The first thing I felt was cold.Not the kind of cold that tickles your spine or nips your fingers, but the kind that gnaws at your soul. It seepedinto my bones, into the marrow, and clung to me like a second skin. It was suffocating. Disorienting. Real.So... I didn't reincarnate. This isn't heaven. This isn't hell. This is-My eyes snapped open.Darkness. Endless, choking darkness. But it wasn't just the absence of light-it was alive. The air pulsed withmalevolence, like the world itself was breathing, whispering, watching.I sat up, slowly. My body ached. Not just physically, but spiritually, like I'd been shattered and stitched backtogether wrong.I could barely make out the ground beneath me-twisted, blackened stone slick with a crimson sheen. The sky,if you could call it that, was a swirling mass of blood-red clouds churning like a storm. No sun. No stars. Onlya faint violet glow from cracks in the ground that pulsed like a heartbeat.And then the smell hit me.Rot. Sulfur.

The air was humming. Not with life--but power. Malicious, ancient, and eager to devour. It poured in likeinvisible smoke, prickling the skin, making Hinata's breath catch.Alis stood still, her curved blade drawn, eyes narrowed on the horizon. "He's close."Hinata could barely speak. "Who is he?"Alis didn't look at him. "Greed."The ground trembled as a hulking figure emerged from the shadows. The creature was grotesque--twisted goldembedded in bone, seven arms of mismatched size, and a crown of melted coins fused into its skull. Its eyesgleamed like polished treasure."Alis..." it rasped in a gothic shimmering voice. "Still running errands for the fallen gods I see?""I'm mentoring," she replied dryly. "Try not to kill my student too quickly." she said to it sarcasticallyThe demon turned its gaze to Hinata. "This worm? I smell no sin. No power. Since when did you start mentoring such small fry"Hinata gulped. "Nice to meet you?"The Demon of Greed roared, its laughter shaking

Hinatas hand still throbbed with the mark ValKyros had burned into it. Faintly glowing lines traileddown from his palm like a tattoo done by an eldritch graffiti artist. He stared at it, flexing his fingersas if expecting sparks or lasers or... something.Instead, it just pulsed. Slowly. Like a heartbeat that didnt quite belong to him.Alis tossed him a hunk of dried meat. "Eat. Were training today."He sniffed it. "This isn't gonna like make me start spitting up foam from my mouth , is it?""Its food ,I think... Well Mostly. Would you stop complaining about everything for once."Hinata bit down. Chewed. Instantly regretted it. "This tastes like evil.""Everything here tastes like evil idiot. Get used to it or maybe don't and starve to death .I haven't had human flesh in eons" she gave a remark with a twisted look in her eyeThey moved to a clearing near the caveif you could call a patch of cracked obsidian ground andscreaming tree-roots a "clearing."Alis stood across from hi

The cave was silent, save for the soft crackle of the dying embers. Alis had fallen asleep leaning against thewall, her sword across her lap, chest rising and falling in an oddly peaceful rhythm. It was the first moment ofpeace they'd had since entering the Nether.Hinata, however, couldn't sleep.His mind was spinning. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the leering face of the goblin chieftain, thebloody remains of those demons they had fought, and the smirk of the goddess who sent him here in the firstplace. No reincarnation, huh? he thought bitterly. So this is just... it? A slow crawl through hell?He glanced at his hand.It was still marked-glowing faintly from that last battle. The same eerie light from earlier. That wasn't normal.He knew that much. Not for a human, not for someone like him. And yet, it had saved him.Was it the Nether mutating him? Or...A shadow stirred in the corner.He looked up, expecting to see Alis, maybe half-awake or tossing in her sleep. But no

Hinata dreamed again.But this wasn't like before. No whispers. No Nether rot or flickering hellfire. This was light.Blinding, sacred, clinical light.He floated, bodiless, suspended in a sky that had no stars, only endless whiteness, like the canvasof creation itself had been left unfinished.Below him was a hall without walls, but endless pillars of ivory and flame held up a ceiling of purewill. Thrones--massive and carved from concepts no human could pronounce--floated in a perfectring. Time ticked here, not by clocks, but by the breath of gods.And they were arguing.A voice like molten gold boomed, "The Accord must remain. It is not punishment. It is protection."Another voice, colder, crystalline, female, responded, "You fear what broken souls become. But fearis not law."Hinata hovered unseen, a flicker caught in the tapestry of their debate.The gods didn't look like gods. Some were formless light, some were beasts, some were childrenmade of stars and shadow. And at the c