The fires that covered the village spread from house to house while Cedric bled profusely from the hole in his chest as he laid dying on the ground. He watched his killer walk away through the flames, his vision blurred and his body grew numb. Cedric closed his eyes awaiting to be taken in with open arms by God. Suddenly the numbness disappeared and his eyes opened wide. In front of him stood an enormous set of doors each adorned with the bandaged head and torso of a skeleton. Although Cedric had never seen these doors before, he immediately knew what they were. The Gates of Hell. He watched scared and confused as the doors opened and a series of chains slowly slithered across the ground towards him. He tried to crawl away, but one of the chains impales him through the ankle before he could move an inch. The chain began to pull on Cedric dragging him to the doors. The remaining chains punctured random parts of his body until they all pulled at once dragging him through the doorway.
Cedric was pulled with great force downward past a multitude of white blocks that appeared to float in mid-air. He caught a glimpse of giant creatures moving around the place chasing after what appeared to be people. The chains pulled Cedric further down reaching a massive body of water that was surrounded by stone water lilies. They dragged him into the water pulling him deeper and deeper until exiting out of the other side into a barren landscape littered with pools of yellow magma. Cedric was yanked violently toward a passage by one of the pools leading into a black landscape of lava veins and pillars jutting out of the ground. The chains went slack and Cedric fell into a lava pit on one of the pillars.
The lava settled for a moment, until the chains began to move again as they pulled Cedric’s charred skeletal remains from the pit. They pulled the remains to a lone plateau where a dead tree stood. The skeleton was motionless. It wiggle around like a worm rolling from side to side with its jaws wide open as if it was screaming. Then, muscle started to spontaneously grow and attach itself to the skeleton. When the muscle formed around the neck, Cedric’s screams of pain echoed through the landscape. As skin formed over the muscles his facial and head hair grew back. Cedric breathed heavily as the pain began to fade away. He got onto his hands and knees and looked around at the horror of where he was. “I don’t understand,” Cedric said. “I shouldn’t be here. All I’ve done what in God’s name.” The chains pulled on him again. “That sort of thinking is why you are here,” a voice said as Cedric was dragged up onto one of the branches of the dead tree. As he hung, he looked down to see a figure whose appearance was shrouded in a black cloak. “Who are you?” Cedric shouted down.
“Thanatos, Lord of Tartarus,” the figure said. “The reason you are here in the deepest bowels of Hell is because of the violence you committed upon others in the name of your so-called God. Regardless, you’d never have move on to the afterlife. All Quincies return to their King when they die. At least this way you still have a body. Although you will not be capable of much here.”
“Let me down and I can show you exactly what I’m capable of devil,” Cedric shouted.
Thanatos chuckled. He rose up into the air until he was face to face with the Quincy. “You’re enthusiasm is quite amusing,” Thanatos said as he moved his right arm in front of Cedric’s chest. “But there will be nothing pleasant about what’s going to happen next.”
Cedric screamed as a light burned into his chest. When the light disappeared there was a scar on his chest in the shape of an eye. “What is this?” Cedric asked.
“That is the mark of Jigoku,” Thanatos said. “As long as you have it you are bound to me, and to this place. I will find some use for you one day. Until then, you’re going to learn that the torments of Hell are nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you.”
