Insanity Hell

When Ivan woke up, he found himself in a completely new room.

"What…happened?"

He tried to remember the past but couldn't. Instead, whenever he tried to remember, his head would throb in pain.

"Ugh…My head hurts…"

Besides his head throbbing in pain, Ivan felt something wet dripping on the side of his forehead.

Curious, he wiped his forehead with his hand before bringing in front of him to see.

It was blood.

"Hm? My head's bleeding. That doesn't…seem normal."

'Yeah, no shit sherlock. You fell for 3 minutes straight before hitting your head on the concrete floor.' The mysterious voice from before sneered in response to Ivan's ignorant comment.

After Ivan fell unconscious in the last room, an orb of light arose from the boy's sea of consciousness. The orb looked left and right before it flew off into the sky of the mind.

Hours passed by before the orb flew back and landed in his sea of consciousness again. A well soon formed on top of the place the orb of light landed.

The orb of light seemed to have a mind of its own.

Once the well had formed on top of it, tree branches started growing out of the orb before they dug themselves into the deepest parts of Ivan's mind.

From there, the orb of light gained access to the 5 senses of the main body, allowing it to feel its surroundings with Ivan's body as its bridge.

'The seed has been planted. The planted seed has germinated. The germinated seed has given me access to the boy's five senses and….I'm falling? Eh?'

Not knowing when the ground beneath Ivan gave out, the orb of light released a part of its own spiritual strength to protect the boy's body.

It however, did not bother to protect Ivan's head since the orb of light thought that its presence was already enough. He was half right.

Ivan landed with a thud. Cracking sounds followed after.

'Shit…' The orb of light grimaced.

***

"So…you let me hit my head because of your pride?" [Ivan]

'Sheesh, you don't have to put it that way. You're making me look bad in this situation. I was only trying to help..'

"Should I have thanked you then? For cracking my skull?" [Ivan]

'Why are you acting so mature when you're not older than 10 years old? Great god of light, I'm actually losing an argument to a child?!'

"This wasn't an argument to begin with…You're just trying to cover up your mistakes with the goodness you've done." [Ivan]

'And that's still not enough???'

"Of course not." [Ivan]

'I concede!'

After confronting the voice within his head, Ivan dusted himself off before he headed to the challenge of this new room.

There, a string of words shone brightly before him.

{Welcome to Insanity Hell! It is the easiest pathway among the 3 Pathways to Hell. Make it to the end of the corridor without passing out. Failure to do so will cause you severe consequences. Besides that, have fun~!}

"So this place is called Insanity Hell, huh? And all I've got to do to pass this entrance examination is reach the end of the corridor…Sounds easy enough! Let's do this!"

***

Each hell possessed their own monsters.

Insanity Hell monsters exist within the spiritual plane and can bring lethal damage to one's sea of consciousness if one isn't careful enough.

Ivan, who was ignorant about the place he was in, strolled through the long corridor without breaking a sweat.

This dumbfounded Lucas and Calvin since the sages themselves knew how much of a pain spiritual monsters were.

Although the spiritual monsters that exist within Insanity Hell were the weakest of their species, sages like them would still tread on carefully.

Upon reaching the 2nd room of Insanity Hell, Ivan looked left and right before deciding to take a break.

He did a few stretches before walking over to the center of the room.

Positioned in the center of the room was an altar carved from stone. The altar held a stone bowl that seemed to contain white liquid.

Ivan glanced down at the bowl before he thought to himself. 'White paint? Did someone paint the bowl halfway before running out of paint?'

The orb of light remained silent.

It felt that the white liquid looked familiar, but the orb of light couldn't place its branch on where the orb had seen it before.

"Hey mister, what is this white liquid in the bowl here?" Curious, Ivan immediately thought of asking his examiner for help.

'Didn't you say it yourself? It's white paint, duh.' The orb of light replied.

"I know it sounds stupid but, I'm certain that white paint does not make me feel pressured in any way. But the white liquid in front of me does…"

'Aha! I remember now!'

"Remember what?"

'The white liquid in front of you is not white paint, but instead it's called Condensed Soul Milk!'

"Condensed Soul Milk?"

'Hahaha, which stupid fuck left such an invaluable treasure here like this?'

"Is the white liquid inside the stone bowl that valuable?"

'To you, not really. But to me, Condensed Soul Milk is indeed an invaluable treasure.'

"How so?" Ivan inquired.

'Well, once drunk, Condensed Soul Milk fills the user up with incredibly spiritual energy, powering me up great—DON'T JUST DRINK IT STRAIGHT FROM THE STONE BOWL, YOU IGNORANT BRAT!!!'

Being an impatient 10 year old child who hated long explanations, Ivan turned a deaf ear to his examiner's words as he picked up the stone bowl with his two little hands.

He held his breath before he chugged down the Condensed Soul Milk in one go.