It was dark.
Mere moments after she had been swallowed by the snake which had appeared as a manifestation of her fear, the first thoughts.
Or rather, her last thoughts were that it was dark.
Followed up by how philosophical it was that the greatest fear she had in her life appeared as her fear of death.
It really made sense since she had a deathly fear of snakes to the point of nearly dying from a heart attack.
'I mean, does it really make sense to leave your child in the middle of the zoo? Near the snake pit no less.'
Mentally complaining about her father who had disappeared to who knows where while her younger self was pushed from behind into the snake pit.
She also recalled how she been left frozen in the snake pit as large reticulated pythons, the longest in the world, coiled around her rather small body at the time.
It really didn't help that no one noticed she was there until feeding time and the snakes moved off of her body.
Thinking about those dreaded times that she still had nightmares about to this day, she felt a tug.
'Oh, Am I going to the underworld now?'
Feeling a tug on her metaphorical arm, she felt as if she was being whisked away somewhere as the sensation of movement left her bereft of any other situation.
'On that note, how am I feeling anything? Is it because of the soul? So are souls real?'
'I guess that deals with all that fancy philosphy of souls I guess.'
Random thoughts bombarding her head, she continued to think of other things in the religious sense of the word.
'Then since I'm dead and have a soul, which religion am I going to? Which one is real?'
Looking forwards to the future interactions, she was taken aback from the piercing light that penetrated her eye lids.
'I guess the Underworld is out of the picture, then is it the Nether? It also might be Hell or Yama's hell.'
Thinking about those two things, voices crept into her ears.
The problem was the source of the voices however.
???"So what are we going to do with this one?"???
???"I don't know? Why are you asking me?"???
???"Because you found her."???
'What the fuck?'
Feeling a strange weight press down on her eyes, Shana's mind quickly fired up it's neurons to understand what was happening.
And from what she could tell, they were... two people, one male and one female.
Two very familiar people.
Cold sweat slowly appearing from her back, Shana tried to force her eyes open and flinched when the light pierced her unprepared retina's.
"Oh you're awake already?"
"Of course they're awake, unless they're in a coma or dead people would wake up by now right?"
Listening to their words Shana slowly felt her heart start to beat fiercely as two artificial voices penetrated her ear drums.
Slowly opening her eyes to an influx of light hitting her eyes, she blinked as a piercing pain briefly filled her eyes.
Adjusting her eyes two figures came into her vision.
And she was absolutely terrified at the sight staring at her.
Because two robotic looking 'people' stood in front of her.
Wearing masks with a smile plastered on their faces, simple eyes seemed to track her every movement.
Two very familiar faces.
Eyes facing a downwards curve in abject joy, oval shaped eyes and a smile simultaneously stared at her from the side.
"A-Albert?"
Mind racing to understand what in the hell was happening, Albert Conningham stopped in his tracks as the red eyes dancing in his eyes abruptly stopped.
Tilting his head, Albert eyed Shana with laser focused red eyes as a subtle clicking noise resounded the small medical bay that they were in.
Clutching at the bedsheets, her mind went into overdrive as sweat poured down her back drenching it.
'What the hell is happening? Is this purgatory!?'
Knowing the agenda of purgatory which was supposed to torture sinners, Shana quickly tried to appease the robotic duo who were eyeing her suspiciously.
"Um... I..." Hesitating to answer being who may or may not be beings, the robotic duo took that sign of hesitation as refusal.
"Tell me now otherwise I shall be forced to treat you like an intruder"
Glove covering his hands breaking apart, several clicks resonated in the medical bay as Albert showcased his fully mechanical nature.
Arms splitting apart in a manner that resembled a spiders, five long spindly arms that were ended by a sharp tip fully ripped apart the arm and gloves.
Clicking unceasingly, they moved apart from each other as their sharp ends started to spin incredibly fast.
So fast that they visibly turned into saw blades.
Glinting underneath the light, Shana recalled a small snippet of a conversation that they had in the past.
"Wait!"
Raising her hands in surrender, Shana stared at Albert while sweating profusely all the while her mouth moved faster then her head.
"If you want to know how I know your name then it should be an exchange of information right!?"
The five spindly arms stopped spinning.
"...Speak your case."
Shana secretly heaved a sigh in relief, at the least, she wasn't dying at the moment.
"First things first, can I ask you a question Albert?"
"What is it." Suspicion evident in his artificial voice, Shana couldn't help but notice that a certain someone had disappeared by now.
'I guess I just have to deal with mister uncanny valley man here then.'
Relaxing her tense face, she licked her lips before speaking while keeping an eye on the five spindle like arms that lightly clinked against each other like wind chimes.
Red eyes glimmering in the light, Shana spoke.
"What type of demon are you?"
'Since this is Purgatory of some sort, I should at least find out what type of hell I'm in.'
And just as she had expected, the red eyes dancing in Albert's eyes stopped abruptly as they flickered intensely as if they had just heard something strange.
'I guess it is surprising though.'
Thinking about that fact, Shana thought about all the forms of Purgatory and hell that she had gathered from social media.
Hell from Christianity, The Yama King's underworld and the Nether from Chinese myth could instantly be kicked out as they had no depictions of hallucinations.
They were more like the 'since you did this you shall punished like this' type of purgatory.
And Egypt's underworld and Buddha's cycle of reincarnation were similar although slightly more instantaneous.
So that just left Catholic Hell.
There might've been more, but to the extent of her knowledge that was all of the afterlife's that she had prior knowledge to.
'But I guess it doesn't matter since I'm in hell either way.'
Shrugging her shoulders her train of thought continued.
'But why am I even in hell in the first place? I don't think I did anything seriously bad in life, maybe some stolen candy here and there but that shouldn't constitute me going to hell... Right?'
Thinking about rather useless things, she tilted her head as she stared at Albert inquisitively.
'On that note, what is on my arm?'
Since her arms were outstretched to helplessly to prevent death once again, her sleeves had moved back to reveal milky white skin marred by a tattoo.
And she knew for a fact that she never got a tattoo.
Especially since it was a snake tattoo, something she absolutely abhorred due to her lingering fear of snakes..
It was unique in design since the snake had bit its own tail, but nevertheless, although it seemed to be Ouroboros it was representing, Shana didn't like it.
'I mean... I don't think a child was supposed to be in the snake pit in the first place.'
Now belatedly realising that this robotic human like being should've been called an android all along, said android finally gained a semblance of life and tilted his head upwards...
In laughter?
Confusion filled Shana's features as she stared at the android that was currently laughing like there was no tomorrow, if anything, she would've thought that the android went mad.
She shivered.
Just like the guard she had talked to on the way to the library.
And just like what the diary talked about in incredibly violent looking Chinese script.
It really didn't get more deranged then jagged lines that seemed to have been carved onto the paper like claw marks.
'But since this is just purgatory, then it should be fine right?'
Innate fear of death slowly dissipating from her heart, Shana hardened her heart while resolutely staring back at the android.
Only to feel her heart skip a beat as Albert suddenly turned on the saw fingers.
Sharp claws spinning around dangerously close, Shana stared in absolute terror as they neared her face, coming closer and closer by inch by agonizing inch.
And just before she was about to have her face ripped off by spinning saw blades spinning to fast for the human eye to see.
"HAHAHAH Hahahaha..."
He moved his hands to take off the mask covering his face.
Metal wires crossed over one another as they ran across the metallic facial structure.
A mesh of smaller more interconnected wires formed above the position the smile was once on, becoming something akin to a speaker.
Following it up, the eyes underneath the mask showed themselves in their full round metallic glory.
Swiveling to her, she felt a chill crawl across her spine as in the next second, he removed his hat to reveal a ridiculously large spider.
The size of a hand, the large spider set on top of the android's head spoke gleefully.
"I really didn't expect anyone to notice this quickly, all the others died before they could."
Now unhindered by the need to hide its own identity, the spider's voice mirrored that of Albert's just missing the artificial taste that carried on through the android it was piloting.
Staring at the large spider, Shana didn't really know how to react as she assessed the situation.
Since she had died, Shana had been underneath the assumption that she was in hell.
Which hell she didn't know yet.
But it seemed way to in depth for it to be torture.
In fact, when was the torture portion even happening? From what she knew, none of the demons of hell were in the mood of bargaining with their charge.
In fact, none of the demons she knew in her memories stopped in the process of torturing someone since that would remove the point.
So, upon staring at the black and red spider with a series of sharp patterns on its back in the vague form of a face, Albert? Continued.
"Please tell me dearie, I shall exchange your question for a different question, how did you know that I was a demon spider?"
"What gave me away? To be exact? No need to tell me how you know my name since this is a much more interesting topic."
'What the fuck is happening.'
Staring at the big black spider that was staring inquisitively at her, the robotic android's arms clicked and clacked against each other.
Like wind chimes except there wasn't any wind, Shana furrowed her brows before coming up with a rather absurd conclusion in the depths of her mind.
But in the words of a certain man, if all else ends if failure, then what is left has to be the solution no matter how absurd.
"...Before I answer your question, can you turn on the lights for me please?"
"Hm? Oh yes, if you meant to turn on the dark then I shall do so."
Staring at Shana, one of the five arms went backwards to the wall where they touched a light switch that turned the light into the darkness.
'So I guess that's it then.'
Lowering her hands unconsciously, Shana realized what had just happened as she distinctly felt the presence of the four remaining saw blades near her forehead.
Shadows consuming her entire being, Shana felt the gaze of both the spider and the robot as she pondered.
'Since the theory of me being in hell is debunked, I guess that leaves only one theory left.'
Time Travel.
'No matter how absurd the solution is, if it's the last one, then it's the real one.'
A popular sub genre of many other genre's that if done well enough had incredibly mind boggling capabilities that would fry the mind of a lower being.
Not to degrade them or anything, but if someone delved into time travel even more, the amount of interpretations would cause even the most studious to give up.
Since it was all but confirmed now, Shana thought back to the flickers of light that had flashed past her vision when returning.
'So I went back in time then, just how far back in time did I go?'
'First off, it can't be from when I was back on earth since I would still see dad if it was.'
'Secondly, it can't be when I was about to die since I'm right here talking to the large robot guy.'
'That leaves only one other option, the point that I entered this world.'
Thinking about it, Shana nodded to herself, it really seemed as if time had rewound until the point that she had entered this point of space.
In other terms, with the parallel space acting like a different Server, Shana had reloaded the save file from this server while keeping all of her previous accounts specs.
Of course, she would like it to rewind her own save file to the point where she was in the previous server, but it is what it is.
'For now, let's play it safe.'
Opening her mouth to speak, Shana saw a brief glint in the darkness as she instinctively raised her arm only to feel a piercing pain on her arm.
"I was aiming for your neck since you were taking so long, but I guess you have a few more seconds now."
Letting his words end in a drawl, Shana felt her heart go cold as she swallowed her saliva.
"I knew that your name was Albe-"
*BANG!
A flash of light filled the room as time slowed once again.
Widening her eyes imperceptibly, Shana felt a cold darkness in her heart.
'Already? I just came back.'
Feeling a despair that came with her second try ending in the first few minutes of playing it, Shana looked towards the source of her death.
And as expected.
The source of her death had come in here bearing rather sharp gifts.
'Just why the fuck did you kill me though?'
Feeling incredibly confused, she stared at the saws heading towards her in slow motion.
Strangely enough, she could actually see the saw blades spinning this time.
But no matter what, it didn't change the fact that it was going to be the cause of her death today.
Once again.
'Just why?'
Staring at the butler who still had the annoying smile on his face in the form of speakers, Shana pondered on the why.
Saw blades transforming into the fangs of a snake in real time, Shana could only see the snake in her vision as the jaws entered her vision.
Emerald green skin appearing stark against the black back drop filled with the bright light of a gun shot, the snake's sand brown eyes stared at her as the snake opened its mouth.
'...Oh, I guess I'm going back in time again.'
Realizing now that the snake was the catalyst for her time travel, Shana subconsciously looked at the tattoo on her wrist now seeing in a much better light.
And as it did, Shana's heart which had gone cold turned into something akin to an earth quake with how fast and rapid it was beating against her chest.
Staring at the snake with shrunken pupils, the python opened up its gaping maw to reveal pink flesh and ivory white fangs which slowly moved their way over her body.
Swallowing her whole, the snake closed its maw behind her as she was left in the frozen time.
---
In the pits of a frozen and fiery hell where blizzards battered against the living daily while colliding against their counterparts the fire tornadoes, a figure sat atop a series of white clouds.
With fiery red skin, black goat like horns protruded from their cranium as they rubbed back their slicked back black hair..
Black and gold sclera glinting in the sight of several things happening at once, the man stared at the people running around as the blizzards and fire tornadoes swept them up at once.
Sitting on a golden red throne that had been embellished by several dark and occult like motifs, the most prominent insignia of them all was a goat's skull hanging on top of the throne.
Playing with a pen that had a crystal blue skull attached to it's end, the man grinned showing off a set of pearly white skin as his eyes turned to the side.
"Welcome back former Duke of Hell."
Adjusting their posture, the black suit rubbed against the velvet covering of the throne as a black tail appeared from behind him flickering as if in several positions at once.
"I give my greetings to the King of Hell."
A cloaked figure walked over all the while blizzards and flaming skies surrounded them standing there as if there yet not.
It was a strange sight, but a sight that the King of Hell had gotten used to seeing.
Letting the snow gather onto his hands in the form of an incredibly delicately carved skull, the king of hell addressed the figure.
"So what brings you back here to Hell? Didn't you leave already?"
"I've come to give my greetings god of darkness."
The King of Hell's eye twitched, feeling a morbid disgust over that title, the King of Hell rubbed his beard.
"I don't think that you would've come to my domain just to ridicule me, so tell me Duke, why is it that you have visited me."
Commanding aura spreading outwards from the man as the center, the skull in his hands immediately multiplied in number as blue lights manifested inside their craniums.
Orbiting the figure in the cloak, the skulls opened their mouth's in preparation for something as the figure waved their hand.
Waving his hands, the figure quickly destroyed all of the skulls with a long red rope that appeared out of nowhere.
"I have come here oh King of Hell to tell you something."
The figure moved to take off the hood covering their head to reveal the face of Sir Shard, the father of Shana.
"It has awoken."
+++
Tree