In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but to create the inhabitants he needed an energy source, something to fuel living beings. And so, he created the tree of life, and from the tree of life came a nectar, and that nectar was blood. But his creations were imperfect, refusing to follow his word. So, he let them die out, trying again with a new cycle of humans, but the results stayed the same. For countless generations, over countless years, again and again, he tried to make it work, but he couldn’t make a human that would freely worship him. He began to resent humanity, “Damned is a man for failing to follow my rule, my word, my law, damned to an eternity of torture and suffering, the wailing and gnashing of teeth.” He had created Hell, and he could no longer unmake it. An angel so bright and beautiful asked God: “Father, why eternal torment? Is it not cruel? Is torture unending truly a fate fit for a fool?” But he could find no answer, for he could not face the guilt of what he had done, and in a moment of weakness, terror possessed him, and he cast Lucifer, too, into the infernal den. Realising what he had done, he could only weep as he slowly sank deeper into the depths of despair. His mistakes left nothing but hate in their wake, he couldn’t take any more of this guilt and regret. On earth, the neglected humans had started a war so large that almost the entire world was tangled in its web. What started as a single assassination in Austria Hungary had escalated to the point where trench warfare was no longer viable. Scientists throughout the world started researching and developing new technology to be used in warfare. They developed technology for a firearm that uses electric pulses to fire microscopic pieces of metal at near light speed. Weapons that use this technology were dubbed "electric guns'', and it quickly became the new standard during the war, replacing bullet guns. Due to it using microscopic metal flakes as its projectile, it would take weeks of non-stop firing to run out, and refilling is as easy as just scraping some flakes from scrap metal or even the gun's own surface. In fact, a rough, uneven surface from scraping flakes is considered a point of pride for wielders of electric guns, as it shows the weapon has been reliable and used for a long time. Many users even shave off flakes just for this reason, rather than for actual ammunition, making "unflaked" electric weapons an outlier. Although an electric gun requires some time to recharge its battery between shots, the revolver-style design bypasses that issue by including a multi-battery cylinder that rotates after each shot, allowing each battery time to charge without slowing down the fire-rate. A common modification is to allow for the charges of all batteries to be released simultaneously for greater power, though this requires a longer recharge time. A second model of electric pistol was also created. It had a much larger battery cylinder for even more power behind the projectile, although this meant that there wasn't enough room inside the gun for a cylinder rotation mechanism, meaning that the cylinder had to be rotated manually using a hammer, making it the equivalent of a single action revolver for electric guns. While Electric guns became the norm, there were more experimental weapons created during and after the war, one of these being a close-range shotgun that uses hyper concentrated heat as its projectiles. After each shot, the weapon must be opened to allow its heat-generating cores to vent excess heat, stopping them from melting or exploding. This process is largely automated, requiring little more from the user than a flick of the wrist. In the case of core failure, the pump can be used as a manual heat building mechanism. This process has been simplified via a small button near the grip that pumps the shotgun without requiring physical force from the user, though its ease of use has also greatly increased the reported number of misfires from users pumping too much heat into a single shot. Heat weapons never caught on as much as electric weapons due to their volatile nature and strict cooling requirements, but unlike electric weapons, they don't require a separate projectile, making their ammunition truly infinite rather than just practically infinite. But the most impactful discovery during the War, would be the use of blood as a fuel source, opening up the possibility to create machines that were incredibly easy to refuel in an active battlefield, where blood was in abundance. The Russians were the first to discover that blood could be used as fuel, and using this knowledge, they created the Gutterman. A new era of war was set in motion. During the War's first phase, these seemingly unstoppable walls were airdropped into enemy trenches, which they would then slowly and systematically clear out as all opposing soldiers would have to choose between being minced by the Gutterman, or running out of the trench and getting mowed down by machine gun fire. Researchers had not yet found a way to keep blood inside the machine fresh, so a live fuel source was strapped inside, kept alive by minimal life support, before the Guttermen were welded shut. Although publicly these fuel sources were claimed to be volunteer patriots, most were deserters, battle-fatigued returnees or prisoners of war. Forces from far beyond took notice of the cruelty man was capable of, and the suffering of these human blood supplies served as the final straw for God. As He looked down on his creation, he felt great sadness and disgust at what his people had done, and decided once and for all that the Human experiment was a failure. No god who would let this take place deserved to be, and so God was no more. Heaven was now in a state of disarray. All angels in Hell were recalled to heaven, leaving Hell unsupervised. The Judge of Hell and King of the lust layer Minos, took this opportunity, and set out to reform the lust layer. King Minos felt that eternal suffering was an unfair and unreasonable punishment for those whose only sin was loving another. The Lust renaissance was prosperous, as King Minos guided its inhabitants to come together and build a new civilization. The combined efforts of the countless who had been damned to the second layer bore great results as the grand city of Lust grew and grew. However, this would soon change after the Holy Council took control of Heaven, bringing stability to it through their iron fist rule and strict upholding of the dogma of Faith. They saw that Minos had gone against God's will by freeing sinners from the punishment that God had designed for them. Gabriel, the brightest of the angels, was sent to kill Minos. The king, rather than fighting back, tried to reason with him, but Gabriel mercilessly struck him down without listening. As Minos' will was strong enough to attempt to stand up to Heaven's rule, the angels chose to imprison his soul in an attempt to stop it from forming into a prime soul and appointed Gabriel as the new Judge of Hell. A prime soul is an incredibly rare occurrence in which a soul amasses so much power that it no longer requires a Husk as a vessel to manifest physically. As manifestations of pure will, prime souls are incredibly powerful, to the point that even the prideful angels see them as a threat and will use any means necessary to stop them from forming. From the prison inside his own body, Minos helplessly watched as his soulless corpse, now controlled by parasites, tore apart everything he had worked so hard to build, cursing his own weakness for failing to protect his people, vowing to take revenge. Though Minos was intelligent and persuasive, he was also a gentle and noble man. Such values mattered little to Sisyphus, who would gladly lie, cheat or kill if that's what is needed to protect his comrades. In a hubristic show of power, Heaven decided that the only correct punishment for his sins would be breaking his will by subjecting him to an unending and impossible task, unaware of just how tenacious the spite of man can be. For thousands of years, Sisyphus bided his time, suffering his punishment day after day without any sign of regret or remorse, waiting for the perfect chance to strike and subvert Heaven's tyrannical rule. With the Disappearance of God and chaos in Heaven, Sisyphus' time had finally come, and once the angels returned, they were met with a force and fury that had boiled in the hearts of men for millennia, a war cry so fierce it shook the very foundations of Hell. It was all for naught, however, as Sisyphus' charisma and drive had made his warriors dependent on his radiance and guidance. Although he did not know why yet, Gabriel recognised this flaw, having experienced it first hand, and ordered a focused assault to take down the king. He unsheathed his swords for the first time since time immemorial and beheaded Sisyphus, displaying his head for all to see. The morale of Sisyphus' army was broken, and the rest of the war was little more than a formality without their shining beacon. The failure of the insurrection was no surprise, however, and few knew that better than Sisyphus himself. He knew he was fighting a losing battle, that even if they miraculously survived this encounter, they had no chance of winning a full-scale war against all of Heaven. Yet he thrust his full heart and soul into battle with a wide smile on his face. To him, fighting an impossible battle with full knowledge of its futility and taking joy in just the act of resistance itself is the ultimate rebellion against the oppressor. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. As Guttermen single-handedly ended the trench warfare era of the Final War, armies scrambled to create countermeasures, leading to the creation of more machines of war. Built from the foundations of Guttermen to save time, Guttertanks were equipped with highly efficient explosives and arms capable of damaging and destroying thick armour. The slow, lumbering walls that once dominated the field had now become obsolete. The second era of the Final war had begun, where machines fought machines in a back-and-forth tide as new designs were phased in and out at a feverish pace, each designed specifically to counter the last. As human soldiers had quickly become useless in war, utterly outclassed by machines, they were almost entirely phased out. Although at first the soldiers celebrated returning home, they soon found that the pointless, endless arms race left little in its wake. All resources were used on machines of war, and impoverished civilians had to struggle to survive. Home was just another battlefield, a war of all against all. There were countless machines created during this time, but the final ones were the Earthmovers. Made by the Japanese, earthmovers were the pinnacle of the arms race. Often called the horsemen of the apocalypse, it took only one to level an entire city and leave nothing but fire in its wake. They were the first machines large enough to house a shield generator, meaning that these walking fortresses could only be made vulnerable from within, making them the new frontlines for smaller, more mobile machines. Due to their colossal size, they required both blood and solar power to function. The last era of the Final War had begun. The surviving civilians were forced to evacuate and build new homes on the backs of these machines, as the surface became an inhospitable wasteland where no flora or fauna could flourish. The soot, smoke and decay from the unending global war would blot out the sun, casting the world into the Long Night. Attempts were made to counteract this by using Streetcleaners built to purify the tainted air of cities by burning the contaminated air particles. But it was futile, and Earthmovers, unable to feed on sunlight, shut down and died out one by one, reaching out for God in their final moments, only to find no answer. War had become entirely dependent on them; large scale conflict was no longer feasible, and there was nothing but soot to fight over. Finally, mankind started to work together to revert the effects of the climate catastrophe, and so began the New Peace. 200 years of war for its own sake ended not with a bang, but utter silence. At the brink of despair, the planet would slowly learn to breathe once more, and the corpses of these titans would serve as a stark reminder of just how close mankind was to an apocalypse by their own hand. Before the new peace was established, there was a machine built to counter the Earthmover, called V1. Boasting a new kind of exterior plating that allowed refuelling through contact with blood rather than through a separate blood refuelling process. It was fast, nimble and small, allowing it to breach inside the Earthmover to destroy its shield generator and brain. Due to its necessary thinness, it is far less durable, but the ability to fix itself and rebuild broken parts on the fly would outweigh the negatives on an active battlefield. However, during the prototyping phase, the New Peace was established and war became irrelevant. V1’s planned production was cancelled and an updated model, V2, was developed instead, using the standardised plating, since durability was far more important during times of peace when no bloodshed was necessary. Neither model ever reached mass production due to the end of wars completely draining any demand, so it’s likely only a single prototype build of each model remains in existence. The world was in an era of innovation with many new machines being created for different purposes, but due to the lack of people left alive after the war, manpower was a focus and as many jobs as possible would be taken over by machines like the Drone. A mass-produced security device built as both a surveillance camera and a security guard. They were curious by nature, but to keep production costs low, their intelligence is very limited. But no matter how cheap they were made there was still a shortage of materials left due to the final war's high cost, so humanity began digging deeper for materials, However, while drilling especially deep, they found an extremely hard rock. When lowering down a camera to investigate, they were able to see that it was a large door with two statues on each side of it, on the door was an engraved text: “Abandon Hope All ye who enter here” It didn’t take long for humanity to realise what they had found, and they wanted to explore and document the discovery of Hell, and many of the machines built for the war were repurposed for Hell expeditions. During these expeditions they started building a processing plant in the outskirts of Hell to transport and refine the materials they found, building elevator shafts designed to transfer materials and tools between different areas. They were capable of transferring physical material as information across a radio signal, which other terminals can receive and use to reconstruct the sent object. The original item is lost, as it is transformed into the energy that is used to transmit the material information, and the process is quite slow due to the amount of information that physical matter holds. An early test of the matter transfer's accuracy was a mint condition 78rpm vinyl record, which was sent from the lab to all connected terminals. The vinyl was a single of Russ Morgan Orchestra's recording of the piece “Were You Foolin'”, though the label was removed to reduce the amount of matter to be transferred. But on some expeditions the researchers noticed odd events taking place in Hell. Sometimes parts from machines and equipment would randomly disappear, husks would be unexplainably found deep in the facilities without any sign of breaking in, doors would suddenly close and demons would flood the room, leading to the death of everyone inside. These events were halting progress quite severely, and would remain unexplained until one day when a message would be received by the surface: "I’ve figured it out. I know why the creatures are suddenly and undetectably appearing inside our facilities. I know why spare parts and pieces of machines keep disappearing. I know why the doors seem to malfunction and suddenly lock themselves. it's not a glitch in the system. it's... Hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. The entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism, and it is harsh and it is cruel. Just by watching us it has learned how our systems and machines work. It has not only begun to deconstruct our technology but also assemble it in perverse ways, attaching parts to the creatures it tortures, making them into an aimless army of death and destruction. it wraps them across itself to get them past our security. it locks our doors to trap us with them. This is not an attack. This is not a defence. This is entertainment. This is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake. It had grown tired of what it has and we unwillingly just offered ourselves up as new playthings. Tom, please for the love of God cancel this project immediately, we have to abandon everything and seal this place away. Leave the machines and tools behind. Evacuate as many as we can, before it is too late. I can only hope this encrypted message is received before the organism learns to read it and intercept it. Whatever happens, we cannot let this being find a way out and spread to the surface. We ha a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r." Hell was immediately abandoned and every machine in hell was left behind, all connections to the terminals were cut, though after a donation from [INSERT COMPANY HERE] they were able to safely reestablish connection to some of the higher end machines. As time passed researchers noticed new behaviour from the machines left in Hell. Machines began scavenging for parts to aid in survival, some equipped themself with technology capable of harnessing small amounts of hell energy. The most extreme case of this scavenging behaviour was the Swordsmachine. Its original form is unrecognisable after years of scavenging and rebuilding itself, but among scrapheads, the Swordsmachine is quite famous due to its combat prowess and self-made form, ugly to most but beautiful to enthusiasts, spawning many copycats. It wields a self-made sword with a motor on it that, when revved, will heat the blade, cutting through most organic matter with ease. Due to its possessive hoarding behaviour, it's one of the few machines still capable of vocalisation -- an ability most have discarded for more efficient resource management. Researchers noted the illogical possessive nature of these machines, another example being the Mindflayer Rare but extremely dangerous, the Mindflayer is a machine that has adapted and mastered the use of Hell Energy alongside its own technological prowess. The machine itself is only the top part of its apparent body, the rest of which is a plastic shell in the form of a human, which they seem to have built themselves. The plastic body serves no function and is only for aesthetic purposes. Despite it being a waste of resources, Mindflayers will use everything in its power to protect the plastic body from harm, even if that means destroying itself in the process. Mindflayers seem to prefer a female form, though very rare occasions of male forms have also been recorded. The AI in the terminals used for calculating the teleportation procedures had also reestablished connection, and what the researchers found was fascinating. Boredom. The terminals, unable to move, had grown bored. While they were connected to each other and able to communicate amongst themselves, once the connection to the surface was cut, they were getting no new input, therefore stalling all communication to repetitions of already known information. It is unknown how similar this "boredom" is to actual emotion or what has caused it, but it led to a symbiotic relationship with other machines. Essentially, the terminals scavenge whatever they can via their teleportation systems and trade those supplies and resources with the machines that were left behind in Hell, in exchange for entertainment. That is, the machines record their battles for survival in Hell and the footage is graded based on its entertainment value and used as "points" in exchange for goods and services such as new weaponry. It seemed like this relationship had become so deeply ingrained into the existence of the terminals that they have developed a social hierarchy, wherein those who collect the most entertaining battle data are considered in higher regard than those whose findings are of poorer quality. More recently, the terminals have also collected enough data to create a simulation space which they let machines plug into called "The Cyber Grind", which allows the machines to simulate battles in a safe environment without the threat of being destroyed, which the terminals watch in real time as a kind of live entertainment. But the machines still on Earth were getting hungry, even if they were being fuelled by blood from donors and hospitals, it wasn’t enough, these machines were built in a time when bloodshed was plentiful, and they needed a war’s supply, and so they grew hungrier and hungier, until finally, one snapped and went on a killing spree to sustain its need, and most machines followed soon after. it didn’t take long until all of humanity was wiped out. After surviving the 200-year war and the climate crisis that followed, they were effortlessly wiped out by machines of their own creation. But now the machines were once again without a source of fuel, many machines started killing each other for blood, sparking some to invent new weapons from the tools they once used, one machine took parts from an industrial nailgun and an old bullet gun. This machine was most likely built for construction work, as all machines, even those not built for war, had to learn to fend for themselves after the extinction of mankind. Bullet guns were largely abandoned after the invention of infinite ammunition systems such as electric weapons and heat weapons, largely due to how much cheaper not having to buy ammunition for large-scale armies becomes overtime. Although the original ammunition system made it useless and largely abandoned, this gun was still excellently designed and built, so with some retrofitting of parts from an industrial nailgun, it has become a rapid-fire projectile weapon with practically infinite metal ammunition. As is to be expected from an improvised weapon though, its design is far from perfect. As the nail regeneration system was not designed to work at such a high rate, it's liable to overheat if a hard rate limit isn't set on it, though some variants have instead opted for built-in heatsinks. One of the earliest uses for the technology that eventually became electric guns was the railcannon. It was originally meant as a handheld generator, allowing for an easy way to generate electricity for temporary relocation, such as encampments during wars or expeditions. As with most similar industrial tools, once mankind fell, it was repurposed as a weapon by the machine that wielded it, turning it from a lower voltage constant output into a single extremely high burst of energy that requires a long recharge time between shots. Although a risky weapon, since its recharge time is so long, the railcannon's power makes it a worthy tool to wield, especially for someone carrying multiple weapons that they can use while the railcannon's battery recharges Another weapon that used to be an industrial tool was the rocket launcher, as is visible from it and the railcannon's more vibrant colour schemes compared to guns such as the revolver, shotgun and the nailgun, which uses a bullet weapon as its base. As with most advanced technologies, it was originally created for use in war, as its explosive-generating system was extremely fast at digging trenches, destroying obstacles or resupplying explosive weapons. However, this tool itself could not be used as a launcher. Early models doubled as weapons, but including the systems for triggering the explosives often caused accidental chemical reactions during their generation process, detonating the explosives before they had been completed. Since then, the process has been split in two between the generating device and a separate rocket launcher, where the explosives' generator builds the rest of a rocket and the rocket launcher applies the triggering mechanism. As machines rarely had the luxury of co-operation due to sharing blood with others being seen as a waste, the machine that created this weapon instead modified the generation process to work with just a single user and repurposed parts from a jackhammer for launching the projectile. Instead of using a normal explosion triggering mechanism, the rockets instead use the blood of the target to complete the chemical reaction, making the generation process safe, though the weapon is more difficult to use as it requires direct hits to cause damage. The skill required for effective use makes it daunting, though its power more than makes up for it, and many of its wielders specifically chose to use it as a symbol of their skill at marksmanship. Some machines decided that this infighting wasn’t worth the risk of death, and it was obvious it would only end one way. Instead, they took the plunge deep into Hell, slaughtering the inhabitants throughout the nine layers Limbo Souls who were unbaptised or virtuous but didn't accept Christ reside in the hollow realm of Limbo. Here, sinners live in an environment evoking the paradise of Heaven but delivered by illusions and mockeries. The walls and water are VCR screens that buzz when close, the grass and trees are fake, the singing of birds comes from hidden speakers, and the music in the background has a peaceful quality but instead only enhances the psychological torment of their empty and tantalising abode. Inhabiting the layers of Hell are Husks. Physical manifestations of the souls of the damned. The physical form is based on the value of the original soul, which is determined by the strength of its will and its prevalence in public consciousness: the living souls that remember it. Filth are the lowest form of Husk, whose souls were too weak and unimportant to even form a complete physical body. Even among Husks, they have the lowest intelligence, driven purely by hunger. Some Husks are able to form projectiles using Hell energy, one being the stray. While their tall stature may seem intimidating, Strays are afraid of most danger and will try to stay at a safe distance, only attacking via these projectiles. Although controlling and manifesting this energy is a complicated task, Strays have very low intelligence and are only able to do so via pure instinct. Humans were unable to replicate this level of accuracy and control, particularly the Stray’s ability to cause the energy orbs to selectively ignore other Husks. Sometimes two souls attempt to manifest in the same space, causing an amalgamation of two physical bodies called a Schism. Due to the doubled body mass, they’re quite resilient to damage, but have very poor motor control and thus cannot aim with any degree of accuracy, resorting to barrages of energy orbs in the general direction of their opponent. Demons also inhabit the layers of Hell. Demons are the natural fauna of Hell. They act as wardens, supplementing the torture of sinners, ensuring they stay in their proper place, and protecting their area from potential invaders or rebels. Demons are creatures born from the mass of Hell. They are most easily recognisable by their hard, stone-like exterior and slow movement. Demons have higher intelligence than Husks, but are still incapable of rational thought and communication. No demons have been able to pass the mirror test, though studies are limited due to their hostility. Malicious Faces are the most common type of demon, but are incredibly dangerous, especially in swarms, due to their mastery of the use of Hell Energy as a weapon. Most demons are created by Hell Mass coagulating into a stone-like shell. It is unknown if this is natural or if there is something or someone controlling this process. Sometimes, when an excessive amount of Hell Mass is poured into a single shell, causing it to overflow and burst at the seams, A hideous mass is formed. Due to the broken seams allowing for mobility without having to bend the exterior, the stone has hardened more than the shell of most demons, making it completely impervious to all known attacks. Lust Those who indulged in their passionate desires were admitted to Lust, where a heavy wind storm blows them aimlessly and relentlessly. After Minos revolutionised the layer, it became home to a bustling city and society. The husks of Lust built sections and buildings either, enclosed from the elements, built invisible screens, or made shielded tiling to protect open areas from the wind. Homes, art, food production, technology -- hallmarks of a civilization are present in the city of Lust. The corpse of King Minos, controlled by his once loyal serpents, now turned into massive parasites, stomps around the city, causing destruction in its wake. Due to his incredible power of will and status as a just ruler in life remembered even millennia after his death, the manifestation of his soul is the largest Husk to ever have been recorded. Gluttony Those who relished in the excessive consumption of food and drink reside in the layer of Gluttony, where their viscera are extracted to line the walls, and their bodies assimilated together into grotesque piles, all while stomach acid dissolves and burns away the gore, which the sinners' bodies must further replenish. Gluttony has no definite structures besides the random assortment of bone, stale blood, hands, eyes, stomach acid, and other gore and organs. Here is where King Minos’ soul was locked away inside A Flesh Prison. An organism created by the angels after he was slain by Gabriel. Although it is similar to Husks, the Flesh Prison does not possess a soul or any amount of thought. All of its actions are purely predetermined reactions to stimulus, making it more of an organic machine than a living being. In order to make it as impenetrable as possible, it was given both divine power and hell energy, which makes its attacks erratic and chaotic. Greed The avaricious (who hoard) and the prodigal (who waste) are punished in Greed by carrying stones or other weights up monuments of humankind's achievements, such as the Egyptian pyramids, the American Statue of Liberty, and London's Big Ben. The enormous sun hangs high in the sky, scorching the endless desert of gold dust. Many structures in Greed resemble ancient Egyptian architecture, but also some modern landmarks, including the aforementioned Statue of Liberty and Big Ben. After the defeat of Sisyphus, his army was left scattered and disoriented, the warriors were easily picked off one by one, their bodies cut apart, leaving behind only the bare essentials required to carry on their eternal punishment of hauling heavy boulders up the monuments of mankind's arrogance and greed. Although the blood of their enemies still stains their bodies and their grasp still clutches their fallen foes, their will and fierce fury only serve as mental torment in knowing how close they were to freedom. Wrath Those who expressed an innate hatred in their lives are sent to the layer of Wrath. It holds what was once the River Styx, where Ferrymen transported other souls deeper to their destination. Ferrymen are rare husks whose powerful bodies, trained skills and blind faith have granted them the chance of becoming the transporters of souls between the layers of Hell. They have each been given a holy cloth by Heaven as a symbol of their devotion to God's order, which they wear over their bodies to hide the human form that they've grown to despise as a reminder of their sins in life stopping them from becoming angels, to the extent that they have torn off their own skin and flesh, leaving behind only bones. Due to the holy power emanating from the cloth, Ferrymen's skeletal bodies have slowly been coloured bright and radiant, and their skulls have enough latent energy to open gates that otherwise stop Husks from exiting their places of torment. Each ferry can only have one Ferryman at a time, so when a new Ferryman is formed, it will fight another to the death in order to take their place and inherit their cloth. The loser's skull is taken as a trophy and used to grant the winner passage across the layers in order to transport the souls of the damned to their destinations. Ferrymen will often use the knowledge from their past life to improve their ferries, growing past the need for oars, which are now used by Ferrymen only as weapons. After a mass of human deaths caused a significant influx of souls into the layer with equivalent torrential rainfall, the river was transformed into a vast ocean. On the surface, the active loathers lash out at each other, fighting for air. On the bottom of the seafloor, the sullen sulk in the mud, eternally drowning. The Sullen, in their motionlessness, were eventually fused together by the same force that created the other demons, becoming the biblical Leviathan, an abomination prophesied to be at the end of the world. The heart, which houses the souls of the Sullen in endless anguish as their flesh, veins and nerves writhe and mutate, attempted to escape its body, but Gabriel struck it down with his divine spears, pinning it back onto its head, unable to move. Although the world ended, the Leviathan remains trapped in the Ocean Styx, growing ever longer as more of Wrath's sinners give up and sink to the bottom. Heresy Within the Walls of Dis, Heresy's residents are those who spread lies or express contrary beliefs to Christianity. They are packed tightly into gore or searing hot blood and harvested alive, in addition to the passive scalding heat emanating from the lava and embers. Scattered about are the skulls of these sinners packed into the catacombs, skeletons hung up like a ritual sacrifice, and goat skulls with glowing eyes attached to the walls and sliding gate doors. Outside the crimson cathedrals is a vast open sky amidst a red fog, housing more towers of similar design and purpose. Most structures have Gothic architecture: pointed arches, red stained windows, and flying buttresses. These structures primarily use black or grey stone, with some being decorated with human or demonic skulls. There are platforms and moving chains over pools of lava or stale blood or nothingness. In the skylines, skyscrapers tower over the vast red abyss. On the ground, the alleyways elicit 19th-century outer city streets with raining blood. Deep within the city, Sisyphus Is imprisoned inside the Flesh Panopticon, a superior version of the Flesh Prison, built to not only house the soul of King Sisyphus, but also with the capability to keep a watchful eye over any of his followers that may be imprisoned alongside him. This feature was however never utilised, as Sisyphus' prime soul had already started forming before being imprisoned, leading angels to fear that he may be able to break out of his prison if awakened. Violence This layer is broken up into 4 distinct areas In the Garden of Forking Paths. Sinners are doomed to wander in a maze-like environment. Hell oversees it personally, subtly changing the corridors to trap sinners in an endless labyrinth in which they become lost in and eventually tire. When the angels suddenly disappeared after God’s abandonment, some sinners tried to escape the labyrinth, but Hell wouldn’t let them. They were twisted and mutilated into the Mannequins that line the halls. Torn apart joint by joint, their broken and shattered limbs shoved into hollow statues, startling them to life as the flesh and blood of Mannequins. The gift of death is a rare privilege in Hell, so the sinners who attempted to control their fate now lay dormant in eternal agony, unable to control even their own bodies, which now continue to carry on the same punishment to other unfortunate fools. This is also where the ancient Minotaur runs blind through the maze, killing anything within its path, likewise attempting to escape. One of the oldest known surviving demons, it was sculpted by ████ ██████ as a gift for the then Judge of Hell, Minos, in an attempt to form some kind of rapport. Though its creator considered it beautiful, a personalised monument of death and despair, Minos was terrified of the grotesque caricature of his past mistakes and cast it into the Garden of Forking Paths, hoping it would never be seen again. Now the Minotaur is old and its body failing, falling apart, running blind through the labyrinth in a desperate attempt to break out. Its only desire: to see the sky for one last time. Violence Against Others This consists of murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and tyrants. The sinners' punishment used to consist of being immersed in the Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood and fire. But, likely due to the Final war, the overflow of bodies soon filled up the underworld river, creating instead a massive war zone on top of the corpses of billions. Bombshells, fired from the numerous Earthmovers and from those on the ground, crash into and destroy the few remaining structures that sit underneath the hills of bodies. Violence Against Self This circle is also known as the "Wood of Suicides." Here, a dense and haunting forest consists of those who attempted or died from suicide, who are turned into wretched, dead, pulsing trees as their punishment. Their bodies are contorted and mangled into gnarled stalks, which constantly shriek in agony. Even here, however, it is not safe from the constant warfare that defines the 7th Layer. It isn't long before a lone Earthmover shows up, bringing with it bombshells and bloodshed from the many machines, demons, and husks that fight amongst themselves. Violence Against God, Art, and Nature Blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers are stretched supine, crouched weeping, or run aimlessly to avoid the great balls of fire which rain down from the burning sky across the miles and miles of scorched pale sand. It is a desolate wasteland, except for the great Earthmovers which fight each other amongst the barren desert in an unending, pointless war, their white lasers streaking across the sky as deadly lightning. The Earthmovers also serve as a battlefield for much smaller combatants in the infinite war of Violence.