“Place your hand on the pillar,” called Yeshua from somewhere behind Jenny. He was keeping his distance. Not much, but there was enough space between them to make her worry. What was he expecting would happen?

She stared at the pillar. It was dark and glassy, its edges and faces sculpted to encase a body. She wondered who was inside. Were they an adult? A teenager? Old and wrinkled? It didn’t really matter. Whoever was inside would register as “Death” and they’d be terrified, their guts twisting out of them, attached to the pillar.

What was she even supposed to do? Yeshua had noted her Severed Spirit, and she’d tried explaining that all it did was turn off pain. Well... she’d fumbled the explanation as she hadn’t completely understood what it did, only that she didn’t feel anything. And that she stopped being a normal human. And that no matter how much damage to her body, she could keep moving, keep fighting. It was just a monstrous defense mechanism.

Except she was already a desecrated human. What would the ability do now?

“You’ll understand once you try it,” was all Yeshua had said. “Push the usage outward. Beyond yourself. Sever something other than yourself and let’s see what happens.” He was so determined, she couldn’t even snap at him. There was an almost childlike hope in his eyes, and the wrinkles around them, the smiling wrinkles... she’d almost forgotten the emaciated man who’d begged her to kill him on the cross. He stepped away and motioned for her to approach a pillar as several more burst out of the ground.

She got the sense that Yeshua enjoyed teaching. He’d rather watch people try things than tell them outright. Like how he’d told her to attempt making food with the system instead of simply explaining.

That way, you can’t deny what happens.

It’s a trick.

Jenny clenched her jaws and shut her eyes. Her thoughts were spinning and spinning, and fear flickered between her lungs like a breath of cold air. Her palms were sweating; she didn’t want to touch the pillar.

But that was all she had to do. She didn’t need to use light or fire; she didn’t have to see what was inside. It would just be like touching a rock. She inhaled deeply through her nose as Yeshua called encouragingly to her. Again, she wondered why he was so far away. Why not come and watch? This was his idea after all.

Is he afraid of something?

Is this a trap? Why am I listening to him anyway?

He promised to help me find Susan.

Jenny raised her hand, her arm trembling. She stared at the cracked blue scales covering her forearm and shoulders. Chipped and dirty, patches of pale skin poking through. She reached for the pillar.

“You have to use both hands!” called Yeshua. “Place both hands on either side of the pillar and cast yourself out of your body.”

She dropped her arm and looked back at him. “If you know so much about this, why can’t you do it yourself?

“My healing ability, my Eema’s gift, while powerful, cannot do what you can. But I promise you. You can do this.”

“Why are you so far away then?”

“Death is a scary thing!” he called back.

Is he... is he making a joke at a time like this? Jenny bit her lip and turned to face the pillar again. Another one burst out to her left like a swiftly growing tree made of dark rock. Just get it over with.

She stepped forward and brought both hands to the pillar’s sides. It almost felt like she was touching someone’s face, cupping their warm cheeks. She tried to picture Susan. Her blue hair and her soft smile, but all she saw was Susan’s corpse lying lifeless on the cafeteria floor. Jenny recoiled and stepped back.

Her hands shook as she stared at her fingers. They tingled with warmth; the pillars had that strange warmth that made them feel alive.

“You’re doing great,” said Yeshua.

She knew he was trying to be helpful, but his words were not helping in the slightest. Fear unfurled in her belly. She couldn’t shake the memories of looking inside the pillars, using her light, and seeing the Deaths. She couldn’t get Susan’s body out of her head. But she’d felt something when she touched the pillar. She was sure of it. Trying to tune out all her thoughts and Yeshua’s voice, Jenny tried again.

She placed her hands on the pillar again, this time determined to hold on and try what Yeshua wanted her to try. Her armored foot slid back so she could brace herself. Salt crunched between the toes of her bare foot, but she tightened her core and held onto the pillar. She shut her eyes and concentrated.

This time, she didn’t picture Susan. Instead, Jenny visualized the person inside the pillar. How they must feel. Alone, trapped and miserable. Feeling completely stuck with no chance of anything better.

Jenny knew those feelings all too well. “I’ll help you,” she promised softly. “I don’t know how, but I will.” She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the pillar. She wasn’t sure if that was instinct or some subconscious thing she wanted to do, but she relaxed. Warmth radiated through her, and she sucked in another deep breath before reaching for the skill she never wanted to use again.

Last time, she’d snapped. She’d completely lost control of herself. Something had burst open inside her and taken over and all she could do was surrender to blood lust. Would that happen again?

No, she assured herself. Not this time. It was just like with Yeshua’s foot. How she’d gotten the Blooded status again. How she’d love the taste of flesh. She was desecrated and didn’t have an exoskeleton. She didn’t have those tentacles. She didn’t have to lose control. Didn't have to be a monster.

It won’t happen again.

This time... this time...

She remembered Yeshua’s words. To focus outwards. Project her Severed Spirit outwards. But how?

How?

For a long time, maybe it was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours and hours, Jenny kept her forehead against the pillar, her hands on its sides. Her palms and fingertips hurt from how hard she was gripping it. And then it came to her. How to do it. How to use it. How to set the Death inside free.

Severed spirit, she thought with a quiet sigh. Her focus shifted to the tactile senses of pressing against the pillar, the warmth of it.

Out of my body, she repeated under her breath. Out of my body.

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It started as a tingling sensation, as though she’d been sitting on her hands for too long and they’d fallen asleep. She didn’t make a sound. She maintained contact, maintained focus. An ache formed between her eyebrows, like someone was trying to shove something sharp into her skull.

Then it spread. She was cracking. Her face was cracking open, and she was terrified of what would come out. But she inhaled deeply and tried to maintain composure. Yeshua said something, but the sensation was overbearing. Her brain felt like a wet towel being wrung out. Her mind twisted. She got the horrible sense she was cutting something ancient. Something sacred. But it was an easy movement. It was something natural. Something that longed to be separated. Something that was never meant to be stuck.

And then the sensation spilled outward. Her knees almost buckled. The sensation came out of her, flowing into the pillar, and bright light blossomed inside it. She could see the light through her eyelids, but she didn’t dare open her eyes. Didn’t dare lose concentration. Whatever this was, it felt fragile and delicate. If she stopped focusing for even the slightest moment, it would reverse and shatter her instead.

Severed Spirit: (tier 2)

System Warning: Severed Spirit (tier 2) is a restricted skill.

(Guidance System Error)

Existential Error

Existential Error

Severed Spirit (tier 2): Sever the metaphysical bonds -

Existential Error

Natural Order Corruption

A shudder went down her spine so violently, she almost collapsed. A whimper struggled in her throat. Her thoughts filled with a series of notifications, but she’d had something like this before. Back when she’d lost herself. Back when she’d become Desecrated. Back when she’d...

CRACK!

It sounded like a tree splintering. Like the earth splitting open. But it brought her back to focus. The notifications faded away. Her breathing came quicker, shallower. Her heart pounded in her chest as sweat trailed down the sides of her temples. Then she felt warmth, a strange, jubilant warmth concentrating right above her eyes.

Her forehead was pressed against something warm. It wasn’t as hard as the pillar, but there was a fleshy kind of firmness... she knew without looking that it was someone else’s forehead, except it was too hot. It was burning hot. Did they have a fever? Did she have a fever?

The pillar cracked and fell away from her hands. After another series of cracks and the sounds of falling debris, Jenny opened her eyes to find the pillar had opened. Half a person stuck out of it, their lower body was still encompassed by the dark rock, but their intestines no longer stuck out. They were whole. Jenny’s forehead was pressed against theirs, and she looked them in the eyes.

Death (level 0)

It was a girl. Older than Jenny and with dark brown skin, her eyes swam with tears. Her lips quivered as though she so badly wanted to speak. Their noses touched, and Jenny blushed, stepping back as the rest of the pillar fell away from the girl’s hips.

Jenny’s forehead throbbed. Her nose stung. Her fingers and arms ached as though she’d been hanging from a pull-up bar for too long. The girl stood in the crumbling pillar, breathing hard, not even trying to cover her nudity. She raised her tear-stricken face to the dark sky and let out a wail before sinking to the ground.

She grasped a fistful of salt, the powdery salt that had once encased her in a pillar, and slumped forward. Her long hair hid her face as her bare shoulders shook. As she clutched her stomach and cried.

In a hoarse voice, a voice that sounded so torn and pained, the girl whispered, “Thank you,” before breaking down into loud, gut-wrenching sobs.

Yeshua bounded toward her. He kicked away a few large chunks that remained of the pillar, disintegrating them with each blow. Then he knelt beside her, placing a hand on her head. He shook his other hand free of his sleeve and held out an exposed forearm, the same way he'd offered his flesh to Jenny before. “Eat,” he whispered in a gentle voice. “Eat and you shall be free once more.”

The girl looked up, tears streaming down her face. Her bottom lip wobbled as she clutched Yeshua’s arm with both hands. She glanced at him again, as if asking permission, and when he nodded, she sank her teeth into his flesh as though she was biting into a corn cob.

Jenny turned away, hugging herself. She was shaking too, the urge to cry simmering beneath the surface of her thoughts. She didn’t want to just cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to wail and lash out and destroy everything around her, but tears didn’t escape her eyes. She bit down on her lip.

Something felt wrong inside her. Or did it feel right? She couldn’t tell. Something had changed when she used Severed Spirit like that. All those notifications... The skill had even reached a new tier. She’d gotten... stronger? Was this strength? And what had she severed? What was it that she felt between the pillar and the girl inside, the Death who was now level 1? To sever metaphysical bonds.

Jenny pulled up her stats, trying to see if anything had changed:

Jenny Huang

Desecrated Human (level 30) (existential error)

(blooded) (awaiting metamorphosis)

Age: 6,802 days

stats:

Power: 30

Stamina: 25

Durability: 20

Agility: 25

Stat points available: 62

Energy available: 4706

Bloodlust Ecstasy

Energy Cores (2)

Nothing. It was the same except now she had the Blooded detail. She hadn’t changed at all. She was still a Desecrated Human.

But she’d hoped. A small part of her had hoped that this would’ve reversed what she’d become, and as she struggled with that hope, there was a flash of golden light behind her.

She turned back to find Yeshua helping the girl to her feet. She wore a purple robe of her own now, and her brown face seemed to shine with warmth. A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of her lips, but she either didn’t notice or she didn’t care. She was smiling. “Thank you, Mother.”

“I’m not your...”

“She means your title,” said Yeshua gently, placing a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “You are the new Mary. And notice now you are not speaking the language of light.”

Jenny was about to respond to the Mary thing, but she sputtered. She licked the back of her teeth. She touched her throat. He was right. She hadn’t been hissing. Neither did Yeshua or the girl. But what language was this?

“This is the Language of Death,” explained Yeshua. “As the angels have their language, so do the Deaths, born into this world a blessing.”

“What are they?” asked Jenny, cutting him off. “What is she?” She almost apologized for being so blunt when the death looked up, but the girl bowed her head.

“I am Death,” she said.

“I know that,” said Jenny, trying to remain patient and not snap at the girl who’d been trapped inside a pillar for an eternity. “But...”

“Perhaps I can shed some light on that,” said Yeshua. “What is it that people, our people from our world, fear the most?”

Jenny bit her lip. How was he answering her question with another question? She watched the girl move around. She was trying out her legs. Swirling her purple robes and then hopping in place. Jenny rubbed her forehead. “I guess people are afraid to die. They’re afraid of death.”

“Very much so,” said Yeshua. “And what is the promise of faith? Of obedience?”

“That...” Memories of Sunday school flooded her mind again. “That we will be rewarded with an eternal life. Paradise.”

“Exactly,” he said, an intensity shining through his voice as he raised a finger to highlight his words. “Eternal life. That is the false promise made to those who believe His will. But do you know what I say to that? Folly. Folly upon those who accept such foolishness as an antidote to their fear. And what do they fear? Death is not something to fear. Death is a part of who we are. Why are our people taught to fear themselves?”

Jenny stared. Her mother would hate this guy. Everyone at her parent’s church would hate this guy.

Yeshua was about to speak again, but light drew both of their attention. The girl knelt by a shorter pillar. She pressed her brown hands to its sides and pressed her forehead against the pillar, just as Jenny had done earlier. And the salt began to glow.

The salt brightened the same way her arm did when she used Valescent Light. Streams of reds and yellows, vibrant greens and purples seemed to shiver through the pillar and then there was another loud crack. A series of cracks, and with the light, Jenny could see inside the pillar, could see the little boy whose intestines curled back into his body. As the salt crumbled away, as the skin across his belly healed, he leaned forward, pressing his forehead to the girl’s, and started to sob loudly.

Jenny shuddered as the girl hugged the boy. She remembered how hot the girl’s skin had been. Was the boy just as warm? Were all the Deaths this warm? For some reason, she thought they should’ve been ice cold, like the ghosts she’d always hear about in stories.

"Humans are beings of three parts, Jenny," said Yeshua, rolling up his sleeves. "Our Vessels, which contain our beings in material form. Our Deaths, through them we return to the source. And our Souls."

"Souls?"

"Our Souls," he said, walking over to the boy. "Our expression of self. What makes us people. That is what they've stolen from us. And that is what we must fight to reclaim."