chapter three (story)

Chapter the third A note on gateways. Gateways are how normal people get to hell. Angels get thrown to hell from heaven. Demons/devils are born in hell. But how do the humans and other entities get there? They get there by the gateways. When you die you are judged. If you go to heaven then you must cross an extremely hard path to get there because heaven will only accept the most determined and only people of faith could keep their sanity for long enough to traverse the path. However the road to hell is easy because it is easy to be chosen to go to hell rather heaven. At the end of the road there is an elevator. Once in you are carried by a beam of light (the light shines the colour of your intentions, whit for good and black for bad) to a gateway. The gateways are usually large buildings with large rooms to shelter the newbys. In the gateways the newbys are informed properly of where they are and what they will need to know to survive they are also trained, until someone picks them. They are nicknamed the markets because they are much like the slave trade. All the newbys are locked in an enclosed environment; except for their tutors they don’t see anyone. Until someone picks them. People, demons, devils and other things come to these markets and pick newbys that they want. They will pay a nominal fee and the newby will be theirs. If the newby is not picked in a year they are cast out of the gateway to face the real hell. The ones that are picked can be forced to do anything their owner wants. Whether that’s to fight with them as they roam hell or to be killed for some infernal contraption. It doesn’t matter to the things that run these places, they get paid and they are immune. If it weren’t for such places then it would be chaos and there would be precious soles wandering around unguided. As Lucifer flew he knew that he was late, maybe too late. As he arrived he felt someone else teleport within the walls. There was a powerful being and a meagre peasant. He might have a chance after all. He’d let them find her, buy her and he’d kill them and steal her. That’d be that, or maybe not, he didn’t like travelling in a pair. In a pair you could have your only friend turn against you. In a group you can have people to defend you. Lucifer landed outside and strode through the glass double doors of a remarkably modern building by our standards. The corridors were wide enough for three cars to drive down, and tall as a house. They had to be this big to compensate for the things that came here. Lucifer flew down the halls; he needed to make up time. He had to not only find them before they left but he had to find some companions. He sailed up to the main desk stopped and asked for a list of newbys, all of a specific race, ability and age. Soon after he flew on, looking down his list he stopped at various rooms. “Are you Ally?” he asked the resident of one room she was a small dwarf with a long flowing beard and a rather disturbed look. She just screamed and ran into a wall. Confused Lucifer just muttered “bloody weird one that” he flew on into another room “are you Dani?” he asked a rather tall, slender elf in another room. This one looked taken aback but didn’t run into a wall. It was a start. “Err…yes. What and who are you? And what do you want?” she had a high-pitched yet dainty voice, she spoke with dignity and respect her accent pure with now corruptions. Lucifer was rather taken shocked by her. “Err…I am Lucifer the third. I’m a half bread demon and human. I’ m about to say a very powerful witch from falling into the evil clutches of a demon war lord that plans to used her to rule all of hell. Now I need you because not only are you an excellent fighter, ranger and bloody stunning but you are also the most highly trained person here.” This took a wile to sink in, but she finally accepted. She strode out of her room and expected to be running along side him. Instead he simply picked her up and carried on flying. She looked surprised and a little annoyed. “eerm…Is this necessary?” “Yes we need to get there quickly” “Ooh” and that was that. He decided to make another few stops along the way. The first was to another room. He opened the door and asked, “would this be” he looks down at the piece of paper “Alizhas room?” “That’s pronounced Aleeza. Yes that’s me. What do you want?” as she said this she got up of her bed and turned around, seeing them for the first time she stopped still. This was becoming a regular occurrence. “OK I’m Lucifer, she’s Dani and we’re on a mission to save a witch from the evil clutches of an evil demon! I need your help because you’re a healer and a master blacksmith.“ for the second time that day a dwarf stared back in disbelief. “What in the great Neff are you raving on about?” “Are you coming or not?” shouted the elf, this seemed to bring things into perspective. “Fine I’ll just get my stuff and” but she was cut short, Lucifer picked her up by the ankle and threw her on his back. And again they were away. At the end of the corridor were two double doors. Lucifer landed and put the others down to some protest from the dwarf; she seemed to like the idea of being tall! After finally pulling the dwarf from his hair Lucifer pushed open the double doors. He wasn’t expecting what he saw. There in front of him was a massive gym. But being in hell this gym wasn’t primarily for getting and keeping fit, it was for the training of the denizens of the Gateway. Everywhere he looked he saw racks of weapons and fight pits with people battling it out. There were giant sets of weights and instructors giving lessons on various martial arts. There were countless forms of body building devices of all sizes, shapes some were rather disturbing. There was music being blasted out of massive speakers dotted around the gargantuan hall, they were all playing Marilin Manson’s disposable teens. Lucifer shouted the first thing that came to mind “their all woman!” although the music didn’t stop everything else did. Everyone had turned to see who had said that. “Your going to regret that, a lot of ‘em get rather touchy about the subject” as one the every last person in the hall rushed them. Most had weapons the ones that didn’t, didn’t find it hard to get one. Lucifer got out his tainted sword and told the other to get back to find that they were already a good twenty meters down the hall. “Ooh well, so much for recruiting” he muttered as he slashed through the first wave of woman, with one fell swoop he cut seven of them in half. And continued to plough through them but he was outnumbered even if he was a demon half-breed he was buggerd and he knew it. He had to act fast. He had no option he had to change. He killed the last of the wave and put a barrier around him. He placed his weapon on the floor and looked down in concentration mumbling strange words. Again something seemed to be pushing at his skin from within like giant worms or tentacles. The woman stopped some because of the barrier, some because of what was happening to him. But all would see soon enough. The writhing had become much more violent, much more so than last time, Lucifer was on his knees with effort and pain. It paid off. His skin stretched and split his body bulged and grew. He screamed a blood curling roar of pain during the transformation. This demon was not like the other. It rose much higher. It’s arm muscles alone were bigger than most of the woman below! It had huge wings of the pure light stealing darkness, but this darkness was much more powerful, it’s aura stretched over a meter from it’s body. The hair had grown was down to it’s breast and was a shining golden blond. But the most notable difference was its horns. It had grown horns. A deep red that looked almost intangible with the same black smoky aurora. The demon roared causing much fear and panic amongst the woman. But some stalwart warriors stood and fought none the less. They were swept aside and crushed mirthlessly. The rest were trapped in the gym with this blood-lusting beast. The death was instantaneous and always with a smile on the face of the murderer. But enough of them had realised that they were helpless they had decided to turn and fight. Most were trampled but some managed to stab the beast, all were swept aside. But one knew she going to be trampled. She stood and waited; she had a very long spear by her. Finally the monster moved to crush her she took her chance and raised the spear; she held it there with all he might. The monster stepped on the spear, at first it seemed it wouldn’t even penetrate the skin of the beast. But eventually it’s thick hide snapped. The spear went deep, it seemed that the beast would carry on with its stamp crushing the woman and consuming the spear within its leg. It stopped just an inch above her head. With a scream of rage the beast conjured a massive wall of flame all around him and flattened the room, searing all the naked flesh. The smell of burning corpses consumed the room. The beast began to shrink with its head in its hands. The boy stood there almost naked in a shower of cold sweat and matted blood. Only a little rag remained under his belt conveniently protecting his modesty. The woman that had held the spear had been saved from the fire and was now edging closer to him. She seemed cautious but curious. A succubus and a fallen angel pushed past her. The angel and the succubus assessed the situation. “He’s powerful no doubt, but he’s just a boy. He needs our help” “I don’t care! He just wiped out nearly all of us! We need to kill him now before he can get up!” “Ooh shut up, your just jealous of his power!” “I am not!” “You so are shimmer!” “Eerm….Can I take a look?” “YOU?” they both gasped “Why? What can you do?” “Well I Stopped him and I’m a druid, I can tend to his wounds” “So because of you he burned everyone to a crisp? And that makes you worthy of seeing him does it?” “You sure are bitter for angel shimmer. Just let her have a look” “Fine have it your way Debbeh” the angel stormed out of the way, a whole two meters making her look a little pathetic. Ditzy came forward to take a look, although he had a spear through he foot a minuet ago he had nothing to prove it. All he needed was a cheering up. “Hey little guy, what’s up? Come on you’ll be alright, just think of all those people that need you” he seemed to snap out and grow back to the man he was. “You three I need you, are you coming?” he didn’t give them time to answer. He started to walk away. As he walked the chain mail he was wearing seemed to pull itself back onto him hiding his huge muscles again. They all decided to go with him. He climbed back to the door and found the other two looking rather afraid in a corner. “Come one we have to get there quick, they’ve almost found her. But now they know I’m coming, no doubt they’ll have felt my power.” HE was right they had felt his presence, then felt a blaze of power emanating from him. They were almost there though. Finally they arrived at her door. “You go in, she’ll freak if she sees me right now” said the guard in a gruff voice. The slave walked into the room to find her asleep on her bed, he had no choice. He walked over to her bed and tried to lift her. But he was way to weak, even though was a petit, dainty little woman he had had all the strength he once possessed beaten from him long ago. He called the guard in. the guard picked her up with ease and flung her over his shoulder miraculously she didn’t even stir. They ran from the room as quick as they could. They saw the giant double doors in front of them and thought they had escaped without a fight, they were deadly wrong. As soon as they left the doors they hear the twang of a bow and the man was shot down with an arrow. The guard looked down at him in surprise as someone took the woman from his shoulder. The last thing he ever saw was the form of a screaming man jumping at him with the biggest axe he’d ever seen.