From Death to Damnation

Chapter 2: Enter the Inferno


"…uuuuh…" groaned a voice in the darkness, groggy and tired.

"…"

"Ohhh… ow." the voice mumbled, still trying to grasp onto consciousness.

"…"

"Where… am I?" came the voice again, clearer this time. The voice of Palkia pierced the silence, though no light came through the darkness.

He slowly stood up, his body fighting against him and wishing to collapse back down. He slowly dragged himself around the area, still unable to grasp full consciousness. Eventually, he walked straight into a wall headfirst, causing him a huge headache.

"Ow! Uhh… man." Trying to grasp the situation, he shook his head quickly to wake himself up. Somewhat successful, he tried to figure out where he was.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed above him. He held his claw in front of his eyes to protect them. Once it died down, Palkia looked around to get a better idea of where he was thrown into.

It was a stadium. Sand coated the floor and got in between his metal feet. The walls were decorated… well, I should say less decorated and more like completely covered with designs of fallen angels. Compared to an average one, they had a larger build, black wings, and a black robe. A sword was in the right hand of one of them leaping in the air and aimed at what looked like a benevolent being.

"OK…" he muttered to himself. "Weird would be an understatement."

The walls held the same design all around the arena. He looked above the stadium walls and saw seating for an audience, which there was one. Various creatures, some Palkia recognized and many he didn't, were there, CHEERING 'Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!' The chants were much more… bloodthirsty than that of a typical audience.

"What is this, some sort of sick Pokémon Battle?"

Palkia looked up in the air, at the roof. The ceiling wasn't there, indicating an outdoor arena. But since when did the outdoors have a blood red sky?

"Hello there." taunted a voice from somewhere in the arena, somehow being heard above the audience's chanting.

Immediately, the chanting stopped. The sudden silence in the crowd made Palkia feel more than a little unnerved.

"It seems you've waken now." came the voice. This time, the voice took on a humorous, yet definably sinister tone.

"Who are you?" Palkia shouted, his voice reverberating through the stadium. "Show yourself!"

He took a glance around again, but he still couldn't find the source of the voice. Palkia wanted answers, and he wanted them NOW.

"…"

"I know you're there. You CAN hear me. I want answers. Where am I?"

"…You'll find out soon enough, Palkia. For now, let's play a game." taunted the voice again. "I'm feeling bored."

"…What kind of game?"

"You have Pokémon Battles in your universe, right? It's hard to keep track of all the creatures I get from different universes…"

"Yeah." Palkia confirmed for him. "And your point?"

"Think of this game like a Pokémon Battle. Except harder. And more brutal. Maybe even spread around a few buckets of blood. You're going to battle one of my best warriors. I've had a lot of people challenge this guy, but nobody ever made it past 12 seconds."

"All right then." Palkia accepted his challenge. He could handle this with his spatial powers. "When I'm done, YOU'RE going to tell just where the HELL I am!"

The voice chuckled. "Fine then. It's just… kind of funny you'd mention Hell."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later. But for now, let the games begin."

The minute the unseen voice was off of his last word, the chanting from the audience started up again.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

A gate on the opposite side of the arena began to open. Palkia braced himself, expecting some sort of monstrous beast to come out and attack him.

From the shadows of the gate came a humanoid creature, covered head to toe in shining gold body armor. Very little of the creature's skin could be seen, apart from a tail sticking out, and part of his head visible through a visor. In the beast's hand was a sword, one with a silver hilt and a blade edge sharp enough to cut through steel.

The unseen voice came back again.

"Armaros!"

"Palkia!"

"Fight!"

As soon as the word was uttered, the creature ran at a blinding speed towards Palkia. Palkia, having been experienced in battle before, swiftly dodged the sword strike. He prepared to launch a counterattack with his spatial powers, starting to conjure up a Spatial Rend. The purple rift began to generate in his claws.

Then it died on him, quickly fading away.

"Wait… huh?"

Armaros, taking advantage of his vulnerability, thrust his sword into Palkia's backside, cutting straight through his supposedly impenetrable armor. The skin opened, and Palkia felt the blood spatter out.

"Wait…" he muttered, try to recuperate. "Why aren't my powers working?"

Armaros tried to strike Palkia again, but Palkia was able to dodge. Leaping a few steps back, Palkia attempted a different attack this time. He curved his claws together, preparing to launch off a powerful Dragon Pulse instead. To his satisfaction, the attack began to power up. The pulse was almost completely charged and ready to fire at Armaros when, you guessed it, it vanished on him.

"This doesn't make sense. What's going on here?"

Armaros ran towards Palkia again, and the Legend didn't have enough time to counter him. This time, the blade sank into Palkia's left shoulder, exposing the broken skin. More blood gushed out, with an artery cut and Palkia holding his drenched wound.

Palkia fell down with his hands on the ground supporting his body, bleeding badly from both of the serious lacerations he received. He tried to stay conscious as sleep attempted to grasp him.

"I… I…Why…?" he whispered. "Help…"

Armaros approached him slowly, with his sword held at shoulder-level, ready to finish the newbie off.

"I… I surrender." Palkia said. Armaros lowered his sword, and came off feeling disappointed.

"Such a shame." Armaros smirked, taunting him. "At least you lasted longer than they usually do."

The same sinister voice came back to Palkia's ears, but this time, he had a face to put it with as a figure approached Armaros.

As the figure came in sight, Palkia felt an aura of power and discipline accompany him. The first thing Palkia thought was of his appearance similar to an angel… with a few key differences, of course. Instead of the typical white wings one might find, his was black. His entire body was darker than the average angel's, and gave him a much more 'rugged' look, rather than pure. It seemed reminiscent of a 'fallen angel'.

The figure looked at Palkia again. "So… you surrender, huh?"

"…"

"Well? Speak up."

"…Y-Yes."

"It seems you've made a smart decision, Palkia." The figure was about to leave when Armaros set his glove on his shoulder.

"Lucifer?" the figure asked him.

"Yes?"

Armaros cast a menacing glance at Palkia, then looked back at the figure named 'Lucifer'.

"If I may… I've never had the chance to give it my all in a battle. I wish to… push him farther. See if he can last longer. He seems capable."

Lucifer looked over at Palkia then back at Armaros.

"Hmm… I don't see why not. At this point, he can't die anyway. Knock yourself out. Just let me know when you're finished with him." The fallen angel then left Palkia and Armaros by themselves.

"Yes, my Lord."

"Can't die?" Palkia wondered. "What does he mean by…"

At that moment, Palkia had a quick flashback to events that had happened prior to waking up here. Namely, he painfully and vividly recalled his mother… killing him in cold blood. She had said that she would send to 'the worst realm imaginable.' Was this it?

"So I'm dead…"

Armaros walked up to Palkia, with the intent of battling further.

"I know you have more than that. Get up!"

Slowly stumbling, Palkia managed to ignore the pain of his injuries and steady himself.

"What now? I've already surrendered. What more do you want?"

Armaros smirked. "To see you disgraced and humiliated. This fight isn't over until the pain is so unbearable, you'll be SCREAMING for my mercy."

"If it's a fight to the end you want…" Palkia began to prep himself in a battle stance, still shaky yet determined as all heck. "Then it's a fight to the end you'll get."

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Armaros tossed aside his sword and set his gaze on Palkia. "No holding back, now."

Palkia nodded. Armaros started a full-run towards him, with Palkia prepared for the blow. Palkia still had his wild card to play, but it was the only chance he had left.

Just as Armaros attacked him head-on, Palkia quickly ducked under, letting him past above. When Palkia had the chance, he grabbed his tail while it was exposed. Armaros hadn't expected Palkia to pull something like that, and tried to retaliate. Palkia, thinking quickly, spun Armaros around multiple times, and threw him against the wall à la Super Mario. His moveset was gone, but he still maintained his strength!

Armaros groaned on the other side of the arena, pushing himself back up slowly. The collision with the arena wall knocked the wind out of him, and walked towards Palkia. Palkia, expecting an attack, prepared to counter. Instead, Armaros set his arm on Palkia's good shoulder and congratulated him.

"You know, you're the first one to really get me like that. Few survived as long as you did. But nobody won against me; you're the first. Nice job."

"Uhh… thanks."

"I have a piece of advice, Palkia; keep it between you and me."

"What?"

"You thought THAT was brutal? Believe me; things only get worse from there. The longer you last… the harder it gets… and the more painful your injuries become. If you lose, Palkia… your 'prize' will be a painful experience. The more you lose… the more painful your experiences also become. Eventually, it may feel like you're dying… but you never will, because you're already dead."

"…Are you serious? You really mean that?"

"That's why they call this place Hell. Makes me wish I had been a better being in life. I could've avoided this…"

At that point, Armaros walked off slowly to where he had come out of. Slowly. Hesitantly. It seemed to Palkia as if Armaros KNEW something horrible was going to happened to him… and he didn't want to face it. Even though he had taunted Palkia only moments before, the Pokémon couldn't help but feel sorry for him. His second challenge even gave Palkia a chance to turn the tables. It left Palkia with many questions:

Where was he going?

What experience DID await Armaros for losing?

And… why was it so horrible?

He didn't have a chance to get his answers, as he was quickly taken to another place by the same being who had watched him fall…


Pokémon © Nintendo / Game Freak

Yep, the 'dimension' Arceus sent Palkia to turned out to be Hell… literally. Again, I did want to take this story in a unique direction and try something different. Also a note, the chapters will probably be shorter than most of my multi-chapter stories. Nevertheless, I still hope to do interesting things, and also hope you'll read and review.