Ten Thousand Years in Hell

"Hell?" Asked Jack as he laughed uncourteously and remained completely calm. "Sorry, but I ain't buying it."

"Oh?" The sinister voice was surprised, this was the first time in its immortal existence that it had heard a laugh as a response to it. Begging, almost daily; cries, many; protests, even more; complaints, too far to count; cursing, beyond one's imagination; but laughing? This was definitely the first time anyone had ever dared to laugh in its face. "Do you not believe in my words?" Somehow this new soul's reaction angered the sinister voice and it wanted nothing more but to devour the man, but it had orders from above to recruit him.

"Yes and no." Casually remarked Jack. "Not Hell, but something similar. I always found it curious how every human culture had some form of Netherworld in their mythos. Some may say theological studies are a pointless endeavour, but deep down I never truly believed that, simply because separate cultures have too many similar points within their myths."

"Oh? The I take your words to imply that you are a believer?" Asked the sinister voice in amusement.

"No." Answered Jack without hesitating. "Even if the beliefs are similar, humans are too naïve to manage to understand the whole truth. At best, it's just some form of rationalising of complex information not easily understood. Same as this place. It's not Hell, but it's similar, right?"

"There is truth in what you say." Although it didn't show it, the voice was annoyed. "This is the entrance to that which is beneath all, the space under the roots of the Tree. Despair, mortal, for this is the Abyss."

"Quit it with the theatrics." Rebuked Jack. Anyone else would have been terrified from the situation, but he felt as if his presence in that space hid a deeper meaning and thus wasn't at all worried about being punished.

"Insolence!" Angrily shouted the voice, releasing a boundless pressure that threatened to tear Jack into a million pieces. But that was all, it only threatened to do so, and Jack smiled as if everything was under his control.

"If you want to kill me, just do it, this conversation is boring me." He yawned.

"Interesting." Spoke the voice, yet concealed within it was a limitless anger. "For all of existence this is the first time that I, Belial, commander for the great Lord Mammon, has been belittled as such. However, your life and death are now forfeit. Your fate, for the inconceivable amount of suffering you've wrought during your life is to suffer endless torment. Henceforth, your body and soul are now conscripted into the service of my Lord Mammon, the greatest of the Arch-demons of the Abyss. For the rest of eternity and until you fall to oblivion, you are to fight for Lord Mammon's glory!"

"I refuse." Blatantly replied Jack.

"That is not your choice to make."

With a final laugh from Belial, the darkness receded and Jack found himself lying down on hard soil which was scorching hot and scarlet red. He felt pain but, after just a moment, he was able to will his body to sit up. Examining his surroundings, he found himself on a vast desert that extended as far as the eye could see. On the ground were the remains of an uncountable number of corpses, both human and… other beings he couldn't identify.

'This really ain't Kansas anymore.' Thought Jack to himself. Despite the extreme nature of his current predicament, he still remained calm and was able to joke. In the entire cosmos, perhaps only he was able to maintain such a positive outlook in this dire situation.

Feeling himself, he felt sore all over and his head ached as if it had been split with a two-handed broad axe. Refusing to double up against the pain, he was surprised to see that his hands were devoid of the wrinkles he was used to. Inspecting himself carefully, he noticed that his previously long white hair was now short and dark brown. His skinny arms were now muscular and well defined. In fact, this extended to the rest of his body. Touching his face, he felt all of his teeth in their place; he could feel that his facial features were incomparably smooth, nothing like what a man nearing the age of ninety-five should be like.

On the back of his hand was a strange crest that glowed with a malignant dark light in a manner which allowed it to be seen from a long distance. With this crest, his presence shone like a beacon in a dark cave. Just as he wondered what the crest represented, the ground began to shake as a massive army appeared in the horizon.

The army was made up from thousands of different creatures of all shapes and sizes; from animalistic shapes like lions and tigers and bears to figures with devilish features and an aura of slaughter around them. There were even some anthropomorphic beings not unlike humans, except for their bluish skin tones.

"That man carries the mark of Mammon! Do not let him escape!" Shouted one of the creatures at the vanguard of the army. "For Asathoth!" The army clamoured in unison.

The sight of such a mighty enclosing army would have sent shivers down the spine of anyone. But not Jack. He was able to instantly deduce that he had come to a battlefield; a very ancient and brutal one, too. In addition, from the opposing force's cries, he was able to tell that Belial, that damned bastard, had sent him to the very forefront of the conflict. It would be nigh on impossible to survive this predicament. However, he wasn't flustered. He wasn't even daunted a small bit.

With an expectant look on his face, Jack kicked up a broken piece of a once mighty spear and tossed it with all his strength towards the first devilish being to shout. The spear crossed the distance in an instant and pierced the creature's forehead before it could even utter a horrified cry. Its companions didn't react to their fallen comrade and simply trampled upon his corpse, breaking it into a million pieces. In the Abyss, feelings of camaraderie would only serve to get you killed.

Just as the creature died, Jack felt a resonance coming from the crest on his hand and a feeling of power emerged from it and entered his body. At first, he was surprised, but it seemed that by killing his opponent, Jack was able to increase his strength. This was a marvellous discovery!

Grinning in excitement, Jack rushed forward with extraordinary speed and met the incoming army without an ounce of fear in his heart. However, the scene where he would simply be devoured by the masses didn't happen. Instead, Jack moved like a ghost through the bodies of his enemies, and with each motion of his hands, another corpse would fall on the ground. And with each new kill, his power would grow and his injuries would heal. With such support, Jack transformed into a God of War as he began a march of slaughter.

Far away, in another dimension, Belial shuddered as he observed the way Jack ruthlessly massacred his opponents. He'd purposely transported this human to this desolate place in order for him to die. It went beyond his expectations that Jack would be able to fight back and gain the upper hand against such a large force. If that was the case, just how strong would Jack become in the future? Belial dared not imagine it. In truth, however, the appearance of such a devil-like human was good news for his lord Mammon.

--

Jack continued fighting without ever stopping to rest. As soon as he defeated the army in front of him and all his enemies had become corpses, more trembling happened under his feet and a new fighting force as big as the last one appeared in the horizon. It seemed he had caused quite the ruckus and attracted their attention. However, these newcomers had a different crest on their hands from the ones before. Yet this didn't matter to Jack, as he grabbed a short sword and dashed once more into his enemies' formations.

Like that, amidst constant fighting, a day went by. Then a month. A year. One hundred years. One thousand years.

In the blink of an eye, eight thousand years had passed. And in all that time, Jack had walked through countless battlefields and slaughtered even more creatures. In all this time, not once had he stopped to rest. Not even to relieve himself of his basic bodily functions. In the Abyss, all that mattered was killing.

As he faced and bested ever stronger opponents, his power further grew exponentially. He had become so mighty that even the thirteen Archdemons that were warring against each other had grown to notice the man. His fame reached the skies and, with it, so did the wariness of the generals.

At first Mammon had been pleased with such a new addition to his armies as it would mean that his influence would grow and he could lay claim to an even larger number of the coveted resources in the Abyss. However, after learning of Jack's deeds, even Mammon couldn't help but feel a small amount of fear. Mammon had no doubts that Jack would eventually achieve enough power to rival his own and, when that day came, no one could foresee the consequences.

As such, history repeated itself. The thirteen Archdemons met up in secret and drafted a pact amongst each other. The agreement was simple: Mammon would cripple Jack and, in exchange, they would all grant him a suitable territory as compensation. Mammon readily agreed.

Thus, Jack was summoned to a grand library of such vastness and magnificence that its size could rival ten Earths by itself. And each square meter was brimming with books of untold knowledge. This library represented the combined sum of information of each being in the Abyss and each Archdemon sent agents of their own to categorise the information contained within it. After all, information is power.

To be an agent in the library, however, one needed to be completely powerless. Hence, when Jack arrived, he found himself void of his own power. At first, he had been furious, but soon he became ecstatic at his new position. As a former great scholar, he knew the value of information better than anyone else; and this library had more information than he could possibly imagine.

If there was any way to escape the Abyss, then the means would be located within this library.

Therefore, Jack began to wholeheartedly research his situation.

Like that, he spent two thousand years, never stopping to eat or sleep, only immersing himself in learning as much as he could from the books. Soon, he became an expert in all subjects under the Sun; from alchemy and medicine to strategy and formations. Everything was within his grasp. If any of the Archdemons knew that their arrangements had been used by this hateful man in such a way, they would surely die from anger as they expected him to lose his mind in the maze-like corridors of the library as countless souls had done before.

Instead, Jack became aware of the nature of the abyss and the structure of the cosmos. In truth, the vast Universe that scientists investigated on his planet was the treetop of a monumental Tree. Each small planet, like Earth, a leaf on its branches. The closer the planet was to the Heart of the Tree, the larger and more powerful it would be with a greater amount of mystical resources. Earth, for example, was a small planet on the very reaches of the Tree.

The Abyss, on the other hand, wasn't on any branch. It lay in its roots. Its purpose was unknown, but the demons who inhabited the Abyss would fight each other for the resources available in order to one day break through to a realm of power sufficient to climb the Tree and escape.

No one knew where the inhabitants of the Abyss came from, they only knew that from time to time, the living beings that died on the other planes, would sometimes find themselves in the Abyss. How or when this was determined, was unknown as it seemed that it was completely random. Nonetheless, no one bothered to find out because newcomers very rarely lasted long. And when someone died in the Abyss, they became food for the Great Tree and would be lost for eternity.

Thus, the Abyss was a chaotic place of madness and death.

--

One day, Jack was walking down a seemingly normal corridor in the deepest recess of the Library when he came across a sight he had never seen before. One of the walls on the side was an empty space. Although this in of itself wasn't enough to arouse suspicion in a normal library, this wasn't a normal library at all and every inch of the library was supposedly covered in books. As such, Jack was instantly attracted to the empty space.

He placed his hand on the wall and, after a second of nothing happening, he heard a large rumbling sound and the wall itself began disappearing in front of his eyes as if it had never been there in the first place; leaving a large, dimly lit room in its stead.

Without hesitating, Jack crossed the threshold in front of him and entered this new chamber.

Standing on a simple pedestal, were two seemingly ordinary items. The first was a ring shaped like a dragon with its mouth holding an onyx-like pearl and, next to it, was a time-damaged book. Looking at the state of these two items, Jack deduced that they had been locked in this sealed room for millions, perhaps even billions, of years.

Jack drew near to the pedestal and read the tile "Harmony of Everything". The title instantly attracted him and he opened the book. Inside it he found the description of a mystical cultivation method which boasted the capacity to harmonise everything. Jack struggled to keep his breathing in check once he read its effects.

He was stunned! He was familiar with cultivation, as this was what everyone in the Abyss thrived on. To cultivate was to absorb the energy, or qi, of their surroundings and advance to ever increasing power realms in order to display strength that could challenge gods. In fact, in the last two thousand years, he had come across countless cultivation methods each more tyrannical than the last. From methods to cultivate power from primordial essences, to the means of obtaining the power of divine beings.

However, when compared to the book in his hands, all those methods were absolute garbage! What did it mean to harmonise everything? It meant turning conflict and opposition into fusion; thesis and antithesis into synthesis. Fire and water, light and darkness, life and death, the demonic and the divine, everything and nothing; all of these contradictory essences would be harmonised with this cultivation method within one body!

In addition, the book detailed a method to cultivate the body, soul, and qi! Most peak manuals only included methods to cultivate two out of the three essences; however, they never had a method for all three. Yet this one did.

Its mightiness was incomparably amazing!

However, its complexity was beyond anything Jack had ever come across. Just the introductory passages gave him a headache. It must be said that Jack had within him the sum of two thousand years of knowledge stemming from all the planes of the great Tree, hence it must be imagined how amazing it was for him to only feel slightly confused. He found it hard to imagine what would happen if he mastered this method.

Just as he was contemplating spending the next few thousand years absorbing this book, he cut his finger with one of the pages and a drop of blood fell onto it. Instantly, a change occurred. The book and the ring began resonating with one another and light enveloped them both.

The book itself disappeared into the centre of Jack's eyebrows, burrowing itself inside his brain. It made its home deep within Jack's consciousness. Next, the dragon ring lodged itself on Jacks index finger and wrapped itself tightly, eventually merging itself and becoming a tattoo on his finger.

As soon as these two processes happened, Jack felt a pain unlike anything he had ever felt before and his soul exploded into billions of tiny fragments. The explosion rivalled that of thousands upon thousands of nuclear bombs going off simultaneously and the once incomparably vast library was ruined.

The change was noticed by the thirteen overlords of the Abyss as they quickly made their way to the place where the library had been. Instead of its tall walls and magnificent buildings, all they found was a desolate space where nothing was left alive.

As for Jack? He didn't die. An unknown source of power pulled the remains of his soul and dragged him out of the roots of the Tree and sent him up to one of the branches.

After ten thousand years in Hell, Jack was about to return.