At first, I thought I was seeing things.
There was a bastard rejoicing that he was alive, another gnashing his teeth and swearing revenge, and yet another trembling because he didn't want to be hurt—a truly colorful cast of characters.
I was certain I'd dumped them all into the volcanic craters so they wouldn't crawl back out. So why the hell are they acting like this over there?
The answer was obvious. Someone must have rescued them.
Once my thoughts reached that point, I found myself scratching my eyebrow, speechless.
Didn't I specifically tell them not to save these things? Do they listen to my words through their backsides?
If they had fallen into Hell for no reason, that would be one thing, but to take pity on and recklessly save bastards who were sent here for their crimes...
Just how much of a joke do they think I am to pull this kind of stunt?
"...."
In truth, I wasn't even that angry.
I was just... puzzled.
Hozuki is a hopelessly kind man. He's the type who would just smile even if you cursed him out for being a pushover.
But being kind and being stupid are two entirely different things. Hozuki is kind, but he isn't a fool.
It means he isn't so idiotic that he can't distinguish between someone worth saving and someone who isn't—he knows the difference between gold and grit.
Right. There must have been a misunderstanding. Let's go with that.
After settling my pointless emotions, I scanned the entirety of Hell.
I soon sensed Hozuki's Spiritual Power near one of the craters.
Wait, so he's not just a kind pushover, but a total dumbass?
"...I'm the idiot for trusting him."
I let out a deep sigh and dashed toward the crater in a single leap.
Upon arrival, I saw Hozuki's back. He was standing right at the edge, staring down at the bubbling magma.
I approached him without a word, making my footsteps heard. Hozuki turned toward me.
"...Ah, you've arrived."
I had a mountain of things I wanted to say, but I suppressed the rising heat of my emotions, filtering and re-filtering my words.
After all that pruning, I finally uttered the one necessary sentence.
"Why did you do it?"
At my question, Hozuki looked back down at the boiling magma inside the crater and exhaled a long sigh.
"You told me that as long as the sinners remain in those pits of fire, they would not be resurrected, did you not?"
"I did."
"But I saw them within that pit... I saw them being reborn only to writhe in agony."
I saw them reaching their hands toward the sky endlessly, begging for their lives.
I saw them pleading, desperate for salvation.
"I saw them melting away, trying to climb the walls only to slip, screaming as they were dragged back down by the hands of other sinners."
Saying this, Hozuki slowly closed and opened his eyes. He reached out his hand toward the lava that had bubbled over the rim of the crater.
Before I could stop him, he thrust his hand into the flowing lava without a moment's hesitation. He didn't scream; he only let tears fall.
I stood there blankly, never imagining he would actually shove his hand into the lava. Hozuki stood up, severed his own left arm, and wiped his tears with his right hand.
"Even a single arm brings such unbearable pain... how could I possibly fathom the agony of one's entire body melting away in a pit of fire?"
"So you personally rescued them?"
"I could not bear to leave those who were suffering right before my eyes."
I couldn't even call him a madman. This was a train of thought that my ordinary mind simply could not comprehend, no matter how much I thought about it.
In a sense, his logic was similar to Kagaya's just before his transcendence, but upon closer inspection, it was fundamentally different.
Kagaya attained enlightenment by realizing his own inadequacies and accepting them.
But this lunatic? He only thinks about wanting to save people and charges ahead without looking left or right.
"They are receiving the punishment they deserve. They committed crimes knowing they would fall to Hell, so they have no right to complain about the pain."
"There is no being who deserves to suffer."
"Sigh...."
I'm really terrible at dealing with this kind of crap....
I just want to live a peaceful life cracking the skulls of the bastards who fall into Hell. Is that so much to ask?
'Falling into Hell itself is the mistake, if anything.'
I let out a heavy sigh and sat down.
"There are those who deserve to be punished."
"Is the purpose of punishment not to make one repent? I do not believe that pain is the only answer to bringing about repentance."
"You want to reform them instead of punishing them? Fine, I get the sentiment."
'I'll save them because I pity them. Let's save them first and think later. No one likes being hurt, so let's not do that. There must be another way.'
Taken out of context, this sounds like a heartwarming story of a person striving to save someone.
But this is Hell.
Because of that, a single word is added to those heartwarming phrases.
I'll save the 'Sinner' because I pity them. They are a 'Sinner', but let's save them first and think later.
The 'Sinner' doesn't like being hurt either, so let's not do that. There must be another way for the 'Sinner' to atone.
Looking at it again, it's not a heartwarming story. It's a story that makes my blood boil with sheer frustration.
"Then what about the beings who suffered because of those bastards? What about the lives unfairly snuffed out by their hands? How are you going to resolve their grievances?"
"That is...."
"Are you going to tell them, 'They've been reformed and are different people now, so just forgive them'? Do you really think forced forgiveness counts for anything?"
"...I believe they must prove their own reformation as they move forward."
"It's too late to prove anything."
If they wanted to do that, they should have behaved while they were alive.
In the first place, a victim suffers just by looking at their victimizer's face.
"This is Hell. The place where those who committed 'capital sins' while living end up. Since they committed capital sins, they must pay the price through death here. Regretting their choices and repenting comes after that."
"...."
Hozuki could offer no rebuttal and kept his mouth shut. If it were Kagaya, he would have proposed a method I never would have thought of, but Hozuki could provide no alternative.
'What good is a noble sentiment without a plan?'
Presenting ideals while simply saying 'don't do it' without offering a clear countermeasure is selfish behavior. I wonder if he even realizes that he's acting like a child throwing a tantrum because he can't see reality.
'Well, technically, he is just a kid....'
He was indeed at the age where action precedes thought.
That's why I couldn't just blindly lose my temper even after seeing the mess he'd made.
If the person who pulled this stunt was old enough to know better, I would have smashed his head in long ago.
But he really is just a boy.
A boy who suffered from illness all his life and died, yet remained so kind he never held a grudge against anyone.
Since I know all that, how could I stay angry?
He did it out of ignorance. What can you do?
"Sigh...."
I let out a frustrated sigh and looked at Hozuki. His face was as pale as a ghost—it wouldn't be strange if he dropped dead right now.
"You're going to die like that."
"...."
Wait, is he dead already? Seriously, already?
I checked him over, thinking he might have passed on, but aside from his heart beating a bit slowly, he was definitely alive.
He was just so deep in thought that he had forgotten he was dying.
Judging by the cold sweat, he was still feeling the pain.
"Tsk.... Sorry. I don't know any other way to end your pain besides this."
While Hozuki was lost in thought, I struck his solar plexus and forcibly stopped his heart.
Don't get me wrong. It definitely wasn't because I was annoyed.
I simply don't know any other way to heal wounds.
Unless someone invented a healing Kido, there was no other way to recover from such injuries except to die once.
"Sleep it off for now. You won't last long in that state."
"...Ah."
With a short gasp, Hozuki collapsed. I grabbed the scruff of his neck and dragged him back home.
In many ways, it was a day that reminded me of Kagaya.
"You should've shared some of that enlightenment with me before you left, you bastard...."
Even if he had told me, I probably wouldn't have understood most of it and forgotten the core of it, but at least I'd have a few more flowery words to use.
Exhaling a sigh, I tossed Hozuki inside the house and walked back out.
"Let's clean up outside and then think."
I'll split some parts of Hell while I'm at it and crack the skulls of those escaping sinners.
I cracked my neck and started walking slowly.
Setting aside the ones who accepted the situation and are staying quiet...
And excluding those who have given up and are just trembling... that bastard went the furthest.
I chased after a swordsman who had been sent to Hell for the crime of 'Tameshigiri'.
Because he was accustomed to physical labor, he had run much further than the others. Of course, that was meaningless before me.
"We've met before, haven't we?"
"H-Hwaaaaagh!?"
He sure is noisy.
Regardless, I started with the swordsman and crushed the skulls of all the runaways before dragging them back to where the others were gathered.
As the runaways were brought back one by one, those who had held a glimmer of hope began to fall into despair.
The ones who were dragged back by their hair didn't even need mentioning.
"Don't think about running. Not unless you want your skulls cracked like these idiots."
This is the Hell you fell into because of the choices you made.
Buck up and endure it with everything you've got. If you hate that, your only choice is to die resisting.
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Well, the golden era of this fanfic has passed, so the only ranking category we can still dominate is Power Stones. Therefore, for every 250 Power Stones, I will add a bonus chapter to the daily updates.
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 82
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T