…
‘How long has it been?’
Preserving his cognition while persevering through the sea of nothingness was the greatest hurdle in Hellion’s life. The allure of sleep had never been so sweet.
The passage of time was unforgiving. As the count of time had long been lost, at times, it only appeared to be but a fleeting moment. Though it had been an eternity, hadn’t it?
While spiraling downward into the emptiness, on rare occasions, roars, ravings, and cries could be heard. In his assumption, those were other people’s souls. Stumbling upon them, their last moments became vivid.
‘Oh, here is another one.’
Javier, 23 years old - A recent graduate from a top university in Madrid. He was very happy to have been accepted by the company he did an internship with - as a full-time employee with a decent salary at that.
At last - no more cramped dormitory. At last, no more graduate-level classes. At last! A chance to pay back the student loans and repay his parents. Just as his life was about to take a turn for the better, akin to a clap of thunder in a daylight sky, jolting news struck him, leaving him stunned in its wake.
Nuclear Armageddon! The world is ending!
Was the effort of going through the studies and all the hardships for naught? Why did this have to happen when it was finally time to enjoy the fruits of his labor? Forget about that. What about his family and friends, his dreams and aspirations?
Before he could swallow and digest it, he was blown to smithereens.
Nana, 74, was an old lady who resided in Hawaii. As her hands shook and her eyes closed, she prayed in silence. She was worried for her children, who were scattered across the globe. Having lived a long and bountiful life, she had no concerns for her own well-being.
“Lord, forgive me for the times I have fallen short of your glory…
Lord, I lift up my children to you. I pray for forgiveness for any wrongdoings they may have committed…
Almighty Father, as we face the end times, we turn to you, our refuge and strength…
In the name of Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior, Amen.”
Just as she finished her prayer, she was swept away by a giant tsunami.
Liu Xing, 42 years - A corrupt official in the prefecture of Guangdong. Currently, he was deep inside a bunker in a conflict over provisions.
Whatever the upcoming future was, it would surely not be a pleasant one. Having keen insight, he mustered up all his energy, even over a small portion of canned goods. What of pride? What of justice? He had to look after his ill wife and weak little daughter. Despite being an avid gourmet, he had even started a diet to the point of starving.
Suddenly, the walls started to quiver. Contrary to the intensity of it, the argument came to a sudden halt. Liu rushed toward his family.
Throughout his life, the man suffered many hardships. He made it from a restaurant manager to a prominent political figure. With hard work and resolve, enduring the many challenges of life, he got to this very point. At the time, only less than one percent of the entire pre-attack population remained.
‘Thankfully, this bunker is designed to withstand seismic forces.’
“Father!”
As he entered the room, a little girl with a teddy bear in one hand and a cotton doll in the other strode toward him. The wife, with a frail body weakened by a disease, remained in her cot. She was just as frightened as her daughter, yet the past week had been so daunting that it had drained her vitality.
Unfortunately for them, there was no hope. The earth left its orbit. No amount of nuclear weaponry could have accomplished this. So how?
In their final moments, the Liu family clung to each other. Then, the world fell silent - not just for them but for the whole of humanity.
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‘Hmm… It’s been silent.’
As a dim lump of light hovered around, it was surrounded by nothingness.
At first, there were others, many. They exhibited feelings of excruciating agony and anguish. He could witness their end-of-life stage and feel their anger, regret, resentment, and else. They were all ruled over by instincts, as in this vast darkness, they had all long given up.
Now, though, they were all gone.
‘So why am I here?’
This torture of silence was unbearable. Yet, Hellion withstood.
…
It’s been a while.
‘Or has it?’
Hopelessness. Loneliness. Helplessness. Emptiness.
‘I don’t have much time.’
He was nearing his limits - or perhaps he had long surpassed them. The void was prevailing over whatever was left of him.
…
‘...’
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Time flew.
Nothing happened. Nothing changed, nothing but time.
…
…
…
Quite some time passed.
Or did it?
A transparent hand stretched toward the sparkling ball of diminishing light, trespassing into the realm. As the soul was on the brink of collapse, the hand gently clenched and grabbed it so as not to damage it. Afterward, a crack formed in the midst of stillness. The luminescent white hand retracted, piercing through the emptiness with vehemence.
In contrast to the total darkness, the other realm was as white as a blank canvas. Yet, in the midst of this nothingness, therein stood a man with average looks. As he opened his palm, he infused the deteriorating soul with imperceptible light.
“Hmm?”
----------------------------------------
“Took you long enough, ”
‘…?’
“Hellion.”
“Hellion… ah… me.”
Hellion silently muttered through his lips. Wait, what lips? Opening his eyes, he felt a searing heat scorch his vision. His faltering consciousness was reinvigorated as the perception of reality slowly dawned upon him.
He ran his hands over his body, and it was there! Drifting through endlessness as a mass of matter, he had long forgotten the sense of physical touch. Engrossed in both dread and excitement, Hellion could not regain his composure. His widened eyes wandered until they fixated on an unassuming figure.
“Huh?”
This figure of a young man was feeding a deer while sitting on a bench. Having many questions and no speculations whatsoever, Hellion, with a warm smile, waved his hands in a greeting manner.
“How is the feeling of coming back to hell?”
The being asked in a casual tone. This very being was a common person with black hair, brown eyes, and an ordinary-looking face.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Hellion’s smile froze as he made a frustrated expression. He was above his fifties, with salt-and-pepper hair. Yet now, he seemed like all his leftover hair would wither. Heck, he could even turn bald. Despite his rudeness, though, the entity remained unperturbed, giving Hellion a way to rant.
“So it was all because of you. All the other souls have long vanished, yet it was only me who stayed in that godforsaken place. Or should I say devilforsaken? No way in heaven a thing like you is a god.”
The being in the form of a man was not taken aback. Hellion was a human whom he had long placed his eyes on. There were high expectations for this time’s trial.
“Drop the act.”
The figure said in the same monotonic tone. As his attempts to probe the figure were in vain, Hellion took a deep breath and calmed down. His shaking hands and uneven breath stabilized in a moment's glance. This sudden shift in behavior would creep others out, but standing before him was, contrary to its appeal, an irregular being. The silence permeated for a short duration before the manlike figure proclaimed.
“I’ll explain, but before that-”
In the blink of an eye, Hellion vanished, only to reappear elsewhere as if by magic. When he came to his senses, he was sitting on a wooden bench near a man. They were on top of a hill surrounded by lush forests. Only their attire changed. Hellion went from a neat black suit to a threadbare cotton shirt, and the regular guy went from regular wear to regular wear.
The view was nothing spectacular, yet for Hellion, who had lived a lifetime in utter darkness, the light of dawn bathing the forest in a warm, rosy glow renewed its brilliance.
“Can I have something to eat?”
Hellion inquired while patting the animal standing beside them. Despite looking calm and confident, he could barely concentrate. He wanted to tear this figure apart and pull the answers out. However, this very figure remained unfathomable. It looked humane, had intelligence, yet gave a feeling of an immovable statue. Even a corpse had more liveliness.
“Sure, what do you want?”
“This deer.”
This would help him buy some time and ascertain the situation. Soon, a deer was turned into slices of minced meat and cooked in no moment of time.
‘This freak can manipulate space and toy with any kind of living being on a whim. He can read my mind and alter my memories.’
“I have no need to alter your memories.”
‘So he can…’
To the man’s remark, Hellion gave a light smile. He finally reached a great conclusion - that this situation was a mess and that nothing could be made of it. He was like an open book. This was the worst-case scenario. Facing a godlike creature, he gave up.
Hellion knew he could not escape from the palm of its hands. So he just shut his brain down. If anything reasonable is unreasonable, then anything unreasonable is also reasonable.
“You must have suffered a lot traversing through that place. I know you harbor deep resentment upon me-”
“Bon appétit!!”
Hellion interrupted the being as he bit the meat that was the greatest he had ever tasted, to an extent that almost made him cry. No, he actually cried. He shed the tears of blood while gnashing at the delicacy. This thing was just that good. As the saying probably goes, today’s enemy is today’s friend.
“Anyway, let me introduce myself; I am Sona. They refer to me as the Demon Lord of Nonexistence. As for what I want from you, that is to kill me!”
Said Sona, a regular-looking lunatic with a stoic expression.
“Sure, sure…”
Hellion brushed it off. Die? If the devil died, who would feed him? Maybe, coupled with cold beer, he could even start worshiping the devil. Who would have thought that the afterlife was so great? How benevolent, truly the kindest of all devils!
“Your strategy is commendable, yet it is of no-”
“How do you exist?”
The elderly man sitting beside him was acting like a middle schooler. Why would he behave this way? The devil could tell. Whether the devil was shaken by this, Hellion couldn’t tell.
As the saying definitely goes, listening to a devil’s whispers is to let darkness reign in your heart. After spending so much time inside it, Hellion was fed up with darkness. Why think? Make the devil think instead.
“Listen well, you are to be reborn on a faraway planet named-”
“My father always told me to go to hell. I was so excited to meet him here. You are the opposite of what I’d imagined a devil to be. Where’s all the badassery? Blazing inferno, rolling boulders, eternal hunger - where are they? You’ve even fed me. Boring.”
“You will get to learn about the world. Currently, some other Demon Lords are on the lookout for you because-”
“Bhaha! What a lame name, by the way. Demon Lord of Nonexistence? Pfft! Did you get forgotten by any chance? Wait, how am I even supposed to find something that doesn’t exist, more less kill it? Isn’t that paradoxical?”
Hellion kept interrupting the devil. He laughed excessively while inadvertently spitting on the figure’s face. As the man continued to ridicule the devil, the devil, true to its name, remained unfazed. Even after Hellion slapped his knee, his expression did not waver. For a being who roamed the universe for thousands, no, millions of years, how could these immature acts affect his composure?
“If you’re lucky, you will get an inborn ability, but don’t-”
“A fantasy world? My daughter was into that stuff. You know, magic, swords… Oh, magic swords! Galactic empires, stormtroopers…”
But when the devil was about to inspect the man’s mind, he felt a strange premonition. Too late, though. Curiosity got the best of him. In Hellion’s mind, he saw himself. Naked at that? Wait, that’s…
‘How is it? I figured it would suit your tastes as an avid fan of deer.’
‘What? Ah, you want meat. One more portion?’
If anything, the devil felt impressed by Hellion’s vivid imagination. He knew Hellion knew those actions were futile. Hellion knew Sona knew he knew those actions were futile. That’s why they weren’t futile. Perhaps they were futile. But who knew?