Prices Paid 14.
Hell. It stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Without the curvature of the Earth to create a horizon Hell seemed to stretch on forever. A blasted landscape of rock and fire flown over by permanent stormclouds that reflected the land's evil red glow. In the distance, illuminated by the flames and flashes of heel power loomed mountains that had never known erosion. They stabbed into the sky like knives into tender flesh, razor backed and relentless and around their peaks flew beasts of wing and claw.
Ranma and the girls were crouched in a fold on the side of their own razor rock formation looking out at the landscape before them. The portal they had come through had closed with all the speed it had opened and they had been left here. They could feel the heat, the alien oppressiveness of the land in front of them. If the girl's hadn't been wearing their full suits they would have also been able to smell the vile brimstone that tainted the air.
"Oh shit!" Ami murmured, her readings filling out facts she didn't want to know. Facts like the fuel of the fires being made of damned souls and the storm being home to millions of demons.
"So this is Hell" Michuru observed, "It could be worse" she offered, not quite sure how but willing to believe such anyway.
"Not really" Setsuna corrected, looking at Ranma to check her thoughts. "We are in the borders, at the very edge of the realm. Hell isn't so strong here" she argued, suppressing a shiver at the implications. "It's much worse closer in."
"We move" announced Ranma, suddenly beginning his descent down the scree slope. The girls reacted immediately, falling in according to their drills before they even realised what they were doing. In a few scant minutes the four of them were jogging across the blasted red desert leaving the mount far behind them.
They were all well aware of the long journey they had ahead of them and of the dangers it entailed yet each one reflected nothing so much as a cold determination. The time for fear was long past and in action they had found purpose.
Twenty minutes into their run Michuru spotted the first beast. A demonic melding of a car sized mosquito and a bull, the beast was flying its seven wings and lance like beak on an attack course.
"Red, three O'clock high" she called.
"Base level" Ami replied, her scans revealing it to be one of the less-sentient creatures resident in the landscape.
"Cut!" Michuru cried launching a high pressure jet from the end of her trident. The beam tore trough several of the beast's wings. It was immediately thrown into a spiralling crash dive that was only halted by the hard reality of the desert floor. They didn't stop to finish it, other denizens would do that for them.
They ran on.
o
o
Hell knows no night and day. There are no cycles of a life giving orb to mark out the length of a soul's torment here. Instead each exile to the realm keeps their own time, acting how they choose when they choose. The four heroes were no different. They ran for hours, a monumentous trek punctuated only by the attacks of hell-spawn. The regime Ranma had pushed onto them combined with the abilities granted so long ago to mean that the girls had literally run for well over twenty four hours before they stopped.
The heroes 'made camp' in the shadow of another rocky outcrop. There they took the time to check the minor injuries they had picked up along the way and recheck the path they were taking on Ami's scanned map.
"We're being followed" Ranma noted. The girls looked out the way they had come and sure enough long into the distance was a significant cloud of dust, right astride their backtrail.
"Ami?" Michuru asked.
"Out of range for anything detailed" the shorter girl replied.
"Probability?" Setsuna asked, looking at Ranma, the only one of them whi had actually spent any time here before.
"Gregs" he replied, shifting his pack.
"Lesser demons" Ami explained, "not much smarter than dogs, but a lot more clawed. Addicted to human flesh." Ami added, as if anything here wasn't.
"Can we lose them?"
"Probably" Ranma replied, "when we hit the range they will most likely turn back. The creatures there look on them as a tasty treat."
"So we move on?"
"Hai" Ranma agreed, casting one last look around the girls and getting nods in reply. Then they were off again, jogging across the storm lashed plain towards the distant mountains.
Behind them the gregs quickened their pace.
O
O
"It's going to be close" Michuru surmised. Ahead the shards of the range loomed, blood red teeth emerging from the pain into the brooding sky. Behind them the gregs had been steadily gaining ground. It seemed that the senshi were not going to make the mountains before the beasts caught them.
"Pushing harder would only force them to do the same" Setsuna replied over the communicators.
"Nowhere to fight them here" Ami supplied, "I am reading a pack of around one- fifty." She added, having finally got a more detailed scan.
"We push it out and race for the ridge" Ranma ordered. That would string out their pursuers and even though the first few would catch up long before the main pack the four of them should be able to deal with that. "Go!" he ordered and the girls broke into a full run, t the same time flipping the formation so he would be at the rear.
At the same time a change came over the pursuing pack. Seeing their quarry make a break for it they let out a cry and broke into full chase. Now gregs, like most demons are far from identical to each other, some have four limbs, some as many as twelve; some are scaled others feathered and perhaps most importantly some are fast and some are very fast. Within scant seconds a handful of the demonlings had opened up quite a lead on the rest of the pack.
"Hardpoint located" Ami supplied, she had managed to find a natural pinch point at the edge of the range. It should be able to serve as another way to break down the numbers of their chase party. The other girls saw the region highlighted on their helmet visors and adjusted to make for it.
By now the first of the gregs had managed to catch the back of their group. It was a lanky specimen with legs twice as long as the rest of its body. Unlike many of the others its hide was leathery rather than armoured. It was however much like the rest of its breed in that it was distinctly short on brain power. It made the last mistake of its life, coiling its legs under it, it sprang at the apparently unprotected back of the trailing runner.
With an almost negligent half turn and sweep of his clawed hand Ranma tore its guts out without breaking stride, leaving it flailing and screeching on the floor. It's cries did not last for long, instead the very next beast behind it leapt on the fallen creature and began to feast.
Two other gregs managed to reach Ranma before his party made the rocks. Both of them met similar fates to the first, left maimed for their fellows' tender mercies. But the delay did not hold the pack for long.
Scant seconds after the last of their party make it through the defile Setsuna and Michuru were swinging almost constantly to slay the gregs trying to force themselves through the rapidly filling gap. Michuru's trident was soon red to her wrists and Setsuna's staff tip, ordinarily bright and bold, was likewise soon covered in the vital fluids of the screeching beasts.
The two of them used very little magic indeed, there was simply no need. By main force alone the pair of them were exerting their dominance over the hounding demons. It was only a matter of time before the fact filtered through to the minds of the beasts themselves.
With a wail of frustration the pack ceased it's futile charge, suddenly ceasing their impromptu suicide. Without the heels of their quarry to drag them on the pack was suddenly more than a little confused. The mountains in front of them had long been a source of trepidation and were once again proving to be so. Yet the heap of fallen in front of them was enticement enough to stay, at least for a while.
Then the decision was taken out of their hands, a massive fin backed lizard leapt from hiding into the middle of their pack. With it's razor teeth and many horned and clawed legs it soon set about slaying the intruders into its domain.
"Time to go" Ranma observed. The girls nodded and quickly fell in behind, they were off again.
O
O
The way through the mountains was no less hazardous than the desert path. Instead of flying oversized mosquitoes ad running gregs the party had to watch for leaping lizards and rock spiders. They also had to repeatedly double back and retrace their steps, having followed promising ways only to find them ending in impassable barriers.
Of course the amazing abilities of Ami's scanner and the superhuman distances they could jump made these instances much rarer than they could have been. The terrain however seemed to be conspiring against them, gorges and false ridges appearing as if from nowhere.
The going was so tough that Ranma and the senshi actually decided to stop. Their tempers were fraying and their patience shot, so they found a cave, killed the beast who owned it and made camp.
For the first time in days they shared a light meal and took it in turns to sleep. The time gave everyone space to calm back down and unwind. Nevertheless the group's leader and youngest member spent much of the 'night' going over the fine scans she had taken of the area, looking for a way through.
It worked. The next time the group set out they went with a clearer path and found the going far easier. With a few extra fights and a bit of climbing the four of them made their way through the heart of the mountains. At one point a giant beast had dropped onto the party from on high and thrown the lot of them hundreds of feet down a rock slope. It had been planning on feasting upon the tenderised remains it would find at the bottom. Instead it had found a very annoyed quartet and a swift demise. Nevertheless the fall had broken Ami's left arm added significantly to the minor injuries of the others.
It was another setback, but once again determination shined through. Together the party found ways to compensate and soon later they were looking out onto the plains the other side of the range.
Below them stretched the marches of Hell, the land Hell's forces were expanding into, settling and making there own. It also included the bleak fastness where the four heroes were aimed.
From their vantage the group got its first look at the fortress they planned on assaulting. It stood out from the plain like an up-thrust fist. At it's crown stood the heart of the hold, an irregular shaped keep festooned with spikes and banners. Around its head swooped hundreds of tiny speck, demonkin birds gathered to feast on the wastes of the castle.
"Whoa!" Michuru muttered. Setsuna and Ranma just set their gazes, faces hardening still more. From here on out things were only going to get tougher.