_Chapter Begins_
"....i must say that...this truly is Hell."
William was currently sitting on top of a massive pile of mystical glass shards.
Besides the fact that he had a smile as sinister as Adam's on his disheveled face, there was only one other detail that made him look unsettling.
He was missing an arm, a foot, a couple of teeth, a few chunks of his torso, and even some chunks of his head were gone.
He was covered in blood and looked very much like a zombie. He had, at most, ten more minutes to live.
But for some reason, he did not seem concerned with this fact.
William slowly turned his head to look at a jagged piece of mystical glass that stood just twenty meters away from him.
Then his sinister smile quickly turned to a frown.
"Damn, has it already caught up?"
Without warning, the jagged piece of mystical glass exploded into hundreds of smaller shards that scattered all over the ground.
Some of these shards were also sent in William's direction.
"Can't this thing just leave me alone?!"
William quickly lowered his head as far down as it would go.
A second later, a sharp piece of mystical glass struck the place where his head had been just moments ago. The shard hit the wall of mystical glass behind William with such force that it produced a small shockwave.
William was thrown to the ground, and a yelp escaped his lips.
With a pained expression, he slowly looked up at where the jagged piece of glass had exploded.
Standing there was a giant abomination made entirely out of wood. It had two holes on both sides of its head, and within each hole glowed small purple lights that radiated madness and fury.
The creature's head resembled a twisted cross between the skull of a horse and a dog, but to be fair—comparing any animal from Earth to this abomination was utter madness.
The abomination also had two massive legs and arms of similar length.
Overall, when standing on all fours, the monster towered over any human that had ever existed.
The damned thing was at least five to six meters tall—maybe even seven. And that was while it was on all fours. If it stood only on its legs, its height would probably double.
But William wasn't surprised by the sight of it one bit. That was because… he had already experienced the company of this creature for a while now.
"How many times?"
His voice was rough, sounding more like a 60-year-old nicotine addict than a healthy young man.
Of course, William wasn't very healthy right now—he was bleeding all over.
"Ten, or was it fifteen?"
The true number was twelve. He had died to this horror that many times—each death worse than the last.
"Well… I'll say it again… I'm impressed."
He had to admit, the system by which Hell worked was truly a masterpiece of horror—worthy of his praise.
Whoever had created this place was truly passionate about making people suffer as much as possible.
It had taken William about five deaths to realize what was going on.
At first, he thought he was stuck in a time loop. But after noticing that the situation, terrain, and the abomination's behavior changed each time, he realized it wasn't a loop.
Which, in his mind, left only two options.
Either the purple orb inside him had gifted him some type of power to regenerate or…
This was how Hell worked. In this place, people were meant to suffer for eternity. Each time someone died—whether by their own intent or by somebody else's hand—Hell would literally revive them right back for more.
The solution of ending yourself to end the suffering simply didn't work here.
William managed to confirm this theory by his fifth revival.
In that fifth revival, William had finally unlocked his first power, granted to him by the purple orb inside him.
And that ability was how he had managed to escape the wooden monster… at least for some time. But obviously, the thing had caught up to him again.
His ability was an interesting one. From what he understood, his first ability allowed him to travel through reflections.
He had managed to travel through the reflections of the glass shards for a while, but during that journey, he had also discovered the weakness of his new power.
If a glass shard broke while William was midway through traveling through it, he would be severely damaged.
Not physically—no, it was much worse. Damage to his soul.
But then you might ask, if the ability only damaged his soul, why was William in such dire physical shape?
Well, in his sixth revival, the wooden monster had shattered a shard William was traveling through, which was how he had discovered the weakness of his ability.
And at that moment, a terrifying thought popped into William's head.
He knew Hell would reform his body when it was severely damaged, but who could say it would do the same for his soul?
There was no guarantee he would come back if his soul was too severely damaged.
So William tried to escape the abomination while using his ability less and less, not wanting to risk his soul.
Because he used the ability less, his speed diminished greatly, which allowed the abomination to catch up.
And since he wasn't traveling through the glass anymore, the abomination had the chance to wound his physical body.
Which was how he ended up in his current situation.
This was his thirteenth revival, and William still could not find a way to escape the wooden abomination.
The situation was truly hopeless.
But thankfully, this was the kind of situation William thrived in.
Somehow, he managed to lift his broken body and swayed from left to right like a drunk.
Then a grin formed on his face, and he locked eyes with the purple lights burning in the abomination's head.
"Well then… bring it on, you vile thing!"
With that, the abomination lunged at William with such speed that it seemed to disappear and then reappear right above William.
William closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
"This better work, dammit."
_Chapter Ends_