The soul processing hall was quiet. Its wide and long space was filled with a gentle light that filtered through windows high along the walls. The light was not bright and only at the far end of the room was there a noticeable circle where several figures were floating before a series of desks and tables. Above them hovered a glowing orb that spread a brighter light to facilitate their work. The rest of the vast space was dimmed and several shadows cast across empty workspaces. Even within the Celestial heights, there was downtime, a skeleton crew working to cleanse and prepare souls for archiving or recycling.

One of the figures appeared as a human male, chiseled facial features with shining blond hair. A glowing radiance surrounded him and bright white feathers adorned the wings that fluttered upon his back, he was an angel, tasked with supervising the shift. The other two figures were humanoid but had no features to speak of, instead, they appeared hazy and indistinct with a white glow kept close to their frame. These were Soulettes, simple beings created to cleanse souls received from the mortal planes and sort them for rebirth, slotting them into awaiting storage containers where they would be taken to the appropriate plane guardians for further processing.

Unseen and unnoticed by the figures, there were slight fluctuations among the shadows at the far corner of the hall. At first, there was but a single flicker. A moment longer and that single flicker was joined by more, like a ripple on the surface of a pond, the shadows gently swayed toward the three.

"Soneros, is your team ready with the distraction?"  Tholgrammas, a shadow demon currently hiding in the shadows sent a telepathic message to an imp that was currently outside the hall. 

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"We are ready! Oh this is going to be fun, we are going to be lighting some little....well.... big birdies on fire. Then we are going to get the hell out of here! On your say, we'll give you three... no... two... minutes!" Soneros excitedly replied.

"Three minutes. If this goes wrong. I'll flay you. Find you. Flay you until I get bored." Tholgrammas grunted. He quickly sent a message to his own small group of fellow shadow demons to prepare themselves. "Do it." He sent the message. 

Outside the hall they could hear the sudden burst of fireballs and taunts. The angel in front of them turned, the other two figures did not stop their work. While the angel was moving toward the distraction the shadows suddenly leapt and five darkened shadows turned into black figures that darted toward the two Soulettes. 

Tholgrammas rushed the angel, pulling out two long thin daggers and jumped. Two of the shadow demons reached the two Soulettes and tackled them to the ground, sparks of light and shadow rising from them as they rolled. The remaining shadows reached toward the containers of souls and swiped the containers and well as any loose souls on the table. The angel, swinging a sword from his hip to deflect the daggers shouted, a ringing clarion that rose to the air and shimmered, causing the light to slowly brighten. The fireballs outside suddenly stopped and loud popping noises of teleportation displaced the air. 

"Retreat." Tholgrammas shouted.

"Stop!" The angel cried.

The shadows disengaged and turned, blinking toward the quickly dissipating shadows of the room. With soft wisps of sound, each disappeared as their form hit the inky darkness.