Uriel slowed down upon reaching the edge of Limbo. The sounds of Inferno still clung to his ears. Even more so since Lucifer had stopped talking to him after he had left the Seventh Circle. He needed a moment to collect himself and find the correct path to the shore of Acheron.

Upon landing on the surprisingly lush ground, he noticed a few souls watching him from a distance. Uriel glared at them, which cause them to hide away. But a second later his attention was drawn to the apparition in front of him.

Lucifer stood amidst the strange foliage growing all around. He looked just like Uriel remembered him before the Fall. Tall and unmarred. His silver-golden hair flowing around his youthful face like fog. Still, the radiant light was missing. A light Uriel still possessed and thought about to use on the Devil to clear his way. But a part of him hesitated.

“You have come far, Uriel”, Lucifer said and folded his hands onto the long sleeves of his white and gold tunic. “But the true question remains: How far will you dare to go?”

“Out of my way, deceiver”, he replied with calm furry. “Return to thine body at the centre of Inferno. Thou doest belong only there.”

“Where I belong in this domain of mine is up to my discretion, Uriel”, he replied amused. “And I am not here to hold you back. I am here to impart some knowledge.”

“I neither need thine knowledge nor any advice, serpent.”

“More often than not, things are not as they seem”, Lucifer continued nonetheless and stepped aside while gesturing onward a moment later. “You are free to go, Uriel.”

The angel moved on slowly, his eyes glued on the Devil. Lucifer just continued to smile, while watching him intently. After a few tense moments Uriel tore his gaze away and headed down the path in front of him.

With just a few steps he found himself suddenly within a thick silent forest. There were no living nor dead things to be seen beyond the strange plants. He was alone, and this silence became much more suffocating than the silence of Cocytus. In this silence, the Devil’s words seared into his mind and made him scoff.

Unwavering, he continued onward. After some time, the thicket broke and revealed the shores of Acheron. Damned souls were currently leaving Charon’s boat, crying and bemoaning their fate. Uriel didn’t concern himself with them and continued towards the shore. Some of the damned tried to appeal to him once they recognised his true nature, but he pushed on. Yet, in some cases, the damned became too handsy. They grabbed hold of his tunic. They pulled at his feathers. Angry, he grabbed them by the throat and threw them aside with enough force to kill them, were they not already dead. Charon watched him with a frown but didn’t move from his position at the helm of the boat.

“No voyage across the river Acheron in this direction for any soul”, said the ferryman as Uriel stopped right in front of him. “Not even for a being such as you.”

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“I do not intend to make use thine boat, ferryman”, he replied sullen and unfurled his wings.

“Good. Stay mindful of those hidden below the dark waters of the river”, he replied, and pushed the boat off the shore after the last sinner had left the vessel.

Uriel glared at him for a moment, then he jumped into the air. Despite his distaste for everything inside this realm, he took Charon’s warning to mind and kept higher than necessary above the eerily calm water. Below the surface, he could see serpents and monstrous fish guarding a whole treasure trove of gold and silver coins. Money paid to the ferryman by pagans before they had become aware of Christ.

Suddenly, a serpent broke the water surface and aimed for Uriel. But he flew too high for the beast to even nip his foot. Weary, he watched it tumble back onto the dark waters of the Acheron. Afterwards, a few more fell beasts tried to snatch him but failed. Still, Uriel reached the other shore far ahead of Charon and landed besides the mooring for Charon’s boat. On it and beside awaited already hundreds of more sinners the ferryman’s return. As the damned saw Uriel, they started to push against the shore, shouting and calling for his attention. Soon their eagerness turned into frenzy. Those closest to the waterline were forced into the dark stream and immediately swarmed by the beasts within it. Those in the middle were crushed, pushed and trampled.

The madness spread like fire and soon the whole shore was filled with blood, body parts and never-ending screams while the river-beasts feasted on those within the water.

Uriel flew outside their reach, across the frenzied masses, without paying them much attention. A mistake, as a few more crafty souls picked up rocks and started to pelt him. Most fell down without as much as grazing him. But a few hit their mark harder and harder, until one hit him right on one of his wings, causing a few of his feathers to fall.

Immediately, he used his light to blind those underneath him, which created an opening. Without hesitation or looking back, he once more doubled his speed and soon left the shore without anyone following him.

The last stretch of land between Uriel and the Gates of Hell went by mainly uneventful. The only thing he took temporary note off were some of his brethren, who hadn’t chosen a side during Lucifer’s uprising. But they were too occupied to flee the hornets and wasps chasing them to take note of him in return.

Finally, the Gates of Hell appeared within view. A huge freestanding portal, older than time. Uriel sped up, wasting no more time.

The massive structure was made from a sturdy metal unknown to mortals. The portal doors were massive and impossible to open for even a thousand of the strongest humans. The engravings on the doors depicted the structure of Inferno and what awaited the sinners who found themselves within this realm.

Uriel slowed down and stopped in front of the Gate. It was closed as it should be, since it was made for the living to cross and not for the dead, who always awoke beside the shores of Acheron. Another use the Gate would see was at the end of time, when the Hosts of Hell would descend on the mortal realm.

No inhabitant of Inferno could hope to open the Gate from this side until then, but Uriel wasn’t one of them. As such, he commanded the Gate to open for him. With a minor delay, the doors began to shutter and started to swing open. Once they were wide enough for him to slip through, he did so. With a crash, the Gate closed once he had stepped out the other side. The forest he was now in seemed unremarkable, and the Gate appeared as nothing more but the entrance of a cave. All which remained to do was to find the Transient and kill it along the vile mortal who had called it forth.