Straight to Hell (The Hellscape Book 1)
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You are Kommandant Ulrac De-Villiers. You have been a seasoned crusader for 20 years¸ feared for both your strength in arms and in your beliefs. You are a Soldier of the One True God¸ and you have campaigned all your life to defend the One True Church. There is nothing you will not do to protect your church¸ and you have committed any number of atrocities in God's name. However¸ you see them as a necessity¸ and prayer and your belief absolve you of any blame.
Now God's voice on this earth¸ the Most Holy Zacatecas herself¸ has sent you on a crucial mission to defend the church.
This has taken you to a remote part of the eighth continent¸ along with a small force under your command. This matter threatens not just the world¸ but potentially the cosmos¸ and even Heaven itself. For aeons¸ the battle between good and evil has always taken place through agents.
No direct confrontation between Heaven and Hell has occurred since the 4th uprising¸ over 100¸000 years ago¸ and that threatened to tear the reality apart. Since then¸ Heaven and Hell have tried to work through mortal agents to gain the upper hand on this reality¸ and you are one of the key agents of the One True God.
However¸ something has happened to change all this. Somehow a portal has opened on the 8th continent that links your world with the Hellscape below - the home of hundreds and thousands of devils and demons¸ as well as uncountable numbers of the damned. If this portal remains open¸ then the whole of this reality could be pulled into the Hellscape¸ and all of your world will fall to the cruel dominion of The Dark Ones.
In order to do this¸ you were sent by boat across the Sea of Dreams to the dark continent in the northern hemisphere. You land with your forces in the northern deserts¸ barely seeing the sun. Both the days and nights are brutally cold. For days you trek across this hostile landscape¸ losing 10% of your small force on the way.
On the 13th day¸ the sun appears for the first time as you emerge at the top of a large fertile valley¸ with green shrubs and tall¸ lean trees all around. You gratefully camp and find fresh game to hunt and water to drink¸ a welcome change to hard trail rations. You allow your troops to rest and send out scouts to try to find the portal.
Of the five that you send out¸ only one returns and he is in a terrible state. He looks tired and drained¸ with multiple injuries and contusions. But worst of all are his eyes¸ which are wide and almost unblinking¸ and portray a madness that has overtaken him. You can get little sense from the poor wretch¸ but you know the direction he was sent¸ and so you decide to set off with your host along that route.
You give short orders to break camp and assemble¸ and order one of your most eager Lieutenants to kill the scout. A madman will be a drain on your small army's resources. You watch intrigued as Lieutenant Celdron takes his time¸ slowly running the poor man through whilst staring deep into his face. He smiles cruelly as he sees the pain register on the scout's face. Then he is dead.
Celdron removes his sword and wipes it down on the dead scout's clothes and sheathes it¸ smiling. You make note of Celdron. You are not alarmed or surprised at his actions. He is relatively new to your command¸ but any man who can be ruthless when needed¸ and enjoy his work¸ has a place by your side. He is a man to be cultivated but also one to be watched in case he has designs on subverting your position.
You head into the forest and travel for several days. In place of the cold¸ the heat becomes oppressive¸ and your armour feels like a furnace and the sweat seemingly leaks out of your body. Then you arrive at a deep and fertile oasis in the centre of the forest.