I descended further into the massive Blood Keep, into the dark catacombs deep beneath the Hellish brick floor. The catacombs returned the dim, blue torchlight that barely illuminated my path. I pulled a burning blue torch from its holder and took it with me. I held the torch to the walls and revealed thousands of demonic skulls.

Now that I had a source of illumination, I was able to follow the trail of claw marks much easier. They led me to a large, circular room with what must have been millions of demonic graves. In the center was an unpowered Hellish gateway. It was smaller and styled differently than a portal, so it was safe to assume it wasn't used to transport armies.

Using my torch, I lit the unlit braziers in the room for more light. There were demonic runes scattered across the walls. The flickering blue light from the braziers reflected off of certain runes etched into the wall. I went around and touched each of the ones reflecting light. When I did, they began to glow a bright shade of orange.

The Hellish gateway sparked a bit and lit up. I walked through the red portal, torch in hand. Wherever it led to wasn't any better than the Blood Keep. The foul, rotting corpses of gargantuan Balgaar demons were chained to the sides of the massive hallway I found myself in. Branded into each of their corpses was a demonic rune that translated to "Heretic."

These demons had been branded heretics, quite literally. Whatever had strung them up was clearly stronger and capable of horrible deeds. I looked closer at one of the corpses and found it: the telltale claw mark I had followed in the Blood Keep. This was what it wanted me to see. It wanted to intimidate me; to send the message of "If I can do this, imagine what I could do to you."

I continued walking through the long, tall hallway. Green torches dimly lit the hallway. As I walked, I heard a continuous scratching sound behind me. I spun around, gun in hand and ready to fire, but nothing was there.

While I was still turned around, I heard heavy breathing right behind me. Once again, I whirled around, but there was nothing there. A sharp pain resonated from my back as I was slashed from the shadows. A blur flew past my face as it slashed my armor's breastplate. Once more, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain as it slashed me. I put my hand to my chest in recoil, and took it off, only to find blood on my hand. My blood.

The blur began to fly past me again, but this time, I was ready. As it tried to slash my chest once more, I grabbed its wrist and pulled. The blur continued on, but I had torn its hand off. I examined the severed hand. It was jet black with seven-inch, razor-sharp, black claws. The blur, whatever it was, halted its attacks. I continued down the hallway and came to a large Hellish church.

Hell's churches are where Hell Priests teach the lower demons the fundamentals of Gore Nest construction and demonic worship. In the back of the church, past the pews, was a large, circular statue base with nothing on it. I witnessed the blur jump from banister to banister and finally land on the statue base. At last, I had a good look at the demon that had been stalking me.

It stood about eight feet tall on feet that had claws nearly as long as its hands'. Its face had squinty, red, glowing eyes and a mouth filled with sharp teeth. Its right arm was missing a hand; the hand I pulled off. It opened its mouth and a long, pink tongue rolled out. It let off a horrifying screech as it began to sprint at me.