Tangen leaned back in his chair, a lazy smirk playing on his lips.
"So, you got any other questions that won't take me an hour to explain in order for me to answer?"
Maxi sighed, removing his round glasses to clean them. It was a habit he'd purposely developed to calm himself down, especially for scenarios where he had to deal with people like Tangen, who had a lot of arrogance.
He developed it in his previous life. He didn't wear glasses, but his best friend Darren did, and he didn't really like cleaning his glasses, so Maxi then took it upon himself to clean his glasses for him, which he eventually found very calming, which then developed into his habit.
"Actually, yeah,"
he said, slipping them back onto his nose.
"How did the oldest gods solve the first condition? The whole 'connecting the dimensions' thing?"
Tangen immediately groaned, dragging a hand down his face as if he'd been waiting for that exact question.
"I don't know,"
he admitted bluntly.
"My vision cut out right before that part. All I saw was them starting to discuss it, then suddenly, it jumped to them figuring out the second condition. Real convenient, huh?"
Maxi frowned. "So no one knows?"
Tangen shrugged.
"No, people do know. In fact, some people have even entered the other gods' domains before, but none of them can explain how they did it. Their gods or something else make sure of that—seems like it's some divine secret that only a chosen few are allowed to know."
"But if you ask me, it's a whole bunch of Harrazin. I think it's a ploy for..."
Tengen then looked around, realizing where he was. His eyes met with Maxi's maid.
Maxi's maid didn't do anything. For the most part, she was just on the side observing, and as her eyes met with Tengen, she shuddered slightly, but she held her ground and stood straight, unwavering as she stared back.
Tengen then smirked as he looked to the ground, shattering the tension that was about to build up. He then went back to looking at Maxi.
Tengen then muttered,
"Well, I can't say that in their home ground..."
Tengen then said, "Let's just say I think it's a ploy so certain people that have power stay in power. But anyways, does that answer your question?"
Maxi nodded, absorbing the information before moving on.
"Alright. Then… why is the Thousand Twisting Hells called that?"
Maxi was wondering that question because in his previous world, there was only really one hell, or the nine layers of hell, or even Diyu and its 18 levels. Those were the only hells he knew about, at least. There were probably other cultures that had way more, but it was too late to learn about them now, so Maxi thought he might as well learn about this world's hell, or rather, hells.
Tangen chuckled, instantly sitting up straight, clearly excited to answer this one.
"Now that's a question I like. But first of all, don't call it that."
Maxi blinked. "Don't call it what?"
"Don't call it the Thousand Twisting Hells. That sounds terrible. Call it by its proper name: Thousand Spiraling Hells."
Maxi sighed in exasperation. "There's no way it matters that much."
Tengen grinned. "It does matter that much. Thousand Spiraling Hells sounds way cooler than Thousand Twisting Hells."
Maxi leaned back in his chair as he cleaned his glasses again. "Okay, whatever you say, human book."
Maxi's crimson eyes gleamed as he leaned forward.
"Anyway, let's get back to the explanation."
"It's called the Thousand Spiraling Hells. While the gods were creating their afterlife system, or as I call it, their 'afterlife project,' each group got help from one of the oldest gods. The Eldritch Gods? Oh, they played dirty. They convinced their helper to make a prototype, an example of what hell should be like, so they could 'get it just right.'"
Maxi listened intently, already sensing that this was about to take a turn.
Tangen grinned wider.
"Well, the oldest god agreed. But here's the thing—he failed. The Eldritch gods said it wasn't quite right and wasn't what they were looking for, so he did it again, and they said the same thing, and this pattern continued. Not once, not twice, but nine hundred and ninety-seven, fricking, times. Each attempt was a so-called disaster. Imperfect, broken, incomplete, not hell enough, not chaotic enough were just some of the words they used. And when he finally snapped?"
Tangen clapped his hands together as thousands of red stars burst out from where he clapped like confetti.
"Boom! He lined up all his failures and destroyed them with a single punch. Just wiped them out."
Maxi raised an eyebrow. "So wait, since you said nine hundred and ninety-seven, did the Eldritch Gods fix the failures and make the final three on their own?"
Tangen laughed as he shook his head. "First spiraling hell, no. That's not how the Eldritch Gods work. They don't fix anything—they make and destroy."
Maxi nodded, put his glasses back on. "Why did they say all those were failures?"
Tengen laughed even harder.
"It's because they wanted to see how far they could push their parent, that oldest god, before he reached his limit. Remember what I told you—what they did when they first got their domain? They test limits. They tested how far they could push before something broke, so why wouldn't that apply to other gods and people?"
Maxi had a more worried expression on his face as he felt a cold shiver go down his spine.
But trying to shake it off, he asked, "So what did the Eldritch Gods do with those destroyed hells?"
Tengen chuckled. "Instead of building a new hell, they took the shattered remains of the failures and tied them together, twisting them around their final three 'perfect' hells, which they made by themselves. And since the debris wouldn't stay still, it kept spiraling forever, thanks to the eternal aftershock of that god's punch. Hence, the Thousand Spiraling Hells."
He leaned back with a nostalgic sigh, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling.
"Man, I love that story. It was the first story my old man taught me as a kid. Still love it to this day." He laughed.
Maxi watched him for a moment before he sighed and shook his head.
"From your explanation, that does sound like something the Eldritch Gods would do."
Tangen lowered his gaze back to Maxi, his smirk returning.
"So? Any more questions?"
Maxi thought for a second, then stood up, bowing slightly.
"No, sir. Thank you for teaching me, Mr. Tangen, and thank you for being my tutor."
For the first time, Tangen's expression softened—if only slightly. He reached out and placed his bandaged left hand on Maxi's head, ruffling his already messy brown hair.
"Good. You're dismissed, kid."
Maxi quickly smoothed out his hair as he turned toward the door. His maid, who had been standing silently by the entrance, opened the door for him. Just as she was about to leave, she hesitated, glancing back at Tangen.
Tangen caught her gaze and gave her a knowing look, his grin turning sharp and malicious. He lifted a hand, waving at her in a slow, almost mocking manner.
The maid stiffened, and her tail tucked in between her legs before she quickly stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
Tengen then laughed in the empty room as he slicked back his hair.
"Oh, this is going to be way more fun than I thought."