Hellish Moscow

Only darkness surrounded the two young men from opposite ends of the world. One looked with a puzzled and worried look, while the other — with a penetrating and calm one.

"M-Mikhail?"

"Yes, I'm from Moscow."

“I recently remembered that I moved from Russia, but…” Keshita thought.

"You didn't move. We’re in your mind. You won't be able to hide thoughts here… not with your level of power. You came to the right conclusion that it comes from the will. But how to use it?"

"Are you not a projection of my subconscious?"

"No, I entered your mind straight from Moscow the day before, when… I reached the peak of development."

"So, it's true, other countries are also conducting a similar experiment?"

"You could say that. In fact, it was already over… when I reached the top. Now either you’re with me, or… I’ll throw you off.”

Mikhail smiled coolly.

"Get out of my mind!"

"You've only just tasted the fruit of knowledge, when I was already making jam sandwiches out of it!" Mikhail clenched his fist imperiously. "You’re not able to drive me out."

"What do you want? I'm not going to serve you so that… I don't know, you want to take over the world?"

Mikhail began to move, heading around Keshita.

"I had such a thought, but I rejected it."

"Then what?"

"It's just… I don't want anyone to control me or for that kind of power to fall into the wrong hands."

"And yours are good!?"

"Come on, tone it down." Mikhail raised his hand. "This darkness… Izanami? It's clouding your mind, let's get rid of it first."

Mikhail moved his hand in space, as if trying to grab something, and abruptly lowered it, pulling the curtain and concentrating it in his fist in the form of a small ball. And then with force he crushed it and dispersed it in the recreated white void.

"W-what did you do?"

"Cleared your mind. "Breathes" easier, doesn't it?"

"Y-yes, but it would have been even better without you!"

Keshita closed his eyes and began to repeat mentally.

"Illusion, dispel! Disappear, disappear…"

"It's pointless. If you don't believe it, it's easier for me to show you."

Mikhail waved his hand as if he was swiping a large invisible screen. The space flashed past, and they found themselves in a Russian village.

"Huh? Where are we? "

"Kommunarka." Mikhail, in the air with Tamiya, pointed down with his finger. "There I am, walking towards the metro. Unsuspecting in my consciousness but knowing everything in subconscious. Let's rewind anyway."

Mikha and L waved, moving them to the subway seats opposite Mikhail from the past, listening to something on headphones.

"We’re similar in many ways. Like you, I was a postgraduate student in the biology department at the capital's university. Only I was more interested in philosophy and the Christian religion than in Buddhism and Shinto."

Keshita noticed that Mikhail in the vision was completely immersed in the audiobook "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, falling asleep. The girl sitting nearby in the hood took advantage of this, discreetly giving an injection.

"SNH?"

"We called it the V-virus. That's why it was supposed to bring us victory. The experiment was conducted in my "ignorance". The day before, using another drug, they created artificial amnesia in me."

"It's easier to trick the brain…"

"That's true. In some ways it was harder for you, but…"

Mikhail rewound time, moving to the parking lot at the exit from the metro, where the guy’s perception had already changed greatly. It all looked like a modernized version of Dante's Hell. Parked cars turned into mechanical hellish monsters, people into souls or wandering shadows, shopping malls and buildings twisted into a fractal spiral into hellish mountains with cracks.

"I-Is this… Hell?"

"It’s the one."

Keshita recognized himself in that Mikhail, staring at the shadows swarming around him, his disconcerted and frightened eyes darting back and forth in search of hope, when suddenly a hooded girl, whom Tamiya recognized, ran through the crowd toward him.

"Black Rabbit!"

"Yes, I'll name her that soon." Mikhail rewound further.

They found themselves at a small pond, into which Misha immediately rushed past and fell. The souls in the lake pulled him to the bottom and begged him to share their grief.

"Lake Setun, into which a local plant dumps chemical waste…It belongs to influential people who are covered by people from the administration and the police. I once learned from the news that a journalist who was collecting evidence even drowned here."

“It’s cruel… But this is an isolated case, of which there are quite a few in the world?”

Mikhail suddenly burst out laughing, holding his stomach so that it wouldn't burst. The Black Rabbit rushed past and dove into the lake after Misha, then pulled him out onto the shore. Keshita noticed how Misha, having climbed out, checked something in his pocket. Tamiya tried to read the mind, being right in the vision, and he managed to find out that there was a box with a ring inside. Having recovered from his laughter, Mikhail sped up time with a snap of his fingers.

Misha and the Black Rabbit met and formed a temporary alliance to achieve a common goal. They ran through a living forest that shot needles at them and blocked their path with roots. And then they reached a "bus stop" that looked more like a pier for the dead. Then Charon took them to the cities, crossing the Moscow Ring Road at a four-clover interchange.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" The Black Rabbit said. "Christians believed that Eve brought this clover with her in memory of Paradise. Each of the petals meant something: hope, faith, love and…"

"Luck." Mikhail repeated after his copy from the past.

Afterwards they looked at the road sign that read, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

"Gloomy… You’d to go through hell to achieve power?"

"More like free will. Yes, we agreed with Li-… Black Rabbit that we needed to kill the guardians of the circles of hell in order to get out. I wanted to do this not only for myself, but for her and all the "residents" of Hell."

"But they’re sinners and deserve such a fate, no?"

"Who is their judge? God?"

Keshita decided not to engage in a philosophical debate and continued watching the fast-forward recording of the past.

"Still, how do you transmit this to my brain if you’re real?"

"You’ll soon understand everything yourself. Even more than you wish…"

The next shots were of a church on the outskirts of Moscow next to the military school.

"I-Is this the guardian?" Keshita stuttered in fear.

They were standing in a high-vaulted temple building full of shadowy worshipers. A giant baby with no pupils in its eyes was levitating at the altar.

"Belmo is the guardian of the first circle of Hell — Limbo. Where unbaptized babies and virtuous non-Christians "serve" their punishment. Perhaps this is your circle?"

"I don't think so… What is he doing?"

"Eats parishioners, passing them through its digestive… or rather educational system. The output is a new, ready-made citizen of Hell."

"What an abomination!"

Keshita held back the urge to vomit with one hand, and with the other he reached for his neck, but stopped at the last moment.

"That's what I thought too!" Mikhail cried out joyfully, throwing his hands up.

The shadow-worshippers dispersed, gathering again into a fog that surrounded the suddenly formed battlefield.

"Throw the baby away immediately!"

Misha from the vision shouted to the giant who was about to gobble up the baby.

Belmo did just that, throwing the child straight at Misha, who deftly caught him, and then flew into Belmo's belly with both feet. He didn't feel anything special and grabbed Misha with his huge paws, pulling him towards his mouth.

"Amen!" Flew out of Bilmo's throat.

"It isn’t for you to speak such words, spawn of Hell!"

At that moment, a crack was heard from above and a cross fell from the roof right onto the altar, piercing Belmo's mouth. The Black Rabbit helped Misha escape before other servants of Hell arrived.

"Symbolic… How did this happen? And how is it connected…"

"With reality? Well, now I can show you this, although then I wasn’t given the opportunity to see… " Mikhail snapped his fingers.

Everything around was transformed and became similar to the "ordinary" world, although Keshita had never visited a Christian church. He found Misha with his eyes, and next to him, a girl in a hood. Now he saw her much more clearly.

"Oh, are you your guide?"

"True, but not only…"

Mikhail fell silent and sadly drooped. And although he didn’t hide his emotions, it seemed he didn’t want to show this one. Keshita instinctively tried to read his thoughts, but immediately stopped, realizing his situation…

…in the food chain.