Life was hard, especially after finding yourself in the darkness of the Sixth Heaven, where the energy in the air had so little substance that, despite your divinity, regular meditation was necessary to gather enough energy and avoid fatigue.

He was also surrounded by incompetent Shadows. That was, for now, the name for the dark thoughts. It was Gaap's idea. It was not perfect, but it would have to do until they figured out something better.

Samael frowned, his eyes went to the entrance of his cave, which was shadowed by creatures squatting there. He was hovering above the platform in the back of his cave with his legs folded. Since the presence of the creatures was intruding on his meditation, he lowered onto the platform and unfolded his legs. He stretched his arms up, then sideways, to the left and right, making arches with his body. He looked at the small apple tree, which was now only a branch with a few leaves, he had planted in the crack at the edge of the platform and which he nurtured with his own energy. It was probably what gave it a soft glow that layered its bark. He smiled at it before he stood and walked to the entrance.

Beelzebub, squatting closest to the entrance, gasped and stood. "My lord."

The other three Shadows stood, too. They peeked from behind Beelzebub. They gasped at the sight of him.

Samael lifted his eyebrows at Beelzebub.

"My lord?"

"You're intruding on my meditation."

Beelzebub blinked. "But, my lord, I haven't made any sound. None of us did."

"I can hear you breathing."

"We can hold our breath," a Shadow said.

"Who are they anyway?" Samael waved at them. "And why are they always around?"

"They are my helpers," Beelzebub explained.

"That's right, that's right." The Shadows nodded.

"And what do you need help with?"

"To spread your decrees among the Shadows faster," Beelzebub stammered out.

"Oh, I'm impressed." Samael made a surprised face. "I would have never expected something like that out of you. Well done, Beel, well done."

Redness spilled over Beelzebub's wrinkled face.

"But..." Samael said. "I don't like this squatting at the entrance thing. It's just not dignified enough."

"We'll stand," Beelzebub said.

"Standing could work. I could still hear your breathing, though." Samael tapped his finger against his lips as he glanced around. There were caves on both sides of his cave. They were both empty. Since he liked his privacy, he, on the first day, demanded them to be emptied. "You can use the cave to wait for me to call you." He pointed at the one with the furthest entrance. "Just don't make any noise."

"Thank you, my lord." Beelzebub bowed.

"Thank you, my lord." The Shadows beside him followed his example.

Samael sighed and walked past them. In the six days he was here, after the night meditation, he liked to spend some time exploring his domain, not that there was much to explore. Right now, he only toured around the Sixth Heaven. Maybe today was a good day to look at the Seventh Heaven, where the souls of wicked humans ended after their death.

He descended the path cut into the rock, passing the caves. Dust was coming from the caves, and he could hear rock being chipped away. He didn't order them to improve their surroundings; they did that on their own.

His gaze went to the wide plain dotted with pools of lava before him. It was surrounded by rock walls forming a triangle shape with a cut tip at the east while the fourth side stretched into the darkness, and he couldn't see the end of it. The passage to the Seventh Heaven was there.

He discovered just yesterday, there was another passage at the top where the east wall connected with the south one. That one led to the Fifth Heaven. It was protected by a barrier though, and a Shadow could use it only on command of a thought that appeared in his mind, or so they explained. It appeared they were guided by divinity just like angels, but with a bare-bones version that only gave them directions on what they have to do.

He could pass it, the portal, but when he did, the divinity activated by the portal's barrier informed him, he, for now, could only be absent from the Sixth Heaven for a day.

He glanced back at the path that he had just walked, and the rock wall filled with caves. Whenever he looked at it, it felt as if something was missing, but he couldn't figure out what. "Beel, what is wrong with this view?"

"My lord."

"Don't you think it's missing something?"

Beelzebub studied the rock.

"Never mind," Samael said. What was he about to do? The Seventh Heaven, yes. That was where he was going, although he was tempted to leave for the Fifth Heaven. But to explore the Fifth Heaven, one day was far too short.

"My lord?" Beelzebub followed him.

"Come on, let's go," Samael said. He had to admit, Beel had in this passing week proven himself to be worthy of being his helper. Yes, the creature had quite excelled at reading his mood and knowing when to follow him and when to leave him alone. "Tell me all you know about the Seventh Heaven."

"After humans die, their souls go there."

"I'm very aware of that."

"They are there to be punished for their sins."

"I'm aware of that too," Samael said. "Anything else."

"Not that I know." A brief pause. "But I'll ask around."

"You learned well." Samael nodded in satisfaction.

They reached the darkness and merged with it. It was so thick that it swallowed the glow of his skin to the point he couldn't see anything before him. He didn't have to, though; his instinct and divinity guided him. They left the darkness and entered the Seventh Heaven. It was grey, which, like the darkness they had passed, dimmed the glow of his skin. It was cold and hot at the same time. Steam was rising from the ground, filled with puddles of lava and patches of ice, and a river of lava and ice ran across the space. Narrow planks lay over the river, serving as bridges. The scent of sulphur and ammonia hovered in the air, making Samael wrinkle his nose.

When they entered, they had to cross the river. They used a plank bridge, and white skulls lifted from the lava and ice and stretched their boned hands towards them, and voices whispered: "Help me. Help me."

"Such a nasty place. How can anybody live here?" Samael could see Shadows a distance away.

The closest Shadow was pulling a chain with wicked souls that looked like skeletons with skin layering their bones.

"Hey, you," he called out and when the creature looked at him, he made a 'come here' gesture.

The Shadow came closer, the chain he dragged behind him rattling.

Samael made a face of disgust at the souls who looked even more skinny and ragged up close. He turned to Beelzebub, who was standing behind him. He pointed at the souls. "They are not too easy to look at. Is there something we can do about them so they will look better?"

"I don't think so, my lord," Beelzebub said. "I'll ask around."

Samael nodded. He turned to the Shadow. "What do you do?"

"Guide the souls to the lake so they can start with their punishment."

"So, they are freshly arrived souls?"

"That's right, my lord."

Samael nodded. He glanced at Beelzebub.

"What is the punishment?" Beelzebub asked.

"Feeling the suffering of their victims."

"Oh, what did they do?" Samael asked.

"Them?" The Shadow pointed his chin at the souls.

"Yes."

"Torture and kill others."

"Hmm." Samael studied the souls, though every second they were in his sight, they looked more and more offensive. He liked beauty and could see it in strange places, like a tree scorched by lightning. But there was no beauty in these souls. They were nasty and barren, tainted with the darkness of their own evil deeds and greed that devoured any light they once had. Sometimes when humans committed a crime so horrible, the dark thought under which they acted devoured their soul, replacing it, and by that the soul lost the humanity that enabled its redemption. "Can they do anything?"

The Shadow blinked.

After he asked them a question, why did all these creatures look at him like they had no thoughts in their mind? Samael tilted his head. "Too difficult to answer?"

Beelzebub told the Shadow, "What my lord means..." He glanced at Samael. "What do you mean, my lord?"

Samael closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "Can they work? Like lifting and carrying things? I need workers. I have grand plans for the Sixth Heaven." He glanced around the Seventh Heaven. "And maybe even for this place. Don't know exactly what yet, but here, we definitely need to build some proper bridges." And he had to see what resources were at his disposal. He needed to work smart not hard, because he had been working hard in the past, and look where he had ended. Now, he's only going to work smart, and even though he had ended up in this desolate and ugly place, he's going to organise things in a way that is going to better it and that it's going to feel as if he's in retirement. "But we'll see."

The Shadow looked at the souls. "I wouldn't know, my lord."

Samael glanced at Beelzebub.

"We'll find out, my lord," Beelzebub said.

"Not only for this group but for all of them. Also, learn how many groups there are, what is their crime and the punishment?"

"Yes, my lord." Beelzebub made a small bow.

"Use your helpers and if you need, get more of them." Samael took another look around the space. He saw more Shadows holding a chain with souls. And there was even a large group of them in a corner, looking like they were chatting while the souls gathered behind them stood there, motionless. And there were so many puddles of lava and ice, and if he saw correctly, there in the far end it was what seemed to be a small lake with large hisses of vapour lifting from its surface. There was a dot of black hovering above it, looking like a small cloud of smoke. He pointed at it. "Is that there because of the lake?"

Beelzebub followed the direction of his finger. "It's a bad energy."

Samael looked at him, lifting his eyebrows.

"Some souls turn into black energy that lingers here," the Shadow said.

When souls reach the end of their punishment and are ready to repent for their sinful deeds, they disappear from the Seventh Heaven to appear in the Fifth Heaven, ready to be born again. They, just like the new souls that are too weak to be born as humans, start as souls of plants, then as souls of animals, and then advance to become souls of humans. So, hearing that some of them become black energy was something new for Samael. He knew a pure, completely white energy of a soul with no blemishes either becomes an angel or returns to God's creations and becomes a part of the heavens and God herself. But the black ones, he had never heard about black energy, and he had been in these creations for as long as God. Three decades less, but yeah. Was this energy too malicious to be returned to the Fifth Heaven as a soul or to merge itself with creations itself? He connected with divinity and asked it, but he got no answer, so he made a mental note to ask God the next time he saw her.

Samael folded his hands behind his back and returned to the Sixth Heaven that looked light and airy after a brief visit to the Seventh Heaven.

With his hands still behind his back, he walked across the space by the rocky wall, studying it. Since the Sixth Heaven was not subjected to the elements of nature like the Fifth Heaven, there was no need for shelter, but why should his underlings meditate in the open and have no privacy when there was enough space for each one to have their own cave. That would also solve the problem of him having to see them every time he stepped out of the cave. Since he also noticed that the creatures, when they weren't meditating, like to socialise, they should also build a large common hall.

His gaze lifted to the wall with a path and already carved-out caves. And he needed to do something about this, to make it a little more pleasing to the eye. His gaze went to the wall on the east side of the space, and then to the middle of that wall. "Beel, are the Shadows able to carve stone?"

"Yes, my lord, we are."

"And to carve out caves?"

"Yes, my lord."

Samael nodded, planning to make grand-looking caves with smooth walls and level ground. It, of course, needed a grand entrance. He wanted something like the Second Heaven's throne, which was actually an entrance to the First Heaven, the space only God could enter. It had white stairs and columns so polished that they reflected light. He wanted something like that but in black... No, no, grey was better so that it didn't show the dirt this heaven was full of and so that it looked as if it was part of the rocky wall. "Beel."

"Yes, my lord," the creature said.

"We need to make plans. I want an entrance here." He pointed at the east wall. "With stairs and columns. And then stairs up, and then a level path. It needs to be neat, not messy like the south wall."

"Huh?"

"You better write this down. Do you even know how to write?"

Beelzebub blinked at him.

"To hammer images into a tablet?"

Beelzebub continued to blink at him.

"I see. Ask around if anybody can write."

"Yes, my lord. Anything else?"

"Are there any bigger caves than mine?"

"No, my lord."

"Then make one by merging the ground caves." At first, he thought Shadows were these stupid creatures, but as he got to know them better, he learned they were mostly just ignorant and in need of education. It was no wonder since most of them had never left the Sixth and Seventh Heaven and lived in the abyss's darkness and bareness since their birth. So, the priority was education halls. Since his time was too precious to teach them things himself, he needed to find the Shadows who possessed knowledge.

"Yes, my lord." Beelzebub turned to leave.

"Beel, wait. Gather everybody on the plane before the caves."

"Right now, my lord?"

"Yes."

It only took a few moments before row upon row of Shadows gathered before Samael. He heard a few gasps, but when he glanced in their direction, all he could see were bent heads.

"Everybody from the Sixth Heaven is here," Beelzebub said before he and his helpers positioned themselves behind Samael.

Samael cleared his throat. "I called you here today because I have big plans for this place and you're going to be a part of it. We are going to make this place great. The first thing we need is knowledge. All who know how to write, raise your hand."

The creatures exchanged glances and whispered among themselves.

"What? Nobody knows how to write?" Samael asked.

"What is writing?" one of the Shadows asked.

"What if we don't have hands?" the other interjected.

"This is not the time to get distracted by details. Hands, paws, branches, wings, it's all the same," Samael said before he explained, "Writing is drawing symbols others can read."

One branch and a hand lifted.

At least there's somebody. "Join Beel."

The creature, a mixture of a bush and a bear, half walked, half rolled itself towards Samael. A hybrid between a bull and a man followed.

"The ones who took part in improving my cave join Beel, too."

A group of Shadows left the rows and walked to Beel.

"I also need everybody who possesses any knowledge to, after this, report to Beel and let him know what you know how to do. And when I say knowledge, it could be anything, from building, growing, or changing things. Or just knowing about how things work. Every little thing is welcome." Samael glanced at Beelzebub. The guy was capable, but he would need help. "We also need volunteers to help Beel with sorting things out. Now, for the big announcement..."

The heads before him rose and gasps filled the air.

"We are going to build enormous halls for socialising and education, and small caves so every Shadow would have one." Samael offered them a charming smile. "And when I say 'we,' I mean you. I'm here only to guide you and to motivate you." And even for that, he intended to train creatures to do that instead of him. "And to look beautiful."

And that is how Samael accepted that the Seventh Heaven was going to become his long-term home.