The Goddess of Death's Son

Chapter 35 - A Hellish Experience

Suddenly after removing the ring from my hand, an immense pain engulfed me.

I felt my soul being torn out of my body. My heart was burning like a fire inside of me. Like I was being skinned alive while my insides were pulled on strings.

I'm sure I was heard screaming but no sound reached my ears. From my sight I could see Senns yelling at me. Probably something like, "The bed under the sun?" I can't read lips... I'm probably wrong, especially with the distraction from all the pain.

I grasped my head in agony. I felt my brain imploding on itself. Like the headache I always got when I learned something new about my powers but much worse.

What's happening!? It hurts!

Suddenly my sight began to disappear. The darkness began to close in on me once more as the pain vanished and my conciousness left my body.

The last thing I saw was Fiora lying down on the ground motionless with closed eyes.

I opened my eyes to see a white spectacle. All around me there were bright walls, textured like flesh with black veins pulsating in them. It was a disturbing sight capable of making an experienced adventurer throw up. Like the insides of an animal in a black and white world. Or a world fully covered in snow... if said snow moved around and had black rivers flowing through it along with being solid and covering every little detail of the land.

Hmm? I'm pretty sure this is a cave but what is up with the wall? Without thinking my curiosity got the better of me.

I placed my left hand on the white wall, wanting to know how it would feel, only to find it wrapping around my arm.

THIS WAS A BAD IDEA! WHAT AM I DOING!?

"Let... Go!" I began to pull and struggle against the unnatural movement trying to swallow me, but it only kept crawling up my arm like some sort of slime.

Let go of me! I tried to leave its grasp but it only kept moving up me like a horde of cockroaches on a rotting corpse. Pain gradually rose from my arm beginning at my fingers like ants stinging my hand.

Feeling no way to escape I thought about my options.

One, I could let it take me... yeah no that would hurt much more.

Two, I could keep pulling and hope for the best. Stupid idea.

Three, fight back and punch the wall. No, I might get my other arm stuck.

Four, cut it off.

Let's go with option four.

I grab the iron sword from my waist and unsheathe it. Just from the feel of the weight I can tell it's starting to give out from all the fights I've been in. It had small cracks barely visible to the naked eye moving up it.

Please stay strong a little longer.

I place the swords blade on top of my arm and begin to scrape the organic wall off of me. The cold metal slid over my arm cutting off the fleshy wall from my body in large chunks. Every time the sword cut through it, black liquid with a thickness more than that of blood and colder than ice would freeze my skin.

I ignore it and continue cutting away, knowing that if I didn't get it off me I might end up in a lot more pain than I already am in.

The sword would cut large chunks faster than the wall could spread up my arm, slowly revealing a torn black sleeve with smoke at the end.

Suddenly, a bad feeling rose inside me. I knew that if I didn't get this thing off me soon something worse than death would come.

I pulled my arm while cutting away, like how a high class cook would peel carrots before actually cooking them to remove dirt and debris. Soon I felt it weaken and I pulled my arm out with all my strength, causing me to fall to the floor.

"That... could have gone better. Damn I'm stupid. Who touches a weird wall out of curiosity? ...And why doesn't the floor do the same?" I pushed myself off the ground and looked at my left hand.

"... what the hell?" My hand... it wasn't there anymore. In its place, were charred bones with smoking burnt skin attached to its surface near my wrist.

I moved my fingers and just like a skeleton's they wriggled around. Almost like my hand was still attached by strings.

"This is messed up... why doesn't it hurt or burn? Why was it cold and where's all the blood?" Nothing makes sense. I looked at the skin and saw that the wound was cauterized. Like the wall had been giving off a substantial amount of heat without me realizing.

That was when I turned around. Just then I realized what happened. Why I was suddenly experiencing events out of a horror story for children.

"Hades... seems like it was true." There was a high cliff behind me leading to an entire other section of the world. A large open space like an underground cavern. Everything was made of black and white. Almost like the life had been sucked out of everything. Nothing here moved except for the pulsating veins in the walls or surfaces, and some beasts digging, crawling, flying, and devouring the wall itself.

From a guess, I imagine that everything that is solid here is white and all the liquids are black. Just like the wall.

"...well... how do I get back?" I can't be stuck here forever.

I looked around for some sign of a way out such as a cave tunnel or maybe a hole in the ceiling but couldn't find any.

"Welp. When in doubt..." I walk backwards and gain some distance from the edge of the cliff. Taking my time to analyze my surroundings and a find good direction to head in.

When I get enough of a distance from the cliff I bend my knees and bring out my wings. Once I test out if I can control them one more time I gaze at the new world.

Then...

"HOPE FOR THE BEST!"

I sprint to the edge and jump before I reach the end.

I hear the wind blowing quickly around me. The force brushing against my face as I fall deeper like I was a diving bird.

On my way down I noticed that there was no plant life down here. Only some small mountains, plains, desert like land, rivers bubbling up like lava, a large ceiling over my head, and too many small caves tunneling into the wall to count on fifty hands.

"This... is gonna be one hell of an experience." I smirk as I fall and finally realize the ground is closing in on me.

3, 2, 1, and...

I unfurl my wings before I hit it and lift myself up into the air.

"Let's see... where to now?" I decided to fly in a random direction since everything was like some sort of labyrinth.