Chapter I

Downward and downward we descended; ever closer to the fiery Pit. I felt my strength waning. My Divine powers were leaving me, leaving me with only my Divine knowledge. Gabriel had said it would happen, but I still felt my fear growing. Finally, the demons deposited me onto the bank of a great, dark river, and then disappeared. Their leader stepped up beside me.

"Do you know where you are?" Samael asked.

"Is this Hell?" I asked, sounding vaguely bored, "It doesn't look like all that it's cracked up to be."

"Insolent Angel…" Samael growled, "This is merely the Outer Banks of Hell. This river before you is the Styx; the waters that encircle all of Hell."

The demon prince indicated the black waters before me. I noticed that I was not the only non-demon being standing on the riverbank. All around us were a crowd of people, standing huddled near the waters' edge; damned souls, freshly harvested by the Pale Rider.

There was a crunching sound as a great boat landed on the shore. In the stern end stood a heavily cloaked figure leaning on a long pole that was stuck in the water. Samael smiled cruelly.

"All right," he said loudly, "All aboard that's going to Hell! Bear in mind: there is a toll to cross the Styx. Not to worry, you have plenty of time to produce your coin for Charon before we reach the halfway point across the river."

"And what if we haven't the coin to pay him?" I asked boldly.

Samael didn't answer. Instead, he walked over to a random person in the crowd, picked him up by the scruff of his collar, and heaved him into the black water. Suddenly, a great, tentacled beast sprang up out of the water and engulfed the screaming man. I watched as the unfortunate soul was torn limb from limb and devoured by the horrific creature.

"I…trust the example was not lost on the rest of you?" Samael asked, turning to face the queue.

As one, the frightened masses nodded their heads. I, however, kept still. Samael turned a disappointed face towards me.

"And you, my esteemed guest?" he asked, "Did you understand my example?"

"What's to prevent me from flying over the river?" I asked.

"Oh! A valid point, monsieur," said Samael, sounding almost surprised, "You, there."

He pointed to another person in the queue; a woman this time.

"I allow you the chance to fly," the demon prince continued, "Fly over the Styx."

No…I thought desperately, fearing what would happen, don't do it. Don't!

The woman leapt up into the air and began to glide out over the dark waters. However, before she had gone a hundred yards, a storm cloud formed over top of her and rumbled with thunder. A bolt of lightning, black as night, lanced out of the cloud and struck the woman, knocking her out of the air. She plunged into the river and was set upon by the same tentacled creature that had dismembered the man. Her screams were horrible.

"Damn you, Samael…" I growled, enraged tears of frustration welling up in my eyes.

"You see, my friend," he said jovially, "There really is no way for you to cheat the Ferryman. There is also no escape once you enter Hell's Gates."

"What of the two people that you made 'examples' of?" I asked, "What's become of them?"

"Oh, their spiritual forms were destroyed, but they can't die," Samael said, lazily brushing a speck of dirt from his clothes, "After all, they're already dead, aren't they? No, they'll reform right here on these banks again tomorrow and wait for the Ferryman to bring them over to my Hell."

"And just how is this your Hell, Samael?" I asked.

"You've either killed or imprisoned my Lord Lucifer, and you've killed my Lady Lilith," Samael replied, "By rights, as my Lord's highest general, the mantle and title of 'ruler of Hell' falls to my shoulders."

I made no reply. I felt someone brush by me. I looked; and my eyes widened with shock.

"Rei!" I gasped, "You're all right!"

She didn't answer. Something else confused me. I could no longer hear her thoughts in my mind. Our rapport had either been broken or was being blocked.

"Rei, speak to me," I requested.

Again, she ignored me.

"Rei!"

"Don't waste your breath, Avenger," Samael laughed, "She's been enchanted by me to forget who you are, as well as who she is. She's not dead, though. No, I've spared her life."

"Why?"

"Because," said Samael, "I think she'll be an excellent lover…once I've got her trained."

I lunged at him with a snarl, pure hatred boiling in my veins. I was prevented from reaching him, though, by a small band of demons who threw me onto Charon's boat, just as it started off towards the far bank. I looked back at the far bank, where Samael was standing with his arm around Rei's shoulders and roared:

"I swear to God, Samael, I'll make you pay for this!"

"You're in my world now, little Angel," Samael replied, laughing evilly, "You have no control over your own fate anymore. Oh, and Charon? Give the boy a free ride to Hell. He's got a one-way ticket."

We'll see about that, I vowed silently, We'll just see.

The Dead Ferry reached its halfway point across the Styx. Suddenly the river seemed much wider than it had originally looked standing on the Outer Bank. Clearly this was a magical river. I could see several people hunting through their clothes looking for a coin to give to the ferryman as he began to make his way round the boat. Those who could not hand Charon a coin were pushed overboard, where they were promptly set upon by either the tentacle-monster or a pack of skeletal piranhas and ripped to shreds. The hooded figure finally came to me.

"Your master told you to give me a free ride, didn't he?" I demanded boldly.

I saw the hood slowly nod.

"Well, what are you standing here for? Move on."

When Charon the Ferryman resumed his slow poling across the Styx, nearly a third of the passengers had been pushed overboard. I shook my head with sorrow. These poor people had doomed themselves to an eternity of misery and torment simply by making bad choices and not repenting of them.

The ferry boat reached the opposite shore. There, I beheld the gates of Hell. They were large, black, volcanic gates that still seemed like they were flowing like molten rock. Standing by the gates was a gigantic, three-headed hound.

This can only be Cerberus, I thought. Cerberus was the guardian of Hell's Gates. He prevented any souls from trying to escape.

As each of the damned souls passed by the great dog, he took a deep sniff at each of them. Presumably, he was memorizing their scents so that they wouldn't be able to slip past him unnoticed in the future. As I moved past, Cerberus sniffed me. I saw the Infernal Hound wobble on its four legs. It almost looked as though it would pass out. Cerberus recovered and gave me a throaty snarl from all three of his heads.

"You don't like me, do you?" I asked coyly.

"He can smell your Divinity, dumbass," snapped a short, impish demon from below me. I turned to look at him. He barely came up to my knee.

"I can sure as Hell smell it," he continued, "You reek of Angel, puke-face, what are you doing down here?"

That was twice in three sentences that this little freak had insulted me. My hand crept closer to my sword scabbard that had somehow gone unnoticed by any of the other denizens of Hell; Samael included. The little imp noticed, however, and said:

"What's that you've got there? Looks like a sword to me. How'd you sneak a sword into Hell? Give it up!"

The imp made a grab for my sword. As soon as his demonic flesh came in contact with my sword's holy steel, it charred black and crumbled away to ashes. With a shriek, he pulled his arm away. He stared at the stump in shock. Then, the imp-demon turned a vengeful glare towards me.

"What the hell are you, shit-licker?!"

"That's for me to know, and your masters to find out," I replied cryptically.

"Oh, is that so?" growled a much more feminine voice, "Well, meet your new mistress. It's time for you to get acquainted with your eternal torment."

I turned around. Standing there was a tall, fully nude demoness holding a bullwhip. She lashed it about randomly, striking souls here and there. She stepped up to me and looked down over her large breasts at me.

"You're still alive," she sneered, "What are you doing down here?"

"Just got lucky, I suppose," I replied nonchalantly.

"You don't fool me," said the succubus, "I know you're an Angel. Well, an Angel/Human mutt, anyway. You're one of those pathetic Avengers, aren't you?"

I remained silent.

"Answer me! Now!" the demoness barked.

Still I kept silent, staring defiantly up at the lasher.

"Well," the demoness growled, "let's see if this will loosen your tongue!"

She lashed suddenly with her whip, catching me on my left flank. Hot pain lanced through my flesh. I fought down a yelp of pain as she brought her whip back again. This time, I felt the lash bite into my right side. The stinging punishment continued for nearly a minute as lash after lash fell upon my skin, faster than I could move to evade it. Finally, the punishment stopped, leaving me with welts and bleeding cuts all over my body.

"Had enough, boy?" the demoness asked. I nodded mutely.

"Feel like telling me the truth?" she inquired. I shook my head, glaring impudently into her eyes. The demoness raised her whip again, looking enraged. I braced myself for the blow.

"Now, now, Lilah," chided Samael as he materialized from nowhere, "Don't continue that way. You'll only kill him. The first thing you should do is make him wish he were dead."

"Of course, my Lord," said Lilah, her tone honeyed as she addressed her master, "Forgive me. I got carried away."

"Take him away. Give him the grand tour of our Deadly Facilities," Samael ordered. I was seized by two large, muscular demons and led away.

Soon, I found myself looking at a series of enormous, cast-iron cauldrons that reeked of grease and oil. As I looked on, dozens of people were cast, screaming, into the cauldrons. The shrieks and cries were horribly piercing.

"This is where we punish the Deadly Sin of Greed," explained Samael, with the air of someone giving a factory tour, "Here, we use only the finest of imported oils to slowly boil away the flesh of the offenders. It takes a matter of long hours for them to die. It's quite painful, so I'm told. And, of course, they reappear the next morning for it to happen all over again."

"Of course," I said quietly.

Samael led us onward. Here, I witnessed people strapped to chairs with their mouths being held open while all manner of disgusting creatures were forced into their throats. I watched thousands of spiders, snakes, worms, and other creepy-crawlers being force-fed to the sinners. I felt so sick, it was unreal.

"Let me guess," I said, choking a little on my own vomit, "Gluttony?"

"Right you are," Samael said cheerily, "In this area, sinners are forced to partake richly of a fine diet of foul creatures. They wanted to eat a lot, so that's what we give them."

We moved on to the next area. In this place, there were deep pits all throughout the flat landscape. As I looked on, I saw demons picking people up and throwing them, screaming, into the pits. Their screams of terror redoubled after they hit what they thought was the ground and saw what they were actually lying in: snakes; hundreds of thousands of snakes.

"This is our Sloth realm," said Samael, "People wanted to lie around all day and do nothing, so here they can lie around for eternity in our cozy snake-pits. The asps and vipers just love the company."

"I'll bet."

We moved on. The next area that Samael led me to contained a wide array of people suspended from chains. Samael clapped his hands twice. Dozens of grotesque demons materialized, each carrying butcher's cleavers. Each of them grabbed a soul and started to hack and slice them; dismembering them while they were still moving…and screaming. They all screamed…and screamed loudly.

"Here, we punish the Sin of Wrath," explained the demon prince, "Our skilled butcher-demons carve the sinners up from their toes to their heads piece by agonizing piece. Moving on!"

I found myself immensely relieved that I was immune from punishment for Wrath. Overhead, I heard a loud series of shrieks. I looked up and saw several winged creatures fluttering overhead, occasionally ripping up a stray body part and spraying curses and bloody spittle all over the sinners. They looked like reptilian birds with ugly women's heads and sharp, needle-like teeth

"What…are…those?" I demanded, pointing at the hideous things.

"What?" Samael asked, surprised, "You've never met a harpy before?"

"Can't say that I have," I replied.

"Ah, well. Moving on," said Samael with a bored shrug.

We came to a large, warehouse-style building with large, metal doors. Samael opened one of them and ushered me inside. Here, I saw wheels on posts sticking out to the floor; torture wheels. Almost all of the wheels had occupants. Most of their faces were masks of agony of the utmost degree. Some of them, however, looked defeated and broken and hung there limply and quietly.

"Welcome to our Pride facility," Samael announced, "My Lord Lucifer designed it Himself, specifically to punish the Sin that lost Him His place in Heaven."

I was silent. I knew full well that it was Pride that had led to Lucifer's fall from grace. I hadn't realized that he would design his own punishment for it, though. One of the broken men spoke:

"Please, my Lord," he pleaded, "I have repented of my sin…Please…mercy…"

Samael ignored the man's pleas. I could not. I tried to reach for the man's straps to release him. A black arrow whistled by my outstretching hand. I looked up and thought I saw Lucifer again; it was a Fallen Angel, complete with black wings and raven hair, holding a dark-colored bow.

"May I present my new High General, Azazel," said Samael, gesturing towards the ceiling.

"Then, it is true," said the Fallen Angel, coming down to the ground, "You have assumed the title."

"Yes, old friend, it's true," Samael replied, clapping him on the shoulder, "I'll assign someone else to mind the store here so that you can assume your rightful place at the head of my armies."

"What of this one?" Azazel asked, indicating me, "Should I set him up on a wheel first?"

"Oh, no," Samael replied, "He's just in this place as an observer. He's actually due for the Lust corridor. I just thought he deserved to see how countless multitudes have spent their eternities."

"Well, I'll leave you to return to your tours, my Lord," said Azazel with a bow. Samael inclined his head cordially.

"Moving on, moving on!" Samael said energetically, "We've still got two more Sins to see!"

Samael led me to what could have been a large, Olympic swimming pool, had the pool not been covered in chunks of ice and thick fog that was brought on by the unmistakable chill in the room. I saw bodies floating in the water. Their skin was blue from the chill. They had suffered hypothermia and then drowned.

"Welcome to our Pool of Envy," Samael announced, "Here, we try to cool that hateful urge that leads to so many thefts and assaults in the Mortal realm."

"You make it sound as though you're performing a public service," I remarked cynically.

"Do you really want Envious, or Wrathful, or overly Proud people running about in Heaven?" Samael asked, seeming disappointed at my apparent short-sightedness, "What we do here in Hell is essential for the well-being of the entire cosmos! If it weren't for Hell, all of the Deadly Sins would run about unpunished and unchecked. And speaking of Deadly Sins, I think it's time that you were finally introduced to your new home."

Within minutes, I found myself in a large, stony, flat place that was pock-marked by many short, shallow trenches.

"No! Oh, please, dear God—NO! NOOOOOOO!!!"

I turned in the direction of the screams. Lying in one of the trenches was a man, bound in chains yet still trying vainly to escape. A group of demons was standing over him, laughing sadistically. As I watched, the demons took large shovels and buried the man in burning coals. I could hear his skin sizzling as the red-hot embers seared it away. The smells of cooking meat and burning hair pervaded my nostrils; it sickened me. I knew that it was human flesh being cooked.

"You're next, little boy," grunted one of the shovel demons, turning to me, "Bind him!"

"No!" I grunted, starting to struggle. I won't lie; I was absolutely terrified.

My struggles were of little avail, however. I was without my Angelic super-strength; I didn't have the might to overpower my captors. I felt loop after loop of heavy iron chain fasten itself around my body. When the demons were satisfied that I was captive, one of them picked me up and heaved me into a ditch. I watched five demons gather around me, gripping shovels full of red coals.

"Hold!" Samael's voice rang out. The demons froze, looking semi-disappointed. Samael stepped over to where I was lying and looked down at me.

"Personally, I find the Lust Plains to be the most satisfying of all of our torture facilities," he said with satisfaction, "There's just something…symbolic about burying someone in hot coals when they're being punished in Hell."

Okay, think fast, I told myself frantically, Otherwise, you're going to be next on the barbecue list!

"Tell me," I panted, the weight of my chains making breathing and speaking difficult, "Are there any famous people down here that I might run into?"

"Well, I don't think you'll have much time to talk to them, what with the torture, and all, but yes, there are some rather famous Mortals here in the Lust Plains," Samael replied, "I think our most well-known resident would have to be Hugh Heffner, the founder of the old Playboy magazine."

"No way!" I gasped, "Heff ended up in Hell? Why?"

"Are you really that stupid?" Samael asked.

No, I'm just trying to keep you talking while I figure out a way to get out of here, I thought in response.

"Don't tell me you never thought about the kind of life he lived," Samael said incredulously, "He was a dirty, old man who surrounded himself with naked women just to take pictures of them to sell for money. Honestly, we weren't quite sure whether to put him here in Lust, or boil him over in Greed! Oh, he offered to work for us, of course. He offered to put his advertising 'expertise' to our use to try and recruit new souls to Hell, but we really don't need the help. Neither do the Mortals; they've got sinning pretty well down pat by themselves. So, here he fries, day in and day out."

"Do you have Mortals who work for you in Hell, then?"

"Oh, certainly," Samael replied, his tone business-like, "They're unbelievably eager to lighten their sentences and will regularly volunteer for the most demeaning labor imaginable, just to avoid torture."

Can you blame them? I thought. It still hurt me to hear no other thoughts in my head apart from my own.

"Do you ever recruit any of them into…your army, for instance?" I suggested. By choosing seemingly random conversation topics, I was trying to subtly steer Samael into giving me what I wanted: power; a way to escape.

"Well, when we need throw-away pawns for a big battle, sure," Samael replied, "But you're far too valuable for a throw-away, though…Hmm…"

"Just think about how valuable an Avenger's battle experience would be," I mentioned, trying to charm the Prince of Demons.

"Yes…you might be right…" Samael sighed. He snapped his fingers.

"Release him."

The shovel-demons looked disappointed and did not budge. Samael turned on them.

"Release him—now!" he snapped viciously, "I am the new Master of Hell. You will heed me!"

Samael raised one of his hands and pointed at one of the shovel-demons. With a shriek, it exploded, raining ash and bone fragments down on me. The other demons around it quickly pulled me up out of the trench and cut the chains that hung on me.

"Ah…that's much better," I sighed, flexing my arms, "Many thanks…my Lord."

I had to fight down my revulsion at referring to this demon as my "Lord". I hoped that he would not be able to hear the insincerity behind my words. Samael stepped over to me and clapped a friendly arm around my shoulders.

"Za'afiel, my boy, this could be the start of something absolutely phenomenal!" he crowed.

I have to be careful not to get in too deep, I warned myself, I need only do what is necessary to reach Rei and get us out of Hell.