Many tales were told about the origins of the River of Torment; all of them had the same concept at their core. A colossal titan searching for its creator in the void behind the fires of hell.
In that place, time and mass had long lost their meanings. The only source of heat was the cells of his own body; with no way to find his goal, he let the flows guide him to the center.
"Why did we accept to go for our death?" His brain asked with a mocking tone.
His heart, the sole reason that he traveled to the edge of the world, answered, "To find love."
"There is no love in this world."
His heart stopped to think for a second and then answered, "I have faith in the promised place."
Thousands upon thousands of years passed; once more the brain asked, "Why did we accept to go for our death?"
"To find our creator." Cracks were appearing in his heart's faith, yet hope made it continue.
"What if there is no creator?"
"... I don't know."
"Why did we accept to go for our death?"
"I don't know."
"Why did we accept to go for our death?"
"To find death, maybe death is love itself."
Each piece of brain worked like a clock to understand the new sentence, yet all of its attempts were futile: "We are incapable of dying; time had long lost its meaning. How can death be love?"
"I love to die."
Brain didn't respond; in its nature, a craving always stood atop all, true immortality. Why would something want to die?
The two organs never spoke to each other again until the brain could sense most of its pieces had stopped working and its time had run short before it could turn into ashes in the void.
"I think I know why we did."
Heart had missed the voice of his fellow, "Why?"
With its last remaining energy, the brain said with regret, "To find love, but there was nothing but torment."
Heart felt the loss of its only friend. "The road to love is filled with torment..."
Giant's body still moved in the dark abyss, with only his heart beating in his chest. A light came out from his chest and swallowed the whole body; the veins in the body worked once more, and his dark blood ran throughout his body, yet there was no heart nor a brain left in the body.
Just a vessel for eternal torment.
"This place is still filled with regret." Ray whispered to himself; his lower body was covered in dark blood, with a river in front of him that continued to eternity.
After all the years, nothing remained from the original body. Just rivers of blood that connected to a single place: the heart of the giant.
"I should start moving." With his first, a crushing pain entered his body; all of his bones seemed to be broken at the same time. "You should try harder if you want to stop me." He ignored the pain and took another step forward.
In his previous life, a devil had given him protection against most of the dreads of the river, and as a result, when he had found Orcus, it was in its weakest state.
This time was different, though; he wanted to earn Orcus with his own resolve: "It doesn't matter if it takes one year or a thousand years or millions of years, I will reach the end."
In the river of torment, the concept of time had no meaning; Ray could spend millions of years in there, and in the outer world, just a day had passed.
With the next step, he was skinned alive and boiled in burning oil, but Ray's mind stayed calm. "Illusions..." He laughed at the world around him.
He continued to walk for hours and hours, with nothing happening in the world; his focus was only on keeping his mind sharp from all the pain. Any type of dying or torture that one could imagine had already happened to him, yet his steps didn't stop for a mere second.
"I'm hungry..." He didn't know if it was another illusion or if his body really felt hunger. "My body is capable of feeling hunger even?"
Ray ignored the feeling and continued walking on the path in front of him; however, it grew more and more.
In the bare land, there was nothing for him to eat or anything to drink.
"I should control it for now." His movement became slower as the pain started to increase and hunger weakened his body.
"All of my moving abilities are prohibited, yet this one should work." A skull came to life above his head. With an instant cut, a bloody knife cut pieces of his own flesh.
Holding his nose, he consumed the flesh with no concern; a feeling of disgust followed his meal, but he didn't care. His problem was solved for some time.
The skull healed the wounds and returned into his soul.
After days or hours of walking, suddenly an ancient voice echoed in the air: "You came."
"Why wouldn't I?" Ray's breaths had grown heavy, and his stamina had run out some time already, yet his body walked on its own.
"There were many other weapons stronger than me with easier ways to get them."
Ray still knew at least two other weapons that he could get that were stronger than Orcus, but not for a mere second had he thought about leaving it behind.
"Remember, as much as you are part of me, I'm part of you."
"There is a long road up ahead, with so many regrets. Can you reach the end, old friend?"
His will still stood like a vast wall against all the torment: "I will do my best."
"What if you die?"
Ray laughed from the bottom of his heart: "Then I will die with no regret."
Silence once more filled the void; his steps had grown shorter and shorter. At times he would sleep while standing in his place; at times he would rest with just staring at the abyss.
"I'm getting closer." His illusions had become way more violent for some time, and his hair growth showed that he had spent years in there.
"Are you ready to face your biggest regret?"
Ray knew at this place, facing a certain memory was inevitable. "I'm ready."
With his next step, instead of a torture, a memory from his childhood came to life: the day that his parents had died.