I wake again, the icy grip of the water surrounding me, pressing in.
My body is numb, muscles heavy and lethargic.
I've been here so many times that my lungs have forgotten how to breathe, my mind almost accustomed to the suffocation.
But over time,I have changed . The drive to escape is no longer born out of fear.
It has transformed into a fierce desire to conquer this nightmare once and for all.
I focus, gathering every ounce of strength, and begin to claw my way upward.
My hands cut through the thick, bloody water, each stroke more deliberate than the last.
The voices are there, louder than ever, a cacophony of taunts and screams, but I won't let them win.
I push them aside, focusing on the light above me, the promise of air and freedom.
My legs kick with newfound power, propelling me upward.
My chest burns, my lungs screaming for air, but I ignore the pain.
I've learned the rhythm, the movements. I know how to fight its pull now.
The light grows closer, brighter, each pull of my arms bringing me nearer to the surface.
My fingers brush it, and I push harder, my determination unwavering.
The voices shriek, a last desperate attempt to drag me back, but I won't be stopped.
My head breaks the surface, and I gasp, sucking in the sweetest, most precious breath of air.
The cold air fills my lungs, driving out the water making me cough like a madman, and for the first time in what feels like an eternity, I feel alive.
I burst through completely, breaking free from the water's grip.
The voices fade, their power over me gone as if an illusion.
I cough, choking out the remnants of the bloody water, but I am free.
But as my eyes adjust, I realize my escape isn't complete.
All around me stretches an infinite blood-red ocean, its dark waves lapping ominously.
My heart sinks, but then I see it—a single island, not far from me, a stark contrast against the endless expanse of crimson.
I swim with strong, steady strokes, pulling myself through the thick, bloody water, every breath a hard-won victory.
The island grows closer, and I can see it more clearly now.
My relief is short-lived as I take in the sight: a temple made of skulls and bones, covered in blood and grime. The structure is grotesque, yet it draws me in, compelling me to reach it.
I finally drag myself onto the shore, the sand gritty beneath my hands.
The temple stands before me, imposing and macabre.
Blood constantly pools out of the eye sockets of the skulls, forming dark, viscous streams that wind down the structure and soak into the ground. I force myself to stand, legs trembling from the cold, and approach the temple.
The air is thick with the stench of decay, but I push forward, driven by the same determination that brought me to the surface.
As I step inside, the skulls begin to whisper different from the screams meant to only cause me agony.
At first, it's a faint murmur, but soon the voices grow clearer, each one distinct yet part of a unified chorus. They tell me of the temple's purpose, a place of reckoning and judgement .
Slowly, their words piece together the truth, the reason for my torment.
I understand now why I was trapped in that hellish loop, why I drowned over and over again.
The whispers reveal my purpose, a deep-seated loathing for all of humanity.
This is a place of coagulation, where hayered and sins are collected.
The endless drowning was my trial, the blood-red ocean a manifestation of my hatred, fears my humanity, a test to make me worthy of what i had become.
The weight of this revelation presses down on me, but alongside it comes a strange sense of clarity, of acceptance.
I had to overcome the hatred I held within myself to conquer this nightmare.
As I embrace this truth, the ocean around the island begins to dry up, the blood receding and forming into a massive cocoon with three eyes in its center and tentacles resembling the idol within the temple.
The tentacles reach out, and insted of the disgust i would have felt from them in my previous life as I touch one, a sudden announcement is made by the same robotic voice that sent me here
[ Ultimate skill: Lord of Sin : (Angra Mainyu) formation complete.]
[ Body soul Stabilization complete]
[Usage of false Divinity Terminated]
Upon this announcement, the cocoon completely merges with me.
I feel a surge of power, a transformation taking place.
The blood and bones, the voices and hatred, all integrate into my being.
I am lifted from the island, from the abyss, and I awaken in the real world, my body changed, my form draconic. I find myself crashed on a mountain city, its panicking winged residents flying away from me.
I paid them no heed as i looked upon the world feeling more complete then i ever felt, all the question in my insignificant life as a human answered without any doubt left inside.
I was ready to fulfill the purpose assigned to me in this life.
Be the absolute incarnation of human evils.
With a thought my forms begin to fade as i use universal shape shift to regain my previous form but i am stumped as i fail to remeber it.
I stood there, surrounded by draconic pitch dark bones giving off steam, for almost ten minutes, my form a swirling mass of pitch black flesh and blood vaguely resembling a human body.
Giving up i look towards the winged woman with horns on her head and a oddly beautiful jewel on her head, my skill told me that she was of a mix between a kijin and Harpie.
She looked towards me with fear and hatered in her eyes.
I would have tries to Sympathise withher in some way and manipulate her to be my tool if i wasn't the cause of misery.
Oh well not that it mattered to me.
I turn towards her, my actions causing her to tense.
" I'll protect my people even if i die-"
Her declaration was cut off by my jump towards her my hand transforming into a hook.
" You look pretty , Give me your face"
And without a second delay i bisected her into two pieces, her body sinking into me as i slowly transformed into a form resembling her.
[ IMAGE ]
But i wasn't done as i sensed multiple lives around the area.
With single flex of my will the Sub skill
"All the World's Evil" activated manifesting the same waters in the material world consuming any living being in their path.
My boddy shuddered not out of fear or pain but out of the shear fun it was causing me to burst out lauging.
" Hahahaha"
=========================