"Hello! Is anyone here?! Where am I even?"
"Hey! Who are you? I can't see a thing..." came a deeper, older-sounding voice.
"I'm here too..." a boy's thin voice spoke up.
"So... there are three of us here."
"Seems like it..."
"Both of your voices sound pretty young... What are your names, boys?"
"M-me? Tony..."
"So Tony... My name's Willy."
"And you, the other boy? What's your name?"
"I'm Louis, sir."
"Louis, Tony... do you know what's going on here? Can you see anything?"
"Not really..."
"No idea... but I doubt all three of us have gone blind... I don't feel any damage to my eyes either... We're probably locked up... somewhere pitch dark..."
Louis placed his hand on the wall and started feeling around the corners. Suddenly, he stumbled over something. Frightened, he clung tighter to the rough surface of the wall.
"Ah! What was that?!"
"What happened?!"
"I tripped over something... or someone," he said, terrified.
"Wait! I found something," said Louis. "Damn... I found a handle, but it won't open..."
"Were we kidnapped? I... I wasn't here last time..." Tony's voice trailed off, struggling to piece together his fuzzy memories.
"I don't remember how I got here either..."
"Neither do I..."
"I don't know, but we damn well need to get out of here! And I won't stand idly by!" Willy started banging on the walls.
Moments later, a sudden click echoed, and the door swung open. Pale purple light spilled in as four figures staggered out, relieved.
"So I ran into you... Sorry..." Louis said, surprised as a very thin, messy-haired girl stepped out from among them. Her clothing resembled a kimono—or at least a worn, torn, and dirty version of one. Around her neck hung an amulet carved with a purple stone sigil, resting between her small breasts.
Tony stepped back, his expression changing.
"A girl...?"
"Seems like it..."
"Why didn't she speak until now? Could she be involved in all this?"
"I doubt it... Look at her... I don't see any evil in her..."
"Evil hides better than you think," Tony snapped.
The girl, terrified, covered her mouth with her hands, backed away, and pulled behind Louis, her fingers splayed by her thighs. Her body began to tremble, gasping for air.
Louis grabbed her hands, looking deep into her eyes—as if a soothing essence immediately settled over his heart.
"Tch... Look around... Are we really still in our own world?"
The four looked around.
Bright green grass stretched beneath their feet, dotted with countless flowers. To the west, transparent crows pecked at nuts on the trees and flew around them. Cherry trees and vineyards spread southward. The north was dominated by rocky mountains. To the east, endless fields stretched, alongside a river frozen in blood. Sparse willows cast soft shadows along its banks.
"Where are we?! Why does a resting purple mist cover everything in twilight?"
"Impossible for all of this to be real..."
Louis's gaze fell on the river.
"Look at the river! Am I the only one seeing it red? This whole place's atmosphere... it feels like some strange dream."
"And at the same time, beautiful," added Tony, his eyes shining with the rays conjured by the purple light-emitting celestial body.
The older man looked at the landscape, pale and shaken. Suddenly, a tremor spread like poison through every part of his body. He sat on a stone, trying to restrain his trembling legs with hands pressed to his knees.
"Look, someone's coming!" Louis shouted.
From the trees and bushes stepped a mysterious figure. As he got closer, he became recognizable as an old man with a long, white beard. Long robes dragged behind him, covering his body. With crooked fingers, he waved once in the air and was about to speak.
"Greetings to you," a hoarse, deep voice spoke. "My name is Melin. I will guide you to the Trial of the Lost."
"What trial? How did we get here?" Willy asked, not holding back.
"Don't interrupt me now!" Melin snapped. "Now listen carefully..."
"So that's it? I ended up in hell?" Tony wondered to himself.
"Hey, you there! Listen up! Don't be afraid. Even if you've crossed beyond mortal life, you're not lost yet. You've been saved. The trials ahead may bring your salvation from suffering."
"Who saved us?" Willy asked.
"Your repentance. Your questions. The judges. And I cannot dispute their judgment.
The trial begins in exactly one hour, and we must get there. Decide now whether you long to return to your earthly life."
"You there! Tony. Speak up!"
"I... Not many understand me out there...
I despise people from my heart, whose souls I saw as a humiliation of our existence...
I can't even grasp where I ended up... Yet I see no chance to ever find peace in the world.
Will the trial make all my wishes come true?"
"Yes. At the end, you can achieve every goal."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean? The chance, the way out, that all four of you have always sought..."
"My life is a greater prison than hell. So I'm with you, Melin."
"Then good luck with the trial, Tony. And you, Willy?"
"Melin!.. Please, give me answers before...
With the corruption of the sacred grows darkness, right? That's why I never knew for sure if ending my life meant seeing my son again in heaven... or in the realm of evil... or neither..."
"True for innocent souls. But souls cannot be damned if not yet corrupted during their earthly life.
And those who take their own life never see the seven gates of heaven.
So be grateful the judges saved you. Because you were about to do exactly that..."
"Me?! I wanted to kill myself?..." Willy whispered, shocked. His eyes widened, forehead sweating.
"Enough answers?.. Will you come or not?!"
"If I continue my pointless life without gratitude, I would betray the judges... Then I could never be with him again... I have no choice..."
"You see it right, William.
Hmm... Both forces of energy showed themselves in my life: light and darkness.
I owe gratitude to one, vengeance to the other...
I will take revenge on evil to earn paradise. I'm with you too!"
"And you, Louis?"
"I... I'm just searching for a way out of hopelessness. My dreams seem to fade... more and more...
Though I'm still young, I've wasted so much time and potential in life...
I never found my place in society. If there's a chance to shape the world in my own image, then I'm with you too."
"The judges have heard you, my child. Come then, as well."
The others gazed wearily at the hermit as they moved toward their fate. Louis glanced at the girl who still tightly clung to his arm.
"You're coming too, right?"
Kodella just nodded once.
"Alright... Melin... the girl walking beside me... who is she?"
"The girl among you, as you might have guessed, is mute. Her name is Kodella.
Regarding the path, she doesn't really have a choice either.
She lived in a monastery. If you can call that living...
She survived seven days without food or water... But the judges found her and saved her."
"What was their purpose with her in the monastery? And why can't she speak?" Louis asked.
"Her tongue was cut out... She was isolated so that the concepts of good and evil wouldn't be engraved in stone.
They kept her body pure, but her soul was turned into an empty childlike canvas.
They only taught her our language so she could chant the ancient spells when demons were summoned into her."
The girl's face fill with sadness, and she lowers her head..
Tony and Willy listened to the story, stunned.
"With physical presence, they can sow the seed of evil firsthand. While retaining their supernatural power... They kept this poor girl only for that?" Louis asked, stepping out of his maze of thoughts.
"Something like that... Although darkness sleeps in every person, even the most corrupted accept only a leader who embodies the dark forces fueling their manifested darkness," Melin replied.
"I see..." The weight of so much information made Louis's mind replay the hermit's words again and again... A knot tightened in his stomach...
"Nothing is without poison. You're not simple souls. But each of you has a role to fulfill...
By the time the bell rings, we should be more than halfway there. So hurry your steps!"