Into The Inferno

As he stood at the gates of Hell, the bemused crusader wondered what he had done to deserve the great tragedy that had befallen him. He tried to look through the gates, but they were impenetrable to the human eye. A man came up to him, the Lone Poet, who takes his hand and guides him through the Inferno. Pressing through the wall of flame, saying nothing to each other.

Once they get to the other side of the gates, the crusader turns to the poet and asks his name and why he is here. The poet says "my name is John. I am here because I killed a judge who was condemning me to be hanged for a crime I didn't commit". They then fell silent and pressed into the inferno. Soon, they began to hear strange unearthly noises. The poet, in an attempt to take his mind off the noises, turned to the crusader and asked his name. The crusader replied "My name is Paul. I am the commander of the scarlet crusade but I'm not sure I know why I am here..." Paul looked into the poet's eyes "I fought for my country and my religion... everything I have done was for the good of the church"

As the wondered through hell, they come across terrifying beasts that you would only see from you most horrible nightmares. They tried to back away without making a noise in an attempt to avoid them but the beasts immediately became aware of their presence. They turned and charged at them. Paul and the poet took their cue and ran to try and get away. The poet, in a desperate attempt to keep up with Paul, stumbled and collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Paul turned to the demonic beasts, pulled out his knife and slammed the handle into the cranium of the large wolf like beast that was only a breath away from his prey. The large wolf like beast fell to the ground with a loud thud. Swiftly, the beast jumped to his feet and bit Paul on the arm. Paul acted fast and grabbed the beast by the ears before slitting its hair concealed throat.

The leader of the pack, in a fit of rage, rushed at John in his moment of weakness. Paul seen this and sprinted to intercept the beast. Sticking his blade into the head of the beast, the pack of beasts fled upon witnessing their fallen leader.

Paul turned to the poet and wondered whether he should carry him or leave him where he'd fallen. He came to the conclusion that even if he was in hell, he was a defender of the weak and so he decided to carry John to safety.

As they searched for shelter, Paul could vaguely make out a strange shaped being following them in the darkness. Soon they found themselves at the mouth of a cave. Paul stepped inside and set John down just inside the entrance. He then turned to face the being that had been following them and to his surprise, what stood before him was a huge beast that was a combination of mismatched body parts, drenched in blood and carelessly stitched together. The abomination, Paul could clearly see, was also armed with large weapons. The sharp shards appeared to be imbedded in the thick skin of its back.

The abomination staggered towards the Crusader with a piercing glint in its eyes. It stopped for just a moment to observe Paul, then, in flash of rage, charge at the lone crusader. Paul jumped to the side as the beast rammed past him, straight into the sharp, stone wall of the cave behind the crusader. Paul turned just in time to see the haphazard stitching on the beings arm give way and, as if the creature felt nothing, it pulled its own limb from its socket and dropped it to the floor.

The monster once again rushed to attack but Paul had already anticipated this and jumped out of the way once more and landing on the foul beasts back, Paul pulled a single blade from the monstrosities back. Paul, with all his might, impaled the blade into the beasts head, causing it to fall to the ground with an echoing slam.

As Paul moved the body away from the cave encase any other beasts nearby smelled the blood, the poet woke up, a bit dazed, and offered to help move the huge beast.

As they sleep in the cave that night, Paul had a strange dream. He couldn't be sure whether it was a sign or just a dream but he began to understand why he was in this strange, hellish place. In his dream, he clearly smelled the blood and just as easily seen the scarlet blade in the hand of... something not even he himself could describe.

The crusader awoke in a cold sweat upon hearing a mind numbing shriek in the distance. He looked at the sleeping poet in the corner and thought to himself 'Should I stay here?' he once again drew his eyes to the mouth of the cave 'Or do I go and find out what it is that's making such disturbing, strange noises?'