Death is immortality.
Death is your second chance.
Velian Terrashine belongs to a classless society of equality, art and democracy; a land full of creativity and mindfulness. It is in that perfect political system that one wrong movement, one carele...
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HIS DEAD BODY fell on the floor next to his head. There was blood everywhere and Vanensera covered her mouth with her hands. Time went still, and I bit my lips so hard that I could taste my blood on them; bitter and warm.
I'd cut a man in two pieces. I'd cut a man in two pieces. I'd cut a man in two pieces.
The room was almost empty. The few people that had stayed alive had walked away before they could admire the mess I'd created. The fighting had stopped. Normant, his face full of bruises and cuts and sweat, was staring at me. I watched the other two monsters bowing to their lost brother, closing their eyes and mumbling words of some other language that seemed ancient and holy. In that moment they didn't seem so ferocious.
"Denfer had once told me that whoever kills a monster isn't a monster but a savior," Normant whispered from behind me, his voice for the first time gentle.
"Inspiring bullshit," I hissed, being fully drowned in observing the blood on the floor.
I almost shuddered when Vanensera sat next to me as well, slinging an arm around my back. I didn't let it stay there.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, and I just nodded, finding no use in lying.
Throwing away my coat, I let her lift my shirt and survey the injuries that all this time I'd been trying to ignore. I heard her gasping in horror and then demanding Ian to bring her clean bandages. The silence that followed her command was broken by the crunch of Ian's steps on the floor.
Letting her clean the blood off my back with her jacket, I just closed my eyes, swallowing the discomfort.
Thankfully, Ian was faster than the wind. I didn't know where he'd found the bandages but as Vanensera wrapped them around my body, I found Normant's calculating stare on me. We had moments before everything went down again. I could read it in his eyes.
And because I had to make myself focus on something else but the realization that I'd just killed a man, I put on my coat and rose on my feet again, ignoring the exhaustion, ignoring everything. "In the Gap World, whether someone kills you or you kill yourself, you end up in Hell. When someone kills you in Hell . . . what happens?" I asked, holding Normant's gaze as an indication that I wanted the answer to come from him.
The question took him by surprise, I figured, because he just blinked, his dark green eyes narrowing. "Then---then that's it. There's nowhere else to go. You are forever gone."
Rubbing at my face, completely ignoring the fact that Ian was in the room as well, I asked, "Why Ian hasn't already killed himself then?"
A half smile at that. "You can't escape Hell by your own will. If it worked that way, Hell would have been empty by now. You can't kill yourself here. And if you try, they will bring you back."
Letting the information sink in, I was thankful that whatever was about to follow my sin hadn't happened yet. I was grateful that I had a few more seconds---minutes even---because I wanted to ask more.
