What a pleasurable sight it was for Sitan. He relished moments like this, created by emotions that had broken down completely. Walls that had been put up by mortals to forget their pains, to shield themselves from trauma, now crumbling to dust. To relive such memories in such a vivid and visceral way was such a dramatic way to end this charade.
He was happy, albeit a bit sad that it ended already. The game that he had forced the human to play had been entertaining, but all good things must come to an end.
But for Benny, this wasn't a memorable experience. This was a horror that he had kept locked in the deepest parts of himself. Yes, he was a child then, barely old enough to understand. But seeing it all now being played back as an adult with full comprehension, it hurt more than when he had gone through it for the first time. Especially when he saw it not from his own perspective, but from another. Directly from those who had caused the hurt and those who had been hurt by the violence.
So he answered the god's query, his voice hoarse from screaming and crying.
"The child is me. A part of me I never wanted to see or return to. But humor me, oh god. What does this game serve?"
Aha, the important question, Sitan thought. His smile widened.
"Well, my mortal child, this test serves as a test for you to recover your memories, and for me to relish in them. But now for the final question. With it being the last, I hope you could pass this one as well for our little game to end. And for our deal to be honored. It's not like I can't honor it if you indeed succeed."
He was referring to the deal he made through the System. The one that bound even him.
Benny, heartbroken and in tears, stood from his shaken knees. His legs trembled, but he forced himself upright.
"Do your worst!" he screamed as his answer.
"Very well then, mortal. Why are you here in this labyrinth? Why did you come here? To serve what purpose? If you cannot answer this honestly, then you shall die and you will be consumed by me!"
What the god Sitan wanted was honesty from Benny. But he also knew something was wrong with the mortal. Sitan believed that Benny couldn't answer honestly, that he would have to lie. And that is where Sitan would kill him. A technicality. A loophole.
But what Sitan didn't know was that Benny, because of what Sitan had shown him, had unlocked the memories that had been partially erased by the power of the Will of the Weak. And since this power was influenced by the System, and the game was conducted inside the rules of that System, the memories had begun to return.
Benny didn't cry just because of his hurt. He cried because he remembered the death he had experienced before he resurrected. He remembered the truth of his own power and what it had cost him.
"I am here because I wanted to prove to myself and to the world that even an orphaned child with seemingly no direction in life, that he also has his own dreams and goals!"
Benny's voice rose with each word, growing stronger despite the tears streaming down his face.
"Even if I started as wayward and troubled in life, scraping day by day with whatever I could just to survive! Even if I had nothing and no one! I still have the right to dream! Does that answer your question, god?! You fucking bastard, trying to toy with me! Does that satisfy your curiosity, with your malicious game in an attempt to kill me just like the spirits that have been trapped here?!"
He shouted so fiercely and angrily after he realized the true point of the game. This was never about him succeeding. It was a playful way for this devil to entice you to play, to give hope, and then destroy such hope at the last moment. But Benny knew now that even this god had to play by the rules. And he would make him honor his own game!
Sitan was shocked that Benny was able to speak what his heart actually desired. He didn't break from what Sitan did to him. In fact, this solidified whatever brokenness Benny had carried when he first came here, transforming it into something harder. Something like steel forged in fire.
And Sitan knew that even he couldn't go against his own word, especially when he made a deal with the System. The cosmic laws were absolute.
But he was a prideful, egotistical, and sadistic piece of shit. He simply smiled, a cruel expression that didn't reach his eyes, before he prepared to break his own word for whatever he was about to do next.
"Of course. You won the game, and as such, a reward for your bravery and courage to stand before me."
With that, the game was honored. Benny's wish was to be granted according to the rules.
But Sitan had another purpose. As he felt that he was humiliated by a mere mortal, he did what he thought was needed, blinded by his own folly and anger he acted with cruelty. To let Benny's guard down. To make the mortal think he was safe. And in that moment, as stupid as he was intelligent, Sitan committed a grave sin against his own rules. He broke them and lashed out at Benny with everything he had. Bearing his full might against a mortal, a champion protected by the gods and the System itself.
He used his divine magic to kill Benny. To at least consume this mortal even if he remained imprisoned in the physical world. He was still inside his own domain, inside this mental space. Here, he still had power.
A powerful divine skill was unleashed. It was foul, violent, and rotten. Something that had festered in Sitan's prison for eons. It would surely cause death, especially when it was cast directly into the mind. It didn't just affect the mental but the soul itself, corrupting and devouring.
The attack was immediate and overwhelming. Like being hit by a tidal wave of pure malice.
But Sitan knew not the extent of Benny's powers. Even if he would succeed right now in killing the mortal, he would have failed in the greater game. He would still be persecuted by the World System for violating his own rules, for breaking the agreement he made with the administrators.
But to him it would be a victory as it would also cost Benny's life in the process. The divine attack was too much for a mortal body to withstand, even one protected by the Will of the Weak.
And for Benny this death would mean nothing, as it would undo what Sitan had unlocked. And this time, this second death would cost Benny more than just memories of his past. It would cost him a fracture of whatever remained of himself when he would wake up next. A piece of his soul, torn away as payment.
But before the punishment came for Sitan, before the Enforcers arrived to drag him to whatever hell awaited rule-breakers, he had honored Benny's wish. Whether out of spite or some twisted sense of honor, he completed the agreement.
And that mortal's wish was to get out of this place. This hell he was sent into.
The two of them were killed by the game they both tried to play. One was a victim of their own machinations and the other the unwilling player who was forced to play.
Sitan was handled far more cruelly by the Enforcers of the System. They came like a storm, tearing through reality to reach him. He was extracted from his prison, ripped out of the tomb that had held him for millennia, and sent elsewhere. Somewhere worse. A punishment that would make his previous imprisonment seem like paradise.
Meanwhile, Benny was sent to another place. Back to neutral ground, the first floor of the labyrinth. But he was already dead, his body lifeless. Memories lost once again. A fragment of his soul taken as payment for his second death, extracted by the System to balance the scales.
What became of this game? Who won and who didn't?
None actually. But only Benny's sponsor god must have won, and those who watched it play out from their cosmic thrones. They won through its entertainment value. They won a spectacle. Another story to tell.
But Benny, at least, had a small victory in it. He escaped from Sitan's mausoleum. He was free of that particular hell. And he also lost his memories once more, taking him back to square one in some ways.
But hey, at least he was out of that hellhole.
His body lay still on the cold stone floor of the first level. Dead. Empty. Waiting for whatever would come next.
The labyrinth was silent around him, as if holding its breath.
Then, slowly, the Will of the Weak began to stir inside him. The power that refused to let him stay dead at least inside its sacred halls. The power that came with a terrible price but also with a terrible gift.
His chest rose with a single, gasping breath.
And Benny died his second death, only to be reborn once more into a world he no longer remembered.