… What the hell is this.

In front of me is a large open cavern, in which you cannot see the ceiling. There are hazardous looking bridges of earth evenly spaced with humans and many other sub-humans that I can only assume are elves and werepeople lined up, slowly shuffling forward with blank looks in their eyes.

They look as though they have lost all meaning of their existence. I feel like that isn’t far from the truth actually.

The lined up beings seem to be sorted by intelligence and are all on separate bridges. There is even a bridge with just insects which also shuffle forward, perhaps they do it on instinct or are forced to, who knows? I see another bridge with beings that I can only call monsters, such as orcs, giants and only god knows what that is.

Nevermind, Satan also probably knows, the changing of common terms is gonna be a pain to get used to.

At the place where the bridge ends, there are guards that appear to be souls themselves, with no real race that has a noticeable numerical superiority among the guards. The guards keep the souls that appear to have not completely lost all meaning of their existence and I see some pushing souls that try to escape back in with the metal rods that they are holding. It appears the more that they push the souls back into line, the less the souls resist, as though giving in. Those that give in lose all meaning in their existence.

A cruel system befitting of Satan, I suppose. The most shocking thing however, is probably what is beneath those bridges. I hope Satan doesn’t throw me in there.

Beneath the bridges is a long fall, which ends with a lava-like liquid at the bottom, however no heat is felt from the liquid, rather it feels as cold as a cave here. There are many screaming, painful faces which, whenever you attempt to concentrate one, they seem to fall back into the lava, to be replaced with another one. This process continues, as if telling one not to look or feel any attachment to those in the liquid.

“A cruel treatment is it not? But a necessary one.”

I almost faint from the sudden jump scare and from the sudden realisation of the destructive aura of death that is exuded from someone behind me. I turn to see Satan standing behind me looking grim, as though not enjoying the pain of the people I just saw.

“Strange,I thought you would enjoy the suffering of those people below us.”

He looks at me with a stricken expression and replies to my words.

“Do not think of me as Satan, the reason why I dislike that name is because it is given to a being opposite of a God, which I must admit I am, however I am not at all torture-loving and evil like how you mortals portray me.”

“So mind explaining why you do that to people?”

He sighs and then begins to sit down. As he is in the process of sitting down, the ground ripples and out of the ground come a few blocks, forming the same of his throne located inside of the throne room. He leans back in the throne and says to me with a serious expression.

“You must understand that the people in the rivers of hell are murderers, rapists, destroyers of families and ruiners of lives. But the most common people in there are those that offend Gods.”

He sighs again and continues:

“Time in there goes much slower than time in here, so in one second they feel 100 seconds of pain in the rivers. The rivers are the most painful things in the world, which even gods cannot resist. Although they will kill any mortal being, they will only inflict intense pain upon souls or immortals.”

I look at him with a blank expression, because I cannot understand what my feelings are about this subject. I have not adapted such emotional capabilities at the moment as I haven’t lived long enough in my new living body. According to the knowledge from my previous life, I should be disgusted by this, but alas I am not repulsed at all, just shocked. So I asked a question that bugs my mind, and though it doesn’t really matter to the current me, I feel like it would have mattered to my previous morales.

“But does that give you the ability to cast them into those rivers for eternity, or even 1 year since time is slower there?”

He sighs for the third time and says:

“Of course not, in fact I don’t believe anyone should be in there for 100 years of external time or even 100 years of internal time. People who murder others only get 100 seconds of internal time as punishment in there for each person they killed intentionally. This is because the pain is far too excruciating for them to be kept in there longer, it would just be unfair. That is how painful it is.

The only people kept in there for a year of external time or more are those that offend the Gods so greatly during their lifetime that the gods come to me and personally tell me to punish them.

In fact, there is a least painful place there. The place is at the very top with your head sticking out, as the liquid actually doesn’t give off anywhere near as much heat on the surface compared to in the liquid. The reason I made use of such a liquid as punishment is so that there is internal conflict as well as pain. Beings will pull each other down, step on each others heads, rip souls in half that will mend in a few seconds and basically do anything to get to the least painful location called the surface. In the river everyones strength becomes equal with absolutely no influence by your strength prior to your death.”

…

“Wow you are sadistic. More so than I could have ever imagined.”

“It comes with age.”

…

“I think if you were in my previous life you probably would’ve made me more speechless than anyone else.”

“I will take that as a complement. So got anymore questions before you wake up.”

Suddenly I realise that I am in hell and that this is unnatural. To just go to sleep and wake up in hell.

“Ok, so am I dead and if not, what am I doing in hell after going to sleep? Actually, nevermind even if I am dead I want to know what I am doing here after going to sleep.”

Dea-I mean Satan twirls his finger in his hair, before saying:

“Well, because of the fact that your soul can’t really assimilate to your body, every time you go to sleep your soul and consciousness will end up here. Do not worry, your body is resting fine so when you come back to your container that you call a body, you will awaken and feel refreshed from a ‘good nights sleep’.”

I ponder on that fact for a moment before asking another question, well another 2 questions to be exact.

“Is there any positives about this movement of my soul or not? Also why exactly does it move here?”

Satan answers my first question quickly.

“Well there is the fact that your soul possesses all your magic power or aura, whatever it is you wish to call it. In this matter, you can practice magic and expand your aura pool before waking up. No there are no negatives about this, when I decided on doing this I kind of broke the rules of this game that you call the world.”

He then appears to be in deep thought and searches his memory banks before answering the second question in a concise, incredibly well versed practical answer that speaks for Satans ingenuity.

“I don’t know.”

I stare at him with another dumbfound look before my stare changes into quite a vicious glare if I say so myself. In response to my glare, Satan raises his hands up in the air while they are bent at a right angle and states:

“Look, I don’t know everything about the world. None of the immortals do son. I actually know the most about souls and their passage out of all the immortals. But I have never sent a soul prior to you back into the mortal realm. How the hell am I meant to know everything about you?”

“I guess I expected too much out of you, why did I even ask you in the first place. I am honestly regretting my decision in trusting Satan with my questions now.”

“Can we do something about the name. I mean Satan is not really the correct term for me, I am a much kinder person than the Satan that people imagine.”

“Okay then I will think up a name for you that perfectly captures you and your personality.”

After deep contemplation I decide on a name. A name that will rupture the heavens and shatter the skies while striking fear into the hearts of all beings. None shall be free from the pressure that this terrifying monstrosity of a name exudes. I nod with satisfaction of the name I created and say this fearful name.

“Betty.”

“Sorry?”

“I said Betty, that is your new name. After all it perfectly fits your face and you yourself said you were a kindhearted person, so it captures your personality as well. Well at least according to you, although I still beg to differ.”

“Are you making fun of me, an immortal, a being that can kill you billions of times over and still not even have a scratch or be tired?”

“Oh you just realised, well I suppose realisation comes as a big hit huh?”

“I think I haven’t said this enough: You are a douche.”

As he says the last line, he begins to cry, covering his eyes with his arm. Seeing this pitiful sight I decide to attempt to ‘comfort’ him.

“ *Ssshh*. Betty it’s alright, you will be a great Betty and be remembered by many as the Great Betty.”

He looks up at me with tears in his eyes and a glare fixed on his face and says:

“Now you are just rubbing it in, don’t do such a thing to an elderly, they have feelings too.”

“But you are a superior being are you not? You just stated something relatively similar to that a second ago when I named you. Live with it, life isn’t so nice, death is even worse. That applies especially to you.”

All his tears suddenly appear to sink into his skin and it appears as though they were never there, with the only indicator of the events that just happened being the glare that still stays on his face.

“Fine, I will deal with it, since I am already asking something outrageous of you.”

“Mmm, what might that be?”

“To entertain me.”

He says that statement with a grin on his face and his glare changes back to soft eyes, that you think would match a smile with no ill intent better than a glare, but the two strangely work well together when he does it.

“Well, pushing your statement out of my head, I want to know more about the magic of this world and how my affinity with death influences this. I am assuming that you know a lot more about this than you do about souls, do not betray my expectations.”

“Oooh scary, don’t worry I am the one with the best affinity with death so I know a phenomenal amount about the effects and uses that possession of this affinity will have.

Now shall we get started into looking at the benefactors of being with me?”

“Is this a marriage counselling or what? Because I am getting that feeling from your words.”

“Nah, don’t worry it isn’t, but if you find any pretty lady in your life who dies early, inform me of them and I shall have a true marriage counselling in which you will receive a reward.”

This guys nonchalant attitude amazes me to this day. It goes against every idea of logic from my previous world.

“Are you telling me to kill a person?”

“No, no, no, nothing so brutal, just cause an accident or something. We will work from there.”

“I assume that is a joke, because otherwise you would be the most horrifying thing in existence, truly deserving of both the name Satan and the name Betty.”

“Yes it is a joke, so don’t go combining those two names into something worse. I feel like if you do that I would be far more pleased with the name Betty than the name that you create.”

“Well at least you understand. Anyway, mind answering my question?”

“Wait so I was right in my assumption *cries*.”

Wiping the tears away with his arm, he explains the concept of magic and how my element affects it:

“You see magic is…”

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Forgive me for all the cliffhangers, but I just can’t resist. Actually I intended to make this chapter twice as long, but as I said just then, I can’t resist making cliffhangers.