His blurred senses slowly returned to him, after being assaulted by a pounding headache. He could hear all sorts of noises around him ranging from voices, screams and even the sound of softly billowing flames in the distance. When his senses returned, all he could see was a translucent wall before him, and just outside that wall was an endless array of flames. Looking around, he spotted many others in the room as well, and all the other walls and floors were the same. People were pacing back and forth, some were banging at the walls, while others complained, only a few managed to stay calm with the current situation, including Seiren.

“I don’t have time for this! I’ve got a meeting in…” A man yells before looking at his watch. Noticing the hands on it spinning endlessly with no end in sight.

As Seiren surveyed the area, he started walking around the space, glancing at everyone he passed by.

Where the hell am I? He wondered.

As if out of nowhere a sudden column of flame appeared within the space. Causing people to jump back in fear, as it suddenly dispersed, revealing the figure of a man clad in a red shirt and tie, wearing a vest over it. His black slacks hung neatly over his black dress shoes. Pouring forth from the hat on his head were green strands of hair that hung over his eyes, making it impossible to tell who or what he was looking at. A slender long tail-like appendage hung from his back lower back as he pulled out a deck of cards.

“Welcome to purgatory.” He says, breaking the silence of the room in an instant.

“Who are you?” Someone asked from the front of the crowd.

“I am… Vermillion Chance, the gatekeeper. I keep watch over this infinite Purgatory. But that’s not all, my job is to offer you all a second chance.” He said.

“A second chance?” Someone said from the crowd.

“Haven’t you all realized already? Every last one of you in this room is already dead.”

Silence filled the room as everyone’s faces began to shift from confused to stares to listless expressions. Everyone slowly remembering the last few moments of life before the cold clutches of the grim reaper snatched away what little consciousness they had left.

“The devil, you see, being the kind soul that he is has offered to let you go back to the world of the living. There is a catch however, in order to go back, you must take on the devil’s challenge. Travel through all 7 layers of hell defeating his advocate’s challenges and fight the devil himself for a chance to escape or a chance at the throne.” He explains.

A chance to escape…? He thought. A chance to go back and be there for my mother. If she found out I died… I can’t imagine how she would feel. I… have to come back at all costs.

“I can see the willpower on your faces. Some of you want to escape and go dashing back into the arms of your loved ones, some of you want the overwhelming power that the role of the Devil can give you. They’re all fine choices. But before any of you will get to that, I have a test for you. You can just call this trimming the fat a bit. A culling of sorts, because those that answer this question wrong will burn in the eternal embers of hell.” He explains.

Seiren gulps, as well as many others.

“It’s a simple question really. Which way is up?” He asks. As he points both his index fingers up and down respectively.

Purgatory was suddenly divided in the middle by black and white. On the black side there was an arrow pointing up in bright white and on the white side was an arrow pointing down in a jet black.

“Now choose a side, you’ve got less than a minute to decide.” Vermillion states.

People start flying into a frenzy and running back and forth within the space. Seiren looks up at the wall looking at the dark black arrow pointing down.

I don’t know if this is a trick question or not, but I’m just gonna answer the only way I know how. Seiren thought.

Seiren walked across the line and into the black side, looking at the bright arrow on the wall.

Up is simply up. He thought.

Seiren stood by as everyone rushed into place some people stood by in the middle, unsure of what to do. But soon time completely ran out.

“Times up. Stop moving.” He said, and just like that, everyone came to a complete halt, unable to lift even a finger. What caught his attention was two people standing directly in the center of the line, standing on both sides. A girl with bright blue hair stood at there staring straight at Vermillion.

“What’s this? Would you care to explain why you chose to stand in the middle?” He questioned.

A visible bead of sweat formed on her forehead.

“Assuming the area outside is akin to space, that would mean that there is no up or down, simply what ever this place is, is acting a sort of false gravity keeping us to the floor, but if that's the case, then the gravity could easily be used to have us standing on the ceiling. So wouldn’t that mean both sides are correct?” She questions.

“That’s not the purpose of this test.” The man behind her says. “He specifically told us the purpose was to cull the numbers. Which likely means he doesn’t care which answer is right, but rather, how confident we were in our answers. If this whole system is set up around the devil wanting to fight it would make more sense if he were culling the trash to make sure only the crème of the crop makes it through.

Vermillion begins to clap.

“I never expected that someone would discern the meaning of the test. I must say there are a few gems this batch. But yes, it is as you said, the criteria for passing the test is the confidence one had in their decision. We don’t need a bunch of weak-willed humans to waste our time on. Make a decision, and live with the consequences, no matter what they may be.” Vermillion snaps his fingers causing over 30 people in the room to be engulfed in sudden pillars of flames. The girl standing in the middle recoiled watching as people around her suddenly burned and then disappeared from purgatory.

Around roughly 70 people still remained in the room afterwards. Seiren let out a breath of relief after realizing he himself had been spared from the flames, and watch the girl in the center of the room.

“I thought, I’d be able to at least be able to help other people.” She says to herself.

“That was your first mistake.” The guy standing behind her said, before walking to Vermillion. “So what’s next?”

“A gift for all of you.” Vermillion says as flowers begin to appear within the space.

“These are hell flowers. They grow exclusively in hell, but when humans pick them, they awaken to special abilities.”

Special abilities? This sounding more and more unreal by the minute, yet its hard not to believe it. Seiren thinks.

“All you have to do is pick one.” Vermillion says.

“Pick one?! We’re going against the devil and you want me to pick one?!” A man shouts, “Screw that!”

The man starts picking as many hell flowers as he can get his hands on. A few moments later, a bouquet’s worth of flowers start blooming from his chest.

“I can feel it!” He shouts before breaking out into a coughing fit. Spurts of blood begin to pour from his mouth. Black veins begin travelling from his chest throughout his whole body, as he begins to shrivel up like a raisin.

“This is the fate of one who tries to overwhelm their body with such power.” Vermillion explains.

Others can only look on in horror, while some just began to pick their hell flower. Seiren kneeled down to the ground, finding one flower away from the group. Each flower had its own separate appearance. Seiren reaches down, placing his fingers around the stem and examines the flower more. The petals were a dark blue, while a light blue pattern traced the inside of them. After finishing he gently tugs at the flower causing the stem reaching to the floor to fade from sight. Although maintaining the image of a plant the bottom of the stem was crystalline in nature as Seiren raised the flower through the air.

The flower vanishes in a sudden veil of darkness and it soon envelopes Seiren whole. However, seconds later, it disappears and he’s left with nothing.

I don’t really feel any different. Seiren thinks.

“I’ll offer some advice. Humans are stronger in numbers, so why not consider working together." Vermillion says.

Team up…? Who can I even join? He thinks.

Seiren walks past a few people in the room, some were already chatting it up while others simply kept to themselves. Seiren notices the two from earlier who were at the center of attention.

“Lets partner up! With your brains and my brawn we’ll be unstoppable.” A man says to the blue haired girl. He starts flexing his muscles before her.

“Sorry, but I’ll have to pass.” She says with a weak smile.

As she walks away, another comes to greet her, sliding right before her and slicking his hair back in one motion.

“Hey girlie, me and my pals could use someone with your talents.” He says.

“What talents? You don’t even know me.” She says as she tries to walk away, he grabs her by the wrist.

“You should be grateful we’re extending you an invite, we’re gonna beat the devil so you’ll be in good hands.” He says.

“Somehow I doubt that.” She says, shooting him a glare. The man feels a hand grab his own, forcing him to remove himself from her.

“She’s not interested.” Seiren says.

The two stare each other down for a few seconds before the man breaks away from Seiren’s grasp. Sucking his teeth, he walks off, giving them both the middle finger.

“Thanks.” She says.

Seiren nods.

“I’m Seiren.” He greets extending a hand to her.

“I’m Mera.” She says, shaking hands with Seiren. “I’ve just been getting bombarded since Vermillion told us to team up.”

“Probably because of earlier.” He says.

“I really didn’t do anything. It was mostly him.” Mera says, looking over the the man who was with her earlier. “He managed to deduce the whole meaning behind the test.”

“Oh him.” Seiren mutters.

“His name is Coma. I think he might be a good candidate for someone who’ll beat the devil, although it's just a quick opinion.” She says.

“Did you find a partner?” He asks.

“No. I haven’t really come across anyone I feel I could trust yet.” She says.

“Well, good luck.” Seiren says before waving.

“Guess I’ll see you around.”

He seems a little strange, but I don’t think he’s a bad person. Hm… what should I do? She thinks. 

“Alright, time’s up.” Vermillion states.

 Already? Seiren thinks.

While some stand confidently, others are panicking trying to find anyone still by themselves, yet none of them ever really approach Seiren.

“Now it’s showtime!” Vermillion says with a snap of his fingers.

The floor transforms into a pit of flames as flaming skeletons emerge from the floor, reaching out to each person and grabbing them by their legs to drag them down. Seiren can feel his body sinking deeper and deeper into the flames. Although taken by surprise at first, he tried to remain calm.

This must be part of the process… right? He thinks.

Soon his lower body was completely engulfed in the flames, yet strangely they had no heat. Soon his upper body became engulfed and his head was all that remained above the flames. With a last look, he could only see the smile on Vermillion's face before his vision faded to darkness once again.

In the furthest reaches of hell, there was a grand castle decorated by black stone and a moat of blood. Nearing the top of the castle, a dark figure rested atop a throne. His piercing gaze was only slightly offset by the grin on his face.

“So this is the group this time, is it?” He says mockingly. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing what they’re capable of doing. Who knows, maybe someone may excite me as the Sleeping Lion did.”

His grin turned into laughter that seemed to shake the entirety of the building as if there were an earthquake.