As quickly as he could, trying to avoid keeping the soles of his feet on the hot ground for more than a moment at a time, Chad hopped and danced out of the alcove and past the burning fire pits in the other section of the cavern, his exposed, shriveled package flopping about with every manic movement.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!
The imp flapped languidly after him.
There was a large opening at the other end of the cavern and Chad burst through to find an even larger chamber of red rock with arched ceilings spreading out far above. Powerful smells of old bacon grease and soggy leather mixed with the eye-stinging sulfurous fumes that seemed omnipresent.
What Chad saw in this chamber stopped him in his tracks, causing him to momentarily overlook the constant stinging pain.
Throughout the room were several large vats–no, more like rocky craters–filled with what looked like bubbling water. Chad flashed back to a time in his sophomore year of college when he had smoked a bowl at the frat house while cheating with his roommate’s girlfriend. Some nature show had been playing on the TV in the background, something about geysers or thermal pools at Yellowstone park. This reminded him of that.
A handful of large, powerfully built creatures stood sentry near the boiling pools throughout the room. They were clad in loincloths with gladiator-style sandals, and otherwise naked from the waist up with glistening pinkish-red skin. They had the form of a man, but twice as tall. However, their faces resembled that of a tusked pig or wild boar more than anything recognizably human. Their eyes were black marbles.
A wave of fear passed over Chad at this fearsome sight. The nearest creature turned to stare with annoyance at Chad, black eyes boring through him, then turned away with disinterest once the imp sidled up beside the errant human. The creatures were more focused on their task at hand.
Suspended from somewhere in the hazily obscured distant ceiling, dozens of naked human men hung from large chains. With the creak of turning metal wheels, their bodies were slowly lowered until their feet were dunked into the boiling pools. Chad had initially thought they were corpses… until the screaming started and the men sprung to life like disturbing marionettes.
Each cried out in intense pain as the flesh of their feet was boiled. Tears formed at the corners of their eyes but evaporated almost instantly in the overwhelming heat. Then, one by one, they were pulled up, suspended over the pools. The men went limp, hanging from the chains in wretched defeat. Their feet were pink, swollen, blistering–some had the flesh sloughing off of foot bones into the pools below like giant bowls of pork soup.
“No. NO! What is happening to them?” Chad yelled, turning to the imp beside him. “You have to stop this. Let them down!”
“Heh heh heh. I don’t have the authority to do that,” the imp chuckled. “This is the first level of Hell–these low-level offenders are reaping the consequences of their mortal actions.”
To Chad’s shock, he saw the flesh begin to heal and regenerate on the feet of the hanging men. With sickening certainty he knew what was about to happen. Again, the creaking of metal wheels and jangling chains preceded another immersion in the boiling water. Again, screams filled the cavernous space.
“What could they have done to deserve something like this!?” Chad demanded.
“Wearing socks with sandals,” the imp replied with no little amount of glee. “Lex Talionis.”
“Lex who?” Chad asked.
“It’s Latin, you twat! Do humans not learn Latin anymore? What’s your world coming to? No wonder so many of you are being dumped in here by the buttload each day. Oh well, the more the merrier, I say! Heh heh heh!”
“And all these people are guilty of some sort of crime?!”
“Crime. Sin. It’s all the same here.”
Chad’s feet stung, but he realized it was nothing compared to the cycle of torture these poor souls were undergoing. Feeling a desperate need to connect with a fellow human, Chad cautiously approached one of the vats, barely able to stand the heat radiating from it.
“Hey! Can you hear me!?” he shouted and waved his arms at the nearest hanging man. “Down here!”
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After some time the naked man struggled to lift his slumped head, blinking through the steam and haze. He looked in the vague direction of Chad.
“Yes! I’m a human, like you! My name is Chad! Where are we? How did you get here? Did you come from Isekai World too?”
The man simply stared, not comprehending. Eventually he slumped down again, waiting for his next round of punishment.
“Save yourself…” the hanged man muttered. “It’s too late for us…”
The imp snickered.
“Save yourself? Heh heh, a strategy that has never once worked since the Dawn of Creation.”
The nearest demonic-looking creature now took a heavy, thudding footstep toward Chad. It spoke with a guttural roar that sounded like several voices speaking at once.
“HEY. NO TALKING TO THE PRISONERS!”
Chad would have swallowed the lump in his throat if he could swallow, but every part of his body felt as dry as ash. He backed away from the menacing hulk, accidentally bumping against the sharp points of the imp’s pitchfork and drawing blood on his back.
“Ah! Watch where you point that thing!” Chad complained.
“Weren’t you on your way to the Final Circle of Hell? Looking for an exit?” the imp giggled. “There’s a doorway over there. You could try to help these damned souls or ‘save yourself’... both completely impossible of course.”
The imp pointed with a long, clawed finger. Sure enough, another cave opening lay on the other side of this large room.
Feeling the overwhelming pain on the soles of his feet come back into focus and blood trickling down his naked back, Chad prepared to make a dash past the large creatures towards the doorway.
“I have to get out of here,” Chad said through gritted teeth. “I have to!”
Crouching down, he broke into a sprint, dodging the boiling vats and creatures as a new chorus of screams began. The creatures barely paid him any notice. Chad approached the opening at the far end of the chamber.
“Oh my, I seem to have forgotten to mention the security system. Heh heh heh,” the imp said to itself.
As Chad crossed the threshold to leave this chamber and enter the next, a series of horizontally spinning blades emerged from the walls, cleanly slicing him into three large chunks. His head and torso collapsed with a splat on the rocky floor as his bisected arm and leg segments scattered this way and that.
*
Chad regained conscious awareness in the dark alcove he had first appeared in. His body was whole; his mind, beginning to fracture. The imp hovered in the air, flapping its wings. It grinned a toothy snarl as it watched Chad come to.
“You really walked into that one, heh heh. Zing!”
“This… this is a nightmare! This is insanity!” Chad screamed, grabbing the sides of his head and collapsing to his knees.
“Now you’re getting the idea!” the imp replied cheerfully.
“Just kill me… just kill me and get it over with…” Chad began sobbing.
“You stupid PRICK! I am getting tired of repeating myself. You CAN’T DIE HERE! I was enjoying the brief diversion of your appearance, but this slow-on-the-uptake schtick is starting to get old.”
Chad shuddered, letting the scalding pain of the hot rock course through his hands and legs. Hopelessness welled up within him like lava. Then, he noticed something strange.
Although his clothes had been burned, although his body had been cut into pieces, the Character+ Pass was still intact and hanging from his neck.
“What… how..? How do I still have this?” he wondered, staggering to his feet and turning the thick plastic badge over and over in his hands.
The imp shrugged its boney shoulders.
“Maybe that indestructible device exists within a parallel pocket dimension and is only holographically projected onto your form in this spiritual plane. But… what do I know?”
Chad tried to remember anything, anything at all from the orientation he hadn’t bothered paying attention to. He fingered the badge and lanyard all over, trying to find–
FHWIP!
Suddenly a glowing screen flashed in front of him.
Name: Chadwick Chaddington
Location: –ERROR–UNKNOWN–
Level: 0
Title: N/A
Life: 1
Spirit: 0
Abilities: None
Traits: None
Strength: 1
Constitution: 1
Dexterity: 1
Agility: 1
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 0
Faith: 0
Fortune: 0
“What the… is this what Bea was talking about? My ‘character sheet?’ Why is my Strength only listed as a 1? This is bull… I do Crossfit!”