In a place devoid of any reference points, a small azure flame drifted at the heart of infinite darkness.
That faint glow lost in the shadows was none other than Jacob's soul.
"Hey…?! Is anyone there?! Or anything?!"
Even though he shouted with all his strength, the blue flame merely flickered.
No surprise—he had neither mouth nor body to carry his words.
After a few more trembles, still no answer came from the void.
"Damn it… don't tell me my parents were right and atheists go nowhere after death?!" he cried, his voice shaking with growing unease.
The possibility of ceasing to exist crossed his mind, sending a chill of terror through him.
"I don't want to disappear!" he screamed into the nothingness.
His thoughts tangled, echoing weakly in the endless dark.
"Did I murder someone in a past life? Or destroy the lives of many innocents?"
Then, far away, a second flame identical to his own appeared.
"Huh?! That's… another person?! Hey, you! Can you hear me?!"
Jacob tried to approach the unknown soul, but it was already drifting away, sliding toward an abnormal tear in space.
Jacob had existed for an indeterminate amount of time in this mysterious place.
As a result, he was no longer entirely mentally stable. He couldn't even perceive the spatial rift—his mind was wholly fixated on this new presence.
Deprived of company for an immeasurable duration, he could no longer bear the loneliness.
So he tried to catch up to the other soul now heading toward a reddish portal.
But an accident occurred.
The moment Jacob reached the foreign flame, the two spirits didn't collide as he expected.
Instead, they merged.
Fusion? No—it was more like assimilation. The unknown soul had almost no memories left when Jacob crashed into it.
That's why the former human wasn't truly influenced by its worldview.
"Angel… Devil…?"
Jacob's consciousness became an indistinct chaos.
He also lost all control.
His mind drifted and was sucked into another scarlet portal similar to the one the second flame had been heading toward.
Thus, Jacob left the unknown space.
…
A oppressive violet sky stretched endlessly, overlooking a dense forest teeming with bizarre creatures.
In this land straight out of a fantasy tale, a dazzling light suddenly took shape.
At its appearance, no demonic creature remained indifferent to this majestic being.
Some fled without hesitation, others prostrated themselves, while a few unleashed their malevolent aura in a futile attempt at defiance.
Yet the being at the center of the light didn't spare them even a glance.
Like a human ignoring an anthill, he paid no mind to their insignificant existence.
His eyes were fixed on an egg.
He held it with such gentle care that it was hard to believe a being like him could show such tenderness.
"I'm sorry, my child… but someone must watch over this place, and your fate has already been written accordingly."
His voice—impossible to identify as male or female—rumbled like a raging sea.
It was both majestic and commanding.
Yet the egg vibrated softly, as if sensing affection in its creator's words.
The figure then surveyed the clearing where the infernal wildlife hid.
His eyes, like a starry sky frozen in the night, revealed no emotion—unlike the egg's gentle trembling.
"Temple…" he murmured.
One simple word.
Yet reality itself bent to his will.
The ground shook, reshaping itself before the stunned eyes of the demonic creatures.
A structure rose—rough stone, simple yet sturdy.
Paying no attention to the surrounding terror, the being of light stepped through the temple entrance.
Inside, he placed the egg on an altar adorned with simple ornamentation, then traced several glowing magical seals around the sacred chamber.
No one could enter this place without breaking the seals.
And few beings were capable of shattering barriers set by the Biblical God.
'Even if my seal is broken, I will sense it,' he thought as he departed the Underworld.
After opening a dimensional rift leading to Heaven, the ethereal silhouette vanished.
Behind him, an unusually large egg rested motionless at the heart of the ancient-looking temple.
…
No one could say how much time had passed since the ethereal figure left.
Ten years? A hundred? Perhaps a thousand?
Impossible to tell.
But in the endless flow of the river of time, such a question was meaningless.
And yet…
Without any warning, the day of the creature's birth inside the egg finally arrived.
The egg began to tremble timidly at first.
Then the shaking grew stronger, more erratic, as if something inside was fighting with all its might to get out.
After a full minute of frantic movement, a crack appeared.
A small arm pushed through with determination.
"Damn it… W-who the hell locked me in a box?!" growled an annoyed voice, before a tiny figure hoisted itself out of the shell.
On the altar now lay a child of about two years old.
His scarlet-red hair fell in messy strands, and his eyes—same blazing color—shone with unusual liveliness.
Despite his innocent and adorable appearance, the boy also had inhuman features: a glowing halo floated above his head, and small wings spread from his back.
And, not insignificant:
the boy was completely naked.
"W-where am I…? Grr…"
As the child examined the Christian-inspired frescoes painted on the temple walls, a violent pain shot through his skull.
Fundamental knowledge suddenly flooded his mind, and his scarlet eyes lit up with newborn understanding.
He had just received his creator's instructions: survive and rule this place as the executor of his Father's will.
Put simply, his creator wanted order restored in this underground dimension instead of the current chaos.
"So… I really ended up in Hell?" he breathed involuntarily.
As someone who had died by suicide, Jacob knew full well that if his parents were right, Hell was his destination.
Yet he never imagined actually landing there without even a semblance of judgment.
"At least… I'm no longer in that void."
Just remembering it made his body shudder. Even for a now-inhuman being, the idea of absolute nothingness remained terrifying.
"Besides the orders from my 'Father'… did I really absorb the Angel Devil from Chainsaw Man?" he murmured, raising his tiny hand before his eyes.
His scarlet irises flickered.
Memories of Aki… of Denji… of Makima… overlapped strangely with his own mind.
True, Devils in Chainsaw Man lost their memories when they reincarnated after death.
But Jacob guessed he had interrupted the complete erasure of the Angel Devil's identity.
The androgynous boy was now part of him, like a fragment melted into his soul.
He lingered somewhere deep inside.
Proof came in the single tear that slid down the newborn's cheek when he understood the full truth about Makima.
"Aki… and the villagers… they were killed by the…"
His voice broke into a barely audible whisper.
Bitterness vibrated in every word, but he gently shook his head.
Nayuta was not Makima.
And Nayuta was dead too, according to his last memories of the Chainsaw Man world.
Wanting revenge on a Devil reincarnated in Hell was ridiculous.
After all, those creatures remembered nothing…
Makima, like Nayuta, had become someone else.
"Alright, I need to stop thinking about the Angel Devil's life," he told himself before leaping toward the temple exit.
He didn't even notice the strange lights that began dancing on the altar as he left.
"So this is the Underworld? Not bad… a lot less lava than I expected," he commented, surveying the landscape from the night sky.