Chapter 16
The thought did not comfort him.
It irritated him.
It pushed Vastro beyond reason, and his anger and spite erupted to their peak.
If Drakkon truly tried to rid him just to reach a realm that surpassed all others, then he would never succeed.
Vastro was infamous for one thing above all else. When he set his sights on something, especially someone he hated, he made sure it ended.
And this would end.
The nothingness still tried to erase him.
Vastro scoffed.
His spite raged so violently that the vast nothingness itself trembled beneath it. Whatever stood in his way, whether it existed or not, would be erased.
Nothing would hinder his vengeance. Nothing would stop him from ruining Drakkon.
Not even nothingness itself.
As if answering his will, Vastro forced his very being back into existence.
It took less than a moment.
A hand formed.
Then another.
Arms followed. Then his torso. His legs took shape soon after.
His body was wrapped in the familiar rogue cloak that looked mundane, totally mundane and definitely not the divine fabric forged from the skins of the strongest and wildest primordial ancient beasts in existence.
Then his head began to form.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
As if on purpose.
Fiber by fiber emerged from nothing. From the jaw upward. A grin appeared first. Then his nose. Then his eyes. Dark hair followed, drinking in the surrounding nothingness as though it were fuel.
One eye opened.
Blue cosmic flames burned within it, gleaming with unnatural power.
Vastro spoke a single word.
"Be gone."
The word carried eternity behind it. Will. Spite. Absolute refusal.
The world shuddered.
The nothingness surrounding him did not disperse.
It was dragged.
Pulled violently into Vastro body, swallowed whole.
Even as nothingness seeped into every part of him, his gaze did not change. It remained filled with abyssal rage and unrestrained hatred.
No matter what stood in his way, he would erase it.
Every danger. Every obstacle. Every inconvenience.
All of it would be wiped away until he stood before him.
Until Drakkon paid.
The world shuddered once more under the power Vastro was releasing without even realizing it. Then the nothingness was gone completely.
He stood once again within the vast chamber.
Vastro blinked.
Wait.
Was he about to face the real last trial?
Before the thought could fully form, a voice echoed from within his very being.
"Be happy and filled with joy, contestant Vastro, for completing the Hell Trial and conquering all one hundred gates of Hell. Move forward into the portal to claim your rewards."
Vastro froze.
He understood every word.
Yet he could not comprehend how vast the voice was.
In some instinctive way, he knew.
That voice belonged to Hell itself.
A maniacal grin spread across his face.
Acknowledged.
By one of the two vastest beings in the existence.
If that was the case, then he was very much looking forward to this reward.
As if responding to his anticipation, a swirling hellish red portal manifested at the center of the lush ground where he now stood.
Vastro now found himself standing on unfamiliar ground.
He stared at the hellish red portal behind him.
For some reason, he had spent an absurd amount of time in the Hell Trial, and every portal he had stepped through before this one had only led to another unexpected trial.
Each one more brutal than the last. Each one designed to test his very being.
So when he looked at the portal now, only one thought crossed his mind.
Would it lead to the reward center.
Or just more hell.
For some reason, both options felt fine to him.
Sincerely, his spite was still boiling, and his anger burned like an inferno. Releasing it on something, or someone, would actually feel relieving right now.
With that in mind, feeling refreshed and reinvigorated, Vastro stepped forward. He expected the worst. Prepared for something even worse than the worst.
Instead, as he passed through the portal, the change was subtle.
At first.
The air felt different. Then reality warped.
In the next instant, he found himself standing before several figures clad in cloaks of different colors.
Each floated atop a separate platform suspended high above the ground.
Even from this distance, Vastro could tell.
These beings were close to the level of the usurpers.
If they were not outright equals.
They were the Wardens of Hell.
Though they had seen Vastro before, this was the first time he faced them with their auras and true presence fully revealed.
As the guides and overseers of one of the most vast realms in the no realm, their identities were usually kept hidden.
Which begged the question.
Why reveal themselves now.
The answer was simple.
Vastro had been acknowledged by Hell itself.
And as beings bound to guide Hell, they would respect its choice.
And its newly chosen one.
The red cloaked warden was the first to speak.
"Congratulations, contestant Vastro, for clearing the Hell Trial. Your effort and achievement are astounding. You have shattered the expectations of countless entities."
His tone was neutral, but Vastro caught the faint trace of praise beneath it.
Not that he cared.
Vastro simply nodded, offering no response to the praise.
"You truly are a genius above all geniuses," the red cloaked warden continued. "Clearing all one hundred gates of Hell within four cycles is unheard of. Few dare challenge the gates. Fewer still reach the higher levels. Almost none complete them."
A second voice joined in.
"You are exceptional," said the green cloaked warden. Her voice was soft, feminine, and carried a strange weight.
"Few have cleared the gates of Hell before you, but none have done so at your pace. Not a single one."
Her words made Vastro pause.
So he was not the first.
That realization hit harder than he expected.
Others had cleared the Hell Trial.
How.
The question gnawed at him. He had nearly been erased at the final gate. If not for his spite, he would have failed completely.
So how did the others survive that last trial.
And more importantly.
What kind of monsters had come before him.
Vastro thoughts were cut short by a sudden voice, one filled with disdain and barely restrained anger.
"What genius."
The words dripped with contempt.
"The fact that he was once among the strongest beings of the Eighth Realm, only to be reduced to this sorry state, is enough to show how pathetic he truly is. I am sure he cleared those gates by mistake. Or pure luck."
The black cloaked warden spoke, his voice heavy with disgust.
He was bitter.
Of course he was.
He had just lost more than a fortune to Rrys for betting against Vastro. He wanted to vent his anger on someone.
Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong target.
Vastro head tilted slightly to the side.
One of his blue cosmic flame eyes locked directly onto Soris.
"Do you have a problem with me?" Vastro asked.
His voice was cold. Calm. Eerily so.
Every instinct in Soris screamed danger.
It was true that this Vastro was only a shell of his former self. But that did nothing to erase his overwhelming superiority and dominance. Soris had watched every recorded battle from the Hell Trial.
He knew.
Even weakened, Vastro was a ruthless and volatile slayer.
His rise would be fast.
Terrifyingly fast.
And once he reclaimed the power he held in his previous life, he would become an existence none of them would dare cross.
Not him alone.
All of that flashed through Soris mind in a single instant. That was all it took for him to correct his tone.
Not wanting to appear shaken, he forced out a confident voice.
"Enough wasting time," Soris said. "Step onto the stage. Let your achievements be calculated."
Vastro did not reply.
He could not be bothered.
Unbeknownst to the unfortunate warden, Soris name had already been etched into Vastro list.
Anyone who crossed him, anyone who harbored even the slightest ill intent toward him, was his enemy.
And enemies were eliminated.
Vastro stepped onto the platform at the center of the five wardens.
The moment his foot touched the surface, glowing lines appeared in the air.
Calculating achievements....
Evaluating performance.....
Then the result manifested.
Achievement: ????????
Achievement Rank: SSSSSSSSSSS
Vastro blinked.
For the first time since entering Hell, surprise crossed his face.
To be continued.