[Hell·Depth One]
Outside the cabin lay the desolate ruins of an ancient city. Skeletons and decaying steel littered the place, as if a catastrophe had passed—or perhaps not, merely decay.
All was silent, as if the entire city had died, reduced to ruins.
Only beyond the shattered massive archway, something seemed to awaken in the Sky Dome, opening its eyes, a vast pupil like the moon itself looming over him.
Between the sky, composed of what seemed like accumulated rotting matter, and the land, akin to rubble, pale faces fluttered like Butterflies under the blood-red Moonlight.
The cold, as viscous as tidewater, slowly engulfed him.
Stripping away all warmth…
Huai Shi couldn't help but gasp; the panic and unease conveyed by the memory surged like a tide, ceaselessly battering him.
He could only keep peeling the negative emotions off himself, turning them into Apocalypse. Even so, the bone-chilling cold was unstoppable.
Pain like poison screamed in the depths of his consciousness. The test subject roared, wept, and struggled—but from beginning to end, no one spoke to him.
Only the violent shaking began once more.
The depth counter displayed again: [Depth Three]
A roar came from outside the cabin, the sound of countless heavy machines operating. What met his eye was molten lava surging beneath the hollowed-out ground and rust-covered assembly lines.
This was an engineering project built upon Hell itself, where enormous assembly lines rotated unceasingly. Rows upon rows of crimson hooks held countless people.
They seemed still alive, desperately struggling and wailing in despair as they were delivered one by one into workshops. They disappeared amid the relentless cutting and crushing, until in the end, only the sharp lament of metal friction remained.
Ultimately, from the assembly line, they transformed into an array of tables, lamps, clocks, and Bronze Mirrors, sent into the darkest depths.
[Depth Seven]
War.
War was like flood and fire, submerging everything.
The roars of combat filled his ears—monsters fought each other, tens of thousands of Giants gathered, sheathed in steel. Like slaves, they roared under the whip of their Master, treading on corpses as they advanced.
Those Lock Chains were fastened around the necks of even larger creatures.
The dozen women, each hundreds of meters tall.
They were bare-skinned, their flaxen hair ablaze. They wailed and howled, dragged forward, singing in pain and despair. Wounds on their backs that looked like torn wings dripped with searing blood, and broken Halos were suspended above their heads.
Their songs were hoarse and piercing.
Praising the gods who had died.
[Depth Nine]
An endless sea, the Original life soup boiling. Giant Beasts and monsters devoured each other, only to be reduced to Ashes by the Thunderfire from the sky and the magma from the fissured earth, beginning yet another futile cycle.
[Depth Ten]
Darkness, endless darkness. Amidst the desolation, a silhouette sat quietly on an Iron Stone, like a prisoner. He spoke, he sang, he danced.
Waiting for death.
[Depth ???]
Chaos, a dazzling light, death, destruction, God Spirit, despair, despair, despair, despair, despair...
…
In the endless fall, he learned fear, began to scream, and descended into madness.
In the end, he grasped despair.
At the very, very end, as everything was about to be destroyed, that person subconsciously shouted that name.
"Mother…"
Then, everything came to an abrupt stop.
Darkness struck.
He awoke, from the ignorance and shackles of a mere mortal.
Soul manifested.
His Sublimation began.
.
.
Huai Shi opened his eyes, staring blankly at the Sky Dome.
After a long while, he finally came to his senses.
Even though he had long been accustomed to fear, when he became Red Gloves, he still found it hard to resist the despair and pain with which he had once empathized.
It was like being thrown into the deep sea and forced to grow gills.
So rough, as if life had no meaning at all.
Damn it…