Andrei moved through a suffocating void, a realm where existence itself seemed to dissolve. Nothingness pressed against him, and the only vista was an infinite, prowling blackness. Since the moment he had been swallowed by that cursed portal, he had been a phantom in a labyrinth with no walls, searching for an exit that refused to manifest. His heart hammered against his ribs—a frantic drum in the silence of the grave.
Suddenly, the stillness shattered. A cold, spectral touch grazed his shoulder. Andrei lunged instinctively, his hand white-knuckled around the hilt of his sword. Before a second could pass, a voice like shifting silk whispered directly into his ear: "Why such haste to depart, Andrei? Have you grown weary of this place so soon?"
He spun around, blade leveled at the dark, but the voice had vanished, leaving only the mocking echo of his own breath. With no other choice, he pushed forward until a figure materialized from the gloom.
Andrei froze, his eyes narrowing. The stranger's face was shrouded, yet his silhouette felt heavy with a terrifying familiarity. The man's lips curled into a cryptic smile. "Our second meeting," the stranger remarked, "yet your memory falters. Must I cast aside my veil? Or shall I remind you of how I once plucked you from the clutches of the Master of Death?"
Those words... that attire. Andrei's blood ran cold. "Felek?"
Felek's eyes ignited with a predatory amber glow as he cast his hood aside. "So, you do remember."
"Have you come to lead me out," Andrei demanded, his grip tightening on his sword, "or are you the architect of this snare?"
Felek did not answer. Instead, he took a slow, deliberate step forward, pointing a finger at the empty space behind Andrei. His voice dropped to a gravelly, ominous tone. "Tell me, dear Andrei... what do you hide? When I look at you, I see Hell itself binding you in rusted, heavy chains. I see a sea of infinite souls clawing at your heels, desperate to drag you down. What have you done?"
Andrei's face turned to stone. "I have no idea what madness you speak of. If you know the way out, show me."
"If it is the exit you crave," Felek replied with chilling simplicity, "then merely speak it. Say: 'I wish to leave'."
Without hesitation, Andrei shouted the words. Instantly, the darkness tore open to reveal a door of blinding, crystalline white. Sheathing his sword, Andrei rushed toward the light. "My thanks, Felek," he threw back over his shoulder.
But Felek's expression twisted into a malicious grin. He looked into the void and whispered, "Where is he going? Surely you won't let him walk away so easily, now that he has come to you."
In a heartbeat, the world inverted. The white door turned into a void of ink, while the surrounding darkness ignited into a searing, bleached white. Andrei threw his weight against the door, but it was as immovable as a mountain. Suddenly, seven gates groaned open, and black chains—thick and jagged—erupted from the floor like vipers, binding his limbs.
"What is happening?!" Andrei screamed, his body being jerked toward the thresholds. "Felek! Help me!"
Felek remained motionless, a silent spectator enjoying the spectacle.
The chains jolted to a halt before the seven gates. A faint, hollow chorus of voices rose from the depths: "Why did you do this to us?"
The sound triggered a landslide of memories Andrei had tried to bury—remnants of a life when he was known as Olaf, before he ever set foot in this world. He gasped for air, the atmosphere growing heavy with the stench of brimstone. He knew his reckoning had arrived.
From the ether, countless shadows coalesced, their collective chant shaking the very foundations of the void: "Guilty... He deserves the torment... Guilty!"
Even Felek stood mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of the spirits appearing.
A shadow holding the tattered hand of a doll stepped forward. "I was a simple man," the spirit wept, his voice jagged with pain. "I worked until my hands bled to save for my daughter's surgery. She couldn't walk, Andrei. On the day I finally had the gold, you came. You took the money—I could have forgiven that—but why did you kill her? Why did you plunge your blade into her frail body, again and again, when she couldn't even stand to run?"
Another shadow emerged—a man with the aura of a fallen lawman. "I was a policeman. I found the syndicate, the organ traffickers, and I traced the rot all the way to the Prime Minister. I knew you were coming for me. But you didn't just kill me. You strapped me down and forced me to watch as you carved the life out of my wife, without anesthetic, listening to her screams until her heart failed... Why? Why her?"
Andrei stood paralyzed, the book of his past reading itself aloud. His chest tightened until he could barely breathe. To his side, Felek was watching with wide, ecstatic eyes, unable to mask a twisted smile of admiration for such pure depravity.
The chains suddenly snapped taut, dragging Andrei toward the open maws of the gates. He thrashed and fought, but the shadows pulled him closer. In the depths, he saw a familiar, terrifying sight: a figure with wings of black fire and a face devoid of mercy—his own personal executioner.
Hysteria finally broke him. "No! Not now! I don't want to go! Please!" Andrei wailed as he was sucked into the abyss.
He woke with a jolt, his lungs burning. He was in a forest, the damp earth beneath his fingernails. His heart raced, and his eyes were heavy with the residue of terror.
"You truly are an exquisite puzzle, Andrei," a voice drawled.
He looked up to see Felek standing there, looking at him as if he were a masterpiece of horror. "I thought myself a demon," Felek admitted, "but you... you have proven that I am but a mere apprentice. Who could have imagined you were capable of such atrocities?"
Rage and shame surged through Andrei. He scrambled to his feet, drawing his sword in a blur of steel. "I'll kill you, you devil!"
With a singular, violent stroke, Andrei took Felek's head clean off his shoulders.
The forest went quiet. Andrei breathed heavily, watching the body slump. But then, a laugh bubbled up from the severed head on the grass. "Do you think I am like the Master of Death?" The head rose, reattaching itself to the neck as if held by invisible threads. "Run as far as you like, Andrei, but you are still within the Gate. Those shadows... I don't know where they came from, but all damned souls eventually flow to the same Hell, regardless of the world. When your time truly comes, they will take you. But before you go, know this: I know your secret."
Andrei's eyes went wide. "What do you—"
Before he could finish, the reality shattered again, and he was thrown back into the real forest. He collapsed against an ancient oak, clutching his head as the weight of his sins threatened to crush his mind.
"What can I do?" he whispered into the wind. "No matter how fast I run, the past is always one step behind
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My novel has received an offer to become either a manga or a manhwa. Which one would you choose?