“Are you going to be alright, Blackie?” I was feeling more and more sorry for the old man. First, he lost his weapon, then he underestimated heaven’s sun. He was currently clinging to a tree chanting curses like a mantra. Most of which are not fit to be repeated in polite company.

          “I say we burn this miserable place to the ground, use the ashes to forge me a new weapon, and use the weapon to slaughter our way through hell and burn it down as well.” Babaris glared down at the patch of light he could look at without hurting his eyes. I was finally able to see him in the light and by the Lord, he looked terrible. The bags under his eyes were nigh invisible under the cover of darkness... but with the light acting as contrast, he looked like a corpse drug out of hell. Which he kind of was…

          “…As fun as that would be,” I paused and forced myself to let go of the idea, “I am remarkably certain you would burn to a crisp in the sun before we would have time to do that. We run in, grab the stuff, and run, okay? We’ll be really fast.”

          “…Can we set fires as we go?”

          “Sure.”

          “They should have something that protects your eyes against that damned sun.” He muttered before reaching for my hand. It was my turn to guide him as his eyes probably wouldn’t adjust. Still, he was better off than I was in hell as he could squint and vaguely see things.

          “…why is no one sounding an alarm, we’re in plain sight?”

          “Heaven allows all to enter, even demons. The sun kills anyone who isn’t an angel in a few hours after all.”

          “That’s handy, do you even have guards at the entrance?”

          “Have you never been? Well, there are guards, but they just keep people from leaving. That’s how we keep the open-door policy quiet.”

          “While I approve of the evil nature, and pardon the expression, Holy Hell.”

          “Basically, I thought it was a great plan and I even got an award for coming up with it!”

          “Wait, you-”

          “Here we are! I’ve got blackout curtains. So hurry in.”

          “Small.”

          “Well, I had a larger mansion in the archangel district, but after the last of my family died, I didn’t see the point in keeping it. So, I gave it to a family I used to know. This little house and the forge attachment is all I need.”

          It really was a lovely little house, it based on the house my sister and I shared when we were children just out from our mother’s wings. It only had three rooms, four including the forge. Kitchen, bedroom, bath. 

          “My Trophies are in the forge, through here.”

          As we entered, I watched his jaw drop. I felt like my grin reached my ears. Weapons, armor, even a few bones, lined walls that were larger than the entirety of the actual house just through the door.

          “Aren’t they beautiful?”

          “…they’re alright. How many to you want to bring?”

          “Well, my husband and two of our children weren’t warriors, so I don’t have anything from them anymore. I just want the heart plate from our third child and my tools. The rest can burn. Look and see if there are any you’d like to take.”

          “Didn’t your third brat get vaporized?”

          “It’s a really study heart plate.” I pick it up and showed him.

          “…Is this…glass?”

          “It used to be.”

          “…I’ll put that aside for now. We raided the wine cellar in hell, what can we raid here?”

          A heavenly choir drifted in from the blacked-out windows, birds heard the sounds and joined in with exuberant excitement, people on the street began to hum along. Above, the sun seemed to glow even brighter as the world sang, ‘This is heaven!’

          “Is there a music hall?”

          “Yes? It’s a very lovely place, filled with instruments from ages long past. Some are even the only ones left in the worlds!”

          “Burn it.”

          “…but pretty music…”

          “They aren’t even in tune.”

          “It’s rather hard to tune instruments from different ages that were built for different keys…”

          “Burn it.”

          “…Fine. You are a very bad influence.”

          “ME? ME? I? You…” His face rapidly went through several different emotions.

          “People’s houses are one thing, but music is a community thing.”

          “A tone-deaf community should not make music.”

          “I was told I couldn’t complain since it was my son that deafened half of heaven.”

          “...Ah.”

          “Turns out it was bad enough that it became a hereditary problem.”

          “…”

          “The healers can’t figure out how or why.”

          “…”

          “…he was a good kid, had his heart in the right place…”

          “And now his heart is everywhere in the right places.”

          “Aw, that’s nice of you to say.”

          “I don’t know how to talk to you.”

          “Well you open your mouth and-”

          “You’ve done more damage to heaven than hell ever has.”

          “While you make a fair point-”

          “Can we burn this obnoxiously bright place to the ground yet?”

          “I’ll get the torches.” I pulled five out from behind a table. “Do you want a pitchfork, or do you think that’s too much?”

          “You’re remarkably prepared…”

          “I watched a group of human lead a ransacking to a demonic camp one year and thought it looked fun.”

          “Fair enough. Now, let’s burn these suckers to the ground.”

          His smirk mirrored my own as we set off to do just that.

 -------------NO ANGELS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS CHAPTER------------