In his previous life, he'd been a nameless face among the crowd, unnoticed and seemingly unimportant. A weak, struggling young man, plagued by anxieties and the weight of an ordinary life filled with failures. That life had ended abruptly—an unforeseen bus accident, a flash of light, and then… nothingness.
Yet he awoke to something new. Something darker.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a twisted, alien landscape, a gray wasteland where the sky was neither day nor night but a dim, perpetual twilight. He stumbled over jagged rocks, his breath coming in ragged gasps as his body protested with aches and pains he'd never felt before. Looking down, he realized he was no longer in his human form; instead, he had transformed into a demonic figure. His skin was ashen, thick like the bark of ancient trees, and his limbs were twisted and muscular but unwieldy. He saw in his reflection, cast in a murky puddle, that his face was a monstrous visage, with sharp, malformed features that could strike fear into even the bravest of souls.
"Welcome to Purgatory," a voice echoed in his mind, cold and dispassionate. He didn't know whose voice it was or whether it was real, but the words brought with them an overwhelming dread.
Here, in the barren and hostile land between worlds, he learned the meaning of survival. For 7,531 years, he fought, endured, and adapted to the cruel whims of Purgatory, its landscape and residents more nightmarish than he could have imagined. Monsters roamed freely, each more horrifying than the last. Other evil souls, bitter and twisted, fought to tear him apart, viewing him as nothing more than another meal in their endless struggle. Demons prowled in packs, their grotesque forms a mockery of his own, and fallen angels, their wings broken and blackened, hunted him without mercy. He was forced to scavenge, claw, and fight for every second of his existence.
Every battle reshaped him. Every painful loss forced him to learn, to evolve. He honed his claws into weapons, his senses into sharp instruments of survival, and his mind into a cold, calculating machine that could no longer afford the weakness of fear. The scars etched across his body became marks of his endurance. As years passed, he developed an affinity for the darkness, a unique mastery over shadows and nihility—the very essence of non-existence. Through sheer will and ruthless determination, he earned his place as the undisputed king of Purgatory.
At the end of 7,531 years, he had become something feared, a creature of dread and despair who wielded a power unlike any other in this hellish realm. He had unlocked the Unique Skill: Nihility. This ability, born of his eons of suffering and struggle, granted him control over the void itself. With a mere thought, he could erase beings from existence, reduce matter to nothing, and shroud himself in an aura that made him nearly untouchable. With Nihility, he had gained the power to challenge even the most powerful of demons, fallen angels, and ancient monsters that lurked within the shadows of Purgatory.
Yet, even with his newfound power, he found himself trapped in a seemingly eternal cycle. His frustration simmered, directed at the hostile, desolate landscape of Purgatory, its unforgiving climate and endless despair. He had conquered every threat, but the bleak, eternal twilight pressed down on him, a reminder that his power was still bound by the confines of this realm. He yearned for escape, for freedom from the relentless monotony and despair that had gripped him for centuries.
And so, as the King of Purgatory, he set out on a quest not for power, but for liberation. His ultimate goal became to shatter the chains binding him to this place and to challenge the forces of creation and destruction themselves. In his eyes burned the vision of something beyond Purgatory, beyond the torment that had sculpted him into the being he had become.
No longer was he a mere demon or a powerless soul—he was now something far greater, a force of annihilation and despair, armed with the will to challenge the heavens and break free from his infernal prison. The once-weak, defeated man of Earth had become the dark king of an unholy realm, ready to wield his power against anything that stood in his way.