Dante was not lying on the ground this time. Instead he had to deal with the shock of immediately having this wasteland brought upon his eyes.
He was in a burning city. Puddles of blood were everywhere. People could be seen, hanging from poles, subjected to the torture of the fire beneath them. Their bodies were charred, and Dante took notice of how they weren’t skeletal yet. The magic in Hell must keep them from dying, so they can be tortured forever.
Dante wondered where that guy with the sniper rifle was. He had also been transported here, because he assisted in killing Insanire, but he was nowhere to be seen. Dante wasn’t really sure whose side he was on, whether he wanted to kill him or not, but he didn’t really want to find out. For all he knew, he was being tortured again, since he was probably dead, like all the other souls back in the swamp.
Dante could feel the presence of someone. Someone powerful and intimidating. He took out his gun, and turned around. Behind him… was not what he was expecting. It was just a woman, wearing armor. She seemed to be immune to the flames engulfing her. She had horns, meaning she was a demon.
Dante looked confused. Wasn’t she supposed to be attacking him, or torturing him, or something?
???: I’m Haeresis. I’m… new around here. I’m like, supposed to be torturing everyone, but to be honest, I don’t wanna. What’s your name?
Dante pointed towards his mouth, signaling to her that he couldn’t speak. He looked around and found a twig, and wrote “D A N T E” on the ground.
Haeresis: Cool name. Anyways, uhh… how do I put out this fire? It’s sorta depressing.
*Dante shrugs*
Haeresis: Yeah, me neither… maybe there’s like a fire extinguisher around here or something.
Dante doubts that, but trying to find something would much better than fighting this woman in the middle of a flaming city. He wondered if he could somehow get out of this place without killing her, since she was too nice to Dante.
Haeresis walked along the streets with Dante, trying to keep the fire from spreading. Dante wondered how she was in charge when she didn’t want to hurt anyone. Maybe Hell just created new souls to rule over a layer whenever the first ruler died? That brought up the question- who killed the old guy? And where are they now?
Dante was deep in thought, when suddenly, Haeresis stopped walking. The flames around her turned red, and suddenly grabbed onto her. She screamed before she was suddenly silenced by something.
Dante felt a feeling of both guilt and dread. He was guilt for not stopping whatever happened to her. And at the same time, he felt dread towards what was about to come at him in approximately 5 and a half seconds.
…
Dante felt a hand grab into his leg and slam him into the ground. He looked up to see Haeresis once again. Her skin looked burnt, but not completely charred. Her hair was frazzled, and her eyes were a glowing red now.
Haeresis: DIE!
Dante was shocked at how fast she went from being nice to not as nice. Suddenly, her hand caught on fire and turned into a flamethrower (not literally). Dante rolled out of the way before he could get burnt, and then took out his knife and stabbed her in the leg. He then got his hand burnt, and he decided to retreat.
Dante sat in the corner he was hiding when he noticed something behind a counter. He crawled over to take a look, and found… a fire extinguisher! That was what they were looking for earlier. Dante grabbed it, careful to avoid the burning furniture, and ran outside. He snuck up to Haeresis before tapping her on the back. She looked behind her, and saw Dante for around 0.24472919 seconds before being coated by foamy fire extinguisher liquid. She tried burning Dante, but whatever she could fire got nullified by the extinguisher.
After a while, Haeresis suddenly fell to the ground, and the flames all over her suddenly started to hurt her.
Haeresis: Augh… I can’t do this anymore… you’ve sucked all the power out of me.
Dante looked down at her. She was in really bad condition. Her clothes were singed, and her hair was aflame. She looked like a marshmallow after you leave it in a campfire for too long.
Haeresis: I’m sorry for attacking you… I couldn’t help it. I was being controlled.
Dante couldn’t stand seeing someone like this. He took out his gun, preparing for a mercy kill.
Haeresis: Thank you… I just want to die at this poi- wait a sec, don’t you have that fire extingui-
