Staircases shattered…
Some tried to cling to the edges of the intact stairs…
Letting himself drop, Inezeya sat on the staircase below. Smoke engulfed everywhere. It still rained blood.
"Damn…"
The battleship moved away. Smoking from crashing into the stairs, it wrecked far in the distance…
A massive explosion occurred behind him…
It was far to reach him. Sitting on the same stair, he watched around. His eyes filled with solemnity. Voices screaming in agony echoed from everywhere.
As the smoke lifted, the dim environment was illuminated by a faint red light. Below the staircases shouted people with joy.
"Face your pain…"
Standing up, he glided down. Inezeya drifted between staircases. As he descended, they coldly stared at him. Missing some body parts, all were wounded and drenched in blood. Anyone missed an eye, hands, feet, arms, legs, torsos or all together…
Gliding down deeper, shouts began to become intelligible.
Mist and smoke filled the depths.
Everywhere was illuminated in intense red. He proceeded in silence.
Within the smoke, silhouettes reached out their hands, blocking his path.
He kept moving forward.
The silhouettes vanished…
The shouts became understandable...
"TORTURE!! TORTURE!! TORTURE!! TORTURE!!"
As he walked forward, the smoke lifted slowly.
Roars of screams, whips, fires and waterfalls were deafening.
As the smoke cleared, before him, his tortured selves appeared upon the complex labyrinth of stairs. None screamed among them. Stifling their pain violently, they breathed heavily.
Solemnity on Inezeya's face deepened. Emptiness filled his eyes. Without making any sound, he walked calmly among his tortured selves…
One hung from the stairs to his right. His arms, legs, and torso were bound by ropes. A multitude of whips struck his body violently. Wounds covered his body.
"Whoosh-Shwack!"
Glancing to the left, another was tied to a column. Snakes were biting him from every side. His body was riddled with tiny holes…
Passing beneath a staircase, scorching coals covered its surface. With his writs tied together by chains, another was being dragged over the coals, scraping harshly against them. Burns and bleeding lacerations covered his body.
A massive waterfall flowed before him. The stairs spiraled around the cascade. As he approached, the cold of the waterfall intensified violently. Snow began to fall. Inside the waterfall, someone was stuck to the irons of an iron scaffold. He was constantly pulled between the stairs flanking the waterfall.
Just before drowning, he was pulled from the water. After he slightly gasped for breath, he was dragged back into the torrent. The water crashed directly onto his face.
When he leaped to another stair, visible in his right corner, an Inezeya lay on his back in a toppled wooden chair. His body was bound to the chair with ropes. Swords pierced his hands and feet, pinning his body and the blades to the ground. Blood flowed from the cuts. His mouth was forced open with ropes. Boiling oil dripped slowly into it. Tears dribbled from his eyes.
Down to his left stood a deep stone well. Its walls and bottom were encrusted with jagged glass shards. The well was narrow. An Inezeya sat inside, knees drawn up to his chest with hands resting on them. His body was riddled with small cuts. Lost in thought, he gazed at the glimmering glass.
"It will last for days again…"
The well was knocked.
"Tuk-Tuk!"
Taking deep breaths, Inezeya hurriedly covered his face with his hands.
Shards of glass poured down upon him...
Cutting into his flesh…
As Inezeya descended the stairs, dense hot smoke enveloped him.
When the smoke cleared, a volcanic mountain stood before him.
The stairs extended to its crater. He climbed it.
Over the volcanic crater an elevator operated horizontally.
As he boarded the elevator, it began to move.
In the upper right corner of the cabin was a winch mechanism. It was in use. The floor hatch on the right had opened. A protective barrier had risen on the left to prevent the occupant from falling into the lava. The tip of the winch dangled toward the bubbling magma. An Inezeya clad in iron armor was tightly bound to it, mere inches from the lava. The intensely heated armor and the vapors of the lava burned his skin. His sweat dripped into the magma.
"Glop-Glub… Phhsss"
Crossing to the other side, whistling he pulled the mechanism's lever.
The winch hoisted up. Upon reaching the top, the floor closed. The armored Inezeya was saved…
As Inezeya moved away, the armored one failed to escape the crane's hook.
The mechanism sprang back to life…
He was dangled down…
Walking amidst the scenes of torture, a massive glass sphere hung in the crimson sky. Inside stood a circular forge. Its walls, floor, and ceiling reflected like mirrors. In furnaces on every side, iron skewers heated until glowing red.
An Inezeya lay bound by leather straps to an oval, chair-like table in the center. As the fluid from a syringe plunged into his chest entered his body, he began to tremble violently, clenching his teeth in agony.
A blacksmith seized a glowing red skewer and slowly drove it through the man's legs, arms, and then his torso. Once the skewer cooled, he removed it, returned it to the furnace, and continued the torture with a fresh, burning one.
Inezeya proceeded up the stairs. Rain drizzled. Two snowy mountains appeared before him. The stairs wound intricately between the mountains. Everywhere was still filled with torture.
Beyond the snowy mountains, a white landscape stretched beneath the staircase. Buried inside a snowdrift lay a figure. Chains anchored him to the ground by his neck, torso, arms, and legs. Metal clamps forced his eyelids apart and kept them fixed. Rain shifted between heavy downpours and light drizzles. It rained into his defenseless eyes. His eyes looked like pools of blood, his lips remained cracked, and his body appeared as mere skin and bones.
Inezeya gathered snow from the ground. He warmed it slightly in his hand. Gently parting the lying figure's cracked lips, he let drops of water trickle in. Upon spotting footprints and drag marks nearby, he rose to follow the trail.
Mist rose. Rain sprinkled the snow, leaving marks. Inezeya moved forward. The tracks became indistinct... A towering mountain appeared in the distance. Before reaching it, his child form whose arms chained to a coffin emerged slowly from the mist. His eyes appeared empty and emotionless. The skin beneath his eyes appeared wrinkled and sunken. Inezeya walked toward the child... He embraced him and stroked his head.
"I'm proud of You, You're a real man."
The child shed tears.
Inezeya smiled.
"Nothing is your fault. Just stay strong and smile, Warrior. Promise me."
The child nodded in agreement.
The mist subsided. The crimson sky cleared. Suddenly, a massive mouth gaped open in the mountain beside them. Saliva dripped from its teeth. It appeared to be an exit.
A red-haired version of him sat atop a tree, hair spiked upward. To make a hand sign, he tucked his thumb into his palm. He clasped his ring finger over the thumb, and his pinky over the ring finger. He bent his middle finger inward and slightly curved his index finger.
Entering the giant mouth, Inezeya turned his head back to the child. He touched the index and middle fingers of his left hand to his temple, casting them toward the sky in a salute.
"See you around buddy."
The mouth closed slowly. The massive tongue shoved Inezeya into the gullet. He slid down through the saliva-filled tube.