ARMAGEDDON

15: Lost

Somehow, I had crossed into the Circle of Treachery. As everyone knows from the classical poem work "Dante's Inferno", treachery is the last circle, and is pretty distinct in that it is just an icy wasteland. It was good that I killed Abaddon and absorbed his soul, for my wounds were healed, and I could function normally.

Unfortunately, my Crusader suit was having problems. I lost my helmet, so I had no head protection, and my armor was so damaged that it was having difficulty from protecting my body from the extreme cold, but it was better than wearing my regular clothes. I stumbled through the icy, howling wind, looking anywhere for shelter.

I heard a distant gunshot. I got extremely confused, but then I moved towards where the gunshot came from. The wind got worse, but I could hear demonic shrieking, and the sound of ice shattering. I saw a mountain, and a sniper was up in the cave, taking shots at approaching ice creatures. These creatures seemed to made purely of ice, and when they were killed, their remains melted into water.

A bullet whizzed past my ear and I shouted "HOLD YOUR FUCKING FIRE!"

The sniper didn't shoot at me, and so I climbed up the mountain towards the sniper's cave. It took me an hour, but I crawled into the cave near the fire, warming myself up. The sniper, it turned out was none other than Alexandra Ivanova. I got really confused, and asked her "How did you survive?"

Alexandra replied with "I barely made it out, but I had managed to catch a Rift into the circle of Treachery. I've been here for a few days, living off of rations. I expect that another Rift will open, and we'll have to pray it gets us closer to home, or somewhere that isn't Hell."

I sighed and said "Amen. Say, what were those creatures?"

Alexandra said "Ice Demons. You kill them, they melt back into the snow and ice, and then they reform themselves back into form. They can't die."

Alexandra and I sat in silence for a little bit. I was basically hypnotized by the crackle of the fire, until I felt the pressure in the air suddenly increase. Alexandra bolted to her feet and said 'This is it. Another Rift is opening."

Sure enough, a Rift suddenly shot into existence just outside the cave. Red hell energy crackled around it, and it seemed quite unstable. But, it was a lot better than being in this frozen shit hole. I followed Alexandra into the Rift.

We fell flat on our faces right into some brimstone. We heard distant snarls and shrieks, and I heard Alexandra say "We just left the coldest part of hell, and went right into the middle of a far hotter circle.."

"Where are we?" I asked.

Alexandra looked at me and said "We're in the circle known as Violence. We'll need to fight for our lives."

I heard a familiar voice say "Hey, why're you two lookin so glum? You've got a friend in here!" and we both heard a Hell-sword crackle to life, the red energy blade snarling and emanating a red glow.