— A Few Days Before Expulsion from Eden —
Why can't they all see it? Lucifer thought, looking high to the sky above.
Night came over the Garden of Eden, with all the angels asleep within the domain to their respective keeps.
All except for Lucifer, who gazed up into the endless cosmos, resting atop a boulder with his wings outstretched across it. The ocean of stars gave the shimmering moon a background, lighting the hollow darkness that sat overhead.
Lucifer wondered how long it took the gods to create such a serene gem.
Part of his view of the starry heaven was clouded by the leaves of the Great Tree he so vehemently told to guard. Once he noticed its shadow, his attention shifted from his pensive wonder back to his growing rage over the stance many of his kin took against his ideology.
Why does no one else feel the way I do? Why don't they want more? So see the ends of power and push it to a level that not even the gods couldn't reach?
Could his thinking be flawed?
No—that couldn't be. They all were perfect in every way—he was perfect just like everyone else. His thinking couldn't be off; there was no conceivable way his understanding could be flawed. Yet, whenever he would explain to someone like Gabriel or Raphael, he would gain the same answer every time.
This is something that is a test of my mettle, and as a Virtue, you are to overcome this hubris.
Lucifer's thoughts grew more fervent as his recollections focused more on this similar answer that every Virtue seemed to give him. He lost control of his powers, pulling some of the green colour from the plants under the night sky, fading them to a more yellowish shade of luster.
The only test that is in front of me is my resilience in the face of the incompetence and mediocre way of thinking that my kin hold. To think they would be complacent with this life, even after all I've tried to show them. We are deserving of something truly befitting not only our status but the power we have. He thought.
Hmmm…Perhaps you have a point, Lucifer.
A voice with youth-like maturity in tone entered Lucifer's in his mind, snapping him from his chain of thought.
He looked around for the source of the voice to no avail. He considered whether it was just his subconscious playing tricks on him.
But as he thought against such things, the air above his head rippled. He looked up to hear the warp! of the ripples, before a bright white light shone out across the sky.
The Darkness retreated in fear of the light that was taking over the world. Lucifer was left to wonder if Day was encroaching on the domain of Night.
From the white, The Son made himself known, his full visage in front of Lucifer on display. The Spirit followed behind as the two divine beings hovered in the air above Lucifer.
The Son dressed in clothing similar to all angels, black on one side while the other was a pristine white, matching the dual nature of his hair and eyes. The Spirit was fully radiated, not a speck of darkness able to be found, with eight wings glued to his back.
What–I–? Lucifer thought.
"You need not be afraid; you have thought nothing wrong," The Son told him, while the Spirit floated down to him, examining Lucifer closely.
"You know, Gabriel has always pleased me somewhat more than the others we've shaped, but I suppose my brother has reason to see you as the light of his eye," The Spirit said, before floating back up to the Son.
"I don't understand—."
"I know you wonder a lot of things right now, how all the other angels stay asleep while you see as clear as day—how and why we stand before you…For all intents and purposes, we shouldn't be sullying ourselves to come from our realm to deal with you."
The Son then continued, glancing at his rings on each of his fingers, "But I suppose this would be better than simply summoning all the Virtues and then telling them what it is we have planned for you twelve, and the rest of your guilds," .
"What do you mean?" Lucifer asked.
"I mean, Eden is no longer yours—for any of the angels. The Lands outside known as Paradioso-Chutz will be the new realms to your keepings—you wanted to create like we can? I respect that want. It shows me that you yearn for more than just a meaningless, lukewarm purpose. Something I approve of."
The Spirit continued the previous statement.
"In doing so, however, if you wish for your dream to be fulfilled, something must be given up in return. Eden will be stripped of all angels. The Virtues will serve as Leaders for each clan, and the strongest amongst them will reclaim Eden as a prize."
"The strongest…?" Lucifer asked, "By strongest, do you mean—?"
"A war for Eden—The Strongest Virtue and their clan will become the leader of Eden—The work done by the angels is below our standards, and we realize why that is the case," The Son said, "Because there is no concrete, indistinguishable ruling commander of the Garden we built. We'll rectify that now, in a holy fashion befitting your power."
"And each virtue will gain weapons of chaos to do so," The Spirit told him, "And you're the lucky first amongst them. Fancy that, Lucifer Morningstar, Virtue of Modesty."
Lucifer couldn't believe his ears. The thought of divine war was barely registering in his brain. War and Chaos were concepts not known by him—they were things that angels needed not to concern themselves with.
His dumbfounded facial expression caused a bit of malicious joy to present itself on The Son's face as he manifested a jet-black sword with a blade edge so large that it doubled the size of Lucifer. The fuller was inscribed with Insignias of unknown origin, with a hilt of large proportions–—twice an arm's length in size.
"As the first Divine Weapon that has ever been created, and you are my favourite amongst the Angels, I will give you the ability to name this weapon. The one and only divine weapon to be named by an Angel."
The idea of war was still coursing through Lucifer's mind. The idea was something new and terrifying to think about, but it enticed his imagination to run wild with curiosity.
He could feel the energy coursing off the weapon, the blade almost screaming out for him to take it. It wanted Lucifer to wield its edge, so he would create a world—or even an Eden—in his own perfect image.
Lucifer reached for the weapon. The Son pulled his hand back. The angel was confused by the gesture from the Son.
But after the god slowly built a smile upon his face, Lucifer knew what it was that he wanted. Lucifer thought for a moment, understanding that with his next words he would inadvertently be spelling the greatest calamity that would be birth on the angels.
A covenant of bloodshed, with revenge at its core. A world filled with holiness that reeked with the smell of blood. Virtue against Virtue, angel against angel. A perfect entertainment for the beings standing in front of him. A perfect divine chaos.
"Its name shall be Pandemonium," Lucifer said, with a dark and harrowing tone of malice ingrained in it.
His skin tone darkened ever so slightly as Pandemonium reached out for its new master, stretching its energy to combine with Lucifer's vision of the world he wished to make.
The Son and the Spirit looked upon their work and saw it as good.