Prologue
Every day, souls of the dead are collected from the Earth and would be delivered to three gates: in the Inferno where all the impure souls are put to eternal suffering for the sins they have committed. The second gate is the Purgatorium, where the tainted souls are judged and purified whether they are fit for heaven or hell. The third gate is Zion, where the pure souls enter paradise. Death would go to these gates everyday to deliver the souls of the dead, he carries with him his scythe which he uses to collect the souls and open the unknown portals and realms of the Earth and travel anywhere. The demon Enlil saw him heading towards the gates of Zion and saw with him the souls that had to be delivered as well, he wanted to steal the scythe so he could have all the souls to himself and so he followed Death in silence. Death leads the pure souls to the entrance of Zion but before one could enter, Enlil showed up and gobbled one of the souls. The demon howled in delight on how delicious the soul was and aimed to jump towards Death to steal his scythe. But before he could lay his claws on it an Archangel appeared and pointed his sword towards the demon, preventing Enlil to do his deed.
“I am Lucien, guardian of the gates of Zion! I command you to leave this holy place you putrid beast! You are not welcome to enter the house of the Lord, leave Death be and the souls that are to enter heaven, for they have chosen to do good and turned away from their evil ways!” the Archangel spoke and the demon snickered.
“The container of those souls…those humans, they are worthless beings! Unworthy of the souls that they kept and was given from your so called God! They are selfish, ignorant, and shameful! They are no different from us demons, look at them down there! Committing sins against their own, bringing chaos to one another, hypocrites that’s what they really are!” Enlil laughed wickedly making Lucien angry.
“You have no right to say such blasphemies in this place! Humans might not be perfect but some of them have served the Lord and he had been pleased, they deserve a chance to change and turn from their evil ways. God and the angels love them, you call them worthless? You are the one who is unworthy; to kill and steal the souls of those beings is a crime punishable by heaven!” Lucien aimed his sword nearer to Enlil’s throat, but the demon remained calm because he knows quite well that violence should not be committed in the entrance of paradise.
“You love these humans too much, you are a fool Lucien! Let me prove to you that I’m right. I shall look for a human who has a tainted soul on Earth. I will make that human give up his or her own soul to me willingly. You will see that even if I don’t force the soul out of them they would still give it up for their selfish desires, with a little persuasion you will know how worthless they are!” Enlil smirked knowing that he could find a lot of humans who would give up their souls to trade for their selfish desires.
Lucien had second thoughts on accepting the deal; it was against the rules to bargain with demons but his anger towards Enlil is rising, and he wanted to prove badly that humans are worth protecting all these centuries.
“You got yourself a deal demon; you shall perish by my hands if you lose!” Lucien said firmly.
“And you shall burn your own wings then suffer in hell if I win!” Enlil snorted with delight. Death, who had been witnessing their argument, excused himself to go back to Earth and collect more souls. Enlil made one last attempt to steal the scythe but Lucien jumped on him with so much force that the two of them fell from the gates of Zion in a trance of burning light down to Earth.
