_Chapter Begins_
His hands trembled as he held on tight to the broken piece of crystal shard that he had stabbed the wooden abomination with.
William was dripping blood all over, and his skin had been turned black by the amount of bruises that had formed on it. To put the cherry on top, he was also deaf, as his eardrums had burst from the agony-filled roar that the wooden monster had let out just a second ago.
"I need to… get out of h—"
A hot breeze grazed the top of his head and flowed down his body—immediately making him go quiet.
Slowly lifting his head up, William's pitch-black eyes were met with two dots of purple that shifted aggressively inside the eye sockets of the creature.
He only got a fraction of a second to consider his options.
In that moment, William could only really think of two options.
In this situation, there was simply no way for him to come out unhurt; now he could only choose what type of hurting he would rather experience.
Well… maybe he could get out of this unhurt.
William could avoid being ripped to shreds by the wooden abomination by using his reflection travel to go into the reflection of the crystal shard that he had stabbed the damned thing with.
Going into the reflection of the shard carried obvious risk, that being the fact that his soul would be vulnerable, which was the one thing that could permanently end him in this place.
But there was a small chance that he could get away before the abomination laid its claws on the crystal. If this gamble paid off, then he would be able to escape without suffering another death or taking more damage to his already damaged soul.
That was the first option, which he would like to call "the risky option."
The second option was a much more simple one…
But it was also a very brutal one, as it would require William to throw out basic human emotion and instinct to survive.
He could just… let himself be killed… again.
For the fourteenth time.
It was only physical damage, which here in Hell simply did not matter.
This option was the safest of the two, as he would not be putting his soul in a vulnerable place, and therefore it was also the most logical option.
But for some reason, this option just did not sit right with William.
He didn't want to believe it, but he knew that it was true. Hell was truly starting to change him…
With each hour he spent in this hellhole, he felt like he was dehumanizing himself more and more—getting comfortable with his deaths as he knew that they would be reversed.
It was like his humanity was slowly being drained from him.
William's lip quivered, and a gulp of spit traveled down his throat.
What was he feeling right now—he himself did not know.
A lot of different emotions were mixing in his mind right now, which made it hard to pick one as a representative of his overall state.
But soon enough, those emotions all disappeared in an instant, as it seemed that William's time to make a decision had already run out.
The wooden claw of the abomination collided with his upper torso—immediately making it burst open.
Blood sprayed all over, covering the wooden carapace of the beast in a bright red veil.
With nothing holding it up anymore, his lower body tumbled down to the crystal shards below.
Blood splattered as his lower body hit the ground below with a loud thump. The reflection of the crystals was obscured by the pool of blood that was flowing from William's half-decimated corpse.
His dagger also landed just a few meters away from his torn-up body.
Fourteen deaths… in how much time?
There was no day-and-night cycle here, so William didn't exactly know how long he had spent so far in Hell.
His best guess would be two or three days.
That many deaths in just a few days…
William had so many advantages when compared to the normal person. He had the sin of Envy inside him, which not only made his strength and speed unnaturally high, but it also gave him abilities that were out of this world.
He also had a well of endless knowledge—that well being the blonde girl, Elsa.
And to add even more to it, he also had a soul-shattering dagger that he had taken from his sister.
And with all of those factors on his side, he still died over and over again with no end in sight.
And at this moment, William couldn't help but think about all the other souls that were banished to this place.
Normal people did not have all the advantages he had, and they also didn't have William's tough mental strength.
So if he had already died fourteen times, then… how many times do normal people die here each day?
At that moment, a cold realization hit William's mind.
All the people that inhabited Hell… they were all insane—they had to be.
After suffering fifteen deaths, William himself was already falling into the hands of madness.
So a normal person would simply stand no chance of maintaining their sanity. Most of them had likely fallen into madness.
From here on out, William had to be not only wary of monsters and demons, but also other people.
A thousand deaths could turn a normal person into something that was even more twisted than the demon he was currently fighting.
He could not trust anyone here.
_Chapter Ends_