In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Spirit of God appeared, which had bubbled up from the murk and grime of a dimension most horrible. It floated like a massive collection of pure white fleshy rotund mounds into existence and reached out pieces of its mass to create the earth and waters within it. It flattened and fanned out its undulating grub-like body to create the heavens.

Animals of every kind were vomited from the pus it spewed from its hind section. Angels, vast in number and strikingly beautiful, created from spitting into the heavens with its mucus. The prototype of humanity drifted into existence when it shed its exoskeleton and was a fully formed creature, a giant larval collection of pure white bubbles.

This cluster squeezed itself together and formed a slender female form, many segmented eyes scanning the vast nothing. And God said, nothing, and there was a massive explosion in the universe, for the newly created angels were fighting amongst themselves. God saw that the light created from this was good, and it separated the light from the darkness. The darkness was created from the hearts of the angels still squabbling, as God moved to separate them. As punishment, the beautiful creatures were set to work, for forty days and forty nights for forty years. And God said, nothing once again, creating for itself a kingdom in the clouds. It tasked a thousand angels with building it’s kingdom on earth.

 Nine Hundred Years Later

“Can anyone tell me the name of the special group assigned by our beloved lord God in helping to create her Kingdom on earth?” A young boy stared attentively at the board at the front of his class, the sensei, a Virtue assigned to train the new young Axia hopefuls, a core God created to build life on Earth, stood at the front behind a podium. Every angel was separated from God at birth and taken by the older angels for training in flocks of schools. These school flocks traveled around heaven teaching the young angels the different ways of the angelic. They were also home educated and raised by caretaker angels known as Metflet, these were usually comprised of disgraced Second Sphere Fifth Rank Angels.

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Haniel

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This young angel’s Caretaker had died during a visit to earth a few weeks prior, so he lived alone and walked to school flock by himself every day. He was a bright student and frequently did everything he could to impress the teacher. He raised his hand, waving it around until the teacher, or sensei, affectionately known by the students as Miyuki-sensei, called on him.

“Yes Haniel?” The teacher said as the young boy spread his angel wings, tiny though they were, and flew over with some difficulty to land next to him. The little boy, his uniform blond hair disheveled from sleeping held up a crumpled piece of paper. His bright brown eyes shone as he happily recited from his paper, watching everyone in the class.

“The Axia Angels are a group of special angels, the majority are always those of the Third Sphere, Ninth Rank A few Powers, Virtues or even an Archangel thrown in as well. Only the ones God believes most capable of working the land and creating all the wonderful things for us on Earth in her new Kingdom. “ He paused for dramatic effect and the class leaned forward to listen closely, none of them speaking, all waiting for his next words.

“God hand picks these angels through a council of her Knights, mainly made up of The Seraphim, The Cherubim and the Thrones, whom are the angels that helped her create The Heaven. However, an angel if hard working enough, can become an apprentice knight to a Cherubim, who takes on three pupils, one for each head to teach a different lesson about the creator’s love for us!”  He puffed his little chest out as the class cheered, impressed by his presentation. 

All save one, who had piercing blue eyes, highlighted and speckled in golden flecks of amber.

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Dagiel

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“That’s not so great. So you know all the stuff about the Axia, big deal.” Dagiel said this with no real ill intent in his voice, he merely wanted to beat Gabriel to the punch of attempting to say something about his friend’s presentation. 

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Haniel

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Haniel knew this and frowned as Gabriel and his posse, two other young angels, Uriel and Cassiel went up to do their own presentation. Haniel pouted regardless and the teacher shook his head.

“Dagiel, don’t be so rude to Hani, he worked very hard to write down all that information, I think he did a great job” Frown in place, Haniel quickly went back to sit in his seat, the friendship between the young angel who’d spoken and the one being spoken to was never questioned even in moments like these. 

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Gabriel 

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Gabriel had gotten up to stand in the front of the class.

“I know who all the Angel Axia flock is, my caretaker is the personal attendant of Lucifer himself in The Heaven.” Gabriel stated this proudly as he pushed his followers to pull up a large piece of cardboard with the pictures of each of the Axia Angels on it, Gabriel standing alongside them.

“I met them all when my caretaker took me to Earth, yup I’ve been to earth!” He pointed at each picture, which showed up as holographic projections onto the cardboard from the bracelet on his wrist. “This is me and my Falla with Asta the Titan as he smashes rivers into existence. I helped him move a bunch of rocks!” The class gasped collectively, all except Dagiel who yawned and rolled his eyes.

“Who cares? The question was did anyone know them, not did anyone suck up to them. Go sit down you stupid wader.” Haniel watched as Dagiel spent his time insulting everyone’s presentation, no matter who went up, from the ever shy Lariel, to the boastful Samael, to Azrael who glared at him with maroon colored eyes of hate. The merangel picked at everyone, from Raziel who threw his hands up and grunted his own cerebral disturbance, to Azazel whose calm disposition didn’t warrant a reaction. He chuckled as Dag especially picked at Gabriel, poking him and with a witty comeback to his bitching.

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Omnipresent Narrator

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 Miyuki, the teacher, quickly walked over to Dagiel after he got up from his desk.

She limped over to her students desk and gave a frown, hands on his slim hips, Miyuki wanted to be part of the Axia, but during the physical exam training tests, he had snapped his leg and it had never healed right, The Mother would not help him, for when he gave up his duties as a Power to attempt to help the lower angels on Earth, she snubbed him as punishment. His wound never got proper care and no angel arch or otherwise was allowed to help, not even himself. He was demoted after failing the training due to this and became a Sensei in The Axia Angel Academy.

“Dagiel! Don’t use such swear words in my classroom! Gabriel is not a wader and I am more than certain that if he were a merangel he would be one of the finest, re-evaluate your words before you use them next time young Ninth Rank!!” The Omega Power’s voice crackled across the class like lightning from The Mother’s pus.  Gabriel pouted and glared at Dagiel, Uriel and Cassiel with matching glares alongside him.  Dagiel’s use of the term ‘wader’ as an insult was something used by other angels to insult merangels.  Haniel was watching this exchange, the fact that a merangel was turning the phrase around, was his way of calling Gabriel more worthless than one of his aquatic brethren simply floating along expecting things to be handed to them. Haniel smiled as he thought about the fact Dagiel was one of the many merangels that lived in The Heaven.

 I feel bad for Dag, his Metflet was imperfect and unable to apply for the Axia, like our teacher. He watched Dagiel from his seat, he had always admired the older Third Sphere, adored him just as long. But he kept his feelings locked away, for feeling anything other than love for The Mother was blasphemous and wrong, he firmly believed this. Haniel stared at Gabriel as the other young angel strutted away from the front of the class. Having gone back up to taunt another student, no one was amused by him in the least. His eyes shifted over to Dagiel, who was leaning over the edge of the special pool designed for merangels like him to stay hydrated.

The brown eyed angel watched Dagiel reach down into the circular dip of a pit in the classroom floor, the inside of it leading to a series of tunnels inside The Heaven that allowed mers to swim freely from place to place. The observation Haniel made, as a hand shot up to grab Dagiel’s arm, concluded that another merangel was entering the class. He watched Dagiel pull the other angel up out of the water, a long blond merangel tail flopping onto the classroom floor wetly confirmed this.

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Dagiel

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Dagiel smiled warmly as he stared at Salsa, a grin plastered on his face, the younger angel smirked back at him, he changed his tail to feet and legs. Dagiel felt his hand being grabbed as Salsa dragged him to the other side of the room, out of earshot of Hani and the others. Salsa grinned from ear to ear, holding up a wiggling dark blue starfish. “I got this from the Axia angels who just came back from Earth! Here... it’s for you, because I think it looks just as cute as you look” Dagiel smile softly at this, reaching to take it but he was stopped as the shorter angel grabbed his face and pulled his head down. The starfish was placed in his short blond locks and he could not help but grin back at the similar haired angel.

“I look, like a merangel with a starfish in his hair...” he giggled but the bubbly angel firmly shook his head.

“No, you look, like the prettiest merangel in the whole classflock...” Salsa was leaning into his ear, whispering this, Dagiel blushed fiercely. The moment was short lived for the teacher cleared his throat at the sight of them. They separated quickly, Salsa whispering something to Dagiel beforehand. Salsa dove back down into the pool after being reprimanded by the sensei that he was supposed to be in feeding time, lunch so to speak, before coming back to class. Dagiel sighed and tucked the starfish away in his aquatic school bag. He made sure Haniel could not see it as he did so.

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Haniel

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Seeing Dagiel and Salsa run off to the other end of the room had him slightly worried, but when the sensei got upset about it, he was really alerted. He had been ignoring the what to him was friendly exchange between his crush and their friend, until Miyuki-sensei cleared her throat. He looked up from his notes to see Salsa jump back from Dagiel as if he had been burned before diving into the pool. By the time Haniel turned around, Dagiel was right next to him. He smiled warmly at the object of his affections, wondering how he was ever going to tell Dagiel he liked him as much as he did.

The teacher looked at the class, “now let’s wrap up class by discussing the Spheres of power! What is the lowest rank in The Heaven?”

Haniel raised his hand “There are nine Spheres, and we are divided into ranks in these spheres. The lowest rank is angel, the highest order is the first sphere made up of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. The middle order is the second sphere made up of Dominions Virtues and Powers! The third and final sphere, the lowest order is the third sphere, Principalities Archangels and as I said, Angels”

Miyuki smiled and nodded, “very good Haniel!”

Once class was over everyone packed up to leave for the day, Haniel reached his home just as a paperboy angel darted past.

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Palace being built on Earth!”  He grabbed the paper as it fell in front of his golden dome like apartment home. He walked inside and sat down at his desk. Golden ball shaped school bag over his shoulder. He set it down on the floor once he slid it off.  The young angel then studied the paper. The front cover was the three main Axia Angels, the first ones ever to step foot on Earth. Lucifer, Asta and Maze, cropped blond hair uniform and similar. He grinned at their smiling faces as they stood arm in arm in front of the construction site of God’s palace on Earth.

Haniel pinned the picture from the paper on his wall and climbed into his bed. As he laid there, he thought about the fact Axia angels were supposed to be perfect, which was why Miyuki-sensei wasn’t able to go even though he knew she’d applied. She was lame in one foot and that was unacceptable, imprefections were an automatic disqualifer. Haniel’s bed, like every other angel’s was a golden tube shape with crisp white sheets and a white pillow. Haniel carried on going to school flock and going home, hanging out with Dagiel every chance he got. He continued to idolize the Axia angels and the years passed by slowly.