There But For The Grace (16 page)

The climb was far from the worst I’d made recently, though I knew worse lay ahead. After ascending to the top of this cliff face, I had to scale down the other side into the crevasse that made up the next ditch. This one was dark, and while the stone walls were more like natural cliff faces, it was otherwise laid out much like a massive torture chamber.

Damned souls were chained, hanging from the walls, while others were left atop stone tables. Many of both were cut open, or had missing limbs. In time, they’d regrow them, or heal, only to be cut apart by the Demons and Fallen of this region again. The Demons themselves were few and far between, but I could hear some of them, either engaged in their torturous acts, judging by the blend of demonic cackling and mortal screams, or leading souls along. This was the place for those who sought to foment discord, reflected in the active torture separating them from their own body parts.

While many were captive, for some, this torture was highlighted even more by being allowed to wander free, albeit missing both arms, or having to hold entrails in, or dragging themselves along the cold stone on bleeding stumps where their legs had been. Small groups wandered, holding onto their own heads. I had to duck out of sight more than once to avoid notice from these, or the Demons. Thankfully, there was no shortage of long shadows.

Clearing my path required killing three of the Demons, each time by ambush. The first was simply too attentive as a watchman, even if what was keeping him aware was his interest in hurling insult at any of the groups of damned in the area. The other two were the torturers in sections I needed to pass through to keep progressing towards the next cliff face. Thankfully, no one thought anything of more bodies, or perhaps bits of bodies, laying still in the dark. I managed to avoid the larger chambers, which I knew held some truly impressive works of sadism, and giant, sword-wielding Demons who had created most of those works.

This time, the climb was more difficult, in part because, perhaps true to the nature of the place, the wall kept coming apart and crumbling in my hand. Digging in deep enough with the blade yielded better results, but finding secure finger and toe-holds took long periods of time, and I kept worrying that someone would take notice of the chunks of rock falling from my ascent. I managed to make it without raising an alarm, but was feeling my injuries much more severely again by the time I reached the top, after the difficult and extended effort.

Screams mixed with the crackle of flames at the next ditch. All of the damned here shared the same punishment, being trapped within metal frames, set to hold them while fires burned beneath them. The fires were of varying intensity, and some burned only beneath some people’s feet or head, while others were full body. The flames, especially the more intense, also served to heat the metal frameworks, channeling more of the heat towards whatever portions of the body each frame was designed to hold fast. More Demons moved among the men and women trapped here, armed with hot pokers, adding to the torments. All of those condemned to be held here were corrupt advisors, whose sins came in convincing others to commit wrong acts. I pulled some tattered cloth up over my face to mitigate some the smell of burning flesh and did my best to avoid drawing attention against the shadows dancing with the firelight. Most of the Demons of the region seemed most intent on their prisoners, and the screams of the latter and taunts of the former drowned out any sound I might make.

I began one more climb, avoiding the bridges with their sentries. This would be the last time it would be as easy as just sneaking around, before making a long climb, as the remaining layers of this deep circle had more active guardians, in part because there was more chance of at least attempts at escape. Climbing into the next crevasse, I disturbed a large nest of serpents and was almost immediately beset by several of various sizes. Though a number bit at my legs, their fangs wouldn’t penetrate my skin, thankfully. Less fortunate, where they bit at or near wounds, their venom burned. I dispatched the unnatural things one after another, cutting heads off of a few, before the rest fled to find somewhere else to rest or others to torment. I spent a few moments trying to readjust bandages and cover up my remaining open injuries, while trying to get used to the burn enough to ignore it.

I finally saw more of the damned of the realm, fleeing from more of the serpents. When a person was bitten, their form changed. This was the realm of thieves, and here, each bite would steal the basic shape of the person, twisting them painfully into something else. The first one that I saw screamed at the bite, the trailing sound turning into a yowl, as flesh and bone was twisted to a quadrupedal shape, and then bones were broken and compressed, and flesh mashed, until he’d become a large cat.

A fleeing woman climbed the wall when cornered, briefly escaping the snakes at her feet, only to have a serpentine head emerge from a hole in the wall, biting her hand — and turning her into a marble statue with remarkably expressive, very aware eyes. Each would regain their natural forms at sunrise and sunset, but until then, they’d have to suffer whatever they became, or, in some cases, being changed again and again. The cat didn’t last long, his attempts to scale the new statue foiled by a great constrictor winding its way up, cornering the cat and sinking his teeth in, and the bones were re-broken, and flesh stretched, until he had become a grotesque, hunchbacked mockery of the form he’d begun with. The venom working its way into the open cuts was trying to do the same to me. Thankfully, I was made of somewhat harder to transmute stuff, but my body’s fight to purge it before it twisted my form continued to send agonizing pain shooting through me as I moved.

The next nest of snakes I was more prepared for, even if this was a fight on a different scale. Five constrictor-like snakes broke through the stone floor, weaving about, trying to find or create openings for one another, almost like one creature. Each had to be at least forty feet long, easily enough that, given the chance, any of them could have wound itself around me several times, to begin crushing. I did my best to not give them that chance. At first I tried to simply outdistance them, but a sudden pain, and moment of weakness in one leg, thanks to the venom, led to me sprawling on the floor, my sword clattering out ahead of me.

I tried to dive for it, but one head caught me by the leg, lifting me off the ground upside down. I managed to twist my body around, smashing it in the jaw before it could start winding around me. As it dropped me, another caught me out of the air, snapping its jaws shut on my shoulder. The fangs still didn’t punch through my flesh, but it was a near thing. While it held me, another giant started to wind around my waist. I caught that one in a hand, by the throat, before it could complete its first loop, and struggled with it, trying to peel it away from me. I kicked out at the one holding me by the shoulder, but only managed to kick once, and without enough force to make it let go, before a third grabbed me by the leg. The two biting me pulled apart from each other, trying to tear me in half between them, while also exposing my midsection to the one trying to wrap around it, while the other pair weaved around, looking for openings.

I finally managed to twist in place, smashing an elbow down on the head of the one trying to wrap itself around me, and it loosened for a moment. With slightly more freedom to move, I connected with a kick to the eye of the one at my feet, convincing it to let go as well. One more punch, and I was dropped, hitting the floor heavily this time. More snapping jaws came at me, but I vaulted over the first, then dropped and rolled under another. Twice, I made for my sword, only to be blocked off each time I did.

I fended off two more bites with my bare hands and finally coaxed one of them to strike from the correct direction. I sidestepped the rapid attack, and grabbed on to the head, letting its momentum carry me and lift me over the blocking bodies before I let go, rolling along the ground, managing to grab my sword as I tumbled. The next serpent to come at me had its mouth open wide enough to close around my head as it snapped downward. I lifted the blade, driving it through the roof of the mouth. I pulled the sword free, only to be struck by its death convulsions, powerfully enough to send me flying, smashing against a rocky outcropping that rode from the floor. I shattered the stone on impact, revealing a viper’s nest. Much smaller serpents, disturbed, bit at me savagely. I managed to roll out of the way before the one lunging for my eye connected, while the rest of the bites proved harmless, if distracting.

Trying to escape that, I failed to stop another of the four remaining giants from wrapping around my torso, trying to pin my arms, and with it, my weapon. I extended my wings, fighting for breathing room in the most literal sense, and drove my sword up into the thick body winding around me. When that proved insufficient, I did so again, then sliced outward, cutting through the serpent. The more grievous wound got it to loosen, before turning and biting at me instead. This time, it lost its head.

I was just pulling myself free when another body crashed against me, knocking me to the floor. One snake came for my head, one for my feet. I fought off the former first, leaving it wounded, while the other lifted me. Unlike last time, I was armed and prepared and managed to lean up and put my blade into its eye. The serpent collapsed heavily, smashing me to the floor. I struggled to ready myself for more attacks, but the final two snakes, having had enough, retreated back under the broken floor.

I encountered more of the reptiles but managed to avoid the draconic Demon Cacus, who served as patron and possibly parent to the innumerable unnatural reptiles who guarded this section.

The only real blessing here was that the serpents weren’t terribly choosy about their targets, so the Demons of the realm avoided the area. The climb was no safer than walking along the floors, but I managed, despite numerous surprises as reptilian heads emerged from the walls to bite at my hands several times. The fact that a great stone staircase lined the wall tormented me with promises of an easier way, but I knew that the steps, like the bridge between sections of the circle, would be guarded.

Nearing halfway, I was lucky enough to find most of the demonic guardians of the next realm intent on tormenting and driving their charges on. Most of those here had committed great sins of hypocrisy, severe enough to have caused great harm through the professing of their false beliefs. In this realm, many of the sinners were forced to wear great leaden coats, coated in gold, weighing them down. The Demons focused most of their efforts on forcing the damned to keep moving constantly, or poking the metal garments with firebrands, heating the gold and lead to scalding temperatures.

The greatest sinners among them were instead staked to the ground, and trampled repeatedly by herds of black horses with bright red eyes, which were whipped and driven by Demons, herding the creatures from one torment ground to another. I was briefly tempted to try and steal one of the steeds, but wasn’t ready to cause that much of a stir, even for added speed. Instead, I was only forced to slay two Demons. Fortunately, the souls they’d been guarding were too thankful for any chance to rest to give me away.

Halfway through, and my ability to keep moving through the layers, and scaling cliffsides was thwarted. Here, most of the occupied ground was artificial construction, elevated over a lake of boiling pitch. The Malebranche, vicious Demons with especially sadistic senses of humor, patrolled the bridgeways, sometimes using long hooks to pull sinners from the pitch for more direct torments, not because of any charge to do so, but just to satisfy their senses of humor. They moved in groups, and each kept a trumpet to alert the others to attempts to escape the pitch and climb to the bridgeways, or to call their brethren to come witness especially creative and vicious tortures.

I opted to avoid the lake and the Demons entirely by crawling along the undersides of the bridges, swinging arm over arm from handhold to handhold along the bottoms of the wooden constructs. Some of the countless corrupt politicians attempted to shout and call attention to me, but for most of my way, their shouts weren’t heard over the screams of pain or fear as other souls were hooked and pulled up to the Malebranche’s care.

Unfortunately, as I was near my escape, the Demons finally did catch hold of one of those seeking to earn some reward, perhaps, by betraying me, pulling him up. I moved as fast as I was able while he shouted out what he’d seen and begged for a respite from the torment. At first, I’m not sure they believed him, but eventually, I heard running footsteps in numerous directions. Whatever protection I might have had from no one being quite certain where I’d gone was now lost.

At least by taking the bridge, even on the underside, I didn’t have to make a long climb and entered the next section running. I moved past many of the damned, who were paying for their sins of false prophecy and use of blasphemous magics by moving about with their heads and limbs twisted about, displaying their false and twisted natures. I managed to duck out of sight around a corner as a group of Demons rushed past, trying to see what the alarm behind them was. They might be numerous and physically more powerful than the mortal damned they tended, but most Demons would not be accused of exceptional intelligence.

This left me a good area to run through, giving me more ground on those who were raising the alarm behind me. As word spread, more Demons moved through the area, sending the twisted damned scrambling to get out of their way. I avoided most of them, but cut down a group of two who came upon me before I could get out of sight. Not long after I did so, the voices behind me grew louder again, leaving me rushing to stay ahead of pursuit. This time, I didn’t even try for the wall, managing to stay hidden until I neared the bridge to the next section. I charged, engaging the four guardians on the bridge. The first two I caught by surprise, driving my sword through one and backhanding the other over the edge of the bridge, sending him screaming into the ravine. The other two were more coordinated in their efforts to catch onto me with long spears and shove me off the bridge. It almost worked, before I was able to slice the head off of one spear, freeing myself long enough to get inside its reach. That Demon lost his head, and the other, after a brief exchange, was run through and pushed backwards and over the edge.