Hell’s Fate - Volume 1

Intense pressure battered at his body, his steps remained steady but his shaking hands gave away his anxiety.

Step by step, the pressure continuously increased, his bones began grinding and his teeth clattered.

“Just… One…”, his mouth was forced shut from the pressure but his feet didn’t stop moving.

—–

Fatigue 2 -> 4

—–

His eyes felt drowsy, ‘I want to sleep…’, that thought flew through his mind.

‘No… I won’t sleep…’, he would love to sleep, he wanted to sleep, sleep seemed so attractive.

But if he listened he would be betraying Neela, he would be betraying the promise to himself.

So his steps continued.

Ting…

His scythe slipped out of his hand, the drowsiness had almost taken over his consciousness, the only problem the drowsiness was facing was that figure standing at the top of his mind, the image of Neela disappearing before him.

Nothing could beat it.

And so he arrived one step away from the wall.

With his eyes closed, his body shaking and blood leaking out of his clenched fists he took the final step.

However…

Throughout this entire process he had ignored one core problem, he may believe that his will was powerful enough to beat all obstacles, but he was wrong.

One required the strength to beat all obstacles, the strength and the will, and he was lacking one of them.

Strength.

—–

The shockwave continued on endlessly, but the arrow didn’t disappear, it continued until it crashed into an invisible wall.

“Show yourself.”

This voice sounded different, it sounded more… Godly.

“Hahahahaha! I’ve already done it!”

The original demonic voice snickered throughout the void.

“You can’t stop it now!”

And then the demonic voice trailed off with one final remark.

“You better go warn your daddy…”

Only the celestial arrow remained, from within a figure slowly appeared. With long golden hair, golden eyes and pointed ears stood a feminine-looking young man in pure white robes, his skin so soft even women would be jealous.

“Who has he ruined this time…”

This voice was faintly melancholic, with a hint of grace hidden within.

But this voice was strangely familiar.

—–

KABOOOM!!!!!!!

Rocks and pebbles flew everywhere alongside a demonic blue wave of energy.

“Urgh!”, Neil knelt over spewing blood out of his mouth.

—–

State – Injured

—–

“Did I make another stu-“, he began vomiting more blood before he could finish his sentence.

Wiping the blood off of his mouth he quickly looked around, the boulder formation had changed again, not it didn’t change, it disappeared. that invisible wall also disappeared.

“Second Layer failed, increasing difficulty of Final Layer.”, a mechanical voice appeared all around the room.

“I made another stupid mistake, this one less avoidable as I literally had no other way to pass at that point.”, he understood that he made a mistake but considering that it was Impossible difficulty he doubted that there was any other way to pass.

“Warning, the Final Layer is beginning.”, the mechanical voice appeared again.

A shiver ran down his spine.

“Argh!”, rolling to the right he felt some wind pass by his back.

“A scythe?”

It was a floating blue scythe twice the size of his, without any time to process the situation it spun at ridiculous speeds and struck towards him.

His eyes darted around and landed on the scythe in the distance, ‘Make it!’, he dashed forwards, the distance between him and his scythe gradually decreased but the blue scythe was even faster.

“Up!”, he ducked down, the scythe barely missing his head, he rolled forward and the scythe was extremely close to him.

The blue scythe began screaming.

“I made it.”, he gripped at the scythe beneath him and stood up, the scythe was speeding at him again.

Zing!

Metal struck metal, Neil held his scythe in front of him and struck at the blue scythe.

“Why was that so easy?”, he felt suspicious.

The blue light began spreading, just like a living entity it began swallowing his own scythe, “Shit!”, pulling back with his entire body he was finally able to get away.

“I’ve seen that blue light before… Ah!”, his mind wondered momentarily to when he first arrived, that guy who came in with a blue arm and leg.

“If that touches me I’m dead.”

Taking a few steps back he made sure to keep track of the scythe.

Shriek!

It began rotating at high speeds again, this time he kept track of it and for some reason, it looked like it was slowing down in his eyes.

‘Left.’, he dashed to the right, less than a second later the blue scythe swept by his left arm, slightly tickling him.

—–

Fatigue 4 -> 6

—–

He no longer felt drowsy due to the adrenaline but his sluggish movement stated otherwise.

‘Under’, just as he jumped a fierce wind swept him over.

The scythe flew by and danced straight back just as he was falling over.

‘Mid’

“Argh!”, he twisted himself around, the smooth sound of his scythe cutting through air rang out.

Bam!

The two scythes collided, instead of separating the blue scythe clung to his black one.

Just as he pulled.

—–

Fatigue 6 -> 7

—–

The sluggish feeling grew stronger, “Can I take it in time?”, he didn’t have much time to think.

“If I lose my scythe I’ll die, I have to risk it all here.”

Gripping on with both hands he pulled back as hard as he could, “Let go!”

The blue light continued spreading, it didn’t care about his words.

“I said… LET GO!!!”, with a final scream he used the last bit of energy remaining to pull out the scythe.

The heavy feeling suddenly disappeared, “I did it!”

—–

Fatigue 7 -> 8

—–

‘Why is it so dark…’, the sluggish feeling completely took over, he felt so comfortable…

“No… Wake up…”, the dark gems blew open and he could see once again.

The blue scythe was right in front of him, it was basically hugging his face now.

Swoosh!

Ducking his head the scythe skimmed his hair, “I can’t let this go on, once I lost one or two more points of fatigue I’ll be knocked out, once that happens I’m dead.”

‘The first encounter has to contain a clue…’

‘When that guy entered not his entire arm or leg were blue, that should be the first hint, it doesn’t take over your entire body part. The second would be that it doesn’t immediately kill you, otherwise, that guy wouldn’t have had the time to speak to me and push me away, those are my only two clues.’

The scythe began rotating at insane speeds once again.

‘Can I even make it out in one piece…’

And then everything clicked together, that’s right, this was meant to be Impossible, there was no way for him to pass in one piece. The fact that he was still alive was a miracle in itself.

Raising his scythe he screamed at the top of his voice, “Come at me you son of a bitch!”

Ting!

The two scythes collided once again, the blue began taking over his scythe.

“Without my scythe, I will die, this is a worthy sacrifice…”, his last few words seemed to be there to convince himself.

Lifting his left arm he grabbed onto the blue scythe.

A freezingly cold pain attacked at his nerves, “Hold on!”, he screamed as he continued gripping at the blue scythe with his left hand. Half of the blue was on his left arm now, “Not enough…”

Pulling back his right arm he swung the scythe once again at the half blue and half white scythe.

Ting!

As if it recognised the threat it continued with its take over.

60%… 70%… 80%… 90%…

“100%!!!”, the scythe was fully white now, his left arm, on the other hand, was almost entirely blue.

“HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!”

—–

Fatigue 8 -> 9

—–

Fatigue washed over his body, “Not enough…”, his voice grew weak but his scythe never stopped.

Crack.

A tiny crack appeared on the white scythe, but this crack was hope to the hopeless Neil.

“Again…”

“Again…”

“Again…”

…

Swing after swing, the cracks continued to spread.

“Break!”

The white scythe scattered into the wind with his final swing.

—–

Fatigue 9 -> 10

—–

He couldn’t feel anything except the freezing pain within his left arm, the desire to sleep was just like a sensual lady gazing at him from a close distance, luring him into their arms.

“I’m not done…”

Without looking he picked up his scythe once again, he could tell the general location from the pain alone.

‘If anyone is to blame it’s my shit fate, I’ll change this shit once and for all.’

Slash.

“Goodbye…”

He lost all energy.

[1/2 of Second Gate Passed

Reward – 50 Fate Coins (Reduced due to failure)]

Green light shone down onto his body, the mechanical voice appeared again.

“Due to failure, you shall not be healed.”

And his body disappeared leaving behind his remains.

The blue light continued engulfing his left arm, one short minute later it grew in power and instantly devoured the arm leaving behind just one tip of a finger, it longed for more but there was nothing left for it to eat except one useless scrap.

Like a candle, the blue light gradually burnt out, its remaining energy lingering in the room, its regret weeping through the empty room.

—–

Many years later that same finger sat in the room, it had yet to decompose.

But small cries could be heard coming from this one lonely finger, its owner had left it behind, it could do nothing but cry in loneliness.

“Mummy save me…”

—–

Within Neil’s system, a lonely figure seemed to lose its l.u.s.tre.

Celestial 0.1% -> 0%