Author Note: On Tapas there is a 15,000 character limit per chapter and most of my chapters are over this limit so I have split up the last bits of the chapter into 0.5 chapters. I hope this is not too annoying for my readers.

"I HATE YOU!"

"I LOATHE YOU!"

"I DESPISE YOU!"

The words tore from Seren’s throat. His neck muscles strained against his skin, pulsing with each syllable. The veins in his forehead bulged with rage as he grounded his teeth together, the sound like gravel in a meat grinder.

But then, as suddenly as a switch being flipped, Seren's expression froze. The fury drained from his face, leaving behind a blank canvas that was somehow more terrifying than the rage. Slowly, inexorably, a twisted smile spread across his features, stretching his lips to impossible proportions.

"Kekeke," he giggled, the sound high and unnatural. "Ohhh no, I meant I love you, I adore you, I want to hold you in my tiny hands and squeeze you." His voice dripped with a sickly sweetness that belied the madness lurking beneath.

Seren's emotions cycled with dizzying speed. One moment he was smiling, his eyes alight with a manic glee. The next, tears streamed down his face, leaving dirty tracks on his unwashed skin. His nails, long and yellowed, raked across his arms, leaving angry red marks that quickly welled with blood.

In a moment of self-destruction, Seren grabbed handfuls of his long, disheveled hair. Without hesitation, he began to stuff the long hair into his mouth, choking and gagging but refusing to stop.

"...Yes, I want to squeeze you until your head bursts like a balloon," he mumbled around a mouthful of hair, his eyes rolling wildly in their sockets. "That is love right? RIGHT?!" His voice rose to a fevered pitch. "That must be love, it can't be anything else..."

As quickly as it had come, the manic energy drained from Seren's body. He collapsed to the floor, curling in on himself like a wounded animal. His cries, now those of a terrified child, echoed off the bare walls.

"...I don't want to live, please someone erase me..." he whimpered, his voice barely above a whisper. "What did I do to deserve this...?"

The cold darkness of the endless space seemed to press in on Seren. He lay motionless on the ground, his body trembling slightly. Slowly, he began to curl tighter and tighter, as if trying to make himself as small as possible as if trying to feel his own warmth. But there was no warmth to be found, no comfort in this self-imposed isolation.

Life 1: Hatred

Cause of death: I lost myself to insanity and killed myself

...

Life 7: Lust

The neon lights of the city flickered like dying stars, casting an eerie glow over the rain-slicked streets. Seren adjusted his tie, a sardonic smile playing on his lips as he exited the towering glass door of his blue-chip corporation.

Seren was a businessman, with multiple corporations under his wing. He was charming, humble, and possessed a lean build, like the perfect man for any woman.

But, his charming facade masked a roiling fire of desire. In the nighttime under a disguise, he prowled the city's upscale bars and exclusive clubs, as he engaged in explicit actions. Women were drawn to his magnetic personality and unlimited money, like moths to a flame.

It was on one such night that Seren first laid eyes on Amelia. She was a vision in red, her laughter tinkling like crystal as she sipped champagne at the bar. The glint of her wedding ring only served to heighten Seren's interest. He learned she was married to a prominent businessman, a fact that should have deterred him but instead fueled his desire.

Ignoring the sanctity of her marriage vows, Seren launched a relentless campaign to win Amelia's affections. Lavish gifts appeared at her doorstep. "Chance" encounters became increasingly frequent. His silver tongue wove elaborate tales of passion and devotion, slowly but surely eroding Amelia's resolve.

As their illicit affair blossomed, Seren found himself trapped in a web of his own making. What had started as a game of conquest morphed into an all-consuming obsession. Jealousy gnawed at his insides whenever he thought of Amelia with her husband. The very idea of her belonging to another man drove him to the brink of madness.

'If I just kill him, then she will forever be mine. I will live happily ever after,' the thought wormed its way into Seren's mind, growing stronger with each passing day.

The opportunity presented itself during a business meeting at a construction site. As Seren watched Amelia's husband standing near the edge of the unfinished rooftop. Time seemed to slow as he made his decision, his feet carrying him forward before his conscience could intervene.

"DIE! AMELIA DOESN'T DESERVE YOU, SHE'S MINE AND MINE ONLY!" The words tore from Seren's throat, raw and primal, as he rushed towards the unsuspecting businessman.

With a forceful shove, Seren sent the man tumbling over the edge. A wicked grin split his face as he watched his rival plummet towards the ground. But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

In a cruel twist of fate, the falling businessman's hand shot out, grasping desperately for anything to halt his descent. His fingers found Seren's tie, clutching it with the strength of a dying man.

Seren's triumphant expression morphed into one of pure terror as he felt himself being pulled forward. The world tilted on its axis, and suddenly he was falling, the wind whistling past his ears as the ground rushed up to meet him.

In those final moments, as life flashed before his eyes, a thought flashed before his mind.

'What have I done?' The thought echoed in his mind, a final, desperate plea for redemption that would go unanswered.

Splat

Cause of death: I committed adultery and died as a slave to my desires

...

Life 1037: Revenge

Seren stood atop a mountain of corpses, his weathered hands gripping a sword that gleamed dully in the flickering light of the inferno before him. His face, lined with age and hardship, remained impassive as he surveyed the sea of flames that stretched to the horizon.

In this life, Seren had been born into a world of magic. He had once wished to live a simple life, content with the warmth of family and the simplicity of daily routines.

The memory of that fateful day still burned in his mind, as vivid as the flames before him. He could still hear the screams of his loved ones, see their terrified faces as they were brutally slaughtered.

'The State killed my family, so I vowed to end the State. Now, with an old and shriveled-up body, I have finally achieved my revenge but...' Seren's thoughts trailed off, a flicker of emotion finally breaking through his stoic facade.

His gaze softened, a hint of confusion and longing seeping into his voice as he whispered to the empty air, "...but where are my children?" His gnarled fingers reached up, gently touching the white cloth that covered his eyes. The blindness had come gradually, a price paid for delving too deep into forbidden magics.

"Is it because I have gone blind that I cannot see them," he mused, his voice barely audible over the crackling flames, "or is it because I am no longer human..."

The realization hit him like a physical blow. In his single-minded pursuit of revenge, Seren had sacrificed everything – his humanity, his chance at a new family, his very soul. He had become the very thing he had sworn to destroy, a force of destruction that left nothing but death in its wake.

With a fluid motion that belied his age, Seren turned the sword towards himself. There was no hesitation, no moment of doubt. The blade flashed once in the firelight, and then his head was tumbling down the mountain of corpses, leaving a trail of crimson in its wake.

Yet, even in death, Seren's body refused to fall. It remained standing, in its headless form atop the bodies of the most powerful mages the world had ever known.

Cause of death: I served revenge as a cold dish but in the end, I didn’t receive any warmth

...

Life ???: Love

The air was thick with the stench of decay and despair. Sulfurous fumes rose from cracks in the earth, mixing with the metallic tang of blood that seemed to permeate every breath. In this hellscape, a lone figure stood out against the desolation.

"Oh Mephistopheles, ehahaha... Oh Mephistopheles, don't think too much about it. Cry a river for that poor, downtrodden bastard... EHAHAHA!" A man, his clothes tattered and stained with grime, raised his hands to the sky. His eyes, wide and unfocused, darted frantically as he prayed with a fervor that bordered on madness. His laughter, a jarring sound in the eerie silence, echoed across the barren landscape.

It was 12 in the afternoon, but the sun had long since vanished. In its place, a pitch-black sky loomed overhead, punctuated by blood-red clouds that roiled and churned like a sea of carnage. The very air seemed to pulse with an otherworldly energy, sending shivers down the spines of those few who remained.

Seren, his body battered and broken, watched the scene unfold with an inexplicable serenity. His gaze was fixed on the monstrosity that hovered ominously in the sky – a behemoth from the depths of hell itself. Its giant black tentacles, each as thick as a redwood tree, wrapped around the planet like the fingers of a cosmic hand, slowly squeezing the life from the world.

Chains bit into Seren's flesh, holding him upright against a small pole that stood precariously close to the edge of a cliff. The metal links clinked softly with each labored breath he took. Beyond the cliff, a scene of horror stretched as far as the eye could see. Cities lay in ruins, their once-proud structures now nothing more than rubble and ash. Disease ran rampant through the remaining population, leaving countless bloated corpses behind. Death, it seemed, was the only constant in this new world order.

The few humans who stood beside Seren were a far cry from the civilized beings they once were. Their eyes gleamed with a feral light as they circled their captive, mockery dripping from their tongues like venom. Whips cracked through the air, leaving fresh welts on Seren's already bruised body. Yet, he remained silent, his face a mask of tranquility that seemed to infuriate his tormentors even more.

One of the humans, his face twisted into a grotesque sneer, leaned in close. The stench of his breath, a mixture of rotting meat and something far more sinister, washed over Seren. "Do you believe it now?" he hissed, spittle flying from his cracked lips. "That love of yours is useless, it didn't save us, it can't save this world..." He paused, struggling to contain the insane laughter that bubbled up from his throat. With a devilish smile that stretched unnaturally wide, he added, "...and it can't even save you".

Seren remained in his silence, refusing to acknowledge the other's words. His eyes, clear and focused despite the horror surrounding him, never left the writhing mass in the sky. Blood flowed freely from his wounds, staining the parched earth beneath him, yet his expression never wavered from its peaceful resolve.

For three days and three nights, Seren hung there like a silent observer as the world crumbled around him. The screams of the dying gradually faded into an oppressive silence. Human civilization, with all its triumphs and failures, had finally come to an end. All life on the planet withered and perished, leaving behind a husk of what once was.

All except for Seren.

He remained, the last flickering ember of humanity, still tied to that solitary pole. His peaceful expression persisted as he gazed upon the cosmic horror above, its tentacles now descending to claim him as well. As the darkness closed in, Seren took his final breath, his eyes drifting shut for the last time in this reality.

Cause of death: The World

...

In the vast expanse of nothingness, where light and shadow hold no dominion and where the concepts of space and time intertwine in a web of existence, there exists a plane beyond comprehension.

Here, within the boundless void, there lies a single orb pulsating with an ethereal glow. The orb had a consciousness as it stood still, being a silent observer of the realm.

Time stands still in this realm. There was no past, no present, and no future. The realm is woven into itself with an intricate complexity beyond human comprehension.

Amidst the infinite void, countless bubbles drift aimlessly with each one of them containing a fragment of reality. One such bubble showed the same scene of Seren being tied down with chains as his body hung by the small pole as the gruesome scene of the world’s end replayed.

Seren, in the orb’s body, watched his countless lifetimes replay in the endless bubbles as they drifted aimlessly in the realm of nothingness.

Then suddenly, Seren heard an ethereal, otherworldly voice call out from depths, “Wh rhn atmx abf?”

Seren didn’t have a face but he still smiled when he heard this with peacefulness as he said, “...How can I hate ‘Him’, the One who created me? Because of ‘Him’, I and every other being came into existence. Without ‘Him’, no one else is, for ‘He’ is the essence of existence itself, the source of life, and I, ‘His’ lowly servant, am forever grateful for the privilege of being a vessel for ‘His’ greater will”.

And then from the depths of nothingness, countless voices echoed with an otherworldly resonance as they brought with them peace and tranquility.

“Iktblx max Ehkw!”

BANG!

When the words finished, Seren jolted awake from the sudden sound with his heart pounding in his chest and beads of sweat dripping from his forehead and onto the concrete floor. He stared blankly into space for a few seconds before his eyes regained their focus as a determined glint shined within them.