Matthew was falling. It felt like an eternity. The pain was everywhere. Total pain in each cell of his body. Trying to ease it, he put himself in the fetal position, knees near his torso, his right arm keeping his left arm still broken somehow near him. During the fall, he thought of what he learned trying to not think about what was happening to him.

The Absolute existed. There was some kind of life after death. He was going straight to Hell because he could not accept that an entity with absolute power could not make Earth a paradise. This was so weird.

Matthew finally hit some ground with very high speed. He could not have seen it. His eyes were closed due to the pain. But upon the impact, he opened them.

And he saw a red and deep purple sky above him with small and long black clouds around.

Weirdly enough, while he expected a hard and terrible impact after such a fall, it was almost as if he had fallen for no more than two meters. It still hurt. Matthew stood up as the pain began to fade away.

He looked around him and thought he was right in the middle of some kind of crater around three or four meters deep. The soil was a mix of brown and deep red dirt with multiple rocks of multiple sizes here and there. There was some weird noise around but nothing too close.

Matthew then took some time to look at himself. Nothing really changed except his skin was maybe a little more grey-ish. Matthew just put it on the light of this place, the sky was different after all.

Strangely, his clothes were not totally torn up. His sneakers were still on his feet, his jeans, while quite used, were still covering most of his legs and his shirt… Well, his shirt was basically destroyed.

“Well, it was not my favorite.” Matthew said. “Wait, is my voice deeper ? Crap, that is weird.”

At least, he was still talking to himself so he thought his mind was not too affected. That old habit coming from his grandmother was reassuring for him.

Matthew removed his shirt and tried to use what was left of his to form some bandage around his left arm. It was horrible, but at least, it was something. Around him, some noises became more intense. He could not identify it but it felt animal somehow, more like bestial. Probably not good news.

Peter started climbing the slope of this crater. The dirt was hot, like sand on a beach in the middle of a day in July. It was almost burning his right hand. Fortunately, it was not too steep and while he was more ramping on the dirt than climbing, he finally got out of this hole and could take a wide look around.

He saw a wide plain of the same red dirt of his hole. There were some plants here and there, some kind of bush here, a small tree there, but all of these plants were charcoal black like burned. There was some huge house sized rock around sparsely. This looked like a mix between the image he had of an american desert and a savanna but painted in a deep red with some brown and black spots. Matthew saw some movement where the sound was coming. Some kind of beast horde he could not distinguish was moving around.

“So this is Hell.” Matthew observed. “Not to gloat, but it does not look so terrible. It is almost calm. I wonder why that reaper wished me luck.”

Matthew went to the nearest tree, picked up a small stone and started to cut some long stick out of a branch of the tree. He knew nothing of this place but walking with a stick was better than bare-handed. After punching the tree and then the branch with his rock, he finally had a stick around one and a half meters long.

“Well, I hope I don’t have to use it. Last time I used some kind of weapon, it was for a larp duel, and I lost it” Matthew mumbled, thinking of his past. “So I do have a body, meaning I probably have to eat or drink something”

Problem was, he did not see anything that could indicate some kind of water near him. Walking towards the beast he saw was probably not a good idea so Matthew started walking in the opposite direction.

He looked at the sky to find some clue to his direction. The sky was bright but nothing that looked like the sun. Unless it was behind one of those black clouds but it was probably not the case.

“So I’m dead.” Matthew mumbled. “Well. I guess I’ll walk until I find something. There must be some other people like me.”

He did not think more in detail about his situation. The priority was survival. In all of those survival games he played, the start was always the same. He had to start by finding some food and water and building a small shelter then he explored around. After that, he will have plenty of time to comprehend what all of this meant.

******

It was approximately two hours since he was walking, Matthew thought. His internal clock was approximative at best and there was a reason why he always had a watch or his phone with him.

The landscape did not evolve much, it was the same red dirt with black plants. No traces of any path or road anywhere. After walking for so long, he found out that the plain was more a bunch of small hills than a wide steppe. Not really a good thing since instead of having a wide and more importantly deep field of view he was looking at slopes. So Matthew was climbing a hill, again, using his stick to help him walk.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Since he started walking, he did not see the sun in the sky. He saw flying beasts, probably huge ones from what he could perceive. But for now, all of those beasts did not pick interest in him. Matthew did not know if he was lucky or just uninteresting for them.

He also did not find any water or food and plants were not dense enough to form any kind of shelter. Well, Hell could probably not be an easy place to survive, Matthew though.

At the top of the hill he was climbing, Matthew heard a growling noise. He took a look in the direction of the sound. He regretted it instantly when he saw the horror that made the sound.

The beast was some sort of wolf or dog but with the size of a large cow. The fur was black and spiky. It had one more pair of eyes and ears and two more pairs of nostrils. The mouth was more smiling and vicious, like a predator happy in front of his prey. It had six legs that ended with large claws and its tail was split in two at the end.

“Crap, crap, crap” Matthew shouted while keeping his eyes on the beast. Could he die again in Hell ? He did not know it but he was not ready to discover it.

The beast tensed its whole body, licked their lips and jumped in the direction of Matthew, its mouth wide open revealing two rows of teeth.

Matthew rolled on the side, falling into the dirt. His left arm did not appreciate it. He looked at the beast which was, once again, smiling. It whipped the ground with its tails twice. Did that thing just have fun ? Was it sentient enough to take pleasure in this ? Matthew did not have the time to think about it more as the beast jumped again.

Matthew used his stick at the last second to push himself out of the way of this creature which slid on the dirt. The beast quickly reacted by using its tail to whip Matthew. He could not dodge that blurry thing which hit his leg. The pain was extreme and the sound it made was not good at all.

“Ouch. Damn dog.” Matthew screamed. He watched his right leg, a big dark red spot on it. It was probably broken.

The beast jumped back a little. It was excited, its mouth wide open, its tongue going wild around it, its tail wagging. It knew this was the end of its prey. It took all its time, readying itself and then, it jumped.

Matthew saw the beast and thought it was the end. In a desperate move, he moved his stick in a wide attack trying to intercept the creature in its flight.

And the ground moved with it. It hit the creature and sent it several meters away.

“Woah.” Matthew said, surprised by what just happened. Did he just do that ? No time to think again, the beast was back on its feet again and it was starting to run in a circle around him. It was not having fun anymore, it was more serious.

Matthew was also more serious. He had some chance of surviving this encounter and he was not going to let it slide. He put himself on his knees trying to ignore the intense pain in his leg.

As the beast was getting closer, Matthew hit the ground with his stick and then waved it in the direction of the creature trying to replicate what he had done.

A wave of dirt a meter high went right on the beast but it jumped over and kept running on its course to Matthew.

It was hard to focus with all this pain, but Matthew had no choice if he wanted to keep going. Matthew brought his hand and the stick close to him and then thrusted it towards that hellish dog hoping to pierce something.

The earth followed and a rock spear came from the ground hitting the beast in its front shoulder. Some black ichor was dripping from the tip of the spear.

The creature fell on its side and growled. It was still alive despite the heavy wound where the same ichor was flowing.

“Yeah fucker. I’m not such an easy prey apparently.” Matthew boasted.

The beast took a step back and then howled to the sky very loudly. Soon after, multiple howls answered it coming from all directions. The beast, still with a serious gaze, was smiling again.

“Okay. I deserved that one.” Matthew said, trying to imagine how to fight a pack of these creatures.

******

Tianne was flying at maximum speed. She usually loved flying around since she discovered her wings but not today. The message received from the Prince was clear.

Someone with enough power to survive the Fall was going to land in her territory. And the Prince wanted that person to survive and not to get eaten by the first hellhound or blackwing that was around.

At least, she vaguely knew in which direction she had to fly. The comet that person created during their Fall had been spotted without any difficulty. It was far from a legendary one but the blue trail was still quite distinguishable in the red sky. But now that the Fall was over, she could only hope she would find visible traces from the impact to track the new demon.

Her com stone activated and a familiar voice appeared.

“Hey, could you slow down a little ?” The voice asked. “It’s hard to follow you with the wheeler and you know these stones have a bad range.”

“I can’t.” Tianne answered. “We have to find them before anything happens. For real, why do comets never fall close to a settlement ?”

She took a quick look behind her to see a distant trail of dust that was trying to follow her. Lucas was also driving at full speed but the wheeler could definitely not match her speed.

“Would you prefer to rebuild a bunch of buildings each time one falls directly on us?” Lucas said sarcastically.

“Well…” Tianne started when a series of hellhound howls stopped her. Those beasts only formed packs when a prey was too strong for them alone. Apparently, the new demon was at least competent at not dying too quickly.

“Okay, I’m rushing in. Just follow howls.” Tianne ordered before changing direction and accelerating again.

Two minutes later, what she saw scared her. Multiple hellhounds were wounded on the ground, some of them dead. Rocks were moving around to punch what was left of the pack. And in the middle of this, a small man on his knees, bleeding and leaning on a rock, was moving a stick with intense fury.

“By the Prince !” Tianne said shocked. She took her com stone. “Lucas, I have eyes on target, he is a Primordial.”

“If I wasn’t already, I'd be damned to Hell” Lucas answered.