For ten lives, Senki was a thief.
The sky of the Jùzú Dìyù— Hell of Tortured Limbs— was a startling dark crimson. It always was.
The stale wind brought the cries of sinners and the smell of rot.
On the soggy and dark earth, in a huge hollow pit, were thousands of mounted stakes each at least five meters apart. Between two stakes a naked human soul was tied, limbs stretched in such impossible ways. Flesh and bone were exposed, pulled apart and hanging by the thinnest strings of tendon— which for some reason, would not cut.
Because it was hell, none of these morbidly stretched souls could die. They were already dead.
Only mad wails of agony pervaded through the realm. Some of the souls had been here for centuries, depending on the gravity of their offence. Such souls should have been used to the pain. However, the pain of a stretching body, never felt old.
The Jùzú Dìyù was the ninth of eighteen hells, solely responsible for the torture of thieves and robbers.
On one of these stakes was a curious fellow—Senki.
He had been condemned to a century of punishment. Only twelve years had passed on the stakes but it felt like an eternity to him.
Time did not seem to pass in this forsaken place.
The look on his face was one of bitter abandon, as he had accepted the gruesome reality. Soft groans escaped his lips as he felt the immense pain of his body being pulled across such distance.
He was a common thief in his past life and had died after being stoned to death. In all his lives, in fact, that was his story. A true unending cycle.
The horrid part? He only seemed to remember each life at his dying moment. There was no life in which he had surpassed the age of fifteen. Including this very one.
Why he was stuck in this repetitive nightmare, was a mystery. His only speculation was that he had been cursed sometime in a distant past life, for he could only remember ten of them.
While he sighed and gritted his teeth on the forever familiar stakes, he prayed to gods he had long since abandoned.
Just let me die. Wipe my soul from existence...
"Please...please." He muttered.
It was his twelfth year in hell for this life and his spirit was already waning. However, were the tides about to change?
The higher demons in the clouds above had the best view in all the realm, and their focus was on an amusing scene below.
On this day, the ninth hell had some new arrivals and amongst was a very intriguing one.
A middle aged man who was as shapless as a melting candle, had just been brought in by some lower demons. He had been a tax collector in his life and had defrauded many peasants while he was on seat. Funny enough, he had died from suffocation— choking on a special diamond coin he had hid in his mouth when he slept. Quite a greedy fellow.
"I can't be here! I'm telling you, I'm not dead! I...I was only sleeping. You've made a mistake. Y-you—" There were tears in his droopy eyes and snot dribbled down from his nose and unto his mouth. His hands fidgeted as he spoke, fear growing. A lower demon called Huo, raised his soul whip and lashed it at the crying candleman.
He instantly cried out, falling to the ground face first. He immediately rose in alarm when he realized that the mushy earth was swarming with maggots and strange creepers.
"Please! Please!! I shouldn't be here! I—" He tried to say, still in denial.
Whip!
"Silence mortal! Silence! Huo, the stakes." Another demon instructed as he laughed. His skin was a pale yellow bordering on white and he was covered in irregular, mushy lumps. His face was mushed as well, eyes and mouth merged as one so it looked like pudding. On his forehead was one single character, Tu. Vomit.
Huo's whip changed into a stick with which he struck into the earth. Before the tax collector could begin to cry for reason, two wooden stakes sprouted from beneath him.
It was so swift he couldn't react. One went through his body directly and he wailed on top his lungs, gurgling up blood. The other pierced through his feet and arm, then began to shift apart from the first so he stretched.
His cries worsened, sounding inhuman at a point.
This scene caused the fifty or so condemned sinners watching to break down. Some had been crying at the start and seeing this only made it worse.
Many got on their knees, forehead kissing the rotten earth, bawling and begging for mercy.
Others scampered away, running back the way they came only to be mysteriously returned to the point they were.
The higher demons of the realm in their various shapes and appearances, laughed and roared in amusement. It had been a while since such an amount of sinners had been delivered to them.
The Earth was probably seeing some heavy times.
While the many souls panicked and cried to gods who couldn't care less, Senki watched in pity.
Fearful, hysterical souls was not new to him. Infact in his first three lives, he was no different. The image of those stakes, growing to pierce and spread its victim apart, was horrifying.
Although not his first time on the stakes, the pain did not exactly feel wonderful.
While the demons below restored order, the ones above cackled and spat, amused.
Only one higher demon stayed aloof. The character on his forehead read, Niú Pú. He was a servant to the revered Ox-head demon, one of the greatest in the entire 18 realms of Naraka. For this reason, he was greatly respected.
However, his reason for being aloof did not have to do with his status. His master had tasked him with a very delicate mission and he was on the verge of failing.
"The limbo is growing." Ox-head had told him some two decades ago when they had spoken last. He remembered how he had glanced up, shocked by those words.
"The stupid old Lady finally assessed the fates. The hidden treasure eyed by the entire six realms of Samsara has finally appeared. Its power is splitting the limbo. A power grand enough to turn a human to a god above gods. Word is spreading and we must act."
They had both stood on a cloud, one that oversaw everything below the gates. Faint cries from the hells reached their ears. Ox-head had a petrifying smile on his ugly face.
"What shall I do for you then, master?" Niú Pú asked, bowing his head that was shaped like a deformed cow's. There was a ring in his nose signifying servanthood.
Ox-head laughed. It was a gruff thing to hear.
"Demons cannot possibly find it. I need a human. Particularly, a desperate one. Find me a human who would give everything to leave hell."
Niú Pú could not understand the Great demon's logic. "A human soul? Forgive me master, but I assure you that every last human here would do anything to leave."
Ox-head sniffed and grunted. His wide nose moved up and down as he picked up Naraka's scent of blood and misery. It disgusted him, this place. He belonged in the skies. With the godly immortals...
"Yes. That is true, youngling. But who would put shackles over their soul just for a bit of freedom?"
And so Niú Pú began his twenty years long search in all the eighteen hells. Today, he had stopped by the ninth hell to observe the new arrivals. Perhaps, he'd be lucky.
Instead, his attention had been caught by a young boy. It was a very old soul, he could tell. How old it was, he didn't know— however, with his empty eyes tilted towards the sky, the boy intrigued him.
His mouth was moving slightly, but it was not to groan or shout madly like the rest. It was as though he was praying.
In hell?
Interested, Niú Pú tuned in his spirit sense, listening to his sullen cries. While the other sinners moaned and begged for freedom, he was pleading for death.
Eternal death.
For a soul to beg the gods to kill him off, how desperate could it be?
Niú Pú cracked a small smile and with a flick of his grandiose bat-like wings, he descended. The other demons watched him fall with confusion. Only lower demons handled the pits.
Senki had stopped praying and his gaze had fallen from the crimson sky.
The caws of devil crows of the realm caressed his ears.
When would it end?
Suddenly, a ten foot hell denizen landed below him. Its heavy presence tore into the minds of all the humans present and screams arose a pitch higher.
Even the lower demons got on their knees, trembling.
Senki groaned under the immense pressure. His eyes rolled and his thoughts scrambled.
With his blurring vision, he noticed the creature approach him. Its ugly cow like face bore a small smile and in its large, dark hand was a great silver saber with a haunting aura surrounding it.
In the presence of such a force, Senki could not muster the strength to fear. Only the pain of its power bore down on him.
"Do you want to die?" Niú Pú asked, watching the boy.
Under the influence of his cultivation aura, Niú Pú knew the human soul would not be able to answer.
Lower demons could not even stand in his presence let alone talk.
To his shock however, the boy muttered, red eyes bulging. His stretched muscles and tendons bled as he spoke.
"P-please..."
In all the millennia he served as a demon, Niú Pú had never come across such resolve that superceded even natural order. What was this determination to die?
He rose his saber at once, sealing them from sight in a barrier of dark clouds.
"I will not kill you, mortal. I shall make you a deal..." Niú Pú said.
For the first time in a terrible long time, all was quiet. Senki couldn't begin to explain his gratefulness for the silence. In his mind, this demon was an angel of blessing.
Niú Pú witheld his cultivation's pressure to allow the soul to speak.
"Are you interested, mortal?"
"W-what—" Senki tried to say but burst into a bout of heavy coughs. The demon, with its eerie smile and calm, watched him till he finished. "What do...what do you want?"
Every word seemed to consume his strength and he paid for this by the blood he was shedding.
"I shall grant you passage to the mortal realm and you will live as normal. When the time comes, I will come again and I shall give you instructions. All I need from you, is a yes."
Senki frowned. He did not want to go back there. It would only end up the same.
"Time is fleeting, human. Be aware that your consequences for going against fate would be severe. What is your answer?"
He would stay here another nine decades, waiting for death if he decided to obey fate. The very fate that had put him in an unending cycle of nightmares.
On the earthly plane, he could have a moment of peace, however little. He had no idea what the demon wanted or saw in him, but he couldn't care less. To hell with Fate and her silly games.
"Y-yes. Yes. I agree. Please..."
Niú Pú was pleased. He waved his hand and a cloud bearing a small yellow seed appeared before the soul.
"Eat this. It is a seed of low fortune. This seed will take you to the mortal plane but you will be quite unfortunate. You will live as though this never happened."
A pause. Senki opened his mouth to receive it.
"But when I come, you shall remember everything we had spoken of and you will be bound by this agreement..."
As Senki swallowed, the sound of the hell denizen's voice began to wave and his vision blackened. A sharp, piercing pain shot through him and he screamed in agony.
His soul shook for he was disobeying fate.
Niú Pú watched as the boy began to fade, remembering his master's words to him.
"We do not need a rebel, young Niú. We need a puppet. A weak soul. We need an unfortunate who would be desperate enough to break the cosmic laws...to defy the heavenly Dao."
For ten lives, Senki was a thief. In this borrowed life, he would become an enemy of the Dao and the puppet of a power hungry demon.
Who said Mother fate was done playing silly games?