cheated his way back up from the bottom

Hi all
I have a context:

"Patch had told me he was the first fallen angel to get his wings back and become a guardian angel. Were the archangels angry over that? Did they feel Patch had somehow tricked them? Or that he’d cheated his way back up from the bottom?"

|Please explain to me what does "cheat one's way back from the bottom" mean?

Thanks

This seems to mean that Patch had been thrown out of heaven and had to start again from "the bottom". "The bottom" here probably means "earth" or "mortal life".

Minhduc, are you familiar with expressions like "he has worked/slaved/fought his way to his goal"?
They generally have the following form: <noun or pronoun>+<verb>+one's way to <goal or result>.

Generally speaking, it means that the action described by the verb was how the person achieved the goal or result.

If we say that someone has worked his way to his current position, it means that he achieved it by working hard.
If we say someone fought his way to the door, it means he had to fight in order to get to the door.
If we say someone cheated his way back up, it means he rose again after a fall by cheating — in other words, he broke some rules (at least in the opinion of the speaker).