Warning: Gore and Mutilation.

She choked and her laughter stopped. A headache creeped into her head as her body began stiffening and she felt as if her body was no longer her own.

‘What is happening?’

Her headache evolved into delirium as her thoughts became muddled. Her eyes gradually lost focus. The streets and dead all swirling into a blurry blend.

One by one, her senses shut down. First her vision, next her sense of touch, before finally her hearing and sense of smell.

The only thing she could feel was her throbbing heart. Thumping over and over as if it was alive, seperate from her. As it pumps blood into her veins, it becomes like a lullaby to put her to sleep.

A deep sleep.

She was aware something was wrong with her. However, she felt tired, as if she had not slept for several days. So she gradually hunkered down where she stood and began closing… her… eyes.

As darkness finally enveloped her remaining vision as she fell asleep, she gradually began thinking to herself. 

It was the dream equivalent of walking or strolling around a forest, but instead of a forest, in a dream you walk around your memories.

It was the moments when people began playing back their deepest secrets, past, and embarrassing moments to themselves as they fell asleep. Usually, these flashbacks would then keep the sleeper awake all night depending on what they remember, feel, and have done.

Though she doubted she would be kept awake by anything. After all, she hardly remembered much besides a few terminology from some “life.”

She hardly felt anything but surprise, curiosity, and fear ever since she stumbled into this unknown place. She also had not done much nor remember doing anything that would be able to keep her awake.

So she easily fell asleep.

Or at least, that was what she originally thought.

《 Survive. 》

A voice spoke coldly into her consciousness. 

She swore she had heard it somewhere before, but she felt that it had a different tone back then.

《 Survive. 》

《 Survive. 》

《 Survive. 》

It echoed and kept on repeating itself over and over. 

It prevented her from falling completely asleep.

Then she felt pain. A lot of pain.

Her heart hurt so much that she felt like she was dying.

Heartburn? Heart attack? What was it?

Her eyes shot open and her vision became clearer as the fatigue was washed out by the agony she felt. The tiredness was like an illusion.

She looked to her chest where she felt the most searing pain she ever felt. Before being dumbfounded by what she saw.

The area where her heart should be was turning rotten and darkening like gangrene. Boils formed on her skin and white pus were slowly seeping from small newly formed orifices and holes on the surface.

It was revolting.

She tried to scream, but her throat felt stuck. 

《 Survive. 》

The voice chanted again.

It oddly calmed her down. Her thoughts also began becoming clearer.

In fact, she has never felt as clear-headed and calm at this moment.

Despite the strange condition happening to her body. She slowly took a short and painful breath, exhaling with some trouble.

She tried to move her body and found that she could move her left arm and right leg only. She had found out that the rest of her body was slowly graying up. She could not move her neck and could only lay down.

Her whole body was becoming infected.

She directed her arm to the infected chest and scratched. The skin was easily taken off as the pus leaked heavily along with some red blood mixed within.

Her calm was shaken, but not broken.

She continued to scratch.

It wasn’t because it was itchy. In fact, it was about as painful as it sounded to tear off your infected skin.

She wished to also leave the infection alone and find some type of better treatment.

However, there is nowhere to turn to for help. She has no idea what she is doing and whether or not she could save herself.

Though she knew at least one thing. It was that if left alone, the infection would only get worse. 

It was a stupid thing to do. After all, who is to say some help is not right around the corner? 

Scratching the infected area could only make things worse.

She knows.

She just did not want to feel completely helpless. She just wanted to do something.

Moreover, she had judged that if she was going to die of this disease, she would rather die sooner trying to save herself than to wait for death doing nothing. 

She used such a logic to begin her attempt at survival…

It started slow and hesitant. 

《 Survive. 》

However, the cold voice came. Hearing it, something in her mind seemed to have flipped. She began mutilating herself faster and faster.

Desperately tearing the skin, she was like a feral monster. The excruciating pain caused her eyes to go bloodshot and her breathing to grow rough. The discarded skin and blood were strewn across the ground. Her blouse was completely drenched in the leaking bodily fluids.

Eventually she scratched all the skin off the left side of her chest, the bloody yellowish white chest muscles revealed. 

The muscles were now next.

《 Survive. 》

Just as she was hesitating, the voice came again. She then began the process of tearing again to the left side chest muscles now, just like her skin previously. 

The sound and pain of peeling muscle fibers came to her mind like scratching a chalkboard, driving her steadily more towards insanity.

She was inwardly aware that she should stop, that her actions were futile and dangerous. In fact, she tried multiple times as she tore her muscle fibers apart with her hand.

《 Survive. 》

However, the voice compelled her to keep going. To keep tearing the muscles. 

She must continue. 

She must rip and tear.

If she wanted to live.

How was clawing her chest open going to help?

She didn’t know either, but she just had to. 

Perhaps she was going crazy, though it was much too late to stop what she had already started.

During the process of tearing herself apart, besides the tremendous pain that made her want to go unconscious, she also became… fascinated.

It was hard to explain this… wicked fascination.

To see the progress of the infection, no matter how gruesome and terrible, also had its own form of ugly beauty.

A part of her mind became detached at some point. 

She did not feel her body’s pain. She coldly observed through her body’s eyes and analyzed the process of mutilation calmly, without considering her body’s trembling reactions.

It was a good thing her mechanical arm remained unaffected by her weak fleshy body. It was like her, able to calmly carry out her orders to make the most optimum way to tear. Flawless in its execution of the commands given to it by her detached mind.

This detachment to reality and state of mind she is in…

It made her feel like a surgeon.

A surgeon performing surgery…

Yes, it was surgery. Just an extra special crude surgery… 

She was just operating on herself by herself, it was not a so-called self-mutilation.

Finally a majority of the muscles on her upper left muscles were removed, and her tendons had come to view.

It was a bit harder to remove with only one hand, but she managed.

Her ribs were next…

She hesitated much more this time as she faced the large white bones. After all, the body will likely react violently and losing ribs may lead to some structural problems in the future.

《 Survive. 》

The voice encouraged her again. That was all that needed to be said. Her body whimpered as it closed her eyes and braced itself.

She grasped a rib and pulled hard, before a snap could be heard. Her body gasped sharply as she threw the bone away. Her eyes gave way to unwanted tears falling through the closed eyes.

She then wiped her arm on her slacks before using them to clean her eyes. Less than ideal, but she had no choice. After all, there is not even water available to her to clean herself with.

The result was that the mechanical arm irritated her eyes with dust that it had caught from her slacks.

However, what she did wasn’t enough. The opening was not big enough. So with red irritated eyes, she grabbed another rib below the one she ripped out and snapped it off as well, before tossing the second rib aside.

It was just as painful and more tears came from the eyes. She blinked her eyes to expel the tears instead of irritating her eyes more with her arm.

Now she had finally created an opening.

She reached her arm into the gap made from the removed ribs and searched. She felt parts of insides being pushed and prodded by her arm, but managed to hold on expressionlessly.

She had felt around and touched her left lung. She could feel it weakly expanding and contracting, but it wasn’t her goal.

Her goal…

《 Survive. 》

The voice was louder than ever.

Ah. She has realized it.

In order to survive. She needed to remove…

Her arm darted across to a specific area between her lungs.

Her heart.

She gripped the pounding heart after removing a few obstacles inside her. The body jolted in pain, but the arm held firm.

This heart has been starting to hurt from the moment she had first fallen unconscious. She didn’t really know why, but she felt that the source of her misfortune came from… the heart.

She wanted nothing more than to tear it to shreds.

Therefore, in a violent manner that hit the ceiling of her rib cage and caused her body to shake in shock, she began tearing her heart out.

It was strenuous and difficult. Her body resisted. The arteries and large blood vessels protested as they stretched from the pulling. The pain receptors yelled for her to stop. The blood flooded in from her broken flesh.

She stopped for a moment. 

The body gradually calmed down after a minute. Her face was apathetic to all the senses that told her to cease her actions.

Then she laughed wickedly as she continued pulling with a greater and stronger force.

By the time the body reacted, the metallic arm successfully plucked out the heart. With the gushing of black blood from her opened up chest.

She smiled triumphantly as she stared at the heart she pulled out in her hand.

She had won this battle.

The heart was pitch-black, like it was a piece of fleshy charcoal. Pulsating and spewing some black blood. 

This was not her normal heart.

If one looked closely, they could see the teeth between the supposed atriums, and the small malformed “eyes” on some parts of the arteries. 

Oubliette threw the heart weakly to the side as she chuckled, hollow inside. 

It was a parasite.

She then gasped weakly, which proved of no use, as she lost control of her body.

She was going to die.

Even if she managed to kill the heart parasite that had formed inside her somehow, she was going to die without a heart. Though the blood loss was probably also going to finish the job.

It was impossible to survive.

That should naturally be the case for normal humans.

She could already feel her body shutting down as the blood stagnated and pooled around her insides. She coughed some blood and felt her breath weakening by the second.

She could only count on the fact…

That she wasn’t a human to survive.

Gradually, she felt tired and had to slowly close her eyes. Her vision succumbed to darkness. 

After some time in emptiness has passed, she could feel reels of light rolling in the dark. Pictures of another life played like a movie that “she” was a part of.

Though the reels only played a shadow movie. There wasn’t a name or appearance that could be recognized, though she could still see the roles, the things she learned, and the shadows of people acting in that life.

It was surreal to have the memories of someone be played like a movie.

Ignoring her feeling of absurdity, the reels started with “her'' having a great loving family. 

===

She would have done anything to protect her family and wished to live forever with them. Her parents bought her the latest toys, the best food, and the most tender care they could give to her.

They raised her, disciplined her, and became the pillars of her world.

When she was 13 years old, that thought had never changed. The feeling that her parents knew everything was an incredibly precious feeling. 

It was precious because it can shatter like glass once it makes contact with the ground called reality.

At the age of 13, her mother collapsed at work.

She was brought to the hospital while she was in school. There her mother was scanned and diagnosed with Leukemia, a type of cancer. 

Her mother’s cancerous bone marrow was making too few red blood cells, while producing too many white blood cells. 

Her father was in utter dismay. Her other family members also felt the despair in the situation and gave their condolences and prayers. 

The doctor explained that direct relatives should be tested for suitable bone marrow to be used to replace her mother’s bone marrow, in a treatment called Bone Marrow Transplant. In addition, the doctors explained that her mother would have to go through chemotherapy as treatment.

She hadn’t really understood what chemotherapy was, but she had thought about offering up her bone marrow. She wanted to help her mother. She was sure her mother would be proud of her if she did.

However, she was too young to be allowed to give her bone marrow.

So her mother’s siblings offered to have their bone marrow tested instead.

At that time everyone was anxious for her mother’s life, waiting for the results.

Except for her.

She had started to get into reading fantasy novels on her phone. So she was sure…

Her mother would be fine in the end.

After all, in the fantasy novels she read, all the sick characters got to heal, feel better, and live out the rest of their life healthy.

The test results came and there was a match like she expected. She could not help but sigh in relief and watch her father somewhat brighten his spirits along with the rest of the family.

It was great news, but a week later, another discovery of her mother’s condition came to light.

Her mother had stomach cancer.

Everyone’s faces dropped. She was also unable to help feeling a little upset.

She hated this plot twist. Why can’t her mother recover already and come back home?

She, despite knowing her mother would pull through in the end, tried her best to remain calm and relaxed. She comforted herself by the thought that the recovery of an important character is always accompanied by plot twists. 

She just had to believe that her mother would make it. 

That was all she could do.

Her mother was the main character after all. She could not possibly die due to the villain called cancer!

Though her conviction wavered over and over as she visited her mother more and more.

Her father would bring her to the hospital to visit mother, but he would often cry in her mother’s arms, while she herself looked blankly at her changing mother.

Her mother used to be round, energetic, and warm. However, in the hospital, she became skinny, lethargic, and freezing.

Not only that, but after chemotherapy, the long hair her mother had began falling off.

She felt like she was looking at a corpse.

Her mother’s skin was filled with purple spots and needle holes. Her mother’s body was easily bruised due to her cancer and the needles came from her changing IV drips.

She really started hating this thing called cancer. 

How could it turn her mother like this?

How dare it take her mother away from home?

She had so many feelings about the cancer in her mother’s body, but she couldn’t express them to her mother. She was too young to know how to express it.

Her mother fought cancer for 2 months. 

For 2 months she has witnessed her mother decay. The pillar in her life slowly crumbled as the feeling of having omnipotent parents disappeared.

She started questioning whether or not her mother would really make it after so long.

In the end…

The novels lied to her.

Or maybe it was she who lied to herself?

After 2 months, her father received a call from the hospital at midnight. She was sleeping at the time, but she heard her father curse and he almost threw the phone at the wall.

She grabbed her hand and told her to get in the car.

When she asked him why, he told her…

“We’re going to see mom one last time.”

Her mind blanked. She only emptily sat in the car as they drove to the hospital, like she was just a body without a spirit.

After that, she remembered seeing her family and some people she did not recognize in the waiting room she entered. 

She was the first to be comforted and consoled by everyone in the waiting room, with words like “you are strong” and “your mother fought valiantly.” Even the nurse and doctor came to console her.

Then they would go to comfort her mom’s family. Everyone looked heartbroken.

She didn’t know what she was feeling. She just felt that everything was grayer than usual, her heart also felt like it was tying knots inside herself.

She only felt her eyes water, but not spill.

Then her mother’s lifeless body was wheeled in.

===

The funeral was held. 

The coffin was lowered, but all throughout the process no one spoke and everyone only silently prayed for her mother.

The lawyers and inheritance was decided beforehand. She would be the main inheritor of all her mother’s possessions. Only some sentimental items would be given to her mother’s family, like her grandma, who was deeply hurt due to the loss of her mother.

It was a dreadful experience in her life.

So in order to escape, she delved to the internet for relief.

She laughed at funny videos, got angry at people’s stupidity, and grew weary from her lack of ability.

Her grades dropped and her father would slowly chide her to study, which would irk her in some unknown soft spots.

She hated her weakness.

Her powerlessness.

She wanted a place.

A place where she could never lose anything again!

Then she never woke up from her bed one day.

===

The reels have reached the end and became assimilated into the darkness. Then a string of messages reappeared in her mind.

[ Soul Purification Complete. ]

[ Soul No.1152007’s True Name being generated... ]

[ Generation Complete. ]

[ True Name: Oubliette Lacum Abyssum. ]

[ Bestowing Godhood... ]

[ Godhood《 Misfortune 》has been bestowed. ]

[ Chained God has been confirmed… ]

[ Memory Inheritance being drawn… ]

[ Drawing complete… ]

[ Tracking suitable body... ]

[ Tracking Complete. ]

[ Successfully resealed the Evil God’s influence. ]

[ Calculating Total Losses... ]

[ Approximately 78% of ready Gods have been completely corrupted... ]

[ Remaining Gods have been deemed sufficient to continue. ]

[ Transferring to suitable body... ]

[ Detected Chained God has successfully integrated the surroundings and has formed a Divine Ground. ]

[ The battle has officially begun. ] 

[ May the Gods be at odds. ]

[ All Gods have been assembled and are ready for Transfer... ]

Oubliette finally received her inherited memories and non-inherited memories back. If she had to assume the reason why she recovered these memories suddenly, it was probably something to do with the heart parasite that she ripped out of her body.

As for why she was still so conscious in this darkness that was like the place for the dead…

It was because she actually was not dead. 

She just had her eyes closed…

So she opened them, her gaze recognizing the familiar scenery of dead city street buildings and the cut view of walking skeletons. Though her main concern was how her body was doing.

She had found that she was…

Perfectly fine?

A little bewildered at feeling no pain or aches in her body, she rose into a sitting position and felt around her previously dying body.

Her skin returned to normal. Her torn out chest was also fine. She felt for her ribs and found all of them back into place. She then pressed her hand against her chest, the part where her heart was.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

Her heart recovered too. Oubliette’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Even her clothes were not soiled, even being cleaner than before. It was almost like everything she went through was but a dream.

She had questions, but decided to just accept this miracle.

The only evidence that the events before was not a dream was the fact the black heart was still lying on her side. Though it seemed quite some time had passed as the black heart had seemed deflated and no longer beated after it had lost its host.

Then she felt some instincts guiding her.

She felt that she needed to get something from the black heart before she moved on. So she slowly stretched out her hand and grabbed the dirty heart with her right hand.

The black heart felt dry and the black blood it leaked seemed to have already clotted up. A guiding feeling then directed her to smash the heart to the ground.

With a brutal sound of crushing organs, the black heart became deformed and splattered from the pressure of her hand slamming it down onto the pavement below with her body weight.

《■○!\◇`!¡¿☆!◇!•◇!▪︎◇!•¥¡¥•◇¿!》

After a small exhale of ominous noises like squeezing air from a balloon, the black heart slowly began disintegrating into dust afterwards. Some black particles flowed up and into her body from the black heart. 

She found that her body also began glowing in an ominous black that began to absorb the particles.

As her body took in the particles, she started receiving even more information and memories, though it wasn’t her memories. 

It was the memories that the black heart had, which seemed to contain some information in relation to the messages she saw before coming to Vallum. 

Out of habit, she decided to organize what she knew now with the black heart’s knowledge.

What she knew before was that she was indeed not a human and that she was a “Chained God” based on the messages she saw before.

Though now having the black heart’s memories, it would be more accurate to say she was a dormant Chained God.

From the knowledge she gained, she knew that Chained God was a type of supernatural being, the name being slightly deceiving. Though the Chained God is far from normal, due to being endowed with powers beyond mortals.

Chained Gods are “imprisoned,” or rather bound, in a place labeled as a “Dungeon.” The Chained Gods make their own Dungeons willingly.

As for the reason a Chained God would make themselves a Dungeon?

It’s because of the power of course.

In order to be able to fully activate their Godhood, they must make a Dungeon. 

The memories from the black heart contained some knowledge on Godhoods. In relation to Godhood is magic. One must know that magic also exists. 

It can be summed up like this: One must simply know that for every purpose and need someone has, a magic can be made to do it. Once a new magic is made with a new purpose, a new branch of magic forms on the Tree of Magic as well. Branches like… cleaning the bathtub, cursing your enemy’s first born child, healing stubbed toes, etc.

Godhoods are also part of this Tree of Magic.

Godhoods are the roots. The fundamental components that form after the successful forming of a new magic and branche in the Tree of Magic.

Her Godhood was Misfortune. Naturally, that means that she had a Godhood that represented the Roots of Misfortune in the Tree of Magic.

It meant that she was good at bringing and sensing misfortune.

However right now, she could only sense danger. She is unable to do anything else with her Godhood because of her dormant status as a Dungeon-less Chained God. 

Oubliette sighed as she looked at the desolate street around her as she continued ruffling through some information.

She turned towards the sky.

Then her eyes widened like saucers, like she saw UFOs in real life.

No, not even UFOs could make her like this…

“What the f-”

In the previously dark sky, a sky full of what seemed to be misty silhouettes of eyes and mouths blotted out the dark sky like foggy clouds. The eyes darted sporadically, the mouths opening and closing like they were talking. 

It was bizarre as hell.

She worked her brain hard to figure out what the hell was going on and came to only one conclusion.

She was in the abyss. And this is what the abyss is like.

After all, the letter did say that Vallum was gonna be swallowed by the Abyss…

She cursed her terrible luck. She just had to be spawned in a place like the abyss. She has found a pattern in her life and the inherited one. 

Oubliette found that she had terrible luck in both!

She felt exasperation on another level, she let out a sigh of resignation. After thinking for a few minutes, she felt that she’ll need to set a goal for herself. After all, being in the Abyss and having such phenomena happening probably meant she should hurry up with her actions.

What was she gonna do in the future?

She found the question hard to answer for a moment.

Only just a moment though.

“I just need to survive and…. Hmm…”

Just surviving here is likely not enough. After all, from the messages she recalls about other “Gods” and the phrase “May the Gods be at odds,” she can pretty much assume that her life was not going to be easy no matter what.

Especially since she is dumped in a ominous place called the “Abyss.”

Not too long ago, she had even almost lost her life to a parasite whom she suspects came about as a result of her being influenced by the “Evil Gods” mentioned in the messages. 

The pain of ripping her rotting chest was still fresh. 

This was all not to mention how clueless she was. She still is in the dark about things like:

Who gave her these messages?

What is her purpose in fighting other gods for?

What happened in Vallum?

What is the Abyss?

What are True Names?

Including a whole other tirade of other things. She still knew far too little. So not only survival, but she decided that information is also now a part of her goal. 

After some thought, she knew just the place where she could likely find some information. 

It was the center of the City of Vallum. Though she found her instincts telling her that the center of Vallum was dangerous.

It was her Godhood warning her. 

After she had removed the parasite, she found that the parasite seemed to have done much more than cause her body to look like a gray infected potato while it was inside her. It probably inhibited her Godhood to a large extent, causing her to have distorted memories, and develop a weak personality as well.

How did she know that the parasite must have inhibited her Godhood?

It was because whenever she thought about exiting the city, her instincts would begin frantically warning her against such an action. The feeling of danger far exceeded the danger inside the center of Vallum.

It was more than likely dangers are lurking everywhere in the Abyss. It was just that Vallum seemed temporarily safe. 

So she decided that leaving Vallum… was not an option.

Therefore she really only had the choice of going to the center of Vallum to extract information. Additionally, she planned on doing something else in the center of Vallum.

She was going to make her Dungeon there as well.

[ Detected Chained God has successfully integrated the surroundings and has formed a Divine Ground. ]

That message was related to the matter of forming her Dungeon.

The successful integration of the surroundings did not mean she had binded herself to the area yet and formed a Dungeon. She knew it just meant that she had become compatible with the surroundings.

The surroundings obviously refer to Vallum. So she had no choice but to choose somewhere in Vallum to make her Dungeon anyway, since she couldn’t leave.

As for forming a Divine Ground, she knew it just meant that the “Seed” of her Dungeon was ready. Divine Ground being just an umbrella term for all the different god types with abilities like her’s.

If she could plant her Dungeon in the center of the Vallum…

Perhaps she could take the city, resist against the Abyss itself, and live happily ever after.

The prospect excited Oubliette.

So she got to her feet and dragged the hanging wagon with Arrel on it with her. To the center of Vallum she will go.

As she walked, she sang a cheerful hum. 

It was in her nature to do things her own way and have fun doing it after some hard thinking.