Kingdom of the Red Rose
(Episode 12 of 62)
Chapter Five: A Need to Disobey
(Part 1 of 3)

By the time Griffin had arrived at the Garden of Eden the feast had begun and music played loudly. One of the Angels at the gates of the garden escorted him to his table, which he shared with the team he had worked with earlier that day.

“Hey, there’s the rookie,” Myrianthy said as she spotted Griffin walking towards their table. “Are the rumours true?”

Griffin sat down across from Myrianthy but before he could reply, Lance, who was sitting next to Myrianthy, stepped in, “What rumours?”

“Well, I heard that Griffin is temporarily suspended from duty,” Myrianthy replied.

“What? Are you serious?” Lance turned to Griffin, “Is it your life’s purpose to break every rule imaginable and stir things up? I mean you were the first Grim Reaper to be demoted and have limited responsibilities and now, not even a day after you were reinstated, you are the first to be suspended? What’s next? Join Lucifer’s army?”

“That’ll never happen,” Dafne said as she sat next to Griffin, holding a plate filled with food, “Not after what happened today. I hear you saw the Devil’s apparition a second time.”

“Dafne,” Griffin said with joy, “How are you feeling?”

“Much better. The Council was kind enough to give me some extra mana to repair my body,” Dafne raised her mechanical hand and moved all her fingers, demonstrating her excellent regenerating abilities. “I even collected two souls before the feast today.”

Dafne was a fan of technology, and over the hundreds of years of her existence, she always updated her body to look like the most advanced, extraordinary, and completely fictional, robot she could come across in the Earth realm. She only kept one aspect of her body that didn’t really resemble a robot and that was her face. It still appeared to be metal, but it was a very smooth and flexible kind of alloy, so she could still form all known expressions.

“Glad to hear that,” Griffin replied.

“Here, I got you some food. You need to replenish your mana. You must really need some after your encounter with Lucifer and the Bug Demons,” Dafne pushed the plate in front of Griffin.

“Actually no, he wouldn’t need any,” Lance stepped in, “He has one of the largest, if not the largest, reserves of mana any Grim Reaper has, which is very weird if you consider he is the youngest Grim Reaper in existence. I’ve personally witnessed him regenerate enough mana to change his weapon’s appearance after only a day’s sleep, and this was while he was still in training. Some say he has more mana than Angels.” 

“Hey, what are you all talking about?” Nicolas joined them at the table.

“Griffin was about to tell us what happened today,” Myrianthy replied.

“Great, I want to hear about it too. There is something I wanted to ask you as well, Griffin. Is it true that the last soul you collected recognized you as someone else?”

“I see nothing remains a secret around here for long. How did you all learn so much? I’ve literally left the Council meeting less than twenty minutes ago.”

Dafne pulled out her version of a scroll and showed it to Griffin. It looked like a very thin and clear piece of plastic which created 3D images that Dafne could interact with using her fingers.

“Ever since Archangel Gabriel arrived here,” Nicolas continued, “We knew you had gone to see the Council, and we’ve been searching the central database, looking for information about your meeting. They uploaded an entry ten minutes ago.”

Griffin noticed an ongoing conversation on Dafne’s scroll between a few Grim Reapers and Angels. They were all speculating about what they believed had happened to Griffin.

“There are no secrets in Heaven,” Griffin mumbled.

“I’ll drink to that,” Nicolas raised his glass.

Everyone joined in and took a sip of mana before settling down and huddling around Griffin, waiting to hear about his encounter with Lucifer.

“Listen,” Griffin said, looking down at his plate, “I would love to tell you all about my encounter with the Devil and the Bug Demons, but I really need to eat something first.” He looked up at Lance, “What you said about me is true, Lance. On paper the measurements of my mana show that I have an unusually large reserve. But it also shows that for some reason I have access to a very limited amount of it, so the actual amount of mana I can use is very low. And yes, I can easily recharge within twenty-four hours, provided that I sleep for all those hours, but I only slept for a couple of hours before the Council meeting and that wasn’t enough. Let me enjoy my meal in peace and quiet and we can talk about my day later. I have been temporarily suspended, so it’s not like I am going anywhere any time soon.”

Everyone replied in a sigh of complaint but did as Griffin asked and left him alone to eat his food. The party lasted a good four hours, and at the end everyone had the pleasure of listening to a duet of Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Gabriel played the piano and Michael the violin, and together they played the most beautiful and soul moving music imaginable. At the end of the song most Angels and Grim Reapers left the Garden of Eden and went about their usual business.

Myrianthy, Lance, Dafne and Nicolas joined Griffin again at an empty table where, as promised, Griffin told them in great detail the adventure he had, trying to collect Nathaniel’s soul. He never mentioned the dream he had while waiting to see the Council and was about to tell them what happened at the meeting when Archangel Gabriel interrupted them.

“You four need to come with me. I’ve received a new mission and your team will be handling it. Griffin, Michael wants to speak to you. He’s waiting for you at the delta of river Pishon.”

“But that’s on the other side, right at the very edge of Heaven,” Griffin replied as he got up from his chair.

“Yes, so I suggest you start making your way there A.S.A.P.”

Lance, Dafne, Nicolas and Myrianthy followed Archangel Gabriel. They flew out of the Garden of Eden and disappeared into thick white clouds deep into the horizon. Griffin also took flight and started making his way to Pishon, and from there he set a course for the river’s delta.

Pishon has crystal clear waters flowing into the Dusk Sea just beyond Heaven’s borders. The Dusk Sea covers about a quarter of the land. Heaven and Hell are about the same size, leaving a piece of land unoccupied by anything. That remaining piece of land is known as Purgatory, which includes the Anthills and the Barren Stretch.

Heaven is built on the surface, with its remarkable structures, splendid gardens, and glorious mountain, all coming together to form a view one can only gawk at; it fills you up with serenity and optimism. Heaven also provides the only source of light over the entire land as there is no sun circling this world.

Hell exists underground, at the farthest place from God’s divine light. If you could dig a tunnel going through the centre of this world, starting at Heaven, you would end up at the barren land above Hell. As one would expect, fires constantly burn in Hell providing light and heat, and of course a wide range of torture methods. The air is always stale and filled with the foulest of smells. The ground above Hell is scorched, a reminder of the first war between Heaven and Hell, back when Lucifer first tried to claim power and rose, as he claims, to his current status. Ask any entity occupying Heaven and they will tell you Lucifer fell from grace to his current position. If one were to travel to the area over Hell today, they would only see ashes and black earth, and a sense of hopelessness, impending doom, and death would overwhelm them.

The desert of Purgatory is the only land that connects Heaven’s gate to Hell’s second gate; the first was destroyed and sealed at the end of the previous war many millennia ago. Then there is the Dusk Sea, it starts from Heaven, on the other side of the main gate between the main city and the training grounds, and ends at the shores of Hell, or at least the desolate ground above. It is called the Dusk Sea because when you sail, or fly over it, it is forever trapped at the dusk stage of the day, just before complete nightfall, and the further towards Hell you move the harder it is to navigate, unless you have your own powerful source of light. Of course, this illusion is caused by Heaven’s light, as the curvature of the world doesn’t allow it to illuminate beyond Heaven's shores.

When Griffin reached Pishon’s delta, he found Archangel Michael sitting on the white sand beneath the shade of a palm tree, soaking his feet in small waves of salt water that caressed the sandy beach. 

The story continues in:
Kingdom of the Red Rose
(Episode 13 of 62)
Chapter Five: A Need to Disobey
(Part 2 of 3)

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