I can't remember much before I woke up and was immediately faced with blinding white, a very uncomfortable white gown, and a new feeling coming from my upper back. I heard people crying and calling for someone to open their eyes before I woke.

"IFECHI! Biko meghee anya gi"

"My apologies; I have no way of turning it off. Anyway, this is Heaven; you have my welcome. Here, you'll be assigned a triad and rank. I'll explain the triads and the ranks within them. There's the first triad, which answers God directly. The ranks within this triad are the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones. The second triad are the ones who carry out God's plan throughout the universe. The ranks in this triad are the Dominions, the Virtues, and the Powers. Finally, in the third triad, these angels interact and serve humanity. This triad's ranks are as follows: the Principals, the Archangels, and the Angels."

"Wait. I thought the Archangels were the most powerful, right after God. Why are they in the third triad and not the first?" "Yes, they should be in the first triad under normal circumstances. But they are still tasked with interacting with mortals. Make no mistake, they are more powerful than the way they were depicted in your stories. But now that you have knowledge of our ranks, it's time to be assigned yours. Good luck."

I had no time to be excited that I was in heaven or sad that I had passed away, leaving those who cared for me behind. I was enveloped in a flame that I thought for sure would burn me, but instead what I felt was power.

“This feels… so bright” The flame finally died, revealing that I now had a halo over my head. I turned to the figure of light, waiting for a clearer explanation of what happened. But what I saw was a look of sadness and pity.

 "A regular angel in the third triad. I'm sorry; even hell would have been better than what you're about to go through." A feeling of dread suddenly came over me. For an angel to say this, how bad could my rank have been for them to say this?

I wish I hadn't been so naive...

As I walked through the pearly-white gates, I thought I would have been greeted with angels flying and singing hymns to God. What I saw still shakes me to my core to this day. I saw dark clouds hanging over the sky, blocking most of the sunlight. 

Buildings that I could have only imagined the beauty of were either already destroyed or collapsing. There were angels covered in dirt and blood, jagged wounds were littered across their bodies that had already started rotting. The smell overwhelmed me and I lost my balance. How could they have died? Aren't we already dead? What happens if you die again? Are you just gone forever?

These were the thoughts circling my mind before the words of one of the still-living angels snapped me out. Their eyes stared at me lifelessly, and a small grin formed on their face as they spoke.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Yet another third triad? And a regular angel at that. I feel bad for you. You died once already, only to die again later. Tell me child, what's your name?”

“I'm Ihechi, no last name, or at least, that I remember”

Well ihechi, because you're new, I'll give you a bit of advice, one poor soul to another. Do your best not to die. If you die up here that's it, your soul is lost forever."

'Gone? Just like that? There's no way. How does that happen? If we're just souls, shouldn't we be immortal? But the way he says it makes it seem like that's common knowledge.

"You're probably thinking, 'There's no way' right? I don't blame you. This only happened a few years ago, but still, no one knows the reason. Take a look over there. You see that sign?"

"Third triad healer district..."

"The ground you tread was once a lively district with thousands of angels that were essentially a huge family. Everybody knew each other, and those who were new were welcomed with open arms—an ever-growing family.” The angel smiled, reminiscing.

“We were all non-combat angels, but we were still taught self-defense if the time came for us to fight. We never thought we would have to fight at all.”

“Until the unexpected happened…”

“It was a normal day; I was going about my day when I saw it on the roof of a building. It was in the glare of the sun, so I couldn't tell who it was. I thought it was just another angel until my eyes adjusted. That bloodthirsty grin—it was only a second later that I noticed-"

"Well, what do we have here?" 

Ihechi and the angel froze. It felt like an unbearable weight had been placed on their heads. They hadn't even felt the presence of what was behind them until just now.

"I thought I had wiped this area out already. I missed a few. Sorry to leave you out of the fun. I'll make this long and painful."

Ihechi didn't even have the time to register what had happened. His vision was blurry, and all he could feel was pain coming from his back and chest. He had been embedded in the side of a broken building. He felt something rising through his throat as a glob of blood flew from his mouth.

'What just happened? Wasn't I standing over there a second ago?'

Ihechi's vision cleared up enough for him to see the look on the other angel's face. A look of fear and rage. That was when he saw the other person where he previously was. It was dark, blood-red, with black horns curling up and around the back of his head. This thing's grin was much worse than what the other angel had described. It sent chills down Ihechi's back.

"Ihechi, that's it, that's the bastard that massacred everyone here, it's a Pride Devil!"

Ihechi could only barely pull himself out with the help of his wings. His whole body was in pain that was subsiding but still made it difficult to move.

"Aw, thanks for the kind word's big guy. Tell you what, I'll give you the honor of front-row seats as I kill this one."

Ihechi was sweating bullets at this point. He could barely move and the devil was taking its sweet time to get to him. 

‘The weight behind that hit, it's absurd. I’m sure if I was still human that would have killed me on contact. One more of those hits and I’m done for. Is this really how I go out?’

“Hey, not gonna lie, I thought you would be on the ground, shaking, begging me for mercy. Most people do that when they're about to be killed, or are you just too shocked to speak?”

The demon was so focused on mocking Ihechi that he didn’t notice the particles of light starting to converge around him. 

“Well, that's fine I guess, your dying either way.”

The demon had already reached Ihechi and was rearing the punch that would take him out for good. At that moment time seemed to slow for Ihechi. The particles of light that had previously only been specks and unnoticed, were now converging around Ihechi at a rapid pace, forming a jagged, flat shape, akin to a battle-worn shield.

The demon had already thrown his punch by the time the shield finished forming, yet despite the power it had shown before, its blow bounced off the shield, the latter showing no signs of damage.

The demon let out a grunt of pain as it looked down at its hand, completely broken. The demon didn't look too worried as its hand snapped back into place with a sickening crunch.

“So the little angel has tricks, huh? Not sure how you were able to materialize light,

but it makes no difference. I'll break through it and tear you to shreds!”