The Sinner's Gospel
Grigor Ash preferred the dead to the living. As a forensic cleaner for fifteen years, he had reduced death to chemistry: enzymes eat protein, stains lift, world resets. He didn't believe in souls, karma, or divine justice.
Then he stole the wrong souvenir.
He wakes drowning in a membrane of boiling fluid: a Birthing Sack in Hell's Hatcheries. This is not punishment. This is 'processing'. The Machine grinds souls into fuel. The strong descend to rule. The weak become meat.
In Dis, the only known city:
- Human flesh is the only food. Beast meat is toxic. Plants aren't edible.
- Souls are currency. Consume another's Kernel, grow stronger. Get consumed, die forever.
- Power marks your body. Your tier shows in your skin, your bones, your eyes.
- Death is temporary. Respawn naked, stripped, weaker. Die enough times, become an empty husk.
Grigor awakens something unprecedented. A Stigmata that purifies corruption, nullifies power, and unmakes the filth this world runs on. The Intent, an alien voice threaded through the Machine, whispers a single command: "Clean it."
But every gift has a Burden.
When Grigor purifies, he absorbs the sin. He learns what his targets did: their cruelties, their hungers, their darkest moments. And he must confess them aloud, in first person, as if they were his own. He cannot disclaim. He cannot explain. His mouth is no longer entirely his.
To survive Hell, he must become valuable enough to protect, dangerous enough to fear, and ruthless enough to descend, all while carrying the confessions of everyone he touches.
The Architects who rule the depths were once the strongest wills in existence. They reached too far. Now they ARE Hell, locked into function, unable to change.
Grigor wonders: if he cleans enough, will he save himself—or become the next malfunction?
