Hell’s Fate - Volume 1 Chapter 14 Fearing The Chains

What the hell?!?!

What do I even do now? Sit here?!

I can’t even select a difficulty, also why are all the difficulty options I have so high? Is my luck so shit that I got the hardest test or something like that? Ugh!

—–

After standing in this empty white world for a few minutes he simply could not tolerate standing there and doing nothing anymore so he began swinging his scythe randomly in the air while screaming his lungs out.

“God… Damn… YOU!!”

He continued swinging and swinging with absolutely no form, he didn’t know how to use this weapon at all and so he just swung. After swinging for a minute he began tiring and his fatigue once again increased.

Sweat had drenched his body already and stuck his clothes onto his skin revealing his bodies outline. His gasping was the only thing you could hear in the empty space with the sound of sweat dripping of his body and tapping on the floor.

He slowly collapsed onto the ground but held on with his left hand not willing to drop and began scraping the floor trying to pull himself up once again onto his knees only to fully collapse.

“Hah… Well shit… Now what.”

He simply didn’t know what to do. There was literally nothing for him to do.

He was meant to start a trial but he couldn’t even pick a difficulty. This trial was called the ‘Karmic’ trial apparently, karma is the interdependent origination of all the forms and phases of life. It would be something like the reincarnation system in Buddhism I guess, it’s a spiritual belief I guess you could also say.

That man said that everyone goes through a different trial when they arrive, if so then the trial could possibly be linked to what the person themselves need to go through to grow. If that were the case then for me it would be the ‘Karmic’ trial. But I can’t even start the trial in this state.

My luck is seriously shit isn’t it.

Now what do I do, am I going to be stuck here forever or some shit?

Wait didn’t that man say that the trials were always meant to be convenient and easy but for some reason people still failed? If it were convenient this wouldn’t be happening to me. Which means I should definitely be able to pass this trial if it were actually so simple and convenient.

I have to be over complicating something…

Karmic…

It’s not something tangible, I shouldn’t be able to tell what karma is like from seeing it or feeling it. Could I have possibly started the trial already? Maybe this was the trial all along?

No that would be way too simple and easy for everyone else to have died.

I should have to do something to unlock the difficulties to truly enter the trials.

But what the hell do I do? I’m still stuck here even if I’ve figured out that much. I seriously have no clue as to what I should be doing.

And so he lay down and just slept.

He simply could not figure out what he should do so he just slept.

There was literally nothing he possibly could have done.

So he slept and slept.

1 hour, 2 hours, 5 hours, 50 hours…

He simply continued sleeping without waking up.

72 hours…

And then finally his eyelids gently flickered and slowly lifted.

Ahh… That felt so good…

I wonder how long I slept for, not that it really matters though.

All of a sudden while he was thinking of what he should do next he felt intense pain in his head for a split second causing him to quickly grab on to his head.

“What the…”

There was something there stuck on his head, he could not feel it but he could see it. It was a thin red chain which looked as if it were stained in blood. This chain extended on for a hundred metres where it hung there as if it were stuck onto something.

“What the hell is that?”

Out of curiosity he slowly got up and walked towards it, the closer he got the lighter the colour of the chain was until it finally turned pale white once he was a step away from it. He reached out for the end of the chain and tried grabbing at the place where the chain ended. Surprisingly he was able to grab on to the end of the chain this time.

However after grabbing it nothing happened, it was still stuck to the air and nothing had appeared informing him that he had passed or unlocked a difficulty or anything like that.

Was that it? Is that all that was going to happen?

What the hell!

“I’m not accepting this shit!”

And so he began pulling at the chain with all his strength.

But before he could continue pulling for any longer his head exploded in pain.

“AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

He collapsed onto the ground and began banging his head onto the ground as if he was trying to end his pitiful life.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!”

It was just as painful as getting your bones ground into dust and having your flesh twisted into meatballs. It was pain which only a true psycho could endure.

Neil continued banging his head for a few minutes until he was able to calm himself down. His fingers were covered in blood from scraping the ground way too hard, his whole head was drenched in blood as well after scraping into his own head.

He just sat in silence contemplating what just happened.

Is there nothing else I can do? Is that it? Am I just going to be stuck here forever? No…

This has to be the way out…

And so he stood up once again and approached the chain once again, and grabbed at it.

Gritting his teeth he slowly began pulling at it, gradually increasing the strength he was using.

“gaaaaAAAAAAARHHHHHHH!!

He just continued pulling no matter the pain, he held on and continued pulling as if his life was on the line.

Pull… Continue pulling…

The chain slowly began cracking at the end, bit by bit it cracked.

Until it finally snapped into two.

But Neil was already unconscious at this point, his body collapsed on the floor. The pure ground stained in blood.

And he slept.

100 hours… 144 hours… 288 hours…

His body slowly recovered as time quickly passed.

720 hours…

And his eyes once again flickered open.

“Finally no more pain.”

He sighed out in relief now that the excruciating endeavour was over. But that relief slowly disappeared as he realised that no new notification had popped up, everything was still the same. The only thing that had changed was the floor, half of it was covered in his blood. How he was still alive after losing that much blood he simply could not understand but it should have something to do with his new race.

But soon after he was submerged in fear.

Because another chain had appeared.

Before this a red chain had appeared, and that was already enough to cause him to nearly kill himself due to the pain.

But this time the chain had turned a much darker colour, in fact it wasn’t even a colour anymore.

Because it was black.

—

Why is it black this time…

JUST WHY!

I though that just once is enough!

But now you seriously want me to do it again?

I’ve already been through enough pain so why is my luck so shit!

But there was nothing he could do to change the fact that he had to pull this chain once again and go through the same amount of pain once again or maybe even more pain than what he had already gone through. So he slowly stood up again and followed the chain to the very end.

The distance he had to walk this time was double the distance he had to travel for the red chain.

This thing is going to hurt even more this time isn’t it…

But complaining won’t help, I just have to do it!

And so he stopped complaining and continued his walk towards the end. After he finally arrived at the end he picked his hands back up again and reached out towards the air again.

This time however his hands were shaking out of fear, he truly feared these chains. He feared them even more than he feared and hated that bastard. He didn’t know why but they induced a ridiculous amount of fear, perhaps he had already become crazy but he still decided to grab onto it.

Once again he pulled, just like he had done before.

But this time the pain appeared even sooner than before, his face scrunched up in pain as he continued pulling the chain with all his strength.

This time however he felt no pain in his head, instead it felt as if someone had grabbed onto his soul and began shredding it. The pain didn’t even allow him to scream, it didn’t allow him to collapse and smash his head just like before. Instead it was as if it was trying to send him a message, telling him that if he didn’t finish pulling this chain the first time then he would have no other chance.

But even then he couldn’t do it. It was simply impossible. He continued trying to pull it but the pain was too much, after just 5 seconds he had already begun to give up.

This is impossible… I never had a chance from the beginning…

And then he fainted, losing this chance forever.