Chapter 02 - Hell and Trial

(This chapter is long with 2700+ words, so be ready. There was a lot of explanations after all)

--Arthur's PoV--

I regained my consciousness and I saw a place full of flames and ruins. There are no signs of life and no water. While observing the area I felt hundreds of presences coming to me.

"What the hell is those creatures?" I said when I saw the creatures coming down from the mountains full of fires too? A fire mountain?

These creature's appearance was a body full of flames, it was the literal living embodiment of flame. I also saw some blue flames creatures.

This was the only creature that keeps coming to me. Then, a while later, I saw a human-shaped blue flames monster that has a spear in hand and it attacked me. It was fast compared to the other monsters and its strength was comparable to 3-Mark Warrior but still too weak compared to me.

However, even if their quality was low, their quantity was superb. There's thousand and thousand of monsters appearing every second I don't know where did they come from.

I want to curse those damn Dark Lords, they gave me a headache. What a problematic bunch of people.

Then the monster keeps appearing and the strong creatures of an 8-Mark warrior started appearing. An example was the Flame Titan, his power destroyed the flame mountains near him.

Two 9-Mark Warrior appeared, it was a Flame Giant and Flame Dragon. I can tell what their strength was because I could feel their mana core which was the thing we used to learn the monsters grade.

I felt like I was fighting for over a thousand years now, I also felt like I defeated tens of million of hell creatures assumed that I was in hell so I named them like that.

However, even if I defeated millions of hell creatures, it just keeps increasing and stronger, it is an unending horde of beasts. However, they are still not my match, I used various spells like "Water Tsunami" that will weaken them, "Cronus Fist" an earth-type cell that has the destructiveness to destroy a continent, etc.

Then, several years later, I noticed that monsters were slowly getting decreased. I forgot to tell you that I was not getting tired or hungry at all and my mana is not depleting which was a relief for me.

The creature's number decreased but their quality increased like even a normal flame creature was like a 5a -Mark warrior. Then when I expected another horde of hell creatures, I saw one monster. However, panic rose to me when I felt his mana core.

It was higher to me, A 10-Star Mage.

The monster stopped and looked at me. His hair was a red long hair and his ruby eyes looking at me. that was the only thing I noticed on his appearance besides that he looked human but his body was a body of black flame.

"Your strong, human"

"!!!....you....you can talk?! Who are you?!"I asked while being shocked. I haven't talked to anyone at all in a thousand years.

"Yes I can talk, can't you hear that I was talking? oh well, let me introduce myself, I am the Demon Lord and the Leader of the Hell Lords, Lucifer. Well you see, the hell lords should be the one handling you right now because you have been rampaging for a thousand years and we just let you but you're too strong for a human. However, they are too lazy you see"

"Demon Lord.....Hell Lords...Don't tell me I am in a different Domain? Are you also a Lord?" I asked. I have been thinking of what that Dark Lords said.

"Ohh? Do you know about the domain? then I assumed you also know about the Lords? That was surprising for a human to know something the Lords only know, and I am not one of the Lords, I am just the judge who judge those who are worthy of coming out from here. The Lords have a seal to never kill a human, so they sealed the ones they thought are a threat here. I have been created to judge those who are worthy of coming out of here. Anyways, who are the ones who sealed you here?" He asked curiously.

"It was the.....The Dark Lords" There is nothing to lose anyway if I tell him.

"Ohh, that super cautious guy, he also sealed a human here one thousand and three hundred years ago and 400 years before you got sealed. I think it was the 9-Star Mage in your term?"

"Ahh, so it was not a legend that there was someone who managed to achieve that. So where is he now?" I asked. Don't get me wrong, I was not letting my guard down, it just looks like this guy is friendly. His eyes are telling me that he had been lonely for a while.

"It was not a he, it was a she. Let's save it later. I have to explain everything to you, You have passed the first test, it was the Test of Survival. You managed to survive. There were two tests, the second test was a test of willpower, will you take it? if you're scared then you can refuse but you will become one of my soldiers and you will lose your ego and will be fighting egoless and endless."

"...Ahh! I have no choice, I accept the trial."

"Okay then, follow me" He smiled and turned his back to me.

I followed him and we arrived at a space, but the floor was full of cracks, in the right and left side, there were a hundred small holes, in the front was a big glass and on the top, there was a lot of wire. There was a chair in the middle of the room.

"Where are we, Lucifer?" I asked.

"We are at the place where the trial will take place, just put that wires on both of your arms and legs and sit at the chair. Face the glass and steel your hearts. I hope you will pass this."

I did what he said and before I closed my eyes, I said,

"Don't worry, I will be able to pass this, Mr. Judge"I smiled and I became serious and I steeled my heart for what's going to happen.

"Heh, too arrogant for a human, anyway good luck, I will start the trial now." I heard what he said and readied myself.

Then, I felt electric shocks coming inside my bodies and it hurt my internal organs, I was surprised, I didn't know that I have internal organs till now. After a while the electric shocks are getting worse as it was getting near my brain, I was gripping the chair harder as the electric shocks were getting worse minute by minute.

"AHHHHH" I let out a shout as a spark of electric shocks hit my brain

A while later, I felt the gravity is getting heavier and heavier but it didn't affect the chair. I felt that my body is not going to crush so I didn't get worried, but the heaviness is killing me. Later, the combination of the electric shocks that were stressing my internal organ and the heaviness that was killing me from the extreme heaviness like I was shouldering a whole mountain, made my senses to be numb.

This was torture! If I am an ordinary person, I would have already died in a minute by just the electric shocks.

The electric shocks were still the same and it became a little bit easier for me to handle it but it still hurt and the gravity increased minute by minute, it became twice as heavy as earlier. Then, while focusing on these two, I felt like a ball hit my skin and when it touched my skin, I felt extreme heat.

"ugh! bleurgh!!" I let out a pained shout as I felt the extreme heat, it surpasses the heat a lava can.

My consciousness is starting to fade away, I was thinking that I was going to fail but I remembered my master's words.

"Survive, Arthur, I will always be on your side watching you." My teacher was like a parent to me, she took me in her care after the tragedy that involved my parents and my siblings. My family was killed by the undead, the mastermind was the summoner who summoned the undead king and his army. I lost my reason to live since then because I can't get revenge on the summoner as he was eradicated by the top-ranking knight and mages of the world who saw him as a threat. Then my teacher came to me, she pitied me and said that she would take me in her wing and teach the basics of magic. Since then, I moved on about my family's death and looked forward to the future, I was fascinated by magic and I started to love magic. I made my goal to reach the pinnacle of magic to impress my teacher. My teacher was a Phoenix, a divine creature but she was able to transform into a human form. She was killed by an unknown person, she said that I shouldn't pursue revenge and just focus on my goal, forget about her and survive. that's what she said. Of course, it was hard for me to do what she wants but I have no choice, it was her first and last wish to me.

Now I remember why I am fighting to survive in this trial. Thank you, Teacher Klyra, and please guide me, my father, mother, and Sen, my sister.

I smiled then I insisted on the pain both outside and inside me and the heaviness which was crushing me.

It's been an hour since the trial started and everything calmed down. I opened my eyes and saw my body full of holes, maybe because of the balls like bullets that were thrice faster than a normal bullet. I tried to move but I couldn't, maybe because of the heaviness and electrical shocks that made my senses numb.

"Wow, you managed to survive this trial, you are worthy Arthur. I was grateful that I was able to see a miracle, this was the second occurrence that someone was able to pass both trials, I thought you will lose your consciousness and will become one of the hell monsters but I guess not. That was amazing" I heard a voice and it was Lucifer with a small smile on his face.

"Told ya" I was having a hard time to talk but I want to boast about my achievement.

"So arrogant, oh well, I bet you were wondering why you have an internal organ? and why your body was not crushed despite the heaviness of like 3 mountains you are shouldering right? it was because if you failed, you will only lose your ego and not your body, and your internal organs will return to you if you started the second trial, at the first trial you don't have internal organs or blood so you haven't felt pain from the inside of your body and only on the outside, understand?"

"Yeah, now I understand but can I ask something?" I asked as the pain from earlier started to go away.

"What is it?"

"Are you the Demon Lord? it doesn't seem like it, no offense but why are you friends with me? I imagined that the demon lord is a vicious being that will kill you immediately."

"Ohh hahaha, it is okay to ask, well you see, I was a being who are born to judge people, so since birth, I was able to sense the true nature of a person, I sensed your love for people and magic, there is no evilness in your heart at all in the first time we met."

"You're flattering me hehe"

"It was not a compliment, dumbass"

"what was that?"

"nothing"

"Oh yea, you said that this was the second time that someone managed to survive in this trial, how many people have come here anyways? and who is the first one?"

"This was the second time a human passed this test and the first one was the girl I mentioned earlier, the 9-star mage. It was rare for the Lords to seal a human because the lords sealing you means that you are a threat to them so ut means that Dark Lords see you as a threat even if they are far stronger than you. The girl that I mentioned barely managed to survive because her willpower is a little bit inferior to you."

"oh okay, so what is my reward or so whatever will I receive?"

"You will be reincarnated, a second chance to get revenge to the Dark Lords, what about it? The girl that I mentioned also chosen this because she wants to get revenge against the dark lords"

"I choose that, I suspect that those dark lords killed my master so I will get revenge against them. By the way, what was the name of the girl you mentioned? you keep mentioning her but you can't say her name, and does it mean that you have taken a liking to her because you sensed that she has good nature? "

"Yeah, I sensed it, and her name was Athena"

"Oh okay, so when will I be reincarnated?"

"You need to get a rest first, you have been fighting for a thousand years now, how about rest for about 4 years? and your soul was so tired from the fighting and you need to recover your whole body for the reincarnation to run smoothly and nothing interferes."

"Okay then I will rest"

"Also, both Athena and you need to meet in your world, the universe was far too big, and not only the dark lords will you face. I will give you a warning okay? There is gonna be a big war in the future so you both need to defeat dark lord before it and strengthen your forces, right she was also resting because I gave her a 10-year break and, coincidentally, you finished your trial at her 6th-year rest so both of you will be reincarnated at the same time."

"Eh? a big war what do you mean?"

"Yeah, I will not tell you the details or anything because it was forbidden to tell to someone who was not a Lord about the future but I will give you a clue, it will involve all domains so it means the whole universe"

"!!!"

"oh well, you don't need to worry about it, for now, you just need to get stronger. "

"Your right, so troublesome, I just want to study magic, *Sigh* "

"Now you just need to go that way and you will see a corridor, walk straight ahead and you will see the end, that's the watch room, you will be able to see the trials taken in different places, I will judge all of them so you can see me judging them, there were millions of people I need to judge so it was more troublesome than your problem"

"Ohh, want a help? in your dreams, goodbye!!" I said that and I immediately run to rest.

"that bastard.." I heard him say that haha.

I walked at the path he said I should go, I quickly arrived and saw the corridor, I walked slowly to reach the end and I saw the door later.

I opened the door and I saw like a hundred thousand cameras. So this was the watch room.

I looked around and I saw a table full of snacks, and 4 chairs at the front of the cameras. I saw many bookshelves at the sides of the room. I looked at the chairs again and saw a person, only the hair I can see but I can say that it was a girl.

I walked on one of the chairs and looked at the girl, and said,

"Are you Athena?" I asked. I will not describe her beauty because I will forget about it anyway, she will change her appearance once she reincarnated.

"Yeah, Athena Eltasia and you are?" She looked at me and her brimming blue eyes who were bluer than the ocean.

"Arthur Vennova"

"Nice to meet you"

----- End of Chapter -----