Facing the Enormous steel barge, he shook his head.

'No way.' He thought as he pushed that ominous premonition to the back of his mind.

The demon was now only a few hundred meters from the barge and the number of fellow demons in his surrounding had grown exponentially.

'With just the monsters here, we could destroy a city easily.' He mused, 'I guess you need to be tough to survive in Hell.'

As he grew closer to the main throng of demons, he noticed a few standouts. One demon was over 10 feet tall and covered in spiked armour that looked like a monstrous insect carapace. Another had what looked like scythes for arms. It seemed that demons took inspiration from animals... or maybe it was the other way round.

What really caught his attention however was a tall, well built blonde-haired man with dog ears and sharp-clawed hands. Of course, it wasn't the dog demon's physical appearance that caught his attention, but the fact that he was on fire. Surrounded by a glowing orange flame, rejoiced that he had finally found another demon in the same situation as him.

Seemingly at the same time as he set his sights on the demon with dog ears, that demon had also noticed him. When their gazes met, the dog demon nodded in acknowledgement and turned away again, facing back towards the barge.

Following the dog demons gaze, he turned and saw the most impressive demon he had seen yet in the centre of the throng of demons. Covered in shiny black scales and with vertical pupils, this demon was reminiscent of a snake, the only caveat being that he was far more intimidating than any snake you could find on earth.

The Snake demon looked around and nodded in satisfaction. Then he let out a loud cough mixed with a hiss that silenced the entire crowd of demons immediately.

"This should be enough," he muttered before continuing in a sinister and grating voice.

"Hello, my fellow demons. Seeing as you are here and can understand me that means you found your respective heritages successfully, Congratulations! For those that didn't... not that you can understand me anyway, but... my condolences."

The following silence was deafening as all the gathered demons turned as one to look at the zombie-like demons, who while no one had noticed were already being loaded onto the barge in chains and manacles.

"What's going to happen to them?" Someone in the crowd muttered.

"They will serve penance, as those that didn't find their tablets are doomed to eternal damnation. Maybe their tablet was destroyed, maybe their race was cursed for some sort of crime. Whatever the reason they are doomed." The snake demon replied casually.

An even more solemn silence descended on the crowd as they all unanimously thought 'Thank god I found my tablet.' and then focused their attention fully on the snake demon. After all, with such solemn words being spoken so casually, it was clear that something like this happening was quite commonplace and none of them wanted to suffer the same fate.

"Anyway, my name is Scorn and I have the distinct displeasure to serve as a guide to all you devil-spawn. Of course, this is just until we get onto the barge thankfully." The snake demon continued speaking, seemingly oblivious to the solemn atmosphere.

"I will tell you all the basics and then you can ask questions so just shut up and listen until then. First, since you already know that you are in hell and have died, I'll skip that bit and get right down to the important stuff." He said sounding bored.

Looking around and seeing everyone was quiet, the snake demon nodded in satisfaction and started to explain the situation. His explanation was very concise, it seemed he wanted to get this over and done with as fast as possible. It could be summed up like this:

Hell was broken up into various levels, referred to as the nine circles.

Each level consisted of a residential area and what is called a 'Penance'.

A 'Penance' is a trial you need to complete to descend to the next circle and cleanse your soul of sin.

Also, by completing a 'Penance' they could regain their memories and improve their demonic abilities as a reward. (Although some said regaining memories was more of a punishment than a reward.)

Aside from that, there were various other simple things to keep in mind. The most important was to be Kind, which seemed weird. This was Hell after all.

Once he was done explaining everything, the snake demon took a deep breath. It seemed he had been in such a rush to explain everything as quickly as possible he forgot to breathe. Then he turned to look at the surrounding crowd of demons.

"Please, don't hesitate to ask questions. In fact, do it as quickly as possible so that we can get this journey started as soon as possible." He said standoffishly, with a glare. It seemed his attitude towards questions didn't match his words.

Nevertheless, he took his time to answer the few questions he was asked which were usually trivial and unimportant queries about things like, whether or not demons need to eat, or if they had to use the toilet.

Ignoring the Q&A session going on in the background, the demon with a tail pushed his way through the crowd, much to the dissatisfaction of the surrounding demons, as he headed towards the dog demon.

Seeing him approach, the dog demon had a startled expression for a second before seeming to nod in understanding and also headed towards him.

Once they had met up they looked at each other with a knowing gaze and lent closer.

The Dog Demon spoke first. "So are you going to ask him about us being on fire?" He whispered hopefully.

"No way!" The Demon with a tail responded harshly. "Why do you think I went towards you in the first place?"

"Well, I'm not asking." Said the dog demon stubbornly. "What if it's bad to be on fire and that makes him notice us. You saw what happened to those zombie demons. You ask!"

Noticing they were at an impasse, they both turned to look into each other's eyes.

Thinking of something the demon with a tail made a signal and the dog demon nodded with understanding.

"This is the only way to settle this then." The Demon with a tail said solemnly

"It seems so..." Grunted the dog demon. "What's your name by the way?"

"I don't have one... or if I did, I have forgotten." The demon with a tail replied

"Same here." Sighed the Dog Demon.

Then, all of a sudden, they both shouted, "Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

In unison, they put out their hand. Their reactions however were the opposite.

"Shit!" The demon with the tail swore. "Best of three!"

"No way. Where in the rules did it say best of three?" Replied the dog demon sternly.

The demon with the tail looked pitifully at the dog demon and pleaded with his eyes.

Seeing his pitiful expression, the dog demon's composure broke. "Fine! best of three. But if I win again, I get to pick your name. That's the only way to make it fair."

Looking back and forth between the intimidating snake demon and the dog demon, the demon with a tail quickly affirmed his decision and doubled down.

With a glint in his eye, the dog demon nodded and, after another quick match of rock paper scissors it was decided that the demon with the tail would be named Solemn because he looked quite serious.

"No way!" He refused vehemently. "I will not be named Solemn, at least call me a real name, not something stupid."

Grinning while looking at the furious demon, the dog demon could barely contain his laughter.

"Fine, Fine, I'll call you Solomon. To pay homage to your original name" The dog demon conceded while looking very magnanimous.

"Great..." Solomon sighed in exasperation. "So my name is a pun. Fan-fucking-tastic!" He groaned in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

Noticing his anguished expression the dog demon couldn't contain his laughter anymore and burst out laughing.

Without skipping a beat Solomon looked at the laughing demon and said "I will name you Hyde, after a hyena."

Before Hyde could complain Solomon raised his hand awkwardly and shouted out:

"Why are we on fire?"

Scorn turned to look at who had asked the question and noticed that they were indeed on fire. He looked somewhat surprised and responded after a seconds pause.

"Well, As you know everyone here is in Hell because they committed some sort of crime in the eyes of the Gods. However, some people sinned worse than others and they receive a special punishment known as Karmic Flames."

Hyde, who was no longer laughing and had glanced down at the fire surrounding himself bitterly asked "What do Karmic flames mean."

"In essence, it means that some of your penance trials will be harder and that it will be more difficult for you to descend to deeper levels of Hell." replied Scorn while looking at them without much pity.

"Can we get rid of them?" Solomon asked.

"Hmmm..." Scorn paused. 'Now's as good a time as any to explain Karma I guess.' he thought.

"As I said, Karmic flames make 'Penance' trials harder. Conversely, good Karma Makes 'Penance' trials easier and, by doing good deeds you can improve your Karma and make it easier to descend deeper into hell. Why do you think I am here explaining all this to you instead of trying to clear a 'Penance' myself?" Scorn says while looking at all the demons surrounding him judgementally.

"Wow, he's looking at us like we all stole his lunch money or something," Solomon whispered to Hyde. Who promptly stifled a laugh.

Seeing the disgruntled looks of the surrounding demons, Scorn looked weirdly satisfied and promptly said:

"Right, That raps up everything important I wanted to say. Now! all you little demon spawn get up the gangplank and onto the barge already," said Scorn before turning and jumping across the 10-metre gap between the boat and the shore.

After a moments pause, the throng of demons looked at the rickety wooden gangplank and then, as one, looked at the giant 10-foot tall armoured demon about to step on it.

What followed could only be described as a stampede. The armoured demon was tackled by a demon with red leathery skin and tusks coming out from the side of his mouth. After which, at least five other demons piled on top of the armoured demon and held him down, while someone shouted.

"Get the heavy looking ones! Don't let them go first or they might break the plank!"

As chaos was breaking out, two distinctive groups were formed: 'The Big ones' and 'The little ones'. As middlemen when it came to weight Solomon and Hyde took a step back and surveyed the battlefield.

'The Big ones' used their sheer mass to lay waste to 'the small ones' who were guarding the gangplank. 'The small ones' used guerrilla warfare tactics to separate the big ones from their group and gang up on them. It was a vicious display of sudden violence you would only see amongst hot-tempered demons.

"The big ones look more powerful there's no way they won't win." Solomon declared.

"Nah, The little ones have numbers on their side. On a battlefield, numbers win every time." Hyde refuted Solomon's claim.

"Wanna bet?" Said Solomon who had clearly already fallen victim to the twisted joy of gambling.

"Sure. What's the wager though." Replied Hyde with confidence.

"Winner picks the loser's second name." Said Solomon firmly with a wicked grin.

"Very well. It's on." Said Hyde, before turning his gaze away from the battlefield to look at Solomon. Or, to be more precise, where Solomon used to be. As he had already run off to join the battle himself and fight on the side he had bet on.

Stunned for a moment at Solomon's underhandedness Hyde sprung into action and was just about to leap to the aid of his team when the battle was silenced by a hiss.

"Shut up and get on the Fucking barge so we can set off or we'll leave without any of you useless devil-spawn." Scorn shouted with finality.

Each side of the battle looked at each other with venom before quickly making their way up the gangplank and onto the barge.

While crossing the plank of wood Solomon looked down at the river of magma beneath him and couldn't help but pray that they weren't going down into the abyss on this barge. otherwise, he would rather stay on the shore.

After he arrived on the barge that was made out of some unknown black metal that glowed a dim red he met back up with Hyde. The football field-sized deck was divided into two groups on either side of the deck. Small and big. with each side glaring at each other

Perhaps it was because they were the only ones suffering from karmic flames but the rest of the demons avoided them and Hyde and Solomon ended up moving away from the two factions towards the front of the boat.

"I hope we aren't going off the edge of the abyss over there in this barge," Hyde said, oblivious to Solomons worries.

"Why would you say that out loud?" Solomon groaned.