Failure.
The poisonous taste of sulphur filled Bell's mouth as he limped across the ashen burning landscape of Phlegethos. The sky was alit with a raging storm of lightning and fire that spanned the endless plane of Hell. Flames licked and danced around him, threatening to burn him to a crisp.
By the way they danced and flared around him, one might think these flames had a will of their own. They wrapped and twisted around him, yet they could not hurt him no matter how they danced and jeered at him.
Yet Bell still limped on. His right arm was no more than a stump, cut off at the bicep many many years before.
His clothes, or what was left of them hung in tatters off of his frame, revealing the corded muscles beneath. His frame was that of a man burdened by the world.
His body began to droop from exhaustion, and his gaunt face relayed only regret.
His eyes once full of hope and naive determination now stared forwards empty and hollow.
They were the eyes of a dead man. The eyes of the last man of his world.
Far ahead of him, deep in the depths of a burning sea of flames lay his only hope.
A gyser of flames burst from the ground nigh inches from his face, yet he paid it no mind.
"I..have to keep...going. For...everyone...that I...tried to protect" he murmured, unable to even speak. The words fought against him, as if even speaking would kill him.
Images flashed through his mind. Images that he would rather not see. Not now. Not ever again.
Hestia's headless body impaled on a spear as black as night, limply displayed as yet another trophy that adorned Belial's throne room. Golden blood had pooled on the black marble beneath it. Each drop sizzling with a violent hiss as it struck the unholy ground.
Then, he was on his back, a long metal bolt like that of a ballistae mere inches from his face, blood soaking it. Her blood.
She had saved him with the price being her own life. Her beautiful smile that she rarely showed to anyone but him now a scream twisted in agony.
Aiz had died to save him.
It was four years after the invasion force from The Nine Hells began in Earnest.
Her body fell to the ground in front of him, propped slightly up by the spear like bolt that pierced through her completely.
Not her. No. Not now
His will began to falter. His legs became weak and infirm. Stumbling forward, Bell tried to walk forward. He tried to continue, but his mind was lost in a foggy world far beyond the one he had inhabited.
"Fierna" he choked out as he felt the grasp of the Demon Queen ensnare his mind.
Visions flashed through his mind. Visions of him trying to save everyone. Visions of him dying. Visions of his loved ones being sodomized and tortured by hordes of wicked demons. The wails and pleads for mercy only met by more anguish.
"This. This can't be" he barely managed to groan out as he fell to his knees unto the burning ash that blanketed the ground.
There were countless worlds where he tried and failed to stop the Demon Lords from bringing the Mortal realm and Godly Tenkai into the Nine Hells, where even the awesome might of the Gods was useless in the face of the overwhelming power that sought to subjugate them.
It was at this moment when all hope seemed lost, that a Greater God from the great beyond took pity on Bell, and gave him an offer.
Unknown to his tormentor, Bell was offered one chance.
"Bell Cranel. I am Pelor. You have strived to save your world, your Gods, your people, and your love across all of reality. I am moved by your determination, your hope, and your courage. I offer you this once and only once.
I will turn back the hands of time for you, back before all of this happened. I only ask one thing in return. Save your world" the God spoke in his head in a soft, yet sharp voice, as comforting as it was judgemental.
Bell reached up to a soft golden light that washed over him.
A golden hand of light reached down through the burning storms and grasped Bell's.
" I accept" Bell weakly moaned as the last flame of his life drained from him.
"I wish you success" the voice spoke in his mind before everything went white.