“Why aren’t we doing anything?” Ekaksh asked

  “I’m just waiting for the right moment,”

  “When your right moment will come?” he asked, “When we will be out of hell?”

  Ivaan said nothing and glanced around, “Okay, this is the right moment, are you able to see that crack in that wall on the right side?” said Ivaan

  “yes”

  “I’m going in there; you just have to bring him to that place when I get there.”

  “But how will I bring lord of Krimisha?” he asked, “he won’t trust me.”

  “He will trust you,” said Ivaan, “just tell him that there’s a problem in getting out of this place, in which I need his assistance, he won’t refuse.”

  “Ok, you go,” he said, “I’ll bring him there.”

  Ivaan put his hand on his shoulder and then walked off.

  You can do it; you can do it. I have to just convince lord of Krimisha that Ivaan needs help, and from there, Ivaan will handle the situation.

  He glanced all around, and when he found that Ivaan was not there anymore, he ran inside the crowd and went to the lord of Krimisha, walking in the middle of the crowd.

  “What is it?” asked lord of Krimisha, “Why have you come here?”

  “There’s some problem for us in getting out of this place,” he said, “Ivaan needs your help.”

  “Okay,” said Lord of Krimisha, “where is he?”

  He pointed towards the crack in the wall on the right side.

  Lord of Krimisha looked at him and said, “Make sure that no soul leaves this place until I come back.”

  “As you command, sire,” he said while bowing in front of him, and the lord walked away in that direction, all the souls started covering him while he was walking. When he reached the opening in the wall, all the souls cleared his way so that he could enter through the crack.

  Now it’s all up to you, Ivaan, lord of Krimisha shouldn’t succeed.

  It was a dark place, covered with dead trees with no leaves; they were thick and big. Lord of Krimisha moved forward. When he walked some distance, he found Ivaan standing near a tree.

  “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Do you know this place, sire?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Before all of these 28 hells, there was one hell. It was dark, a forest without shade,” said Ivaan while turning around and moving away from the lord. The lord moved forward, and then Ivaan stopped and stared at him, “Interesting phase, isn’t it?”.

  “Stop reciting the history of the world, where I have lived since the beginning.”

  “This is the only part left of that forest, before these hells were carved out,” said Ivaan while touching the tree, “they are as old as you, most probably older. I thought you should see this place, maybe it’s the last and only place you are going to see.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Ivaan, why have you called me here?” said the lord, “and what’s the problem?”.

  Ivaan stepped forward.

  “Are you expecting me to ask you that silly question?” said the lord with a smirk

  Ivaan’s eyes widened, and he stared at him silently.

  “What you are thinking is fully accurate,” said the lord, “I don't know what your intentions are and what side you are on.”

  “Which side am I?”

  “The same side which you exploited and then sent to hell for punishment,” said the lord, “and now you are pretending that you are with them.”

  “I’m not pretending,” said Ivaan, “I made a mistake and I learned.”

  “Is that so?” said the lord with a smile

  “How did you get to know about this?” asked Ivaan, “Was he on your side from the start?”

  “By he, you mean your newly found ally Ekaksh, I wish he was that smart,” said the lord, “but no, he isn’t the one. I think you already know him.”

  “The person who wanted my position and considered himself more capable,” said Ivaan.

  “Which he was,” said the lord, “you were also capable, if you didn’t ruin your chance.”

  “Ruined my chance,” said Ivaan with a laugh. “How did I ruin it when I never wanted it?”

  “Oh, please, don’t lie to yourself,” said the lord, “when you came to hell, we all knew what you were and what you want, so hiding behind the lies is not gonna work.”

  “That was then, and this is now.”

  “Oh, is that so?” said the lord, “You got enlightened after coming to hell…hahaha…wake up…stop dreaming. You can’t redeem yourself because there’s nothing like redemption. You feel like you did something good, but it isn’t going to change the bad things you did in your past, so don’t waste your time by following a false idea.”

  “This is the difference! Between you and me!” said Ivaan, “I don’t care about my redemption, and I don’t care about my soul. The only thing I care about is those who are going to suffer the same fate as me if you succeed.”

  “Do whatever you want to do…it is going to be a waste of time, anyway,” said the lord

  “I no longer need to do anything…because I already did it.” Said Ivaan, he took two steps back and smirked, but the lord was confused by his action. The lord ran towards the opening in the wall, but the branches of the trees surrounding him got extended and started moving, as if they had a life of their own. All the branches tied him at that place.

  “What?!!!” said the lord

  “Oh, I forgot to add,” said Ivaan, “Don’t waste your energy in trying to break these branches, because you can’t.”

  “I’m a divine entity,”

  “So they are, much older than you, they are here since the beginning of hell,” said Ivaan with a smile, “they are the strongest thing present in hell, capable of holding you forever. Have a great day, sire.” And Ivaan ran towards the opening of that place.

  “What’s happening!! Ivaan!” the lord screamed, and then he noticed small sigils carved on the trees holding him.

  “Where’s the lord of Krimisha?” asked a man from the crowd, “How much longer do we have to wait?”

  “he’ll be coming soon,” said Ekaksh

  “Why do we listen to you?” said the man, and all the crowd started cheering. The whole place started shaking, and small stones started falling on the ground.

  “All of you!! Calm down, lord of Krimisha is coming soon.”

  What should I do? Ivaan didn’t tell me how to control them or what to say to them. He didn’t even tell me he would come back or not; there was no escape plan.

  The crowd started running towards the portal. “What happened? Where are you all going?”

  As the crowd moved away from his front, he saw all the lords of hell coming towards them carrying heavy weapons.

  What the hell!!! This was not in the plan!!! Ivaan, where are you!!

  Where’s the path to the outside? Ivaan was glancing at all the paths. I didn't know that it was easy to get inside this place but difficult to get outside, but still, I chose this place; it looks like I had lost my mind then.

  All the lords started running towards the souls, and the souls, running away from them.

  I didn’t think that something like this would happen, even though Ivaan can’t do anything in this situation. I hope he would have succeeded in his plan; otherwise, all the efforts we made would be wasted.

  The lords of hell were attacking all the souls, and the souls were screaming in pain and agony. Ivaan heard the screams from inside the place,

  “There’s definitely something wrong outside,” said Ivaan, “I need to get out of this place.” Ivaan started running in the direction from where the screams were coming from.

  Ivaan has still not come; I cannot wait for him any longer; I have to escape this place.

  Ekaksh ran from that place by hiding behind the crowd to escape through the lords of hell, but one of them spotted him running.

  “Hey, you! Where do you think you are going?” said one of the lords, and he threw his weapon, which was an axe.