The Dark Angel is the penultimate stage, and its image is built on an opposition to light.
Shadows — the bearer governs the Shadow World and makes use of it, although he has not yet become its full master;
Degeneration — this domain he masters entirely;
Darkness — he is able to manifest its embodiment;
and the Herd grows to twenty-two souls at once.
The method of action explains the very essence of the stage better than any list of powers:
The Dark Angel is the Shadow of the Sun and the Darkness of the Light: where there is light, there is also shadow;
these are angels who fell of their own will and accepted the consequences of their sins;
they embody the corrupt nature and bear the weight of others' guilt.
The advancement ritual is built on the same logic and requires literally stepping into light: flying toward the mystically meaningful Sun and holding out for fifteen minutes in order to merge with the shadow of the light.
The composition is no less symbolic: the shadow of Sasrir or both of his hands, the sacred scripture of the Primordial Almighty God or the Ancient Sun God, and fifty grams of the flesh and blood of the angels of the paths of the Sun, the Tyrant, the Disciple, or the Seer — two of these paths suffice.
