Leon woke up to the bright sunlight.

Gingerly opening his eyes, tears began falling down his cheeks, as a great relief settled in his heart.

‘I’m out of that hell!’

He slowly sat up, marveling at the rough feeling of the coarse green grass on his hands.

He smiled widely, looking around the grass meadow with a joyous expression. ‘I missed the sun too much,’ he thought, loving every second of the warm glow on his face.

He started kissing and smelling the ground, the earthly taste and the sting of the grass on his lips making him cry even more.

“Th-thank you,” he sobbed, not caring that the person he was thanking probably had put him in there.

With a bright smile, he looked at the sun-bathed meadow, trying to drink the image in.

However, the traumatic memories of his time in that darkness kept tearing at the edge of his mind, not letting him fully enjoy his newfound freedom.

Soon, a ding sounded to his right.

‘To think I’ve waited that long just to hear that.’ Leon thought, smiling even wider.

[You have endured the Darkness]

[Congratulations!]

[You may choose a skill]

[Skill Set:]

[Bone Hex: Able to momentarily freeze an opponent in place (Cooldown: 30 minutes)]

[Mesmeric Trance: If a target's mental strength is weaker than you, you can put them in a state where they are susceptible to suggestions and questions (Cooldown: 1 week)]

[Executioner's Glee: Able to put you into a maniacal, agitated state, increasing your strength by 3x (Cooldown: 1 week)]

He laughed a bit at the notifications. After all, it was common knowledge that the Reborn also could choose skills like this.

Leon surveyed the choices that were on the screen. ‘To think that I’m choosing skills like the Reborn does… well if it helps me get my revenge on those damn people…’

‘[Bone Hex] is good, but the cooldown is too long. And although [Executioner's Glee] is the best out of all of them…’

Remembering the maniac that had killed his family, he shivered with chills and anger.

He pressed on the [Mesmeric Trance] skill. ‘Hopefully, I won’t regret not choosing the [Executioner's Glee].’

Suddenly, an input of information flooded Leon’s mind. It was hard to explain, but it gave him all the knowledge needed to use that skill.

[You have chosen [Mesmeric Trance] as your skill]

[You are now delving deeper into the Abyss]

Leon stared at the notifications, a horror quickly filling his chest.

‘De-delve deeper?’

“No! I can-”

***

Leon woke up again inside a room.

‘Wh-where..?’

Looking around, he noticed that the room was extremely dusty and dirty, with what almost looked like splotches of dried blood on the floor. The whole place seemed to be made of wood, with rusted nails barely being able to hold this place together.

‘At least I’m not back in that terrible room,’ he thought, sighing in relief.

[You have delved deeper into the Abyss]

[Destroy the Destroyer]

Leon stared at the notifications incredulously. ‘Destroy the destroyer? How do you destroy a destroyer?’ He shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.

Heading over to a creaky wooden door, he tried the knob. Finding it jammed, he rammed into it, forcing it open.

He carefully creeped out into the poorly lit hallway, wincing at the musty, rotten smell that entered his nose.

As he crept forward, he looked around at the surprising plainness of the hallway, as it was just made of wood, no carpet, not even a painting.

At the end of the hallway was another door, similar to the one he had just broken down. Upon reaching it, however, he was pleased to see that the knob still worked fine on this door. Opening it a tiny bit, he peered out through the crack.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And his face paled white.

***

Leon stared at the view he was seeing, not daring to make a sound.

Twisted beings of fire and flesh roamed the plains, as flames cracked loudly on the cracked black soil. In the distance, Leon could make out an outline of a floating island, with a dark, ominous structure on top of it.

Ah.

‘So now I finally entered Hell,’ he thought, slowly inching back into the hallway.

‘At least it’s better than the darkness.’

Leon walked back through the hallway, trying to find something that might help him get out of this place.

‘Maybe I could use [Mesmeric Trance] on one of those monsters?’

As the thought entered his mind, he quickly dispelled it. He wasn’t sure if it would work on those things, and it was too dangerous anyway.

However, after minutes of searching every nook and cranny in the house - could you even call this a house? - he couldn’t come up with anything.

Once again peeking out the door, Leon tried to see what those things exactly were.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that although they looked like spirits of flame and flesh on the outside, he could see a tiny shadow inside the inferno, almost looking like a human.

‘Now, how do you survive in Hell?’ Leon tried to think back to some of the church sermons he had gone to. Although he wasn’t strictly religious, his parents were and had forced him to go sometimes.

After racking his brain for a further hour, he finally gave up.

‘Ugh. You know what? I’m just going to go.’

Swallowing down his nerves, Leon threw open the door.

Almost instantly, the heads of all the beasts shifted towards him, their eyes strangely hollow even as their teeth bared in rage.

Leon quickly ran out of the doorway, and turned left, dodging a monster as it tried to pounce on him. As he skidded on the ground, he jumped back as another beast attempted to claw at him.

‘Damn, damn, damn!’

He quickly sprinted, forcing his legs to move as fast as possible. The air was very sparse, smelling of sulfur, making running much harder for him.

However, as he quickly saw the full view of the place he was in, his pounding feet momentarily stalled.

The glistening black soil, the river that ran through the plains that looked to contain blood, the twisted forests of trees as they burned, and the anomalies seeming to crowd the whole horizon made the view both majestic and horrifying.

As Leon ran, he glanced back for a second. Strangely, the monsters weren’t chasing him at all. Even the ones that had previously bared their fangs at him now stood impassive, not even looking at him.

‘Huh?’

He came to a halt. Even though he had stopped, they still didn’t glance at him. They were all staring in the same direction, towards Leon, but not exactly looking at him.

And then suddenly, all of them fell to their knees in a salute.

‘Eh?’

Jumping back in surprise, he stared in wonderment.

“No, they're not bowing to you.”

The lazy voice behind him made him spin around to face the source.

It was a beautiful girl, with dark black hair and crimson eyes. The dress she was wearing seemed like it was made of fire, seeming to burn the air around her. Her most noticeable feature was a marking on her forehead. It looked like an eye surrounded by outstretched hands.

“W-Who are you?” He asked, taking a hesitant step backward.

“Who I am is no concern to you.” Her voice was soft, yet seemed to pierce Leon’s heart. “What you should be concerned about is that you have trespassed into my land. You better have a good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

After hearing the last part, Leon looked frantically around him. What he saw made his heart sink. He was surrounded by kneeling monsters, and there was no way out.

Seeing Leon’s hesitation, the girl sighed. Then, she held out a hand and summoned a dark portal the size of her palm. She then pulled a dark khopesh out of it, its sickle-like blade gleaming in the light of the fires.

And then suddenly, she appeared right in front of him, slashing down the blade before Leon had even a second to react.

However, just as it looked like the blade would cut him in half, it passed through him, as though Leon had just been a ghost.

With a look of shock showing on her face, the girl stepped back. “You… you’re not a demon?”

Taking advantage of her shock, he quickly activated [Mesmeric Trance], praying that his mental strength was higher than her.

After a second of tense silence, where the girl’s face went stiff as she fought against the skill, her face slowly shifted to one of submissive silence.

[Your skill [Mesmeric Trance] was successful]

The notification at the corner of Leon’s vision helped him relax, breathing a sigh of relief.

‘Now, let's try this out.’

“Tell the monsters to go away.”

The girl nodded. Then waving her hand, the fiery beasts dispelled, mindlessly walking among the plains again.

“Now, who are you?” Leon was curious. What was a girl doing here among these monsters?

“Astarte. I am one of the Ensnares of Abbadon.”

Oh. So she was an Ensnare? Was that the same as a demon? Then what were those creatures walking around the plains?

Upon asking this, Astarte replied, “They are the Lost Ones. They are the ones that have been Lost to the Lost.”

‘What is the deal with everyone talking this way?’

“Do you know who the destroyer is?”

“It is Abbadon.”

‘So it's the demon that she serves.’

“Now, how do you destroy him?”

However, as soon as he asked Astarte this, she started to twitch, and Leon began to feel pressure coming down on his head.

[Your target is fighting against [Mesmeric Trance]!]

Seeing the notification, Leon quickly began to run, dashing around the mindless fiery beings, swatting at the flames that constantly lashed out at him.

But Leon didn’t get far.

A few seconds later, the aura and pressure of the landscape noticeably increased, making him stumble.

“How dare you?”

The soft, yet power-filled voice rang through Leon’s very being.

And then, Leon…

He couldn’t move.

No matter how much he told his muscles to start working, they were completely frozen.

“How dare you defile me with your mind trick? You petty and pathetic human?”

Astarte walked up to him, her eyes burning with resentment.

“Oh, I’ll make sure your death is as painful as possible-”

[The Demon of the Abyss is looking at you]

[The Demon of the Abyss is beckoning you to come closer]

[The Demon of the Abyss has given you a Skill Tree!]

[You have received [Cosmos] as your Skill Tree!]

[[Cosmos’s First Step: Heat Death] has been unlocked!]

Upon seeing the notifications, Leon’s mouth opened in shock.

‘What?’

Not noticing his obvious shock, Astarte once again pulled out her khopesh, however, this time the blade wasn’t dark, but pure blue, like the ocean.

As she swung, the skill that was latching his legs together vanished, and Leon quickly grabbed a burned stick on the ground, bringing it up as the khopesh’s blade sliced into it.

However, the dark stick offered virtually no resistance to the sharp blade and Leon screamed as the blade lodged itself into his shoulder.

Sharply pulling out the sword, Astarte began attacking him everywhere, cuts and wounds appearing everywhere in Leon’s body.

Leon hated this feeling of being so pitiful. It was clear that she was playing with him. She could have killed him in a matter of seconds if she had wanted to.

It almost felt like he was back in that basement, staring at the maniac. He hadn’t been able to do anything there either.

Gritting his teeth, Leon dodged an incoming attack and grabbed the khopesh’s blade with his bare hands. As blood began pouring down his hands, he made a desperate gamble.

[Cosmos’s First Step: Heat Death]