"I'm not too fond of creeping around," Samael complained as he and Ayinel stood at the front of the tower. They were both in their original appearance, cloaked by Samael. Because of his senior status, his cloaking was second only to God's. This was most likely the reason why Ayinel insisted Samael join him. He rarely used this high-level cloaking since setting it took a large amount of his energy. Since they were cloaked at the same level, they could see each other. "What do you even want to do?"

"They were never supposed to live so close to humans."

"It's probably the humans who lived near them, not the other way around."

"They should be in the mountains, in an area not accessible to humans," Ayinel explained. "Can we go up already?"

"Why?"

"Just to see how they organised things."

"No."

Ayinel gave him a look.

"I will not spy on them."

"It's not spying."

"Then, what is it?" Samael asked.

"It's... it's verifying things. Can we go now?"

"Why do you even need me?" Samael said.

"Your cloaking is superior to mine."

Oh, so he was right. Not surprising, since he was right more often than not. "My cloaking won't disappear if you put distance between us like yours would. You can verify things on your own." Samael waved at him to go up the stairs.

Ayinel narrowed his eyes at him before he widened his wings and rose, disappearing from Samael's view.

Samael, with his hands folded behind his back, walked around the tower built out of stones. It looked sturdy and its appearance wasn't as bad as it looked from the distance. He'll send a Shadow, one of those who oversaw the construction of Pandemonium, to study how the tower was built. Though... he couldn't figure out why they built stairs. They were all angels with wings. They didn't need stairs.

A dark-haired angel, whose face was unknown to Samael, descended the stairs and walked to the end of the tower's platform. He shielded his eyes as he glanced at the human's dwelling. Another one, a blonde female, joined him.

She glanced around before she leaned closer to the angel and whispered, "Have you heard?"

The angel looked at her.

Her voice lowered even further when she said, "Samyaza is thinking of building himself a throne."

A throne, huh? The angel had nerve, Samael thought. Though he had a throne too, it was a completely different situation. First, he was a leader of the Sixth and Seventh Heaven, it somehow came with the territory, second, he never requested one, and third, he had it because the Shadows built him one, and not because he thought he needed or wanted one himself. The thing was convenient, though, especially when he had visitors from other heavens. Yes, it was very convenient; he liked it a lot, especially after he put some fluffy skins on it to make it more comfortable.

"I heard," the angel said.

"Should we notify somebody?" the female asked.

The angel looked up at the blue sky. "God is all-knowing. She must already know."

"So we do nothing?"

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

Samael's eyes, shining with interest, darted between them. So much drama. And it didn't involve him. This was better than observing that bird-like creature running around, panicking because he couldn't find Beelzebub, and Samael requested Beelzebub's presence and told the bird-like creature he needed Beelzebub urgently.

"Set him on the right path."

The black-haired angel tilted his head. "How do you plan to do that?"

"By gathering all the Watchers and confronting him."

"He has the support of the fellow angels," the male angel said.

"They are in the minority," the blonde angel said.

"There were enough of them for him to become the leader of the Watchers."

"That's only because others didn't know who to choose." The blonde angel huffed.

He gave her a look.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he put a finger before his mouth and tilted his head towards the entrance into/to the tower.

The sound of hushed steps.

"If his actions are wrong, he will be punished," he whispered to her.

"If what he's doing is wrong, we will all be punished." She snorted, turned on her heel, and spread her wings before flying toward the nearest tower.

The angel frowned, then sighed. He faced the entrance of the tower.

Samael nodded, agreeing with the angel's words. Standing at the side while somebody among them was doing harm made them all guilty by association. That blonde angel was right to be troubled by their leader's actions.

The angel greeted the angels that walked through the tower's entrance. "Azazel."

"Penemue." Azazel acknowledged him. He looked past the angel at the dot representing the female angel. He glared at it before his eyes returned to the black-haired angel. "Has Bezaliel been bothering you again?"

"She's worried."

"If she is bothered over every little thing, she should have stayed in the Third Heaven."

A tap on Samael's shoulder. He turned to see Ayinel, who looked irritated. "Already done?" he asked him. Because of the cloaking he set over them, he was not worried that his words could be heard.

"Yes." Ayinel gestured for him to follow him and they strolled away from the tower, past the high half-dry grass and bushes.

"It seems that you're not too pleased with your finding," Samael commented. From the conversation he heard, he couldn't say he was surprised. But since this Watcher thing was none of his business and he only took a glance at the Watchers to satisfy his curiosity, nothing more, he had no plans to share his findings. Usually, when he got bored, he bothered either Beelzebub or that bird-like creature, but because of the drama among the Watchers, he might take another look at them in the future. Beelzebub and that bird-like creature would appreciate it.

Ayinel glanced first at the tower and then at the human dwelling. "Can you guess why humans have set their homes in such proximity to the tower?"

Samael looked at the wall and the cob-like houses. "For protection?"

"But why are there no homes by the other towers?"

Samael shrugged. Who cared? Well, Ayinel did. Not him, though.

"Samyaza hasn't lowered his presence," Ayinel said.

Angels' presence had a powerful influence on all the living creatures in the Fifth Heaven. The stronger the angel was, the stronger the influence they had. For example, if Samael didn't already habitually lower his presence, creatures near him would go insane or even die due to his influence. Even in the other heavens, if he released his presence fully, it could influence angels and Shadows.—Was this what Lucifer implied earlier?—Samyaza's presence, since he was a member of the lowest order, only awoke terror in animals and fear and reverence in humans. This meant his presence kept animals away, the reason why he didn't see any birds or ants near the tower. "Is his presence even something that is worth mentioning?"

"Not in the Second, Third, and Fourth Heaven."

"Not in the Sixth and Seventh Heaven either," Samael added.

"But in the Fifth Heaven... This is not something that is acceptable."

"What do you plan to do? Tell God?" Not that he needs to. Like that angel said, God must already know about it.

Ayinel sighed. "I don't want to burden her with this issue. She's already preoccupied as it is."

"Now you sound like Lucifer."

"Oh, yes." Ayinel nodded. "I'll mention it to Lucifer. It's her project, after all, and she is the one in charge of it."

"How you, with my help, spied on the Watchers, the group that she formed. Do you think this is something she would take lightly?"

Ayinel stopped and glared at him. "You really like to kick an angel when he's down, don't you?"

"Is that what I just did?" Samael lifted his eyebrows and said innocently, "I thought I was doing you a favour by warning you."

Ayinel huffed.

"She appeared here too, so she doesn't trust the Watchers either." Samael smiled and patted his back. "But she's sensitive, something I have no doubt you noticed yourself. Since the Watchers were her idea, when you inform her about them, pick your words carefully."

#

Years have passed since Samael had been in the part of the Fifth Heaven where the Watchers lived. But he had heard rumours about the Watchers socialising with humans, and since he was bored enough, he decided to see if they were true.

Unfortunately, Beelzebub, as always, was lingering by his side. Far enough that it didn't bother Samael, but close enough that as soon as Samael left his rooms, he was by his side, asking if he needed anything.

"Actually, I do," Samael said. "There's this thing... I mean, black energy that I would like for you to see if there is any change."

"Yes, my lord."

"Take that bird-like creature with you," Samael said.

"Yes, my lord.

As soon as Beelzebub and his helper disappeared in the darkness of the portal leading to the Seventh Heaven, Samael went to the portal to enter the Fifth Heaven. When his feet landed on the grass of the Fifth Heaven, he cloaked himself.

To conserve his energy, instead of using a small miracle to appear there, he flew towards the towers. The wall was still there, but it was surrounded by another much larger wall, and there, in the middle of it, was a platform built from wood, sand, and earth. At the far end of the platform, shielded by elements by a canopy, was what appeared to be a throne made of shiny stones stacked up together with the help of wood. It didn't look comfortable. The seat was empty, but humans lay on the skins at the foot of it, sleeping.

There were no cob-like houses in the inside wall, but they lined the space between the inside and outside walls. Only a few of them had people in front of them, and none of those people had cloths with wares on the ground. While the gates leading inside the wall, that was on Samael's first visit empty, were now sealed with large wooden doors.

"What was going on?" Samael asked, not that anybody could hear him to answer. It looked quite sad.

He noticed smoke coming from behind the platform. He flew in its direction.

The smoke came from the hole at the top of a dome made from earth and stone. Another hole was at the foot of it into which a man was throwing dried branches. A man under the supervision of an angel with a stone on a stick was banging out a black material, similar to what the angels' armours were made from, although those were silver and white and made of energy, not physical matter. The divinity told him this was forging of metal that the humans named blacksmithing.

Interesting. Samael lowered himself to take a closer look, impressed by the sparks that flew up every time the man struck the black material that was changing shape under the blows of his stone-stick. So, was it only this angel that decided to share his knowledge with humans, or where there more?

He found more of the angels tutoring humans at the other three towers. One was teaching them writing while the other was pointing at the sky, telling them what kind of clouds announced the storm and what kind of wind would accompany them. A distance away, by the hole that looked like a recently made well, an angel was explaining something to the humans gathered around them.

Samael tapped his fingers, thinking. Knowledge was an important resource in building and developing a plane, the reason why he, in the Sixth Heaven, introduced the education halls. Since he was too lazy and had no patience in teaching others, he had to rely on the Shadows, who had the knowledge to share them with their fellow creatures. But their knowledge was limited. So... If he could get a few Shadows to join the humans to learn from the Watchers... But could he do that without angels and humans noticing?