To be so easily manhandled and simply tossed into the pit of Hell by that man was, in her words, an utter embarrassment. The other Gods would see this display and mock her endlessly for it, but right now that didn't matter to the Goddess of Water. She had her priorities in order, and currently her top priority was to find a way back out of the cramped dimension so that she could rejoin the fight with Issei and the others.

"Haaah, nhaa..." Her breaths became ragged quite early on, "So this is Hell... Can't say I don't understand Pry's claustrophobia a bit more now."

As Heaven 2.0 was infinitely large in scope, Hell was equally just as small. Cramped in such a tight space, one would assume all their bones to break and kill them, but that would destroy the purpose of the torturous dimension. Nay, you can't die, for it is impossible to feel anything but despair here. Neither hunger nor thirst are in effect anymore, and for humans, all physiological movements of the body are put to a halt. In Heaven 2.0, time does not exist as a concept, but here it exists exponentially more. Whereas up there one could say there is no passage of time, here one would feel as if billions of years of pain and suffering had passed in the blink of an Eye.

"Ugh, feels like I'm stuck in a cave accident." Aru tried to readjust herself, only for the space around her to remesh in such a way that only put her in more discomfort, "Right, not recommended, got it."

She was still calm, for the most part. Though she was effectively thrown off the ring for a certain period of time, that wasn't to say Schnell had permanently defeated her. She knows how to get out, and theoretically it shouldn't take too long to do so, but who knows what would have happened to the others by the time she got out.

"This better not be that." Aru clicked her tongue, "The trope where I get out and they've all grown old by then. That'd be annoying..."

In any case, her goal was to dig herself back out of Hell. A task usually impossible for a human, but Aru had her Godly abilities to work with. Focusing her all on Materializing an impressive amount of water, she had effectively expanded the tiny crevice she was stuck in. Now she had a bit more room to breathe, so to speak.

"Blub blub... Okay, that's step one." She quickly adjusted to breathing in water, "Digging up would be the most logical next step, however... Where even is up?"

There was no sense of gravity in Hell. You were where you were, and there was no reason to define such a needless variable as up or down. If she tried emptying a bit of the water to see where it would fall, the tiny room would just shrink back, disallowing her from finding out. She couldn't even the ol' reliable tactic of spitting and seeing where the spit went, since again, gravity wasn't a thing. Essentially, she had roughly a 1/6 chance to guess right and leave Hell, for choosing any other direction would just make her miss the exit altogether.

"Let's just try all of them at once." She shrugged, ordering six of her water hands to begin digging in a direction each, "I got no time for games nor gambles, Douglas is so gonna pay for sending me here!"

Before her very Eyes, the previously cramped room had expanded in all directions. She made lightwork of what was easily considered objectively the most horrid form of punishment imaginable. Thankfully she was the Goddess of Water, she thought to herself, for if she chose anything else this Universe Cycle then she might just have ended up stuck in the same way Prylos did hundreds of years ago.

"Hmm, all these seem to be leading me nowhere..." She inspected all the tunnels her water hands busied themselves with digging out, "Except for this one, the one next to me. So that's it—I was lying on my side actually. Hm, would've never guessed that to be the case."

She did it, she found the way out. Recalling all of her other water hands apart from the one digging up, she began swimming upwards through that tunnel. With each consecutive stroke, she felt the pressure around her body increase. It seems the closer you get to escaping, the more it pressures you to return.

"What a scary idea. Seriously, was my husband always this sadistic to come up with such a dreaded afterlife?" She thought about Ouroboras, "Dear, I get they're sinners, but this is way too much..."

Right, had Prylos not gotten himself trapped in this Hellscape accidentally back then, the Sun God would have still been tasked with overlooking Hell and making sure everything was in working order. Once she realized this, she cursed the Meditation God for essentially leading Ouroboras to take a break from being God. After all, if your job gets taken away from you, obviously you'd get bored out of your mind. This was the conclusion she came to after years of mulling over why Ouroboras had chosen to reincarnate as a human so suddenly.

"Ah, finally." She suddenly felt all that previously dense pressure let up, "Man, that feels better! Guess I'm close to the exit! ...Huh?"

A crack stood in front of her, a lively light shining through. This crack had ominous implications behind it that made her too wary to break it herself... The crack was there before she had dug out to it, which means someone else must be digging towards her. A wave of anxiety rushed through her body, but she had nothing to fear. Most probably, the Generals had won and the person on the other side of this crack was Schnell. In a way, she wasn't wrong...

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"Oof!" Issei and Schnell blasted through the crack, falling into the flooded Hell with Aru, "Mnf! Blurgh..."

"Both of you!?" Aru gasped, "Don't tell me... Ah, wait, I should probably give you some air to brea-"

"Mnf!" Issei grabbed her by the wrist, signaling with his Eyes for her to keep the water exactly where it was.

As the two men kept drowning in front of her, she couldn't help but wonder what he was planning. Surely, Issei had no way to breathe underwater, as was made clearly apparent by his struggling face. Maybe he just wanted to outlast Schnell? But in that case, he'll surely die as well. There's just no way, because that battle of attrition will have taken too long to finish. Finally, the bubbles had stopped flowing out of both of the men's mouths and noses, and Aru understood the reason behind Issei's decision!"

"Right, doy!" She facepalmed at her own forgetfulness, "No one can die in here! You'll forever drown, but it's impossible to die!"

Once again, the rules of the game have been drastically altered due to Issei's continued effort. Unlike in the world of the living, where Schnell could freely revive and restore his stamina and health but the others couldn't, this time truly, both opponents could neither die nor revive. It was a battle not of attrition, not of strength, but a battle of win or lose. One or the other, it was anyone's guess as to who would come out on top. That being the case, they had already succeeded in getting Schnell in Hell, so now all Aru had to do was dig herself and Issei out without Schnell tagging along.

"Punches and kicks won't work as well as they did before!" Aru warned both men, "You did good, Issei! I'll take it from here, so try and leave from the same direction you came from!"

With a confused stare that ultimately led to an understanding nod, Issei had left his opponent in the capable hands of the Water Goddess. He did his duty, and admirably risked his own future just so his wives could continue to have a future to live in. Now that Aru was there, he could properly go back to the living world and, hopefully, safely make it out.

"Mn!" He felt something grab his ankle and pull him back down, "Mf!"

"Dammit Douglas, leave the poor guy alone!" Aru manifested a few more water hands to help her deal with him, "Hasn't he suffered enough!"

"Blurp!" Schnell cussed through the water.

He spoke a bit more after this, but since his lungs were long since filled with water, he couldn't actually produce any audible sounds. Gesticulation is a wonderous thing though, as it allowed both Aru and Issei to understand exactly what he wanted them to know—No matter what, Schnell will not allow Issei to run away.

"Who asked for your opinion?" Aru clasped her thousands of water hands around Schnell, pulling him to the very bottom of the tunnel, "There, now Issei, while he's... Oh come on!"

Glancing back at Issei with a smile, she quickly turned it into an angered frown once she didn't see Issei floating where she last left him. Though Schnell was forced to let go of him, somehow or other Issei had followed the Grandmaster Adventurer to the bottom of Hell. That's when she recalled the White rope-like material connecting the two of them.

"So that's the case..." She smirked before dropping down after them, "You idiot, was that really the only way to get this guy to go to Hell? Well, guess I shouldn't be complaining since it worked..."

At the very bottom of the tunnel floated two unfortunate males, both taking turns trying to punch, kick, slam and strangle each other. No matter how long they fought for, and no matter how much damage they would each take, neither party could die or even seemingly take damage at this rate. Aru had to step in to intervene, so she snapped her fingers as all the water in Hell drained out.

"Puah! Cough, cough!" Issei could finally use his lungs again, "Geez, I've never appreciated my respiratory system as much as I do right now!"

"Hack! Damn, now neither of us can swim out." Schnell used the situation to smack Issei at top strength and speed.

"You two, stop it. Hey, I said stop. Guys!" Aru clapped her hands to gain their attention, as if she was a preschool teacher dealing with a particularly rowdy pair of kids.

"You idiot! We can't die here!" Issei shouted at his opponent.

"Doesn't make beating your dumbass any less fun though." Schnell stuck a finger up his nostril, "Seriously, you deserve way more for choosing the Gods over a fellow human."

"I'm pretty supernatural myself, what with me being from another world and all." Issei chuckled, "In a way, I'm way closer to the supernatural Gods than a lousy bum like you!"

In the very next moment, Aru had thrown a water jet their way. The jet had cut clean through the stretched out shirt Issei had used as a rope to tether themselves together. It was a signal, the same as waving a checkered flag at the start of a race. Right now, some climbing was in order, with the prize of first place being that the winner would get out of Hell. There was no more water, nothing to either obstruct or help them, so this was in a way the fairest fight yet. Still, the area around them was shrinking at an alarming pace now that the water was gone, so if they wanted to get out in one piece, they'd have to be fast.

"Whoa!" Issei slipped, almost dropping back down to the bottom, "You better not be good at climbing, dude..."

"I scaled mountains and World Wonders galore." Schnell boasted back.

"Funny." Issei smirked, taking up the challenge as he steadfastly made his way up the rocky walls, "I did the same."