The real Archangel Barakiel

Illustration for my series of books "Smoldering Hell", for the seventh book ("Smoldering Hell 7: Burning Paradise. 99 names of the God" author.today/work/160832 ).
The whole series of books: author.today/work/series/11980

A work from among the drawings made in 2021. Portrait of Archangel Barakiel, ruler of Rakia (second Heaven). It seems that at that moment I killed all my strength to work out the hair, and then there was no strength left x) Well, this is acceptable here: I didn't want to work on this portrait for a long time, it was needed in order to capture Barakiel's appearance faster.

And I just remembered a very important thing! And it's criminal that I forgot about it._. How did I remember Barakiel? Yes, I met him in one of my dreams! Absolutely unexpectedly, last year: I was following the plot of a dream and was "undercover" (under the guise of another person, specifically so that no one would recognize me), and eventually found myself either in some store, or in a cafe; and among the staff was Barakiel, who we even had a dialogue with him, he quipped at me something in his characteristic manner. But that face, that grin, those curly hair and big eyes! Everything was so clear in that dream! And the personality was excessively distinct – it happens when you meet someone real in the superspace of a dream, existing at the moment.
Those who have read the seventh book already know that as a result of the events described there, Barakiel found himself in the human world, forced to live among people from now on. From the dream, I conclude that Barakiel still lives as a human, working in a certain institution, either as a waiter, or as a salesman - in general, someone like that. But the question remains: is he in this, uh, dimension? Or have I been through a dream in another, the same as this world? After all, I still have a question about whether I lived in this reality in my true incarnation, or did I come here from another reality, the same as this one, but with some differences? In fact, I have a number of options-fabrications about this, but this is clearly not for this post.

So, about Barakiel. An insufferable bastard, I'll tell you. He framed many for life, destroyed many lives - for example, Semiaza and I and our Grigori order (through his fault I was buried in a black sarcophagus, which still appears to me in flashbacks), countless angels and angels whom he secretly delivered from Heaven to earth to thirsty demonic ranks (for example, for the Minotaur); he also planned to break Gabriel, because from ancient times he harbored a grudge against him for the fact that in ascending through the Heavens to the Lord Gabriel defeated Barakiel in a duel, having risen above him in rank. For the sake of revenge against Gabriel, Barakiel "cooperated" with Mammon.
And Barakiel remained elusive because, even in his youth, Inpu (aka Anubis) contributed to his training in werewolfism; that is, Barakiel is a werewolf capable of turning into a demon.