Petra blinked a few times before tilting her head. She thought the Inferno was common knowledge. “Yes, the Inferno. Every single soul sent to Hell is given one chance to climb their way to the top of Tartarus to speak with the front desk and apply for an appeal. Most of the time, appeals are rejected but there are some cases where an appeal is accepted and they are sent back to Earth or Heaven instead. For those who fail to climb Tartarus, they suffer eternal damnation in the Inferno, where they will burn for all of eternity!”

Michael frowned ever so slightly; none of this was making any sort of sense considering he and Mike were looped back to the start. “Then why have we been sent back?”

Petra placed her hand on her chin and hummed cutely. “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you're sorta like a glitch in the system. Well, I guess this means you were given a second chance! How far did you get through Tartarus the first time? I'm sure you can use what you've learned the first time to make it toward the top!” Petra smiled, showing her pearly whites for the first time. For a moment, she believed that she could save her career; however, what Michael would say next would crush those dreams instantaneously.

“About five… steps in. Yeah, Mike is a total coward. Dude got us killed.”

What!? You're the one who curled into a ball and cried like a baby on the floor!

Petra's smile faded and her shoulders lowered. “Oh… That’s really sad.”

Something began to chime from inside of Petra's pocket. She reached inside and revealed her smartphone. "Oh, shoot! I don’t have much time before our connection is severed. May we meet again at the top of Tartarus.”

“Wait!" Michael called out. "Can you get us out of this? It really hurts.”

“I'm sorry... I wish I could but I cannot physically interact with anything in Hell. I have to go now. See ya!" Petra's body enveloped itself in a yellowish light before fading away into nothingness.

"And there she goes..." Michael hung his head low. "The last beautiful thing I'll ever see. Gone. Forever. Just kill me."

Christ, you're pathetic. While you were making googly eyes at God's assistant, I think I figured out how to switch bodies on command.

"Really? How?"

I'm not sure of the extent of it, but I think when we draw blood, we switch places. Think about it. When you screamed earlier, my hand jolted and our wound started bleeding. See.

Michael looked over at his right hand and sure enough, there was blood oozing out of it like an egg yolk. "Hmm... You know, you might be right... Awe, man, so that means I have to hurt myself?" Michael whined. He could hear Mike sighing from the inside of their collective consciousness.

For once, can you stop being a pussy. Just once.

"No. I can't. Sorry Mister Marine, I'm not a hardened, psycho killer like you."

You wanna get to heaven, right? You wanna see Petra and whoever else is up there waiting for you? Well, I want to get separated from you so it's a win-win if we get out of this shit.

Michael thought of his brother and figured that Mike was right. If he wanted to see his brother, he'd have to endure the pain. He also may or may not have thought about taking Petra out on a celebratory date once this was all over. "Fine. Let's test your theory. All I have to do is draw blood, right?" Michael started pulling his right hand forward, wincing as the pain began building up. Blood spurted from his wound, and Michael suddenly found himself watching through Mike's eyes.

-Mike-

Holy shit, you were right!

"Damn, right I was right." Mike's fangs poked out from his small grin. "Now that we know how it works, we can actually work as a team. As much as I despise you, we need each other."

Unfortunately, you're probably right about this one. Let's put our differences aside and climb this stupid tower.

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

The two of them once again went through the excruciating pain of freeing themselves from the cross, spilling so much blood that they could've filled a bucket with it. The pain was just as bad as it was before, but Michael's bitching was around four percent less this time around. Mike took control of the body and began the long walk toward Tartarus. After some time, the two of them found themselves approaching the tower once again. However, before they could enter, they saw a familiar face emerge from behind the fog door with his bicycle and Christmas sack attached.

“Oh. It’s you.” Harut was confused, to say the least. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost. “That’s strange, I could’ve sworn I came across your body right next to the entrance. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, what a total weakling, dying before even making it past a single skeleton. That’s a new low.’ No, but seriously, I've never seen anyone die so fast. But now, here you are right in front of me… Peculiar.”

"It's taking everything within me not to shove your little punk ass into that sack of yours." Mike told the demon child.

Harut's eyes widened. "My apologies. I must have mistaken you for someone else. You look similar but your eyes are different. And that voice... Anyway, allow me to introduce myself then."

Mike wasn't trying to hear Harut's entire introduction again, so he interrupted him. "I know who you are. Listen, kid. It's complicated but there's two of us inside this body and you happened to meet the bitch variant the first time around."

Hey, fuck you!

“Interesting… Two souls in the same body. This sounds familiar..." Harut rubbed his nonexistent chin hairs for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Hey! I found something on the fifth floor. It seems pretty useless, but you can have it." Harut reached into his bag and pulled out a fitness-tracking watch that someone who failed to climb Tartarus left behind upon their death. "Try it on. Perhaps it will help with your journey."

Mike was reluctant at first. "I'll pass. I'm not some hipster."

Wait. Put it on real quick.

"Why? It looks stupid."

Watches like these have GPS and stuff in them. It might help us ascend the tower more easily.

Mike sighed. "Fine." Reluctantly, he started putting the watch on his wrist. It looked just as stupid as he predicted.

Meanwhile, Harut was staring at him with his chin resting on his hand. "Just there, were you talking to the supposed 'bitch variant'?" Mike was caught off guard for a moment after hearing the child curse.

WHAT!?

"Yeah. I can hear him inside my head. My name's Mike Thompson, by the way." Mike then placed a finger against his temple. "The kid up here is named Hugh Jaynus."

HUH!?

"Oh... I see. Mike Thompson and Hugh Jaynus. Strange names." Harut didn't catch the joke. "Well, I have some business that I need to attend to. I hope to see you soon, Mr. Mike Thompson. You as well, Mr. Hugh Jaynus."

Mike kept a straight face as Harut rode away on his bicycle only to burst out in laughter after the kid disappeared around the corner.

Seriously, dude. Hugh Jaynus?

"I didn't think the kid was dumb enough to fall for it." Mike said through his laughter.

He's like ten. He probably wouldn't even get the joke if you explained it to him.

Still chuckling, Mike looked down at the watch on his wrist. On the display, he could see two meters; one of which was green and labeled as Health, while the other was blue and labeled as Mana. Beneath both of these meters, there was an EXP counter, however, it was marked at 0.

"The hell is a Mana and EXP?"

Have you never played an RPG in your life, old man?

"I shot one at a tank once."

Jesus Christ. RPG stands for Role Playing Game. Whenever you beat an enemy in an RPG, you get EXP and level up. If this watch is anything to go by, I think you and I will get stronger every time we kill enemies. Go kill a skeleton and see what happens.

"You don't have to tell me twice. I'm itching to get my revenge on that asshole from before." Mike stepped toward the tower, stopping over the corpse of a poor soul that failed to ascend Tartarus. He only had a single weapon, a medieval flail. Mike hadn't a clue how to use such a weapon, but he figured it was better than going in unarmed. Itching to get his hands dirty, Mike stepped through the fog, ready to attempt to climb Tartarus once more.