"You must be mentally broken to enter the Gehinnom*, and you will undergo otherworldly agony and pain. You will become one with the warp and weft of the universe. You will walk along the forest of bones before you become one with the god of Death himself. You should be grateful that a useless D+ rank insect like you is chosen to tread in the realm of Gehinnom and become prey to its Lord…." said the old, crimson-robed man in front of me quietly, with the skull of an infant in his hand, trying pop it's eyes out to offer to the deity.
I was lying down in front of a large water basin, with my arms chained up and resting on the sides of the basin that juts out at the centre of the room. I let my head and neck relax, waiting for the ritual to begin.
My back had a magic circle carved in by a knife, whose owner displayed his artistic talents on my back while blood gushed out and screams echoed across the otherwise silent room., So silent that you would have to look twice to know that there are at least 20 people gathered here awaiting my death so that they could satisfy their lord's hunger for blood and chaos.
my head felt dizzy due to the bloodloss, still, I mustered my strength and looked up, and in front of me was at least a 10-foot stone statue of a deity with horns, bat-like wings and a large scythe that looked so sharp you would gladly behead yourself with it, knowing that you will feel no pain or discomfort due to the blade's edge - a silent Death or Eternal sleep you might call it. Its name reminded me of a movie I watched a while ago about superheroes, a ridiculous thing to remember when one's moment of death is hanging on by a thread.
Thanatos* they called it,and its eyes glowed as the rubies encrusted in it reflected the lights of the fire torches placed around the room.
SIDENOTES:
Thanatos - in ancient Greek religion and mythology, the personification of death. Thanatos was the son of Nyx, the goddess of night, and the brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He appeared to humans to carry them off to the underworld when the time allotted to them by the Fates had expired.
Gehinnom- Gehinnom is the abode of the damned and sinned in the afterlife in Jewish and Christian eschatology.