The Inferno

The light bombarded John causing him to scrunch his eyes closed. After a moment or two he was able to open his eyes. The previously well-illuminated club was now filled with lasers, and light shows, with smoke machines billowing throughout the club to allow beams of light to move in all directions. He could feel vibrations pounding against his chest over and over again and couldn’t help but feel lucky that Ellie’s earplugs worked so well.

The club was now filled with people of all kinds, every booth was occupied and the dance stage was awash with people dancing and grinding on each other. The bar staff were clambering over and between each other in order to keep up with demand at the bar. Luckily there was one place that wasn’t filled with people, and that was the square plinth they had entered on. Still taking in the now bustling club, John was yanked by the wrist, not hard but with enough **** to pull him out of his scrutinising of the surroundings.

Robin pulled both John and Ellie out of the club and into a street John didn’t recognise. Once the door closed behind him, Robin motioned for the two to remove their earplugs, which they did. Surprisingly the booming of the club was silenced.

John looked around at all the tall bright buildings and couldn’t help but be reminded of the images he’d seen of Tokyo. There were signs of all kinds, though the majority seemed to be neon which flashed in order to draw your attention. There were also large displays which showed advertisements on them. There was nothing in Springfield even remotely like the place John now stood in.

The road was strangely lacking cars. The only vehicle he could see was a small tourist train with several cars which was coming towards him from the right; people were hopping onto the cars and hopping off as they moved. It was something John recognised from vacations he’d taken with his mother in the past.

In the other direction was a truck moving so slowly that pedestrians were passing it on foot. There was no cab or driver's seat; instead, it was like a 360-degree bar, all around it was a counter with seats and in the centre was a chef currently preparing food. Above on the second level of the truck was a much fancier seating area. John couldn’t tell how you’d get up there or how you’d order or receive food, but there were several people currently seated and eating. On the side of the truck, there was an image of a neon boar with a fish in its mouth, as well as the name “Boar Bites Sushi”.

“Oh hey, this is what I was talking about earlier. See the boar on that food truck? That is a service that’s technically between Pride and Gluttony. It’s a little more unique than most other places that are between Sins. Either way, it’s a great example, so basically, so long as you are either sitting at the bar or you’re in the VIP section at the top, you’re permitted to indulge in the aspect of that sin, in this case: gluttony,” Robin explained.

“Indulge in the aspect of that sin?” Ellie asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah, each sin has its own rules, there are rules across the sins like: don’t use magic in unsanctioned areas, or no pickpocketing, or the one that matters to this conversation: no indulging in sins that don't correspond to the one you are on. So for example, you aren’t allowed to start a fistfight on Pride, you’d either have to go to Wrath or find a place between Pride and Wrath, or the Bouncers will be called and you’ll have to deal with them,” Robin answered.

“Why don’t they just have it as a free-for-all? Like, just have the rules per club or whatever? Wouldn’t that be easier than having to enforce a special ruling across seven different areas?” Ellie questioned.

Robin sighed, then grabbed John and Ellie’s hands, slowly leading them through the street. “Well, I can’t exactly explain that. I’m not the one who created this place. But it does make sense to have each separate and it makes things easier allowing places to be between sins. You can only see a small portion of it around us but Pride on its own is massive. I couldn’t even really tell you how massive it is, because I’ve barely explored the place.” Robin straightened up and his eyes widened for a second. “Oh, I just remembered, as well as the Sin symbols that you will see denoting which establishment is between or has connections to another Sin, some places will have a plaque that tells you that the place is an entrance and exit, like on The Seven Circles of Hell, there’s a sign that tells you that it links to Springfield.”

“What’s with the hand holding?” John asked, chuckling a little.

“We need to head down to Envy, so I’m leading the way. And even though I know you’re more than safe, not going to get lost and that there are rules against **** and stuff, especially for people with the bands you have, I don’t want to take that chance. Around here you’re only one wrong turn to get to a shady area, and by shady I mean Abyssal shady which is multitudes shadier than what you know from your mundane lives. Don’t worry, I will teach you how to navigate the Sins once we’ve been to Envy.”

A twinge of worry entered John and he unintentionally tightened his grip on Robin’s hand, which earned him a smile and a wink from his friend. Robin’s concern was unfounded, though there were plenty of people walking up and down the streets, the trio were able to easily walk without having to dodge around people.

’Huh, I wonder how bad my migraine would be if I switched to my draconic eyes right now. This place is super bright and I haven’t looked at a neon sign while using my other eyes. Bet I’d probably last like a couple of seconds at the most before sensory overload was too much,’ he thought, looking up and around at the illuminated signs and billboards as he was dragged along. He took note of the sky; the oranges and purples above him told him it must be twilight, and that even without the countless lights above him, the street would be more than bright enough to navigate with just the natural light of the sky.

The sound of nightlife boomed and silenced all around him. Any time a door opened the sound of crowds and music would emanate almost hitting John like a wave, but once the door closed silence would return at least from that source. As they walked John heard music and crowds that had a large range, not only the style and genre of music or the mood of the crowd but also how large each source sounded, some sounded like stadiums, while others sounded like dive bars with small and intimate crowds.

Robin eventually picked up speed. “Hey, I bet you’d like to see this,” he said, smiling.

At the end of the strip, it seemed that the buildings began to spread and John could see a big-top type roof between the clubs. Getting closer, it seemed that the big-top was a canopy which was suspended in the air above a large hole which looked like it had been gouged from the floor. A glass railing circled the hole, though John watched as someone jumped over the railing, allowing brown wings to unfurl as they fell.

Reaching the railing, John was stunned into silence. After a few metres of dirt and stone, it just fell away. Beneath him was another city, much different from the one he’d been walking through. Beneath him was what looked like markets and stalls as well as larger buildings which had names written in large letters and advertisements for products everywhere.

The thing he took note of most though was the identical hole in the centre of his view. It fell down to another city, which also had a hole in the middle, and seemed to be surrounded by food trucks. The city below that one was harder to see and he couldn’t quite make out anything. There didn’t seem to be a hole in the centre of that one though, just a large pool of water.

John couldn’t pick his jaw up from the floor, it was an extremely surreal sight, like looking into an infinity mirror or something. Each floor had advertisements in order to entice John down to each one and the names of the Sins were clearly posted in several places on the railings.

“Pretty trippy, right? Try looking up,” Robin suggested, nudging the two.

Looking up to where the canopy should be, they found a hole in the sky. John’s eyes were immediately drawn to the level above; stripper poles and dancing cages lined the ring above them, women and men dancing and beckoning John up to Lust. Surprisingly, the circle above that one managed to be bright and eye-catching enough that he could pry his eyes away for a moment. Around the edge of the hole above were signs for casinos, betting offices, arcades, memberships to this or that.

Above that were screens that showed cage matches, demolition derbies, advertisements for gyms and different kinds of training. Broken and bloodied weapons and armour were attached to the rails between each of the screens and billboards, bringing imagery of the raiders from Fallout to mind.

“Oh, come this way so you can see the elevator,” Robin said, pulling the two around the railing. As they moved around, several large glass tubes came into view, with clear elevators that travelled up and down between the gaping holes in each of the cities. Despite the elevators, there were still several people travelling between each of the holes by themselves, showing John more than a couple methods of flying.

“There are quite a few places like this in The Inferno. They allow you to look between the layers, but they also allow you to travel between them if you don’t have a particular destination. I’ve used this as a method to travel between Sins before but I’ll be honest I prefer to find a bar or something that is linked to the other layers. If we headed straight down, we’d end up in the domestic district, that area in particular is like a big food market, they get a lot of business from Gluttony below. We need to go to The Hanging Gardens in the District of Life, as well as Lock and Key in the Arcane Smith District,” Robin explained.

He turned, grabbed the couples’ hands again, and dragged them to their left, away from the area they’d come from as well as moving away from the hole and elevators. “We don’t actually need to go into The Hanging Gardens though, there just so happens to be a bar close by that I know about that’s exactly what we need and I should be able to ask the owner for the quickest way to get to Lock and Key.”

Curiously, as Robin led the two through paths and roads, they eventually came to a much different area than the one they’d been in. Concrete buildings gave way to stone bricks and wooden buildings, screens and neon signs gave way to hand-painted signs and other means of lighting. Rather than rely on eye-catching signs, many of the venues in this area had greeters outside calling for people to come try their signature drinks, experience their gimmicks or even advertise what entertainment was currently available.

Robin stopped the three of them in front of a log cabin-style building, a large transparent pitcher plant sat above the entrance. The door had three symbols carved into it, one of a peacock, blues and greens painted onto the engraved portions. The second a snake, which wasn’t only carved into the door but also embellished to make it look like portions of the snake were coming out of the door And lastly a sloth, which hung from the snake and was largely carved with two black gems embedded in order to make the eyes glisten from the light around it.

Entering the establishment, the entire mood and atmosphere shifted. They were back in a forest, pine needles coated the floor along with soft loose bark. Nets created tented roofs above several clusters of log benches and tables. A rich, clean earthy scent filled John’s nose as the cool air hit him.

Looking up, there were rope bridges which connected to wooden platforms attached to the trunk of each tree. As John looked around there were spiral staircases leading up to the walkways. There were also several larger platforms that formed balconies, and treehouses that had either solid, net or glass bottoms, the latter of which allowed occupants to look down at the forest floor.

There were also hanging tents, though John couldn’t see an easy way to access them unless you could fly. In the centre was the largest tree, maybe three metres across. The tree was circled at the bottom with a wooden bar covered with a thatch roof a few metres above.

Curiously the bar was empty. John looked around but he couldn’t see any waiters roaming the floor. ’Maybe they’re serving someone up in one of the tree houses or on one of the balconies,’ John thought.

Despite the fact the trio had just been in not only Old Spring Forest, but in the natural barrier, when John inhaled, it felt like he was breathing fresh air for the first time. The air had a slight humidity to it, and the earthy smells of the forest gave him a feeling of peace.

The forest sky was darker than the sky of Pride, still in twilight but notably further into it. The forest wasn’t dark, however; fairy lights were strung around and between the trees, over and around the rope as well as intertwined through the net canopies above the forest floor seating.

There were also many fireflies which flew through the air flashing and blinking, the soft lighting complimented the relaxing atmosphere only furthered by the quiet mellow music being played by a young man close to the bar.

“Robin… is that you? Feels like… a century? Since I saw you last,” a voice called slowly, coming from the direction of the bar, despite no one being there.

“Don’t over-exaggerate Yarel, It’s been a few weeks,” Robin replied.

“Ah, mmh… I guess it has,” the slow, almost lazy voice came back. “Did your father like the gift?”

Robin let out a chuckle. “Yeah he and Mom both loved it. In fact, I’m here to bring you another customer who is looking for the same thing.”

“Oh? Is that so?” the voice said.

John took a couple of steps back as the giant mass of moss, leaves and bark behind the bar began to move.

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