Chapter 114: Fall

"..." A beautiful field of neon green flowers, seemingly infinite, stretches across the entire horizon. When you look up at the sky, you see a black mass covering everything—it’s hard to tell if the sky itself is completely black, or if there’s actually something physical up there blocking it out.

Flying in this place is impossible. When you try to ascend, your body becomes heavier, and with every inch the weight increases exponentially, making it literally impossible to fly upward because infinite weight would be applied to your body.

Although the environment is a magnificent field of neon green flowers, each flower is unique in some way, and none of them emit any scent—but they aren’t harmful either.

The ground beneath the plants is black soil, and above that black soil there’s one to two fingers’ depth of water, also completely black. However, despite being "water," it doesn’t wet the body or fabrics. It’s some kind of strange liquid that closely resembles water, but isn’t absorbed by anything other than the flowers.

In this environment, as beautiful as it is macabre, a girl sits on the ground, "waking up" as she touches her own forehead.

"H-Huh?" Nio looks around and then quickly spots Typhon watching her intently. She rises from the ground, grinding her teeth.

"You—" Until a flash of memories invades her—her victory over Typhon, and the two traitors who cowardly attacked her while she was weakened.

"...What..." She’s confused as she touches her own neck.

"You really do seem very confused, Nio," Typhon says, observing Nio’s completely naked body. Typhon has no clothes either, and yet the "water" hasn’t wet either of their bodies.

"W-What happened!!! H-How are you alive—"

"Alive? Nio, I’m dead. And from what I can see, so are you."

"...D-Dead!? Y-You’re insane, I didn’t die!! I beat you and—"

"This is Hell. If you’re here, then you died." Typhon’s tone is gentle as she looks at Nio with pity.

"N-No!! Th-This isn’t right!!! I beat you!! I’m alive!! Th-This is another nightmare, isn’t it? Even dead, you pulled me into the dream world and—"

"Nio, I don’t have that kind of power to interact with someone alive from inside Hell. Besides, are you sure you don’t recognize this place? The first floor of Hell?" Nio looks around, tears streaming down her eyes.

"Y-You’re wrong... Nioh!! Nioh, say something..."

"Nio, Nioh can’t speak. You no longer have a physical body—you both died. But considering that, Nioh will probably manifest at some point since she’s a separate being. That’s good—I’ll be able to have my two wives together with me." Typhon carries a certain joy in her voice as she imagines both Nios together.

"You’re insane!! This can’t be... I-I really died? After winning!? Th-That’s so unfair." Nio bites her lips. She knew she could never trust her NPCs, but she also never imagined being betrayed like this just seconds after defeating Typhon, her greatest enemy.

And now not only has she died, but she’s also near Typhon again in a place she doesn’t know well.

"Yes, it is quite unfair, actually. I think we ended up in the same place because you and I died almost at the same time while we were close to each other, and our magic was deeply intertwined... Anyway, the first floor of Hell is relatively safe and empty."

"Besides, it’s almost impossible to encounter another being on this floor, because it truly extends infinitely and everyone falls into it randomly, extremely far from one another—and by extremely far, I mean really, really far. I have to say it was immense luck that we landed close together."

"So there’s nothing here that can hurt us. Also, we can still use magic, although unfortunately we lost the items that were on our bodies, and the inventory doesn’t work properly here. But thankfully, the items in the inventory are still there, so sometimes you can pull something out of it, though most of the time the inventory will be inactive," Typhon explains as she approaches Nio.

Typhon pulls Nio into an embrace while Nio cries in an almost childlike manner over being wronged like this—such an absurd defeat that she can’t accept.

"W-Why did I go to Hell? I-I wasn’t even that bad of a person..." Heaven exists, so Nio genuinely thought she would go to Heaven when she died someday.

"...Nio, sorry, but there’s no defending you. Did you really think you’d get into Heaven? I don’t want to offend you, but you sound like an idiot saying that." Even Typhon, who loves Nio, can’t lie and say she doesn’t know why, or that she believed Nio would go to Heaven.

"..." Nio looks at her, offended, and pushes her away.

"Th-This isn’t over!!! I-I’m getting out of Hell!! I know there’s a way!!!"

"Yes, Nio, there is a way for us to leave Hell. Although in Hell we’re immortal, if we leave Hell and die again, our existences will vanish forever. Do you want to risk that? Throw away immortality?" Typhon doesn’t understand why Nio would want to leave Hell.

Though that’s exactly the torture of Hell—immortality. On the first floor, all that remains for most beings is eternal solitude with absolutely nothing to do.

While on other floors, if a stronger being decides to torture someone for a thousand years, they will, and nothing will stop them, because there’s no death to free the unfortunate one.

"Of course!!! I have to get my revenge!! I don’t care if there’s a chance I’ll vanish forever after dying again!! I have a life out there!! That son of a bitch Yomo is probably stealing my palace right now!!"

"And I’m not an idiot!! Immortality is a curse! I’d rather come back to life and live a few happy millennia as a dragon and then fade away, than live for eternity in Hell!!! I do NOT want to live in Hell!! Especially not with you!!" When Nio says this, Typhon is genuinely hurt.

"Careful what you say, Nio. Neither of us can die anymore—do you think I won’t do anything?" Nio swallows hard as Typhon’s aura becomes extremely oppressive.

"...I-If you love me, then why don’t you help me get out of Hell!!"

"Fine."

"W-What? R-Really?" Nio’s confusion is stamped across her face at Typhon’s easy agreement.

"I love you, Nio. And even though I want you, and even like the fact that we’re immortal in Hell, I don’t want you unhappy. If you want to leave Hell, I’ll help—but on my terms, and I’ll do it however I want. If you’re dissatisfied with that, I won’t care. Okay?"

"...I-I guess so..." Nio thinks about using Typhon to get out, and the very fact that she’s thinking of using Typhon makes it clear that her immense selfishness is one of the many reasons she ended up in Hell.

"Besides, Nio, if we both leave Hell, that’s also an interesting scenario for me. You’d think twice before trying a fight to the death with me again." Typhon thinks about the future—Nio wouldn’t repeat the madness she pulled in their fight, knowing she’d cease to exist if she died.

"W-Whatever, I’d win again anyway! N-Now, why don’t you cover yourself?" Nio turns her face to the side. Even though she doesn’t want to admit it, Typhon is undeniably beautiful—a striking beauty—and without her horns, her body incredibly edges just a bit closer to a human figure.

Typhon’s horns were terrifying before and made her seem far larger than she is. Without them, Typhon seems smaller, even though she’s still the same size.

"There are no clothes on this floor, and I haven’t been able to open the inventory yet. But I don’t mind being seen..." Typhon stares at Nio’s breasts.

"And I really have nothing to complain about regarding what I’m seeing." Typhon’s tone makes Nio instinctively cover her breasts and intimate parts with her hands, embarrassed.

"I-I still—"

"Shhh. For now, I suggest you lie down. Your body is still under a lot of stress. Even though you can’t die, you’ll still bleed and feel a lot of pain."

"From the marks I saw when I woke up and saw you on the ground, you seem to have been decapitated. That caused considerable stress to your spiritual body that was brought here."

"..." Nio wants to refuse, but she really does feel like she’s carrying a burden the size of a world on her shoulders, so she silently lies down among the flowers.

"That’s better." Typhon simply sits down next to Nio, even though Typhon’s situation was actually far worse given the way she died.

’Hell... I... am I really such a horrible person that I had to end up in Hell, of all places?’