Dante didn't move for a long time.
The murals demanded attention, demanded understanding. Each panel revealed truths that had been lost to human knowledge for millennia, and he found himself unable to look away.
The first section showed the world before the Tower.
It was beautiful, in a way, reality unscarred by the scars of cosmic conflict. Angels maintained order in the higher realms while demons churned chaos in the lower ones. Between them existed a balance, unstable but functional, that had persisted since the dawn of existence.
Then something changed.
The murals showed it obliquely, a shift in the cosmic order that made the old balance impossible to maintain. Angels descended with armies. Demons rose with legions. For the first time in eternity, the two forces met in open war.
