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Well here I am again posting yet another chapter. ^^ I'm excited. I've already started on chapter 3 and it's going to be a good story for now. ^^ I can't wait to get into the depths of this story. ^^
But, without further ado here it is...
Stupid Gaia not letting me tab. So now I have to double space paragraphs. -_- Now it's going to be longer than necessary. -_-

Chapter Two: Paradise City

It took Elizabeth a couple of minutes to calm Aden down enough to be sensible about the situation.

“Ok, I’m cool,” Aden, sighed, finally regaining his composure. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”

“First let me put myself together,” she strained. A blinding white light flooded the area as a storm of Angelic feathers swirled around her covering her form. When the light faded and the feathers disappeared she appeared without a scratch on her anymore. “Now that that’s settled, I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow. I can see you’re still a little shaken up; so go home and get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Before Aden could utter a retort she spread her wings and leapt through the hole in the ceiling, leaving him alone and angry that he didn’t get an answer. He walked home slowly, nobody seeing him as he continued on his way. His mind was a Plethora of thought about his recent happenings. What was going on? Why did that demon try to kill him? And what was Elizabeth really doing when she never met him after school all of those times? And why did she not explain at least one little thing about it! All these questions and more swirled around in a cyclone in his head even as he lay in bed, his parents not even noticing he was home way before school was supposed to get out. He fell asleep with the face of the sharp-dressed demon still imprinted in his mind. Later that night, his mom found Aden sleeping soundly in his bed with surprise. She left his room wondering when he had gotten home.

The next morning Aden woke up as he usually did and went downstairs for breakfast. He received a kiss from his mother as he sat down to eat.

“At least people can see me again,” he said to himself as he ate. He finished up, went through his mother’s ritual again and left the house. He met Elizabeth at the usual corner dying to get some information.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Aden asked crossing his arms and looking at her pleasant acorn-shaped face.

“Yes, but you have to come with me first,” she said with a sly smile sliding across her lips. In the blink of an eye she disappeared from sight.

“Hey! How am I supposed to come with you if I can’t even see you?” Aden growled, shoving his hands into his pockets, annoyed. Suddenly she reappeared in the same place, giggling like a schoolgirl.

“Oh that never gets old,” she said calming down but kept the big smile on her face as if she was going to burst into another fit of giggles. “You have to be able to travel the two dimensional planes.”

“What?” Aden just stared at her blankly.

“Okay let me explain it a little better. There are two dimensions in this world, the human dimension and the ethereal dimension. Angels and demons can travel between these two dimensions but appear very different. In the human dimension you sometimes can’t even see them unless they take on a human form like I have. In the ethereal dimension they appear as you saw them yesterday.”

“So how do I travel between the dimensions?” Aden looked at her confused taking his hands out of his pockets.

“All angels and demons are born with a small addition at the base of their brain. This is called the Angel Complex. When it’s ‘touched,’ if you will, it releases a great amount of energy and basically teleports you to this parallel dimension.” Aden nodded slowly, it kind of made sense but not too much. Another dimension? How could that be possible?

“So there’s another dimension completely different from mine?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, it’s the same world and everything, but the way you see us is different. Also, damage to the outside world such as a broken ceiling, for instance, isn’t shown in the human dimension. So your classmates have no idea what happened yesterday even though the gaping hole I created is probably still there.”

“Okay, I kind of get this, but what this ‘addition’ to my brain?” Aden pointed to his head quizzically.

“Right, this thing in your brain is something that all angels and demons have. It lies dormant until you subconsciously find it and activate it. Though sometimes, as in your case, it’s activated unconsciously, and you become invisible to the world.”

“So because I have this ability, I was born an angel.”

“Not exactly, I don’t know exactly how it works. All I do know is that you have to find it yourself,” she crossed her arms and thought for a second; a flash of a soft smile crossed her lips and then returned back to its original state. “Now that I’ve explained all my understanding of this, how about you try and see if you can travel to my dimension.”

Aden nodded to her and closed his eyes. He sat on the quiet sidewalk on the corner and relaxed his entire body, going into a trance-like state of mind. He floated about in his mind for a second and delved deep into his subconscious and everything went white. He was floating again, but this time in a dark abyss. Stars flew by him in streaks and some far off in the distance stood stationary, a witness to a revelation. Soon a procession of double-file, oaken wood doors began to fly past him. Hundreds, millions even, slowly shuffled past like an infinite regimen of portals that led deeper into his mind. He was then walking between the doors on a plush red carpet laid out on an invisible floor down a never-ending hallway. Out of curiosity, Aden opened one of the doors and looked inside.

What he saw amazed him. He was looking at a city in the sky. The terrain was made of fluffy pink clouds and depressed to form a basin, which was lined with houses on the outside and buildings farther in towards the center. It was a beautiful city; the buildings were wonderfully colored in soft blues, pinks, whites, and yellows. A dark blanket of shadow suddenly fell over the city in the clouds and a huge, swirling vortex of blackness appeared over the metropolis. From Aden’s vantage point he could make out little black dots pouring from the hole in the sky like a faucet unleashing a stream of dirty, black water. He couldn’t tell what the dots were but one started coming close. It came closer and closer until Aden could tell it wasn’t just a dot in the sky. It was a human-shaped figure with huge bat wings and grotesque, cracked skin. The figured smiled a wicked, toothy grin as it raised a humongous axe above its head.

Aden quickly shut the door and leaned against it, white as a ghost and panting heavily, perspiration dripping from his brown hair. He sat down to calm down and catch his breath. He looked past the doors into the speckled voids beyond. He noticed some of the stars were moving in the direction he had been originally heading. He got up a little shaken but all together all right, and continued down the hallway. After walking for what seemed like hours, the hallway abruptly ended and Aden was faced with two doors; the rest continued on in their infinite path past Aden. The door on the right was a beautiful white color with an ornate golden pattern etched into the face. The pattern was shaped into the form of a feathered wing with a circle around it and above it. The other door was a complete contrast to the other. It was a sinister black with blood-red etchings on its face. The etchings formed the drawing of a bat-like wing and with horns protruding from above it. Aden could feel a great presence of power emanating from the black door along with a sense of anger and a will to lash out at anything without provocation. The white door fought off those auras with it’s own feelings of peace, tranquility, and calmness.

“This must be where I choose my path,” Aden surmised out loud to no one in particular. He looked at each door, unwillingly letting both auras use his body as a battleground. He felt a sense of power pull him toward the black door but the white door retaliated with letting its calmness soothe the power within him. His body felt as though it was a toy being pulled apart by two fighting siblings. He was coming closer to the doors, and each of them opened up to swallow him into the inky blackness beyond. He was on fire now. Each side was trying with all their might to pull him through their archways. The boy closed his eye from the pain hoping it would end quickly. He heard the doors slam shut like gunfire and all was still. The pain stopped almost as soon as it had begun. He slowly opened his eyes to find he was lying on his back in a pitch-black room. Light began to filter in from nowhere revealing his surroundings.

He found himself in a large stone room with blue and white tiled floors. In the center of the room was a rectangle of loose dirt about 10 by 20 yards in perimeter that was outlined with a white line. Dozens of weapons lined one wall; scythes of all sizes hung on hooks with large and small axes, different types of swords, and many different staves all with a myriad of colors and patterns carved or painted on them. Another wall housed shields and gauntlets while yet another held chain mail and breastplates and the last wall had boots and greaves. Aden saw a table next to him with a piece of paper with something written on it.



He looked at it quizzically. He understood what to do, but why? Who was this “rival” he had to see? He decided that these questions would be answered in due time so he went to the weapon wall and chose a beautiful silver broadsword with a golden hilt. It was heavy in hands and the tip clanged to the ground as soon as he got it off the wall. It took him a couple minutes for him to handle the weapon but he soon was able to swing it around with ease. He walked to the wall of breastplates and chose one. As he picked it up it dissolved in his hands in a beautiful display of golden sparks and reappeared on his chest. He then picked out silver gauntlets and boots and made his way to the rectangle in the center of the room.

As he took a step into the field he froze. A swirling wind of darkness spun up from the ground. Aden could see bones in the inky darkness of the twister; each connecting together by some strange magic. He looked at the skeletal figure across from him. It had a crest on its skull shooting up from the dark, dusty bone. It wore ancient samurai armor; flaps of the metal ran down its arms, legs, and torso. A huge, thin sword came out in a point from the hilt in his hand.

A low growl came from the pile of bones as it ran awkwardly toward Aden ready to strike. Eyes wide in surprise, he stood stock still, his legs shaking in his boots. He had never used a weapon before; he didn’t know what he was doing. How was he supposed to beat this Halloween-decoration-come-to-life? Instinctively, at the last second, he pulled the sword over his head and blocked the skeleton’s strike. The blade felt as if it weighed a ton when the two of them clashed swords. Aden felt his confidence slipping as he clumsily swung his sword and missed the ghoul by at least a foot. It smiled (if skeleton’s could smile…) and lunged forward with its blade, impaling him in the arm as he tried to lunge to the side out of the way. He cried in pain and immediately put a hand on his wound. Warm blood seeped from the hole in his arm, and it felt as if he had been stabbed with a red-hot iron rod into his arm.

Adrenaline shot through him; he let his instincts take over. He sliced down over the skeleton with his sword and hit the crest on its head, knocking the head backwards. The ghoul countered by swinging its sword around, and hitting Aden’s golden breastplate, knocking the wind out of him and making him stagger backwards, out of breath. Then the skeleton slashed again, nicking his arm, making a large gash appear. Blood oozed from the wound as Aden released another cry. He tried to ignore the searing pain the cut had caused him and swung his sword around again. He made contact with the skeleton’s armor, making it stumble sideways, joints popping as it moved. Taking advantage of his opponent’s vulnerability, he kicked its leg. He heard a loud crack as its leg bone was cleaved in two by his foot. The demon stumbled on hits broken leg and fell in a heap on the ground as the bones detached from each other. He walked up to the head; its empty holes looked at Aden with a glare (again, if skeletons could glare…). He raised his boot and crushed the skull with a crunch. He backed up as the swirling vortex he saw when he killed the sharp-dressed demon appeared and dissolved the bones into its infinite darkness. As the vortex disappeared, a white blinding light engulfed him. He felt himself being lifted up and moved forward, all his pains and wounds disappeared. He heard the tinkling of a little bell as everything went black.

He slowly opened his eyes to find himself back in Wrath, the drab gray buildings a welcome sight after everything he just went through. Elizabeth suddenly appeared before him in her angel form sans the armor and her weapon.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, hearing her gasp and noticing her staring at him.

"You’re wings are beautiful,” she giggled. “And you’re pretty macho-looking in your armor.”

“My wings?” Aden looked behind him and saw his white, majestic wings. The feathers felt as soft as silk and they gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. He noticed he was still wearing the armor from his dream and carrying the same sword.

“So now I’m in this other dimension?” Aden raised an eyebrow. Elizabeth nodded. “But everything’s the same.”

"Really? Look at us,” she pointed at him. “You’re wearing armor and carrying a sword. And we both have wings. We didn’t have that in your realm.”

“I guess you’re right,” he shrugged. “So, how do I put this stuff away like you seem to have done?”

“That’s easy; just wish it away,” she giggled again. Aden thought about it and the golden armor and the sword dematerialized into a gold powder and disappeared.

“Wow, that was weird,” he said. “So how do I get back to my dimension?”

"We’ll get to that when we come back,” she smiled and grabbed his hand leading him into the center of the city.

As they ventured deeper into the blacktop jungle, the buildings increased in size. The small houses and shops became tall, high-rise apartments, hotels, and business corporations. They walked steadily on the sidewalk, and nobody paid them much attention. The sun glared of the shiny windows of the skyscrapers making the two squint a little to see if they didn’t want to be blinded by the light. The sound of a deuce coupe revving its engine reached Aden’s ear. They passed a wall of enormous condos into the huge park in the center of the city. Elizabeth led her friend down one of the hundreds of paths webbing the entire park. The luscious greenery surrounded them like an archway with a beautiful, green canopy overhead and short bushes on either side. The path ended at the shore of a huge lake. After a quick pause, Elizabeth started to walk along the edge of the water.

“What are you doing?” Aden asked puzzled at her searching gaze that ran along the shoreline.

“I’m looking for something,” she replied, continuing her walking. After a couple minutes she stopped and stepped onto the water.

“Wait! What are you doing?” Aden exclaimed fearfully.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to fall in,” she giggled and continued her path. Instead of her elegant shoes going underneath the murky, muddy water they rested on top of it as if an invisible pathway existed there. Elizabeth continued on her path towards an island in the middle of the body of water. About halfway there she turned around and motioned for Aden to follow. “C’mon slowpoke!” She smiled and kept walking. He tentatively put his foot where Elizabeth’s was a couple minutes ago.

Surprisingly, it hit a solid plane less then a quarter inch beneath the surface of the water. He put the other foot next to it and hit the same solid surface. He then continued to catch up to his friend. When they reached the opposite shore, Aden looked back behind him and noticed the trees bent into an arch of bare limbs that could not be seen anywhere else but from the spot where he stood. The shoreline was a stunning, verdant green color. Some small animals, like rabbits and squirrels, scurried around the tree trunks. When he turned back around, Elizabeth was already walking deeper into the center of the woods. Hastily, he ran to catch up with her.

“Where are you taking me?” He asked, a little peeved that he still wasn’t getting any information.

“Here,” Elizabeth smiled again and pulled back some tree branches to reveal a very small, circular clearing with a peculiar stone circle in the center. It was wide enough to fit two people and was covered in strange carvings, like the letters and words of an ancient language.

“What is it?” Aden asked, walking up to the stone circle and examining it. Elizabeth just smiled, grabbed his hand, and pulled him on top of the stone.

“Oriri!” She called in some strange language and the stone glowed white with a strange aura. A pink light surrounded them and shot into the sky. Aden could feel himself being lifted into the sky. His stomach lurched at the feeling but he managed to keep its contents in place. Their alacrity increased and they shot through the treetops. The ground raced away from them at a rapid pace. The two tore through the clouds into the heavens.

At least that’s what it looked like when they broke through the puffy collection of water vapor. It was exactly the same city Aden had seen in his mind behind the door. The entire area was colored in a pink shadow instead of the dark gloomy one he saw in his head. One thing he hadn’t seen behind the door that existed in the world was a large circular, dome in the center of the city. The outside had marble pillars holding up the stone roof and each was carved into the shape of an angel garbed in battle-armor. The two had landed at the lip of the bowl the city was situated in and many more odd stone disks surrounded the rim, some activating with bright glowing lights and revealing angels.

“Where are we?” Aden asked, awestruck. It all was so much more real that his vision, maybe, but the whole experience seemed like a dream to him. A city in the clouds? Angels? Demons? Medieval weaponry? What was going on? He really hoped Elizabeth would give him some answers soon. It was starting to irk him that she just smiled and beckoned him to follow her. He wanted the answers and he wanted them now… or as soon as possible.

“We’re in Bliss, the city of angels,” she answered his question like a teacher would to a particularly slow student. She then started heading down the stair that led to the center of the city.

“Where are we going now?” Aden sighed. Receiving no answer, he followed her following the small trickle of angels down the stairs. They followed the steps past small box-like houses on little bluffs with a front and back yard. Adult angels with huge magnificent wings watched little children playing with the scattered toys on the lawns. Tiny wings that looked like plucked chicken wings sprouted from their backs.

As the stairs led deeper into the bowl, the houses turned into plateaus of marketplaces, where goods ranging from apples to weapons were being bartered for by winged men in white robes and sandals. Even further down, larger buildings emerged which looked to house a higher class of either government officials or wealthy angels. The stairs finally ended at the domed building. It looked much bigger when one stood at the base of the structure than at the rim of the bowl. Dozens of angels with folded wings came in and out of the dome.

“This building is called The House of Elders, it’s home to the governing body of the angel civilization,” Elizabeth spoke over the slight roar of the crowd. “They are expecting to see you. I went and told them about you last night. They have much to talk to you about.”

“Okay,” was all Aden could utter. He hadn’t been in Bliss for more than an hour and already he was going to meet the most powerful people in the city. He followed her hollowly into the House of Elders.

The inside of the house was like an anthill. Angels of all kinds scurried in and out of hallways. Balconies circled the lobby and rose up for four stories. In the center sat a huge desk with many angel women busy filing papers, talking with people, or sitting on their lazy asses doing nothing. Elizabeth ignored the area completely and took a hallway located at the back of the large room. It was devoid of any decorations, and Aden followed nervously behind his friend. The hall soon ended at a large stone door that slowly opened as the two approached.

Behind the door sat five old men at a long crescent-shaped table, their wrinkled faces wise with age. They were dressed in the white robes and sandals that the two had seen other angels wearing. Aden and Elizabeth walked to the center of the circular room waiting for something to happen. Aden would have been shaking like a leaf if it weren’t for the calming presence of Elizabeth standing authoritatively next to him. She seemed to always have that effect on him. No matter what sticky situation he was in, the thought of her calmed him down.

The elder angel in the center, who Aden assumed was the oldest out of all of them, stood up and declared, “Welcome back, Elizabeth Martin Venetia. I trust your mission was successful.” She nodded and the man continued. “On behalf of the Council of Elders of Bliss I welcome you, Aden, to our city in the sky.”

“It is an honor to be in such a beautiful city,” Aden managed to say weakly.

“Now I assume you would like to join us in out battle against Lucifer?” His bushy eyebrows rose, revealing blue eyes that had seen many years.
Aden’s mind reeled at the thought the elder was presenting. What was he talking about? How could he join this war if nobody had told him anything about it yet? His anger started to overcome his nervousness.

“I’m sorry but I don’t understand anything here. I was introduced to all of this just yesterday. I was almost killed for crying out loud! Please, just tell me what’s going on!” Silence pervaded the hall after Aden’s outburst. Admittedly it wasn’t the right thing to say but all day his questions weren’t being answered. Now the Elder assumed he was up to speed; it was ridiculous!

Finally the Elder Angel spoke in the same calm voice he started in, “I’m sorry, we assumed Elizabeth had told you about this.” Elizabeth lowered her head in embarrassment to his comment. “Then let me explain to you a little. Currently, we are engaged in a large-scale war against the demons of Hell. But I am unsure of how I am able to get you to realize the gravity of the situation, without first learning a little history on the matter.”

Aden groaned a little at the last comment, more history, great. The elder that had spoken earlier motioned to his right and the Elder Angel on that end stood up slowly. He wasn’t as old as the head elder; in fact, he was probably the youngest of five (and that was saying something). He looked like a human in forties with thick glasses and greasy black hair with graying ends that went everywhere. He looked like a total bookworm and who better to tell the history then him?

“In the beginning,” he started, “there was a city of paradise where all the beings of the world lived. All the animals of the sky, ground, and sea, lived in the paradise. And so did our people, the Angels. The Angels lived in a city in the clouds where this paradise was located. It was much like this one except much more rich and lavish. Water flowed in steams along banks of dirt and rich soil. Trees and grass grew wild on the clouds in the sky. Nothing existed beneath this paradise, no Earth, no solid mass to fall on. The city was a happy and perfect place to all who inhabited it. It was Heaven.

“Sadly, the peace and tranquility did not last. An angel named Lucifer gathered a large group of his followers and attempted to take the city and throne of the paradise from Zeus, the king of the angels. Lucifer and his troops started an endless war that raged for days and days. For you see, Angels are immortal in a way. When one was mortally wounded and died, he would be reborn back in this paradise fully rejuvenated. This is because there was nowhere else the soul could go except for the body it once inhabited.

“As I said before, the war raged on for days and days. Lucifer gained much ground those first few days. He even made it to the gates of the castle where Zeus resided. Soon after though, Zeus’ forces pushed Lucifer back to where he started. It seemed to be a stalemate that would last for an eternity.

“Until Zeus grew tired of the fighting. Already most of the paradise he had created had been utterly destroyed by the war. The grass and trees had been torn up, revealing the clouds dyed pink by the endless river of blood that flowed across the land. The rivers and streams were so destroyed that no water flowed from their banks. Zeus became very angry over all this quarreling caused by one Angel. So, Zeus thought about what he should do as a punishment for the traitors to paradise. After a day he believed he had found his solution.

“Now, the king of the Angels held more power than all the beings in paradise combined. At the snap of his finger he could destroy mountains and move the ground itself. He was about to unleash this power to end the war in his paradise once and for all.

“Over the battlefield, the sky darkened as Zeus made his grand entrance on his magnificent wings. He ordered his troops to his castle and then unleashed his judgment. He opened up a gash in the clouds. It was a dark deep gash, and it led to another world. The Angels have named this other world Hell. This Gash inhaled Lucifer and his army and they fell into the dark pit where nothing but a tortuous life awaited them. Zeus left the fallen angels with this edict; ‘May your souls burn in the fiery depths of Hell as punishment for the crimes you have committed for eternity. You may never leave this black inferno for the rest of your immortal lives. If you do, a punishment much worse than this will be sealed within your fate.’”
He paused for a moment, and then he readjusted his glasses and continued his story.

“When those fallen Angels fell into Hell, their bodies immediately changed into grotesque, evil beings that wanted nothing more but revenged for their punishment. Soon after, Zeus created a solid world, your Earth, as a barrier between heaven and hell. He created man to inhabit Earth and he allowed the Angels to travel there as they pleased. The Angels learned about the two dimensions quite quickly and soon traversed this barrier and lived with the human being in peace. This is how people like you, Aden, came to be. You are the product of a human and an angel.”

“A little over one hundred years ago, Lucifer managed to somehow escape from Hell and reach Earth. He took his army and almost gained access to the only portal that led to Bliss. The portal exists in Wrath as you may have already figured out. Luckily, the angels were able to force him and his troops back to Hell for the time being.

“At the time, Wrath was nothing you are used to now. It was a polluted, dirty city. Crime was rampant; drugs littered the streets as well as people selling their bodies for unspeakable things lined the streets. It was an awful place, really. None of the technology you have now existed in that time. Also, the huge wall that surrounds your city now was never even a thought before the demons attacked. The cruel desert constantly threw sandstorms through the area. These angry storms gave Wrath its name.

“The aftermath of the battle woke the people of the city from their stupor. With our help, they rebuilt the city into what you know in now. We gave them the technology they needed and helped them build the wall. Of course they never knew Angels were helping them; we were disguised as architects and engineers, for if they knew, that would cause great controversy none of us wanted to ignite.”
“As of now, we are in the process of finding Lucifer’s demons and eliminating them,” the Elder Angel stood now as the Angel with the glass sat down with a soft sigh. “So, now that you are well informed, will you join our cause? Will you help us defeat Lucifer?”

Aden tried to absorb all the information he just received. He couldn’t go back to his old monotonous life now, not with the power he just unlocked. He had to use it for something and using it to get out of history class would get boring pretty quickly anyway. Plus, Elizabeth seemed to be on his side and he really wanted her there to help him with this gift. He closed his eyes and sighed, “Yes, I will help you defeat this demon.”


Well, there ya go!!!! Please comment on it if you read it as always. ^^ I really want to make this as good as it can be. ^^
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