readsfreenovel Chapter 111 Dead End
Chapter 111 Dead End
At first, it was all darkness.
Then your world will replay everything from your life like a revolving lantern.
It begins when you see the whole world.
From the moment you begin to speak.
It begins when you feel the pain and love that your parents and the whole world give you.
The black, gloomy sky is the best screening room, and you are the only audience.
"Hmm, uh..."
Every groan you let out triggers pain in your wounds, and you can only breathe shallowly, otherwise your body will spasm uncontrollably due to pain far exceeding your tolerance.
The wound on your head made a sticky sound as it was squeezed, and the large hole in your head squeezed repeatedly as you whimpered in pain.
It made a soft "gurgling" sound, like someone stirring a pile of crushed dead shrimp with their hands.
Why did you go to Florida? Who did you make a promise with? What did you promise each other?
Why didn't you go straight home?
Why can't you remember why you fell into the sea? Was someone pushed you, or was it an accident?
Why would you go to hell?
Even if you've been through a lot, when you return to the moment of your death, you'll still constantly blame yourself for the choices you made and hate yourself for not going straight home.
If you had booked a flight home that day, you would probably have already happily celebrated the New Year with your family, submitted your project progress report to your academic advisor, and continued pursuing the degree you wanted...
Instead of falling into hell like I am now—becoming a sea dragon with a strong psychological trauma to the sea because I died in a shipwreck.
Life in hell is awful.
How could life in hell be good?
Indulging in lust, drug use, indiscriminate killing of innocents, foul language, habitual deception, unethical terror, legalization of evil, and the glorification of evil by different classes.
As a normal person, you simply cannot tolerate all of this, let alone integrate into it.
Where should you begin to recall the pain that hell brought you? Should you start with what hell gave you and what it took away from you?
Is it mockery after granting you immense power?
Although you died in a shipwreck, your true power is connected to the ocean and glaciers you feared. You "make the sea your home," growing fins and claws, and can command the wind and rain like a true dragon.
The sinners of the Pride Ring could have been resurrected, but each of your slaughters causes a soul to truly vanish. Out of your basic human decency, you have no choice but to avoid battle, reaping the consequences of your own actions.
Your sense of smell, hearing, and sight far surpass those of ordinary sinners.
The stench of hell, the unbearable groans, and the rampant crimes force you to weaken your five senses, otherwise your extraordinary abilities will only make your life worse than death.
—So this hellish gift is only for your self-preservation; at other times it can only bring you pain.
Is it a huge shackle restricting your movement?
You are granted the privilege of going to the human world, but the more you want to get closer to your relatives and home, the more that privilege mocks you and pins you to the spot.
Is this the name that was forcibly taken from you?
Whether spoken or written, as long as the name refers to you, no matter how the other party expresses it, it will eventually be replaced by the indescribable weird "■■■".
—Or perhaps, it is the "gift" that hell truly "given" to you, which began to pollute your human soul after you went to hell?
……
Ah...that's definitely how it is.
As you lay on the damp rock wall, you suddenly snapped back to reality. Memories, flowing through your veins, seeped into your muddled mind.
—'Your second soul.'
Yes, when you fall into hell, in addition to your own true soul, there is actually an extra, dark, and strange soul inside your body.
...But that soul is perhaps more like a vessel that holds power than a soul.
Because the strangely powerful energy within you is provided by this vessel.
It's like a huge energy source that can upgrade your original soul along with it.
To draw an analogy, if you think that when you are in hell, your own soul might be just a weak 1, then this dark and eerie second soul is an endless +∞.
Not only can you use this power originating from +∞, your second soul has even upgraded your original human soul to +∞ as well...
But as the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
In your previous life, you were just an ordinary human, and you were never able to fully control the near-infinite power of your second soul. But because of the accompanying upgrade, you can no longer even properly control your own human soul.
Leaving aside the fact that the two powerful forces are about to burst you out of control, the biggest threat the second soul poses to you is that it will "pollute" your human soul.
As for the claim that using a second soul would "corrupt" you...
That's mainly because you find yourself unwittingly falling into violent emotions like "bloodlust" or "madness" when using your second soul. Your original human soul also shows signs of being merged with the second soul.
...This is not a good sign.
Later, through continuous exploration, you discovered that your second soul exists in relation to your human soul.
The fact that your second soul didn't go berserk immediately was entirely due to the restraint of your human soul.
To be honest, you easily realized the extent to which your human soul had been corrupted by the second soul, which, in a sense, was hell's countdown for you.
What happens when your human soul is completely devoured and occupied by the second soul...? Your unusual emotions and reactions have already given you the answer.
Because you're basically taking the exam with the answers already in mind, and you have a strong resistance to becoming a resident of hell, you're momentarily unsure whether it's your own unique misfortune or hell's unique thoughtfulness.
So what if you don't use the power of your second soul? Will your human soul still be corrupted?
The answer is yes.
Even if you don't use the power of the second soul, your consciousness and perception will still be polluted by the second soul, leading you toward becoming a "normal sinner" in hell.
The "gifts" from hell seem to offer you absolutely no chance to remain virtuous.
So, if you possess such immense power and become a standard "hellish sinner," what would you become?
...Ha, you don't want to imagine yourself as a disgusting person who is both lustful and bloodthirsty.
Using this power will corrupt you, and not using it will also corrupt you. It turns out that after Hell gave you this "gift," your future was already sealed.
You are destined to become a bloodthirsty monster who has lost himself in the future.
But you don't want this kind of future; you hate this kind of future.
As a complete stranger in this hell, someone who couldn't fit into this hell at all, yet was carrying a huge gold bomb in your arms, you simply couldn't describe the helplessness and loneliness you felt in this entire hell.
You're not the type to seek help from others; it's just your personality. Most of the time, you solve problems on your own... But what about after you go to hell?
Who will help you? Who is willing to help you?
Do not make jokes.
Who stole your name? Who chained you? Why do you possess such power? Where did your dark soul come from?
...Where should you go from here?
You want to go home, but you don't know where to start.
You are so powerful that you are almost invincible, but you risk turning into a monster.
You want to solve all of this, to avoid all of this, but you know nothing about it.
Lacking reliable sources of information, you were forced to take a desperate path.
……
……
But what happened next? What happened to you after you went down a dead end? You clearly wanted to go home so badly, and you couldn't sleep at night because you were worried about becoming a monster before you could go home. Why?
why……
—'■■■, I promise you.'
"I agree to your soul deal. I'll find a way to send you to heaven and save you from hell."
—'You will come home, ■■■!'
—'I...I will definitely bring you home!'
……
……
……
Shirley Morningstar.
……
……
The girl's name was just a tiny glimmer at first, but after you thought of her name, that glimmer seemed to suddenly dispel the cotton that was blocking your heart.
You opened your mouth and began to breathe rapidly, like a fish out of water—
……
……
'I trust you.'
'So from this day forward, I will never mention going home again.'
……
……
Yes, you promised Shirley you wouldn't bring up going home again.
……
……
Lost in thought about all this, you blinked, and the slideshow that had been playing in the air, showing scenes from your life, suddenly changed.
You hate everything about hell.
The sinners are both rude and obnoxious, the streets are always littered with severed limbs and entrails, and strange people will harass you at any time. Everything you do carries a strong sense of absurdity.
But you... like Shirley Morningstar, and you like everyone at Hell Inn.
Shirley Morningstar is the daughter of Lucifer, a six-winged fallen angel, and Lilith, the first woman. She is the princess of all Hell.
She has beautiful long blonde hair, lovely red blush, and a tall figure. She is an impulsive but kind-hearted and almost radiantly innocent girl.
She founded Hell Inn, hoping to give seemingly hopeless sinners in hell a chance to go to heaven.
She likes some of the old-fashioned desserts you make, she'll be considerate of you, she'll wait for you at the Hell Inn, she'll cuddle with you, complain, and seek your advice.
—'She was the first demon with a pure white soul you met in hell.'
After you recall the name "Shirley," your previously closed and desperate memory box becomes clear as if a key has been opened.
Your memories of hell, along with some familiar yet unfamiliar names, return to your mind with certain images.
Your gloomy memories, which were always filled with despair and bloodshed, suddenly came to life, and those dark figures that always emitted sharp laughter were replaced by familiar figures.
Vicky, Angel, Alastor, Hesker, Nifferty, Pantheon, Cherry Bomb, Viya... and some other little devils you might recognize.
Then, you suddenly see a scene projected on a slideshow of your corrupted human soul being purified in Shirley's hands.
He saw the soul deal he made with Shirley back then.
Until the panoramic scrolling light hanging in the sky fixed its image on Shirley's face—
Only then did you finally remember the enormous battle you waged against the princess of hell after you went down there.