Hell was Earth. A bitter, cruel irony.
Only Adam and Eve truly grasped the absurdity. It was enough to make them doubt their own senses.
On Eden's side, daylight stretched normally. Beyond the rift: an endless void. Two worlds, side by side.
The blue planet rotated slowly, then quickly. In the brief instant Adam looked, it had already spun twice. Time moved differently across the divide.
Could the ark really sail through space? Humans couldn't survive the vacuum. Atmospheric entry alone could tear the ship apart. Thousands of tons of mass, hundreds of kilograms of life... and God chose this moment to decree death.
Adam's hand gripped the crystal. A mythological solution demanded mythological thinking.
Then the angels attacked. A massive black swarm burst from the clouds behind the ark, merging with the existing perimeter. Every direction was blocked.
Michael. Gabriel. Raphael. Uriel. All four great Seraphs. Heaven's main forces, armed and ready, facing a mortal threat.
"Why no bows?" Gabriel asked coldly.
"The Lord ordered restraint," Uriel spat, glaring at the ocean below, soaked in golden blood.
"The Lord will arrive soon," Michael said, eyes closed. "All will be judged."
Dense angelic forces swarmed. Adam activated the crystal again. The ark surged toward the abyss.
Then—stop.
Everyone on deck except Adam and Eve fell prostrate. God—Yahweh—had appeared.
"What do you think you're doing?" His voice pierced minds directly. Expressionless, yet eyes heavy with infinite time.
"I protect my people," Adam replied firmly.
"Your people?" God's gaze was endless. "And me?"
"You're… God. The Creator. Yahweh. What else?" Adam couldn't speak the words, only feel the weight of divinity.
"You'd throw yourself into Hell for them?" God's voice trembled with something like love.
"Yes." Adam answered without hesitation.
In that instant, God's expression scattered. Sorrow radiated like a shockwave, touching every heart present. Silence deepened. Even the faint wind ceased.
He clenched his fist. Trembled. Raised it… then lowered.
"Very well. As you wish."
God's aged face closed its eyes. Breath heavy. A decree echoing in every mind:
"Eternal life for you… wander the land of sin. Drink their blood. Be scorned. Suffer eternally. Wash away your sins, return to Eden…For them, eternal suffering, disease, hunger, aging, death. Desire will consume. Disaster will follow. Until all returns to the beginning, or drifts through endless eons…"
God's gaze swept the prostrate. "Let them pass."
A flash of white. The crystal clattered onto the deck. God vanished, leaving stunned witnesses.
Adam felt the world deepen. Imperfect, incomplete—but profound. Life, death, rise, fall—the familiar order before his transmigration.
Then fire ignited within him.
Black nails, long fangs. Hair, pupils, eyebrows—eternal black. Pale features twisted grotesquely. Instinct seized him. He tore into a nearby armored human, drank deeply. Blood coursed through him.
The flames didn't stop. Another, and another. Only after the third did he regain control.
Eternal wandering. Scorned. Bestial instincts. Sunlight, forbidden. Repentance meaningless. Adam had become a vampire of legend—Cain's curse fallen upon him instead.
No shock. No fear. This was the path he had chosen. Charging forward.
He offered his blood to the three dying humans. The First Embrace. A new race—hungry, immortal, deathly. Chaos engulfed the deck.
"Now their business," Michael said calmly. Angels withdrew, save one.
Uriel hovered, wings darkened, trembling with rage. Betrayal, hatred, desire—all converged.
Bloodshot eyes, pitch-black wings. He fired a light arrow at Adam. Erin jumped, taking the strike in her shoulder and wing before it entered Adam. Both were thrown from the ark.
Through the mist, the ark disappeared. Adam held Erin, consciousness connecting them.
"No regrets?" Erin asked, drained.
"No… regrets."
"I love you."
Together, they drifted through the void, embracing amidst chaos. Over a decade spent, a child born, yet love was no fairy tale—it was survival, sacrifice, insanity.
Earth's gravity finally pulled them back. Atmosphere burned around them. Adam clutched Erin; friction tore at them. Around them, white streaked across the sky—Tina watched from the hold.
Uriel betrayed Heaven out of hatred. Gabriel pursued duty. Eve ruled humanity. Demon Pax, Grey, the vampires, stowaways—all touched history with every step.
A time-traveling butterfly flapped its wings. History shifted.
The great era had begun.