Dying twice had at least one advantage: the second experience was much less confusing than the first.
When Tanya regained consciousness, she therefore did not immediately try to convince herself that she was still alive.
She knew that strange absence between death and what came after.
She remembered her final moments perfectly, well enough in any case to know that no doctor was waiting for her at the end of the tunnel with a reassuring explanation.
The first thing she felt was the heat.
A heavy and unpleasant heat that seemed to permeate the air itself, accompanied by a smell of smoke, alcohol, and garbage.
Her back rested against something hard and slightly damp.
When she finally opened her eyes, she discovered a deep red sky between two buildings whose façades leaned dangerously over a narrow alley.
For several seconds, Tanya simply remained lying there.
Somewhere in the neighboring street, music that was far too loud echoed behind bursts of laughter.
A bottle shattered.
Someone yelled a particularly imaginative insult, immediately followed by several gunshots.
No one seemed concerned.
Tanya closed her eyes.
“No.”
She waited a few seconds, as if the universe could still decide to reconsider this bad joke.
Nothing changed.
She opened her eyes again and once more stared at the red sky.
“Seriously?”
Her voice was familiar.
Far too familiar.
Tanya slowly sat up, ran a hand through her hair and immediately felt its length.
She grabbed a blond lock in front of her face before looking at her hands.
Small.
Delicate.
Exactly like in her previous existence.
She then lowered her eyes toward her body.
“Oh, go fuck yourself.”
She was small…
Again…
After a first existence spent in the body of an adult man, a second in that of a girl who had been forced to earn every inch of respect through military results, Tanya would have appreciated it if the universe had shown a minimum of originality.
Apparently, that was too much to ask.
Her clothes had nevertheless changed.
She wore a dark uniform vaguely reminiscent of the Empire’s without being identical to it.
The fabric was almost black, with a few red borders and golden elements around the collar.
A short cape rested on her shoulders and a military cap had fallen a few centimeters from her hand.
Tanya picked it up and looked at it more closely.
She observed the unknown insignia fixed above the visor before sighing.
“Of course.
If I have to start over, might as well keep the theme.”
She put the cap back on her head and stood up.
Her legs worked normally.
No dizziness, no particular pain.
Her body even seemed strangely light, but Tanya decided to leave that question for later.
She had a much bigger problem.
She knew an individual who had already demonstrated an unfortunate tendency to intervene after her death.
Tanya slowly raised her eyes toward the sky.
“Being X?”
No answer was given to her.
She waited.
“I know you can probably hear me, so spare me your dramatic act and show yourself, asshole.”
Still no answer and that disturbed her more than an immediate appearance would have.
Being X loved to talk.
More precisely, he loved hearing himself explain why Tanya was wrong, why she had to believe in him and why all the misfortunes that happened to her were, one way or another, supposed to improve her faith.
Silence was unlike him.
Tanya observed her surroundings more carefully.
The alley was dirty, covered in torn posters and glowing signs, several of which advertised establishments she probably would not have visited even with an interesting tax reduction.
A tiny creature with six legs rummaged through a trash can.
When it noticed Tanya, it showed three rows of teeth before disappearing into a hole in the wall.
“Charming.”
She finally left the alley and stopped almost immediately.
The city stretching before her looked like nothing she knew.
The buildings mixed several architectural styles without any apparent consistency.
Relatively modern buildings stood beside oversized gothic constructions, while red, pink and yellow neon lights covered almost every façade.
Cars passed through the street, some familiar, others completely absurd.
Above all of it stretched that impossible red sky, dominated in the distance by a gigantic shape resembling a pentagram.
But it was mainly the inhabitants who caught her attention.
None of them were human.
Some vaguely had the shape of one.
Others had horns, tails, several arms, or completely aberrant proportions.
Tanya saw an individual pass whose head literally looked like a flaming goat skull.
A blue-skinned woman was talking with a demon resembling a gigantic insect.
Farther away, two creatures were fighting in front of a bar while a dozen spectators bet on the winner.
Tanya remained silent.
She had lived in a world where humans could fly thanks to magical jewels and recite prayers to turn calculations into explosions.
She had personally spoken with an entity claiming to be God.
She therefore considered herself to have developed a reasonably high tolerance for the absurd.
But there were still limits.
“Okay… Well, this is another level.”
She turned toward the window of a closed store and caught sight of her reflection.
Her face was still the one she knew, but several details were different.
Her skin seemed paler.
Her eyes, once blue, were now an almost glowing golden yellow.
Her pupils were slightly narrower than those of a human.
Tanya approached the glass and opened her mouth.
Her teeth were pointed.
Not just the canines.
All of them.
Running her tongue over them, she could tell that they were smooth and dangerously sharp.
She slowly closed her mouth.
“Wonderful.”
A voice was heard beside her.
“First day?”
Tanya turned around and saw a demon leaning against the wall behind her.
Tall, probably close to two meters, with dark red skin and two curved horns.
He wore gray pants, an open shirt and a coat that had seen better days.
A cigarette hung between his lips.
He also had a revolver tucked into his belt.
Tanya did not answer immediately.
“Yeah.
First day.” said the demon, chuckling with a crooked smile.
“What makes you say that?” I said.
He burst out laughing.
“Because you’ve been standing in front of a window for five minutes staring at your fucking teeth like they just grew.”
Tanya glanced at her reflection.
He wasn’t wrong, he had a point.
I turn back toward him.
“Where am I?”
The demon’s smile widened at my question.
“Oh fuck.
You really are fresh.”
“You’re in Pentagram City.”
The name meant nothing to her.
My expression must have shown it, because the demon gave a small laugh before taking a long drag from his cigarette.
“You’re in Hell, kid.” replied the demon as if it were obvious.
Tanya did not answer.
She looked at the demon.
Then at the red sky.
Then at the inhabitants of the street and finally brought her attention back to him.
“Hell.”
“With a capital H and all that shit.” replied the tall demon.
That unfortunately explained a lot of things.
Tanya would have liked to immediately reject that claim.
The problem was that she already possessed empirical evidence of the existence of a divine power.
Accepting the existence of a Hell after personally meeting an entity pretending to be God did not require a particularly great intellectual effort.
What annoyed her more was the logical conclusion.
“So I was damned.”
“Welcome to the club.”
“Very well, I see.”
The demon waited.
“Seriously?
That’s it?” said the demon, slightly surprised.
“What?
What were you expecting?”
“Normally, the new ones panic a bit more.
Some cry.
Others start asking God for forgiveness.
There was one last week who ran naked through the street screaming that all of this was a dream.” said the demon.
Tanya crossed her arms.
“I’ve already met God.”
The demon raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously?”
“Unfortunately.”
“And?”
Tanya thought for a second before answering.
“He’s a narcissistic asshole with a superiority complex.”
The demon stared at her.
Then he burst out laughing so violently that he nearly lost his cigarette.
“Fuck, kid!
I like you!”
“I’m delighted that this relationship is one-sided.”
He continued laughing for a few seconds before throwing his cigarette onto the ground.
Then his attitude changed.
Not enormously, but just enough for it to barely be noticeable.
His hand moved down toward the revolver that was concealed.
Tanya noticed immediately and sighed internally.
“Obviously.”
“Well, since you’re new, I’m going to give you your first free piece of advice.” His smile stretched further.
“How generous.”
“Here, if someone can take something from you, they will.” said the demon.
He pulled out his revolver.
Several passersby looked in their direction but no one stopped to intervene or say anything.
Some were already smiling at what was about to happen.
“Give me your coat, your cap, and everything you’ve got in your pockets.”
Tanya looked at her uniform, then raised her head to look straight ahead.
“I have nothing in my pockets.”
“Then the coat will do.”
Tanya took 2 seconds before answering.
“You’re robbing me for a coat?”
“It’s a nice coat.” said the demon in a slightly amused tone.
Tanya looked at him for a few seconds.
Then she sighed.
“You know, I literally just learned that I’m dead and condemned to Hell.
I was hoping to have at least an hour before someone started pissing me off.”
“Wrong city for that.” said the demon as he raised his weapon.
The moment the weapon was aimed at Tanya, she felt something.
Heat suddenly traveled through her arm like a slight electric shock.
She knew that sensation.
Even though it was slightly different from what she remembered, she recognized it well enough.
Magic.
Her gaze instinctively dropped toward her hand, where a faint red light ran between her fingers.
The demon followed her gaze and saw it as well.
Slightly worried, he muttered, “What the fuck is this shit?”
Tanya had absolutely no idea, but she had no intention of admitting it to him.
“You should probably put that weapon down.”
“Go fuck yourself.” The demon fired without hesitation.
Tanya raised her arm by reflex and a translucent red surface appeared in front of her with a sharp crack.
The bullet struck the barrier and crushed against something invisible before falling to the ground.
Silence fell around them.
Tanya looked at the bullet that had fallen to the ground.
Then she looked at the barrier surrounding her.
She knew magical shields.
She had used enough of them during the war to immediately recognize the principle.
And yet she had no computation jewel.
No formula or prayer.
She had simply wanted to protect herself, and the magic had responded.
“Interesting.”
“Fuck…” The demon stepped back a few steps, surprised.
Tanya slowly lowered her arm and the barrier disappeared.
An excitement she had not felt in a long time began to replace her confusion.
If she could create a barrier… Then maybe.
She extended her hand and this time, she deliberately thought of a weapon.
A simple weapon, something she knew perfectly.
Red energy gathered in her palm.
She felt a strange resistance, as if her mind had to give a precise shape to something that possessed none.
Then a pistol appeared.
It was Black, heavy and perfectly solid.
Thin red lines ran along the barrel.
Tanya looked at it with fascination.
“Ohoh”
The demon, on the other hand, seemed to have reached a much less enthusiastic conclusion.
“Wait…”
Tanya raised her eyes.
She was smiling.
She knew it because the demon had just gone pale.
“We’re going to start this conversation over from the beginning.”
He raised his hands.
“Listen, kid…”
“Tanya.” I said in a sharp tone.
“What?”
“My name is Tanya Degurechaff.
If we are going to talk, we might as well avoid having you continue to call me ‘kid’.”
“Okay… Tanya.” replied the demon weakly.
“Very well.” She pointed the pistol at him.
“Now, you are going to explain exactly how this place works.”
The demon swallowed.
“And if I refuse?”
Tanya tilted her head slightly.
“You just shot me to steal my coat.”
She let a short silence pass.
“I think you can guess.”
“…”
An hour later, Tanya was sitting in a bar with the man who had tried to rob her.
Hell was definitely a strange place.
The demon was named Marvin.
He had died three years earlier, in 1937, after a criminal career long enough to make his presence here perfectly understandable.
He had insisted on drinking during their conversation.
Tanya had ordered coffee.
After the first sip, she seriously began to wonder whether coffee was one of the local torture methods.
“So, let’s summarize.”
Marvin sighed.
“Seriously, again?”
“You explain things very badly.”
“I’m not a fucking tour guide, damn it.”
“You are currently the only guide available.” I said, looking at him.
“Because you’re threatening me.”
“I prefer the term ‘external motivation’.”
Marvin raised his glass.
“You’re one hell of a little bitch.”
Tanya raised her cup in return.
“Thank you.”
Marvin shook his head before drinking his glass in one go.
According to his explanations, dead humans who arrived here were called sinners.
They were confined to a part of Hell called the Pride Ring.
Hell had other inhabitants, born here, as well as several levels and a hierarchy of which Marvin himself seemed to have only an approximate knowledge.
Tanya would have time to study all that later.
One piece of information, however, was much more urgent.
“You said that a sinner could not die normally.”
Marvin looked to the side.
“Not permanently.”
“If I shoot you in the head right now?”
Marvin immediately put down his glass.
“Why do you always use my fucking face as the example?”
“Because you are in front of me.”
“Find another example.” making a gesture with his hand toward the other customers.
“Very well.
If someone shoots you in the head…”
“That’s not better.
Fuck.”
Tanya ignored the remark.
“You eventually come back?”
“Yeah.
It can take time and it hurts like hell, but yeah.”
“And angelic weapons?”
Marvin’s face became more serious.
“That’s something else.”
He explained the Exterminations to her.
Angels periodically descended from Heaven to massacre sinners.
The weapons they used could cause permanent death.
Tanya listened without interrupting him.
She had therefore managed to die a second time, had discovered the existence of Hell and was now learning that Heaven regularly organized military operations against its inhabitants.
She slowly set down her cup.
“Of course.”
Marvin frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.
I’m simply learning that even after death, I still can’t escape armed conflicts.”
“Yeah, well, here we call that Tuesday.”
Tanya gave a slight laugh.
She was almost starting to appreciate this idiot….
Almost.
The conversation continued.
Then Marvin mentioned the Overlords.
This time, Tanya listened much more carefully.
Sinners powerful enough to control territories, businesses, or entire groups.
Some had existed for a long time.
Others appeared and disappeared with the conflicts.
But their power did not come only from their personal abilities.
Contracts mattered and souls mattered.
“Wait.” Tanya set down her cup.
“You mean that a demon can own another’s soul?”
“Yeah.”
“Literally?”
“Fuck, you’re in Hell.
Of course it’s literal.” said Marvin, chuckling.
“And owning more souls increases power?”
Marvin shrugged.
“For some, yeah.
Depends.
But mostly, it gives you people, territory, power, connections.
The big Overlords have tons of contracts.”
Tanya fell silent and she looked at her hand.
Since her arrival, she had felt that strange energy inside her body.
The barrier had been almost instinctive.
Creating the pistol had required more effort, but much less than she would have imagined.
She still did not know the limits of this magic and she hated not knowing her limits.
Marvin noticed her silence.
“Hey, why are you making that face?”
Tanya raised her eyes.
“What face?”
“The one that says you just had an idea that’s going to fuck someone over.”
Tanya smiled slightly.
“I was simply thinking about my situation.”
She was in Hell and she had no money, no allies, no housing, no deep knowledge of local society.
She did not know the extent of her own abilities and did not even know whether Being X could still reach her.
But she possessed something.
A new form of magic and above all, she possessed her experience.
In her first life, Tanya had believed that following the rules of the system was enough to obtain a comfortable existence.
In her second, she had learned that the rules could be changed by those who possessed enough power.
She had no desire to become queen and even less to govern a city filled with individuals like Marvin.
That would probably be her own personal circle of Hell.
But depending on the goodwill of others was out of the question.
Tanya wanted a house, security, comfort, and resources.
And above all, she wanted to reach a level where no one could come and tell her that she had to return to a battlefield in the name of a god, a country, or some higher cause.
She had spent enough lives working for the ambitions of others.
This time, she would work for herself.
“Marvin.”
He grunted slightly.
“What now?”
“How do you obtain a soul?”
He looked at her for a long time.
“You arrived today.
A few hours ago, you didn’t even know you were in Hell.”
“That is correct.”
“And now you already want to collect souls?” he said, surprised.
Tanya looked at her coffee and said, “I want to understand how the main resource used by the most powerful individuals in this society works.”
Marvin remained silent as he looked at her, then he burst out laughing while slapping the counter.
“Fuck… I don’t know what you were when you were alive, but you definitely weren’t normal.”
Tanya took another sip of coffee.
She grimaced, frowning.
“Still just as bad.”
“I was a civil servant.”
Marvin stopped laughing and looked back at her.
He stared at her for a few seconds before saying.
“I don’t know why, but that scares me even more.”
This time, Tanya actually laughed.
Maybe Hell would not be as unbearable as she had imagined.
She turned her head toward the window.
Beyond the dirty glass stretched Pentagram City, immense, chaotic and violent under its eternally red sky.
And somewhere in that city existed demons powerful enough to own thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of souls.
Individuals who had built their position in a world where almost no one seemed to respect anything other than strength, money, or contracts.
Tanya had nothing yet, but she had already started with less.
And for the first time in a very long time, no divine voice was ordering her what to do.
No mission awaited her.
No superior could send her to die to gain a few kilometers of ground.
She was dead, she was damned.
And, in a deeply ironic way, she might finally be free.
Tanya observed the red lights of the city for a few more moments before bringing her attention back to Marvin.
“Very well.
Finish your drink.”
“Why?”
“Because afterward, you’re going to show me the city.”
Marvin let out a long sigh.
“I really should’ve stolen your coat and kept my mouth shut.”
Tanya smiled behind her cup.
“Probably.”
She still had no idea what Hell had in store for her, but one thing was already certain.
This time, she had no intention of staying at the bottom of the ladder.