Chapter 36: Bliss = Death

Chapter Thirty Six

The journey through the hellish trial continued. The two warriors, Orion and Dwaine, continued walking through it all side by side, facing every pain, every moment of despair, and every terrifying atrocity that this world had prepared for them.

Through it all, the bond between the two grew deeper and deeper. They had become the best of buddies, their friendship forged through surviving and conquering these hellish trials together. It was as if their friendship had lasted for ages, perhaps even longer than that. At this point, it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say so, because within this hellish trial world, they had truly spent several long years together.

Countless centuries had passed since the trial began.

At this point, calling their friendship a thousand-year-long friendship would actually be an understatement.

Orion let out a deep, sulky breath. He felt the urge to simply give in to this bliss. Unlike the other trials they had faced so far, this one seemed almost peaceful.

The moment the trial began, there was none of the usual pain and despair that the duo had grown accustomed to facing. Instead, what met them was nothing but bliss, pure bliss that seeped into their bodies, wrapped itself around their minds, and made their souls feel warm and peaceful.

It made them want to sink into that feeling of comfort and never rise again.

Orion and Dwaine immediately knew what this trial was all about, and they also knew that it was extremely deadly. If they gave in to it fully, they would never be able to escape its confinement. At the same time, doing so would be the same as saying that they had given up, which would undoubtedly lead to them being erased.

So yes, while this trial had a harmless feeling and peaceful appearance, it was actually one of the most deadly trials the duo had encountered.

The feeling of pure bliss and comfort seeped into their bones, making their bodies want to relax, their minds want to surrender, and their souls want to close their eyes and simply rest forever.

Orion resisted for as long as possible, but his mind slowly teetered on the edge of failing. He could feel himself losing his grip as the urge to simply sleep, take a little break, and rest for just a moment became overwhelmingly strong.

His eyelids grew heavier, his thoughts became slower, and his body became increasingly relaxed. Then, just as he was about to completely give in...

SLAP!

A sharp slap struck him across the face.

Orion was instantly jolted awake. His head jerked to the side, his eyes widening as he returned to his senses. Dwaine stood beside him, and the old man was also struggling to stay awake, his own expression sluggish from the overwhelming bliss.

"Sleepy head."

Dwaine snorted and shook his head. "We are in hell, and you still get the mind to want to take a small nap, isn’t it?" he asked.

Orion rubbed the back of his head, then rubbed his eyes sharply, forcing himself to remain alert.

"Sorry, friend."

He said it simply and didn’t comment on the sharp slap he had just received.

The duo continued.

Soon, however, it was Dwaine who began slowly losing himself to the bliss. His eyelids became heavier, his body relaxed, and his movements grew slower as his consciousness started drifting away.

Before long, a sharp pain rang through several places on his body, immediately forcing him out of that blissful state.

Dwaine’s eyes snapped open.

Orion looked at him.

"Look at you, old friend."

A satisfied grin appeared on his face. "We are in hell, and you want to do what?"

He paused deliberately.

"Take a nap?"

Orion snorted, his grey eyes glinting with satisfaction. He had gotten his revenge.

Dwaine didn’t say a word. He simply rubbed the parts of his body that were aching from Orion’s strike. His friend, although he had many good qualities, also had many bad qualities. After all, this was just petty.

The duo continued.

They began using slaps and punches to pull each other away from the bliss that threatened to draw them in and cause their deaths. At first, simple blows were enough. A slap, a punch, or a kick... anything that caused enough pain to jerk their minds back into reality.

But at one point, the pain dealt by casual blows and slaps was no longer enough to wake them up. And so, they resorted to something a bit more extreme.

They began causing minor injuries using weapons. The pain caused by a weapon puncturing the body was far greater than that of a simple slap, after all, and for a while, it worked.

But as they continued walking, even that started to lose its effectiveness.

The bliss became stronger, the temptation became deeper, and the comfort became more seductive. So they resorted to heavier injuries and even mutilation, deliberately causing themselves the worst kinds of pain just to clear their minds of that dangerous bliss.

In this world of endless nightmares and hell, bliss was nothing but a death present. A beautiful present, a peaceful present, a comforting present, but a death present nonetheless.

And the duo were not accepting that kind of present.

So they kept walking forward, each of them constantly dragging the other back into a world of pain just to escape the comfort of bliss. It was almost ironic. Pain led to salvation, while bliss led to death.

No matter how much pain they were in, and no matter how much blood they shed or how badly their bodies were injured, they wouldn’t die. The reason was obvious. In this dungeon, unless they crossed the rules, they would not die. They would surely survive.

So they kept going, using every method they knew to help each other stay awake and every form of pain they could endure to keep their minds from falling into that seductive comfort.

The two continued walking, one step after another, again and again.

Several years went by in what felt like the blink of an eye.

At this point, the number of steps they needed to climb to reach the next floor had already reached several billion. That alone was an extremely tall task, an absurd undertaking that would have been enough to make any normal being despair.

But that part was actually the easy part.

Crossing those countless steps while facing the endless trials was the real danger, the real trouble. That was what they needed to overcome.

The duo continued this way. They kept going, kept moving, and did everything within their capacity to continue forward, refusing to stop no matter how endless the journey became.

Until one day...

They finally left the eternal bliss trial.

Their surroundings changed, and the overwhelming feeling of comfort vanished. When their vision settled, they appeared on the 99th floor.

Once more, following their usual habit, the duo collapsed onto the ground.

They didn’t even bother to maintain their dignity. Their bodies simply gave out, and they lay there breathing heavily as the energy within the marble flooring rose around them, nourishing their bodies and restoring them to their healthiest state.

As usual, the healing effect washed through their bodies. Their minds recovered, their souls recovered, and their vitality returned. Yet they didn’t immediately rush into another trial.

When they were finally back to full health, the duo simply remained where they were.

Together, they raised their gazes and looked forward at the trial waiting for them.

The next trial would be the trial for getting to the 100th floor.

Without anyone needing to inform him, Orion immediately felt a great sense of danger just from looking at the trial ahead. Something deep within him warned him that this next trial would be hellish.

Well, the trials they had survived so far had already been hellish beyond the concept of being hellish, but this one... Orion could feel it.

This one would be worse than the ones before it.

His gaze remained unfocused as his thoughts briefly flashed toward words he had probably thought more than a billion times already.

This trial is impossible.

At least, in every aspect, it really seemed so.

Just how precious must this Origin Legacy be to set such a high, enormous, impossible trial before them?

One had to understand that they were just about to cross into the hundredth floor. After that, there were still a staggering 900 floors left to conquer.

Nine hundred trials.

Each one potentially more hellish than the last.

Nine hundred more trials they needed to overcome before all of this could finally come to an end.

No matter how one looked at it, and no matter how one tried to reason through it, everything looked hopeless, almost meaningless, as if they were struggling in vain and nothing else.

Orion suddenly smiled.

Then he shook his head.

He rose to his feet and faced Dwaine.

"Hey, pal."

He grinned.

"Wanna bet on how many more years it’ll take us to clear this crazy trial?"

Dwaine looked at him. He paused for a moment, then shrugged.

"No idea."

Orion grinned. He was trying to chase away the anxiety, the thought that perhaps they would never be able to overcome this dungeon, and the fear that perhaps this journey would continue forever.

He wanted to push all of that away.

So he patted his chest confidently.

"Probably around two or so million years."

Dwaine’s eyes twitched.

"That long?"

He paused, then shook his head. Considering that they had already spent a couple thousand years here and were only close to the 100th floor, they might very well need millions of years to conquer this trial.

Orion turned toward the trial, his gaze gradually becoming serious.

"Come on, pal."

He took a step forward. ℯℯ𝑙.

"Enough idling around." His voice became firm. "Let’s conquer this next trial."

Dwaine smiled and nodded.

But internally, he sighed.

Then he spoke the words he had said before, once more.

"I am sorry, friend..."

His voice was quiet, almost too quiet for Orion to hear.

His gaze remained fixed ahead.

"My death is getting near."

That was what he was feeling.

Something was pressing down upon him, a strange, ominous sensation that he couldn’t shake. And if he were to make a guess, he would say that he would die in this next trial.