Code Update

You don't so much "drift" back to consciousness as it slams into you like a ton of bricks. Every nerve ending is on fire, your very essence feels at war with itself. An undefinable amount of time passes before you adjust to the all consuming pain and become aware of the world around you. The forest is blackened, shattered stumps and half incinerated logs are all that's left for hundreds of feet in every direction. The gateway is still open at the base of the crater, spitting angry red static every few seconds.

You knew just how it felt.

Half formed emotions: rage, fear, hatred, and worse, roar through your veins like molten iron. Complicated thought is... difficult. You'd been a demon before but now you felt like one. It was terrible. "Must... be... a code... update. Part of the... Expansion..." You grumble weakly. You're getting a better handle on yourself, the violent emotions weren't exactly going away but you were able to distance your mind enough to think. It was hard to reconcile the mythical and digital aspects of the universe, even though both had a strong effect on your being. This excruciating sensation was most definitely a game update and for the most part beyond your comprehension. The "sensible" reasons for hell itself opening up would only become obvious with time.

Some of the red mist dissipates from your vision and you're able to look at your surroundings a little more clearly, noticing that you were not alone. Demons, more twisted and warped in form than any you had ever seen, roam the landscape. Most seem to be quite mad, no doubt crazed by the same molten vitriol that was now pounding through your veins.

There's a thing barely a dozen feet away with a somewhat sickening number of legs but it can't seem to make them agree on a direction. The result was a churning mass of chitin and dust that was slowly digging itself into the ground. An amorphous jellyfish thing drifts by, long tendrils scoring acid burns on whatever they touch. A scorpion-thing covered in wriggling cilia skitters by, leaving a path perfectly free of organic matter in its wake.

Taking a deep breath, you brace yourself and look at your own body... which actually looks about the same. Your textures might have gotten a little harsher and you now had a cool "glowing vein" pattern under your skin but otherwise you looked about the same. Pity you didn't feel like it.