Many people whom I meet in my daily life typically say that death only comes to those who have sinned.
All of those who spoke such words died peacefully in their sleep, and today, it came for me next.
My life support machine started bleeping the alarms that rumbled inside my heart, I could instantly tell...that I was seizing.
Doctors coming in armed with defibrillators, hoping to encounter this wretch for another day, this has already been a common occurrence that I experience in my day-to-day. I shouldn't keep on worrying about myself a lot, but this time, I saw it.
Death is what I saw.
{Greetings, redacted.}
Huh?
{You have died.}
As my vision faded, such a message appeared before me, I couldn't truly believe it, the fifteen years I spent fighting, all for it to just end like a thread.
No,no,no,no, fuck no, NOOOO!!!!
Darkness began encircling me with unhinged gazes of white staring right at me, as a burst of laughter was smeared onto my bedridden appearance.
Chains of shadow and brimstone from below flung and wrapped across my body, constricting it with a tight grip and went on to drag me down to said Inferno, I could see myself on the hospital bed before dropping, trying to escape was futile, tears ran down my cheeks as I fell from grace, I should've already expected it by now death was going to take me someday, but I didn't know it would be today.
....
I woke up to the sound of children's laughter and also a bursting breeze that blew by like a hurricane and had the temperature of frost. Since I had little to no knowledge of my surroundings, I quickly surveyed the area, but more importantly!
Why am I naked?
God, this is so embarrassing. Where are my clothes?
In search of any cloth to cover up my naked body, all I could observe was a blank space with mouths of scribbled white drawn in from the zephyr of the world itself.
I frowned, gritting my teeth in the process. It was the same mouths of the motherfuckers who smiled maliciously at my decline, with grins that could only describe the devil.
It was clear.
Whoever they are, they were mocking me.
I collapsed onto the spacious floor, trying to process what had just happened.
The same message screen appeared before me, it was so puny that I almost wanted to smash its bits out.
{Welcome, Mr Huan, to the Obsidian}
I rubbed my eyes with scepticism running through my veins, even though I don't have any veins in my body now.
How do you know my name?
Suddenly, a buzz of static was heard through the screen, and what followed was an image of a demon crossing his fingers, probably from my excessive amount of jabbering.
He had white hair, a golden monocle which for some unknown reason gives me nightmares, a top hat that seemed to match his height and a beard which seemed to miss the best parts of a beard, which was the moustache area.
But moving onwards, the expression that struck his face was as if he was about to be the first person to establish the first irritated declaration of ten thousand souls in his lifetime, as the picture spoke with a fiery passion:
{Mr Huan, honest to the bloody devil, if I were not to remember your name, I would've lost my job and live in a shoebox for the rest of my eternal life! So quit your mindless rumbling and start listening to me. Before I start to singe you to eternity in my office!}
And then in just a flash, his expression calmed down to where he was sitting on his desk quietly while enjoying a plate of various coloured macarons, as he said calmly:
{Anyways, you should head on over to the gate by the way, as my superiors are currently running out of patience, and if you don't follow my orders, the first person who will suffer will be you.}
While the screen was using the lecherous wind to telekinetically move away, the next thing in front of me was an obsidian gate, ornamented with mistletoes and poppies, a pitiful symbolism of what my life had become.
Strong lustful winds discharged out of the eldritch space surrounding the catacomb of noir, luring me forward.
Heh, it's just like Dantè's Inferno, the first stage is Lust.
They just had welcome me like that...huh...shit.
{Oh, and just remember that you are being sent to eternal damnation.}
Hey, wait just a....mmmmn...mmnnn.
{Aha! There! I've finally managed to shut your lips. By Lucifer's name, are every single one of you humans like this? It just seems that the Obsidian is so much better than before when you didn't exist.}
A silence echoed throughout the chamber, as I attempted to voice out my complaints as usual, however, my body reacted differently to what I wished for, as my lips perched shut, preventing my voice from being heard.
Then the preacher from the screen, starts speaking about how basically my life was a shithole, and therefore that means I have to be eternally damned for my sins because it is their protocol to do so.
What blasphemy was happening for me to even deserve a speck of this punishment?
Firstly, my death seemed to soon for my liking. I just got in an accident with some girl, and then in a twist of fate, the next thing my mind sees is my darn death at the age of 30!
And they say God is all-loving, how ironic is that? Why? Why?! Why!!?
What was the meaning of my struggle anyway? It's unfair! It's fucking unfair!
Wallowing in chains of despair with scarlet hues flowing dead high into the ceiling, telling me that my lifeblood was more important than the wretch that I always was.
Another fucking mockery.
I thumped my fist to the floor, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy my grief, but it did not suffice.
{...I could assure you that doing whatever you humans do won't change anything; you are still dead and are going to be sent to eternal damnation!}
Despite my shut mouth, I was still screaming, damning the gods that have sent me down here, and how I didn't deserve this and how I should be in Heaven instead of this hellhole.
{Oh, it seems that you, like every single other human, didn't listen to a single thing that I said, huh? Since you miraculously still think that you are worthy to be bestowed upon heaven's gate, well, sit down and listen for once.}
A plastic chair then materialised from behind, and suddenly, without any autonomy of my body, the lecherous tempest nabbed me and muttered to my conscience
Hey, there, beautiful, crying won't do anything, as we could've already expected from when you were alive, that you were going to Hell no matter what.
It set me in the most comfortable spot on the plastic body, but it seemed embarrassing that I was falling for lust while I had nothing on; it just reminded me of something that I despise.
Then the video pans back to the preacher, who now has a catalogue in his arms dubbed "Every Creature Left In Hell."
{Ahem, ah here's the right page...participant No. 200000000000001, Ji Huan, sentenced for..Ugh....crimes that I won't ever describe because...satanly your desires are disgusting and for such crimes and desires and blah, blah, blah. I have to sentence you to eternal damnation by the snake pit.}
A shiver ran down my spine, raising signals of a greater evil arisen and ready to take my life.
{I assume you don't like snakes, do you?}
I shake my head in quick succession, fearing what will become of me.
Then he closed the book and let out a brief sigh before uttering the words that would normally come from an overworked employee.
{Well, sorry but...beep...beep...beep!}
An alarm wailing an abyssal shriek shook throughout his office, sending a blaring message towards him.
{Lust is approaching, please protect yourself.}
{That's very interesting, for him?}
He turned to me with a maniacal smile which radiated an unseen but chaotic force, and through it, he muttered:
{There is a way for you to escape such damnation.}
What?
{If you don't want to do it, just shake your head, I can't force...Well, I can force you to go to eternal damnation...But I am bored with the place where I reside, but you seem to belong to a friend of mine, so listen closely.}
I lent an ear out to the person in the video, cause I would do anything to not be stuck in a snake pit for the rest of my life.
{So there is this special program for people like you, which our Majesty Lucifer himself calls "The True End" It is a program where you must advance through the 18 Layers Of Inferno, and those who survive will reach Heaven.}
My jaw dropped to the floor, with drool etching past my lips, I was shocked that such a program exists!
Mnnmmm.
{Oh, and just so you know, I may have already unzipped your mouth.}
So, where can I join?!
{All you need to do, Mr Huan, is to sign this contract.}
And suddenly out of thin air, a scripture appeared before my very eyes, it seemed to be showing an array of rules, but the rules dictated were a bit peculiar than the norm:
{The Ten Commandments}
1. When you enter Inferno, you will gain Spark.
2. If you lose all of your Spark, you will wither.
3. Spark is currency, you can spend.
4. If you wish to gain Spark, you must consume.
Sign Here
-----------------------------------------------------
Immediately using the knicks of my teeth, ripping past the dermis till blood erupts, and began writing on the parchment before it manages to ascend.
{And, all you need to do now is step through the gate, and no worries, I'll help do that for you.}
Unconsciously, the winds forced me towards the gate, the ambience had changed to an ominous aura gathering towards me like swarms of insects, with the devilish laughter recurring once again, this time, they were contorting such a blank nil that surrounded me.
Suddenly, my body was crushed with something that couldn't even be described as human, as I felt the warp of existential properties while trotting through countless amounts of murky bog. Damn you demons, couldn't even let me walk to your homeland in peace, right?!
Those few seconds that I took to get there felt like millennia coursing my veins, and finally, with a sore back and weakened knees, I reached the entrance to where my eternal damnation begins.
Hello?
Why isn't the door opening?
Could it be? No, that's impossible, there should be no way that this is real! Yes...it must be a trap...yes, it must be!
{Are you sure?}
What is this screen preaching? It's just trying to feed me false hope like those villains who tie their victims to the train track, it shouldn't even be possible! No, I shouldn't put my faith in a demon like you; that's what the Fools would do.
{Put your prejudice aside, Mr Huan, as I can assure you that a Demon always follows through with a deal.}
What do you mean, even after all shit I've pulled, I could still go up?
{Yes}
A slight creak was heard as the pearly obsidian gates opened, and my grin turned ridiculous with glee. A chance, I got a chance?! An imaginary black mass spiralled towards the gate, granting it an eldritch look, fitting to what my imagination thought the portal was going to look like; it seems suitable for the door that would lead to my descent into Inferno.
Before I managed to step into such a portal, the same status screen message appeared before me, this time was different, though, it came along with an action for me to accomplish.
{You are the first to enter, Mr Huan. Please state your epithet.}
What...what does it mean that I am the first to enter?
{Make this quick, I don't think I can keep you for long.}
{The Epithet, What...what does it mean that I am the first to enter? has been taken, please try again.}
Oh, goddamn it!
{The Epithet, Oh, goddamn it! has been taken as well, please try again.}
Ugh!
{The Epithet, Ugh! has been taken as well, please try again.}
Just from a glance of whoever is operating this 'system', I could sense that whoever designed this message system must've been a real prick, well, if I were to choose a name, then it would be fitting to name it after how I died, it's probably going to ease my chest off faster, if I do it.
I have decided on it.
Clymas.
{The Epithet Clymas has not been taken, do you wish to choose this?}
Yes.
{Very well, May your descent to the Underworld be peaceful.}
These brats still opted to complement themselves by saying that this will be peaceful, not that I would've expected it, but I was rearing towards the stereotypical demons for my vision.
Out of my mind, my finger acted out of control, as it slowly released itself from my clenched fist, and what emerged was a singular finger projecting out.
Yes, my body 'unconsciously' just gave the demons the fucking bird!
The smiles from above instantly turn into frowns, with a slight growl heard from the background.
Using all of my willpower, my neck twisted, facing the irrelevant and satire bitches and with a gasp of imaginary air prattled with the same smile on my face.
I know that this is not going to be easy, so if I die, you can go die in a fucking ditch.
Goodbye!
And so it begins, my fateful descent into the Underworld.
I'll make sure no ending stops me!
I'll reach Heaven, no matter what!
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As Ji Huan phased through the gate and descended into black matter, at the speed of light, another demon broke past the barrier which protects Obsidian, and as it turns out, she was not happy.
Zaras! You crazed zealot! What blasphemy is this? You do realise that he is going to die in there, right?
Not now, Mithas, I just considered him as a lecherous pleasure to toy with.
You know, Mithas, it's quite bizarre that you would decide to come over to the Obsidian when you rule over one of the 10 Rings.
I could only imagine that if you had to come over to 'collect' the person, he must be of great importance, isn't that right?
Demoness of Lust?