"After everything he did... with everyone, including me. He doesn't deserve to live such a happy life by stealing all of those wives, including mine."
"He gets all he wants just because he has all of those powers and domination! It isn't fair...! Life is not fucking fair if that motherfucker is still roaming around!"
"I thought... I thought that he'd get a change of heart after he got sentenced to many arrests, but he became even worse by making all the cops and even the government bow under his name."
"There's no other way..."
"At this point... I'm going to fucking kill him with my goddamn hands...!"
That's what happens...
It was a decision from a victim that led to the death of one of the most terrifying criminals, by the name of Axel Graves.
...
"THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU RUIN MY FUCKING LIFE!"
"DIE, ASSHOLEEEEE!!!" He said while holding his knife with a full grip.
The knife went right between his ribs.
STAB!
Axel Graves felt the cold steel pierce his lung and the warm blood spread over his silk shirt. In that moment, he smiled.
Not the crazy grin of a man going insane, but the calm satisfaction of someone who saw the punchline coming and still found it funny. "Ahh... it's you, huh? Out of all people that can kill me, it's one of my victims since high school."
"... ...!" The guy who stabbed looked shocked seeing Axel didn't flinch or feel the stab.
"You should have sent more people," he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
The killer didn't say anything at first, but he responded. "Fuck you, Axel! Go to hell and enjoy the torture after everything you've done in this world!"
"You killed me right at the time where this world is going to feel what it's like since the world war..."
"What did you fucking say...!?" He twisted the blade quickly, and Axel's legs gave out.
The killer looked up just to see a nuclear missile explode at the right time, and it was Axel's plan all along. He didn't care if he died as long as he brought everyone on earth with him to the afterlife, even if there is an afterlife.
"You fucking... monster—" The killer didn't believe what he just saw.
He fell against the marble floor of his penthouse, and the nuclear explosion from the sky shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The edges of his vision were blurry, but his mind was still clear. Even now, as he lay dying on imported Italian marble, Axel Graves refused to waste his last moments on regret.
He had lived the way he wanted to. He got what he wanted, crushed anyone who got in his way, and built an empire on the backs of people who were too weak to stop him.
People called him a monster. He said it was honesty.
And now the world is going to end soon because of his commands to launch nuclear missiles in every country by his own manipulation.
Axel's chest heaved as he breathed. The killer had vanished, swallowed by the radiation-like smoke.
Even if the most terrifying criminal dies, what's the point if the world is destined to end in a nuclear explosion that no one can prevent?
Axel stands at the peak, having won at life, yet others will never understand what kind of being he is.
Axel is not merely human. He is an idea—one that asserts that those willing to seize power will do so, that morality is merely a cage constructed by the fearful, and that the world is not just unfair but a place where the strong consume the weak.
He shut his eyes and imagined the nuclear explosion, realizing that his death would be merciful because it would be quick.
And then, against all odds, they opened again.
...
Axel got up.
The change happened right away and was confusing. He was dying on cold marble one minute and standing up, whole, and very much alive the next.
He looked at his hands. There was no sign of blood or injury.
The pain was gone, and he felt strange, like his body was more concept than flesh.
He was no longer in his high-rise apartment.
It was hard to put into words what was around him. It was huge and seemed to go on forever, which made his eyes hurt when he tried to find the edges.
The ground beneath his feet looked like polished glass, and the sky above him seemed to be in many different states at once, like day and night, stars, and the sun, all layered together in a way that made no sense.
And in front of him was a woman.
No, not a woman. Something that looks like one.
She was tall, and her body was covered in flowing robes that looked like they were made of living light. In waves of gold and white, her hair fell down her shoulders and moved as if a nonexistent wind was blowing through it.
Her face was beautiful in the same way that ancient statues are beautiful, which is perfect and far away, as if they were made by God.
But Axel was drawn to her eyes.
They were warm inside with kindness and a deep, overwhelming kindness that spread out like heat from a furnace. It was the kind of look that promised safety, understanding, and love no matter what.
Axel hated it right away and felt disgusted. "What awful-looking eyes... it's truly disgusting."
"Axel Graves," the woman said, her voice like the sound of wind chimes and summer rain.
"Welcome to the afterlife."
"You call me the Goddess of Life, the guardian of souls, the judge of rebirth, and the guide to redemption."
Axel didn't say anything. He looked around with the same cold, calculating look he used in boardroom negotiations and deals in back alleys.
This was not what she called an afterlife, nor was it hell either. It was something else entirely.
The Goddess kept talking, as if she didn't care that he was quiet. "You have lived a life full of vice, cruelty, and manipulation."
"You took advantage of the weak, killed the innocent, and built your life on the pain of others."
"Your soul is full of sins, which makes you one of the sinners that can't be forgiven."
"What's the point of this bullshit recap?" Axel asked, his voice flat.
The Goddess tilted her head a little, as if she was surprised that he wasn't scared. "I'm trying to give you some context of your miserable life."
"You can call it a comprehension. You didn't die by accident or illness, but you died because the people you hurt wanted you to."
"You died because you were too dangerous to let live."
"I know."
"And what's worse... you launched a nuclear missile and managed to make the earth worse until those humans who were still alive didn't have any probability to survive anymore."
"An eye for an eye, ain't it?"
"You... you don't feel bad about it?" The goddess was trying so hard not to put on a face of disgust seeing how he reacted.
Axel looked her straight in the eye. "Why the fuck would I care about that?"
"I did what I wanted to do."
"I took what I could get."
"Even though someone finally had the guts to kill me, it doesn't change the fact that I won more than I lost."