Layers.

This is the Tod Layer.

Layer 8: Tod

by

Hatoralo

The dead were staring at them. Corpses, corpses everywhere. Not just from humans but also from animals, insects, fish and every other lifeform that existed. Many of these were alien in experience and Lucy and Lana though that these had to be aliens.

"Lucy, I think I saw some of them mo-"

"Ignore them," ordered Lucy who dug through earth and shoveled dead bodies aside. "They don't move. It is all a trick, Lana. Hell can touch us physically so all these dark forces in hell can do is attack us psychologically with illusions and visions."

"Are you sure Lucy?" asked Lana, shoveling corpses to the side and digging deeper.

"Yes," claimed Lucy but she wasn't too sure. She only knew that they had to finish this.

Luna woke up.

She was surrounded by death and decay.

Luna screamed, at realized that there nothing but corpses around her. Dead people, dead people everywhere, an endless sea of dead people and above her a endless up of dead people. Luna couldn't see the sky because all the corpses above her blocked her view.

There was nothing else than many dead bodies in various stages of decay.

"Where am I?" wondered Luna loudly. "What is this place? What are you? Where is my family?! Did you do something to them? Yo, answer me!"

No answer, only the sound of silence. Not even the slightest noise was made.

"Oh, then keep quiet you wankers," shouted Luna. "I will bug out of here and get back to my family right now!"

Luna ran through the many, many dead, ignoring then she stepped on something that cracked, squished, mushed or just made a normal sound. She banished any implications from her head. After running for several hundred meters there was no change in scenery, still only dead people as below so above.

Luna started to wonder if Lisa put her into a virtual reality simulation, if she was dreaming, if one of Lucy's magical rituals backfired badly or if she was dead and this was the afterlife.

"No, this can't be the afterlife," decided Luna eventually. "This would be too horrific to be… To be…"

Luna looked at their hands. Her maggot invested, green, rotten, partially skeleton hands.

She was one of the dead people.

"This is it…" Luna finally realized to her horror. "This is the afterlife, for real."

Luna was a corpse with no eyes, only two black eye sockets, most of her teeth had fallen out, hair was a mess, her clothes destroyed and in tatters, she had no nose anymore and her knee bones were visible, sticking through her rotten flesh and she had no ears anymore either.

As the corpses around her started to move and grabbed at her, clinging to her, pulled at her. From above and below, with slow but steady force. It wouldn't matter if Luna was a corpse in the ground or the ceiling, it would mean the same in the end.

"This will be eternity," realized Luna with horror. "This is-"

"NOT TRUE!"

The sudden shout by Lucy pulled Lana out of the nightmarish vision.

"What we saw is not true," reminds Lucy her sister. "Luna is healthy and safe. Ignore the vision."

"Yes, she is," acknowledged Lana and continued digging with more fervor. "She is not dead and that was not the afterlife!"

"Let us dig, Charles is near!"

They dug harder and faster than before. They almost forgot to make sure they could still leave the hole after finishing.

"Lana, we come closer," announced Lucy. "I feel him…"

"I do too, I don't know how but I do too," admitted Lana. "I know it has to be Charles."

Lucy continued to shovel. She ignored demons jumping at her, they are illusions who couldn't touch her anyway.

"I will kill you!" shouted Lana suddenly but Lucy ignored that too, not even looking into her direction.

"I will sacrifice you to Lucifer, Lana," promised Lucy in a ominous voice but Lana ignored the illusion of Lucy who was wielding a ceremonial dagger and coming closer to her.

"Lucy, I murdered-"

"There!" shouted Lucy, her voice blowing the illusion away. "There is Charles, his soul!"

Charles soul didn't look like either of the two was expecting. His soul was looking like a crystal that was bitten into nonstop by insects with Lucy and Lana hearing a the whimper of a dog coming from the sharp looking crystal.

"This is the form the soul of a dog takes?" said Lana, clearly confused while carefully taking the crystals into her arm.

"Souls can take many forms," explained Lana. "They are very flexible when it comes to appearances."

"Why is his soul not dog-looking?" asked Lana while removing the biting bugs.

"He could have taken it to protect himself," speculated Lucy. "It is time to absolve his soul and send him to heaven."

Lucy prepared the next ritual quick, very quick after they freed Charles soul and brought them out of the hole. She used holy symbols and holy ingredients this time. People like Lucy don't do holy rituals often but they were able to do that. A professional knows how to get rid of nasty demons after summoning them.

"Ready for the ritual?" asked Lucy and gave Lana a sheet with written text on it. "Read this and then speak this with me."

"Yes, Lucy."

Charles soul was placed into the middle of a drawing of the equatorial triangle. On each of the three angles was incense placed in small bows which Lana already ignited while other holy objects lined the triangle.

"We stand here, in the soil
We stand here, for the toil
We stand here, for the boil
We stand here, for the spoil
We have entered the abyss
We overcame the state of no bliss
We have endured this terrible kiss
We have overcome the worst miss
O god, JHW, Allah
Vishnu, Amaterasu-ōmikami, Buddha
Zeus, Odin and Ra
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!"
Absolve Charles from the agony of Inferna!

The result wasn't very spectacular. Despite all the energy Lucy and Lana put into their chant the crystal that was Charles soul just there one Moment and away the other.

"What happened?!" asked a confused and scared Lana. "Is Charles okay?"

"He is in heaven now," explained Lucy. "Our plea for mercy worked."

"But it feels so… Simple. Not very exciting," complained Lana. "Also it doesn't feel like Charles went to heaven."

"It worked," told Lucy her younger sister. "It worked, I feel it."

"But…." Lana was unsure. "The crystal just vanished."

"Listen Lana," Lucy put her hand on Lana's shoulder in a sisterly manner. "Charles is in heaven now. Not everything is a spectacle even if it is an incredible important Moment. Charles ascended, his sins are forgiven."

Lana couldn't help but skeptical. "Can you explain?"

"The Crystal would be still here if he was not forgiven for his sins," made Lucy honestly clear. "Charles soul would still be in hell if he wasn't forgiven."

"What if he was just teleported into another section of hell?" asked Lana. "Is there a way we can know that he ascended into heaven? Like is there a way to see him in heaven?"

"There is one way," explained Lucy a bit nervously. "But it is a really risky one. It will also bring us home at the same time but that is a route that I only wanted to take as a last resort should our way back to earth not succeed."

"What is this route?" wanted Lana to know.

"Nothing," explained Lucy serious. "Absolutely nothing. We have to go through nothingness."

"What do you mean?" asked Lana. "We go through a dark place?"

"No, nothingness, true nothingness," explained Lana. "But seeing true nothingness could drive us insane or turn us into nothingness."

Lana played with her thumbs. "Well… Is there another way to know if Charles is in heaven?"

"We can do a séance when are back home," promised Lucy. "But not here, it would be insane to perform a séance in hell because of the massive amount of evil spirits and demonic spirits who would love to possess any being that opens their spirit and soul in such a place."

"I understand, Lucy," said Lana. "I can wait until we back home. But if it turns out that Charles is still in hell we will try to rescue him again."

"Of course," agreed Lucy. "We will not rest until we are sure that Charles is in heaven and- Wait."

Lucy looked around. She whispered a small spell under her breath and Lana looked around nervously as well.

"What is it Luce, I don't see anything," said Lana worryingly.

"The demons gather and the tormented evil souls as well," explained Lucy. "They want to take over our bodies, no matter the cost. They know we are about to leave and if we don't leave now, we will never leave this place alive."

Layer 8: Tod has ended. Nothing more awaits our two heroines.

Du bist noch am Leben.