I Conquer Hell and Heaven With 666 Trillion Coins

Dean stepped through the doorway and stopped.

For several seconds, he couldn’t move. Not because of the pain, and surely not because something had attacked him.

But because there was nothing beneath his feet. There was no floor.

No ceiling or no walls. There was only space.

Endless, immeasurable space.

Dean’s eyes widened as he looked around.

A supernova erupted several thousand meters away, or perhaps several thousand light-years. He couldn’t tell.

An enormous star collapsed in on itself before exploding outward in a sphere of blinding energy, its death painting the darkness in brilliant colours.

Farther away, clouds of gas and dust began twisting together.

A newborn galaxy was taking shape.

Millions upon millions of stars were being born within it.

Somewhere else, a dying star was being torn apart by something Dean could not even begin to comprehend.

Stars moved through the darkness.

Some fell, while others collided.

Some disappeared into black holes, their light stretching into thin strands before vanishing entirely.

And through it all, Dean could see galaxies.

Thousands.

Millions.

Perhaps billions.

He couldn’t understand how, but he could. Although all of it was happening way away from him, he could still see them all.

They stretched farther than his eyes could comprehend.

It was beautiful, terrifying, and to be honest, completely silent.

Dean slowly raised his head.

"What the..."

Humphrey floated beside him.

The frog’s hat remained perfectly still despite the absence of wind, and his cane rested against his shoulder.

For once, Humphrey didn’t make a joke. He simply looked around.

Dean took a careful step forward. There was no floor beneath him. Yet somehow, he didn’t fall. He looked down.

Nothing.

Only stars.

A galaxy spun beneath his feet, impossibly distant. Dean immediately stepped back.

"Okay."

He swallowed.

"That’s new."

Humphrey smiled faintly. He said nothing. Dean looked ahead.

A massive structure slowly appeared in front of them. A door.

It floated in the middle of space.

There was no wall surrounding it.

No frame. Only the door itself.

It was enormous, black and silver, covered in thousands of tiny symbols. Dean stared at it.

"How do I open that?" he asked.

Humphrey raised his cane and pointed toward the space around them.

Dean followed the gesture. Something was floating nearby.

A small piece of stone.

Well...not stone.

A fragment of something covered in writing.

It slowly rotated in space. Dean reached toward it.

The moment his fingers touched it, the fragment dissolved into light.

Words appeared before his eyes.

[FIRST KNOWLEDGE]

[The beginning is not born from nothing.

The death of one may become the beginning of another.

What falls may become what burns.

What burns may become what shines.

What shines may become what lives.

Find the thing that connects the beginning to the end.]

Dean stared. He looked at Humphrey.

"Riddles again?" he asked, confused.

The frog merely smiled.

"You’re not going to explain that."

Humphrey shook his head. Dean sighed.

"Right. So I am alone this time," he said silently.

He turned back toward the stars. The first line.

"The beginning is not born from nothing."

That was obvious enough. Nothing didn’t simply create something.

Matter transformed. Energy transformed. Stars were born from clouds of gas. Stars died, and their remains became material for something else.

Dean looked toward the newborn galaxy.

Then toward the supernova.

The second line.

"The death of one may become the beginning of another."

A star died. Its explosion scattered elements. Those elements became part of new stars.

Planets and life.

Dean’s eyes narrowed.

He didn’t know anything about space, but this thing...riddle was almost explaining everything.

"What falls may become what burns."

Gas collapses. Gravity pulls matter inward. Stars ignite.

"What burns may become what shines."

A star burns, and therefore, it produces light.

"What shines may become what lives."

Stars create elements, and with that, planets form. Life can eventually emerge. Dean slowly whispered.

"Stars."

Humphrey didn’t react. Dean shook his head.

"No, although I am not sure...it is still way too easy," he added to his own words.

He thought harder. Stars were part of the process. But they weren’t the thing connecting everything.

The riddle wasn’t asking what begins the chain. It was asking what connects the beginning to the end.

Dean looked at the supernova again. Energy.

That was what allowed everything to change. But was that the answer? He wasn’t sure. He looked around. A small symbol appeared.

A circle.

Then another symbol. A wave.

Then a third. A flame.

Then a fourth. A spiral.

Dean studied them.

"Those aren’t answers," he said. Not sure why they all appeared out of nowhere; almost waited for Dean to be stuck inside the riddle.

Humphrey finally spoke.

"Very good."

Dean glanced at him.

"Then what are they?" he asked.

"Clues." Humphrey simply said.

Dean sighed.

"Of course," he said.

He looked at them again.

Circle.

Wave.

Flame.

Spiral.

"Oh..." he said. Thought of the riddle once more and found what they were instantly.

Transformation.

Movement.

Heat.

Rotation.

Dean’s eyes slowly widened.

"Energy. It really was energy."

Humphrey smiled. Dean pointed toward the stars.

"Energy connects everything," he said.

The frog nodded once. The four symbols suddenly illuminated.

A piece of glowing text appeared.

[FIRST PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED.]

Then another fragment appeared beside it.

It contained a single word.

[ENERGY]

Dean stared at it as he reached out. The fragment entered his hand. It didn’t disappear.

Instead, it became a small glowing symbol that floated beside him.

Humphrey remained silent. Dean looked at him.

"So that’s one piece."

Humphrey nodded. Dean then looked toward the door. There were three empty circles carved into it.

Three more pieces.

"Fine. So this is the key thing, but this time actually a fucking puzzle," he said. For the first time since he joined the dungeon, he was actually in a dungeon.

He turned back toward the stars.

"Let’s continue."

A second fragment appeared. This one was much larger.

It was covered in symbols Dean didn’t recognise.

Then words appeared.

[SECOND KNOWLEDGE]

[I am neither fire nor light, yet both may be born from me.

I am not motion, yet motion cannot exist without me.

I have no shape, yet I may shape worlds.

I cannot be destroyed, only transformed.

I may be stored.

I may be released.

I may sleep within matter for an age, only to awaken in an instant.

What am I?]

Dean stared.

"Energy is what I would say, but I don’t expect the riddles to have the same answer," he said as he thought.

He looked toward Humphrey. The frog shook his head.

Dean frowned.

"I know it’s not energy. Shut up," he said.

Humphrey remained silent. He almost was trying to say, "I didn’t even talk."

Dean began thinking. Neither fire nor light, yet both may be born from it.

Not motion, yet motion cannot exist without it. No shape, yet can shape worlds.

Cannot be destroyed. Can be stored. Can be released. Can sleep within matter.

Dean looked at a star.

"Potential."

Humphrey’s eyes narrowed. Dean continued.

"Potential energy," he thought.

Dean looked around.

Gravity, matter and stars.

Everything in this place seemed to be demonstrating the same concept. Potential energy existed before movement.

Before explosions. Before light.

A collapsing cloud of gas contained gravitational potential energy. A star contained nuclear energy.

Matter itself held enormous amounts of energy.

Dean nodded.

"Potential energy, isn’t it? Or like Potential directly. Literally the high-school science class..." he said suddenly.

The fragment changed. The symbols rearranged themselves. A second glowing word appeared.

[POTENTIAL]

Dean stared.

Then he frowned like he couldn’t understand.

"Wait," he said to himself.

The first piece was Energy. The second was Potential. He looked toward the floating door.

"What am I supposed to do with these?"

Humphrey finally lifted his cane. He pointed toward the first glowing piece. Then the second.

Dean watched.

The two symbols slowly moved toward one another.

They didn’t merge.

Instead, they formed a phrase.

[POTENTIAL ENERGY]

Dean’s eyes widened.

"Oh."

Humphrey smiled. Dean looked toward the door.

The first circle illuminated.

Not the second.

The first.

"It’s not asking me to simply collect knowledge."

Humphrey nodded.

"Exactly," the frog said.

Dean stared at the two pieces.

"I have to understand the relationship between them...to find the final answer," he added to his words.

Humphrey said nothing.

Dean looked back toward the stars. Potential energy. Stored energy.

Energy waiting to become something else. He nodded.

"Okay."

The first symbol sank into the first circle on the door. The second remained floating beside him.

Dean looked toward the next fragment. The third piece was different.

It did not appear immediately. Instead, the entire space around Dean changed.

A massive star suddenly appeared directly in front of him. Dean instinctively stepped backwards.

The star was enormous. Its surface churned violently.

Flames erupted from it.

Then, the star collapsed. Almost instantly.

Dean watched in silence as the entire thing compressed inward.

Its light disappeared. For a moment, there was nothing.

And then an explosion.

Silent, instant, furious.

It was a literal supernova.

The force of it was incomprehensible. The star tore itself apart.

Elements scattered across space. Some fragments moved away. Others were pulled together. The debris slowly formed clouds.

Those clouds collapsed. A new star appeared.

Around it, planets formed. One of them cooled.

Water appeared.

Chemical structures developed. And then, finally...life.

Dean stared. The entire process had happened before his eyes in seconds.

But he understood what he was seeing.

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