Preface

Preface

For centuries the two worlds have raged wars against each other, one seeking to destroy and overtake, whilst the other simply would fend off the opposing side, wishing only to keep peace. Of course this is the ongoing tale of the battle betwixt Heaven and Hell. Creator of Hell, The Dark Lord, Lucifer handed over ownership to his First General, Satan. Under this new ruling, the idea to overthrow Heaven was concocted. Satan sought to overthrow Heaven by using a strong enough vessel to create an Anti-Christ in the world of the living, a realm directly in between Heaven and Hell. With this new powerful seed of evil, Satan would have a new seat of power. Not only this, but he would use this new child in a new war of which his new forces would be unstoppable.

Many years spent the Malicious General, searching for one who would be fit to become the bearer of his malevolent seed of corruption. It was only when his First General, Satan now being the overall ruler, Beelzebub, brought to him a perfect woman to take on his task. Someone of a direct lineage to whom was said to be the first woman in existence, Eve. This new descendant, present day Eve would be the one to bring forth the Anti-Christ. This was what is known as ‘The Dark Plan’.

A Malakhim, the lowest order of Angels and most familiar to mortals, known as Sven, fell pray to the sin known as Envy. Jealous of higher-ranking Angels around him, he was exiled from Heaven and cast down, damned to have his feet forever bound to Earth ground. Now Earthbound, Sven tried to gain his way back into Heaven. He recovered information of the Dark Plan from demons walking the world of the living, then passing it to another Malakhim still under the grace of God. Sven’s efforts were proven futile as he was killed soon after by these same demons as soon as word of his benevolent deed had gotten out.

Though not in vain, Sven’s passed on knowledge of this oncoming assault enabled Heaven to conjure a way to retaliate against Satan and prevent the birth of the Anti-Christ. The Virtues, Higher-Up Angels whose primary duties are to uphold order, devised a plan of their own of which they would act similarly to Satan. This plan involved the first man to ever be created, Adam. The plan was to use Adam to protect Eve from being abducted by Satan’s forces. This would prevent Satan from being able to violate her body as well as forcefully bare his child.

A problem remained with this Divine plan of the Virtues. Current time Adam was now in his deathbed and had not passed on his legacy by giving birth to a male child. This meant that the direct line of the Firsts had been cut, ending with this Adam. Upon his arrival to Heaven, he was immediately informed by surrounding Virtues that it was he, a newly birthed Angel, who was destined to save Eve and all of Heaven itself. Reluctant at first, he later agreed to this answering with, “Hell…I’ve got nothing better to do.” This no doubt, made the Virtues somewhat uneasy about leaving their fate in this new Angels hands, but fate had already chosen him. And so he set off to find present day Eve and fulfill what he was destined to do. This is the fated story of Ceras Eve and Ralick Adam…

Episode 1: The Boy The Girl and the ‘Inbetween’

Present day, Wednesday, 6:16 June 6. The sun illuminated the skies as the clouds parted, sending an angelic opening as a result. Through these parted clouds in the sunlit wave darted the figure of a rookie Angel, his rank still yet to be deemed, Ralick Adam. Cloaked in white robes, his raven-hued hair flowed out from beneath his hood and against his shoulders. The outer linings of his hood were a dull golden color, giving his attire an even more angelic feel. Printed on the back of his robes in the direct center of his back was a large black feather, contrasting with his overall clothes, but just as well set rather nicely. From each of his shoulder blades flapped its respected wing, marvelously feathered in a milky white coat that could only be defined as ‘Holy’.

He flew in a downward spiral like a swirling bullet. Not by choice however, it was simply that he had not yet fully learned mastery of Angelic Flight. He swirled around trying to maintain a steady balance, but with each flap one wing would apply more pressure and once again cause him to become misguided, “Damnit! Why can’t I get this flying thing down?! Maybe if I slow down a bit…” With that he slowed down some, both wings moving at a slower pace. So slow in fact that he was unknowingly falling instead of flying down. As his downward freefall began to speed up Ralick noticed what was taking place, “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Now flapping furiously, he was only a mere hundred feet above the ground at this point. The muscles in his back, of which maneuvered the wings, relaxed a bit as Ralick hovered in place and began reaching into his robes in search of something, “Where is it…not there. Got it.” He pulled out a small photo with the image of a girl. The picture oddly seemed rather new. The girl looked as though she was around the approximate age of eighteen, long raven tresses that rivaled Ralicks draped down past her breast and halted above naval point. Ralick tuned it over and read the name on the back aloud, “Ceras Eve…”

Down below, several feet below Ralick, sat a girl. Dressed in a silk black dress of the Gothic Lolita fashion, a black matching hat rested on her head. The hat seemed a few sizes to small as it rested only on the left side of her head, but it somehow still seemed in place. Like her dress, the lower rim of the hat was colored in white. The girl’s hair branched out, returning at her collar, her long bangs were combed forward and rolled as they stopped just before her eyes. The overall style resembled a ‘Bowl Cut’ or a helmet hair look. Her hair contrasted in color as it left the center of her skull. The left side of her hair was long and dark like coal whilst the right opposed this completely by being of an off-white coloring. Set on her back was a pair of wings. These too differed greatly. Her left and apparently her dark side had an eerie demonic wing, reminiscent of a bat, while the right contrasted yet again by taking the angelic route.

She sat somewhat irritated on the edging of a small border around a memorial pond. At the center of the memorial was a large statue of a woman. The girl’s eyes left from person to person, all of which were male as she mumbled to herself, “Ugly…ugly…not even if I was intoxicated…not even if you slipped me a roofy…there aren't enough drugs or alcohol or a combination of the two in the world for you. Ugh! Why are all the men here so repulsive?!” It was blatantly clear as to what she was doing; scaling each boy up and determining whether she would be willing to date them or not. A gentle breeze turned swift caused her hat to fall from her head to the floor, and then proceeded to be carried off into the street, “No! Come back!” The girl cried as she ran off after it. A large van darted off around the corner and into the main street where the hat resided and was well on its way to running it over. The girl now looked as if the worst thing that could possibly happen was about to do just that.

Ralick, who had been watching the whole ordeal, spread his wings to their full span and shot down to the streets. Finally figuring out flight, he spun his body to avoid the van as he snatched the fallen hat from the floor, “Now to make it seem as if it was only the wind that carried it back over.” In order to prevent the humans of the living world from breaking out into mass panic, Ralick moved in a rhythmic pattern close to the floor to create the illusion that the wind had blown the hat back. He placed it on the floor in front of the girl then sat on the edging of the pond near her previous seat.

The girl happily picked up her hat and hurried back to the edge of the pond. After placing it on her head, she leaned over, puckered her lips and kissed Ralick’s cheek, “Thank you so much! My favorite hat was almost ruined!”

Ralick’s eyes widened. Not only could this girl see him, an angel who was invisible to those in the living world, she was talking to him and went so far as to kiss him. He jumped back in shock and almost fell into the pond, “Y-you can see me?! How?!” His eyes slowly led themselves to the wings on her back, “Those…They’re real? I thought it was simply cosplay or something. But, that dark wing means you can’t be an angel. Maybe…” Ralick looked her over, searching for some evidence to prove his thoughts to be true. The girl didn’t speak a word, simply smiling contently as if happy Ralick was addressing her. Ralick stood behind the cheerful teen and lifted the back of her hair up to expose her neck. He grinned as he found what he was looking for. On the base of her neck was a symbol, a circle with two arrows, one arrow at the top pointing north and the one at the bottom pointing south. This was the mark of the Inbetweens, “Ha! I thought so. You’re an inbetween. Weird, I never heard of one with wings before. I thought you guys just looked liked normal people. Even though my information is sort of limited…”

The girl smiled and pulled a book out a small black book from a black almost purse-like bag she had been carrying. The book had no title or any trace of ever having one, “An inbetween? I’ve read that in here somewhere. Inbetween…Inbetween...Ah, right here.” She pointed to the page and read the text aloud, “An Inbetween, One who has died and has yet to undergo trail to be placed in neither Heaven nor Hell. One placed in ‘Limbo’. An inbetween may be converted to either side depending on he situation. Inbetweens may not move on to Heaven or Hell without being converted to a side. Every Inbetween bares the mark of the Inbetweens, a circle with two pronged arrows, one aimed at the Heavens and the other to Hell. The circle at the center represents their current locations, in between the two worlds, hence the name,‘Inbetween’. ” She stopped reading and looked up at Ralick, “Oh. I’m Mina, Mina Valence. And you are…?” As she inquired as to who he was she moved her body close to him, her body leaned against his shoulder as she gazed up at him. It seemed as though she had found someone who fit her tastes.

Ralick looked down at her, obviously perplexed by her sudden clinginess to him, “Oh. Sorry, I’m Ralick Adam. Oh! I’m looking for this girl, have you seen her?” Ralick held up the picture of Ceras, handing it over to Mina.

Mina let out a sharp gasp, “Oh! Oh! I know her! She goes to the school not to far from here! Actually, she should be getting here so- Look!” Mina pointed to a girl in a crowd of teenage students. Sure enough, it was Ceras. She was dressed in the typical school uniform, blue shirt and the matching skirt, as were numerous girls around her. Mina prodded Ralick’s side lightly, “So, how do you intend on talking to her, Ral?”

“Like this.” Ralick flexed his arms; causing his wings to retract into his back, at the same time his body illuminated giving off a violent yellow glow. Mina stepped back and shielded her eyes with her hat to keep from going blind. The light died out and Ralick stood in place wearing a male school uniform. People in the surrounding area flinched quickly, caught off guard by Ralick’s sudden appearance as they could now see him. Ralick smirked to Mina, “If you don’t hurry…we’ll be late for school.”