2025-11-25 23:44:48Hinata limped beside Alis through a narrow canyon of jagged black stone, the mark on his hand still
flickering with dull blue light. The Nethers heat was subdued here, replaced by a chill that clung to the bones. Shadows pooled unnaturally, and the air tasted metallic. "Where are we going?" he asked, still sore from the previous day's "training." Alis didnt look back. "A place that wont kill you immediately. Just eventually." "Thats... reassuring." "You want a bed and breakfast, go die in a nicer world." He sighed. "Y'know, I used to dream about getting isekaid. Magic powers. Sword fights. Cute companions." Alis raised an eyebrow. "Careful. You just described a dating sim, not the Nether." "Right. My bad." They arrived at what looked like the skeleton of a cathedraltowering arches of bone and obsidian, a cracked stained-glass window depicting a war between gods, demons, and something worse."This is a soulforge," Alis said. "Old magic. Ancient. Dangerous. But... useful." Hinata eyed it warily. "Useful how?" She stepped inside. "If the mark on your hand is real, the forge can test it. Awaken something deeper. Or kill you." "Why do all your plans involve me dying?" "Because here, death is kinda like the best teacher." She gestured toward the center of the ruin where a massive obsidian altar hummed softly. "Place your hand there." she instructed him Hinata hesitated, then stepped forward. The second his palm touched the stone, the world exploded. Visions hit him like a freight train made of screaming stars. Blades clashing. Cities burning. A colossal figure cloaked in shadowsValKyros raising a hand as gods shattered above him. His voice echoed in Hinatas skull: "The gods rewrite fate. But what if fate refused?"The mark on Hinatas hand seared. He screamed, falling to his knees as the forge fed on his fear, his memories, his regrets. Something shifted. The pain stopped. When he opened his eyes, the altar was gone. The cathedral gone. Even the Nether. He stood in a blank, gray void. "You again," he muttered. ValKyros stood before him, calm, towering. "This mark... it's not a blessing," Hinata said. "It's a curse." "All power is," ValKyros replied. "But you can make it yours." "And whats the cost?" ValKyros smiled. Youre asking the right questions.Hinata awoke on the floor of the ruin, gasping. Alis stood over him. "You screamed like a soul being skinned alive. So... good progress." He sat up, groaning. "I saw him again. That ValKyros guy. He showed me... something." Alis nodded. "That mark isnt just a proto-soul mark. Its evolving." Hinata looked at his hand. The symbol had changedsharper edges, pulsing brighter. "Is that good?" Alis tilted her head. "Depends. Do you want to stay human?" He swallowed. "...Define stay." She slipped a grim smile onto her face. "Then your path just split. Power always demands a piece of you." They walked on, the ruined forge behind them. Hinata didnt speak. Because somewhere deep inside, something had awakened.And it had teeth.
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echoes before the fall
The night settled over the Nether like a thick, trembling breath, as if even the realm itself sensed whatwas coming. Hinata walked ahead, his footsteps slow, heavy, yet stubbornly steady. Alis followedsilently. She didn’t try to stop him—not because she didn’t want to, but because she understood. Shefinally understood what he carried inside him.Hinata had always been the one who smiled first, even when everything else was broken. He crackedjokes during battles, tripped over his own sword, and called himself “the discount hero nobody ordered.”But beneath all that? There was a weight. A silent, dragging gravity he had never let anyone see.Tonight, he didn’t hide it.“Alis,” he said softly, not turning back. “Do you ever… feel like the world gave you power just to seehow fast it could take everything from you?”Alis swallowed. “Every day.”Hinata chuckled, but it was a sad, cracked sound. “Guess we’re both disasters.”The path opened into the obsidian clearing—the place where the
The thing that stares back
The Nether was quiet. Too quiet. Not the normal “something’s stalking you” quiet—thekind where even fear holds its breath.Alis was asleep by the dying fire, blade resting across her lap. I couldn’t. Sleep, that is.Every time I closed my eyes, the Laws hummed in the back of my skull—lines of glowingscript threading through the dark like veins of living light.I stared at my palm. The marks from before were pulsing faintly, rearranging themselves.Words, sentences… rules.I didn’t read them so much as feel them. Like the universe whispering its cheat codes.“If it bleeds, it can be rewritten,” a voice murmured in my head. It sounded suspiciously likemine.I raised my hand toward a rock nearby. One single glowing line floated above it—[Law:Gravity]“Okay, maybe just a little test,” I whispered.I tapped it.The rock screamed. Not metaphorically—it screamed like a living thing being peeled out ofreality. Then it floated upward, twisting mid-air, melting into ash and light.I stumbl
Divine court Aka heavens DMV
I dreamed again.Not of monsters. Not of fire. Paperwork.Endless glowing scrolls stacked to the sky. Angels in suits flying around likecaffeine-addicted pigeons, stamping documents with holy approval seals. Every time ascroll got approved, it disintegrated into sparkly dust.One angel sighed so hard it created a tiny hurricane.“Welcome to the Divine Court,” said a voice behind me. “Please take a number.”I turned—and yeah. There was a line. A literal line of souls stretching miles long. Some ofthem had been waiting for centuries.“This is... heaven’s DMV,” I muttered. “Figures.”I looked down and realized I was holding a clipboard.Case #8421 — Denied Reincarnation: Self-Termination Clause 3B.My own name was stamped on it in big glowing letters. “Wow. Even in death I’mpaperwork.”Before I could complain, the whole place started to glitch—like someone hitCTRL+ALT+DELETE on reality.The angels melted into patterns of glass and light, forming a tall woman made entirely ofreflect
The fire that remembers
The morning after Memory spoke his name, something in Hinata snapped. Not like glass. Like a blade finally drawn out of its tusted sheath. --- He sat alone beneath a jagged outcropping, staring into the distant horizon where the Nether broke off into obsidian rivers and soulstorms. The brand on his chest burned hotter and hotter each hour, pulsing with the knowledge of his name. Hinata. Not chosen. Not erased.Remembered. Alis approached cautiously, her boots crunching bone-dust beneath her leaving behind a trial of matching footprints behind her with each step. "You're quiet," she said. "Not anymore," he replied. She raised an eyebrow. "That so?" He turned to her. His eyes were no longer desperate. They were calm.Too calm.They had the kind of intensity you would only expect from an overpowered aura farming nonchalant mainc haracter of an overated anime "I don't want to run anymore." He said to her in a deep voice maintaining his nonchalant deminer Alis sat beside him, uns
13
They walked in silence.Not because there was nothing to say-but because every word now felt like it echoed beyond them.Hinata had rewritten a being that was supposed to be unrewritable.And the Nether had noticed.---"How are you feeling?" Alis asked eventually, her tone less teasing, more wary."Like I committed a cosmic war crime in my pajamas," Hinata muttered.She cracked a dry smile. "You're adapting.""To what? Being a threat to reality?""No. To being seen."---They camped in the ruins of an upside-down castle-floors above, ceilings below. Nothing madesense in this part of the Nether. Gravity was more of a suggestion.Alis lit a blue flame with her fingers and leaned against a broken throne.Hinata sat nearby, rubbing his hand. The mark there was glowing faintly again, but differently.Pulsing like a question.Why haven't you asked me what it means?" he asked.She didn't look up. "Because if you're not ready to tell me, it's not my business."Hinata nodded, appreciating the
12
The Nether was changing.Not in the obvious ways-there were still screams in the distance, and the ground still pulsed like adying organ-but something beneath the surface was shifting.And it was following Hinata.---They moved quickly through the Hollow Spine, Alis cutting a path through the ruins with the casualgrace of someone who'd stopped fearing monsters a long time ago. Hinata kept pace, his body sore,his soul burning with the echo of last night's fracture."Where are we going now?" he asked, wiping sweat from his brow."Somewhere less haunted," Alis replied. "Somewhere we can think.""Thinking is dangerous here.""Then it's a perfect match for you."---They found shelter in the husk of a crumbled palace-its walls blackened by time, its towers bentinward like teeth. Inside, fractured mirrors lined the halls. None of them reflected properly. Hinatasaw versions of himself in each: younger, older, missing an eye, missing hope."Why is everything here allergic to chill?" he
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