Tangen leaned back in his chair, a lazy smirk playing on his lips.
"So, you got any other questions that won't take me an hour to explain in order for me to answer?"
Maxi sighed, removing his round glasses to clean them. It was a habit he'd purposely developed to calm himself down, especially for scenarios where he had to deal with people like Tangen, how had a lot of arrogance.
"Actually, yeah,"
he said, slipping them back onto his nose.
"How did the oldest gods solve the first condition? The whole 'connecting the dimensions' thing?"
Tangen immediately groaned, dragging a hand down his face as if he'd been waiting for that exact question.
"I don't know,"
he admitted bluntly.
"My vision cut out right before that part. All I saw was them starting to discuss it, then suddenly, it jumped to them figuring out the second condition. Real convenient, huh?"
Maxi frowned. "So no one knows?"
Tangen shrugged.
"People have entered other gods' domains before, but none of them can explain how they did it. Their gods make sure of that—seems like it's some divine secret that only a chosen few are allowed to know."
Maxi nodded, absorbing the information before moving on.
"Alright. Then… why is the Thousand Twisting Hells called that?"
Maxi was wondering that question because in his previous world, there was only really only one hell or nine hells that his society recognized and acknowledged, as far as he could remember there were no other hells as wildly recognized.
Tangen chuckled, instantly sitting up straight, clearly excited to answer this one.
"Now that's a question I like. But first of all don't call it that"
Maxi blinked "don't call it what?"
"Don't call it the Thousand Twisting hells, that sounds ass, call it by its proper name, thousand spiraling hells
Max sighed in exasperation "there no way it maters that much."
Tengen grinned "It does matter that much, Thousand spiraling hells sounds way."
Maxi leaned back on his chair as he cleaned his glasses again. "Okay whatever you say human book"
His crimson eyes gleamed as he leaned forward.
"Anyway lets get back to the explanation"
"It's called the Thousand spiraling hells, while the gods were creating their afterlife system, what I like to call their 'afterlife project', each group got help from one of the oldest gods. The Eldritch Gods? Oh, they played dirty. They convinced their helper to make a prototype, an example of what hell should be like, so they could 'get it just right.'"
Maxi listened intently, already sensing that this was about to take a turn.
Tangen grinned wider.
"Well, the oldest god agreed. But here's the thing, he failed. The Eldritch gods said it wasn't quite right and wasn't what they were looking for, so he did it again, and they said the same thing, and this pattern continued Not once, not twice but nine hundred and ninety-seven, fricking, times. Each attempt, was a so called disaster. Imperfect, broken, incomplete, not hell enough, not chaotic enough, were just some of the words they used . And when he finally snapped?"
Tangen clapped his hands together, making Maxi flinch slightly.
"Boom! He lined up all his failures and destroyed them with a single punch. Just wiped them out."
Maxi raised an eyebrow. "So wait sincee you said nine hundred and ninety-seven did the Eldritch Gods still use the faliers?"
Tangen laughed. "Yeah they did"
Max put his glasses back on "why didn't they say all those were failures"
Tengen laughed even harder
"It's because they liked the destruction! Instead of building a new hell, they took the shattered remains of the failures and tied them together, twisting them around their final three 'perfect' hells which they made by themselves. And since the debris wouldn't stay still, it kept spiraling forever, thanks to the eternal aftershock of that god's punch. Hence, the Thousand spiraling Hells."
He leaned back with a nostalgic sigh, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling.
"Man, I love that story. It's the perfect mix of divine incompetence, chaos, and power."
Maxi watched him for a moment before shaking his head with a small smile.
"That does sound like something the Eldritch Gods would do."
Tangen lowered his gaze back to Maxi, his smirk returning.
"So? Any more questions?"
Maxi thought for a second, then stood up, bowing slightly.
"No, sir. Thank you for teaching me, Mr. Tangen, and thank you for being my tutor."
For the first time, Tangen's expression softened—if only slightly. He reached out and placed his bandaged left hand on Maxi's head, ruffling his already messy brown hair.
"Good. You're dismissed, kid."
Maxi quickly smoothed out his hair as he turned toward the door. His maid, who had been standing silently by the entrance the entire time, opened it for him. Just as she was about to leave, she hesitated, glancing back at Tangen.
Tangen caught her gaze and gave her a knowing look, his grin turning sharp and malicious. He lifted a hand, waving at her in a slow, almost mocking manner.
The maid stiffened, and her tail tucked in between her legs before she quickly stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
Tengen then laughs in the empty room and slicks back his hair.
"Oh, this is going to be fun"