Don't expect more updates this decade. Yes, I did it just for the joke.
Hell was a physical space, the narration exposited, and this aspect was what allowed the demons to torment the dead. The universe's spiritual laws sent deserving souls down there and incarnated those people on arrival, for the demons to work on them.
That was the way of things both before and the Splintering, one-hundred-thousand years ago. The only real change the event caused was that the souls of mortal creatures were sent to a random afterlife realm.
Magma had other thoughts to occupy her at the moment, though. She currently sat on her balcony, looking out at the endless terrain and clear red skies.
"It looks strikingly normal, in light of the recent events." Memories of the wars surfaced to her.
Within one memory that crossed her mind, the dark lady was in Tartarus and locked in combat with the Hell lord Pluto. They exchanged blasts of hellfire and evaded the other's shots.
Other battles had raged at the same time across that underworld. Botis the snake had led sixty legions into battle, to seize Cocytus. Between his soldiers being individually stronger and of a greater number, they won handily.
Gaap and his legions were tasked with securing Phlegethon, while Baal had led his to claim Lethe. At the same time, Paimon had taken over Styx and Balamon had conquered Acheron. As well, Astaroth, Allocer, and Zagan had gone to secure different regions of Tartarus.
After that war, Mephisto had performed the ritual to reverse the Splintering - the process had been quick work, and space had almost turned inside out in a wasteland in Hell's north reaches to let Tartarus's continent have a place. The River of Amnesia had proven particularly useful for him, with the next week's damned Kree.
Magma dismissed the memories, lamenting the lack of an audience to brag to. "Dozens of Hells and all their creatures, now ours."
She paused in the thought when she heard footsteps. Looking behind it, she saw a grinning Malevolence.
"Ah, was that today?" Magma asked.
"Indeed, mother," Male confirmed, eagerly.
Once she was through the portal, Malevolence stared. Mortals littered the green meadow, as far as she could see - Shi'ar, Kree, Entemen, Calurnians, more and more, and all laid lifeless in the grass.
Behind her, Magma stepped into the grassland. She decided to fill her in.
"Welcome to the Plains of Regret, Malevolence. This is Berith's domain, where the damned are chained in their own guilt and regrets. It is one of the places for emotional punishment."
Malevolence listened with interest, eyes studying the meadow. "How many are there here?"
"Millions, I suppose," Magma answered indifferently. "Numbers has never interested me."