Chapter 1
Neil Josten’s story starts in Caelum, otherwise known as Angel City. Where angels have taken over the human realm slowly, their base of operations in Las Vegas, Nevada. Neil might not be much of an angel himself, but he’s learned a thing or two growing up surrounded by them. They’re ruthless, only care about themselves, and run around selling everyone their holier-than-thou speech in order to stay on top. He’s learned pretty quickly that any disobedience gets angels cast out and down. The Fallen Angels. Everyone worth their salt has heard of them from the most infamous of them all. Lucifer. Otherwise known by his less common name, Wymack. If anyone were to ask Neil, he would say that Wymack gets a bad rep. Ask one question, toe one foot out of line, and the entire family casts you out like you murdered one of them. To give credit where it’s due Wymack now runs his own little circle of miscreants. One of the biggest bads anyone’s ever heard about. Makes a guy wonder though, where Wymack and all his skills and talents would be now if he hadn’t been cast out and abandoned the way he was by the Moriyamas after the death of his wife Kayleigh.
No one will ever know though, it's all in the past, and besides, ask anywhere underground and they’ll tell you Ghenna is its own little paradise. Carved out of a human town near Columbia, South Carolina. Where there are only three rules. Rule number one, you can have all the in-house squabbles you want but when it’s Ghenna versus anyone else, you stand together. Rule number two, everyone is welcome no matter what. Good ole Wymack won’t even turn away angels, imagine that? Rule number three, you always hear both sides of the story.
That all doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Well if Riko and Tetsuji were to tell it, Wymack is building an army of demons and is just waiting for his chance to steal all of humanity’s souls. Most everyone believes that version simply because no one has ever bothered to ask Wymack or anyone from Ghenna for that matter if that’s the case.
Typically, the only people who wind up finding haven in Ghenna are the forgotten, the broken, and those that have given up. Occasionally, we get the random jerk who has come to pledge service to “Lucifer” and his demon army but we just hook them up with a good therapist and move on about our day. That isn’t to say that Wymack doesn’t have an army. He has the entire city’s undying loyalty.
There’s something to be said about broken people. They’re extremely hard to break. Most of them have skill sets that alone could cause the Moriyamas some trouble. All of them together? Well, let's just say Kengo should be glad that Wymack is more focused on being a decent leader to his people.
That brings the story to how Neil got to be in Ghenna instead of Caelum. Neil used to be an angel. Still technically is, but he prefers to just tell everyone he’s a demon. No one has ever questioned him since he was cast out of Angel City and his wings were de-feathered leaving the leathery bat-like skin behind. No horns or tail though, sorry to disappoint.
Neil had been on the run from the Moriyamas for years. More specifically, their archangel of violence Nathan, his bastard of a father. He and his mom had a good thing going until they got caught by some of his father’s men in Seattle. That ended with arson on a lost beach somewhere in California.
That was all years ago. Neil has moved on, and honed his skills. He’s finally starting to fit into the skin of the villain everyone claims he is. He’s been living in Ghenna for almost four years now. He’s got his own little band of merry men and it’s about time someone knocked the Moriyamas down a peg.
They may have humanity wrapped around their finger but it’s coming time for the villains to take over the narrative.