Chapter 22: Re-birth

Water flooded in from all over and sweep me away, the first thing I felt was the weightless-ness them the current pushing me till I slammed into the walls. Broken furniture fractured all around me as I desperately tried to hold my breath. I tried my best to swim to the top to catch my breath; hoping that nothing would try and eat me as I got my bearings. Soon as I broke through to the top a massive wave hit me making sure that the first thing I inhaled was water. A burning sensation filled my lungs before I struggled to reach the top again. Only to watch the chamber fill up and hit my head against the ceiling.

(Oh fuck this is bad)

Then the situation went from bad to worse as soon as I remembered I was not alone. Massive fish ranging from the size of a small dog to a fucken truck were moving swimming around. Happily getting used to their new environment. They all seemed to be apex predators, their jaws filled with razor sharp teeth and their bodies streamlined for greater mobility. They were made for this environment and I wasn’t. More importantly I was told not to kill any of them, not that I actually could if I wanted to.

(A weapon! I need a weapon! There has to be something to hold onto, I need something before one of them reaches me.)

It seemed like they could read my mind as I felt a powerful set of jaws snap onto my right leg and start dragging me down. I couldn’t help but scream even though I knew it would cost me precious oxygen. I started struggling and kicking the monster in an attempt to get free but all it did was make the monster fight me more. It started thrashing me around, spinning and swinging from side to side. My leg felt like it was being ripped of the socket and its teeth dung into my flesh, creating a cloud of blood as it thrashed me around.

(My lungs are burning, the pressure on me is getting worse the deeper we go and my heads getting blurry, and I’m going to die here. If it’s even possible to die in hell.)

All the blood and fighting seemed to excite the others, and the next thing I knew another one bite into my shoulder. They began fighting over me in a vicious tug of war, but that was only the start of the part as a third monster bit into my torso. What scared me was that I barely felt any pain from the bite and my mind seemed to go blank as the whole world was tossing and turning all around me. Now I couldn’t even make out any figures, only blurry colors that kept overlapping with each other. I assumed this meant more monsters had come to fight over their meal.

(Hahaha bastard… at least… someone’s… fighting over you haha…)

A strange sense of euphoria hit me as my lungs filled with water. Giving me enough time to watch the biggest meanest little shit in this tank swallow me and my new friend’s whole. It looked like it was the size of a house or maybe I was just going mad at this point.

My mind went blank and my whole world fell into darkness. At first I thought I was dying again but the pain only continued, telling me this living nightmare wasn’t over yet. I can’t tell you how it feels to be eaten alive. It was like being burnt and cut everywhere and still having this general numbness that was even scarier than the pain. Like something was pulling on my soul.

(It’s like I’m being sucked dry.)

The pulling kept getting worse and worse and I almost felt like giving up, but then something hit me. There was no way I was brought in here just to die. So the first this I did was start fight again, only to feel everything start shaking and pulling even harder.

(Wait this doesn’t feel like I’m being digested; it feels weird like something else is pulling on me. I definitely can’t feel my body so what is this feeling.)

In what seemed like a spark of brilliance to my fractured my I tried to reach out for my mana. And unbelievably I actually felt something.

(Yes! I can fight! Maybe I can make it out of this!)

With some renewed hope I began trying to cast a spell, but my mana felt heavy and slow and I found that I actually had much less than I remembered. Instead of being discouraged I began urging my mana, trying to kick start or spark something into happening. That was when I noticed that something was draining my mana. So I fought against this feeling, pulling on this external force with all I had as if my life depended on it. Which it probably did, but it felt like I was pushing a car up hill. I was lone against the pull of maybe a dozen of those things.

I was down by more than half my mana and even though things were slower and that was an improvement I was still on the losing side right now. More and more I kept getting drained and the dread once again began to set in. The less and less I had the more I grew frantic. I wasn’t sure what it was but I knew that as I ran out it was game over for me. Maybe for real this time and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

I’m not sure how much time past, minutes, hours, days but eventually I seemed to be on my last shreds of energy. Once again I felt numbness set it and all I could feel in the empty space was the pulses of my heart beat that was probably about to die out. What had I done in life to deserve a fate like this? Had I killed someone? No Had I not been grateful enough or was it something I even forgot that hurt someone more than I thought. I guess now I would never know.

(…Wait? Pulse? Why would I have a pulse I can’t even feel my own body?)

For the first time since this whole fiasco started I did something a bit crazy. Instead of fighting against the pressure I decided to look inwards and figure out what it is that I was and what I was feeling. The more I felt for myself the more and more I felt this pulsing, this warmth. I threw cation to the wind and completely surrendered myself to this feeling. It seemed to give me strength and that was what I needed most right now. More and more I became consumed by it.

Following some strange feeling down a spiral deeper and deeper into myself. And the more I followed it the more of myself I could feel. My heartbeat, my thoughts, my body. Instead of fighting I just let myself float their until I could eventual feel my whole body. There was no pain, no damage. I was so happy the first thing I did was open my eyes and try to stand up. I was still inside the water but there was no resistance and as I stood up I came face to face with scariest shit I’ve ever seen in my whole fucken life. My own corpse…

(What the Hell’s going on!!!)

Spirit form unlocked Spirit form: LOL you just got owned didn't you. Don't worry this is Hell so we'll help you out so you can really get back on your feet. You know, no man gets left behind here. You'll have to get a body back on your own though. NO FREEBIES!

General: “Hahaha well aren’t you a tough nut to crack, I have to say you lasted the longest! Anyway like I said things are easier to explain through practice. Anyway I guess you don’t need that jumpsuit anymore, good, training wheels are for sissies! Now your one more step closer to being a proper resident of Hell.”

The Generals voice sounded like it was coming from my own mind, but I was way too shocked to even care about that as I watched these monsters gorging themselves on my body as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Truly what did I do to deserve this…?