That day Bane Vossen died.
But the death was too horrible for him to even put it into words.
Or rather it was something that perfectly mirrored the reality of the world he lived in.
The world that he was familiar in had nothing but filled to the brim with malice and hate.
Selfishness.
Hatred.
Poverty.
Hunger.
Did the God who create the world did so just to make fun of us humans?
Bane didn't know of any God. But even if he didn't he cursed him in his death... for leaving to suffer in a world such as that.
How many times had he cried out for help?
But in the end his pleas were only heard by those worried of their reputation only to forget their promises the very next day. It seemed that his life had been worth only tossing a single penny of hope in his eyes.
The disparity between the weak and strong was ever present.
And with every passing day, it only grew larger and larger.
Experiencing how the world was Bane had finally pledged to stand on his own ground... only to be crushed by those that feared a rising star.
No, Bane didn't even want to remember his horrible life anymore. He considered it his own fault that he allowed himself to be fooled by them.
But at the end of his life, he became more aware of the feelings that he was bottling up inside of him.
Was it post death clarity? Who knew how he was even conscious? He had no idea.
But all he felt was an incomparable amount of hate.
Yes, hate.
Throughout his life he had always mistook it for frustration.
He had always thought that it was frustrating to be born into a poor household.
He had always thought that it was frustrating to be weak.
That is why he had tried his best to become strong.
"I was wrong."
What he had felt wasn't frustration, nay he was only being delusional to make himself to work harder.
But after losing everything that he held dear including his own life, it finally became clear to him what he felt.
His heart burned into black flames as it seemed to be forged anew to incomparable heat generated by his hatred alone.
As he crossed the river styx, his soul was pulled towards the ends of insanity.
He cursed and cursed. Cursed every damn thing in the world.
His grudge was so deep that a dark aura permeated from within his lifeless soul.
Hell, even the holy waters of river styx was unable to purify his grudge towards the world and everything that was contained inside of it.
When his soul itself was not in peace, could he even be sent to the after life?
With so many lingering attachments and grudges how could he?
The waters of the river Styx turned chaotic as it couldn't come to accept this soul. It rejected it with all of its might.
A soul like his?
It could only wonder around aimlessly as a ghost or undead. He couldn't possibly be purified.
The laws of the underworld seemed to have given up preventing his entry.
Now the only option for such a soul was to rely on the heavens for salvation.
But things weren't easy for Bane even after death.
*Crackle* *Crackle*
For a moment the whole sky turned white. Was it some kind of blessing? No it was only the flash that came before the piercing suffering.
*Zap*
Suddenly a huge sized dragon... no the dragon was the very definition was majesty quite in contract with the worthless soul below.
With its sparkling beauty it was the brightest thing that Bane had ever seen. But it was completely white with thunder sparling from its whiskers.
*Zap*
But the dragon had but one purpose, to punish the mortal who dared cursed the Gods. Apparently his pleas to the Gods had never been heard but his curses had easily passed through.
The dragon raced to the soul as it zapped it with its whole body endowed with the strongest thunder.
It was divine retribution.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bane screamed his lungs out.
Had he been on his usual body he would have died even with a brush of the dragon's wiskers.
But with his physical body being already non existent and his spiritual body being assaulted there was nothing that he could do but be subjected to endless pain.
It was cruel.
It was like his body borke apart with the zap of lightning. But it was if God was sneering at him. His spiritual body which should have broken apart was only reforged again and again so that there was no end to his sufferings.
It was cruel.
His spiritual veins snapped and joined again countless times. He should have got used to the pain with the passing time but that seemed to be only his delusion. As time passed his pain never ceased. The heavens showed no restrains at showing Bane his place.
It was indeed cruel.
Such inexplainable pain was enough to lead him to insanity countless times already. Words were simply not enough to describe the retribution he was facing. But every time he felt his consciousness fading away and being replaced with something lifeless, his consciousness reverted back to normal again.
Was it perhaps the dragon's holy attribute that was causing this? Bane didn't know anything. It was incredibly cruel and painful.
But there was one thing that he knew.
'This God or whatever there is wants to break my will and accept his superior existence.'
His suffering would probably end if he were to become docile and accept that.
But the deity didn't know.
That Bane was already beyond helping.
In fact there was nothing in existence that could calm down his anger.
Pain?
Threats?
Probably those would have worked if his consciousness had even the slightest bit of concern of not being human anymore.
But hatred that he bared made it impossible.
How could he threw the burning hate in his soul away? No it was already beyond curable.
Pain could threaten him but pain couldn't cure him.
Bane's body twitched in pain as he squirmed trying to get out of his suffering himself. But it was of no use.
Under the divine power he was a measly existence.
But that alone led him to the most accurate conclusion.
He gritted his teeth as he stared daggers at the divine beast. But that kind of movement alone was enough to cause a shrill cry leave his lips. It was as if the pain had just increased ten fold. Was perhaps the beast more annoyed because of his stubbornness?
"You are just like them, aren't you?" Bane stared daggers at the dragon.
There was no denying it.
The God was the same as those humans.
Or should he say, like father like son?
Having that analogy alone caused Bane direct all of his anger towards the divine beast.
While continuing to be thwarted with incomparable pain dark miasma began began to pour out of his body. as it went up and crept up the body of the dragon.
Bane never lost eye contact with the dragon as the beast became the subject to all of his hatred. And the dragon knew better... his eyes were as red as they could have been.
The miasma crept up as it poisoned the dragon's divine body.
The dragon's body and the black miasma were of completely different nature. One was divine... while the other one was born out of pure outraged hatred. They couldn't help but cancel each other out.
It wasn't just Bane was insane now... he was passing his insanity to the dragon as well.
Before long the dragon became aware of the threat as it ceased its retribution on Bane's spiritual body. But it was the worst mistake that it could have made.
Bane was nothing but unnegotiable at this point and the thick miasma only grew stronger now that he was free from his shackles.
"TCh"
Bane heard a clicking of tongue that seemed to shake the whole of the underworld. Had Bane possessed a real body his eardrums sure would have shattered.
It seemed that the beast was as annoyed as he was.
But in reaction to that voice the black miasma was repelled back as it reverted back into Bane's body or to be more specific it wrapped around him like a piece of cloth.
"Huh?"
Not sure with what was happening Bane could only wonder in confusion. But had that been the only weird thing about him Bane wouldn't have been as worried as he was now.
At this point even his spiritual body was fading.
Bane directed towards the dragon again. For some reason it refused to move. It only flew there staring at him with its huge white eyes.
"If you don't want to be destroyed. Never come back here again," a heavy voice... that was the last thing he had heard before he disappeared from the underworld.