As Deaths awoke other Deaths, golden light blossomed around Jenny, brightening the gloomy world. Tendrils of colors, bright reds, vivid blues, yellows and purples and greens, and every color in between, unfurled from each pillar and reached toward the sky. The pillars crumbled and fell away, and, one by one, Deaths stumbled out from their containment, crying and shouting and needing to be consoled. Jenny couldn’t keep watching. Her mind spun with what Yeshua said about Deaths and Souls, and the light made her heart ache.

Why? She didn’t really know. Why did she want to cry? Why did she want to scream? She thought it might’ve been because she’d used Severed Spirit again, but this felt deeper. A primal urge to claw her emotions out of her chest and... was it the light? Was the light making her feel like this?

It was similar to Valescent Light, but that couldn’t be the reason. There was something else to it. Something that called to every single hurt Jenny had known since she’d been born. It called to the helpless feeling a baby might have, crying and screaming into the unknown, hoping someone would pick it up.

Jenny turned away from the spreading light while Yeshua fed each newborn Death. Her shoulders were trembling, and there was a feeling in her throat she didn’t like. A salty bump she couldn’t swallow.

She decided it would be a good opportunity to finally go over her stats and apply her waiting points. Why she’d been procrastinating on them, she didn’t know. But she supposed she’d always been like that. Playing games on hard mode. Playing life on nightmare. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Saving up potions or points or whatever, so that by the time she got to the final bosses, she’d have way too many things and nothing to really show for it. Even Eve had called her out for it.

She’d gone through her entire life with a voice snarling in the back of her mind: Why try? Look at you. Why try?

And now that voice had a face. It was her own. A monstrous, ugly face that only wanted to consume, consume, consume, and she swore she wouldn’t let that come out again. She’d been afraid of that happening, losing control and…. But she’d eaten the foot. She’d used Severed Spirit. She’d set free a Death.

Why was she able to do that anyway? The Death had woken another pillar. And then each Death went on to wake up another. How were they doing it? They couldn’t also be using Severed Spirit, could they? Or was there some similarity between Severed Spirit and something that came naturally to Deaths? Or was it because she’d been so close to death herself?

Let’s not go there.

Focus on the numbers.

She had 62 points waiting.

62.

That number seemed way too high, but she’d leveled up several times, and she’d ranked up. Or at least…. She should’ve been human stage iii. What would the notifications have looked like if she’d reached that level without severed spirit? Things would’ve been clearer. Easier. Jenny sighed.

15 into each stat. That seemed like the most even way to split everything. That gave her 2 remaining points that she could use later. This time, remembering how it felt when she’d added a large number of stat points, she braced herself for the changes.

Jenny Huang

Desecrated Human (level 30) (existential error)

(blooded) (awaiting metamorphosis)

Age: 6,802 days

stats:

Power: 45

Stamina: 40

Durability: 35

Agility: 40

Stat points available: 2

Energy available: 4706

Bloodlust Ecstasy

Energy Cores (2)

Her muscles flexed; her entire body clenched. A tingling sensation shot up from her fingers to her elbows as though she’d hit her funny bone, and warmth blossomed across her back. What felt like a cramp ignited in her sides, and she cried out softly. But then her toes readjusted on the salty ground. Her stance shifted slightly, and she stood taller. This wasn’t the dizzying, intense reaction she’d experienced before when increasing her stats.

As quickly as it had started, the tenseness faded away, and she exhaled. Maybe she’d gotten used to it. Or maybe the changes would be more subtle now. She placed her hand on her stomach, feeling the taut firmness of her abs. Then, after taking several deep breaths, she opened her eyes to find the world even brighter than before. It felt like the sun was rising behind her. Golden light made the dark barren expanse seem much less imposing, and her shadow stretched far ahead. It was strange seeing her shadow, and all the light behind her, the darkness ahead, it finally hit her that she was in another world. She wasn’t on earth.

She rubbed her face. Her armor responded almost instinctively. The dirty blue scales rolled away from her knuckles and her wrists, revealing her dirty hands. Salt and dried liquid and blood stuck to her skin, but she didn’t care. They shimmered in the golden and colorful light. She let the armor peel away further, exposing her pale forearms and her elbows. Ever since she’d had an exoskeleton, it felt like she had better control over the things she made. All she had to do was picture it, and it happened.

Looking down at her arms, brushing aside the bits of dead armor – and it was dead, she realized, remembering how the armor was organic. The parts that had been cracked and broken by the Ghouls died on their own, losing their blue luster and feeling like crumbling autumn leaves She peeled the armor off to admire the outline of her muscles. Her forearms, her biceps, even the way her arm moved in her shoulder socket felt so strange. She remembered nearly failing gym one term because her class was doing weight training and she couldn’t do a single pull-up. Her gym teacher had been so disappointed. Jenny shook her head, balling her fingers into a fist and staring at the way her tendons moved.

She didn’t feel much of a size difference, but she was definitely stronger. Standing on her tiptoes, she stretched out her arms and rolled her head from side to side. She straightened her shoulders back and focused on her breath. Away from the hell of the high school and the nonstop chase by the angels, she could appreciate how her body had changed. Had she ever felt this good? Had she ever felt so capable? When she took a step, everything just felt right. Like she could be more purposeful. Like she could do anything.

Her skin was tougher. Her flesh firmer. Her body felt light and free. Maybe if I’d been this strong earlier, everything would’ve ended differently.

Maybe if I’d just listened to Eve and…

And what? Killed the other kids? Got more experience by hunting other people? Like Miriam?

No…

Groaning, she rubbed her face. Her breathing had quickened; her head was hurting. Something felt wrong inside of her, but she didn’t know what. It started when she’d used Severed Spirit while fighting Miriam. When she’d lost control. She’d felt it the entire time, hadn’t she? That urge to kill.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Kill. Kill. Kill.

A shudder twisted its way up her spine, and Jenny tried to shift her thoughts. She had to make new armor. She’d been hesitant to address the system this entire time. To use her stats and her Energy. They felt ill-gotten. Like she’d stolen them or done something worse. But Yeshua pushed her to try making food, and the memory of that made her want to wretch again.

But she couldn’t keep wallowing in the despair. She couldn’t keep feeling sorry for herself. If the Ghouls attacked again, or whenever something attacked again, she didn’t want to be caught off guard again.

Enhanced Armor will cost 1500 Energy. A full body armor that mitigates impacts and is resistant to pressure.

“Sounds good,” she whispered as more sobbing and crying erupted in the distance behind her. How many Deaths were they going to set free? And there must be millions… billions of Deaths. Could Yeshua even feed them all?

Golden light of her own shimmered around her limbs. It sparkled and shone, enveloping her torso and her chest, spiraling down each of her legs. The crumbling blue and gray armor dissolved away, and light danced across her pale skin. She glanced down to see she hardly recognized her body.

She couldn’t see her ribs anymore. Her legs weren’t thin and fragile-looking. Her shoulder felt wider, her hips looked wider, and her muscles glistened with strength.

It made her head spin to see herself like this. She had the body of a movie star or a model; it felt unreal. How many times did she promise herself she’d eat better? Cut down on the chips and chocolate. Go for more walks. Work out. She’d been saving all that for when she moved out on her own, when she got to university. There, away from the suffocation of her home life, she’d be able to progress. That was what she’d told herself.

If there was any good that came from this whole nightmare, at least she’d finally gotten into better shape. The light hardened, flashing with green light before turning blue. And this was a darker shade of blue than before. Red mixed into the color, and Jenny wondered about her Exoskeleton. It was still there. When she focused on her belly button, she could just about feel a strange tickle as though it was just waiting to burst out.

Activate Exoskeleton?

The notification made her want to spit. No.

She pushed the thought away and continued forming her armor, imagining it firmly in her mind, bringing it to life. How the red would go beneath the blue armor, giving it an almost purple look. How the scales would be smaller but layered, the entire armor streamlined.

And another memory surfaced. Why Eve had found her in the first place – how Jenny created half a minor potion to heal Susan’s leg when she didn’t have enough Energy for a full potion. Eve said that had been remarkable, bending the system to her will, but she hadn’t really done anything like that since. Unless… unless she counted Severed Spirit. That skill had triggered such a bizarre response from the system after all.

Natural Order Corruption.

But she didn’t feel as though this was something special or even unique. If the system could create anything that could be imagined, then why couldn’t anyone imagine half of anything? Why couldn’t they create any kind of skill or ability?

Or was it just that most people didn’t bother trying?

Blue scales spread across her skin, covering nearly her entire body. It came up to her throat and the bottom of her jaws. It reached her ears and went up the back of her neck. It came down to her fingertips and her toes, fitting snugly around her legs and between her thighs. It hugged her waist and ribs tightly. The armor almost felt like a layer of thermals, except it was dense. Dense and solid, and it reminded her of that desecrated angel’s exoskeleton. That bluish metallic thing that she’d had to break through before she could hurt the angel.

When the light dimmed, Jenny turned to see a small crowd of people gathering. Well, her first instinct was to think they were people, but their notifications, and each one was the same, Death (Level 0), gave them away.

Looking at them now didn’t give her that frightening, run away feeling anymore, but it was still odd. Some of the Deaths were on the ground naked, crying and sobbing. Others held them as Yeshua went around offering his arm as sustenance. He created purple robes for them to wear, and he went from Death to Death, reminding Jenny of a hummingbird flitting in a flower garden.

But something about him felt off. He didn’t bound across the ground anymore. He was limping. Jenny took a few steps closer, aware of the clearing they’d made in the pillars, aware that more pillars were rising around them, but something about Yeshua was wrong. And when she got close enough, she saw what it was.

Yeshua was shrinking. He was losing weight, deteriorating with each Death that he helped. His face was gaunt again. His eyes had sunken in and bags weighed down on his cheeks. But he smiled when he noticed her.

“I like the new look. It suits you.” He sounded breathless.

Jenny nodded, feeling a tiny bit bashful. The new armor was darker, more conforming to her body. This one had been designed with less emotion and more tact. It hugged her muscles tightly and made her feel like a spy in a big-budget movie and the new color was sleek. “Thank you,” she said, but she was more concerned about him. “Are you okay?”

“Me?” He wicked back his sweaty hair. “I am exactly where I want to be, and this is all thanks to you, Jenny. For freeing me. For freeing death. Existence owes you a debt it cannot repay with a thousand worlds. I should very much like to see the look on Azra’il’s face when he realizes what has happened.”

“Azra…’il?” The name sounded evil to Jenny, like it was something she ought to know, and a weird creepy sensation crawled along her sides. It was the same feeling she’d get when looking at skeletons; disturbed.

“Azra’il is the Archangel in charge of the Afterlife,” said Yeshua, his lips curling. “He is the reason Death has been sequestered to these pillars of salt. He rips Souls as they pass from the Material World to the Garden, ensuring that the cycle of our lives can never reach completion.”

Jenny’s head was hurting again, and fear laced her every heartbeat. The archangel of death? There was an angel assigned to death? And something about the way Yeshua spoke of him made her think that this Azra’il was powerful. “Is he like... Is he what comes after a Desecrated Angel?”

“No,” said Yeshua, shaking his head. A Death came up to him, a young girl, and pulled on his robe. He smiled kindly at her, lowering his shaking hand to pat her head. “He’s much worse. The tarnished are angels are distortions of their true selves. True angels cannot advance in stages like you or I through trial and triumph. They are light. They are not meant to grow. So, what do they do?”

Jenny didn’t need him to explain. She knew by the sick feeling in her gut. “They eat people.”

“They eat people,” he repeated solemnly. The young girl Death dashed away, her purple robe billowing. “But this way, they can maintain control over their minds. They can harness the ability of their light and the Energy of the worlds and…” Yeshua slumped, teetering like he was about to collapse, and Jenny dashed forward. She placed her hand on his chest to catch him.

He even seemed shorter now. Only a bit taller than Jenny. He looked ill. Jenny tried to steady him as she glanced at the Deaths. A crowd of them, maybe thirty or forty people, stared at Yeshua with concern on their faces. There was a cost to this. That was why they’d stopped. Yeshua couldn’t go on feeding them forever without rest. His healing ability wasn’t free. How had he fed so many already?

Jenny helped sit Yeshua down before conjuring a bottle of water. He blinked at it, his eye twitching, and she realized he’d probably never seen plastic before. What did they use to carry water back in his day? Did that really matter now?

“Drink,” she said, mimicking how he’d commanded her to eat before.

He smiled gratefully, the wrinkles around his eyes so deep, the expression looked like it hurt. Then he drank deeply, the bottle crinkling in his grip, and Jenny took the pause to ask the question burning a hole in her mind.

“Will I find Susan’s Death here?”

Yeshua lowered the bottle, water dribbling into his beard. He nodded as he swallowed. “Yes,” he said. “She has died so her Death is here somewhere. But her Death will not recognize you.”

Her heart sank at his words. “So, I have to find her Soul?”

“Her Soul houses all her memories,” he said. Once he’d finished the water, he remained seated, taking in a deep breath. Color returned to his skin, but he still looked hungry. Weakened.

Should she… should I offer a bit of my arm? Would that help?

“Azra’il is the one collecting the Souls. We must find…” He trailed off. Before Jenny could ask what was wrong, his eyes went wide, and he grabbed her arm. The bottle fell to the ground. “They’re coming.”

“What?”

“Again! They’re coming again!” He snapped his head toward the Deaths as he used Jenny to pull himself up. “Nobody move! Don’t move one bit. Just stand still! Just stay right there and they won’t harm you. Let them come to me. I will…” His voice broke.

He turned to grab Jenny, dropping his voice to a horrible whisper. “I can’t protect them all like this.” Saliva flicked out with his words. He looked crazed. Upset. He wasn’t blinking at all, and redness spread across his eyes. A sob had snuck into his voice.

He sounded the way he had when she’d first met him on the cross. When he’d begged her to kill him. And she knew what was coming. The Ghouls.

Jenny swallowed hard. She glanced at the Deaths who were exchanging frightened glances. There were too many of them. Some of them old. Some of them just kids. One even was a toddler, held in the arms of the first Death that Jenny had freed. They looked helpless. And all of them were level 0. They wouldn’t be able to fight.

The ground began to bubble. It was frothing and rolling, like an angry ocean on a stormy day. There must be more than before. Everywhere around her, the white liquid seeped out, and it would be a matter of moments before those bubble-shaped heads emerged, those empty eye sockets, and the high-pitched voices.

She shook Yeshua. He was still holding onto her, his fingers curled tight around her armored arms. “Can’t you frighten them off again?” she asked. “Can’t you just… drink them?”

He shook his head. He was trembling. But he released her arms as the liquid bubbled around both of their feet. He pointed toward the sky with one finger.

Jenny looked up and her hopes sank. The clouds were bubbling too, almost mirroring what was happening on the ground. But instead of white liquid, this was red. Dark red. The sky bubbles ballooned and expanded and burst. Then it began to fall as rain.

The Deaths cried out, and Yeshua splashed through the bubbling white liquid, churning pink as the rain grew heavier. And this rain wasn’t anything at all like rain. It wasn’t water.

It was hot and sticky. There was a thick metallic stench to it, and Jenny knew what it was with each heavy breath she took, each beat of her heart. It was blood.

It was raining blood.