Danny had continued his halfhearted search of the.library. there was a loud smack that resounded in the massive room, however, that made him jump high. He almost called out for Lucian, his pride crumbling in the face of fear, but was saved a small shred of dignity when the demon called for him instead. Hearing no alarm or warning tones in the devils voice, Danny concluded he had been the one to make the thump.

He hadn't gotten lost, inly straying a few shelves back from the door, and after heading in the direction Lucian had first gone it was easy enough to find the male. "Danny." He corrected once again. "Its not Danny boy. Its Danny. What did you find?"

“Hm. Well, Danny-boy, looks like you can get into the levels without being sealed away forever. I’ll have to bring you in, though, you can’t get in yourself.” Lucian picked up the book and walked back to where he’d gotten it. “If you’re killed, you won’t be dead... forever.” He continued. “You’ll eventually regenerate. Won’t be comfortable, though. The keys also exist, no doubt about that. But they’re not just scattered randomly, someone will have it with them.” He climbed up the ladder and pushed the book back into its place, sliding down the ladder and back to Danny. “So, in the light of this new information, you ready to possibly be gored, killed, stabbed, whipped, drowned, cut, crushed, strangled, burned, or anything in between?”

"Danny." The male insisted, before listening quietly. Once the demon was done he groaned. "Yeah. Why not? May as well get used to it. Ill be back in a while anyway..." The human grumbled, clearly not happy with the way things were steering him. "So..someone will have the keys. We have to fight? Or can we like trick them out of it? And how are we going to get into the first circle?"

“Whatever. I don’t take names as they are.” Lucian growled. “We’d better not figure out a plan or anything. Seeing as things here are completely unpredictable. The only thing I’m pretty sure about is Cerberus having one of the keys. Now, c’mon.” Lucian urged Danny forward, and they went deeper into the library. “The entrance to the dungeons is in the back of this room.” He said. “We’ve got a long walk downstairs.”

The darkness got a little deeper as they passed the many bookcases and tables. Two massive, dark red candles sat on either side of an exceptionally tall door made of dark steel and iron. Lucian stepped forward and put both hands on either side of the door. After a moment, the metal hissed angrily, sending tendrils of smoke up and into the air, as the door itself broke a seal that ran down the middle and opened with a breath of cold air. “There we go.” Lucian pushed the door open all the way and shook his hands. “Hot.” He muttered. “Well, c’mon, the faster we get to the entrances, the faster I get you out of my hair.” He leapt into the darkness, starting down the stairs without worrying about Danny following along.

The human rolled his eyes at the devil, but obeyed, following Lucian through the room. As they moved, Danny could swear the dark room got darker. But that was kinda impossible...wasn't it? There weren't windows, and there was barely any lighting.

The door opened strangely, Lucian pressing against the door. Danny stepped back as it opened, and stared blankly at the devil as he spoke. Then Lucian was gone, and with a sigh Danny fumbled down the stairs in the darkness. He was trying to keep up, but it was like the devil had grown wings. Soon, however, Danny was doing alright, having learned how steep the stairs were as well as their width. He sped up a bit.

They reached a landing every twelve steps. A lantern hung from a peg on the wall from there, every landing, so the darkness wouldn’t become complete. Lucian often lost count of how many staircases he went down, and this time was no exception. After a while, he didn’t even remember how long they’d been moving deeper into the cavernous dungeons, the basements of Lucifer’s spire. Before complete dizziness had set in, though, Lucian noticed the dark had become less notable, and a fiery glint came around the corner of the last two staircases. They came from two small, iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of a wide, rounded room, where eight similar doors resided, twenty feet away from one another. “Looks like we made it.” Lucian said. His voice echoed among the stone walls and ceiling.

Glad for the lanterns that cut into the darkness as they moved, Danny continued on. He wasn't sure how long they travelled, though it seemed impossible for any building to be this big. When they reached the end, Danny found himself out of breath, standing a bit behind the demon. His hands on his knees, he glared at the demon. "That's a torture in itself..."

When he finally straightened, Danny glanced around the bare room curiously. This was it? Simple enough, he supposed. "Alright....well...which should we go into first?"

“Which one!?” Lucian turned to stare at him for a moment. “Are you an idiot? We go in order of course!” He leapt forward, moving to the door farthest to the left. The etching on the tall door was of a man on his knees, hiding his face as though in sorrow. “Limbo.” He said. “Now, none of these doors actually lead to the levels. Behind the door is a... A portal, in a way. It sweeps you up and throws you into the location of the door you opened.” He glanced back, placing his hands on the door. “You ready, or what?”

"Of course I'm not stupid. Why must we go in order?" Danny retorted, shaking his head. As Lucian moved closer to the door, Danny mimicked him, touching the etchings gently. "Limbo...no tortures, just sadness." The human glanced to the devil for conformation, making sure he was correct. "Yeah, I guess I'm as ready as I will ever be."

“Yep, Limbo’s just an endless field, dotted with shadows. Peaceful, but sad.” Lucian fell silent, concentration focused mainly on opening the door to the first level of Hell. “Come on.” He muttered. “C’mon.” The iron door started smoking, much like the entrance to the chamber had. Instead of splitting down the middle, it split in four ways, down the middle diagonally and horizontally. They receded into the wall, unveiling a pale whirlwind. Lucian shook his hands. “There we go.” He said. “Jump in.”

Danny was silent, watching Lucian open the door. He peered at the whirlwind it revealed doubtfully. Urging from the demon pushed Danny into stepping through it however.

Lucian leapt in right after Danny, swept off his feet as though the ground were moving a hundred miles an hour. But he didn’t hit the floor, however, he continued falling. The portal was pretty rough, even for the most experienced of demon or devil, not like the portals that were conjured to bring a demon to the world of the living.

He landed, hard, on prickly grass. The gray wind dispersed, leaving Lucian to scramble to his feet near Danny, and glance around. Limbo was quiet, a dusk-toned sky resting a little brighter than that of the general underworld. Old, faded, gnarled trees dotted the landscape, casting inky shadows everywhere as the sad, lost souls wandered, sat, or rested. No one spoke, or made much of a sound, other than the general movement of their bodies or deep sighs of a sadness never felt in life. “Here we are.” Lucian said quietly. “The technical first level of Hell, Limbo.”

Danny felt very battered once he finally hit the ground hard. The wind had torn at him and beat him with the screaming blasts. The human felt sick when it was over. Hurting, Danny laid on the ground, retching for a moment. Nothing came up, however, and within a few minutes, Danny was pushing himself up to his unsteady feet.

Once on his feet, Danny peered around. Maybe it was because he was human, but the sadness felt here gripped him tightly. He shivered, glancing to Lucian. "I...lets just hurry up..." He whispered.

Lucian watched him for a moment. The weight of the first level had taken its toll already, it seemed. “C’mon, I think I know where the key is.” Lucian started forward, pulling Danny along. “This is the only time it’ll probably not be in the possession of someone, rather than something.” The grass crunched lightly under their feet as they passed the moping agnostics, the philosophers, the atheists. Sometimes, the trees creaked as they moved, trying to reach those who passed by but failing and returning to their place with a sad rustle.

Danny followed Lucian, hanging his head. He hadn't even jumped when a tree bent, its twigs shaking as it reached towards the pair. The pallor he passed seemed just as interesting. Lucian spoke, and Danny simply stared at him. He sighed softly, and answered just as quietly. "Where will it be then?"

“Up there.” Lucian pointed to a hill in the immediate distance, where a massive tree, gnarled and burnt in appearance, stood with roots twisted like giant snakes. “The tree of lost prayers. Often the ones lost here suddenly wish to believe in what they refused to, or didn’t want to, and try to send prayers to rescue them. They’re all lost, though, gathered on paper that hangs from the branches of the tree. Every year the tree grows more as more and more people come here and wish to repent and leave this place. The key will most likely hang among the solidified prayers.”

Danny listened quietly, nodding and viewing the tree. "So it will be near the top?" He questioned, wanting verification. He continued to move towards the tree. "I wanna get out of here as soon as possible. Lets hurry..."

Lucian shook his head. "I wouldn't say where it is in the tree. We'll have to look through all the branches. It'll be a silver thing, untarnished. Easy to spot in the black bark and dark brown slips of paper." They had started up the hill, using surface roots to get a foothold without falling. Sometimes one of the wandering would look to them and try to follow, but would lose interest in a listless sigh that sent them back down to go on about their business.

Danny grunted and followed along, tugging on the tree to help hoist himself. "Shouldn't be too hard..." He muttered every now and then. "Not all the level will be this easy, will they? I'm not...not looking forward to the fights. Besides the giant dog, who else do you think we'll have to fight?"

“Probably the Furies.” Lucian said, lifting himself up and onto the tree’s branches, moving aside the useless, unanswered prayers of millions, over countless years, the beginning of man. “Demons, harpies. We’ll need to avoid being captured and imprisoned, falling into fire pits, pelted by fiery asteroids or burned by the flaming sands of the deserts beside the forest of the suicides. The rivers will pull us under, boil us alive sometimes, the Centaurs will throw their arrows at us if we get too near. Devils will want to grab us for their own uses, entertained by our misery and pain. We’ll need to watch out for everything after this level.” He turned one of the hanging prayers around. He could understand its faded words: Lord, please let me out of here... I’ll be good, I promise... Please, please, let me out.

“Oh, not to mention the second-level hurricanes.” Lucian snapped his fingers, as though he’d forgotten. “The winds have a mind of their own. But we’d be tossed into the ocean, we’re not light enough to be easily battered about. In the water, we’ll face... what the living call mermaids. They’re recognizable as such, but vicious and ugly.”

Danny followed along quietly, listening with one ear. He made much slower progress than his companion, pausing to read various prayers. He wanted to know, but it wouldn't do any good to whine or complain. "The mermaids....how will we fight them in the water?" He finally asked quietly, pausing nest to another prayer. He viewed the paper sadly, then glanced upwards. "At least you'll be safe from the demons, right?"

He paused for the answer, and continued, his voice still barely reaching above a whisper. "All these prayers, all these people....they never get out? Ever? It seems like after a certain amount of time, people learn their lesson...."

(I'm sorry it's been so long. I finally got some stuff straightened out.)