Chapter 3: Lust
... But to that second circle of sad hell,
Where 'mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw
Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell
Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,
Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form
I floated with, about that melancholy storm.
-On a Dream by John Keats
Cruel lightning tore through the purple sky as choppy waves rose and smashed hard against the spiked black rocks. Fierce howling winds assaulted everyone's ear-drums the second they descended the path beyond King Minos' area in full. And the longer they listened, the more they could make out moans of pain and agony on the high winds.
"This is the second circle." Orpheus explained. "The circle of Lust. Here those who were slaves to their lewd passions are cursed to be forever tossed about by the storm winds, slaves to the storm's chaotic movements as they were slaves to their chaotic passions in life. To further their suffering, lovers who were sent here are kept apart by the force of the storm, or with one of them being within the storm and the other without."
"Moral of the story, keep it in your pants." Jack remarked callously.
"Kheelah, this seems so cruel." Tali said. "Why would any god allow something like this?"
"Because the Supreme Being allowed free will." Orpheus explained. "..including to his angels. Ergo, when Lucifer was banished from Paradise he sought this place and made it his own. And it was Lucifer then who separated Hell into the nine circles and devised the sadistic torments of each one, including what you see before you now." As the storm continued to rage and cries of the damned filled the air, Orpheus pointed some of them out: "You see here Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, Paris and Helen of Troy, Matriarch Reveytha, and countless others, all tossed about forever in the tempest."
As Orpheus said this, Shepard turned to his squad. "Let's not linger. The less time we spend in any one part of this place, the better."
"You'll get no argument from me, Commander." Miranda said.
Moving out down a cobbled walkway through the raging storm, the same sounds that continued to fill the air were joined by a third, namely monstrous shrieking and howling that rivaled that of the storm winds. Looking up, the group saw a small army of demons flying towards them on large, leather wings. The squad didn't even need an order before opening fire, the hailstorm of bullets cutting down several of the monsters before they even reached Shepard and company. Those that did landed and drew swords wreathed in flame. Not taking the bladed weapons seriously at first, Grunt was left shocked when one swipe of the weapon almost completely dispelled his formidable energy shields. Instinctively falling back, Grunt managed to throw off his shock long enough to retaliate with a close-range shotgun blast that left the demon in pieces that then burned away.
With it now being clear how dangerous their enemy's swords actually were, all of Shepard's other companions followed Grunt's example, and backpedaled as fast as they could before they were eviscerated by the sweeping strikes and merciless thrusts of the demon's fiery swords. No sooner were they safely out of range did they all let fly with a barrage of bullets, biotics, and tech abilities that made swift work of most of the demons and frightened away the others.
"Demon Watchers." Orpheus observed grimly. "And there will most certainly be more of them."
"They don't seem too tough if you can just say out of the way of their weapons." Tali noted.
"Perhaps, but the base watchers are but the lower caste of Hell's legions. The more powerful demons that reside in the lower circles will not be bested so easily"
"Maybe, but we've taken out our fair share of tough foes in the past." Shepard noted. As he said this, more cries of agony could be heard over the storm winds. Orpheus shook his head as he looked up sadly at it.
"I can see so many suffering here. All of them cursed to be forever punished for their passions."
"You're not the only one." Garrus said as he too stopped to again look at the raging Lust Storm. "I think I can see some Asari prostitutes I met on Omega once." Garrus noted as two of the blue skinned aliens also went flying over the crew's heads screaming in agony.
"Lust like most sins is not restricted to humanity." Orpheus noted sadly. "Many of your own race are here also, Turian."
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I used to work with a lot of perverts while serving on..."
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of demons quite unlike what the group had seen before. Crawling out of the ground or flying out of the raging winds of the Lust Storm, these demon's appearance was a truly frightening amalgamation of Asari, human, and turian females, with pieces of all three crudely stitched together in such a way that they resembled Frankenstein's Monster, only perhaps even more repulsive. They also bore sharpened iron colored claws in place of fingers.
"Temptresses." Orpheus noted. "The fiends of the second circle. Do not let them seduce you."
Garrus shot one in the head with his Mantis, the temptress promptly exploding into violet flames as the shot connected. "Somehow, I really doubt these things are going to be seducing me."
"Do not let their appearances fool you." Orpheus warned as the rest of the squad followed Garrus' example and opened fire. Heeding Jacob's earlier advice, Jack, Miranda, and Thane relied more on their biotics to destroy the demons in an effort to conserve valuable ammunition, especially since here there were no spare thermal clips to be found.
One Temptress ran right up to Shepard and brushed herself against his armor, making sexual moans as she grinded her body against his. Shepard responded by shooting her in the half-Asari, half human face, which like the other slain Temptresses caused her to burst into violet flame.
"Sorry, but I already have a partner." Shepard quipped, as he did shooting a brief look over to Miranda, who combined her biotic power with Jack's to blow away three Temptresses in a rare display of teamwork between the two biotic women.
Drawing his Revenant Assault Rifle, Shepard unleashed his own personal brand of hellfire on the nearest Temptresses, the merciless hail of the bullets tearing apart their stitched together bodies that in turn vanished into violet fire in an instant after being shot.
Just as well. Shepard thought as he blew away two more temptresses. I hate looking at these things anyway.
As had been the case before, the demons eventually realized that they were outmatched and the few surviving temptresses fled, disappearing back into the Lust Storm.
"So far, so good" Shepard noted. "We've beaten these things back twice now. At this rate, we'll make it out of this circle in no time."
"Whoever thought lust would get you such a punishment." Kasumi noted. "If this is how they treat people like that, I'd hate to see what they do to the really nasty people…"
"Well we still haven't seen much hellfire and brimstone yet." Miranda noted. "I suspect it won't be too long before that changes."
The group made its way through the area, doing their best to ignore the anguished cries and the sounds of the tempest raging all around them, but it was a futile effort. They could not escape these unpleasant and unwanted noises, not for as long as they were in the second circle of Hell. Privately, everyone hoped that eventually they would get used to it the longer they were going through Hell's circles, but the thought of becoming desensitized to such displays of agony was a sobering one in itself. The one bright spot in the whole affair was the times Shepard stopped to absolve shades he stumbled across, including the tragic and ill-fated lovers Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Watching souls that had been suffering unjustly ascend to someplace better was a comfort, but it did little to dispel the sense of dread that the squad faced as they continued to navigate the circle of Lust. That there were seven other circles of Hell to go after this one was another unhappy detail.
Another wave of Temptresses appeared to challenge Shepard and his group, this one reinforced by more of the other demons from before, some of whom now carried cruel looking scythes in their hands in place of flaming swords. Knowing the danger of those weapons, the squad opened fire on them first, and cut them down before they even had a chance to close in. But it did give the Temptresses time to close in and run up to each of the crewmembers with the exception of Legion, who shot at them both with it's Mantis Sniper Rifle and it's drones. Mordin was the first to dispatch his temptress, smiling as he said: "Salarians Asexual. Unaffected by creatures of weaponized lust. My apologies."
Several tackled Jack, likely drawn to both her violence and also mostly exposed body. Snarling but then smiling wickedly, Jack unleashed a biotic shockwave that blasted them back and sent them flying in different directions.
"Sorry, but I don't play for that team." Jack said with a smirk. Grunt too was not fazed by the attempts at seduction, and simply crushed one of his opponent's heads underneath his massive feet while blowing the others away with blasts from his Scimitar Shotgun.
"No sport." Grunt grumbled.
Kasumi for her part dodged the attacks of the Temptresses with her natural agility and reflexes, all the while peppering them with fire from her SMG. Her outmaneuvering them however, was interrupted when another demon tackled her, this one resembling the temptresses only male, and with parts of his body taken from a turian male and…
"Keiji?" Kasumi asked as she looked up at the creature's stitched together face. "It...it can't be…"
The demon moved in closer before roaring at her. Grabbing it from behind, Zaeed pulled it back and pumped it full of assault rifle fire. As it was blown away, Kasumi snapped back to reality and could see quite clearly that the human parts of it's face did not, in fact belong to her late lover.
"Keep your head in the game." Zaeed growled.
"I...it looked like Keiji…"
Kasumi soon found she wasn't the only one who nearly fell prey to the demon's powers of influence. As Thane continued to fight off the demons left and right, he could have sworn he saw one of the temptresses take on the appearance of his beloved wife before sanity came back to him and the illusion vanished, with Thane promptly destroying the demon with a biotic blast to the chest. Garrus thought he saw the face of that one former crewmate who he had always said had 'flexibility", and he hesitated to shoot. Had Mordin not been near him and killed the demon, Garrus could have been slain then and there.
Miranda kicked one of the temptresses in the face, knocking her back and leaving her exposed to fire from Miranda's SMG that finished her off. Another demon grabbed her arms and pulled her close to him, as it did whispering to her: "Don't struggle, my love. It's me, Virgil"
Miranda closed her eyes tightly and did her best to fight off the voice that sounded eerily similar to Shepard's. Wreathing her body in an aura resembling blue fire, Miranda unleashed a powerful burst of biotic energy that melted the demon's face and chest and forced it back. One close-range blast from her SMG finished it off, the creature vanishing in purple embers. As she did though, she still heard Shepard's voice in her head. Only, it wasn't Shepard. She knew it. The words belonged to someone far crueler.
Your beloved commander and his friends will fail. You know this to be true.
"Get out of my head, whoever you are." Miranda growled under her breath. The voice chuckled and changed, becoming Lucifer's.
You know who I am, my dear. And you know I speak the truth. There is no escape for you, the good Commander, or any of the others. You will all become my playthings in the end. That is, unless you do as I say. Unless you kill your Commander, and allow me to take his soul. Then, I will let you and the others go.
"That would mean betraying and murdering the man I love. There's no salvation in that."
Perhaps not. But...will the rest of you be so loyal? After learning what Shepard has done, what his actions have brought about for you all. Might not some of you become...tempted, to let him be punished?
"You obviously don't know us as well as you think." Miranda said evenly. "There's not a single person here who would sell Shepard out to you."
Unfortunate for you all that that is true. Lucifer's voice cackled in Miranda's head, and then it was gone. She hoped it would be forever, but somehow, she doubted it.
Once the latest batch of Temptresses was wiped out, the group continued to make its way through the circle of Lust until, finally, they made it to an exit. Or so they all hoped.
"This had better be genuine and not some damn trick." Zaeed grumbled. At that, Lucifer's obscene chuckle could be heard once more on the air.
"All things The Devil does are tricks." Orpheus' shade noted with disgust. "Trust nothing in the Inferno, except that you are never safe in it."
Thankfully, opening the black iron gates revealed a set of stone steps leading down to some new, forbidding place. It did indeed seem like a way out of Lust and into the next circle. Everyone would have been relieved by that, except they knew things were just going to get worse the deeper they went, not better.
Shepard stopped only to absolve a few more souls, including those of Antony and Cleopatra, and then he followed the rest down the steps and out of the Circle of Lust.