“I’m being transferred?” Astrael stared in disbelief. How could he—one of the highest-performing angels in creation—be sent to be a mere patrol angel?

  This has got to be a joke.

  Those Throne bastards. He'd consistently finished examinations with a 97% success rate.

  “Oh hey, I’m being sent to the Extermination Unit?”

  And that’s when the real irritant showed up—

  Fucking Tetriel.

  “Here go gloat tetriel?” Astrael glared at him “I never expected you to actually bribe the thrones with an apple from the world tree”

  “Well Astrael, that's quite an accusation, i'm sure you’ll find i did no such thing. It must simply be the result of my merit”

  “We both know i get double your marks in every examination”

  “Guess marks don’t matter in everything then, as-tra-el” He stretched the name just to twist the knife.

  Astrael stepped forward, wings flicking with irritation. “You think you’re clever, don’t you?” “I know I’m clever.”

  Tetriel didn’t back down. He tilted his head, that condescending calm still plastered on his face.

  “And clearly, the Thrones agree.”

  That did it. Astrael’s fist collided with Tetriel’s jaw, sending him stumbling a few feet back. The crack echoed off the marble walls like thunder. Tetriel touched his lip, saw the silver blood on his fingers—and smiled. “Oh, finally. I was getting bored.” He lunged. Wings flared. Grace flared brighter. The hallway lit up in flashes of white and gold as they collided, blades forming in mid-air, forgotten protocol shattering around them. This wasn’t a duel. This was personal.

  “You two. Stop this nonsense.” The voice boomed down the marble hall like a thunderclap wrapped in judgment.

  It was him.

  Metatron.

  “If I have to break up another fight between you two, you might as well relearn how wrath is a sin.” His eyes blazed with restrained fury, and his wings were already half-unfurled—a silent warning. “You have your duties now fulfill them, regardless of what they are” he mentioned, giving Astrael a side eye. “Now go grab your judgements and go”

  Ugh, this day gets better and better

  Astrael couldn’t help but seethe as he went to the Celestial Forge to pick up his armament, a mere knife, fashioned in a human style, similar to a combat blade, just made of something more divine.

  He couldn’t help but storm out of the workshop, seeing other, less qualified celestials, receive proper Heaven Steel Blades and spears.

  His wings shifted, the familiar rhythm of flight now tainted with irritation. Walking towards the gate of descension, every step felt like a betrayal. A patrol angel? The thought still pierced his side.

  He passed through the gates, walking past celestial workers who barely looked up from their tasks. The sight of lesser angels, the ones still striving for their place, only fueled his anger. Some of them looked at him with curiosity, others with pity. He hated it.

  His path led him out into the vast sky of Heaven, where the air shimmered with eternal light. Below, the world stretched endlessly—untouched, pure, a realm waiting for judgment. This was where he was supposed to be. Not stuck in some mundane task.

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  As he descended toward the designated area, his hand gripped the hilt of his knife—the only weapon he was given. A knife. Not a sword of Heaven Steel, not a blade that had been forged to cut through the very fabric of sin. Just a dull, human-like tool.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of his new mentor, a medium-ranking angel with pure eyes and confident wings. “Astrael huh, how the hell do i pronounce that one, whatever, what's your actual name”

  “You said it properl-”

  She interrupted him on the spot “not your angelic name dumbass, your actual name, we can’t be saying these heavenly names near humans, they’ll think we’re joking, but seeing how you act, maybe ass wor-”

  “Shut up” His patience waned, but he didn’t dare do anything stupid, his mentor was at least a seraphim in power.

  “You know how vessels work right? We find a guy, see if hes interested in god’s holy light and then we basically keep him in a suspended state of animation for a month?”

  “You mean we suppress their personality by slightly damaging their frontal l-”

  “Yeah you get the drill, lets get one”

  “The celestial forge already provided me with a vessel, you know? Its the academy policy”

  “Then warp to central idaho and lets get a case done”

  “Fine,” he muttered, activating his wings. “Idaho it is. Let’s get this over with. By the way is there anything i should know before i use the-”

  Before he could finish his sentence, his mentor had already pushed him off the gate, the world rushed to meet him, he rapidly descended from space, past the Karman Line, heat brushing past him, burning his skin as he fell, the only difference from actually falling from heaven was he had his wings to protect him, guiding him all the way to wherever his mentor wanted him to go.

  He gracefully landed in a farm, using his wings to slow his descent..before his mentor crashed next to him, causing rings and a crater to form.

  “I see you got here on your own” she brushed herself off

  “You couldn’t have just flown us here? Its policy for graduates to not fly to the mortal world for the first 3 months of their graduation”

  “You’re a top scorer, i'm sure you’ll be fine”

  “Ma’am, you never even told me your name, where the hell are we, why the hell are we here”

  “Ah… right” she shook her head, running her hands through her blond hair “Seraphael, but call me Sera, nice to meet you, Asstriel. We’re here because we heard a case of ghouls terrorising people”

  “Ghouls? Isn’t that a job for human hunters? I thought we hunted demons?”

  “Oh you sweet summer child, demon hunting is for exterminators and grigori, we’re just a couple patrols this is what we do, hunt minor monsters and demons, in human terms, we’re just cops while demon hunting is for swat. But as i was saying, ghouls, 2? Maybe 3? Reports say they tore up a human and left his corpse flayed across the town square, organs were all basically eaten too”

  “Why do we need you if its just ghouls, they can’t hurt angels true forms”

  “You really want your vessel, your only method of acting down here mind you, destroyed?”

  “I see your point ma’am, anything else?”

  “Ah yeah actually, follow me and follow what i do and say”

  As they approached the town, the air seemed to grow heavier, the once-peaceful rural landscape now tinged with an unsettling energy. The scent of decay lingered in the air. Astrael’s fingers grazed the hilt of his knife. This was a far cry from the high-stakes battles he was used to. But he couldn’t afford to show weakness, especially not with Seraphiel at his side, he’d just be asking to be sent back to the academy if he fucked up on day one.

  “Ah, right, so now we head to the police,” Seraphiel said, glancing back at Astrael. “You can’t just march in and start using your divine authority. Humans still have their own systems.” She raised a finger, emphasizing the point. “And we’re supposed to work with them, not above them.if you act like an angel, they’ll think you’re insane, and don’t bother flapping those wings, thats just asking for heaven to be uncovered”

  They approached the sheriff’s office, a squat little building that had clearly been patched up more times than it was cleaned. The fluorescent lights flickered as they stepped inside, where a tired-looking sheriff sat behind a desk, sipping a black coffee.

  He instantly leaped to his feet seeing them, wary of the newcomers

  “Who might you folks be, you lost? Never seen you out here”

  Seraphiel stepped forward, flipping a small black wallet with an engraved sigil—some made-up government logo. “Not exactly, we’re from the FBI, I’m special agent-in-charge Sera Kendall, this is field agent Astra Quinn, we’re here for the Ashford square case”

  The sheriff raised his eyebrows, silently cocking a revolver underneath his desk. “FBI? One of you looks straight out of university”

  “I assure you, we’re from the FBI, Mr Jason Brown” Astrael stepped forward, speaking confidently. “How else could we know about this”

  “Fine, the hell do you folks need” The sheriff responded, facing down at his old dusty computer, ready to get anything to get the pair out of the place.

  Seraphiel leaned forward, just enough to assert herself without looking like a threat. “We’re with the Behavioral Analysis Division—subunit 9C. Cross-agency cooperation. Your report flagged a few markers we’re… familiar with.”

  Jason Brown narrowed his eyes. “Yeah? The hell kinda markers are we talking about?”

  “Let’s start with the condition of the body,” Astrael said, keeping his voice even. “Missing organs, flayed skin, zero blood on-site. Not exactly your average mauling, is it?”

  The sheriff paused, his fingers hovering above his keyboard. “Yeah… well, that’s one way to put it.”

  Sera took over again, casually scanning the wall of old case files behind him. “And we heard this isn’t the first. The files don’t reflect it, but we’ve got matching patterns from Redmond, two towns over.”

  Jason let out a sharp breath. “You think we’ve got a serial?”

  “We think,” Astrael said slowly, “you’ve got something worse.”