Echoes droned within the mind of the high-school girl. Echoes of a frigid plunge, of a life once lived, of people loved and lost. All-encompassing darkness surrounded her, like a piece of paper submerged in ink. It felt nostalgic yet serene, like a floating leaf on a pond or the monotonous chorus of cicadas in a grove.

The black void molded to her naked form, cradling her body and fiery vermilion hair. She was alone, slumbering in the unearthly ever-stretching abyss. From within the infinite darkness, she could hear a faint voice in the distance.

“Sa… da…”

A single word spoken by a voice softer than a feather. Was that her name? Who was she anyway?

“Sa... da… Sada…”

A hint of memory flowed into her mind upon hearing the word. A memory that she could recall vividly, like the taste of gingerbread at Christmas time.

“What… where… I am…” the girl spoke out to the mysterious stranger.

“Look at me, Sada…” the voice replied back.

So she was Sada. She had to be. Who else could she be? The voice was kind and sweet like honey, the voice of a child.

Sada tried to open her eyes, but struggled like a newborn calf. There was a warmth around her, growing in intensity as the mysterious girl’s voice became more clear and precise.

“Look at me, Sada…” the little girl ordered again to the confused Sada, still lost in the sea of black.

She had to look now. It felt like a command she couldn’t refuse. Resisting the urge to keep her eyes closed, Sada cracked her eyes open slightly.

A bright light was in front of her, glimmering and overwhelming. Her vision was blurry and she quickly found herself turning away from the light’s intensity.

“Look at me.”

The voice of the light was more distorted now, bringing an uneasiness into Sada’s heart.

“No…I can’t…” Sada whispered. “Please don’t make me…”

Her plea fell on deaf ears. Sada quickly found her head turning against her will, controlled by something else.

“Please, no!”

The light’s warmth was growing to an uncomfortable temperature as her skin began to burn. With her head now fully turned straight ahead, she fought to keep her eyes shut tight.

However, this unknown force had other plans.

Her eyes were forced open against her will, as if a pair of unseen fingers were prying the lids apart.

The blurriness of the light cleared as Sada was forced to obey its command. What she saw horrified her to her very core.

“Look at me, Sada… Look at me now.”

The light was a blistering flame. No, it was a body engulfed in flame. The charred form of a child stood at its center, her skin blackened and melted away to reveal bone. Any hair that once rested on her head had wicked away, leaving behind a skull of curling cinders and flesh.

The burning girl laughed, her voice distorted and crackling as if the vocal cords in her throat had already burst and turned to charcoal.

“God, no!! Please! Someone!” Sada cried out, unable to look away as the flaming body approached her with an outstretched arm.

The girl’s fingers were skeletal and thin like burnt matchsticks. With a reverbing and hellish noise, the girl rested her infernal hand on the side of Sada’s neck.

Sada screamed out in pain as if she had been branded with an iron. The girl’s fingers dug and raked across her neck, causing it to engulf in fire.

“I told you one way or another, Sada…” the girl said, looking into Sada’s eyes as her ocular sockets erupted into flames.

“… Now... Arise.”

A loud crash of thunderous lightning ripped across the tumultuous sky above, causing Sada to awaken from her nightmare. Her body leapt forward as she sat up, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.

Immediately, she knew something was wrong. A wet slime clung to her back and thighs. It wasn’t sweat. Looking down, she saw that she was entirely naked; slathered in a sticky crimson substance.

—What the…?

Thoughts of confusion went through her brain at a mile a minute. Covering her breasts with cold arms, she looked with widened eyes at her surroundings while lightning streaked constantly across the dismal skies above.

All Sada could see was what appeared to be a marsh with barren, misshapen trees and dark lumps littered across the swampy muck. In the horizon about a kilometer away was a towering cliff side that stretched around the swamp, enclosing it like a ring. She was inside a quarry or pit of some kind, with a massive gate of iron in the far distance. On each side of the gargantuan gate was a large animalistic statue that she couldn’t make out the features of.

“Hello?” Sada weakly called her, her throat and head aching.

No one replied.

She had to assess the situation and fast. Someone must have kidnapped her, taken her to this bizarre location and stripped her of her pajamas for some kind of ulterior motive. Still, her head ached and just trying to think too hard caused a strong migraine to ripple throughout her head.

“Agh, shit!” she swore, placing a hand to her forehead in pain. Upon doing so, she felt something foreign. An object jutting from her head.

Her pupils dilated as her body froze in place. Only her hand moved, gingerly inspecting around her forehead to assess the object she couldn’t see. It was some kind of horn located on the right side of her brow, just at the hairline. The tip of this peculiar spike was sharp and honed like a dagger, only increasing Sada’s confusion and fear.

“What the hell is going on…” she asked herself, not expecting an answer back.

Looking up at the skies above, she saw it was partially blocked out by what appeared to be a massive inverted dome suspended in the sky by multiple links of rusted chains. From outside the dome’s location above her, she could see several thick grey and purple clouds consistently illuminated with flashes of lightning.

Everything was wrong. It was nightmarish. Coming to the conclusion that she was still dreaming, Sada slapped herself.

“Come on, wake up! Wake up! Wake up goddammit!”

She repeated the mantra until she began to break down into shivering tears as anxiety rattled her heart. Before she could start sobbing, Sada shook her head and tried to remain focused.

—I have to escape from here... There has to be a way!

Standing up, the sanguine mud of the swamp clung to her lower body like glue. It had the disgusting acrid scent of rusted copper and decaying roadkill. It matted her orange hair which normally hung down to her backside, causing it to become clumped and adhered to her skin. She tried her best to block the smell from her mind as she surveyed the situation more thoroughly.

The surrounding environment left her trapped in this circular swamp, with the only means of escape being to climb the cliffs or head through the massive gates half a kilometer away.

From the look of it, the cliffs were incredibly steep at a near ninety-degree angle. There was no way she’d be able to scale it without climbing gear, which as far as she could tell, was lacking at the moment.

However, after squinting her eyes, she could see several deep grooves in the cliff side. Perhaps that could warrant an investigation? First however came the obvious solution: the massive gates.

Summoning her courage, she prepared to make the trek over to the exit. Just as she attempted to lift her foot, a bloodcurdling scream rang out in the distance behind her.

“Oh my god!” a woman cried out in fear. “What the hell is this?!”

Sada’s heart had nearly leapt out of her chest at hearing the scream. Soon after, another voice rang out from her right side in the far side of the quarry.

“Hey!” an older man screamed out. “Do you know who the hell you’re messing with here!? Show yourself!”

Sada looked out to where the voices were coming from, spotting several of the odd lumps from before moving and standing.

Were these other people? A sense of relief washed over her after realizing she was no longer alone. At the same time though, it increased her dread after concluding whoever had done this was capable of such a large-scale abduction.

The more people called out to the voices springing up in the swamp, the louder the screaming and confusion became. From what Sada could see, everyone was just as naked and vulnerable as she was. At this point, she was less concerned about her decency and more about uncovering the truth of their collective predicament.

Sada spotted a few people waking up from their slumber nearby and immediately tried to rush over to see if they needed help. Making her way through the muck was awkward and nauseating. At this point, she realized the substance her feet were sinking into was coagulated blood, but she preferred to think happy thoughts. For now, she decided the stinking glop was something pleasant; settling on strawberry jam.

“Hello!” she called out to the waking individuals meters ahead. “My name is Sada, do you know why we’re here? Please tell me you know what’s going on??”

She tried to keep the tone in her voice calm, despite everything internally being the opposite. As she approached, she could tell that the figure sitting up was a young male from a quick glance to his groin. Pushing aside her embarrassment, she waded through the blood and outstretched her hand to him.

“Come on, we need to get going!” she said in an authoritative voice.

The teen boy looked groggy and tried to process his surroundings, looking up at Sada before blinking a few times. A blush bloomed across his cheeks as he tried to cover himself with one hand while reaching out to grab her arm with the other.

“I-I’m Jimmy… What the hell is going on, Sada? Everything is so crazy… and you… you have a-a horn growing out of your head!” he said with a trembling, confused voice as others stood up around them.

Over the growing cacophony of screaming and pleading voices, Sada tried to raise her own to answer him. It wasn’t long before she noticed that the boy she was helping up had spiked horns growing out of his wrists. Not only that, but a peculiar tattoo was embroidered on the boy’s neck.

“I have no goddamn clue! You have shit growing out of your arms!” she said as she helped to pull him up. “Nearly stabbed me with them!”

The boy looked at his arms and then around at his surroundings in fear.

“Are…are we…” the teen boy said before trailing off, not wanting to finish his sentence.

“Shut up, come on! We gotta head toward that gate!” Sada demanded as the others around them looked up at her and nodded shakily.

Letting go of his arm, Sada turned and saw that several people were already running through the swamp and towards the large gate. A few lucky folk had reached its double doors, sealed shut by a massive iron bolt passing through the locks. They began pounding on the gates with their fists, shouting pleas of help or obscenities at nothing. The two large and imposing statues on either side of the gates inspired a feeling of subtle dread within Sada as she gazed upon them.

Without warning a deafening crack of thunder boomed throughout the skies, silencing the screaming crowd of now nearly one-hundred confused people. This thunderclap was different than the others before it, louder and causing a gust of hot wind to blow throughout the swamp.

Collectively, the swamp fell mysteriously quiet as Sada felt something within her heart becoming chilled by the second.

The silence was broken by a male voice: monotonous, gravelly and deep yet calm in its presentation. It was like the words of a demon spilling from the lips of an angel. The voice rang out from above them without any form to accompany it, its words reverberating within the bones of everyone present.

“I bid ye welcome, lambs of the accursed Creation. May thee find sanctuary within this foreign setting, removed from time and life.”

Sada’s pupils shrank as the unknown voice filled her with misery rather than hope like it claimed. It was something of great intent, something that had no comprehension.

—… Is this Hell?

“Bear witness to this land of nothing,” the voice continued. “This hell hewn from the folly of man. It is here thy previous evils are made clear. It is here thy blood shall be spilt with glorious atonement.”

In the distance, Sada noticed the statues guarding the gate begin to subtly move as those around them froze in terror.

“Ye Reprobates, collected to inaugurate these most hallowed trials, the Rings of Rebirth, rejoice! For what the Nullifuge have given thee is another chance. Another life within this limbo, hidden from the god begotten of the godless.”

The statues twisted and breathed in, their massive animalistic hulking forms dwarfing the cowering humans before them.

Both of the demons were a chimera of humanoid and animalistic features. A repulsive menagerie of bone, fur, limbs and scales formed their bodies. The first of the two had the bloated head of an ox, as if it had drowned and swollen twice its original size. The ox demon’s body was riddled with purple tumors and bruised sores. It no longer had any legs, only severed stumps. However, the ox possessed six muscular arms; four of which were folded and chained behind its back. With two free hands, it reached into the bloody swamp and unearthed a giant rusted axe that was the length of a bus.

The other demon was more sickly and bony, looking like the demented crossbreed covered in shaggy fur. With the body of a horse and the head of a wolf, it appeared starved and feeble as it fell into the red waters on all fours. The feral demon had its eyes wrapped in yellowed bandages, serving as makeshift blinders that hung from the towering antlers on its head. Its lips curled back, revealing multiple lines of jagged, pointed teeth as thick saliva dripped into the swamp.

“Gozu and Mezu, executioners of the unworthy. Thy salvation lies on the cusp of despair, ye forsaken dead. With this knowledge, perish or struggle… for it is now thy only fate.”

Sada’s terrified mind flooded with questions bearing no answer. The only thing that mattered now was her survival.

With a final echo of the demonic commanding voice disappearing into the wind, the ox and horse demons let out a horrifying wail of bleating whinnies and choking screams. The swamp began to erupt into a flurry of chaos and fear as the demonic horse Mezu leapt forward, snatching up two people in its jaws. With a bone-crunching snap, the torsos of the unfortunate duo split in two.

Like all hope, the sealed gate before the people began to sink into the stone walls. In mere seconds, it had disappeared without a trace.

Intestines and blood spilled out from Mezu’s hungry mouth as humans in front of where the gate once stood fled for their lives. Mezu let out another ear-piercing screech as Gozu the ox tensed his arms. With a mighty swing of his axe, Gozu cleaved through a fleeing row of terrified people; sending pieces of them flying across the swamp.

The words of the infernal child from Sada’s nightmare resonated within her mind as she witnessed the horror before her.

The game had begun.