The air exploded in a storm of heat and shadow.
Jin and Marcus plummeted from the sky like chunks of meat hurled into the abyss.
Hell swallowed them.
The fall was long. And silent.
But below, everything screamed.
They tore through a blazing veil and then… impacted with violence.
SCHLAAACK!
They landed in a thick, slimy pool of hot, boiling blood. The flesh on the surface bubbled as if alive. The stench was so strong it burned their noses, like acid. The liquid was dense, sticky, making even breathing a struggle.
Above them, Lorn hovered, floating like a specter among the crimson clouds, his eyes glinting with a hatred that seemed eternal.
"A little gift…" he said, flashing a sickly smile.
And then, in a sing-song, deranged tone:
"Find my little sister… and you're free."
He laughed.
A laugh that tore through the air. That pierced the mind.
And then, he vanished.
Jin and Marcus were left alone.
And then…
Hell revealed itself.
Endless fields of rotting flesh, mountains made of human bones, valleys filled with half-living bodies dragging themselves amid screams and moans. The ground pulsed beneath their feet—as if it breathed. The cries of children echoed in the distance, mingled with whispered voices, directionless.
"Help me… please…"
"I don't want to die… not again…"
"MOM! MOMMY!"
Screams. Cries. Laughter.
Demons with deformed bodies roamed among the damned souls. Some dragged bodies bound by chains of flesh. Others chewed on human remains while cackling.
The sky was a flaming rift, spitting blood and black thunder.
Jin tried to climb out of the slimy pool, but every movement seemed to drag more weight. His body burned. His mind… fractured.
Then he heard:
"You killed me." A soft voice. Familiar.
He froze.
"You… left me. I begged for help. And you… left."
"You betrayed me… Jin…"
He looked up.
His mother.
Covered in blood. Hollow eyes. Pointing at him.
Jin stumbled back. But the voice didn't stop.
"Weak. Weak. Weak," said his brother, grinning, teeth rotten and eyes black. "Because of you, she died."
"You should've died, not her," said his father, appearing beside his brother, eyes filled with fire. "You'll never be like Kael. Never. You're just a mistake."
Jin began to scream.
Reality twisted around him. He looked at his arm and saw worms crawling from his skin. The blood from the pool tried to seep into his eyes, his mouth. Everything felt alive.
Madness. Madness. Madness.
And Marcus?
Marcus trembled, kneeling, eyes fixed on the ground.
He heard.
"Marcus… help me… please…" Zuphia's voice.
"You promised…"
"You said you'd save me…"
Everyone…
"Why…?"
"Why did you stand there?"
From his old group…
"You let us die."
They were there.
He covered his ears. But the voices didn't stop.
And then her face emerged from the flesh before him, as if hell had molded her to torment him.
"You promised…" she repeated.
"YOU PROMISED!"
Marcus fell to his knees. His eyes were red, glassy. His hands shook. He muttered something, inaudible. His face seemed to burn from within.
Both were on the brink of insanity.
Trapped.
Alone.
In hell.
Hell wasn't just flesh, blood, and pain. It was memory. It was guilt.
Jin staggered, soaked from head to toe in sticky goo, suffocated by the stench of death, his eyes burning and skin throbbing as if flames crawled beneath it. But nothing hurt as much as the voices.
"You should've died in that village."
"Parasite."
"Monster."
"Demon."
Kaellia.
Lyn.
Saphira.
The three were there. Or seemed to be.
At the edge of the blood-soaked field, shrouded in shadows. Kaellia looked at him with dripping contempt. Saphira stared with disgust. Lyn's expression was cold as ice.
"You never fooled us," said Kaellia.
"Just a burden. Always were," murmured Saphira.
"You think someone like you could be loved?"
Jin screamed.
"Stop!"
But the voices continued.
His mother wept.
His brother laughed.
His father shouted.
"Weak. Weak. Weak."
"You killed her. You're the monster who pretended to be human."
Jin fell to his knees, covering his ears. But the voices came from within.
His eyes burned with tears, mingling with the goo dripping from his hair.
On the other side…
Marcus was still.
Eyes fixed. Hands trembling. Body inert.
But inside him, chaos:
"You abandoned me, Daddy…" Lira's voice, sweet and broken, cutting like a knife.
"You didn't even look back…"
"I cried for days, you know?"
Marcus ran a hand over his face, as if he could rip the guilt from his skin.
"I was too young… stupid… and I left. Because it was easier."
"Because I was scared… of letting you down. Of hurting you…"
He turned his face, gritting his teeth.
"You and Zuphia… even so, she never abandoned you…"
Lira didn't respond immediately. She watched him like one would a cracked mirror.
"So you weren't just a coward with her…" she said, her tone dry.
"You were with all of us."
"You left me alone… with the end of the world knocking."
The voices of Jin's mother and Zuphia continued.
Veiled, cold. Immense.
"You failed all of us."
"Pathetic man."
"You didn't even have the courage to die."
Marcus' eyes widened, his mouth agape. Tears streamed down on their own.
And then he screamed. A choked scream. He tried to run.
Jin did too.
Both were stuck up to their shins.
Jin was the first to move, wrenching a leg from the goo with a wet snap that felt like it broke his knee.
Marcus, pulling his body with blind force, eyes wide with pure panic.
The black pool held them like invisible hands, stretching into filaments that clung to their legs, stomachs, shoulders.
Every step was a battle. The substance bubbled and resisted, sucking at the ground as if alive, as if it took pleasure in making them fight.
Their facial muscles trembled with pain as they forced their legs free.
A thick strand of goo stretched from their ankles like a tongue.
When it finally broke, they nearly collapsed.
Both limped forward, stumbling, as if escaping the innards of something alive.
But the pool still called—clinging to their heels, scratching with invisible claws, leaving a trail of weight and dread with every step.
They fled. From each other. From the pain. From hell.
Each step deeper. More crooked.
The voices followed. The haunted figures crawled around, repeating words, distorting memories.
Jin ran without direction. Slipped, stumbled. Every wall of hell seemed to move. Nothing was solid. Nothing was real.
And then…
A voice. Rough. Raw. Familiar.
"You need to pull yourself together, kid."
Bouros.
Inside Jin's mind. A spark of firmness amid the chaos.
"They're illusions. Demons love playing with humans."
"They smell guilt. And they chew on it until you're nothing."
But Jin wasn't listening.
He saw his mother hanged, pointing at him.
His brother with hollow eyes, arms outstretched.
Kaellia spitting on the ground.
Lino crying and screaming that he was the reason for Frilia's death.
Jin tripped and fell.
Buried his face in the blood-soaked mud. His breathing shallow.
His mind shattering.
And then… Bouros shouted.
"You useless idiot."
"Your weakness is starting to annoy me more than usual."
"CLOSE YOUR EYES. THINK."
"Just think. Her face. Her voice. Her smiles. Come back to yourself."
Jin squeezed his eyes shut. His fingers clawed at the fetid earth.
He breathed.
The world kept screaming.
But a single drop of clarity trickled through him.
Silence. For a second.
And then, a thought:
"This isn't real…"
Another breath.
Another thread of thought.
"It's not her… it's not Kaellia…"
He opened his eyes.
And noticed the absence.
Marcus was gone.
The goo still surrounded him. The heat still burned. But now… there was silence around.
"Marcus?" Jin murmured, his voice hoarse.
Nothing.
And hell seemed to smile.
It didn't stop. It only changed form.
Jin breathed heavily. His knees trembled. His muscles screamed.
But he stood. One step. Then another.
The sticky goo still held him partially, as if invisible hands wanted to pull him back to the depths.
But now, hands began to appear.
Human hands. Rotten hands. Decrepit hands rising from the living flesh ground.
Grabbing his ankles, his wrists, his waist.
Some with nails. Others skinless.
They murmured. And laughed. And cried.
"Stay with us…"
"Don't go back…"
"This is where you belong…"
Jin thrashed. Pushed forward.
And then…
Marcus.
There ahead. Still. His face serene.
And suddenly—a blade pierced his chest.
Jin screamed.
But Marcus didn't react. He just fell.
In the next instant, he was standing again.
And then a massive claw tore half his face.
Jin ran, but didn't reach him in time.
Again.
Marcus reappeared.
And then burned alive.
Then, swallowed by shadows.
Then, stabbed from behind.
A thousand times. A thousand deaths. A thousand different versions.
With each one, Jin trembled.
His stomach churned. His breathing faltered.
It felt like years passed in mere minutes.
And then, she appeared.
Saphira.
Crawling on the ground, covered in blood, missing half her body.
Her abdomen split open. Her chest empty. A trail of organs on the ground.
Crying.
"Why did you leave me, Jin…?"
"You… you knew…"
"You saw… and still turned your back…"
She reached out.
Her mouth trembled. Her eyes dead.
"I just wanted to live…"
Jin staggered.
Swallowed hard. His eyes widened.
"It's not… real…" he murmured.
And the distorted Saphira laughed.
A broken, echoing sound.
"Don't leave me again, Jin…"
A new figure appeared behind her.
His mother.
With a gaping hole in her chest where her heart should be.
Hollow eyes. Singed hair. A voice firm, serene, cutting like a blade.
"If you were like Kael…"
"If you were strong…"
"I'd still be alive."
She approached, stepping over bodies.
Saphira dissolved into flesh. The voices returned. All of them. At once.
"Liar."
"Weak."
"Monster."
"Parasite."
"You killed us all…"
Jin covered his ears. It didn't help.
"IT'S NOT REAL!" he screamed.
And then…
The hallucinations began to respond.
"Not real…?" said Kaellia, emerging from a twisted body.
"Not even the pain you feel?" murmured Frila, head down, clutching her slit throat.
"Not even your guilt?"
Jin潇
Jin wept. Trembled.
"They're illusions… illusions…" he repeated to himself.
But every phrase brought a new vision.
Lyn slit her throat before him.
Frilia whispered that he could've saved her.
Jin fell again.
His mind spiraled.
The world shook. The ground moved like living flesh. The voices grew louder.
And then, a voice. Firm.
Bouros.
As if shouting directly inside his skull.
"If you break now… they win."
"So think, kid. Think."
Jin couldn't.
His heart pounded like a caged animal.
His breathing was a thread caught between sobs and terror.
His hands shook so much they seemed to want to detach from his body.
The visions didn't stop.
Saphira screamed.
Marcus died—again, and again, and again.
His mother reached out, blood gushing from her open chest.
"You protect no one…"
"You drag everything down…"
"You're the dead weight… the burden…"
And then Kaellia appeared.
Her eyes full of hatred.
"You should've died in that village, Jin."
"It was the gods' mistake to let you live."
"Shut your damn mouth!"
Jin's hand passed through Kaellia's figure, but the illusion didn't fade. She laughed. Laughed with her eyes. Laughed with her lips. Laughed with her bones. Jin fell to his knees, fists pounding the pulsing flesh ground, fingers sinking as if he wanted to dig a hole to disappear into.
"I tried to save you… I tried… I tried…"
But her voice continued:
"You tried to save everyone, Jin. And failed every single one."
The laughter became an echo. The echo became a blade. And Jin, finally, stopped screaming. Because even despair needs to breathe.
Lyn came next.
"Demon…"
"Parasite…"
"You drain everything you touch…"
Saphira, again. Half her body gone.
"Kill me already… please…"
The voices. All of them. Growing. Overlapping. Merging.
An invisible crowd roaring inside his head.
Faceless faces, skinless, formless—but all familiar.
All blaming him.
Jin screamed. A cry of pure despair.
But the scream didn't come out.
It was trapped.
As if hell itself had sealed his throat.
The ground split open.
Worms emerged from the cracks.
Worms with human faces.
And they all whispered the same:
"Weak… weak… weak…"
Jin fell to his knees.
Eyes wide.
He began to slam his head into the ground.
"Get out… get out of my mind…"
Blood dripped from his forehead.
But the voices laughed.
Louder. Clearer.
As if they were inside his skull, scraping the walls of his thoughts.
"You're nobody."
"You never were."
"You should've died with her."
"With her…"
And then, the cruelest, sharpest whisper.
"You killed her, Jin."
"You killed your mother."
A brutal silence.
As if the entire world held its breath.
And then…
"ENOUGH!"
The explosion didn't come from outside.
It came from within.
A primal, savage roar.
Hell trembled.
The visions dissolved for a second—just a second—like smoke in the wind.
Jin panted.
His chest heaved with fury.
His eyes were empty of fear.
Only rage remained. And pain.
And then, Bouros' voice returned. Softer. Firmer.
As if it were inside his heart now.
"If you break now… they win."
"So think, kid… think…"
Jin clenched his fists.
The ground was still flesh. The voices still whispered.
But now he fought.
Against them. Against himself.
A tear fell.
Then another.
But his eyes were fixed. His jaw locked.
"They're illusions."
"Just illusions."
"They want to destroy me… and I won't let them."
And for the first time since falling into hell…
Jin stood.
The hands still tried to grab him.
The voices still screamed.
But he stayed on his feet.
Bleeding. Trembling. Alive.
"You… won't have me…"
And hell roared in response.
As if it had heard the challenge.
As if it accepted the battle.