System Administrative Dimension, Lake Stonecrest, DeKalb County, Georgia. Friday, November 1st, 02:00

Something broke inside her. Just like that, on the whim of a cosmic entity, Mary was sucked into Hades, the land of the dead. Sara felt numbness at the base of her skull. Her anger broke any and all restraints. Instead of the passionate anger of wrath, it was the icy chill focus of vengeance. Whatever water was left on the kayak froze. Air moisture congealed into tiny snowflakes.

The pale horse neighed and clopped the floor, resonating with her anger. It was unaffected by her cold powers.

Her link with the Pale Horse. If she hadn't yet accepted the Omen of the Fourth Seal, why was she already bound to the Horse?

Sara's brain spun its cogs.

Verachiel's contingency failed to rewind the memory of beings from upper dimensions. Sara was a Nephilim, half-Celestial. She surely had a foot in an upper dimension. That's why her connection, her bond to the Pale Horse was already complete. This was supposed to be the fourth or fifth time she became Death.

That's why she could see the dead and their sins. Guide them to the afterlife. That's why the ghosts appeared whenever she needed one. She didn't have the choice to reject the mantle.

She was Death right from the beginning. Perhaps, were she an ordinary human, she wouldn't be able to do shit to these beings. But if they were gods, she was a demigod. She was half-Celestial. Perhaps that didn't matter. Just the concept of Death was enough to impart the knowledge they could die. She never learned which was which as the practical implication was the same. Death was coming with a vengeance. For all of them.

Gloating, Charon stared at the defiant girl. "What are you going to do?" The spell kept growing, devouring more of the surrounding landscape. Kelly's house and Gresham Park. The farms around the lake. It would take all of Atlanta, kill everyone soon enough.

Her fingers wrapped around something invisible and she pulled, breaking metaphysical bindings. She clambered on her feet. With heavy steps, she walked toward Charon. Mana buffeted her and seared her skin so dense it was. She squeezed the cold shaft of her weapon and instinctively called upon something deep inside her.

A scythe, black as midnight, appeared in her good hand. A blade two yards in length, curved and wicked as Death's weapon ought to be. Not a single speck of light from the Core reflected on its midnight black form. It didn't hum, though.

It was one with her. She was the Grim Reaper, the Angel of Death. Always had been.

She raised the scythe and infused it with her Mana. She brought it down on the boatman. Busy channeling his massive spell, Charon had no time or means to raise a defense.

But Charon was one closely aligned with the concept of Death. When he was killed, something else happened. The skeleton shattered and the pieces flew outward, shredding the threadbare robe. Charon was the gateway to Hades, that basic Truth didn't, couldn't change. Dead, he was supposed to ferry himself over but that couldn't happen either. Frozen between such paradox, he was sucked inward, unable to be at the same time both ferryman and passenger.

The Universe resolved the paradox by freezing him in time. The bones froze as they were, halfway sucked into a vortex in space and stabilized the vortex as a natural magic circle which froze to a halt as an oval ring around the swirling gate to Hades. The boatman remained the passage to Hades, but no longer would he sail.

Sara wasn't done. She roared and turned to face Verachiel.

"Sara, stop!" The wounded Titan, Seraph, Fallen, Serpent of Eden, Flame Bringer, or whatever that thing truly was, tried to parlay with her so wounded it was.

"Daughter of Eve my ass!" She shrieked and charged, scythe in hand, ready to claim another life. "You fucking gaslighters."

Wounded by his fight against Fourth, Verachiel tried to draw more power from the Core.

> "Warning. System energy cannot be used against an Administrator," The sweet lady voice of the System Core bleated with a klaxon.

Verachiel became desperate, all eyes fixing themselves on the scythe. Sara grinned. Yes, she could kill the mastermind behind all that. Kill, kill, kill. She embraced her Role for that moment.

A spell diagram flared to life behind Verachiel and sapped Sara's momentum. Sara slowed down because time itself slowed down. She could feel her notion of time stretching...

Stretching!

Bleeding coward of a motherfucker!

She then understood how his contingency worked then. The frozen area stretched time, creating tension like a rubber band. The tension was then used to power that contingency spell. When it snapped, it would push Verachiel back to where it started like a metaphysical slingshot aimed at the past.

It would send Verachiel back to October 7th, 2019 if Abby hadn't sabotaged it.

But Abby's sabotage, opening the time bubble too early, released some of the tension, a rubber band that dried while stretched. Now, when Verachiel released it out of desperation, it snapped.

Another temporal vortex opened and quickly sucked the wounded Seraph, closing before he had gone entirely through. It rebounded and burst in a shockwave of power, sending Sara flying away. She landed next to the corpse of the Fourth Living Being which was also pushed to the edge of the Administrative Space. Where Verachiel stood moments before, dozens of large pinions slowly floated down, cut in half. Gold blood dripped on the System Core. His escape was not without a price.

Whatever happened to the Seraph after that magical mishap, was anyone's guess.

The pale horse approached, not bothered to step on Celestial blood, freezing it from her cold flames. Yes, it was a girl. Verachiel's blood did not evaporate this time. Sara was sure Verachiel rooftop wounded act was an illusion.

She also remembered what Verachiel said on that same rooftop.

"I had four choices among the remaining humans on this planet. One was a murderer, currently serving time in an Indian jail. The second person was a military officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The third one, which I almost picked, is a Brazilian televangelist."

It was pretty obvious now where each Horsemen was. Conquest/Pestilence, War, and Famine. She had a doubt which of the first two was which, but it wasn't an issue for now. She just felt sick to be compared to those people.

Her tension was fading now that she vindicated herself and probably derailed the Apocalypse. The Pale Horse nudged her, trying to comfort her wounded heart.

"I guess I need to give you a name. Green, in Greek is... You'll be Chloros... No, Chloe. It means green and fertility," she caressed the horse's neck. "You know, Chloe, that from death new life springs forth?"

Sara clambered to her feet, her poisoned arm almost useless, scythe in her other hand.

Chloe neighed happily and licked Sara. She accepted her horse. It was part of her, just like the scythe.

"Yeah, me too," The girl tried to giggle as a social cue but she couldn't; Sara was still angry and not yet done, "let's subvert some expectations."

*

*

System Administrative Dimension, Lake Stonecrest, DeKalb County, Georgia. Friday, November 1st, 02:30

Death twirled its scythe. Sara's psyche was shattered and she was just a bit unhinged. Yes, just a bit. Don't argue.

"Happy ending, Abby!" Sara wished with a hidden agenda. No, she basically lied. "We are bound for a happy ending!"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Was he such a big shot?"

"I guess it does?" Sara was unsure. "Wait, do you mean there's more of me out there?"

"No more Verachiel in this reality, then. Good. One less asshole to worry about. Wait, he doesn't exist here right now? Can he come back in the future?"

"Let's hope this is not a Douglas Adams story, then," Sara joked with a dry chuckle. She leaned the scythe on her shoulder. Her weapon wouldn't harm her.

"Till the man comes around," Sara sang the country chorus, then snapped her fingers, "Hey, that's why you dissed Jesus! You're part of a Celestial fifth column. I hope you are not a filthy commie too."

"What a relief! Also, don't care. Heaven is gone." Sara grinned like a cat playing with a wounded bird. "Man, this was quite the hostile takeover," Sara said as she scanned the "room". "System, take a single feather from Verachiel into storage. Do not allow any entity to remove it under any circumstance unless I authorize it willingly and not under coercion five times in the span of five years on the anniversary of this day."

"Affirmative," the System replied and a single feather vanished.

"I'm pretty sure I can get a crafting Class now, I'm thinking about pick up enchantment, and get myself some self-healing clothes made out of Celestial down. I mean, look at the state of my attire."

The swimsuit was soaked in golden blood. Ariel seemed to be drowning.

"And what about this scythe?" She swung the transformed spear.

Sara knew. Because they had given it to her, in the past or perhaps the present, on other interconnected realities. She had a hunch.

"Did this scene happen before? In this location?"

She "was" too spiteful, Abby thought. The parasite had no idea.

"Any tricks for stowing this? The blade seems... deadly sharp," she joked.

"Eh. Nice knowing that," Sara deadpanned, then brandished her scythe.

*

*

System Administrative Dimension, Lake Stonecrest, DeKalb County, Georgia. Friday, November 1st, 02:50

Death brandished her scythe. "Trick or treat, Abby," Sara raved then narrated like a Dr. Seuss audiobook, "It's Halloween and we are all out of candy! Oh, noes!"

She squealed like a horrified little girl.

Her mood did a hundred-eighty turn as she dropped her mask. Sara's next line was like a death metal vocalist, "Of course that doesn't fucking matter, because I'm fucking..." She screeched, "Murdering You!"

Sara gritted her teeth, tensed her muscles. Her eyes burned with murderous fervor.

"I told you I'd fucking get you, motherfucker," Sara rambled gravely. Eyes popped out, she shifted into hissing shallow breaths, "This is goodbye, Abby. A suicide pact. Let's all die together. Humanity is saved, hooray!"

She cackled madly. Unhinged. The System was on, humanity had a shot at salvation. Mary was gone. She just wanted to nail all those motherfuckers. Starting with the closest one, distance zero.

Sara mewled like a disappointed cat who caught a wind-up mouse, "More gaslighting, really? Dude, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Let's die together, Abby. We saved humanity. We stalled the Apocalypse. We started the System Core."

Abby desperately pleaded.

She sighed. "But I won't endure another day with you, you FUCKING PARASITE!"

Her voice sounded haggard and a bit psychotic as Sara held the scythe near the head, spun it upside down, then spun it up high so the tip pointed at her solar plexus from above like a pendulum. "Let's have a happy death!" She cackled with widened eyes.

Sara started to swing the scythe, fully committed to dying so she could remove or kill the parasite and take Abby to the grave with her.

Abby's voice broke and went back to the original androgynous one.

The girl's chest burst open, sending a spray of gore forward. Her Personal System Core cracked as its occupant fled in a hurry. Sara lurched in pain but the intent imbued into the scythe kept her hands moving. As "Abby" materialized in its desperate struggle to survive, the scythe slashed its left side and sliced cleanly off both wings on that side and the Cherub's ox head, leaving the other three attached to the body. Golden blood sprayed along the huge gash.

Sara lost her strength and fell on her face. The scythe clattered next to her, a metallic ringing noise. Abby lost her ability to fly and fell down as well, a few meters ahead of the girl.

> "Your Personal System Core is damaged. All Skill levels temporarily reduced to 1," the System chimed in. "Repairs are underway. Estimate time to finish: 2 months."

No way in hell she would survive that long.

She tried to speak but her lungs were blown out along with her sternum and most lower ribs. Stomach acid seeped along with blood. She couldn't breathe and knew she was going to die without her vengeance. Abby was alive.

And yet, just as Officer Jones survived for days with a hole in his guts, so too Sara forestalled herself with the lifeforce stored in her body. She gazed on the wounded Cherub, flopping around on its two remaining wings like a fish out of the water. It must suck not having grasping limbs, she thought. But Sara did, and she started to crawl toward Abby.

"You are insane!" Abby clamored in its androgynous voice from her remaining mouths. "Get away from me!"

Sara spat more blood, her consciousness slowly fading as she asphyxiated and bled. She painfully dragged herself forward. She reached the scythe and grabbed it. Abby flopped like a fish and bled as well. But she could tell the plumed monstrosity's wound was closing. The bleeding was stopping slowly. Abby would survive if she did nothing.

Seething with hatred, she pushed herself over the growing pool of Celestial blood. She was approaching Abby but her strength was leaving her body. Red mixed with gold in the room. She pulled. Her brain shut down her feeling of pain, intending on closing shop and expiring.

She reached Abby. The cherub stared with abject horror with every one of the hundred eyes in their body and the three remaining heads at the relentless Death, coming for them.

She tried to strike but her arms had little strength left. She couldn't swing the spear.

"It's my win!" Abby gloated as her true self; any pretense of angelical demeanor gone. "Today I conquer Death."

Not yet, Sara thought.

She pulled her other arm and turned on her side. with both arms stretched, she held the scythe firmly in her hands. All she could do was keep it from going away. She interlaced her fingers and put the scythe in place.

"Die! Die! Die!" Abby clamored. "Feeble human! It's my victory!"

Sara kicked the bottom of the scythe's shaft. with her hands as the fulcrum, the head spun in the other direction, sinking deeply into Abby's spherical body. All three heads screamed in a dissonant ear-shattering chord. Then silence.

> "You earned $132,500 System Dollars!" The System cheerfully informed her.

Goodbye, motherfucker.

Sara was free. She was the last man... girl, standing in this Mexican Standoff. Still mortal, she felt the cold embrace of... herself? Still.... human. Free.

She blinked. Still human? Sara reached up and touched one of Abby's feathers. Despite the smaller size, it was just like one of Verachiel's.

She recalled what Abby wanted her to do back in the balcony that day. So, she used her Skill and infused the feather. What could she lose? She was dying anyway.

The feather shone with the infusion of her Mana.