Author's Notes -

Welcome to a new fic I'm writing. I have at least 30k words ready for editing for this fic.

Anyway, this is the Prologue. First world is going to be a crossover.

This story will have a System.

Don't expect this story to be as dark as the first chapter. Honestly it's going to be rather 'light hearted' compared to this chap.

Comment on changes/edits I should implement.

Thank you for reading!

- Update 10/8/2021

- Prologue -

The storm is here.

I should have known better than to be outside. The raging winds are picking up, but I couldn't risk destroying my patio furniture.

I hurried to secure the grill away from the rain. I set it against the side of my house as a faint foreboardness lingers in the air. However, I ignore it in favor of saving my stuff.

This early hint rises in danger, but goes unnoticed as my firepit still needs attending to.

In the middle of the patio, I move a tarp to cover it. However, pain pierces my chest which causes me to trip.

I catch myself against the fire-bricks in order to support myself. Hot needles puncture my heart the next instant as blood starts to flow from my mouth.

Any hope I had left is now gone.

Breathing becomes harder and the rain washes my thoughts away. I struggle to rise to my feet, but I only end up stumbling instead. Falling elbow deep into the ash pit.

Pain quickly grew into agony. My chest convulses without any control while the storm intensifies.

I couldn't hear myself in the wind. All my cries were drowned out in the torrent as drops of water made their way into my lungs. Choking away any chance I had left.

I couldn't even breath.

Hyperventilating… is the least of my concerns. The warmth inside me is also quickly vanishing.

Why has it become so cold?

The rain saps away the lingering tingles of heat inside me as I begin to suffocate.

Light flashes in the clouds above as my awareness could only linger for a mere moment more. An explosion rocks the world and a headache follows. I struggle to keep my eyes open through the downpour.

The entirety of my situation overloads my senses.

The pain is a foregone thought as my mind clears, but reality differs from my new found state of tranquility.

The rubber soles of my shoes melt to the stone floor, the firepit lays scattered amongst the ground and blood flows unhindered from my chest.

It is a miracle that I could even stand back up at this point. However, the slightest twitch afterwards sends me tumbling to the floor. My feet slip from underneath me as my face nears the stone basin for the last time.

Before long, everything goes blank.

Whatever happened next, I couldn't possibly have known.

The burning sensation comes and goes. A deep chill worms its way to my core. I succumbed to the unending frost which threatens my very soul to shatter.

What… is… going on?

Numbness takes control. It might have been for hours or perhaps it was for days since I felt only the empty darkness.

Time held little meaning in this limbo state of nothingness. No amount of struggling on my part could fight against this inevitable tide which threatens to pull me under.

I wish for the pain to come again. I want to feel at least something to ground my thoughts in this new monotone existence I found myself in. All my other senses have been shot for weeks, and I'm afraid my mind may be the next to follow.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, my thoughts still persist. However, I am a prisoner inside my own body.

I don't even know how long I've been here at this point, but with every moment, I am inching closer and closer to oblivion. I wish for my confinement to finally end.

I can't… stop… move…

Terror has built up over the days. Weeks have thus turned into months.

This state I'm in is a new form of torture.

My desperation grows with every passing second in this prison. Every day I fought harder than the last. Against the unknown forces whom held me in firm restraints.

This void will not be the end of me.

I may be numb beyond repair and that my thoughts are now sluggish, however, I refuse to remain a second more in this eternal confinement.

I can feel the end drawing closer. Whatever is bound to happen, I welcome it with open arms.

With a dwindling consciousness I latch onto this hope. No matter how my mind frayed and fragmented over time, I kept true to this belief. I used every fiber of my being to remain whole.

I will overcome this tribulation. I will bring forth the relief I desperately crave for in this delirious existence I now inhabit.

Slowly but surely, I can feel the pain overcoming the numbness. No matter how much I wanted to scream, I refused to stop my endeavor.

I may already be beyond sanity at this point. However, I will do everything in my power to claim every inch I need in order to escape this damnation.

I hope that by the end... my desperation proves to be enough.

The darkness tires to whisk me away and the void threatens to consume me whole.

The encroachment of my core has been put to a stand still.

The gods or perhaps they were entities, have all failed to drag me to my demise.

At every opportunity I refused their advances and brought forth my own conclusion.

With every kick and swing, I clawed my way through my bleak existence. My arms floundered in the darkness for purchase, though all efforts have ended in vain.

The coldness is still present, but the pain is now a dull thought in the back of my mind.

What felt like years, is when the change occurred. My mind has started to stir from its slumber.

W-where am I? …Am I dead? Alive…. or somewhere in between?

The first coherent thought in ages causes my eyes to flash open.

No longer is there the void which has kept me company for all these years. Instead there is the light I have desperately craved for. A welcome sight for my bloodshot eyes.

I cried in bliss. I refused to shut my eyes. I can't afford this sight to vanish right before me.

A river of white surrounds me on all sides. The pressure it exerts, threatens to push me back into my slumber.

I refuse to drift away into the void. I will never allow this to happen again.

My mind overcomes the lure of sleep. I kept myself on point and focused on the surroundings to keep this urge at bay. To keep myself alert and awake.

Where am I?

Why am I here?

Multiple questions come and go, each lacking answers of their own. However, they have allowed some sort of control to be restored over my limbs, before long I could finally swim.

I move upwards in hopes of escaping the threat which lurks beneath.

The water proves hard to maneuver through. It felt thick as every push was like moving through syrup. The fluid stuck to my limbs and was beyond gross.

I dearly hope I'm not going to emerge in some sort of alien hatchery. I don't want to think about my possibilities of survival at that point.

Eventually I pull myself to the surface. The threat of the abyss is now a distant problem. With some distance between us, I can feel it's corrosive tingles slipping away.

On the surface I float and gave a proper look around. I'm inside a cavern, a place with an underground river which has no end in sight.

Its a surreal experience, but new fear quickly overcomes me.

The white fluid isn't water… I didn't hatch….

Is-Is this the afterlife?

The only place which matches my memory is, The Styx River.

I take a double take just to be sure. However, I didn't need to search far. Right below me is my answer.

A silhouette of vague faces made up the water. Of humanoid visages who are in a constant state of agony as I lay upon them.

Terror quickly replaces my fear.

Holy Shit! I gotta get out of here! I will not stick around and join them in their unending torment!

This is the river of the damned. An unholy place which houses the lost souls on their journey to oblivion.

I don't plan on rejoining them anytime soon.

The unconscious souls cry as I swim across them. Their fragile egos mesh with one another as they sink below the tide and away from sight.

The edge of the river closes in.

Red sandstone covers the banks as I pull myself onto dry land. I flop upon the porous stone and heave for fresh air.

In the distance are faint howls of the departed. The screams of phantoms which echo to where I lay at rest.

Even here I saw no end or beginning of the Styx River. The silver waters continued unheeded by my departure as the souls steadily flowed across the brimstone cavern. It must have been billions of untold individuals who pass me every minute to fill this small section of the cavern alone.

Finally I rein in my terror as I gave myself a much needed break.

I'm alive, but in hell.

Though I took slight comfort in knowing there is an afterlife after all. That at least one religion proves to have held true.

Sadly, my Catholic heritage leaves me more than a bit hollow inside.

I too wanted to be in my own version of the afterlife. I did not want to remain here in Greek Hell from the plethora of options available. There has to be alternatives which are better than this.

Before my internal crisis took hold, I saw an object out in the distance. On the other side of the River of Souls is an old boat. A vessel floating across the silver glow of the water.

I didn't dare to run and hide. All I could do is sit still and await its arrival.

I firmly refuse to enter Hades any further than this point. I do not desire to meet the monstrosities who may lurk in the darkness. At least from here, I could clearly see what awaits me.

Danta will have to adventure alone through this plane of hell by himself.

As my future is already set in stone.

The ashen boat arrives. It is a miracle that this rotten ship could make it across the river. It's truly a mystery how a bunch of souls are able to keep such a vessel a float.

Even I do not know how I made it across either.

However, call it instinct or something else, but it's appearance has sealed my fate. Any prior chances I had to run have now been forfeited.

A decrypted skeleton disembarks the ruined ship. The figure wears a black tattered cloth which contrasts the milky white bones hidden underneath.

Charon?

This is the sole name which comes to my mind. It could possibly be this figure's name. Or at the very least this being should be associated with the legend which the stories have foretold.

I didn't dare to move. Whatever this entity is, I knew it was here for me. With that thought, the skeleton stops in place. With only a short distance between us.

It's eyes are hidden underneath the black robe, with it's gaze clearly remaining unseen, However, I can just 'feel' it has been clearly looking at me.

Seconds felt like minutes under our stare down. Time didn't seem to follow the normal rules during our confrontation. Those empty sockets were starting to suck me in.

It came abruptly.

Without my knowledge, I found myself somewhere wholly different. But, my location has yet to change…

Though I may have not moved from my original spot, the place I am now, felt devoid of all life. As if the skeleton has sucked the very essence out of the cavern.

No noise has come since then.

All the howls and screams of pain are absent. As if everything I heard earlier is an illusion. Something which came from within me all along. A conjecture that formed from my own subconscious fear.

I felt the void and the darkness tugging on me once again.

However, the skeleton moves at this very moment. The suction I felt disappears right after.

With every step, it gave no inkling of sound. It's bony hand rises from beneath the robe with unnatural elegance. As if the Reaper has performed this rite once before.

My soul tenses from the pull which I instinctively fought against. However, an unknown force stops me in place. No matter how much I try to struggle, my body refuses to obey.

I am helpless. A lamb who awaits to be slaughtered.

This is it… At least, I will know who is to be my executioner.

I stared unflinchingly. I didn't move even when its fleshless fingers touch upon my chest. I didn't jerk, neither did I cry as I felt something was wrong.

Eventually I gave in to my curiosity and looked down.

Where my heart should have been is a gaping hole. An injury which now gave me slight pain.

How did I not notice earlier?

Maybe the numbness dulled my senses more than I originally thought. However, I should have been dead if I had no heart left to pump blood.

Yet I am here. Alive and in a situation beyond what I could possibly understand.

I am clearly out of my depth.

At this moment, the cold recedes in its entirety.

The open cavity closes as my wound heals.

I stumble in shock as my flesh knits itself close. I turned to look upon the figure, but my eyes found themselves slipping upwards.

I finally saw what hid underneath it's cowl….

A pair of empty eye sockets met my gaze. A primordial visage gave off a presence of 'Finality' as he stared back.

The mind shouldn't have looked. I was not meant to have known.

This thing was to remain forever unraveled. The mystery it held should have never been understood. No matter how much my conscience glimpses upon the 'truth' I was not meant to acknowledge it.

My mortal coil fractures upon its discovery. To have simply defined what 'it' possibly could have been has threatened me with destruction.

Somehow… someway,,,

I came back from the brink of the event horizon. However, I am forever changed, yet I do not understand 'how?'.

A simple glimpse scarred my soul…

I-I am no longer who I was a moment ago.

This epiphany scares me.

Before I could break down, and suffer the consequences of the change, everything came to an abrupt halt.

The world I knew of is no longer.

One second I was there and the next I wasn't.

And with that, overwhelming pain came to welcome me in its entirety.

Post Author Notes -

Well the rough draft for this was only 1k words, but it felt a little short. So it ended up being 2.5k lol. After this, I will introduce the world and build it up rather nicely. I plan to have the system introduced by then too. However, I think I'll leave my updates with 2.5k increments. Otherwise you guys will have to wait a little bit too long for an update.