Iblis didn't know what judgement meant; Jenny almost didn't want to know, but she figured she'd find out soon enough.

  The souls moved at an unbearable pace. One foot in front of the other, shuffling, dragging. They all looked exhausted. Frightened. Haunting looks frozen on their faces. Some of them were around her age. Some were older. Some younger. She'd even seen a few toddlers waddling around or crawling on all fours, but they reminded her too much of the angel babies that had followed her around the high school, and she'd couldn't really look at them. A few souls – generally the older ones with graying hair and wrinkled, sagging bodies, knelt and picked up a few of the babies, but many were left to fend for themselves.

  It seemed like everyone who died showed up at this river, emerging from it to walk along this forest path. At least the ground was soft beneath their bare feet. Fresh soil, damp and soft as though it had just rained, curled beneath Jenny's feet. Each step made a soft sound, but there were so many souls that their footsteps sounded like continuous muffled thunder. The only other sounds were the occasional bird calls overhead, the sighs and muttering of the souls, and the sloshing blood they were leaving behind.

  Every once in a while, someone bumped into her and cried out. Jenny winced too - it was like brushing up against a block of ice. They were so cold; and they looked at her as though she'd burned them. For a moment, they looked shocked or angry, but then their faces fell, almost as though they forgot, and they carried on, empty.

  Thoughts didn't seem to st long in their heads and Jenny wondered if that was because they were dead. Or if they just didn't care. Would she care? If she was dead and she was marching toward Judgement, would she care about anyone else?

  You’re a sinner.

  All you’ve ever done is sin.

  You’ve never cared for anyone but yourself.

  Life and death are not about sin, crackled Iblis from the back of her mind, and she blushed, realizing he was present for all her internal intrusive thoughts. Sin is a concept created for control.

  Jenny chewed on the side of her lip, thinking about that. The nature of sin. What it meant to sin. But then she bumped into another soul, apologized quickly, and carried on, trying not to think about anything but what she had to do.

  Besides. Who would've thought the afterlife was a nature hike?

  After a short while, her breath began to cloud in front of her. Not as much as it had in the demon's frozen world, but enough. She was cold. Goosebumps spread across her limbs. She was shivering. But she forced herself to keep her arms at her sides, marching forward with the other souls who didn't seem bothered at all by the cooling temperature. Their breaths didn't cloud. She’d have to be more careful; she couldn't stick out.

  Another bird cry sounded through the air, ringing shrill and high, and Jenny gnced up at the branches. Beyond them was something bright that might’ve been sunlight, but she was sure it wasn’t the sun. The light had no warmth to it. But what kind of birds would call this pce home?

  Squinting she thought she could make out a wing or two, but the birds were too far away to see clearly. She must've paused when she looked up because someone bumped into her back and cried out.

  Jenny whipped around to see an old woman, naked, her sagging skin making her face and body look even sadder than the other souls. She was carrying a baby that was sucking on its thumb. The woman muttered something Jenny couldn't understand then walked around her. Jenny gnced at the others, some of them looked at her nervously, then she turned back and continued walking, trying not to let the fear thoughts overwhelm her. Trying to remember that the Souls were too preoccupied to keep track of anything strange.

  She made a few mental notes. Poor posture. Check. She was good at that, but her new muscuture made that feel strange. But it was easy to remember when everyone around her was hunched over. She was also gd that people were in various stages of hairy. Some guys were covered in fur. Facial hair ranging from stubble to thick manes. Hair across their chest. Their arms and legs. And thick curls of hair between their legs. Some women were hairy too, with fuzz on their limbs or little bits above their lips. Some people were clean shaven or trimmed, but ultimately, nobody seemed to care. Nobody even covered themselves anymore. The shame or embarrassment was gone.

  Jenny tried not to feel self-conscious for her curls. For her nudity. And it helped that she hardly recognized her body. It was like someone else’s.

  Before the survival challenge stuff, she was far thinner. Far less healthy. Her skin a dim pale. Her muscles nonexistent. She was firmer now, with a light yer of muscles. And she was wider, taking up more space, so she tried to relegate that to her subconscious. Tried not to think about it at all. Just walk. Just follow them. Moving through an otherworldly forest, nude, with a crowd of other nude people and-

  Something swooped down overhead. Wings about as long as Jenny was tall fpped lightly, and enormous white feathers fluttered down.

  The souls cried out, covering their heads and cowering. And Jenny did the same. Squatting down but looking up. What was it? Giant birds? Monsters?

  Harpy (level 54)

  But that was all Jenny got. A fsh notification in her head. A glimpse of white feathers and what looked like talons. Enormous and gruesome and sharp. And then the enormous flying thing, a shadowy figure fpping furiously, was gone, arcing back up to the treetops with a high-pitched cry.

  A harpy, said Iblis. I have heard of them. They are meant to be the caretakers of the Garden.

  “What are they?” she whispered under her beard. A man cowering beside her looked up. Jenny flinched and covered her chest, repositioned her legs, but his eyes were wide with fright and his gaze didn't linger. He was searching the sky again.

  Jenny shuddered and straightened up slowly with the other souls, copying them. Moving when they began moving at their slow, fearful pace. Whatever the harpies were, they hadn't done anything. They didn't attack anyone. And besides. The souls were already dead. What could the harpies do?

  But what if they noticed she wasn’t a soul? What if it had noticed a human in the crowd and that was why it flew down? She grimaced but kept her steady pace, marching with the others, fighting the urge to watch the skies and make sure nothing would attack her. I can summon my hatchet back right away; she told herself. Besides, with Iblis possessing her, she was far stronger. She was confident she could take them.

  Comforted by that thought, she continued walking. One foot in front of the other. But looking at naked backs and legs only made her mind wander, and she wondered what the harpies were doing here. What did it mean to be caretakers of the garden?

  Was their job to make sure the souls walked along the path? To keep people from wandering off? On the sides of the road, there were the trees and Jenny wondered if she might be able to run for it. But the harpies could swoop down from the skies. They might be all over the forest. She didn't want to get skewered by those ugly talons.

  The trail seemed to go on forever; it must've been several hours of walking already. She wasn’t sure. Time blurred, and she couldn’t tell how long it had been since she’d waded out of that river.

  The blood had dried on her skin. Her hair was stuck to her back and her shoulders. Dirt clung to her legs nearly up to her knees. And the strange light from the sky was starting to get on her nerves. She was tired of looking at bare shoulder bdes and spines. Tired of looking at people's backsides. The souls might not notice or care but Jenny was tired of looking at people's butts, and just when she thought she might lose it - the forest cleared away and the sight made her knees go weak.

  The sun was shining brightly. Fiercely. And towering over them was a giant stone archway that must’ve been thousands of feet tall. It looked like the entrance way to an ancient city.

  Each of the stone blocks were taller than she was, and the top of arch was so high up.. She craned her head all the way to see it. She'd walked beneath skyscrapers all the time back home, buildings that seemed to go right up to the clouds. But she was sure they could stack every single building from the city right here and still not reach the top of this archway.

  None of the souls were looking up, so she quickly adjusted herself and followed them through into its shade. It was like stepping into a tunnel built inside a mountain, book-ended on both sides by brilliant light that illuminated the space. The archway was about a city block thick, the insides lined with the same stone pattern, and it was clear that this was the entrance to the afterlife. She got another round of goosebumps that had nothing to do with the chill of the souls around her.

  As she crossed the length of the archway, her heart pounding, Jenny fought the urge to gnce back and see how many people were behind her. The walls seemed to be closing in. Too many people crowding her. She resisted an itch in her throat. A tightening in her chest. Keep moving forward. But the ground seemed to be shifting. Extending and stretching. As if hurrying her along.

  It was no longer soil. Now it was stone, and it stung the soles of her feet with every step. The Souls didn’t make a sound, so she tried not to be too expressive, even as she felt the soles of her feet rubbing away. To her relief, they emerged back into the sunlight on the other end a few minutes ter, coming to what looked like a giant corridor. Or an alleyway between two enormous buildings.

  There was a ptform. Raised by several steps, and upon it was a towering set of scales. Two rge ft dishes were held up by golden chains, and it looked the kind of scale she'd used in physics css to bance weights. Was this Judgement?