The floating bodies burst, exploding like food left too long in the microwave. Their insides spttered the walls. A huge cloud of steam hid the desecrated angel from view.

  Jenny had gotten out of the water a split second before the lightning hit her, jumping as hard as she could and striking one of the cobblestones with her hatchet to hang from it, her legs dangling about a foot over the electrocuted water. As the steam parted, Jenny saw the rest of the carnage.

  Even the wretched angels had been blown apart. Their internals must’ve expanded too rapidly inside their exoskeletons, and they popped open, leaving behind a gooey mess in their mostly intact shells. The stench was the worst part, with the water boiling and the bodies super-heated, a sour, putrid humidity clogged her nose. It hurt to inhale.

  The desecrated angel was still on all fours, its head lowered so that long green hair covered its face. Small bolts of lightning snapped and faded around its back, and now that it was hunched forward, Jenny could see several spikes jutting out from its spine, going all the way down to its bottom, each one about the length of her arm.

  She looked up at Miriam who'd stopped screaming. The harpy was still feeding on the girl, but Miriam was no longer making a sound. Every few seconds, golden light shimmered brightly around them and faded away. They were on top of the opposite wall, across the flooded corridor. Jenny held on tight to her hatchet, pressing her armored feet against the wall, wondering if she could somehow climb like this. It would be easier to just bring out Iblis, get her wings back, and soar to the top, but she could sense the demon’s hesitation.

  It would draw even more attention to themselves, bringing more harpies to their location and potentially alerting Azra’il. And if that became a rge-scale battle, she would burn out. They were stuck. She had to deal with this herself or open a passageway back to the world of demons. She wasn’t ready to give up. Not yet. There was enough steam lingering in the air to hide her from both the harpy and the angel – she just had to climb now.

  Gritting her teeth and digging her fingers into cracks and grooves between the cobble stones, she yanked her hatchet out of the wall and hung by her fingertips. The strain was already burning her forearms and her shoulders, but she could hold on. It wasn't unbearable; she only wished had more of a hold. All the strain was on her fingertips. Even with her stats being so high, it was killer.

  By pressing her feet against the wall to shift some of her wait, Jenny pulled herself up, swinging with her hatchet to slice into another stone overhead. This way, she kept climbing, higher and higher as the desecrated angel waded around. Down below, she could see it sniffing the burnt bodies before feasting on some of the exoskeletons. Crackling sounds, like someone chewing on hard candy. Souls wandered into the mess and ran away screaming; the angel didn't pay them any mind. It probably figured they weren't worth the effort, but it seemed to have lost its ferocious drive from earlier. Either that or it hadn’t noticed that Jenny had escaped its attack.

  Taking advantage of the angel’s unawareness, Jenny climbed, her muscles screaming for rest, but she knew if she rexed, she'd plummet back down to the water, to where the angel was waiting. She’d be at the creature’s complete mercy.

  She climbed, one cobblestone part of the wall at a time, and trying to be quick before the steam completely dispersed, and she lost the element of surprise. The angel’s triumphant feasting on charred exoskeletons masked the sounds of her hatchet striking the wall repeatedly, and she kept her mind focused on how the angel moved. It had some ability that was like her instant acceleration. When it first attacked, it unched itself into her like a rocket. Or maybe it could move so quickly because of its powerful legs. She didn't want to know how high the thing could jump and as long as it was busy with the carcasses, she didn't care.

  At the top, she found that the wall was about three feet in thickness, giving her ample space to stand. The water below seemed so far away, it made her dizzy. There was a strange pulling sensation, a tingling in her ankles and her feet, as though her body wanted to drop down. Water and blood dripped from her scales. She even thought about diving onto the desecrated angel’s back and striking it down, but she caught her breath, eyeing the horizon.

  There was no moon or star or sun. The sky was simply red, and as far as she could see in every direction, the walls twisted and turned and went on forever; it really was some kind of maze. A byrinth. Behind her, souls were running along the corridor, crying and moaning as angels gave chase. But across the water in front of her, above where the desecrated angel was still feeding, was the harpy. It had finally noticed Jenny.

  Blood dripped from its chin. It wiped its face with one of its oversized wings, and Jenny noticed that the scratch she’d made earlier had healed away. Its eyes dazzled. Miriam y beneath the enormous talons. Unlike the wing, it looked like the talons didn’t heal. One of them was still missing.

  Miriam was limp on the wall, a leg dangling over the edge. The harpy leaned down and grabbed one of Miriam's hands with its teeth. It looked up at Jenny as Miriam cried softly. It wanted Jenny to see. Then, it readjusted its talons, its entire body bobbing like a bird repositioning, and snipped through flesh and wrenched its head, tearing Miriam’s arm off at the elbow.

  Miriam screamed. Jenny flung her hatchet at the harpy, throwing it so hard she almost lost her bance on the top of the wall, but the harpy relinquished its hold on Miriam and dove toward the desecrated angel. The hatchet spun over Miriam's body and struck a distant wall with a thwack.

  I need a way to cross the distance, thought Jenny, wishing she could borrow Iblis’ wings. She thought about her tentacles for a moment and felt that familiar itch along her spine, but before she could consider bringing them out, the harpy swooped up again, a horrible grin on its porcein face. Its white hair bounced all around as its wings fpped. In its talons was the green desecrated angel. The harpy had brought it right up to Jenny.

  The angel swiped at Jenny, and she blocked its attack with her arms, feeling the scales crack from the blow. She dropped down, hanging off the ledge of the wall by her fingers as the angel nded on top with a heavy thud. One of the cobblestones came loose and fell away, nding below with a hefty spsh.

  Jenny summoned her hatchet back and swung again, trying to climb back on top of the wall. She wished desperately to move quicker, to out maneuver the harpy and the angel midair. Like a light bulb going off in her head, a familiar sensation flickered through her limbs, and a notification surfaced:

  New ability!

  Instant Swap - Change position with something you've touched within the past 5 seconds.

  And she knew exactly how to use it as the desecrated angel's teeth gnashed, as its cws scraped off the top of the wall, as bolts of green light snapped around it. Jenny let go, falling away, watching the angel drool and spit overhead, watching the harpy fpping even higher up, silhouetted by the red sky. She had only one chance to catch them by surprise, and she wasn’t going to mess this up. Swinging her arm back, Jenny flung her hatchet with savage throw.

  "You missed me!" sang the harpy as the hatchet spun way, way up overhead, shooting straight up into the air. The angel looked up to follow its movement, but the harpy cackled down at Jenny.

  Just as she spshed into the water below, she activated the skill. There was a swooping sensation, a feeling in her gut like when she'd be sitting in a car and there'd be a sudden dip, the feeling she imagined would hit if she'd ever had the courage to ride a roller coaster. Her stomach did a flip, and suddenly she was falling from the sky. Below her was the stretched-out wings of the harpy, white and glistening, and the feathers of its exposed back.

  Several thoughts flickered through Jenny's mind in the second or so before she made impact - crash into the harpy and bring it to the ground. Summon her hatchet and cut through its spine - but then Jenny thought better of it and righted herself, aiming her armored feet at the harpy as she hurtled down like a meteor. Light fshed to her hand as she summoned her hatchet back. Wind blew past her lips and her eye lids, lifting her hair. Her fingers curled around the hatchet.

  The harpy's cackle was cut short - an abrupt cry. Jenny's feet found the harpy's neck and upper back. There was a horrible snap, followed by something even worse - a very loud crack as Jenny brought the hatchet down, swinging it with both arms, using the force of the fall, onto the angel's green head.

  Electrical energy crackled around its body. The hatchet's edge sunk through its face, breaking the armor and erupting into a spray of blood. Jenny left the hatchet buried in the creature's head, as the harpy smashed through the water and into the ground. As the impact sent tremors racing up Jenny's legs and into her hips.

  The angel fell a moment ter, nding with a spsh, its arm spping Jenny away. She smmed into the wall face first, bounced off the cobble stones and colpsed in the water a few feet from the struggling harpy. Its head, its beautiful face, was bent the wrong way. Panic widened those once-cool eyes as its wings fluttered uselessly against the water.

  The angel, Jenny's hatchet sticking out from its nose and lips yanked the weapon out and flung it over its shoulder. Lightning snapped and popped around its broken face as it stumbled back, hands struggling with the wound. It was cwing at its own exoskeleton, but a cry came from above. A scream as Miriam also fell from the wall, the talon in her hand - had she been clutching that this entire time?

  Jenny watched as the girl nded on the desecrated angel, burying the talon through the crack in its metallic exoskeleton, lodging it deep inside its head with a gross, wet sound. Lightning crackled again. The angel twitched. And then it colpsed on top of a stone block, and Miriam rolled away, her pale arm covered in blood up to the elbow, the talon left buried in the creature's skull.

  Defeated desecrated angel (level 63)