The wind blew softly through the field of red lilies. Their petals brushed against each other with a faint rustling sound.
A woman walked between them.
Her long black dress dragged lightly through the flowers, staining its hem with red pollen. She moved slowly, peacefully, grazing the top of the lilies with her fingers as if she were counting them one by one.
The sky above glowed with a soft reddish hue, like a sunset that never faded. Its gentle and heavenly light washed over the field of lilies.
Then, she stops, and touches a single flower. It was black at the edges, pulsing faintly with something that shouldn't exist in a place like this.
And she speaks, in a soft melancholic voice.
"Do not fear, my beautiful mistake. You carry me with you everywhere. Yet, you do not know my name."
She laughs, but there's no humor in it.
"I have walked through this field a thousand times. A million. But you… you are the only one I want."
Her fingers trace the blackened edges.
"How many times must I walk before you remember me? Remember who you are?"
She looks up into the sky.
"I will be there at the end. I always am. Watching. Waiting. Wondering… if this time, you will stay."
A pause. The wind moves through the lilies.
"I have eternity to wait."
Her voice drops and she closes her eyes.
"And when you finally reach me, there will be nothing left but us and this garden."
Then, everything fades into black.
A man opens his eyes. Cold air brushes against his face.
He inhales sharply. For several seconds, he doesn't move. His body felt heavy.
Above him stretches an endless void of nothingness. His eyes searched for something to focus on, but the empty sky went on forever, fading into a pale gray haze that seemed far beyond the limits of his sight.
"Where… am I?" he asks in despair.
His voice was rough. It sounded strange to his own ears.
He pushed himself up slowly, stopping halfway and remaining seated on the ground. His palms pressed against the surface beneath him.
It was ice. Solid, frozen ice.
The cold should have burned against his skin, but it didn't. His fingers simply rested there, numb.
He frowned.
"That's… weird."
He turned his head around. The world around was empty. An endless wasteland of ice stretched in every direction. Jagged sheets of frost covered the ground reflecting a faint silver light that had no clear source. The landscape looked ancient and untouched. A frozen plain that went on and on until the horizon dissolved into the fog.
He slowly stood up. His legs felt stiff.
"What… is this place?"
No answer came.
The wind drifted past him again. Even the air felt quiet. He rubbed his forehead.
Something felt wrong.
Not just the place.
Himself.
He searched his mind, trying to recall anything that might explain his situation.
But nothing came. No memories. No images. No faces. Just a blank stretch of thoughts that felt as empty as the wasteland around him.
"…What?"
He tried again.
Think. Anything. A memory. A name. A city. A single moment.
Nothing.
"I… don't remember anything."
His voice trembled slightly as panic crept slowly into his chest.
Then he paused. There was one thing.
A single word sitting quietly in his mind.
"…Elias."
His name. He knew it with absolute certainty.
But everything else was gone.
His chest tightened. For a moment, the silence of the wasteland felt suffocating.
He let out a dry laugh, as if trying to chase his fear away.
"Well…", he muttered dryly, "that's reassuring."
Elias turned around slowly in a circle, hoping something in the distance might trigger a memory. Instead, he saw the same endless sheets of ice.
The wind sighed across the frozen ground.
He stared into the distance helplessly.
And then… a faint sound clicked inside his head, like a switch being flipped.
Elias froze.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then out of nowhere, words started appearing in front of his eyes.
They weren't written on anything. They simply hovered in the air, glowing faintly like pale blue glass.
[ System Initialization… ]
Elias blinked.
"…What?"
The words flickered.
[ Processing Host Identity…
Host Identified.
Welcome, Elias. ]
He stared at the floating text.
Several seconds passed.
"…I must be hallucinating," he said in a sarcastic tone.
The words continued.
[ Primary Directive Assigned.
Objective: Ascend beyond the confines of this realm. ]
Elias squinted at it.
"Okay, hold on. First of all, what the hell are you?"
For a moment, the text faded. And then, another line appeared.
[ I'm a companion designed to assist the host to obtain the Truth. ]
"…Right."
Elias folded his arms.
"So let me summarize this. I wake up in an icy desert with no memories, and now a glowing text box is telling me to 'ascend'?"
Pause.
"Ascend to where… exactly?"
No immediate reply came.
Elias sighed.
"…"
How could he trust something which suddenly popped out in front of him seemingly out of nowhere? Something that offered no proof that it even had his best interests in mind? Just some floating text, urging him to keep moving forward. What if it was lying? What if it had placed him there?
A bitter humorless laugh slipped past his lips. "Does it even matter?" he thought to himself. There was nothing else there. Just the vast, desolate wasteland. If he questioned it any further, he would break.
Elias exhaled.
"Fine."
Whether it was a trick, a lifeline, or something far worse, it was the only thing speaking to him in this forsaken place, and the only thing he could cling onto.
After a moment, the system responded.
[ Location identified: Prodosia. ]
Elias frowned. "Prodosia?"
He waited for the rest.
[ A frozen wasteland. ]
He looked around.
"…Yeah. I noticed."
The text continued.
[ The realm of eternal punishment. The Ninth Circle of Hell, reserved for the worst of the damned – the betrayers. And at the centre lies the damned Devil. ]
A shiver ran down his spine.
"…You're joking… right?"
No response came. He rubbed his face slowly.
Elias took a step back, his heart pounding. "Tell me. Is he awake? Is he watching?"
…
Nothing. No response. Only the sound of the wind whistling through the ruins.
He turned sharply, half expecting to see something lurking behind him. But there was only the endless white, stretching infinitely.
"I'm not going anywhere." His voice was firm. "You hear me? I'm not taking another step till you answer my questions."
[ You are quite close. Why not confirm it yourself? ]
"…Well, standing here forever probably isn't going to help."
With no better option, he began walking.
The ground cracked faintly under his steps. Thin sheets of frost fractured like glass beneath his weight. The air remained eerily still.
For a while, he walked without speaking.
Then something caught his eye.
Tall structures rising from the frozen ground. At first, they looked like pillars of ice. Massive structures jutting out of the frozen ground like jagged crystals. Their surfaces shimmered faintly.
Elias approached cautiously.
The closer he got, the stranger they looked.
The ice wasn't smooth. It twisted into intricate shapes. Some spiraled upward like frozen vines. Others branched into sharp ridges resembling claws.
Elias stepped closer to one of the pillars.
The surface was cloudy, like frosted glass. He leaned forward slightly, and saw something shift inside.
Elias froze.
There was a shape inside the ice.
A human.
Elias' eyes widened. He stepped closer.
It was a face. A man's face, distorted and stretched beneath layers of frozen crystal. His mouth was open in a silent scream, eyes wide with terror. Then suddenly, his eyes moved.
Elias jumped back.
"WHAT THE FU—"
He slipped on the ice and landed hard on the ground.
For a moment he simply stared at the pillar.
"…What the hell is that?!"
The system responded.
[ Sinners, betrayers. Condemned to rot for eternity. ]
He looked back at the pillar. Now that he noticed it, there were more inside. Not just one. Dozens.
Faces pressed against the inner layers of ice. Each one had different expressions of fear, rage, or despair.
Some looked like they had tried to claw their way out.
None succeeded.
Elias felt his stomach twist.
"…That's horrifying."
He took several steps away from the pillar. He ran a hand through his hair, exhaling slowly to calm himself down.
The wind brushed past him again.
He continued walking.
Despite everything, his mind kept drifting back to the frozen faces.
"…So," he said after a while, "if this place is full of sinners…"
He took a pause.
"…that means I'm one too?"
[ If you wish to be, then sure. ]
"What…?"
But the system did not answer.
Elias sighed.
He continued further.
The ice pillars grew denser the farther he walked, forming a twisted forest of frozen crystals. Some leaned over each other at unnatural angles, casting long shadows across the ground.
Eventually, the system spoke again.
[ Warning. ]
Elias stopped.
[ You are approaching the centre of Prodosia. ]
His shoulders stiffened. "The centre… the devil."
[ Proceed with caution. ]
Elias swallowed.
"…Great."
He moved more carefully now.
The pillars gave way to jagged shards of ice jutting out of the ground like broken teeth.
Finally, he reached the edge of a massive clearing.
Elias crouched behind one of the larger shards and slowly peeked around it.
His eyes searched the centre of the clearing.
The silence pressed in around him, thick and suffocating.
Expecting something.
A throne. A monster. A shape rising from the ice. A pair of eyes opening and staring at him. A presence so vast it would crush the air from his lungs.
Anything.
Elias held his breath as he leaned a little farther.
His heart began to beat faster.
"…System," he whispered. "You said the Devil was here, right?"
[ Affirmative. ]
Elias swallowed.
He stepped out from behind the ice shard.
Elias took another step forward. Then another.
His eyes scanned the clearing.
Nothing moved. No shadow. No figure. No pair of eyes.
"Okay," he muttered nervously. "Either he's really good at hiding, or this might be the worst welcome party ever."
The system remained silent.
Elias continued forward. The ground there dipped inward into a massive cavity carved into the ice.
From a distance, it looked like the ground itself had been torn apart, as if something enormous had forced its way out.
Elias slowly approached the rim. Cold air rose from the hollow below.
He peered down.
The crater was filled with shattered crystals of ice, broken into jagged fragments spread across the frozen floor like glass.
He felt a chill crawl up his spine.
"Are you sure this is the centre?"
[ Confirmed. ]
He stared into the crater.
"Then… where is he?"
No answer came.
The ice beneath his foot cracked. A strange unease settled in his chest.
"Is it possible that he… left?"
Silence.
"…That's strange."
The system had been certain. This was supposed to be the centre of Prodosia. The place where the worst of all sinners was imprisoned. And yet, there was nothing here.
Elias shifted his weight and leaned even farther over the edge.
Still nothing.
He bent a little more.
His boots slipped slightly on the frost.
"Whoa—"
Elias quickly grabbed the nearest thing he could reach, a half-broken shard of ice jutting out from the rim. The jagged surface bit into his palm as he steadied himself.
For a moment he stayed frozen there.
"…That was close."
He pulled himself upright and exhaled loudly.
"Falling into a mysterious hell crater on my first day would've been embarrassing."
The wind answered with a hollow whistle.
But the crater remained completely still.
He leaned forward again, this time careful to not fall again. He noticed the bottom of the crater – a smooth layer of deep blue ice. Thin fractures spread across its surface like delicate spiderwebs.
Elias crouched lower. And then he saw something – a glint of red.
He carefully climbed a little farther down the inner slope until he reached the bottom.
There, half embedded in the frozen surface was a small dagger.
Its blade was short and narrow, coloured a deep crimson. It had a strange, dense texture different from typical metal.
Elias knelt and pulled it free.
The dagger slid out of the ice with a soft scrape.
He turned it in his hand.
[ The Vincatrium, a dagger forged from the Devil's blood. ]
Elias blinked.
"…"
Despite its small size, it felt surprisingly heavy in his hand. He tested the edge lightly with his thumb.
Sharp. Very sharp.
"Yeah," Elias said, nodding to himself. "Definitely keeping this."
He slid the dagger into the cloth fold tied around his waist.
Then he stood and looked around the crater one more time, carefully inspecting every corner of the hollow.
Nothing moved. Nothing stirred.
No hidden passages. No strange sounds.
After several long minutes of careful searching, Elias finally exhaled.
"…Alright."
He climbed back up to the slope and stepped onto the rim of the crater.
"Looks like there's really is nothing here."
Elias stood up and brushed the frost from his hands.
"Well, if the Devil's not here, then standing around staring into a hole probably isn't going to do anything."
He stepped back from the rim.
"System."
[ Yes. ]
"…We keep moving?"
[ Sure. ]
Elias turned and began walking away.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Then, at the very bottom of the crater, the blue ice cracked.
A thin fracture split across the surface and from beneath the ice, a hand slowly pushed upward.
The skin was torn, darkened and streaked with blood that had already begun freezing.
Ice splintered outward.
The wounded hand gripped the edge of the crack. The hand struggled for a moment, barely strong enough to hold itself.
And it fell still.
Elias kept walking, unaware.