Chapter 21: Between the Hells

On the bed, Rodi stared at the girl before him—a girl who was both Anna and not Anna. He focused on her eyes, which had turned into granular, fully assimilated orbs, and her skin, riddled with scorch marks.

He had no thoughts of romance; his only concern was how to break the deadlock and how to keep this "friend" he had finally made alive. Although they had only known each other for two days, she was the closest peer he had ever had. Furthermore, he did not fear death; as a film buff, he was even slightly curious about the experience of being possessed.

Looking at her oral structure, which resembled a gateway to hell—teeth and gums fully exposed, with two tongues forked to the left and right—Rodi slowly leaned his face toward her. He moved as slowly as possible, trying to buy as much time as he could for Gao Yuxuan.

Unexpectedly, Anna seemed unable to wait. With the possession complete, the scorched patterns had spread across her entire body. *Swish!* Sharp barbs grew from her wrists, slicing through the bandages that had bound her. Simultaneously, the silver needles embedded in her flesh were forced out. No longer restrained, her arms wrapped around Rodi’s neck, and her legs locked around his body. Rodi, who had been standing beside the bed, was pulled onto it by sheer brute force and pinned beneath her. Their bodies pressed together, soft and searingly hot.

"Don't be so slow~ hurry up, I can't wait anymore!"

The arms around his neck tightened, and their lips pressed firmly together. Before Rodi could even extend his tongue, he felt two soft things probe into his mouth. They were more agile than fingers: winding, rotating, binding. There was no expected moisture or softness, only dryness, intense heat, and a sensation of peeling away.

*Hum...*

Suddenly, a high-pitched ringing erupted in his skull, spreading like dust and drowning out all other sounds. The world fell silent. A strange sensation of falling overcame him—not the downward pull of gravity, but a dragging sensation, as if every part of his body had been seized and pulled toward the depths by an irresistible force. He could feel his consciousness being peeled away from his flesh—a bloody, visceral tearing—as he plummeted toward an unknown world. After a brief moment of peace brought by silence and darkness...

***

A scent of sulfur crawled deep into his nasal cavity and trachea, wreaking havoc in his lungs like a rat. The intense, burning irritation forced Rodi to wake with a start.

This was no longer the hill in the field practice area, nor the old mansion of the resurrected zombies. It was a world of ash, with sulfurous fire raining down—Hell. Beyond the scorched, yellow background, the ground was crowded with a deep, vivid red. This red, surging through the cracks in the ground, seemed to come from every human being tortured in Hell, turning the scorched earth damp, soft, and even vibrant. It caused jagged rocks to grow like trees, sprouting arm-like branches that bore fruit resembling bloody pus, and added a fascinating, raw scent to the stench of sulfur.

Scorched yellow and vivid red—these were the colors of Hell. And Rodi, a human who had just arrived, became a contributor to that blood. His body was fixed to a ten-meter-tall stone cross. His limbs and neck were wrapped in dry, rough, dead tongues. His body was lacerated in many places, and his blood flowed down the cross, merging with the blood produced by other sufferers.

*Hiss!* The sound of burning filled the air. He had arrived during the "rainy season" of Hell. Each drop of the sulfurous acid rain that landed on his flesh caused corrosive burns; melting skin and charred hair washed away with his blood. When it all drained away, Rodi’s consciousness would die here, and his body would be fully occupied by the demon outside.

In such extreme conditions, human biological instinct would force an individual to shut their eyes tight and focus on fighting the pain. Both the acid rain and the extreme dryness were enough to blind a person in a short time, and the pain itself would cause most people to lose consciousness quickly. Yet, Rodi gradually endured the agony, as if he had experienced even greater pain before.

His "battle plan" was complete; the information had been transmitted before he plummeted into Hell. Whether it could be realized depended entirely on Deputy Squad Leader Gao. Now that he had the chance to be in Hell—and perhaps stay forever—Rodi wanted to see what it looked like before his consciousness faded.

He fought against his biological instincts and forced his eyes open to take in the landscape of Hell. In the B-movies he loved, many protagonists had ties to the underworld. However, Rodi was not shocked by the sight of Hell; instead, he looked into the distance as much as he could, trying to see as much as possible before his vision was stripped away.

"What is that?"

Nearly a hundred kilometers away stood a massive, pitch-black volcano. Perhaps due to the sulfurous atmosphere, the scorched yellow smoke erupting from the crater cast a strangely blurred, peculiar color into the sky, resembling a special symbol. Because it was too hazy and hidden behind thick fog, he could not make it out clearly.

At that moment, a drop of acid rain landed on his eye. Even though his eyelid tried to block it, it was immediately corroded away. His right eye shriveled rapidly, and his vision blurred. But Rodi did not close his eyes. He struggled on, unable to say why, but driven by a need to see that symbol clearly.

Strangely, despite his blurred vision—despite being unable to even see the ground beneath him—he could gradually see the symbol in the sky more clearly. *Hiss!* His other eye was struck by the acid rain, rapidly corroding. His vision blurred completely, approaching darkness. All sights of Hell vanished. Yet, it was precisely at this moment that Rodi truly saw the [symbol] hidden behind the thick fog above the distant volcano. It seemed to be a special sigil representing Hell.

*Hum!*

The ringing returned. There was little blood left in his body; symptoms of hemorrhagic shock took hold. His consciousness began to fade, and the darkness of death was about to carry Rodi away to the other side of the world.

The final drop of blood fell from the tip of Rodi’s toe. *Drip.*

It should have been swallowed by the silence of death, but he unexpectedly heard the sound of the blood hitting the ground—and he heard it clearly, more clearly than ever before.

*Hum!*

His eyelids, which should have been corroded away, spontaneously opened. His blurred vision gradually became clear. His body no longer felt pain; instead, it felt relaxed, like never before. Before him was no longer the scorching Hell, but a cold, clean single-patient hospital room. As for the dripping sound he had heard, it was not his blood, but the IV drip hanging from the stand.

Rodi touched the call button tied to his hand with his finger. A nurse assigned to his care immediately entered the room to check on him. Just as the nurse was about to notify the attending physician to perform a detailed examination, *slap!*

Rodi grabbed the nurse’s wrist and sat up.

"Do you have paper and a pen?"

"I do..." The nurse was startled and instinctively handed him the notebook she carried. But then she immediately realized something was wrong. "You need to lie back down! You can't be sitting up right now."

However, Rodi had already torn a page from the notebook and was recording the hellish symbol that might be wiped from his memory at any moment.