Prologue: Dissatisfied Angel

I don't like it up here. Angel 51 said that it would be better up here than down there, but I don't well understand why. They're all the same rotten people, the same rotten attitudes, the same rotten habits. When someone is a know-it-all, or even appears to be slightly smarter than the rest, they either get promoted to another rank and be hated, or are forced to conceal their talent and be hated.

Which is how I got into this situation.

Powers developed to the point of ridiculousness because it was the only thing I could do while waiting for the rumors that I had slain my mentor angel, Angel 51 & 51.1, simultaneously. Wings small and underdeveloped (and therefore child-like height) because of lack of trust in others. Homeless because of the isolation within any barracks I join. Uncontrolled mind because of the rejection of unity with other minds.

Similar thoughts ran through my head as I looked down, down, down at the Underworld below my feet. Angels fell from unstable clouds all the time; no one would think anything of it. Some even made it a contest to see how low one could go without breaking the barrier between the Overworld and the Underworld. But angels let out onto unstable clouds were always tested to have at least Level 3 magic capabilities, which usually meant that their wings were developed. A loophole that no one bothered checking. The cloud disintegrated and reformed at my touch. All angels were performing their daily morning prayer, so none but the most important would dare miss it.

A white cloud circled below me, like a fragile safety net. I suppose that if I still possessed a completely solid body, my heart would be beating twice its normal rate right now. I folded my wings as I angled myself downward toward the world I was told to never directly interact with until later on in my training.

But you never get something for nothing.

Even if all angels assembled for morning prayer, I would never get through the barrier without giving up a part of me in return for breaking rules. It was a price many had to pay, and unless one Fell, the barrier would alert the Apostles and rescue the falling Angel.

I did not even hesitate to give it up.

My mind drew a blank at first of what I was doing, but then I slipped out a paper from my pocket with the words, "You are free now" inscribed on it in my own blood. A faint smile tugged at my lips.

My wings wrapped around me, sealed in a magical cocoon as if I really was a normal angel. So it was not even with a goodbye that I came blasting through the red-hot protector of the Earth in the dawn of the morning almost faster than the sun's rays.