Falling.
Endless darkness, not nothingness, but viscous, filled with endless murmurs of pain and roars of despair.
Setsuna felt as if he were passing through layer upon layer of thick curtains woven from sin and punishment.
The perception of time blurred here. Only the feeling of weightlessness caused by the downward descent remained extremely clear.
Bang!
Setsuna felt solid ground beneath his feet. He was now standing on a desolate land.
The sky was an eternal dark red, with no sun, moon, or stars. Only clouds hung low like coagulated blood scabs.
Occasionally, twisted lightning flashed, illuminating the jagged rocks below and the ravines flowing with dark red magma.
The air was thick with the stench of sulfur, blood, and the foul odor of decaying souls.
More strikingly, within this hellish landscape, countless monsters of all shapes and sizes roamed and fought.
Some maintained a roughly humanoid form but were twisted and grotesque, while others were completely transformed into indescribable creatures.
"Are these the Togabito?" Setsuna looked around.
"Hee hee hee." Don Slime's cheerful voice sounded in Setsuna's mind. "Setsuna, this Hell is wonderful!"
"Endless powerful souls! This is truly a precious ingredient treasury! Let us to our heart's content wreak havoc in this Hell!"
Feeling the negative energy and soul fluctuations permeating the air of Hell, thousands of times more intense and wild than in Soul Society...
Setsuna also laughed. "Yes, I was still too following the rules in Soul Society. Now, let me slightly release myself."
If those wise sages of the Central 46, whose souls had already been scattered by karmic flames, could hear these words, they would probably jump out of nothingness and curse loudly:
"You, in Soul Society, killed wise sages, destroyed nobles, confronted the Captain-Commander, fought the Zero Division, and demolished half the Seireitei."
"If you call that 'following the rules', then is there anyone in Soul Society who 'acts wildly'? Hell is more reasonable than you!"
Soon, the Togabito wandering nearby noticed this newly arrived sinner.
They sensed the Reiatsu on Setsuna that was incongruous with Hell, yet exceptionally powerful, as well as his slightly trembling body.
"Hey! Look at that guy!"
"A newcomer? The smell on him... so strange, so clean?"
"He's trembling! Hahaha! A coward scared just by seeing Hell, how did he qualify to fall here?"
"Hell is a paradise for us evil ones! Cowards should go back to Soul Society and be sheep!"
"Tear him apart! Divide his Reiatsu!"
A group of Togabito, twisted in form and emanating violent auras, surrounded him with weird laughs, their eyes gleaming with cruelty and greed.
They always regarded fear as the most delicious appetizer.
Facing this encirclement full of malice, Setsuna let out a joyful laugh:
"I am trembling, but I'm trembling with excitement! What a great place, food actively delivers itself as soon as I arrive. So generous!"
Before he finished speaking, his figure had already vanished.
"What?"
"So fast!"
"Where did he go?"
The Togabito couldn't even react. Golden-red light, like the scythe of a god of death, flashed among them.
"Inferno - Lightning Speed Fist!"
Setsuna's fists were like a storm, each strike precisely hitting the core of a Togabito.
For these spiritual bodies primarily composed of negative emotions and sins, karmic flames had a natural counter and purification effect.
"Ah!"
"No! My body!"
"What kind of flame is this?"
"Help... ugh!"
Screams, wails, and explosions instantly filled the air.
These Togabito, considered vicious even in the lower levels of Hell, were like paper before Setsuna, easily pierced, torn, and burned.
Their attacks landed on Setsuna's sacred cloth without stirring even a ripple.
At the same time, the phantom of the gourmet demon appeared behind Setsuna.
Don Slime opened its massive mouth and swallowed the Togabito killed by Setsuna.
"Gulp... gulp... ugh!" Don Slime made strange swallowing and impurity-purging sounds.
Streams of pitch-black, viscous, foul-smelling Reishi impurities, like excretions, were 'spat' out from the other side of its body.
They fell to the ground, sizzling and corroding the scorched earth.
Then, streams of relatively pure Reiryoku continuously transferred from within Don Slime, pouring into Setsuna's spiritual body and the Phoenix Cloth.
These Togabito naturally did not meet the standard for making gourmet souls. Setsuna simply let Don Slime devour the Togabito souls.
It was responsible for 'devouring' and 'rough processing', while Setsuna enjoyed the infusion of 'pure energy'. The efficiency far exceeded slowly absorbing and refining them himself.
This brutal, bizarre, efficient, and chilling feeding scene instilled a long-forgotten fear in these Togabito.
They originally thought a fresh blood meal to bully had arrived, but instead, an even more terrifying predator that fed on them had come.
"What is that shadow-like thing?"
"Run! Get away from him!"
Just as Setsuna was clearing out the Togabito like pulling weeds, a sudden change occurred.
The earth trembled violently. The dark red sky seemed stirred by an invisible giant hand, emitting a low whimper.
Behind the distant, charred mountains, several colossal, breathtaking figures slowly emerged.
Their heights commonly exceeded fifty meters, their forms twisted and grotesque, like skeletal rock giants.
"The Will of Hell! It's the Will of Hell!" A Togabito being hunted by Setsuna let out a piercing scream, its voice filled with pure fear even greater than when facing Setsuna.
"Stop! You madman! These monsters are the incarnations of Hell's will! They are the jailers guarding this eternal execution ground!"
"Their only reason for existence is to torture and kill us sinners who have fallen into Hell!"
Another Togabito, desperately fleeing, turned back and roared at Setsuna:
"They are immune to most of our attacks! No matter how strong you are, you cannot oppose the rule creations of Hell here!"
"Stop now! Run with us, before they fully lock onto us!"
However, Setsuna looked with interest at the slowly approaching behemoths.
He keenly sensed that the Reiatsu Intensity emanating from these 'Wills of Hell' was approximately equivalent to Captain-level Shinigami with 3rd-class Reiatsu in Soul Society.
Setsuna thought to himself: 'Could it be that those Captain-level Shinigami who entered Hell through the Konso Reisai, their souls, under the assimilation of Hell's rules, transformed into these lost self-awareness, left with only killing instinct hellish wardens?'
'After all, Togabito were the souls of the dead who fell into Hell to atone for sins. Captain-level Shinigami, having no sins, theoretically should not become Togabito.'