Frei Galgani was standing at the edge of the street, waiting to pass to the other side, one of his hands carrying some groceries he had grabbed on his way from work. He stared absently in front of him, like every other day of the week. He was just an ordinary single person, too busy with his struggle to survive the perils of the everyday life to worry about family and he was in no rush to make one when he saw the idiocy of some examples of the opposite gender and the exorbitant price of having a child.

Fuck them all, if the society was like that, so it can die off along with its new twisted set of values. Why should he care?

  These thoughts went through his head when he saw a family at the other side of the street that was also about to cross. After the right traffic light flashed its bright green color, Frei moved in the direction of the nearing family, but a loud sound made him look sideways.

There was a truck going right at them!

  It was a mystery how he had not seen it sooner, but it was there and had apparently no intention to stop, going straight in the direction of the family in front of him. Without a second though, Frei's muscles tensed and he leaped mightily to save a life.

Such was his nature, he could not help himself, immediately leaping back to avoid the collision and save his life, watching the people in front of him that reacted too late being crushed by the passing truck.

Yet, before he had the time to celebrate his successful life-saving action, he saw a yellow flash at the periphery of his vision. His eyes focused on the unusual object that seemed to had fallen off the truck and . .

Was it a beak? Seriously?

* * * *

"So the rooster was your work? I guess it was, it was as unnatural as it gets." Frei Galgani folded his arms on his chest, gazing venomously at the angel-like figure in front of him. His left eye was still twitching a little, remembering the sharp beak that had pierced right through it.

"Ehmm, nothing personal man." The angel fidgeted uncomfortably and his golden wings quivered. "B-But it is not technically a sin, you know?"

"Of course it is a sin, you have fucking killed me with that stupid bird!" Frei banged his fist against the white table that stood in between the two.

"But I have no soul, so that is that. . "

Marvelous.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  He had thought that reality could not get more crooked, but here he was, sitting in a white room, talking to an AI created by an angel, because Gabriel had apparently too little time on his hands to talk to the souls of people in person and conveniently, the sins of a machine did not count! Of course!

Crooks everywhere!

"Well, the important part is that you are here and there is a little something you ought to do for us, because of not saving the family who might not have died if you . . " Frei's fingers were turning white while he was gripping the edge of the table tighter and tighter.

"Oh shut it, you are just another corporate slave driver, only working for a different corporation, but I get it, you have all the cards. Just tell me what you want, we can leave all the smart manipulative excuses for less bright people."

"Fine, I will be direct then." The fake angel dropped a part of his act, starting to look more like an artificial being, although he was still sparkly and beautiful in his celestial golden armor.

"The sinners in hell are just keeping our staff busy, doing nothing but freeloading, although painfully. We cannot even employ them properly, because all the compulsory pain makes them useless in everything but whining and moaning. Heaven is overcrowded and work is a swear word over there, making purgatory the only place we can draw workforce from." The artificial angel had finally decided to spill the beans and Frei could feel his head spinning, the direction this was going was not good at all.

"Workforce for what?" He barked at the AI, was he going to be a torturer in hell or something? Well, better than the tortured, but it had to be hard work, struggling with the sinners, running them through with a pitchfork and stuff.

"Well, aside from angels and demons working in hell and heaven, part of them has to fight off intrusions into our universe. It is a vital work, every killed intruder represents an extra soul coming to our universe and every soul that leaves through the damaged fabric of space is a great loss." The angelic machine began explaining the situation.

"That sounds like a pain in the ass." Frei furrowed his brows.

"Um, yeah. Expecially the budhas, they are obsessed with palms for some reasons, lunatics." A glint of desperation appeared in the golden eyes. "But do not be discouraged, you will get the means to fight and there are even holidays! It is actually quite a good life if you have talent . .. "

"And I will die If I don't, huh?" Frei did not believe it was as good as the machine presented.

"Dying can be a setback, you will lose much of your progress. The worst that can happen is if a foreign entity captures or devours your soul. . . " The AI's voice trailed off, making its last words unintelligible.

"Great, can I refuse? Just in case I . . ."

"No." The melodious heavenly voice of the machine interrupted Frei and its angelic figure extended its hand, throwing some kind of a small device at him.

Could the AI not just handed it over? So crude!

  When the device touched his body, Frei realized it was unnecessary to hand it over as it melted on touch and his skin absorbed it in an instant, well he had no body to speak of right now, making it somewhat less stunning.

"Here is some basic support interface for demons, you should be able to access its functions at will, now off you go." The divine machine gestured and the white room disappeared in a flash, the sensation of having a body coming right after.

Although Frei was afraid to open his eyes, he would not move forward unless he did. He gritted his teeth and took the first look at his future life.