Sweat poured off Rudra's body like a waterfall. The red water surrounding him was no longer just a river of blood—it had transformed into a boiling pit of acid. The heat was so ferocious that the skin on Rudra's feet began to sear and peel. A sharp wave of agony shot straight to his brain, and his survival instinct finally overrode his paralyzing fear.

  Right in front of him sat that same ancient wooden boat. Without a second thought, Rudra lunged into the boat to escape the torment of the scalding water. As his skin touched the cool wood, he felt a momentary flicker of relief, but it was gone in an instant.

  The moment he raised his head, his breath hitched in his throat. That gargantuan, pillar-like old man—Kaal—was standing directly in front of him. He stood upon the surface of the boiling red acid as if he were standing on a cold, solid floor rather than a hellish pit of death. His single red eye seemed to pierce through Rudra's very soul.

  "You dared to enter my boat? Without my permission?"

  Kaal's voice sounded like the catastrophic grinding of ancient tectonic plates.

  That single question crushed what little courage Rudra had left. His entire body began to shake violently, and tears burst from his eyes, carving paths through the sweat-drenched grime on his face. The terror was so suffocating that he felt his lungs failing him.

  "I... I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!"

  Driven by pure, unadulterated panic, Rudra threw himself off the boat and back into the boiling acid without a second thought. He felt that Kaal's wrath would be far more agonizing than the burning water. But the moment he hit the liquid, the pain surpassed all human limits. It felt as if his flesh was being liquidated while he was still alive.

  "AAAAAAAAA!"

  Rudra's scream tore through the infinite void—a blood-curdling shriek that begged for the mercy of death. The pain was so absolute that he felt his very soul was about to be incinerated.

  "BE SILENT!" Kaal thundered.

  In a heartbeat—one single, solitary moment—everything changed.

  Rudra's scream died in his throat. The burning, the agony, the blistering heat... it all vanished instantly. The sweat clinging to his body suddenly began to dry. Rudra took long, ragged gasps of air; his heart was still thumping wildly against his ribs, but the physical suffering had vanished.

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  Where is this wind coming from? he wondered, dazed. In this enclosed, pitch-black void where there was no sky and no earth, a cold, sharp breeze had begun to howl.

  Rudra looked up. Kaal was stepping toward him. With every stride the giant took, the wind grew more violent. Kaal leaned down, bringing his face inches away from Rudra's. Rudra was so paralyzed by dread that he literally forgot how to breathe. He was certain his execution had arrived.

  Then, a powerful gust of wind roared through the void, and Kaal's long white hair, which had veiled his face like a shroud for centuries, was suddenly swept aside.

  Rudra instinctively tried to squeeze his eyes shut, expecting to see a rotting corpse or a monstrous demon behind that curtain of hair. But when he looked, he was struck utterly speechless.

  Behind the hair was no monster, but a face of breathtaking beauty and celestial radiance. It was a face so calm and pure that it was impossible to believe this was the same terrifying entity. His flawless white complexion glowed in the darkness like a golden dream.

  Rudra's lips had been trembling with fear moments ago, but now they hung open in absolute awe. He had seen many people in his life, but the being standing before him was beyond the reach of human imagination. Kaal's face was more radiant and serene than that of the most handsome man on Earth. Rudra's terror evaporated instantly, and his racing heart began to steady.

  "Heh!" A faint, broken sound escaped Rudra's mouth.

  He was about to gather his courage to ask a question when Kaal took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eye.

  "I know a sea of questions is boiling within your mind, Rudra."

  Rudra flinched again. It felt as if someone had violently pulled back the curtains of his mind. He was about to ask: What is this dark world? Am I truly dead? Is there a way back? But Kaal had answered before the questions could even take shape.

  He... he can read my thoughts? A fresh spark of fear flickered in Rudra's mind.

  Kaal ignored his shock and turned slowly to face the darkness. His towering stature now made him look like an ancient deity.

  "But before we reach those questions," Kaal's voice was now deeper, carrying an ominous weight, "you must endure a trial. A test... one that will determine if you are even worthy of drawing breath again."

  "A test?" Rudra was utterly bewildered. His mind spun in circles. People are supposed to go to heaven or hell after they die... but here, I have to pass an exam?

  He looked at Kaal's massive back and asked, "What kind of test are you talking about? I'm already dead... what could you possibly gain from testing a corpse?"

  Kaal turned slightly, his white hair swaying like a storm in the wind. "Corpses do not take tests, Rudra. But the dead who wish to crawl back to the world of the living... they must prove their price."

  "Can... can you really do—" Rudra's courage failed him once more. His question was still hanging on his lips when Kaal's fingers snapped in the air with the crack of a whip.

  Snap!

  In the blink of an eye, the darkness shattered like falling glass. Rudra squeezed his eyes shut as a sudden, blinding light stung his pupils. When he looked again, his head swam with vertigo. He was no longer in the black river or the void. Above him was a clear, boundless blue sky where the morning sun was slowly rising.

  But this peace was a cruel deception.

  Rudra looked around. He was standing on a tiny, desolate island in the middle of a vast, indifferent ocean. But this wasn't a beautiful paradise. There were no trees, no bushes, and not a single sign of life. There was nothing but dry, rocky earth for as far as he could see. The island was so small that Rudra could see its ends from where he stood—where the dirt stopped and the infinite, deep sea began.

  "What... what is this place?" Rudra asked himself, his voice swallowed by the deafening roar of the waves.

  There was only silence and the suffocating smell of salt on this deserted island. The heat of the ground began to seep into the soles of his feet. There was no water to drink, no place to hide. He looked at the ocean, but it stretched on for countless, empty miles.

  "What do I do now?"

  Rudra's hope began to wither. He realized that escaping death wouldn't be as easy as he had prayed for. Kaal had given him life again, but he had locked him in a cage where death would return in the form of agonizing thirst and absolute loneliness.