In an ocean of endless darkness, a singular multicolored dot can be seen in the distance. Compared to the surroundings, it was smaller than an atom, yet one would be surprised to learn that one day it will grow to consume every single corner of this unfathomable darkness. But that's a story for much later; for now, let's look into our little dot.
The dot was quite large. In fact, it was not even a dot but a universe called Seven Hells and Three Heavens. Well, that is the name given by the unnatural. The mortals called it Dust.
Looking much closer, we see a planet located in the middle of the universe. This planet was called Earth.
The strange thing about this Earth was that two pillars shot from the North and South Poles.
The first pillar, like the second, was tall—tall enough to reach the border of the universe.
It was pristine white, so white that it absorbed darkness.
It radiated a holy aura, as if it was the most graceful, pure, good-natured, and powerful existence.
The second pillar was dark, so dark that it absorbed light.
It radiated an aura of evil, destruction, pain, hatred, death, and everything remotely related to sins.
The white pillar was composed of three floors, while the black one was composed of nine floors.
As for their names? Well, we only need to know two things:
One was the name of the dark tower, Baernos.
The second was the name of the ninth floor of Hell, Athab.
Inside Athab was a land of endless crimson, purple, and green forests, oceans of blood, rivers of lava, and volcanoes, and hundreds of thousands of monsters nurtured by the malevolent energy that created everything in this place.
In the middle of this realm was a giant wasteland spanning billions of trillions of kilometers, and that's just an estimation.
In this wasteland stood two figures, each exactly ten million kilometers apart.
One was a man clad in obsidian armor.
This human could only be described as a man straight from the depths of the nightmare realm. Well, that is much closer to the truth than one might think.
His obsidian armor was engraved with countless faces twisted in different emotions: pain, sorrow, suffering, madness, greed, pride, numbness, lust, sloth, wrath, and so much more.
The most noticeable was the face of a woman resting on the middle of the chest plate. Her expression was calm—nonchalant, even. If one were to stare at the cold beauty for a long time, she would stare back.
The man's face was concealed by a simple white mask.
An aura of evil, death, pain, sins, insanity, and excitement radiated from the man. It made the entire surroundings tremble in agony as if the world was shaking at his presence.
On the other side was a horrendous creature that made the human look like a joke.
It was gigantic, as large as a planet. Its skin was purple, covered in blisters leaking pus. It had hundreds of eyes randomly scattered across its body, with four hungry maws filled with teeth sharper than razors resting on what seemed to be its head. Its scalp, however, stood home to ten horns sprouting like branches.
Strangely enough, it radiated no aura, as if it were a simple mortal.
Its eyes were as sane as sanity could get. Its maws were closed with no saliva leaking, as one might expect from such a monstrosity. It looked weirdly in harmony.
"What brings you here, Sir Jin?" said the monstrosity. Each word was uttered by a different maw with a different voice, yet in perfect harmony.
"I have come to destroy the evil that inhabits this realm," said Jin, the man clad in armor.
"Hmm... May I ask why you desire to kill me in particular? There are many demons around, yet you only targeted me. I do not remember having bad blood with you," said the monstrosity with intrigue.
Jin laughed and said, "Do I need a reason to kill a demon?"
Right after saying so, Jin launched an attack—a concentrated beam of energy so fierce that the surrounding space bent and twisted.
The monstrosity quickly formed a shield. It was clear that the energy was much weaker, yet the control and usage of energy were so perfect that it barely managed to defend against the attack.
"If pure force doesn't work, then I'm just not using enough force," said Jin.
The monstrosity felt great danger from behind and quickly formed a shield, yet it was all for naught. It got punched from behind, then kicked, elbowed, crushed, munched, ripped, and cut. It was a one-sided battle.
One might think it strange that a human was bullying such an abomination, but if one knew who Jin was, it would look normal. Jin was a simple mortal on Earth until one day he decided, I want to rule the Earth. This might have been a passing thought for anyone else, but not for Jin. He took his dream and worked towards it with all his might.
In a simple 90 years, he reached the limit of mortals—able to smash mountains with his fists, turn oceans into wine, and court death daily. One might ask how he did so. Well, he was a genius in all arts of battle and a man who did everything to achieve his dream of ruling the world.
And, as it turns out, on his journey, after killing millions of mortals, all the energy of resentment, hatred, and pain that lingered in the world after his "clean-up" was directed at him. And he, as the unofficial bastard son of luck and talent, managed to absorb all that energy bit by bit. In a world with no cultivation or magical prowess, he was essentially a god.
It also turned out that his soul was so corrupted by then that he couldn't live more than a hundred years, even though his body could live much longer.
And killing millions isn't particularly a good thing. So, he entered Hell. Staying loyal to his goal, he continued massacring his way toward the Ninth Hell, and, right after, he challenged the weakest high demon: the Monstrosity.
Now, back to the fight.
"Am I going to die here? Sigh, at least the pain will finally stop," thought the Monstrosity to itself.
Well, it can't be called the Monstrosity anymore.
In a palm-shaped crater hundreds of kilometers wide, only its head was left.
"Can I at least know why I got killed? I don't believe you care about me being a demon," said the Monstrosity.
After a few seconds of staring, Jin broke into mad laughter.
"To be honest, I was just bored. I know I can't take over the Ninth Hell, so I just wanted to have some fun, and you were the first that came my way."
"So, I was just killed for your amusement?"
The demon sighed from all of its mouths, then laughed with madness in its eyes and said, "Hahaha! I find it quite fitting that I was killed by the most corrupt of humans! Now, now, how about a parting gift?"
The head exploded in a fury of elements, primarily a dark goo-like substance. The explosion spanned hundreds of kilometers, the size of an entire realm.
Anything touched by the explosion was turned into its purest form: energy.
The crimson forests turned into a sea of red energy, later known as the Crimson Sea.
The ores turned into energy-filled crystals so potent they turned solid, later known as the Abode of the Dragons.
The rivers of blood turned into a red energy-filled fog, with only a few lakes left. A dying viper as powerful as angels later died there, corrupting the entire place, later known as the Tomb of Poison.
The volcanoes and rivers of lava were turned into a purple mess of energy, flesh, blood, and organs. The few surviving mortals became insane, blistered monsters, later known as the Parting Gift of Corruption.
In the middle of this mayhem—or, as some might call it, an upgrade—Jin, clad in armor, stood. Outside of his baffled expression, he was completely unscathed.
"What a shame. I really wanted to devour his soul; it would have made me much stronger! It would have made my plans so much easier..."
Suddenly, the man broke into another round of insane laughter.
"What a fun twist of events!"