Yeth growled low in his throat. He darted one more accusing look in Sam’s direction and then set off again, taking the left hand exit without hesitation. Sam hastened after him at a fast jog. Yeth certainly didn’t like to drag his heels.
If the alarm had been raised, it certainly wasn’t apparent as they sped through the tunnels. They started to angle downwards again — not at an extreme angle like before — but they were certainly descending. Yeth had extinguished the flames from his body and there were no sconces filled with magical fire along these corridors, so the two of them ran on in darkness. Yeth, it seemed, was just as comfortable in the dark as Sam was and was apparently intelligent enough to douse his fire, knowing that a flaming Hellhound moving along these darkened tunnels would announce their presence in a loud and dramatic fashion.
Some side chambers were filled with the sounds of human suffering and Sam deliberately avoided looking in those directions. Many chambers were almost swamped in lava. Sam had to pick his way through them, leaping from one rocky island to the next. In some of these lava filled chambers, Sam saw other curious demons. They seemed to be comprised entirely of living lava, size and form that of a normal man. They ignored Sam and he did likewise for fear of drawing too much attention to himself. Yeth simply waded through the lava like a normal dog through a shallow pond. He seemed completely immune to the heat, but that came as no surprise to Sam.
These large open chambers began to get bigger and bigger until the largest could have easily contained the biggest cathedrals in the world. Yeth led Sam straight through one of these. In huge lava pond directly in the middle of the room stood an imposing figure.
As they got closer, Sam blinked in awe. It was a massive demon that he’d seen pictures of before. It had no name as far as Sam knew, only that it met the stereotypical description of demons depicted though history: a giant humanoid, maybe twenty feet high, with flaming red skin, large curving black horns and black wings that would’ve put an average sailing ship to shame. And, luckily for himself and Yeth, it did not seem aware of them at all. In fact, it appeared to be frozen.
They ran directly past it, underneath its very nose and still it didn’t move. Yeth sensed the question and consternation in Sam’s mind and it did the equivalent of a mental reassuring pat. Not to worry. Will not move, was the general gist of what Yeth was saying.
An archway at the very end of the chamber loomed ahead of them. Yeth led him directly into and then abruptly stopped with a sigh of satisfaction. It seemed that Yeth had brought him where he wanted to be.
As soon as he entered the chamber, Sam’s mind and ears were bombarded with sound. Screams. The sound of human torment.
This chamber, whilst relatively large, was still dwarfed by the bigger chamber inhabited by the great frozen demon. Like that chamber, it had a circular pond of lava in the direct center. The difference though, was that this pond was not inhabited by a great demon. A heaped pile of bones sat in the middle of the lava, somehow impervious to the intense heat. Disturbingly, the jaws in the skulls were open, and Sam could have sworn that the screaming was coming from their long dead mouths.
What really drew his eyes was what rested on top of the pile of skeletons. It was a rack made entirely of bone. Strapped to the rack with what could only be human sinews, was a figure Sam barely recognized. Her eyes were closed and her face was twisted in some unimaginable pain, her mouth open and slack, drooling saliva which never hit the mound of bones, instead sizzling into gas from the intense heat. Her clothes hung in smoldering tatters about her, sliced like her face and body which were covered in bloody welts and deep cuts, mostly still weeping blood.
“Grace,” whispered Sam.
He wasn’t sure if she was still alive and that thought brought a surge of emotions — mostly anger and remorse. He prayed that she was but how could any human possibly still live in such conditions? Another thought then intruded. This was Hell after all — death did not end human suffering here. He prayed once again that she hadn’t already died. If she died in Hell, she would remain here for eternity.
He moved past Yeth on shaky legs until he reached the end of the lava pond. So intent had he been on Grace, it was only then that he noticed the demon. It had been partially concealed by the mound of bones, difficult to detect because of simple camouflage ability. In the form of a giant skeleton, it blended in completely with the other bones around it. As it moved from crouching to standing, Sam suddenly comprehended its scale. It was at least ten feet tall. Its skull was massive, at least three times that of a normal human and out of proportion with the rest of its body. The long, bony fingers of one skeletal hand clutched a whip formed from a material that glinted in the warm lava glow. Even from several feet away, Sam could see what appeared to be dry blood on the weapon.
Rage filled him; rage such as he’d rarely felt before. It was uncontrollable. One second his eyes were black, the next filled with crimson anger. He leapt, drawing his Katana as he flew through the air, channeling every ounce of his power into one blow just as the skeleton demon stepped forward, barring Grace from his sight.
The timing couldn’t have been better. His sword — forged from the densest, purest iron that had fallen from the sky, then blessed and quenched in holy water — was a weapon unlike any seen in Hell before. It was more than a match for this demon. His blade struck the precise point between the skull and the second vertebrate, separating them as neatly as any surgical saw. The demon’s head flew into the lava and sank immediately; the body, still holding its cursed whip, stayed upright for one moment before toppling sideways, clattering down in a jumble of bones, supplementing the pile that it had once guarded.
Sam moved immediately to the rack where Grace was being restrained. Cutting with savage energy, he severed the bonds that held her and she slumped into his arms, unconscious… or dead.
With no conscious thought and with strength he didn’t know he possessed, Sam leapt back to the solid rock where Yeth waited patiently. The leap, from a standing start and carrying an extra body, had been eight foot. Rage, it seemed, had lent him more strength than he knew he possessed.
He could feel the rage subsiding now, his eyes returning to their normal color. He laid Grace gently at the feet of Yeth and felt for a pulse. Yes, there was one; he could feel it — just, fluttering like the wings of a tiny nervous bird. Relief washed over him. She was alive — but that was here in Hell. The question was, had she already died? The only way to find out would be to get her out of here, back to the relative safety of Earth.
Go now, said the voice of Yeth. To Sam’s mind, it sounded nervous. Scared even. He hadn’t heard Yeth sound like that before.
My mother, responded Sam. And others too. I have to search for others.
No time, was the response. Go now. The voice was insistent and urgent.
We can’t go, said Sam impatiently. I have to find my mother.
Another time, said the Hellhound. We go now.
Sam was about to ask what the rush was all about but then he knew. Something was stirring in the massive adjacent chamber to this one. The giant demon in the pool was awakening.
He resigned himself to leaving but not before making Yeth promise one thing. We’ll return for my mother… yes?
Yeth’s head swayed ominously, then, Yes, came the answer.
It would have to do for now. It was terribly disappointing but at least he’d accomplished one goal. At least he had Grace.
Time to go. In order to create a portal back to Earth, he’d need to make another pentacle. Sam searched frantically for chalk in one of his many pockets as he visualized the church from whence he had come — but then he stopped when he realized what Yeth was doing. Of course, demons like Yeth had no need for pentacles. Full-blooded, powerful demons like Hellhounds could open a portal just by willing it.