Sada quickly noticed the ground beneath her feet vibrate, as if an earthquake was about to take place. She managed to get a grip on her footing as Natsukawa kept her from falling.

What sounded like an angelic choir warbling and distorting filled the air alongside the chanting of the demons as the white surface beneath their feet split and separated. The humans lost their footing as the skin parted in opposite directions, causing them to fall onto a sticky film of white beneath. Far off was a large black orb embedded inside the center that looked all too familiar to Natsukawa.

“It’s an eye?!” Natsukawa screamed before looking down. “We’re on a giant eyeball!”

Ahead of them, the huge pupil of the eye burst open as a black fountain shot out. Thousands of gallons of the ebony fluid swirled and coiled unnaturally in the air like a dragon. In no time at all, it materialized into the shape of a colossal humanoid figure; appearing like an effigy fashioned from rippling tar.

“You g-gotta be shitting me…” a man said across from Sada.

The black figure floating in the air was at least the size of a small building and shot open its yellow eyes as it grinned at the humans with equally yellow teeth. It held out its hands as the fingers extended out like rubber and began darting around the area. On each fingertip was a ghastly grinning face that shot out at the terrified women specifically to scare them and laugh afterwards.

With its fingers whipping around like bullets, one came close to Sada’s head; resulting in her falling down in fright. Satisfied with its performance, the demon’s fingers returned back to its massive hands. Crossing its arms with a gravelly chuckle, the black ooze on its body melted away to reveal the form of an obese older man with white hair and a beard. His flesh was scarred and deformed around the arms and chest. It was swollen and segmented, like the body of a worm. Black leather hides were wrapped around his lower half, leaving his upper torso exposed to the unnatural lights above.

Meanwhile where the pupil had burst, the wound began to crack and split apart. Hellish red light poured upwards from the blistering wound as it devolved into a smoking crater next to the towering bearded demon who looked on in amusement.

The survivors could hear tormented screaming from below as something began to rise up from the infernal pit. Sada witnessed an unholy statue clad in translucent purple armor steadily rise up from the crater. It was also humanoid in appearance with its plum-shaded armor resembling a hard shell. It ultimately reached the height of a radio tower, lording above the other massive demon.

“Jesus Christ!” a young man shouted in the distance as the survivors continued to scream.

Joining them in mocking unison, warped screams continued to erupt from the crater as burning monsters began to crawl out of the hellmouth. It was then that to Sada’s surprise, the armored statue moved its arm. This thing was also alive.

With a blinding flash of lightning in the sky, the armored demon summoned forth a longsword of titanic proportions. Its blade was black as night with barbed bristles along the edge like a saw. With a single thrust, the demon stabbed into the crater as the screaming within erupted into joyous moaning.

Trying to stand back up already, the shockwave from the sword immediately knocked her back down along with nearly every other survivor witnessing the monstrosity. Looking up at him, Sada saw that this demon had no visible skin whatsoever, save for its exposed pale mouth and black lips. Long horizontal horns like a beetle sprung from his helmet and insectoid wings stretched out underneath his black robes. Upon his shoulders was a massive headdress adorned with spirals and other designs. The demon’s appearance looked incredibly painful to Sada, reminding her of an iron maiden she once recalled from her history class.

“H-How is this happening?! What are these things?!” a woman beside Sada yelled out.

Sada felt the ground tremble once more and looked down to see the whites of the eye they stood on begin to turn red like blood. Large tears formed on the lids of the gargantuan eye in the distance as the smooth shape of the surface morphed before their eyes. The faces of screaming men and women materialized from the now red eye, as if trying to push and burst out from beneath the surface.

“How could this get any worse…” Natsukawa muttered, trying to mask her fear with veiled sarcasm.

Just then, the tears of the eye rose from the lids and gathered together into a large rotating orb of liquid next to the other two creatures in the center. The globe of tears grew rapidly as the colorless liquid turned pink and then crimson, eventually reaching the size of a house.

At its limit, the sphere of tears burst like a balloon; sending a cascade of blood overtop the survivors.

“A-Again with the freakin' blood thing?!!” Sada yelled in disgust shaking it off her and wiping her eyes clean.

Where the orb once was floating was now a levitating half-naked woman with wings like a moth. Her hair was the color of dead grass and purple scaly growths covered her ashen gray skin; her left arm entirely smothered in the chitin. From the scaly shells on her breasts and thighs, black leather robes hung seductively; adorned with ringed patterns in colors of pale blue. Intersecting horns sprouted from her head, fusing into one another to form a twisted crown. In comparison to her companions, she was taller than the bearded demon but shorter than the armored one.

The trio of colossal demonic humanoids were floating in the center of the arena as smoke billowed out. More screaming faces pressed up underneath their feet as the survivors attempted to avoid them.

Abruptly, rays of light intensified as the ghastly sounds around Sada did as well. She could hardly even believe what she was seeing anymore as one abomination after another appeared. The final nightmare however was yet to arrive.

From the clouds above, thunder cracked and lightning mangled the skies.

“Behold the Nullifuge! Kneel before the God of Death!” the armored demon’s voice rang out like a church bell, his gravelly words vibrating within her ribcage.

Against her will, Sada’s body was forced against the ground as was everyone else within the god’s presence. Sada tried to raise her eyes to look at the godlike being descending from above.

It was a massive angelic demon, dwarfing the other three by far in size and grandeur. It had large, angelic wings that were spread forth like a raven in flight. It continued its descent, lowering into the clouded horizon beyond the eye they were standing on.

—This thing… is a… a god??

It had a massive elongated horned skull for a head with two identical skulls attached to each end of its horns. Each head looked mummified with all of their eyes collectively sewn shut.

The centermost head was adorned with jewels and Sada could see on its forehead there was a fourth skull, although this one had skin and resembled a child. This childlike head had ruby skin and emerald eyes, the right side of its innocent skull was cracked open and hollow. Situated behind the god’s infernal nest of skulls were two halos of shining, golden light rotating in opposite directions.

—No… not a god… a devil…

The god of death spread out its ghastly and withered arms, each one far surpassing the length of its body, and raised them high in proclamation as the infernal noises finally ceased.

What seemed like an eternity of silence washed over the air as Sada’s ears ceased ringing at last.

The centermost skull on the god’s head slowly opened its mouth, its dry teeth cracking and separating as the mouth gradually continued. Its mummified lips stretched and thinned until the head finally resembled a snake with dislocated jaws.

Within the pit of the god’s ovular mouth Sada could see a face obscured in shadow. There was a being hidden within the throat of this god. The only thing that was visible were a pair of glowing cyan eyes; lidless and exuding an aura of evil glee.

Upon the time Sada spotted this shadowed creature, apparently so did everyone else as the demons and monsters behind her erupted into cheers and praise.

“The Nullifuge has arrived at last!” a demon cried.

“He has graced us once again with his presence after four long centuries!” another yelled in happiness.

Grim and evil laughter echoed out from the god’s opened mouth; its jaws, unmoving.

—Their god isn’t this huge multi-headed demon… it’s the being living inside of it?”

The god’s cyan eyes contorted with jubilant excitement as Sada briefly caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a fanged smile in the darkness.

“My children of the damned!” the Nullifuge said with the authority of an emperor, his voice deep and crackling.

The millions of demons rejoiced upon hearing their god’s voice.

“Bid our guests welcome… to their rebirths!” the Nullifuge finished, lowering his arms slowly.

Sada noticed the god’s voice was different from what she had heard in the Swamp of Blood. If that was the case, was it someone else?

The demons behind them howled and screeched with laughter at the survivors and their unfortunate plight.

Sada and the others felt control over their bodies return and most dropped directly to the ground while others like herself tried to immediately stand back up.

Before anyone could continue, a human voice broke through the demonic throngs.

“What the hell is this?! Where are we?!” a muscular bald man said in the group to the left of Sada’s.

The tall female demon of the trio before them spoke up, her soft purple lips stretching into a coy grin at the human.

“In good time, boy. All shall be revealed soon,” she spoke, her massive stature causing her voice to reach out across the entirety of the area.

The Nullifuge’s placed his gargantuan hands together and chuckled once more.

“Of course, how could we forget? You probably haven’t the slightest what’s going on right now, do you?”

The audience of fiends chuckled darkly in response as the humans looked about nervously.

“Firstly, an introduction is in order, yes?” the Nullifuge stated, his voice deep and reverberating with menace. “I am the supreme and almighty god of this dwelling, Samvara.”

Samvara motioned toward the three beings before him.

“My angels, the Qliphah, are my instruments within the realm of the deceased,” Samvara stated, motioning toward the trio of large demons in front of him.

“Name's Hant Asrava, kids,” the fat bearded demon stated, clicking his tongue with a flick of his finger.

“Hant Nirjara…” the armored demon stated mechanically, his monotone voice somewhat familiar to Sada.

The female demon crossed her arms, pushing up her bosom seductively for the gaze of the human males and winked.

“Hant Kashaya, charmed~”

Sada etched their names into her memory, treating the introduction like a test. After the riddles presented in the swamp previously, she wasn’t about to let any scrap of information go unnoticed.

—That’s where I recognize him from… The one called Hant Nirjara, he gave us the clues at the start of the swamp game!

“So then, you now know us…” Samvara stated with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “Now, you might be asking why you’re here, yes? As I said before, this is the realm of the deceased, Olam Tzalmavet, and you all are very much deceased indeed.”

Sada’s heart dropped. She half-heartedly thought it could have been probable before, but partially believed she was in some sort of elaborate game or even a government experiment. All of that would have been more acceptable than the truth she just received.

She was dead. They all were dead. This horrific abomination of a cosmic joke was the afterlife that awaited all of humanity.

Sobs and terrified screams of denial ripped through the humans present as tears welled in Sada’s eyes.

“You’re lying! I can’t be dead! I-I have a baby to get back to!” a woman screamed at the demons.

“How can I be here?! I’ve done nothing but assist the Church my entire life!” a middle-aged man screamed out.

Samvara and the others simply replied to the display with laughter. After a few seconds of having his fun, Samvara waved a finger through the air and immediately all of the humans ceased making noise.

Sada found she couldn’t even open her mouth anymore. It was as if it had been magically sealed shut.

“Hehehe... Enough whimpering, pups,” Samvara chortled. “As I was saying before, you are all dead. In fact, you might have noticed something when you first arrived in the swamp below our location now. A mark on your necks and horns piercing your flesh.”

She had nearly forgotten its presence, but instinctively, Sada reached up and gingerly touched the spiked black horn protruding from the left side of her forehead.

Hant Kashaya stepped in with a smile to explain.

“Those are your Horns of Sin,” she said coyly. “Some of you might have more than others. But every single horn you have on those cute little bodies is a physical manifestation of a mortal sin you committed in your previous life.”

Sada knew she only had one, but remembered others like Jimmy and Neon Deon who had many more. They must have been even worse on Earth then, but, what had she done to deserve hers? From what she could recall, she had always been a good person?

The fat Hant Asrava sighed, seemingly bored already with the entire affair.

“Those tattoos y’all have on your necks mark you as Reprobates. Originally there were a hundred of you guys, however, for the mathematicians among ya, you’ll realize there’s now only eighty-five left remaining.”

As if to finish the statement, Hant Nirjara spoke. His black lips almost unmoving as he did.

“Ye Reprobates have been deemed to warrant neither Heaven nor Hell… for the nonce,” he said. “What ye have just finished was merely a test to deem who survived worthy of salvation from our blessed Lord before ye.”

Sada stumbled in place. All she had been through in the swamp, with Mezu and Gozu. The swamp that killed fifteen people… was just a preliminary? A placement test?

“Ten more challenges await, each ever more daunting than those before it. These trials are the Rings of Rebirth,” Hant Nirjara explained. “Ye shall struggle onward until only one remains. The one Reprobate left standing shall be reborn, back into the life thee once knew…”

So she could return home if she made it through just ten more, but after the exhaustion endured throughout the swamp, Sada doubted if she could even complete a pushup.

Hant Nirjara had yet to finish however, and proceeded to answer the other question that remained on everyone else’s minds.

“The other ninety-nine souls… shall be rewarded with everlasting damnation in the deepest trenches of Hell...”