“You shouldn’t have been able to do what you just did,” Eveline stated the second Zeke crossed the threshold of the gate and left the Circle of Greed behind. “It’s not supposed to be possible.”

  “From my experience, what’s possible is kind of fluid,” Zeke responded, letting his shoulders sag. He never would have shown it to someone like the god of greed, but he was absolutely exhausted. And it wasn’t just because of what he’d experienced in the most recent circle. Rather, he’d spent years – decades or centuries, maybe – being pushed to his absolute limits, and he felt like he couldn’t take a single step more. So, he sank to the floor and leaned against the wall.

  “Are you okay?” asked Eveline.

  “You know I’m not,” he said.

  It was one thing to forge ahead when there wasn’t much of a choice in the matter, but now that he had a moment of peace, he could see just how thoroughly he’d been manipulated. By all rights, he’d failed the test inherent in the Circle of Greed. The only reason he wasn’t stuck in the same loop as all those other travelers was because he had the power to defeat the god who ran the place.

  Would that always be the case? Could he continue to count on out-doing the representations of each sin, beating them at their own game? Or would he meet his match sometime soon? Perhaps even on the next circle? Zeke had no idea, but he was absolutely exhausted by his experiences.

  “Is this all there is?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Endless battle, I mean. If that’s the case, I don’t know how much longer I can keep going,” he explained. “I’ll keep fighting, but at some point, I’m going to lose perspective. I might not be me anymore after that.”

  “Fighting is who you are.”

  “I know, but –”

  “What do you think a god is, Zeke? It’s a distillation down to the core of who you are. Everything else erodes away until all that’s left is that all-important facet of your personality. Some are defined by their sins. Others, their virtues. But you? You are made for battle.”

  “I thought…I thought the gods were just extremely powerful people.”

  “They’re more. And less,” she elaborated. “Just as you are becoming.”

  “And if I don’t want to be that?”

  “I don’t think you have a choice, Ezekiel. You have the fires of divine energy within you. Burning through it will slowly change you. It will help you discard all those superfluous bits it doesn’t need. And when it’s done, you’ll be exactly what you were always meant to be,” she said. “A god of war.”

  Zeke didn’t like that one bit.

  Not the war part – he was mostly fine with fighting, even if it was his primary purpose. One thing he didn’t want was to have it completely define him. Despite the fact that he’d done nothing to develop any interests outside of battle, he felt that letting it become his most prominent – or only, if Eveline was to believed – feature was somehow giving in to what the Framework wanted him to be.

  “Do you ever think that whatever is going on here just isn’t working?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean this. The whole thing. The Framework. The levels. This whole divine energy thing.”

  “That’s everything there is.”

  “I know. Or I guess that’s what we’ve been told,” Zeke muttered in his own mind. “But you saw what I saw, right? An eternal war between good and evil. Heaven and Hell fighting together against some other enemy. Even then, there’s just a stalemate. What does that tell you?”

  “That the enemy is terribly strong,” she reasoned.

  “Or we’re going about it all wrong. Who made the Framework? Why is it so insistent on putting us into boxes? What moral system would doom people to a life of torture, just because they made a few mistakes? It all feels so…wrong. Like it’s just meant to perpetuate the cycle, rather than solve the problem.”

  “To what end?” she asked. “You think anyone wants to fight an eternal war?”

  Zeke didn’t have the energy to shrug, but he conveyed the gesture with his thoughts as he said, “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t have the answers, Eveline. I can’t even really put it into words. I just know that this doesn’t feel right. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. You have to feel that too.”

  “I live in the world as it is, Ezekiel. I don’t concern myself with why it is the way it is. I’m too busy trying to survive.”

  And that was the problem, at least as far as Zeke was concerned. For the most part, people just lived their lives, but anyone with even a modicum of potential was forced to continue climbing, lest they find themselves losing connection with the world around them. That was what had happened with Constance back in the Mortal Realm, and it had slowly driven her mad. Zeke had felt something similar infecting his thoughts there towards the end, and he knew that if he’d stayed in the Eternal Realm for even a few more years, he’d have revisited that feeling.

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  The whole system – the entirety of the Framework – was designed to funnel people upward. And given what he’d seen, they were all rushing headlong to their own doom. Because that war didn’t seem like it was ending anytime soon. Moreover, the eternal battle was assuredly beset by plenty of casualties. Most – if not all – people would die in their attempts to overcome the great evil he’d witnessed.

  But he still didn’t know why it was evil at all. Did the enemy want to destroy all of existence? If it did, what would come next? Or did it simply wish to rule over them? If that was the case, what would really change? For the denizens of Hell, not much. It was a conundrum that, for now, had no answer.

  So, without many other options, Zeke just let his mind go blank as he recovered from his experiences in the Circle of Greed. He wasn’t certain how long he sat there, but it must’ve been at least a day or two. In that time, he found himself fantasizing about simple creature comforts like a good meal or a soft bed.

  And he thought of Adara.

  He never should have left her behind. He knew that now. Indeed, he should have just stayed and enjoyed her company for as long as she managed to survive. They could have been happy.

  But he knew that wasn’t really true.

  He’d left her behind before they even met, and if he’d stayed, he would have lost his connection with her. The same was true of Pudge and Talia and everyone else. No – it was better that he’d gone when he did, even if he regretted it, and in moments of weakness, wished he’d chosen a different route.

  If only he could have accessed the tower, things would have been so much easier to endure. But that would have defeated the entire purpose of his descent. It was a solitary journey, meant to test his willpower as much as his strength. One could not be properly tested if he had friends to lean on.

  Zeke knew that, but even so, he wished the situation were otherwise.

  Such was his weakness.

  His humanity.

  But eventually, came to the inevitable conclusion that none of his regrets truly mattered. He’d made his choice, and now, he had no other option but to live with them. He couldn’t go back. He refused to give up. So, the only way forward was through. Perhaps when he reached the other side, he’d find his friends waiting for him.

  In the back of his mind, Zeke suspected that would not be the case, though. After all, he’d already spent decades in Hell. Maybe a century or more. And he’d not yet made it to the halfway mark. By the time he reached the end of his journey, everyone he ever cared about might be dead, gone, and buried.

  Or at the very least, so irrevocably changed that he didn’t recognize them anymore.

  That thought came with a deep depression that kept him locked in place for weeks more. Each time he considered moving, he was beset by a wave of hopelessness that infected his every moment with its insidious nature.

  But eventually, after what was probably months, he regained control over his own fate and pushed those thoughts aside. They would never go away, but so long as he had something on which to focus – like progressing to the Circle of Wrath – he could bear their presence well enough.

  Through it all, Eveline had been silent. Perhaps she felt something similar to the depression that had overwhelmed him. Or maybe she simply recognized that he needed to work through it on his own. Regardless, the moment he pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off, she spoke. “The Circle of Wrath will likely be the most difficult test you’ve yet faced,” she said. “Are you truly ready for it?”

  Zeke nodded. “I think so,” he said. Though he definitely wasn’t certain. If there was one sin of which he was truly guilty, wrath was definitely it. Often, he sank into a battle trance of rage and fury, and he wasn’t so na?ve as to believe that he wouldn’t be grossly affected by the next circle.

  And yet, he had no choice but to forge ahead.

  His first few steps were a little unsteady as he worked out the catches in his stiff joints. Sitting in one place for multiple weeks was definitely not an easy thing to endure. However, a quick burst of [Hand of Divinity] got him going quickly enough, and before long, he was striding along as confidently as ever.

  The only problem was that he’d lost all of his clothing. That it had lasted as long as it had was a minor miracle, but being consistently destroyed and reforming from whatever was left was not conducive to maintaining one’s wardrobe. Still, there was no one around to judge him.

  Well, no one but Eveline, and though at one point, she might have seized upon that opportunity to tease him, the former demoness remained mostly quiet. When she did speak, her tone was reserved and quiet, which worried Zeke more than he would allow himself to acknowledge.

  After a few days, Zeke finally regained enough of his wits to notice his surroundings. The hall had been carved through densely packed earth, though it was supported by rough beams that reminded him a mine shaft. Torches dotted the walls, lighting his way with flickering flames.

  Eventually, the material of the tunnel changed to something resembling plaster that bore detailed frescoes depicting various battle scenes. There were hundreds of species represented there, but the one theme stretching from one to the next was a palpable sense of bloodlust.

  Zeke ignored the implications.

  He knew what awaited him in the next Circle of Hell, and he didn’t need a few paintings – no matter how realistic they were – to remind him of what was coming. So, he continued his trek, his footsteps the only sounds echoing through the hall.

  After a while, he defaulted to something that had filled his days for longer than he cared to remember. Divine energy continued to course through him, and with the trickle having widened into a torrent, it was even more destructive than ever before. But Zeke could bear it, if only barely, and he could handle the searing damage with [Hand of Divinity].

  So, he continued his quest for inoculation as he trekked toward the end of the hall.

  And after some indiscernible amount of time, he finally reached his destination. The door before him was made of thick and weathered wood, banded together with black iron, and heavy enough that it should have taken a giant to move. But if there was one attribute in which Zeke excelled, it was strength. So, even if that heavy door creaked under his applied influence, it still swung open to reveal the next circle of Hell.

  “Wrath,” he said, staring at the landscape beyond. Despite his trepidations, Zeke felt certain that he would find that he fit right into the next challenge.