After the great ceremony showed by the flocks of angels in honoring the Archangel of Protection, Protiel, as he stood in front of the altar, declared, “For the Lord has chosen me to be your new archangel, I now open the “Fifth State of Heaven!”
That was the fifth time the Heaven changed its governing body, which they called the “People of the Guidance.” The prophets representing the other planets of Heaven, the Angel Knights, the members of the Holy Council, Wise Granuviel and the new Archangel Protiel assembled the “People of the Guidance.” They were responsible in maintaining peace in Heaven, writing and announcing the laws made by God and implementing them in Heaven.
After Protiel announced the new state, all creation of God, from the angels to the People of the Guidance all shouted their prayers, “God bless the Heaven, God bless the angels!”
Then everybody joined the shouting, ”Praise be to God! Amen to the Archangel!”
As the festive mode inside the temple continued, Protiel suddenly became silent. He walked towards the table near the Altar, which the People of the Guidance occupied. He sat beside Wise Granuviel, together with the members of the Holy Council and the seven Angel Knights. He gazed at the angels rejoicing and singing. Then he slowly grabbed a glass full of wine and tried to drink it while he continued to gaze. As the glass touched his lips, Granuviel noticed Protiel and his silence. Granuviel wondered what Protiel was thinking. Granuviel knew the archangel was not enjoying the celebration. Granuviel assumed Protiel was just tired of all the ceremonies. It’s been a long day for all the angels and so much energy were consumed.
Granuviel tried to cheer the archangel, “Protiel, our archangel, let us join the feast and celebrate. Come!” the Wise Granuviel called on Protiel.
However, Protiel just stayed on his place for a while without releasing any word that answered Granuviel’s call. Granuviel then looked Protiel in the eye and said, ”I know you are worried about God having His vacation. He has rested once and all of us were afraid. However, God is so good all the time. Even He is resting He still watches us.”
Protiel, dumbfounded by Granuviel’s words, just nodded. Then Protiel slowly spoke, “I’m afraid God will let me learn without teaching me. I am afraid I can’t learn what He wants me to know.”
Granuviel, knowing that could be a sensitive topic to discuss in public, invited him to somewhere else. “Come with me to the Room of Knowledge,”
Granuviel called on Protiel and both of them went to the room as big as a planet. The room located below the grounds of the temple, was accessible by the door behind the Altar. As Protiel opened the door covered by the big cross that extends up to the ceiling of the temple, he was amazed by the size of the room. With its spherical shape, thousands of bookshelves and containing millions of books, ancient writings and scriptures, Protiel could not imagine how could an angel finish reading all of them.
Granuviel then told Protiel, “This is my weapon, knowledge. This will be yours too from now on.”
The two angels walked down the stairs spirally consist of seven million steps leading to the bottom floor. When they reached the floor, Protiel looked up around him and see a huge number of books well arranged in their shelves and well maintained from dust.
Granuviel spoke to Protiel and tried to comfort him, “Look how big this room is. Everything in this temple is hand-made by God. That’s how great His power is.”
Protiel, after Granuviel have said that, shyly bowed down his head.
Then Granuviel added, “Archangel of Protection, afraid not, you should be. Have faith in…”
As Granuviel almost finished his sentence, Protiel interrupted him, saying, “Have faith with whom? God is sleeping and He will be up by when? In the next one thousand years?”
Then Granuviel answered, “But the stone will help you. The four-edged sword, now you should make. God made a stone just for you and I know that this stone will be your greatest weapon in leading this state to maintain Peace across the Heaven.”
“But no angel has ever use a four-edged sword;” Protiel protested. “Archangel Michael used only the two-edged one in helping defeat Satan. I don’t even know what it looks like and how to make it.”
Granuviel saw the point of Protiel. As a newly anointed archangel and with great responsibilities Protiel would carry, he could not blame Protiel to think such worries. However, Granuviel, as the wisest angel in Heaven, still tried to provide him with answers that would console his heart, “Worry not, Archangel. The Book of Knowledge that Archangel Oriel gave you shall answer your questions. Hand it to me and I’ll teach you how to search for answers to inquiries that bothers your mind.”
Protiel handed to Granuviel the book coming out like magic from his left hand. Then Granuviel received and placed the book at the top of a table. The Book of Knowledge, which was thick and wooden-covered, opened automatically without any use of hand from the two angels to the subject sought by them. It had its own mind. It read the mind of Protiel and what it needed to know. A voice encrypted in the book spoke that only Protiel could understand.
It said, “This is a stone from the planet I created and destroyed, Earth, the planet which was inhabited by men of the past, the men I loved so much. This stone brings much power. Love, Hope and Faith are embedded in it. However, be watchful, for this stone also possesses Hatred, Pride and Sin. The darkness might overcome the light. You should handle this stone with care.” The book then closed.
“But how will I make the stone into a four-edged sword?” Protiel asked.
Suddenly another book from the shelves in the Room of Knowledge floated and opened. It was a big book and entitled “The After Testament.” The book opened while floating on air and produced an intense ray of light. The light shone towards Granuviel. The entries of this book transferred to him.
The wise angel then answered Protiel, ”A man from the world of angeloids shall be raised to Heaven. A man who changes, a man who realizes and a man who loves. He is our only Hope.”
Protiel was puzzled. How could a creation who was not an angel could make a sword of an angel? And the worst part was, the world of the angeloids, which could be found beyond the Apo border, was an unfamiliar territory for the angels. Even Granuviel has no knowledge of these places. The Apo border was the mountain ranges that separated Heaven from the outside systems of the Universe. It was where the Earth was located in ancient times but after the Judgment Day when God, in His Son’s persona, came back to earth, no angel has been in this border and beyond it. Protiel suddenly felt he was in his first nightmare sleep. His face now turned sour.
Granuviel also has no idea about the entry. Both of them did not know what the entry meant. As the festivities and celebration at the temple continued, Protiel started to worry for the Heaven. Protiel thought it is better to consult the People of the Guidance and see if someone has an answer to his worries. He summoned for the messenger to send a message in a form of a dream to the members of the People of the Guidance. Except for the prophets of the different planets, Protiel wanted to see the members of the Holy Council, the Angel Knights and Wise Granuviel in a Holy Meeting. A Holy Meeting was only called when there were problems concerning the Heaven, and Protiel thought it was an alarming concern for the entire Heaven about the stone and its implications. God would never give him a new weapon that was not tested if there was no reasonable danger to come.
As Protiel gave the message to the messenger, Granuviel, hearing that Protiel wanted a Holy meeting, was very worried. In his mind, if Protiel called a Holy Meeting, the angels together with the prophets and all creations of God might panic for they knew what a Holy Meeting means. It meant chaos. It happened when God ordered Michael to call a Holy Meeting because Satan was poisoning Earth. God planned that time to fight Satan in Earth. Satan was defeated but it took a very long time to finish the battle and many creations of God were destroyed. Men were tempted, women were used, animals were killed and some angels failed to resist the opposite side of light. Also, Armageddon happened. This is what Granuviel was thinking. This was what he worried about.
“Archangel of Protection, the Holy Meeting must be done in a secret place. And it must be done secretly,” Granuviel suggested.
Protiel answered, “You are right Wise Granuviel. I want no chaos to be made. So what is the best place that you can suggest Wise Granuviel?”
Granuviel, thinking and sorting all possible places, then told Protiel, “Let the People of the Guidance meet at the Mountain of Judgment.”
As what Protiel knew about it, the mountain was the tallest mountain in the entire Heaven, however, to get there was very difficult to do because only a few knew well the exact location of the mountain. It was enchanted. God used His power to let everybody see visibly the mountain but only a few chosen angels could find it. The mountain was used to judge the people from Earth. When a man died on Earth, he would be sent to the Mountain of Judgment to be judged. Only the members of the Holy Council, who holds the “Book of Life”, together with the Seven Angel Knights to protect them, were there to read the good and evil doings of man. Then God would judge the man. However, the mountain was not used after that as the place of judgment anymore. The Earth was destroyed and there’s no man to be judged again. The mountain was just for protection of the Sacred Temple of the Malachs from devastating typhoons and hurricanes. The side of the mountain facing the temple was pacified and calmed but very steep. The side behind it was dangerous for hundreds of typhoons bang it everyday but it was not so steep and has an accessible way to the tip of the mountain. The Mountain of Judgment was the best place for the meeting. Granuviel suggested the place where the Holy Meeting would be kept secret.
Protiel then called on the messenger to tell the members of the People of the Guidance to meet at the Mountain of Judgment and not in the Hall of the Council where the Holy Meeting used to take place. The Hall of the Council was the place where the council makes a decision and writes a law that God made. Also, it was the place that the Archangel implements the laws. However, the hall was not favorable for this Holy Meeting because the hall was open to all planets in Heaven and every move and every word of the People of the Guidance in the hall was noticeable to all angels. If the people would know that there would be a Holy Meeting in addition to God’s rest, there might be a huge commotion and disarray.
After the messenger received the message, into the thin air he vanished. Then Protiel and Granuviel came out from the room and appeared in the temple where the celebration continued. The temple was still filled with rejoicing in a disciplined way and all angels, from the People of the Guidance to the trumpeters celebrated the anointing of the new archangel with praising, singing and dancing, all offered to God. Protiel sat at the center of the Altar’s table. Protiel, a good, innocent looking angel with a clean haircut was from the Land of the Protectors, a six-footer, of average body type and a skilled two-sword user. He was chosen to be the new archangel because of his protection of the “Book of Life” during the Armageddon. The “Book of Life” was almost put into fire by the army of Satan. The Book of Life was the only living record of all men in Earth and their doings. It was a book that would decide who would be in the side of good or evil. It would also decide the prize of sins and the prize of love. And because of this book, Protiel was anointed as an archangel. But Protiel thought he doesn’t deserve the position. An archangel was the highest-ranking angel in Heaven. But he was only a lowly skilled angel from the land where angels only knew how to protect. And after his discussion with Granuviel about the stone and about heavy responsibilities, he thought someone is better and more deserving than him. Someone was more equipped and more intelligent than him. And that someone could be Annamuel, the most skilled Angel Knight blessed with great strength and power. He led the Seven Angel Knights and definitely he could lead the Heaven, as Protiel justified in his mind.
Protiel, exhausted by his worries, called Wise Granuviel. “Wise Granuviel, my heart tells me I am not ready for this task, to be an archangel. I’m afraid I might disappoint God and could not protect Heaven,” Protiel spoke with no confidence.
Granuviel answered, “Our Archangel, you must not entertain such thinking. It is a character of men and not of angels to think such ideas. God sees something in you that nobody has seen. God knows what He is doing and He knows everything. Have faith in Him and as you have said, His will be done.” Granuviel, comforting Protiel, put his left hand on Protiel’s left shoulder tapping it twice and walked out.
As the long day in the Planet of the Angels almost came to an end, the angels were chatting with other angels and talking about anything. Their numbers reduced because others were going out to rest for the night. Some of the angels approached Protiel and congratulated him. Some conversed with him and some cracked jokes at him.
“Hey, do you all know that when Protiel, I mean, our Archangel and I went to school when we were in our teenage days, archangel always sleeps while in mass and only wakes up during the communion rites. The head priest noticed this, so what he did is he put a stone in Protiel’s bread for the communion. One day, while in mass, Protiel slept again. When the communion came, Protiel received the blood and the bread, but the priest gave Protiel the bread with the stone inside it. As Protiel ate the bread, he had also eaten the stone and tasted its bitterness. Protiel then realized that the priest intentionally put the stone inside the bread. So, on the next mass, Protiel stayed awake, eyes wide-opened the entire mass and attentively always looked at the priest just to guard him not to put a stone on his bread anymore. The priest succeeded in making Protiel to stay awake for the duration of the mass because our archangel wanted not to eat a stone anymore from that day on. I wonder why God gave him a new stone in his anointing,” Mapikon teased Protiel.
Mapikon was Protiel’s neighbor and friend, an angel who has a standing spike hair, an underweight body size and who always crave for Durian, a very delicious ancient food but fuming with undesirable aroma. However, only Aspikon, the look alike of Mapikon, sarcastically laughed at Mapikon’s corny joke. Mapikon, slightly ashamed of the no-laugh reaction by his audience, slapped Aspikon’s head and suddenly caught himself laughing towards Aspikon’s hurt face. Protiel grinned at the story and at the two twin angels while shaking his head.
Then Annamuel approached the group that surrounded Protiel. All angels gave way and a respectful bow to Annamuel. Annamuel just nodded to the crowd and turned his head towards Protiel.
“May God pours His blessings in you our new Archangel of Protection and General of the Army,” Annamuel congratulated Protiel.
Protiel was surprised. He did not expect Annamuel, the angel he idolized and look-up to was an angel of humility. Protiel once thought Annamuel might get angry at him because God chose him and not Annamuel to be the archangel.
Then Annamuel extended his hand to congratulate Protiel. However, the archangel remained silent and just stared at the angel knight. Annamuel, lowering his hand in shame, bid goodbye to Protiel, but assured him he will give his full support to the new archangel. As Annamuel turns his head away from Protiel, Protiel suddenly shouted, “Annamuel wait!”
Annamuel was shocked by the tone of Protiel’s voice. As if Annamuel heard an angry beast trying to warn him that it is going to eat him.
Protiel then hesitantly said, “Can I have your autograph?”
Annamuel was surprised!
