“No, Chris, don’t! Let – let me see god! I need to speak to him! Where- where’s he? This is all a mistake … I – I can explain myself!” Dante knelt weakly on the clouds, his lips caked with dried blood.

“Traitor. There is no need for explanation. God will not see you. The charred wing on your back is evidence of your contract with the devils.” The angel whom he called Chris replied coldly and then took a step forward. A second three-winged angel partook together in the banishing of Dante from heaven.

“No – no, I can expl-” But the ritual had already begun.

“Goodbye, Dante.” Chris murmured as he summoned a flaming claymore which materialized within his fingers. “We were friends once and I can’t say I won’t be missing you.”

“Let me explain!” Dante screeched. “I can! I can! I’m innocent! I’ve done nothing wrong! I’ve helped the Lord fight with all I could! I am loyal!”

“This is the Lord’s will. If you claim to be loyal, obey it.”

Chris stared down at Dante’s dark shaking figure. The formal Seraphim had only two wings left, the third charred to its roots. The remaining two wings were a dark crimson, very much in contrast to the snowy white wings of Chris and his companion guard.

“Will you obey the Lord’s will?” Chris repeated.

Dante wiped at his bloody face, the blood both of his own and of others. The fallen Seraphim bit his lips and glanced up nervously to the towering figures of Chris and the other Seraphim guard.

“I – I will.”

Chris nodded. “I am glad, Dante. Your conscience is clean. Yet the Lord is never wrong in his decisions. I am sorry.” The three-winged Seraphim raised his claymore and lay the blade onto Dante’s scalp, the cold blunt edge pressing firmly against the fallen Seraphim’s forehead. “Goodbye.” Chris whispered.

The silver halo hovering above Dante’s head instantly lost its holy glamour and Dante was no longer bathed in its aura. The halo clattered silently to the floor and shattered into numerous shards. Dante stared down at these shards and suddenly flung his neck forth, his face raised to the sky.

And then the fallen Seraphim howled a cry so sorrowful that it brought Chris to the verge of tears.