Daren nervously followed Haraiel as she lead him, dressed as she was in a suit. Definitely not the image of the toga-wearing winged angel he’d always envisioned. One of the more surprising things about her though was when he noticed the ear-piece in her right ear and the curling electric wire running down. Just like… Ok, he couldn’t just let this one go.

“Hey, uhh… you said you were an angel, right? But, why are you dressed like a secret service agent?” Daren asked.

The gigantic woman exceeding 7 feet in height turned and looked down at him. “It is the custom of the angels of death to outfit ourselves in the same manner as those who protect the leader of the nation that the soul we are to escort belongs to. It is to symbolize that we regard your protection with the same importance as that of a king, or whatever it is you may call your leader.”

Really? Is that so? But, no halo and no wings though. She just looks like a really tall female secret service agent, aside from the swords and javelins of light she seems to be able to summon from thin air. That aside though, the whole idea of dressing like someone who protects your leader is a fine token and all, but he wasn’t completely certain Haraiel’s actions measured up to her words on this one.

“Are you perhaps wondering why it is that I was late to protect you from those demons were my words about the importance of your protection being true?” Haraiel asked. “It was honestly my mistake. I was present at the time of your death, but I had expected that you would likely manage to bring yourself before the lord by your own power considering the life you had lived. It seems however that your heart was not as accepting of his power as I had assumed, I can tell that now that you stand before me as a naked soul.”

“What? So, what do you mean by that?” Daren asked.

“Those who possess enough of the lords power to aid their ascension into becoming angels will know the way to his side the very moment they leave their body, and they will travel to him by instinct. The demons will not even have the chance to harm such a person.”

“So… you’re saying I can’t become an angel? But, I still get to go to heaven? Even though I didn’t do all that accepting the lord and stuff?” Daren asked, but what he got from Haraiel was a sad and pitying look that caused his stomach to sink to some extent.

“You… will be allowed in.” She said in a somewhat stiff tone.

Daren gave her a very hard look, waiting for the “but” in that sentence. Did she seriously want him to ask?

“Ok, what’s the problem that’s going to make things worse for me because I’m not an angel!?” Daren demanded. Did discrimination exist in heaven too? Did they ghettoize people like him who didn’t “accept the lord” before they died!?

“Well, this doesn’t get any easier to say no matter how many times I have to say it I suppose.” Haraiel said, and then shook her head before giving Daren the look of someone about to deliver bad news. “Spirits who loose their bodies will begin, over time, to loose their sense of self. First you will begin to lose your memories, starting from the oldest and working their way forward. About the same time you have lost all your childhood memories, your personality will also begin to degrade. You will be allowed to experience heaven and reunite with your loved ones who have managed to become angels or those who are spirits but recently dead enough to still be present, but you will eventually become a blank slate. You will be ready for your second chance at life at this point, but… the you who exists now will be gone for all eternity.”

Daren was stunned at hearing this news. So, not discrimination. Those pitying looks were more like those of a doctor having to tell someone they had cancer, huh? So this was the fate of those bound for neither heaven or hell. Instead, it’s a brief glimpse of heaven before oblivion, huh?

“Well,” Haraiel said as she broke the silence. “In the past, allowing those like you to fade away was the only course of action we had available. But, now there are other options, but I wouldn’t say they are completely the best course of action.”

Daren looked up at Haraiel, or rather, he tried but realized he was only looking as high as the tie on her neck and had to crane his neck even higher to meet her eyes. The angle on his head kinda ruined the look of hope he was trying to give her, dwarfed as he was by her size.

The giant woman turned and took two steps away from him before turning back around to meet his eyes. “We should not remain here long.” She said. “I will give you the details as we travel.” She took a few steps down the hall as Daren followed. She did not go toward any door, she just kept walking down the hallway of the school building, leading Daren to wonder where she was going exactly. Well, it’s not like they were going to a physical place on Earth, so going out the door was probably not completely necessary, but isn’t there supposed to be, like… a long tunnel or something?

Almost as soon as he had that thought, the walls of the school and the rows of lockers morphed into carved stone walls that extended as far the eye could see. In the direction they were walking though, there was a light at the end.

Haraiel seemed a little surprised for some reason, but then she turned and gave him a smirk. “So, it seems you’ve heard the stories from one who has seen the other side, huh?” She said. “It’s not quite the same, but this is a pretty good approximation of the protection that rises up around those who’s destiny is not to truly die.”

“Huh?” Daren responds.

“When one is to see this side when they are destined to return to life, we attempt to limit their exposure to this side as much as possible. These walls which you have reproduced are a protection which simultaneously guards them from the demons but also serves as blinders to keep them from seeing too much of this side to a point it may endanger them. It is the combined efforts of several dozen angels of death that produce these walls, but it has become easier to maintain them over the years as humans have come to expect to see them. Their own energy no longer fights us as we try to hold up the barrier.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Daren said. “Slow down a little, are you saying I’m the one who made this area look like this?”

“Of course.” Haraiel said. “We have been in the realm of spirits ever since we left the room where you died. Do you even remember walking out the door? And yet we were in a hallway. If you will recall, there were not even any people around as we were speaking to one another about your condition. I assure you there were several humans active with the aftermath of what caused your death in the physical world’s equivalent of that hallway at the same moment.”

“So… that’s how this place works, huh?” Daren said and then looked around at the tunnel. Well, if they’re going to have to walk anyway, might as well make this place look like a pleasant nature trail.

After that thought, the area around them warped again, becoming a very nice dirt trail through a bright forest in perfect hiking weather.

Haraiel nodded and then motioned for them to continue. Daren followed her lead as he tried to keep pace with her long strides. “So…” he said. “You were talking about how we could do something else instead of just letting me fade away?”

“Yes.” Haraiel said. “At present, the Earth is abundant in spirit energy. In fact, it is somewhat overly abundant. The lord used to have a number of keys at his disposal in order to release some of the pressure created by this spirit energy, but lately there are fewer and fewer people who fit the criteria necessary to serve in the role of keys. So, he has needed to resort to other means of lessening the burden of the abundant spiritual energy.”

At these words, she turned her head over her shoulder to look at Daren. “The lord never wants to see one of his children go, but for this cause he has seen it wise to allow a few people in your position to leave this world while carrying with you a large amount of spiritual energy. After doing so, you can be immediately reborn in another world without loosing your memory.”

Daren was a little shocked to hear this option offered. Reborn in another world with all his memories!? Hadn’t he been hearing a lot of stories like that in some of those Japanese cartoons recently?

“You might have heard of things like this while you were alive.” Haraiel said as though she could read his mind. Well, actually, could she!? “This is also a symptom of the high pressure of spirit energy.” Haraiel continued before he could pursue that thought any further.

She nodded to him before her eyes grew distant before settling into a monologue. “Spirit energy is the energy of thoughts and memories. Because of just how dense the spirit energy of Earth is, it can even pick up the thoughts and memories of things happening on other worlds. And, of course, it is particularly sensitive to former Earth denizens who have left under the lord’s initiative I am describing to you now.

“This is quite helpful in a way.” Haraiel added. “It means that you should already be somewhat familiar with the options you will have available to you. If you happen to choose this option, you will also be allowed to choose what kind of world you will be going to. This makes it very helpful that several human artists who are sensitive to and have picked up the memories from outside the Earth have portrayed their own artistic take upon these world and the events that happened there. Of course, these worlds are only similar to some of the fictional stories you may know, likely similar in terms of creatures and power struggles but not in names, exact events, or political structures. There will be a lot of artistic interpretation, of course.”

“Hm…” Daren responded. “So, in other words, a world full of elves and magic with medieval European levels of technology is not my only option? Well, that’s great. I was afraid I might wind up stuck in a world where I would have to do my business in the street. I’m definitely going somewhere I can get indoor plumbing if I have the choice, like maybe a comic book superhero world.”

“Hmm, so you are saying you would like to take this option?” Haraiel asked. “I believe you should take some time to think about this, whether or not you would rather spend some reuniting with your loved ones. There is also the option of committing to going to another world, and then remaining in Heaven with your loved ones until enough of your memories have faded that you will retain your knowledge but forget all the people you were attached to. It makes your next life easier if you do not have to think about the life you’ve left behind.”

Hmm… sounds like they’ve thought this stuff out.

“We still have until we arrive at the kingdom for you to make a decision.” Haraiel said. “I have given you the options you will need to make your decision, there is no need to rush coming to an answer. In fact, you can even wait up to a year waiting in the kingdom with your family to decide. Some degradation will have occurred by that time, but it is usually the case that those who have only been appart from their body for a year still have plenty of personality to make an informed decision about their future.”

So, the deadline was the decline of his own mental capacity? Kinda like working with a dementia patient. Daren was starting to really not like the sounds of this.