His eyes widened at sight before him, causing Raven's heart to ache; despite his body being almost broken and exhausted, the feeling of experience entering his body slowly recovered that pain and emptiness.

'Fuck... What is this!?'

Emily...

Raven watched the twisted black walls filled with fire and desolation, her body torn apart, the former bright vines and brilliant flowers now wilted, her beautiful skin peeled, as her arms were twisted and torn apart, her eyes plucked out, as strange images like those of ghosts floated around this hell.

"Our knight of Dread failed~ his task unfinished. The sunlight has perished, and so does his meaning of existence."historical

That annoying announcer with the soft voice, like a noble from the middle ages, his voice was extremely well spoken and quite similar to those tea-loving conquerors!

"WHAT TASK!"

"Why... why would Emily become like this?!"

His body ignored the burning heat, the scalding of the magma's bubbles that popped, splattering his scales as they melted away like dirt rinsed from a plate, his almost flesh bubbling as it was burnt.

Raven knew it couldn't be the real Emily, but that didn't change his feelings; why would he stop just because she might be fake?

He couldn't control his feelings as his fingers began to pull away the slimy walls that encased her, the warm blood peeling and glueing to his flesh, and it tore away, the bodysuit already melted and fused with his flesh, like a disgusting melted black cheese fused with his flesh.

He was in agony, both physical and emotional, as he watched her vines and the brown, dry, wilted flowers moving.

"Emily!?"

Tears welled up in his eyes as her hands lifted from her sides. Raven's beloved's words were flowing into the depths of his heart.

"Dawn will soon rise. I won't die here. I shall be reborn again in your arms."

Her bright and beautiful green eyes blinked at him; even though they were gone physically, he could feel them. Closing his eyes, not the withered and burnt flesh touching his cheeks, but her soft vines, smooth, delicate fingers, ignoring what he saw, instead treating her like the Emily of outside, the light of hope shining brightly upon him.

"Don't you worry, Raven? Everything's going to be alright..."

The final words from the broken corpse, like a last sigh before her death, as the body of Emily began to scatter into black particles of dust, leaving Raven in silence, his body shuddering as the flames' wounds rapidly healed. Still, his anger, the burning fury of his heart, couldn't be controlled, the purple mass in his abdomen swirling rapidly as if to answer his feelings.

And so...

Raven continued along the path, following the hellish black river of flames, with gooey flesh walls of fire, sometimes seeing old friends, people he met at work. His eyes faced forward, sometimes even killing those still alive with his axe.

Death was better than suffering.

So he believed.

-

Meanwhile, a huge magical array was painted inside a strange throneroom; sitting upon the throw was a handsome male, his body coated in black armour, with a giant greatsword sheathed beside, his height at least 7ft, his body thick and muscular to match it.

He was watching the scene of Raven walking along the river of the damned; his actions and choices were amusing to the male, who sat with two rows of smaller knights in dark black armour, their faces are hidden as they knelt in silence.

"Oh, this challenger is much more interesting." The lord on the throne whispered, causing the entire room to shudder, all the knights looking at their king with awe.

A beautiful woman stood beside the throne watching Raven with enchanted eyes; her body was dark, with beautiful fairy-like skin, and her eyes were black, void of any light as she watched, her eyes glistening.

"Hmmm? My daughter, you find this one interesting?"

The lord noticed that his daughter was watching when he dropped into their realm; her eyes never blinked or left his body each moment.

'Strange... Of all the countless challengers, this is the first time... Is my daughter of 4,000 years finally hitting puberty!? Ah... what a sad life, to be a father with only his daughter who seeks another man's embrace...'

"My liege?" One of the knights snapped him out of the lament of his growing daughter.

His head turned toward the knight.

"Yes?"

"Ah, We must see more of this challenger! Thus I propose, instead of testing him with mere living dolls, we send out real warriors! Maybe even one of us could go!"

In the huge image of Raven, who merely looked ahead of himself, seeing a human in red armour lying motionless on the path, it tried to torture Lilith; as he moved forward, the swarm of these living dolls was nothing more than swatting flies, he might get stung, but that would never stop him.

Another corpse, so soon after the first.

"...It appears, my dear princess is correct," the lord said softly, "but why does he feel different from other challengers to date?"

"It's as if he isn't even going through the challenge; why does he keep hugging the walls? What is he doing?" The king asked because, to them, there was no Emily or Lilith on those walls.

"Gladius, you go. If you lose, do not worry; it proves he is worthy of joining our order of Dread. I will bring you back but as a squire!"

"Yes! My lord of dread!"

Back in the fiery lake, the last of the dolls were destroyed, Raven's level reaching 24, his fists bleeding as he wondered what the hidden Talent was; something told him that his cultivation technique was stopping him from activating it or letting him see it, but he couldn't be sure.

His eyes watched as he caught the broken body of a succubus, closing her bloody eyes with his fingers, with a solemn look, before letting her sink into the fiery lake of magma, wishing for nobody else to see her wretched state.

This was something ingenious, likely the plot of his father, to use this trial not only to break the barrier of the Gate to the body but to clear all the trials of his heart at once because he faced the past and was slowly dealing with it.

Raven now needed to deal with the present...

Emily, Philis, Lilith, Miriam, and the women he began to bond with also appeared; Zestria was even more prominent as she hung from the skies, her tail torn, wings flayed; seeing her state caused great pain for Raven because he knew his feelings for her weren't that strong, yet he slept with her, to him...

Raven felt this was his sin; he swore from the moment he saw her here...

That he would make her fall for him, make her love him more than Philis and Emily do, and he would love and treasure her the same; how they came together may have been unfortunate, but he was glad it was him, and he would give her all the essence in the world if it made her happy.