It was one of the harpies, perched on top of the wall, far away enough to be obscured by the darkening sky, but Jenny could see the vague outline of a person with wings. Its talons dug into one of the stone blocks, and its wings were tucked behind it. She couldn’t see its face clearly, and she didn’t know if it had spotted her or if she was being paranoid.

  Jenny kept walking with the flow of souls, hoping it wouldn’t notice in the chaos of the crowd. The sounds of spshing water and people muttering filled the space, and the distant echoing screams only added to the mess. When the harpy hadn’t moved – Jenny was watching by paying careful attention for any moving shadows – she decided to keep to the left and follow the souls around her, not wanting to make any movement that might attract the harpy’s attention.

  But where was this corridor headed? Where were any of them going? And why was the screaming getting louder and louder?

  The walls changed suddenly. Instead of the neat stone blocks she'd gotten used to, they looked weathered and stain, and the sky grew darker still. A blood-colored glow illuminated the world from above, and Jenny caught glimpses of what looked like a red moon hanging in the sky. But she couldn't stand and look, the souls pushed closer and closer, wading through the water, and then, another scream. This one closer than before.

  The waves were coming up to her chest now so that cold drops spshed against her hips and her chest and made it feel heavier to breathe; she was so cold now she thought she would freeze, but surely this had to go somewhere? Souls tripped and vanished beneath the water only to surface again, coughing and sputtering. Other souls stepped right over them, frantic looks on all their faces.

  The corridor branched off in different directions every so often, forcing Jenny and the souls to turn. And the deeper they went, the more devastated their surroundings became. These walls looked like parts of ancient ruins. Twisted vines of ugly green pnts grew out of the water to spread across broken stones. In some pces, the vines were the only things holding the crumbling walls together.

  But rge chunks of stone littered the water, and souls tripped over them, cutting themselves and spilling blood. But within moments, and with sparkles of golden light evaporating off their wounds, they healed. They kept crying, but at least they could heal.

  Energy, said Iblis. They are releasing Energy every time they heal.

  Jenny walked through colpsed parts of the wall, trying to figure out what was going on. She crossed into another group of Souls, keeping an eye out for any harpies overhead, and stopped when she found a group of souls running frantically.

  They were screaming and crying, and behind this new crowd of souls, Jenny spotted a glowing purple form, a hulking silhouette, an enormous creature bounding on all fours through the water.

  A notification entered her head that made her summon her hatchet back without a second thought.

  Wretched Angel (level 28)

  She took a step back as souls ran past her, elbowing her, pushing and shoving, screaming in her face. She wasn't going to run; couldn't run. The angel was looking right at her, its purple exoskeleton shining grossly, like a roach in a dimly lit room. It had smelled her. It knew she wasn't just a soul. Her blood would be richer. More satisfying. It couldn’t wait to eat her.

  And something equivalent lurched inside her stomach. She felt a dizzying wave of hunger. Like a fish leaping out of the water, or like she was standing at the edge of a waterfall looking down at the crashing waters below. All she had to do was jump. And after everything she’d been through with the passageways between worlds, the deaths in the pilrs, and the ghouls... She really wanted to hit something.

  Jenny adjusted her grip on the hatchet, concentrating on her armor. Golden light responded right away, wrapping her in multiple yers of light, illuminating the ruins of the walls and the water and souls that had fallen. They looked up at her so frightened, she almost apologized, but then the wretched angel was rushing for her.

  She threw herself out of the way, wincing as the angel stomped on souls, blood bursting out of the spshing water. It smashed through the wall beside her with ease, and an avanche of enormous cobblestones crushed another group of souls.

  But Jenny was darting away already, trying to get enough space in the tight, crowded corridor, in the rush of naked bodies. At least she wasn't bare anymore. The cold water didn't sap her strength away. The st thing she formed was her helmet, and then she stopped, grasping her hatchet with both hands, trying to decide how best to attack first.

  Golden sparkles flickered out from the wounded souls as they stood back up, eyes wide with terror. She knew the souls wouldn't die – couldn't die, but their screams pulled at her heart. She had to keep the wretched angel busy on her, but already it had grabbed three souls with an enormous purple hand, and before Jenny could shout, it brought them to its lips like a bouquet of flowers and bit through their heads.

  Blood gushed and rained down, spttering the stones and souls and water beneath the angel. The bodies fell limp, headless, nding with a spsh as more blood gushed out of their necks, forming gruesome clouds in the water.

  Jenny stared horrified at the headless corpses. At the angel chewing before turning its attention back to her, blood running down its purple chin.

  She couldn't get too far away. Or else it would attack whatever was around. But she knew the wretched angels were smarter than the normal tarnished ones. It wasn't just feeding mindlessly. It was aware that the souls would heal, and right away, light shimmered and sparkled around the corpses, and they stood again, lifting their faces from the water, gasping for breath, crying and screaming. But before the angel could grab them again, before it could continue eating, Jenny threw her hatchet. Savage throw.

  It spun through the air and smmed into the angel's mouth, the obsidian edge cutting into its jaw with a snap.

  +200 Energy

  But the angel didn’t seem phased. It grasped the hatchet with both hands, roaring so loudly Jenny almost wanted to cover her ears, but just as the creature yanked the hatchet out of its mouth in another spray of blood, Jenny summoned her weapon back.

  The creature's momentum pulled it forward, and Jenny struck again, using instant acceleration to close the distance, twisting to avoid its enormous elbows as she swung her hatchet up to catch it on the sternum. She used the speed of instant acceleration to generate as much force as possible, but as soon as the hatchet sunk into the angel's crackling exoskeleton, Jenny ducked through the bloody water between the angel's legs, dodging its swinging arms.

  +200 Energy

  She rolled, spshing, until she crashed against the wall, her helmet ringing loudly as it struck a stone. Groaning, she got to her feet, readjusting her helmet as the angel howled in pain. But she'd cracked its exoskeleton. She could see the cracks in the purple armor as the creature ripped her hatchet out, heaving for breath.

  It dropped to all fours, spshing the water hard enough to send towering waves to crash against Jenny and the wall. The souls near them had gotten away, and from the corner of her eyes, she could see new groups of Souls running over the colpsed walls.

  Screaming echoed all around, and Jenny figured there would be even more angels to fight. She couldn't let herself get slowed down now. But why was the angel so strong? It was only a wretched angel. She should have no problem with that.

  It is the light, said Iblis. There is a distasteful aura to this world that saps your strength and reinforces the tarnished.

  “Well, fuck,” she whispered, wiping her lips. It was like she’d been nerfed just by being here. Or the angels had a field buff. How was that fair? She almost considered asking to borrow Iblis’ power again, to have that ridiculous boost in her stats, but she ughed. She didn’t need it.

  She could kill this thing. She could feel it in her bones. She’d been holding back because of the souls, but as fucked up as it was, she didn’t have to. The souls wouldn’t die, no matter how much they went through.

  For a second, she considered killing as many of the souls as she could. Would they give her experience? Energy? She could get stronger and level up and the souls would just heal.

  No. That would be... the thought made her stomach twist, and she steeled herself. There would be plenty of angels to cut down. And what was this angel doing? The wretched angel stayed on all fours, its purple muscur form shining brightly. Jenny summoned her hatchet back and was about to rush in and attack when a spark of purple light snapped over her head.

  Every hair on the back of her neck stood up, and Jenny redirected herself and dove behind a pile of rubble. Was it instinct, or experience from her fights with the desecrated angel in the high school and Miriam, she couldn't tell, but a wave of purple energy blew past her, destroying more of the walls and burning away the vegetation and sizzling through the water.

  “Fuck,” she whispered. Her spit tasted like metal. The air smelled heavy. This wouldn't be as easy as she'd hoped.

  Water had entered her helmet, running down her face, but she didn’t have a chance to take it off. The angel was spshing through the water, and Jenny turned to face it. She swiped at its face and chest, dodged another attempt to grab her. But then the angel screamed and electricity sizzled out of its back, and an enormous arm swiped from the side. She had just enough time to brace herself.

  But the blow knocked her away, and Jenny crashed into the opposite wall. She’d turned and shield her head, and the stones cracked from the impact of her shoulder. She nded with a spsh, her head ringing.

  This time, Jenny tore off the helmet, refusing to let the water get in the way. The angel was already rushing for her again, its long legs closing the distance quickly, but Jenny was quicker.

  With instant acceleration, she burst forward before breaking into a slide, using her speed to slip right beneath the angel's legs again and emerge on the other side. It crashed into the wall with a screech, and Jenny threw her hatchet again, striking it right on the back of its head, smashing its face through the wall.

  Before it could recover, she leaped onto the angel's back, wrapping her legs around its torso. With a fsh of light, she had her hatchet back in her hands, and as the angel screamed in rage, Jenny smmed the hatchet into the back of its head again, cutting through exoskeleton and bone, burying the edge in its throat.

  It tried to bite down, but she'd cut through the muscles holding its jaw in pce - and she could feel the desperation in its body now. But, fueled with bloodthirst, Jenny was unrelenting, her heart pounded with rage. And she twisted around its body to avoid an arm spping at her as though she was a mosquito.

  Grabbing the hatchet with both hands and turning, Jenny used savage throw with the edge still in the angel’s neck. Screaming, she unched the hatchet through the creature’s body. It spun out in a spray of blood as both Jenny and the decapitated angel went limp and crashed to the water.

  Defeated wretched angel (level 28)

  Experience has been granted!

  Energy +400

  Leveled up!

  Jenny Huang level 30 to level 31

  + 4 stat points