I kept moving the rocks , taking them from all around and stacking them atop of each other , making a bigger rock.

Now , I call them rocks but they are more like really big and heavy Lego blocks made of stone. They are clearly for building stuff. Ergo , I should build something.

As someone who was at least tangentially interested in mythology and heard of Sisyphus it wasn't a mystery how everything I build will end up. The reason for this specific punishment was a mystery for me , one I didn't care enough to try and solve.

What I cared about though was my warden's reactions.

Through those I can gauge his personality and then I can tailor mine accordingly.

Is he a sadistic piece of shit that loves to torture humans , or is he a bored and underpaid 9 to 5 white collar worker? My best guess is that it's a mix between the two.

He didn't seem too excited by my suffering but he reacted negatively to my (demented) laughter earlier.

So he doesn't want to see me happy but doesn't really care about the degree of sadness I feel .

Good good. Now , why does he do this if not enjoyment?

Payment probably .

What do demons want?

I don't know but he seems humanoid . A very ugly humanoid with big black eyes , and a huge mouth with protruding teeth . Kinda like an unholy mix between a bodybuilder and an angler fish.

Anyway , this guy gets something out of this.

He probably doesn't do this all the time or he wouldn't get to enjoy the fruits of his(or her!) labor.

Do I have a limited timeframe to convince it to answer some questions?

Who knows if the next warden will be so chill .

I don't have their currency I doubt he would accept dollars... ( not that I have any)

Optimal solution : entertain it somehow , then ask a harmless question. Maybe see if it has an ego to stroke.

As the hours passed, I tried different tactics but both cries of pain , attempted juggling with small rocks and completely silent work have left my demon bro unfazed.

Like what the fuck?

Are you so so depressed ?

Can I help somehow?

It's not healthy to do something you hate just for the money it brings , demon bro!

My last attempt was coming along quite nicely .

If it doesn't work , I will try asking a question anyway.

Worst case I get my soul eaten for being nosy.

Maybe that's why the fields surrounding us are so empty?

***Crash*

Oh noo ,my beautiful beautiful tower of rocks.

How could you Demon bro?

Do you hate me so much?

I made sure to show my sadness and pain at seeing my work be destroyed in front of me.

And lo and behold the demon seemed a bit happier. His eyes were a bit wider and his mouth stretched into a parody of a smile.

Bzzt , a bit of sadism detected. Act accordingly.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Why would you do that!?" I screamed in fake outrage

"You're here to suffer, little human . That's reason enough." The demon said , slowly getting back to his resting bitch face.

"I didn't do anything wrong in my life! Why do I need to suffer like this?!"

Heh , yeah, at least from my point of view it wasn't wrong...

*Crack*

A whip to the face was my answer.

I was ready though, and managed to protect my eyes with my hands.

I don't wanna test if they can regrow...yet.

"Do I look like I give a fuck , maggot? My job is to harvest your suffering. Be thankful , you're on level one so you might escape someday. On the lower levels , hehe, let's just say escaping is just a pipe dream"

A farm of suffering , huh?

Oh , how the turns have tabled as Yoda might say.

Maybe this version of god is a chicken? That would be...interesting. But now I need to get back to work , his sudden sadism may come to bite me if I push my luck.

It's all right though, I got him talking. Now it should be easier to obtain information.

Let's build another glorious castle from stone Legos , shall we?

.

.

.

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

(Akain / Demon Bro pov :)

We have an interesting one this time.

The Judge would never mistake a golden soul from a dark one...

And there is no way somebody was sent to the first layer for just refusing to believe.

There is something more to this one , I thought to myself as I appeared next to the human's soul form.

*Crack*

Aaand he's whimpering on the ground.

Pathetic , really. What a disappointment...

Hmmmm?

Those eyes...what hatred...there is no fear in there...Only madness.

Within the depths of those eyes, a chilling storm rages unabated.

Madness dances in wild, frenetic patterns, distorting the very essence of what should be a window to the soul.

They are windows, yes, but they open onto a realm that defies reason, a realm where the threads of sanity have frayed and unraveled.

The pupils, once the portals of perception, now resemble bottomless voids that draw you in, swallowing your thoughts and leaving you suspended in an unsettling void.

There is no focus, no fixed point — just a swirling chaos that distorts the world into a disorienting whirlpool of colors and shapes.

The irises, once mirrors of emotion, have lost their reflection. Instead, they shimmer with fractured hues, a kaleidoscope of instability.

A sinister light glimmers in their depths, as if a malevolent force seeks to break free from its confines.

The eyes seem to pulse with an unnatural rhythm, like the erratic beats of a deranged heart.

Hohoho , how interesting!

No energy is being extracted from his soul body.

Usually, demons just eat a human's soul , asimilate it's energy and that's that , but the legends say a demon lord discovered a long time ago that torturing the deceased humans souls and extracting energy slowly can lead to a 200% increase in output.

That was the start of the layered hell, in which the heavens agreed to send sinful souls to be ,,cleansed,, .

Heh , hypocrites the lot of them.

The more sinful the soul , the harder the torture and the longer it lasts . The levels go from the most tame (7) to the worst possible (1) the time which a soul is tortured is inversely proportional to the level it is sentenced to , with level 7 having 7 days to level 1 , which lasts 10 whole years.

There is no hope of salvation for these souls . They are all damned , all fated to be consumed by the neverending gluttony of demons after they have been completely drained.

You can Imagine my surprise when seeing a soul's energy not being syphoned through the pain whip. It seems like we have a special little soul to take care of.

This will be fun....

.

.

.

I was wrong .

This is so fucking boring.

This soul feels no fear , only anger and hate .

So the whip can't siphon energy.

So this whole gig is kind of useless.

I feel my thoughts drifting as I strike at the man's soul with the whip.

Energy drain or no , his soul will collapse sooner or later with all this stress that's put on it.

His willpower is admirable , but it will all amount to nothing in the end.

Or so I thought...before I caught a glimpse of the man looking at me with those eyes of his...studying me...with a grin on his face moreover.

I felt my boiling blood heat even more as rage came bellowing. I cracked my whip to wake him up from his reverie .

"Why are you grinning, human?"

He immediately schooled his expression into fearful deference and mumbled a ,,nothing sir" and got back to work.

What a weird human , being happy in such a situation... clearly his soul is already damaged and it's messing with his emotions.

I kept watching the man as he worked and his pitful attempt at getting a rise out of me .

He knew I knew I was ignoring him and he didn't seem to mind .

He just kept building the stone tower.

Even this was a trap , as the very stones he carried siphoned his energy and made him weaker .

The soul was then tricked by the pain whip to feel like nothing was wrong , all to let the soul keep a semblance of hope...

That was the secret of extracting so much more energy.

The soul , believing it has a chance of survival , fights with all it has to keep going , giving us even more energy than we would have gotten if we just ate it as it was.

.

.

.

.

Finally , the tower is ready.

Now....*crack*... let's have some fun.

Amid the desolate plains, I, a creature born of darkness, loom before the small stone tower like an ancient force of annihilation.

The crimson sky casts an ominous glow upon the world, bathing the scene in a surreal, otherworldly light.

The tower, constructed from the very stones that bear witness to the absurdity of existence, stands as a testament to the futile efforts of a condemned soul.

My form is one of malevolent power, forged from the darkest realms of the abyss.

My eyes, twin pools of blazing malice, fix upon the tower with a ravenous hunger.

My tendrils of darkness reach out, an extension of my will, and they curl around the stones that constitute the tower's frail existence.

The stones, once arranged in an ill-fated bid for significance, tremble as my grip tightens. The condemned soul's efforts unravel before me, a symbol of their insignificance in the face of my unfathomable might.

I summon the fires of damnation, an infernal blaze that dances along my fingertips, and with a gesture, I release them upon the tower.

The flames consume the stones with a voracious appetite, devouring their feeble attempts at defiance.

The tower crumbles, its foundations quivering like a fragile illusion. Smoke curls and twists as the stones succumb to the blaze, their whispers of despair swallowed by the crackling inferno.

As the last vestiges of the tower crumble to dust, the condemned soul's legacy is obliterated, a testimony to the inevitability of my dominion.

The landscape quakes in acknowledgment of my power, and the scarlet sky seems to pulse in rhythm with the cataclysmic symphony I've orchestrated.

In this surreal realm, I am a force beyond comprehension, an embodiment of chaos and malevolence.

The demon's laughter echoes across the plains, a chilling reminder that even the most audacious endeavors of mortals can be reduced to ash before the might of the infernal.

As the flames dissipate and the desolation settles once more, I stand as a harbinger of the abyss, an entity that bends reality to my will and leaves a wake of destruction in my path.

"Hahahahaha!" this always makes me feel good...

As I turned towards the human , I saw his fake mask of outage .

"Why would you do that?!" it asks.

*Snort*, what audacity , to think it has the guts to ask me something.

This maggot needs to learn respect. After a few whips and half hearted answers from me , it got back to work.

What a boring day , I can't wait for my shift to end.

I wonder how long this weird human will last though. I hope it will be me on the shift when he finally breaks down .

I'd love to see his face when he realizes there was no hope for him to begin with...

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A.N: The pain whip extracts energy released through fear , despair and sadness.

The stones extract it anyway , just by touching them ,albeit at a slower rate. For those of you who read Reverend insanity , think of them as soul refining gu , the pain whip and especially the stones. As you might imagine , just refining the soul without improving the foundation would lead only to the destruction of said soul.