Ardent Hope: Chainsaw Man x Male Reader Insert.

14. Her.

Hell wasn't exactly a physical place.

Sure enough, one could touch and feel its nature, the thick coursing blood of the rivers and the tender blades of grass that sprouted on the rough soils, and yet, everything felt odd about the place. The warm, restless breezes of wind that constantly blew  reminded every inhabitant of the plane of the unnatural of their whole existence, and the gentle strings that kept everything together. It wasn't exactly common knowledge, however, that Hell was not made up of the same things that formed the human realm.

Everything in Hell had a soul, as the place itself was composed of the same essence that forged them.

In Hell, space and time felt convoluted, and the physical barriers of the world didn't worked the same way they did on the human realm, as every aspect of its existence is, in part, a huge illusion. The place existed, sure, but whatever one would see on Hell would depended on what Hell itself would want you to see at that moment. What one would see on the distance, in the horizons, felt inconsistent, constantly shifting and wavering. Sometimes, you would look up to see your reflection on the impenetrable void of the skies, or look to your right only to see something completely different of what you had seen earlier, and still, you wouldn't feel lost at all as it still made sense in some strange way, as if you were forced to understand the complexity of the place itself and deemed it as natural.

Every blade of grass, every drop of the coursing river blood, every root of a tree along their own leaves, and every flower that blossomed upon the sunless sky was composed of the same essence of Hell, and these spiritual particles that constantly wavered and formed shape gave them life on their own.

Not 'Life' in the exact same way a human would understand it, however.

Nevertheless, she understood these concepts, and what they implied.

The honed metal of the blade was a living thing on its own, just like the red flower that rested tucked behind her ear the moment the edge of the sword slashed through her body, condemning her to be reborn on Earth. The cold slash of the metal pierced the flames, and she tried to cry for pain at that moment, something that was made impossible due to the sheer exhaustion. The shackles of the chains embedded in the stone that kept her captive restrained her body of every moment, forcing her to stay still as the blade slashed once again, this time ending her life once and for all.

The coldness of the fierce blade was a completely new feeling for her, who had never felt anything other than the warmth of her own soul, and the tender touch of the red flower that accompanied her. She hated this new feeling, as it felt devastating to its very core, an unnatural force opposing what she had always been, believed and felt.

She was aware of nothing but darkness at that moment, and felt herself floating on a pathless void of black seas. She could feel the way her tortured body shifted and wavered the same way the horizons in hell fainted every now and then, the unnatural shapes of what she had been once were now being siphoned away only to be expelled again into the nothingness. The chains embedded in her hands had been pulled from the rocks and were still present clasping her wrists, unfaltering to serve the task to which they were forged for. The scar that she would now forever carry, crossing her chest where the sharp edge of the blade had traced its path, felt now completely numb.

She woke up, after what felt an eternity, and upon opening her eyes, she gazed upon the night skies of this new foreign world. She saw the stars piercing through the night's canvas just as the moon did at their side, in all her glorious presence. The pale veil of light hypnotized her for minutes, and faltered at its presence. Thunderous clouds were approaching the skies, and rather than feeling their presence as something ominous, she appreciated the subtle touch of their presence on the vault. She tried to get up from the cold pavement, and fell to her knees once again still mesmerized.