours you fucking wader!” Dag stuck his tongue out and placed his finger at his eye, pulling the bottom lid down as he flipped Gabriel off in return. Haniel was at first shocked by Dag’s use of language, but he didn’t have a chance to gasp.