As Dan finished answering what seemed like the ghost’s millionth question, he wondered if he’d ever get used to the anguished screams coming from all around him. It was maddening and impossible to tune out.

He stood silently, waiting for more questions. When none came, he told the ghost, “I never got your name.”

“My name?” asked the ghost. “Ballsack Eoghin, but everyone calls me Balls. I know, right strange name, it is, mate, but I liked to rub my ballsack on the faces of dead enemies. I’d also dip them in my food so none of the greedy bastards I pirated with would eat any of it. I’d dip them in other things too. Considering that, not so strange of a name, now, is it, mate?”

“Guess not,” replied Dan.

“All I can really rub them on now is all these damned, but since I got to stay incorporeal here, it ain’t so satisfying, is it, mate? Just goes right through them, they does. Almost all these damned is incorporeal too, so it’s extra unsatisfying, it is, mate.”

“We can turn corporeal, but not here?” asked Dan.

The ghost laughed for a while before saying, “Oi, that was a good one, mate. A right good one. We’re in the last layer of Hell, mate, now, ain’t we? I can solidify myself for a little bit of time, but the qi and other energies here start eating away at me as soon as I do.

“No real way to get frags and fix the damage, now, is there, mate? While incorporeal, healing by meditating this weird qi takes way too long, it does, mate. Oi, if we ever get out of here and to a layer safe to turn corporeal in, you wouldn’t mind if I rubbed my ballsack all over your face a little, now, would you, mate?”

Dan ignored the last question since he wanted to stay on friendly terms with Balls. He asked, “Frags are used to heal?”

“Oi, of course, mate. We use those for…basically everything, we do, mate. Our kind. What tier was you when you kicked the bucket, mate?”

“Tier 17.”

Balls laughed harder than he ever had before, and for much longer. When he finally managed to get ahold of himself, he said, “Oi, that was a right good one, mate. I like you. First, that crazy story filled with lies, then saying you’re the chosen of God to destroy Hell.

“We’ll be here together forever so you’ll eventually come to trust me enough to tell me the truth, mate. Oi, a right good one, mate. Tier 17! Ha! That would really suck for you if it were true, it would, mate. Tier 17! Ha!”

“Why would it suck?” asked Dan.

“Because it would take forever and a flumplen amount of frags and beast cores to get to a point you could even get a Class, is why, mate. You’ll find there’s no need to lie so much here, mate. I was known to tell a fib or two when I first arrived myself, I did, mate. Old Balls here were tier 7 when I croaked.”

“How do I get frags and beast cores?”

“In here? You don’t, mate. If you started on the first layer, you’d get them in the usual ways. Murder, robbery, selling stuff, all that. We apparitions use those for everything, the first and most important of which is solidifying our bodies enough to become corporeal so we can interact with things. That’s right hard to do when incorporeal though, ain’t it, mate?”

After thinking about that for a minute, Dan asked, “How do we kill, rob, or sell stuff if we ain’t able to interact with nothing?”

“You don’t, mate, besides the robbing. Orbment Fragments, beast cores, and some other things we can interact with, we can, mate. So, it’s scrounging and robbing for our kind. Lost souls is rare. Vortexes are much more common on the first layer.”

“What happens if a vortex is killed? Or a lost soul?”

“Back to your plaque and suffering something fierce you go, now, don’t you, mate? Even us lost souls. That’s why I don’t become corporeal to get out of here. I’d wake up screaming as one of the damned, now, wouldn’t I, mate? And I don’t even know where my plaque is, now, do I mate?”

Dan asked, “What about the devil over there or that…it could be a demon?”

Balls vibrated and became blurrier for a moment before saying, “I heard the high pantheon types could do that, mate, but I ain’t never seen it done until I got here. I avoided the other places where I could’ve ran into the high pantheon. They all stick around, so it’s way too risky, but the Shining One’s always gone or in the throne place, now ain’t he, mate?

“We all hear the more powerful entities could inflict living beings with the same punishment as the damned get. Except those others eventually get old and die and get reborn as demons or devils or however it works for them.

“I’ve been trapped in this place here for a long time, and none of these ever die. Same with damned becoming vortexes. Never happens here. Not until you, mate. But you ain’t a normal vortex, now, is you, mate?”

As Dan was thinking about what he was told, Balls said, “Oi, there’s no escaping fate, now is there, mate? It comes for us all. Only thing that can be done is getting powerful enough to avoid it, like the high pantheon.”

A second later, Balls added, “Wait. Let me add a caveat. These damned and devils here…the Shining One – I guess he’s technically forcing them to escape their fate of being reborn again. Guy’s a real dongin if you ask me, mate.”

There was some more talk until Balls asked, “Want me to walk you through clearing your cores and channels the old way, mate?”

As Dan went to reply, Balls said, “It takes a long, long while and you got to do that before forming a core. It ain’t like with Class Obelisks, mate. Can’t be, now, can it?

“I was here forever before I met someone willing to help me. So, for being such an unlucky bastard ending up stuck in here, you’re lucky meeting such a helpful bloke like old Balls here, now, ain’t you, mate?”

Dan already knew how to clear his cores and channels. He knew that didn’t have to be completed before forming a core. Only the lower core had to be cleared before forming a core. He did that once before and it hadn’t taken much time.

He was still curious to see what information would be provided, so he listened intently as Balls explained the process.

The last time he did this, he was able to absorb a vortex into his core after forming it but before clearing channels and his mid and upper cores.

Since anything was better than being tormented for an eternity in Hell, he was thinking about trying to absorb his mother.

He didn’t know if that was possible. The Game took place in an artificial environment, and it used artificial creatures believed to be clones. Absorbing a vortex clone could be very different than absorbing an actual apparition.

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Balls cut into Dan’s rumination to say, “Oi, mate, while you’re working on that, I’m going to go pretend rub my balls on a few of these damned. I’ll be close by. Just holler if you need me or have questions, mate.”

Dan pointed as his mother and said, “Don’t rub nothing on this one. That’s my maw.”

“Oi! You serious, mate?” asked Balls as he moved to where Dan pointed. After reading the plaque, he went back to Dan’s plaque and read it again.

“Oi! Looks like it is! That’s corking nuts, mate! Were you two in cahoots? Pissed off the Shining One together, did you?”

“Naw. She ain’t done nothing. I reckon he targeted her and brought her here because of me. Ain’t no one deserved Heaven more than she did.”

Balls was quiet for a while. “Know how I knew you lied to me about your story, mate?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Your plaque, mate. It lists your sins. Yours lists a lot, mate. See those dots and dashes. Those is your sins. Three under wrath. The first is murder, seven counts. That don’t mean self-defense or justified killings. Unwarranted, it means, mate.

“It goes on with desire for vengeance, blindness, impulsive actions, and such. Next is despair, then pride, and so on. You weren’t no angel, mate. Your ma’s plaque only lists two sins. The major was wrath, suicide. She killed herself, mate. But there’s also a major under despair, and a bunch of minors under the same too.”

Dan wouldn’t let the gloom latch on. He felt anger, and since he so rarely felt that emotion so strongly, he let it come. He was certain his mother was there only due to the Shining One wanting to twist the knife in. It was the only explanation of why the Shining One claimed her soul for his own collection.

Then he thought of something else. Both Dan and Nick had died in the Game. No one was left to visit his mother. She wasn’t in good shape mentally. She had devoted her life to her family. It was everything to her.

She loved Amanda so, so much. She was so happy to be a grandmother, so happy to have another girl in the family. Her granddaughter dying wasn’t something she could handle. Not so soon after her husband died, and their home and land were lost.

Dan had no idea what Earth was like after the Game was won. He could picture his mother sitting alone in a mental health facility, wondering why her sons weren’t visiting her, stewing in resentment and misery.

She had given so much of herself to her boys, and it would seem to her that when she became an inconvenience, they had both abandoned her. Maybe she did commit suicide, wondered Dan.

But, if she did, he thought it was far more likely Satan was sitting beside her, whispering evil and lies into her ear, wanting to take the soul of this kind and Godly woman for himself.

It wouldn’t matter to Satan if Dan never knew his mother was being tormented right near him in Hell. Satan would know, and that was probably enough for that sick bastard.

But Dan did know now, and he wouldn’t abandon his mother, the woman that had sacrificed so much for him, done so much for him, loved him so much. He owed her more than he could ever repay.

She was his mother. He’d do everything he could to help her. If he didn’t, especially considering she was such a loving and good mother, he wouldn’t be able to consider himself any type of man at all.

“Can I free her somehow?” asked Dan.

“Free her? From…like…she’s one of the damned, mate. Sometimes damned become a vortex, but they never become like us lost souls, and never here, in this place. You’re the only exception, mate.”

Dan’s heart sank. It looked like he was right and the best thing he could do for his mother was try and absorb her. But that was a last resort. He needed to know more first.

He asked, “What about redemption? Is it possible to be redeemed and attain Heaven?”

Balls guffawed before saying, “We’re in Hell, mate. Redemption is for mortals. Life’s a test and we all failed it. We ain’t but got the one chance for Heaven, mate, and we blew ours. There’s no redemption for us now. The Redeemers are fools. In all the time Hell existed, ain’t not one of them ever got to Heaven, now, has one, mate?”

“Redeemers?” asked Dan.

“Starting about the third layer, there’s some old groups and factions, mate. The Redeemers is one of them, now, aren’t they, mate? A bunch of stupid suckers that think if they act like goody two-shoes and pray hard enough, they’ll change their fate.

“We all laugh at them, we do, mate. They get murdered a lot too, mate, because it’s so easy. A lot of them don’t even defend themselves, now, do they, mate? Suckers, every one of them, they are.

“But none of that matters now, does it, mate? We’re stuck in here. Forever, mate. Old Balls here and New Guy Dan. Partners in crime. Wish there was some crime we could get into together. There ain’t, though, now, is there, mate?

“Okay, you work on your channels while I go pretend to rub my balls on these stiffs. Oi, not your ma, of course, mate, out of respect for you and all.”

“One more question,” said Dan.

“And that is?”

“Time. Is there a way to know how long it’s been since I died?”

“Sorry, mate. No way I know of. But don’t worry about it too much, mate. When you’re talking eternity, time has little meaning, now, does it, mate?”

Dan was at an impasse. Absorbing his mother would or could possibly end her suffering if it truly destroyed her soul.

But if there was a chance to free her, somehow redeem her, and she could go to Heaven, that had to be his goal. He owed her that. A lot more than that. He owed her everything.

And the rest of his family would be missing her fiercely and need her in Heaven with them. She was the heart of the family. She was most of its warmth and kindness. Its love. The best thing about it.

If this were to be the path, she would have to continue suffering for a lot longer. There was no getting around that. He wished there was. He just didn’t know enough at the moment.

Dan no longer hated himself, but he knew he was exactly where he should be, where he needed to be.

His soul was exchanged for eight billion others.

Now, the stakes were raised. Instead of the fate of one world, he would fix the whole system that Satan had brought off-kilter.

As Kharahel was God’s Wrath in the mortal realm, Dan would be so in Hell.

The qi around him was so thick he could hardly manipulate it. He didn’t mind. He had forever to master it. But it would take a lot longer to clear his lower core than he first assumed.

So, he got to work teaching himself how to manipulate such potent and thick qi. Qi that was wild and didn’t want to be controlled, especially by an Origin tier, level 0 nobody like he was now, once again.

Time marched onwards. Like Dan, Balls had spent too much time alone and was fine being so.

Short breaks were taken to talk and discuss some things, and Dan slowly learned the ins and outs of Hell and being an apparition. Knowledge such as that ghosts could generally move through walls and objects they could reach their arm through. The rock walls they were trapped within were far, far too thick for that.

But, in general, both men left each other alone to do their own thing.

One ghost went around pretending to rub his ballsack on the damned, and the other slowly gained experience bending such potent qi to his will.

Dan spent far more time learning to control qi than clearing his core. A task that had taken such a short time with artificial qi of the Game was taking much, much longer here.

But when the task was finally done, Dan was able to bend the qi to his will as easily as he had in the Game. There was a taint to this qi he disliked, but nothing could be done about that.

He wasn’t certain what allowed him to absorb an apparition into his core after he regressed, but he wanted to recreate the situation as closely as possible. He next started to clear his channels.

He didn’t clear them much. He wanted to learn the trick of it with this qi and get his channels to the same place as they were in the Game when he formed his core.

And clearing that little bit of his channels took a very long time. When he was ready, he spent an even longer time practicing meditation techniques and reviewing everything he knew about cores and forming them.

Balls and every other lost soul formed their cores in the first layer. His new companion told him at least semi-corporality was needed to move from the first to the second layer of Hell.

Dan would form his core in the highest layer of Hell, and a special part of it that belonged to the Shining One. Balls said the energy in this place was different than that of the rest of the layer.

Taint or not, Dan was being given a special gift he’d abuse to the fullest extent possible.

This core would last forever, as he’d remain in Hell forever. This would be the only core he ever formed again.

Every decision he made had to take the long view into account. If he were to ever stand against the high pantheon and defeat them, he needed to eke every drop of power he could out of every single action.

In the Game, he had had no choice but to master mana usage and efficiency, to master gathering techniques, to do more with less. And then even less.

The qi in this place was far richer and more potent than that of the pocket plane participants of the Game were brought to when forming cores.

Dan knelt, closed his eyes and prepared. He took a centering breath and began his gathering technique. He began pulling all the qi around himself to himself. He grabbed as much as he could from as far out as he could and pulled. And pulled. His body shook with effort. He strained his ability to its absolute limit.

This extremely potent and wild qi tried disobeying him. He wouldn’t allow it. With an iron will, he forced the qi to bow to his mastery. When he had control over all of it that he could manage, he began forming his core.

As the core formed, he force-fed it more qi. And more qi. And then even more.