Chapter One: Freedom
A majestic, regal structure, the Musee Rodin rises out amongst its surroundings like a mountain rising above the hills. Within its stately walls, many spectacular works of art are housed, works by geniuses like Van Gough, Renoir, but most prominently Musee Rodin, the museum’s namesake. Musee has contributed many pieces of art to this museum, but perhaps the most famous one is Musee’s “Gates of Hell”. Thousands of individuals flock to the monumental statue every day, but not all of them were your average run of the mill tourist. You see, right behind the “Gates of Hell” was actually another gate, the true Gate of Hell, veiled from mortal eyes, and it was the entrance into the realm we know as Hell, and once in a while Angels would go into the gates that had some business in the realm of the damned.
Cathetel, Angel of the Garden was one such Angel. She flew into the Gates of Hell, with Hayyel, Angel of Animals, Orifiel, Angel of Forests, and Zuriel, Angel of Harmony. Ahead of the group was Ariel, Archangel of Nature, Healing, and Lioness of God. She still could not believe she was doing this, assisting in freeing Lucifer, enemy of all Holy Angels, traitor of the Kingdom of Heaven. But, she admitted, he had turned out to be right about how corrupted humanity would become. Mankind had done nothing but harm to Earth, and left a trail of destruction and misery wherever they went. Now Earth, once a beautiful varied paradise of imposing mountains and majestic forests, had become a wasteland of concrete and asphalt, with tiny patches of nature left “preserved” by the so called “governments” of the world. And it was quite clear that now, the human race was far past the point of any redemption, she considered.
The landscape changed as they flew by; sometimes they flew past the startled faces of chained Fallen Angels, sometimes by a group of snarling demons. As they approached their destination, they found an immense gate, guarded by three heavily armed Guardian Angels. They landed in front of the Gate, and the Guardian Angels unsheathed their blades and pointed it at the group, looking slightly surprised. They must not have gotten a lot of visitors. The blades were made of Aurum, the holy metal, one of two materials that could harm Celestial Beings like Angels and Demons. It gleamed softly in the dim light of Hell’s eternal fires. One stepped forward.
“What business do you Angels have in this domain of the damned?”
Ariel pointed at the Gate
“We are here to free the prisoner” she said with a smirk
The Guardian’s eyes widened in shock, but quickly hardened as he raised his gleaming blade
“Such an act I would never have expected from you Ariel! You were among the Angel leaders who led Heaven’s armies against the traitor!” The Guardian snarled as he and his two partners charged the group
“That was then and this is now, Guardian. But for you, it is the end” Ariel pulled out her halberd and sliced the lead guardian’s sword in two, and in the same stroke, decapitated him. The second guard also charged at her. Living up to her name as the Archangel of Nature, with a wave of her hand, strong thick vines sprung out from the ground, and quickly wrapped around him, squeezing tighter and tighter until the sharp breaking of bones could be heard.
She smiled and drew the vines back into the ground, leaving the crumpled, bloodied body of the Guardian on the floor. Meanwhile Hayyel fought a sword duel with the second one, but the fight was quite one-sided, and with a mighty slash Hayyel cut through the Guardian’s sword. The Guardian tried to reach for his dead comrade’s sword, but before he could Hayyel jabbed his sword into his stomach.
The second Guardian gasped in pain, but managed to gasp out a prayer
“Lord God, the traitor of heaven, Lucifer is escap…”
That was all he had time to say before Hayyel swiftly cut off his head
Ariel lightly stepped over the trio of corpses and deftly pushed open the door. It was very dark inside, and as she walked in, the smell of dried and peeling blood assaulted her, making the stench of the tortures outside seem trivial in comparison.
It was almost as if Ariel could taste the agony and torture Lucifer had suffered for millions of years. Now he lay on the floor, chained down and hunched over, asleep, his back and arms bearing the scars of tortures long ago. Lying on the floor, just out of Lucifer’s reach, were an assortment of torture weapons, from spiked whips to beating clubs. You could almost see where the glowing hot brands had been laid on his back, and where the tip of a razor whip had struck. Ariel walked forward to the hunched prisoner. She touched the chains lightly and chanted “Exsisto Solvo Eximo Adflic” and the chains started glowing extremely bright. Ariel turned to the other Angels, her eyes urgent.
“Hurry, Cathetel and Orifiel, grasp the chains and utter the prayers of freedom and escape, as I instructed you”
Cathetel and Orifiel hurried and grasped Lucifer’s chains with one hand, and raised their free hand into the sky
“Licenta, Liberum!”
“Elabor, Pretero!”
The chains glowed even brighter in the gloom, and started to fray and rust at the edges. Ariel then spread her hands across the prisoner and whispered the final phrase in the freedom ritual
“Insurgo Quod Solvo Exsisto!”
The chains glowed with an intensity to match the stars, and suddenly they vanished.


The newly freed figure stirred and looked up with a mixture of suspicion and surprise, and stared open-mouthed at the Archangel who had freed him.
“Ariel… is that you?”
Ariel nodded and smiled
“Well, Lucifer, It has been a long time, hasn’t it?” Ariel said, and held out her hand to help Lucifer up.
Lucifer grabbed it and pulled himself up. He flashed a weak smile. “You’re one of the last Angel’s I would have expected to free me”
A look of confusion then crossed his face.
“How did you undo those chains? I spent the first few years of my imprisonment uttering Incantations of freedom, liberty, and escape, but none of them worked!”
Ariel smirked
“I am, or was the Lioness of God remember? I picked up a thing or two while serving at God’s side. I learned that those chains cannot be broken by any single Angel, no matter how powerful. Also no Demon or Fallen Angel can break these chains; they have not felt the power of Heaven in too long. It takes at least three Angels, who are untouched by Hell’s influences to break them. It’s the perfect prison for you Lucifer, for God and the other Archangels never thought anyone else would join you” Ariel smirked briefly “But it looks like they were wrong weren’t they?”
Ariel turned around and started towards the gate of the Lucifer’s former prison.
“Now, we should hurry up. One of the Guardian Angels had time to mutter a prayer to God before we killed him, and you can bet that an army of Angels are rushing to this prison to chain you up all over again”
Lucifer laughed for the first time since he was imprisoned, and flexed his wings, ready to fly. He felt power surge through his arms, and wisps of light started to fly around his hands. He felt as though he could do anything
“Let’s see them try” He said with a smile.