Ashes of inherited hell

Liam was just an average teenager navigating school, part-time jobs, and life with his caring aunt in a sprawling, vibrant city. He worried about grades, social interactions, and the usual anxieties of adolescence. His world was mundane, perhaps even a little boring, a stark contrast to the sudden, unfathomable terror that descended without warning. The sky bled crimson, the air grew thick with sulfur, and reality tore open, unleashing grotesque, nightmarish creatures that massacred humanity with ruthless efficiency. Amidst the chaos and screaming, Liam's brief, brutal struggle ended in a horrific death. But oblivion was denied. Instead, he awoke, not in an afterlife, but back in the ruined city, fundamentally changed. His body felt wrong, stronger but alien, capable of moving with unsettling unnatural grace. His senses were sharper, perceiving the demonic invaders not just as threats, but in ways that hinted at a terrifying kinship. Panic warred with a primal urge to survive. He was no longer human. A strange, ethereal interface materialized in his mind, a System. It presented him with a stark status screen, showing attributes and skills he shouldn't possess, describing his new state with chilling, clinical terms. It offered quests framed as necessary steps for survival, providing just enough guidance to keep him from being immediately torn apart. The system was cold, objective, an unblinking eye in the new darkness, and it held information about him, secrets buried deeper than he could comprehend. As he stumbled through the blood-soaked ruins, witnessing unspeakable horrors and committing brutal acts simply to endure, the psychological burden mounted. Every kill, every grotesque mutation he felt within himself, chipped away at his humanity. He was a monster, forced to survive in a world ruled by monsters, guided by a cryptic program. The system hinted at his potential, powers dormant beneath the surface, subtly pushing him towards a destiny linked to the very entities that destroyed his world. It whispered of bloodlines, of inherent authority, and as he struggled, the first stirrings of a complex, dangerous attraction began to bloom amidst the ruins with another survivor, a flicker of fragile human connection in the heart of hell. This new existence was a constant psychological battle, drenched in gore and despair, a slow, torturous journey towards an identity he never wanted.