Stanley was never too fond of darkness and yet he was plunged into that very thing. Ray's words stung. He would have liked to believe that he was sinless. He was not a very religious person. He never went to Church after high school. He believed in science. It was easier to believe and easier to adapt to, a belief system controlled by logic. A giant part of his friendship with Ray was their arguments on faith. While Stanley believed that a perfectly scientific theory obliterates the necessity of God, Ray believed that the perfect scientific theory substantiates the existence of God. Now locked up in solitary confinement and without his sight, Stanley had no other option but to question his own faith and measure its inadequacy against Ray's dogmatic theories.
"Hello mortal," he heard a stranger's voice where he was, knowing full well that it was impossible.
"Great, now I am hallucinating!" he exclaimed.
"I can assure you that I am not a hallucination," the voice spoke.
"If you are forgetting, I am closed in a vault, for my own good," Stanley mumbled.
"I am your friend. I will not leave you in a vault," the voice promised.
"And who are you?" Stanley asked impatiently.
"I have many names, but you can call me Azrael," the voice said.
"Angel of death?" Stanley asked, startled.
"That is one of the interpretations, yes," the voice agreed.
"You are one of them, Samael's people," Stanley guessed.
"I am the chief angel of the fifth heaven," Azrael commented.
"So you are not from the same planet?" Stanley asked.
"No, I am not," he acquiesced.
"Can you return my sight?" Stanley asked him, earnestly.
"Of course I can, but you have to embrace the darkness within you," Azrael told him.
"I don't have any darkness inside me," Stanley defended himself.
"Everyone has darkness inside them. No one is truly righteous. Humanity is an amalgam of good and evil. You cannot be only good, and you cannot be only evil. As long as you try to deny a part of you, you will always be incomplete," Azrael commented.
"What do you want?" Stanley asked him.
"I want humanity to acknowledge the darkness inside them, each one of them. Knowing the darkness makes the way for light. Darkness is only the absence of light. You are called to confess and repent but if you have no idea what you are confessing then isn't the repentance all a show. You cannot be told to repent of something. You need to see it. That is where I come in. I want you to see it," Azrael confessed.
"Ray tells me to confess as well but I do not know what to confess to," Stanley admitted.
"What is the one thought that consumes you, that makes you feel inferior as if your life is not worth living?" Azrael asked.
"I am jealous of Ray. He was always the brainy one. Now I know why. He is a godforsaken angel and I am a petty human. We are basically the same age but I look like his father. He has women, fame, fortune and to top that he has superpowers. How can life be so unfair," Stanley lamented.
"I can give you all that you want, fame, fortune, super-powers. I can make you into something that even Ray will be jealous of. But I need something from you in return," Azrael offered.
"What do you need in return?" Stanley asked.
"I need your obedience."
When Ray's eyes adjusted he realized that he was in some sort of underground cave.
"When you unlocked the knowledge vault, you were supposed to come to look for me, not try to use the spear of light yourself," Alf's voice greeted him.
"I have the same gift as you," Ray reminded him.
"My gift became my curse a long time ago. I spent most of my life trying to control my gift. I am glad to know however that my knowledge helped you control yours," Alf admitted.
"So is this hell?" Ray asked amused.
"This is the picture of hell. Underground caves filled with lava and deformed creatures with melted skin. That is this planet alright," Alf admitted.
"So you did not die but managed to shift an entire planet into a different dimension," Ray appreciated.
"I was the ruler of the eighth heaven. My subjects were very loyal to me. They wanted me to test my powers, my abilities. My abilities resulted in a flash of light that burnt the entire planet and blinded all the residents. They became crippled and uncomely. Their wings were burnt off and they became an object of ridicule among our kind and yours. That is when I decided to transport the entire planet to a different dimension," he explained.
"Is it true that there are no suns in this dimension?" Ray asked.
"No, that is a lie. There is a single sun in this universe, a perfect black body, a perfect radiator, so perfect that it is invisible. Outside these caves, you are blinded by the light from that source. The source is so potent that it permeates the other branes and seeps into the other universes. And that source is a conscious source," Alf said.
Ray's eyes widened at the explanation. "This isn't hell, this is heaven, the true heaven, where God is?" asked the young angel.
"Yes, it is only justified that heaven and hell keep close company," Alf surmised.
"But why this self-imposed exile if you have managed to control your powers now?" Ray asked.
"My citizens, whom you refer as demons, haven't gained back their powers yet. Some are starting to sprout wings, some have got back their eyesight. But the rest is still a pariah to the mainstream angels. I can't abandon them," Alf admitted.
"But you are Lucifer, the light bearer," Ray insisted.
"My duty is to my planet first," Alf admitted. "God always has a plan, so he gave you the powers that I had to replace me in His second coming," Lucifer said.
"How do I stop Samael?" Ray asked.
"Samael is no longer a mere angel. He absorbed some of the light from the surface of the planet, light even I cannot stand. That makes him almost invincible. He also managed to get some of my demons on his side and he plans to destroy earth in the hope to rebuild it. He wants to bring Armaggedon on Earth and then create a place where humans and angels would co-exist. But for now, he feels all humans are corrupt and he needs to cleanse them. That roughly translates to mass genocide for him. You must stop him at all cost," Lucifer explained.
"Those creatures that are showing up on the earth, controlled by devices, are they yours?" Ray asked Lucifer.
"They are the works of my demons," Lucifer admitted.
"I need your help on earth," Ray begged.
"You cannot bring the devil among humans and expect them to be happy. Go. If I feel you need my help I shall try to reach you. God is on your side," Lucifer promised.
"I need Raphael though," Ray remembered.
"My servant will lead you to him." That was the end of the conversation as Ray was led away.