Amelie , huh?

That was the name of the girl that was currently digging her nails in what remained of my back.

Currently, she had her face buried in my chest , sobbing quietly. Curiously, no tears were shed . Now that I think about it , Is it possible to cry as a soul body? I don't remember wiping my sweat when moving Legos....Meh , who cares.

Amelie's sobs got quieter and finally stopped after a few minutes. Hmm , maybe 5 minutes left for this conversation. At least I established myself as a friend to this girl. You don't bawl your eyes out while hugging a stranger , no?

"Amelie?" I asked softly

A small nod was my answer.

"Tell me about yourself, please"

She looked up to me , a confused expression on her face.

"This place is the first level of hell. A place for sinners. You seem to be too kind for a place like this." I elaborated.

Her green eyes (how cute!) widened in surprise and fear , and the glazed look which receded a bit earlier came back in full force.

"So it's true....I still hoped we were kidnapped by sadistic cosplayers, you know?" An empty chuckle escaped her lips.

"Heh , good one ,but unfortunately we are in a bonafide hell dimension." To have the gall to crack jokes in this situation...I like this girl.

"My life was... uneventful. I don't think I committed any sins worth mentioning..."

She might be lying, I thought. But if she is , she's damn good at it. From posture to the lack of composure, she seems the textbook example of a normal girl.

"Were you religious? My own sentence was because I was an atheist" And still am , honestly, I think of demons as red humans and angels as shiny humans(maybe) . I know it's a weird opinion to have when you're in hell , but hey , DoomSlayer is one of my idols.

"Yes , both me and my sister went to the church sometimes..."

Hmm , she seems a bit put off at the mention of faith. I wonder why?

"Well , try praying to God. He will tell you how long you have to endure this hell"

It's honestly quite surprising she didn't do it yet . It one of the first things I tried when I spawned here. She must have a reason though. This lack of faith seems recent. She wouldn't have gone to the church if she hated it before . It might be related to the way she died on earth. Maybe....

*AAAAAH*

Ah , yes the magnificent voice of the angel . I honestly forgot about the efect it has on us , punny mortal souls.

I hug Amelie tighter to support her now limp body.

Hey , c'mon gurl , I know it's bad but not enough to curl up and die , you know.

"*mumble* tyrs *mumble mumble*"

She's muttering to herself while glaring at me.

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Oh no ! I hope she's not traumatized! Anyway...

"I'm sorry , Ami . It's been a while since I last prayed and the thought to warn you just slipped my mind. Please forgive me..."

The glare subsided , and she buried her face back in my chest.

"It't alright....It was just unexpected that's all."

I wonder if she's talking about the sound of his voice or the message itself.

"So what's the verdict?" The moment of truth...

"Ten...Ten years of punishment in the first layer...for being a nonbeliever,,when I died".- She said with enough spite to impress even me. Hell , she looked like she was two steps away from kicking and screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? KEEP PRAYING TO GOD EVEN AS THE BASTARD RAPED ME, AS HE CUT ME , AS HE SLIT MY THROAT?????"

Damn , Ami , you have it rough. I held her as she raged on about the unfairness of it all. Oh , Ami , poor summer child . The world's not fair . it was not in the past and it won't ever be. It's our job to make ourselves rise above our circumstances. I didn't tell her that , of course. I am her ,,friend,, and she now needs to vent.

"Well well well , am I interrupting something, kids?"

This lazy bastard...How long has he been there? I was just about to ask Ami if she has been to other levels of hell before coming here. Otherwise, how would she have those wounds on her? Did her physical wounds transfer to her soul? Doubtfully. If that would be the case , all the people who died in car crashes and other hazardous ways would have damaged souls.

"Get to woooork." The aptly named Fat demon drawled. C'mon dude , how can you have a beer belly? Don't you eat fucking souls?

Anyway , I slowly got rid of Amelie's vice like grip and we started working. She seems to be a bit more present now. Good , we won't have to do this same song and dance tomorrow , I hope. Those are the only 10 minutes we are alone and can talk unrestricted.

As I stacked Legos on top of each other , I thought of my plans.

I have an inkling about why Amelie is here. I hope I'm wrong though.

There are many fishy things about our situation , like how we both have the same sentence , even though I was an atheist for my whole life and Ami only for a few minutes. I don't have enough information about this , though, so I can only speculate .

There are more important things to do....

Like getting stronger. I am now sure my soul is getting more condensed. My durability is definitely a bit higher. The pain whip still rips pieces of me when I get leashed, but they are smaller and smaller .

I need a way to heal my soul .

Plan A - Blood

As I go towards the closest rock to pick it up, I lick my left hand , the one which I placed on Amelie's lower back , letting her blood drip in my palm.

"Well... bottoms up*slurp*"

As I feel an arguably small rush of energy coursing through me , I know I was right. This isn't really blood. It's soul energy . Probably absorbed through the ground to power RoboSatan. Good , very good.

Now I put a hand behind my back and take a bit of my own.

*Slurp*

....Well , that's disappointing. I felt nothing. Nothing at all. Is my blood not good enough or is is there a rule that says you can't drink your own blood? I need Amelie to check which one it is.

Ok, cool , cool .

Plan B - Peebles

Each time we finish a tower , the demon destroys it . All of them destroy it in different ways , but they have one thing in common. They shatter a few of the stones closest to where they strike. The resulting peebles are then absorbed through the ground in a few minutes , and a few whole stones appear instead.

After our last tower was broken by the Fat demon , I have thrown myself to the ground.

"Why are you doing this!???!" ( Cue in hystherical screech I didn't even know I could produce)

The reason I have the guts to be this checky is because of how chill the Fat demon is .

His punishments are lax and he mostly stares into space , ignoring us. Still better to be safe .

The pain whip strikes me and I roll on the ground in ,,pain,, taking a peeble in my mouth as I do so.

The effect is immediate. It's the same feeling as when I drank Ami's blood , but ten times stronger. Like someone combined red bull with coffee and then added creatine to the mix. Quite good all things considered .

The tests today have yielded very good results. And I can't help but think that with enough soul energy , I might just be able to turn this punishment into a blessing.

--------------------------

Brosalin / Fat demon Pov:

This is not normal. No nooo , not at aaaal.

Humans don't come here for petty sins , and not believing is the very definition of a petty sin.

Here on the first level we usually get the most horrible, most despicable and disgusting human beings, those that make me question whether I can truly call myself a demon in front of them.

As I watched the male hold the female and whisper in her ear , I couldn't help but look at the darkness swirling around his soul body.

This was a basic ability of a demon , to see the evil in one's soul . Not the evil they did in their life , no , but the evil they would be willing to commit.

His darkness was sooo condensed , I might just believe he belongs here .

But the woman...she was the real outlier . A very , very light coating on her soul was the only indication she didn't belong to heaven. But he'd eat his own horns if that's the criterion for entering the first layer. He'd be hard pressed to find a more inocent person in the god damned Purgatory!

There was only one explanation.

Someone pulled some strings to get her here .

Someone with the influence to get the layer guardian to close it's eyes .

And maybe....with enough influence to bribe the Judge...

I felt my boiling blood turn a wee bit colder at the thought of a demon lord or (please Satan , no) even a King playing games around my workplace.

He was a measly middle tier demon. His soul cultivation barely reached the threshold of ten thousand man soul . This wasn't something he could hope to survive If he wasn't careful.

"Well well , well , am I interrupting something, kids?"

As I watched the man , the focus of a (hopefully) demon lord's interest , I couldn't help but think I'm not payed enough for this shit.

-------------------------

AN : Soul cultivation follows the rules of Reverend insanity - from 1 man soul to 999 .999.999 and then desolate soul. The demons have mutated demon souls , so theirs are stronger than normal.

Soul cultivation boosts magic power. If a demon with a 2x stronger soul casts a spell. It will will be twice as strong compared to a demon with an 1X soul . This applies only to spells that can be overcharged , example - elemental magic .

Demon rankings are -

low , middle , high , lord , king , god

each having 3 respective small tiers : low-low , low-middle etc

It is mostly correlated with the strength of the body, and at higher tiers , grants access to spells related to a demon's bloodline.

It is mostly increased through eating parts of stronger demons , LOTM style

If one has a weak soul , they will go insane when attempting to evolve.

Time skip incoming.