Samael knew exactly how to get Lucifer to confront the consequences of the Watchers' actions. By appearing alongside the Watchers. But before executing this plan, he decided to visit the Watchers incognito to learn what was going on. That's why he, heavily cloaked, entered the Fifth Heaven and sailed towards the Watchers' home in the mountains.

The abode now lay lower, near the meadow, by a stream, with homes made of wooden branches and skin concealed within the veiling shadows of the trees. In the middle was a fire pit, with people bustling around it. It gave Samael the feeling of a well-organised society, similar to the Second and Sixth Heavens' ones.

He nodded in approval. The angels here didn't seem to be too incompetent.

He observed them for a while before he flew to the tower and the human dwelling beside it. The cob-like homes had vanished, and the bustling human activity had ceased. A throne was still there, but now it looked more like a large, robust-looking chair than a throne, with piles of what looked like boons around it. Inside the protective wall, dirty and smelly giants wearing only loincloths argued over what appeared to be food.

So, these were the Nephilim.

Samael wrinkled his nose in distaste and maintained a safe distance from them as he proceeded towards the tower, which stood desolate and abandoned. It looked like the Watchers' situation was worse than he thought.

He sighed and glanced at the giants before he aimed his gaze at the towers that he could see in the distance as thin, short lines. He flew towards them. There was no life around the towers, but he could feel the vibrations of the Watchers, who were in the towers.

"This group is so boring." Samael furrowed his nose. He might have said, at least they have the giants, if he hadn't seen Nephilim firsthand. How could angels, beings of pure energy, create something so barbaric and violent?

He sighed again and decided this was a good place and time to lessen the protection of his cloak, which was exactly what he did. He lessened it enough so that he could be felt by Lucifer but not enough for angels to notice him.

He pressed his lips together, his gaze wandering around before he lifted his hand and looked at his nails. He imagined them shorter with a flick of his thought. Then his eyes were on the blue, cloudless sky.

"Let's hope she'll appear soon." He didn't have time to dillydally in the Fifth Heaven, except if it was for his entertainment or meditation purposes. He had tablets to send—not really—and Beelzebub and that bird-creature to annoy.

Lucifer didn't appear.

Was she ignoring him? That would be a first. Typically, the moment he ventured beyond the area of the portal, she materialised before him, giving him warnings to remain within his designated boundary.

Samael's eyes narrowed. He was going to wait just a little longer, and if she didn't show up... he would go home and send Ayinel a message that he wasn't able to get Lucifer into the Fifth Heaven and the Watchers' territory.

Just as he was about to depart, Lucifer descended from the Fourth Heaven. A frown marred her face, and she shot him a glare as she gracefully landed before him. She opened her mouth to, most likely, reprimand him when he cut her off, saying, "Finally. What took you so long?"

A momentary confusion flickered across her face.

A faint smile appeared on his lips. "I heard you have been working on a new hymn. How is it going?"

"Well." She tilted her head. "How do you know about it?"

"Is this the reason why you have been ignoring the Watchers?"

Once more, a glare appeared in the eyes directed at him.

"Ayinel paid me a visit." He linked his arm with hers and gently pulled her forward with him. "He's worried."

No response followed.

He glanced at her to see uneasiness layering her expression. It looked out of place on her face. "You're also worried?" It was a question and a statement. He could always read her, but this time it was hard to guess what was on her mind. It was like she was conflicted about what to do next, and that never happened before.

Her lips were pressed tightly together, and her brow was furrowed.

"You're also worried?" he repeated.

She didn't reply.

"You can tell me everything. You know that."

She turned to him.

He gave her a small, encouraging smile. "Have I ever betrayed your trust?"

"I have disappointed her."

"You could never disappoint her," Samael stated, and it was true. God was all-knowing. She was aware of what was going to happen when she agreed with the establishment of the Watchers.

Lucifer's eyes shifted towards the towers. "It's their fault."

They approached the nearest towers.

"Their creation was my idea. I insisted on it. I believed they would have kept those clay things in cheek, but they made things worse." She fisted her hands. "I would have stopped them." She stubbornly repeated, "I would have. But God asked me not to intervene."

I wonder why; he thought cynically. God was just too protective of Lucifer.

"They need to be punished for it. Severely. And when the time comes. They will be. Both the Watchers and the clay creatures. I'll personally see to it."

#

Samael stood on the top of a tower, his gaze on the remains of what used to be a wall. White bones were scattered over the ground, some of them half-buried in the earth. A short distance away, two Nephilim fought over a torn-apart sheep. Their stomping sent such powerful shockwaves through the ground that Samael could feel the vibrations under his feet.

A decade has passed since his talk with Lucifer and the last time he saw her. This was despite him roaming the Fifth Heaven uncloaked and observing the Watchers regularly.

At this time, the Fifth Heaven had completely fallen to ruins. The Nephilim, with their greed and insatiable appetite, reduced the once lush and vibrant realm to a wasteland of chaos and devastation while the Watchers under Samyaza's leadership stood aside. The Watchers in the mountains had refrained from directly confronting the Nephilim too, but they offered hope to the humans. In their mountain abode, they provided refuge to every human who sought sanctuary from the horrors caused by the Nephilim. These Watchers had offspring, too, but their children were unlike the Nephilim. Born as ordinary humans, these children possessed heightened strength and intelligence, without the violent tendencies that plagued the Nephilim.

What was the difference?

He saw two dots in the sky that, as they neared, sharped into angels. When they joined them on the top of the tower, he greeted them with a nod of his head. "Ayinel, Zelel."

"Samael," they replied.

Silence enveloped them, broken only by the menacing growls and stomps of the Nephilim.

Zelel coughed. "We know that today are not your working hours..."

Samael looked at her. Not this again. In the last decade, the Thrones requested audiences and sought his help far too often, primarily with matters over which he had no influence. "Don't tell me you're here to ask for my help? I have told you, I'm not at liberty to assist you with anything related to Lucifer or the Watchers." No matter how much he wished he could step in and stop the decay of the Fifth Heaven.

Zelel cleared her throat.

"We're on a mission from God," Ayinel stated. "She would've used divinity, but you were unavailable, and Gabriel, right at this moment, he's occupied, so we volunteered."

"We've got the crows," Samael replied.

"Whose messages you've never bothered to read."

"I have Beelzebub for that." Samael raised an eyebrow and looked down his nose at Ayinel.

Ayinel rolled his eyes.

Zelel coughed and, with heaviness in her voice, said, "The time to face consequences has come. The wrongdoings of the Watchers and Nephilim against divine law can't be overlooked anymore."

"God had made her decision," Ayinel added.

"Oh, I see." It was about time. "Who did she send?" Samael asked. "Michael, right? It has to be Michael. It's always him when it comes to punishing angels."

"A human," Ayinel said.

"A human?" Samael repeated, his forehead furrowed. Yes, of course, she would have sent someone whom the Watchers, particularly Samyaza's group, saw as beneath them.

"He goes by the name Enoch," Zelel explained. "He is to act as an intermediary between the Watchers and the Second Heaven."

"He had already started with his journey," Ayinel added.

"Where's Lucifer?" Samael eyed the sky, expecting his sister to appear any moment now.

"She was asked to remain in the Second Heaven," Ayinel said.

"Hmm." So God resolved to safeguard Lucifer, preventing her from doing something stupid. Like slaughtering all the Watchers and humans. He wrinkled his nose, saying sarcastically, "Well, it took only a decade."

Ayinel frowned.

"What?"

"Only a decade? Centuries have passed since we first laid eyes on those towers."

Samael blinked. "It has been less than two decades, and a decade, since the birth of the Nephilim."

Ayinel cast a sidelong glance at him. "No."

Samael faced Zelel. After she nodded, he connected to divinity. They were right. Countries have passed since the Watchers entered the Fifth Heaven. He repeated the words that appeared in his mind, "The passage of time varied between the heavens."

"You also never had a good grasp on time," Zelel said.

Ayinel agreed. "Time management was never your strong suit."

"When it always passes by so fast," Samael complained. "And now this different flow of time... It's definitely not going to get better." The time thing probably has something to do with the fact that he was the first angel, coming into existence when humanity was still in the shape of unicellular before it with God's intervention and the help of clay turned into the first humans; Adam and Eve.

"About the God's mission." Zelel cleared her throat again. "The issue is... We need your presence in the Sixth Heaven and authorisation for the human to enter the Sixth and Seventh Heavens. He's already en route with Gabriel."

So, this is what Gabriel is occupied with. "I don't see any reason why I should give it."

"It's God's request."

Samael rolled his eyes. "Why didn't she authorise the human's entrance herself?"

"That would have intruded upon your domain," Zelel explained.

Samael sighed. "Very well, let's go."

Gabriel already waited for them at the portal leading into the Sixth Heaven, which surprised Samael. Usually, Gabriel entered the Sixth Heaven directly from the Fourth Heaven. A human, a middle-aged-looking man in a robe, stood beside him. He lightly swayed.

Samael narrowed his eyes at the human, studying him before he shifted his attention to Gabriel. "Is he intoxicated?"

"He was in the presence of God."

Human beings were incapable of enduring the presence of God. Her spiritual pressure was too powerful for their fragile bodies to bear. Samael glanced at the human. "How is he still alive?"

"Because of his deep connection with God, she could protect him through the divine essence that lived within him."

Samael raised an eyebrow and cast another assessing glance at the human before he stepped towards the portal, waving to Gabriel for him and the human to follow him. "Why is so important for the human to enter the Sixth Heaven?"

"Is the reward for his services," Gabriel explained.

"What services?" Samael walked into the portal. Divinity activated and notified him of God's request.

Beelzebub waited on the other side. He rushed to him. "My lord, my lord. An important message came."

"Let me guess," Samael said. "It's a request for an entry into the Sixth Heaven."

"And Seventh Heaven, my lord. It's for a human." Beelzebub's voice trailed off, and he frowned as he for a few long moments stared past Samael's shoulder. Then his gaze returned to Samael. "It appears you've already been informed."