The Seven Mounting Heavens, once a benevolent plane suffused with peace and order, was prosperous and abundant as far as the eye could see, ruled by good deities and Astral Deities.
Even the mortal souls reincarnated here radiated sacred silver or golden light.
Because this was a land of ultimate good, no fiends, filth, or evil could hide themselves here.
Some utterly evil beings who came here were even cleansed, gradually came to recognize their countless crimes, repented, abandoned their ambitions and desires, and slowly shifted from evil to good.
There was even a famous town on the First Layer founded by a good Lich.
But now, many parts of this place had been completely conquered by armies led by Demons, Devils, Yugoloths, other fiends of the Lower Planes, and evil deities.
The Astral Deities who had once worshipped goodness, along with the newly reincarnated souls of good mortals, had either fallen under endless torment or become laborers subjected to brutal slavery.
The first few layers in particular looked almost no different from the Nine Hells or the Abyss.
Everywhere were mines violently gouged open like scars, along with hills stripped bare after forests had been ravaged by destructive logging.
Driven by the whips of vicious overseers, countless slave laborers worked day and night like ants until they collapsed from exhaustion and could never rise again.
Without question, this was the darkest moment in the history of the Seven Mounting Heavens.
It was like a beautiful young woman who had once been aloof, noble, and chaste, but was now pinned to the ground and ravaged in turns by a gang of foul-smelling brutes, her body covered in filthy marks.
Fortunately, the surviving good people had not yet lost hope.
For Zaphkiel, supreme leader of the Celestial Seven, had not yielded