Jenny didn't have the strength to even cry out. Azriel picked her up like a ragdoll before grabbing the cross. For him, it didn’t seem heavy at all. Her head swung, her hair and tentacles blowing in the cold breeze, as Azra’il paused in front of the passageway tunnel she'd opened.

  "The world of the damned," he said with a ugh. "What hope did you have, my beautiful little interloper?"

  She was too hurt to respond. She'd failed. They'd failed. They'd lost. If there was any soce, it was that Azriel didn't have Susan still. Susan got away.

  "A soul in the material world..." he said. Then he took a step into the passageway, and the world of snow and ice, the world of frozen demons, and the world where Yeshua and hundreds of deaths were stuck in pilrs made of salt, vanished.

  Light bent around her. Greens swirled and chased purples by her face; she shut her eyes. Tears bubbled up from behind her eyelids and slipped away. She felt the light seeping through her body, healing her insides. But what did it matter? She knew what was coming. What Azra’il would do to her.

  She always knew she would be punished. And she deserved it. She’d known that ever since she was a kid.

  But Susan got away. Susan got away.

  I got her away from him.

  The light snapped shut. And Jenny was thrown onto wet ground with a spsh. It was thick and hot and disgusting, the metallic stench clogging her nose and lungs immediately. She opened her eyes, feeling her insides clench with fear as Azriel towered over her in the dark world, blood raining down his enormous form and running down his limbs. In his burnt hand, he held the cross.

  "You were trying to save him, weren't you?" he asked solemnly, almost understandingly. "I pity you. The Failed One has corrupted your mind, but fear not." With a lumbering step, he raised the cross and plunged it into the world, as though he was sticking a dagger into the ground.

  The rain stopped immediately. There weren't any ghouls swimming around, and the deaths and demons had done a great deal of work clearing much of the nd. The nearest pilrs were quite a distance away, and Jenny scanned the area, trying to spot any demons or deaths who'd gotten through the passageway when the order for retreat was called for. Were they in hiding? Did Azriel's power reach through the passageway? There was nobody in sight.

  She tried to get to her feet, but her arms gave out. Something inside her felt broken. She was exhausted. Completely drained. Azriel reached down and grabbed her head with two meaty fingers and held her up, pressure squeezing the sides of her temples as his broad grin came into view. The blood rain had stopped, but a few drops slithered down the side of his nose and ran down his lips. Her tentacles hung uselessly.

  "I almost bit your head off in my rage," he said. "And what a shame that would have been." His tongue came out, jet bck and rger than Jenny, and before she could even scream, he'd licked her from her toes to her forehead.

  Her exoskeleton, what was left of it, burned away. Her armor dissolved, and she cried out as she was left naked and bare.

  "Imagine I had killed you," he whispered, eyeing her greedily. He looked like he wanted to lick her again, but it was his snakes that snapped forward and flicked her body with their tongues all over: her arms, her hips, her thighs, her ankles.

  "Fuck you," she managed to spit, even though she was trembling, even though she was terrified he'd pop her head like a grape.

  His lips curled into a sinister grin. "I love a human with spirit. That is why I have decided you will be my bride. My queen. The queen of the underworld. And this way..." He moved her away from his face, and then her back pressed against something hard. Something wooden. She couldn't help but whimper. "This way, I can keep you here. On the Failed One's cross. Until it is time."

  "No," gasped Jenny, wanting to protest, wanting to beg, a part of her ready to be his bride if it would mean being spared - but then she remembered finding Susan in that chamber, finding Yeshua in this world, losing their minds with pain.

  She wasn't going to beg. She bit her bottom lip till blood ran down her chin.

  "What spirit," ughed Azriel. He waved his burnt hand, and three points of golden light appeared, spiraling and spinning until solidifying into three gruesome-looking nails, each one as thick as Jenny's arm.

  Don't scream, she told herself. Don't scream. Don't scream.

  Don't give him the satisfaction.

  Don't scream!

  With a flick of his fingers, the nails darted forward. Her arms were spped back against the cross, spreading them wide—she bit her lip so hard she bit right through. The nails shot through her palms, through her feet, and dug into the wood with a loud, horrible snap.

  Blood dripped down from her hands. Blood streamed down from her feet. Blood ran down her chin, her chest, her navel, and down below.

  Azriel released her head and admired his work as she hung from the cross. "Now you cannot harm Destiny. I am certain the holy tablet has changed. That my sister has secured His pn."

  All Jenny managed was a pained whimper, red tinging her vision, the pain so much she could hardly breathe.

  "I will inform my siblings I have detained you, interloper. They were so concerned. But now destiny will proceed as pnned."

  He ughed. A deep, cruel ugh that shook his entire body, and then he brought his face close to her own. The snakes licked at her lips. At her chest. There was another burst of golden light, and a circle of thorns appeared. Gently, almost lovingly, he pced it on top of her head, and she shut her eyes, trying not to make a sound as the sharp spikes dug into her skin, into her hair, as it settled into pce.

  "I will come back for you once the work is done. Once it always will be done. Once all the worlds bask in His glory. Then I will cim you. My bride. And we will preside over death for as long as He deems fitting." He held his fingers to her belly. Something moved from his flesh—his meaty, hot flesh—and pushed into her belly button, squeezing through her insides and into her. "Now you can heal too, like the souls, like the Failed One. You will stay here, perfect until we are bound in matrimony. And the womb who birthed the antithesis will be conquered."

  Jenny's mind was numb. Something wriggled inside her stomach, worming its way through her chest. Her mouth hung open. Every breath hurt. What was he saying?

  His words almost sounded far away, muted, like she was dreaming. Everything hurt so much. What the fuck was he talking about? Matrimony? Why did he want her so bad? The Antithesis?

  She blinked, breathing deeply, ignoring how each slight movement pulled against the nails, ignoring whatever was wriggling in her belly.

  "You're pathetic," she said, her voice hoarse. Every breath ignited a new round of pain in her hands and feet. She so badly wanted to use Severed Spirit again, to no longer feel any of this, but she was already Desecrated. What could she do?

  "What did you say?" snapped Azriel. That fury fshed in his eyes again.

  That's right. Get angry. Kill me.

  You want to die.

  You want the pain to end. You want to be free of this.

  Then your soul can go find Susan and—

  What delusion are you convincing yourself—

  "How dare you," said Azriel, curling his lips. "I'm not pathetic. You mortals are the pathetic ones. Thinking you can fight against your creators. Rebellion against He who created you." He leaned in close, his mouth opening wide to reveal his teeth, and then he screamed, his hot breath billowing over her body. "WHY DON'T YOU JUST ACCEPT YOUR PLACE IN THE WORLDS?"

  Jenny hawked up some phlegm, as much as she could—it was easy with how badly she wanted to cry, with all the snot in her nose—and spat right into his open mouth.

  "ARRRRGH!" he screamed, and he looked ready to pummel her, to punch her with his truck-sized fist and end her right then and there, but he composed himself. He stood straight. "I will return once the Material World has fallen. And believe me." He snarled. "I will find your friend. And I will add her to my collection. And she will hang from my pace, and every time you refuse to do as I ask, if you do not satisfy my every desire, I WILL take it out on her."

  "FUCK YOU!" screamed Jenny, but Azriel stepped back into a pool of darkness opening beneath his enormous feet. It was just like the liquid she'd found on the cafeteria floor that the angels had crawled through. Just like the darkness that opened when Jenny used Severed Spirit on the worlds.

  And he was gone, leaving Jenny alone in the dark, empty world she'd found herself in after leaving the Survival Challenge. After leaving Susan's corpse.

  It was quiet. It was quiet, and she was alone, hanging from a cross, refusing to cry as pain wracked every inch of her body, as the stillness of the world seemed to threaten her from every side, as the dark heavy clouds above seemed to mock her. As Azriel's voice rung through her head over and over—what he might do to Susan.

  Unable to stop herself, knowing it won't help, she sucked in a deep painful breath and screamed at the top of her lungs. The thing in her stomach pushed against her skin, and she whimpered, stifling her scream. It wriggled again, a bump rising past her rib cage, and she couldn’t hold back anymore.

  She shut her eyes and screamed and screamed and screamed, fire bursting out of her throat, fire catching all over her skin, unable to do anything to the wood that bound her in pce. Fury burned inside her, coiling around the pain and fueling her fire. I WILL KILL HIM!

  I WILL KILL HIM!

  I WILL KILL HIM!

  “Who are you going to kill?” asked a small voice, and Jenny stopped screaming. Tears blurring her vision, she looked down at the ground where a boy stood in front of her. He couldn’t have been older than eight or nine.

  Death (Level 0)

  She blinked away the tears, squinting, wondering if she was finally losing her mind. The boy looked familiar—too familiar. He looked just like she had as a child: the same round, pale face, the same dark hair. He wore a purple robe, and beyond him, she could see a rge gathering of many, many Deaths. Yeshua and the others must’ve freed so many while she’d been in the world of souls. They must’ve been hiding here. Or they got through the passage... were there any demons? She couldn’t see.

  And who was the boy? But even before she asked her question, she knew who he was.

  “Who are you?” Jenny took a deep, shuddering breath, blood running down the side of her face.

  “I think I’m your Death,” said the boy, raising his head and shrugging. “Hello.”