When I reach the other side, I have to stop and breathe properly for a few seconds. I think I had been holding my breath for a while. Only then do I notice the place I've arrived in, as the heat hits me like a furnace. Now that I can see it all for myself, it strikes me just how red it all is. The ground beneath me is a hard, red rock, that dominates the landscape, with only a few pockets of brown sludge in between. Fires burn everywhere, without any hint of spreading or abating, just an endless blaze wherever they burn, dotting the landscape as if they were bushes or trees. Even the air seems red. It's more than just the constant heat; the air seems full of red particles… I'm breathing in red, feeling it inside me.

I start to explore; I have a purpose here, after all. The land is fairly empty here; just a small high-up peninsula, which drops off into the lava lake below a little further east. A small path leads down that way, if I wanted to explore the lake, but I definitely don't. Up north, though, is a small hill. I aim for that, stepping around the fires and the brown mud collecting in puddles around the rocky ground.

As I climb the hill, I find someone else already standing at the top, their back turned towards me. Absurdly, I wonder if Adam has come here ahead of me; then I remember that there is only one way out of the portal. The stranger is shirtless, wearing only a thin pair of trousers shredded beyond repair. As I come a little closer, I realise several things are wrong. The stranger is huge: thick, trunk-like muscles make up its arms and legs. Also, its skin is pink.

It turns around, and I yell in shock and disgust, with a hand going to the sword behind my back. It isn't remotely human at all.

The thing looks a bit like a pig, in the shape of a man; or it might've done. It's pink skin – I don't know how I didn't notice that before – is marked with decay; eaten away in places. It has a snout, a mouth with two sharp tusks, and a mean eye, but the other eye is lost, along with half of its face. A bare skull pokes out of the side of its head, with an empty eye-socket staring at me blankly. It casts a tall, imposing figure; it looks like it could crush me just by falling over.

I almost make to run away, but something stops me. The creature isn't moving to attack me, or threaten me. In fact, it isn't doing anything. Its remaining eye is yellow, and it isn't mean at all, it's just curious. Despite its horrific appearance, something convinces me that the creature doesn't mean any harm.

On a bizarre impulse, I reach out my hand towards it; whether to stroke it, or to shake its hand, I couldn't say. But it doesn't matter; the pig-thing looks blankly at the offered hand, and walks away, down the hill I just came from. Surprised, but relieved that nothing came to violence, I take my hand off my sword, and carry on.