The darkness enveloping me felt like the presence of the Grim Reaper, a harbinger who had finally come to claim my soul.

"Thinking of your vain hopes of attempting victory? You never stood a chance against me, not even a sliver of possibility of harming me, mortal. Beings like you are merely the stepping stones for the grand designs my Mother has planned for the universe and all of its boundless iterations."

Lucifero knelt beside me, his grip on my right hand fierce and unyielding, a wicked glint in his eyes as he licked his lips, eager for the dark intentions he had in store.

I summoned every ounce of my fading strength to shift my body or utter a word, only to be met with the king's mocking laughter and gaze.

"Do you honestly think I would let you waltz into the afterlife with a smile of relief? After daring to challenge someone like me to a meaningless fight?" The king laughed warmly as he pulled my body up by my hand.

"Not a chance, not even in your wildest fantasies, ant. Instead, I will tether you, body and soul, to me for all eternity. In every life that follows - be it the next or the countless ones after - you will face me in combat, enduring the most inhumane methods of death possible. Death will be the only thing left in your life until the very concept of time fades away. Fight for me, boy! It won't be entertaining if you break after a mere thousand deaths!"

Once Lucifero completed his cruel promise of endless torture, he channeled a powerful surge of mana into my fingertips, where he gripped me tightly, allowing it to seep into every crevice of my being.

Initially, it felt soothing and comforting, but soon my body was wracked with spasms of grotesque transformations - my bones were breaking down and rebuilding from scratch and my limbs snapped and twisted abnormally, just to heal and redo their tormenting cycle of agony again and again - an indescribable agony.

The blood vessels that filled my body ruptured, leaving my body riddled with nauseating holes. With every new injury inflicted upon my battered form, I felt my warmth, sanity, and life draining away.

The agony was the most unbearable, seizing control of my mind and leaving no room for thoughts beyond the torment of my body being shattered, reconstructed, and shattered again, even more than before.

No sensations remained; only the haunting echoes of my inhuman screams poured forth from my ravaged form. After what felt like a millennium, Lucifero cast my lifeless body onto the barren landscape of his realm and turned away, eagerly anticipating our next "confrontation."